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1. Afrika at large: Greenhouse gas targets elusive ater climate talks

2. Mauritania: Peaceful polls held Sunday

3. Uganda: Police break opposition rally

4. Zimbabwe: Government to compensate white farmers

5. East Africa: Political community for new drive

6. Somalia: Kofi Annan warns neighbours to stay out

7. Kenya: Constitutional review talks collapse as five parties walk out

8. Zambia: Chiluba unfit to stand trial

9. South Africa: A bloody Christmas

*******NEWSandBACKGROUND********

1. Afrika at large: Greenhouse gas targets elusive ater climate talks

Inter Press Serivce, by Joice Mulama November 18 2006

Nairobi - International talks on climate change held at a conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, ended Friday without having established a solid timetable for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires.

This was one of several contentious issues at the negotiations. About 6,000 delegates from around the world attended the Nov. 6-17 talks.

Under the 1997 protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 35 industrialised nations are obliged to reduce their combined greenhouse gas emissions to five percent below 1990 levels, by 2012 -- when the protocol expires. To date, the UNFCCC has been signed by 189 countries, of which 165 have ratified the protocol.

The meeting did resolve to start discussions for reviewing the protocol in 2008, but also fell short of agreeing to a timeframe for conclusion of these discussions. This has come under fire from environmental activists.

"We need things to be laid down clearly. The world is not taking this matter with urgency, and negotiations on this matter have been skewed," Grace Akumu, executive director of Climate Network Africa, a regional non-governmental organisation (NGO), told journalists. She also served as spokesperson for African NGOs attending the Nairobi conference.

Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels and other activities. Many scientists believe increased concentrations of the gases are causing a rise in the earth's temperature -- which in turn prompts climate change.

Akumu claimed that industrialised countries had manipulated the past fortnight's negotiations.

"They are dishonestÉThey do not have Africa's best interests at heart," she noted. "We need commitment from industrialised nations on when they will reduce their emissions, because Africa is suffering from the impact of climate change, while it is the (smallest) emitter of GHGs (greenhouse gases)."

The United States, which is the largest, accounting for 25 percent of all emissions, has yet to ratify the Kyoto Protocol; this earned the country heavy criticism at the Nairobi gathering.

The protocol commits U.S. authorities to cut emissions by up to seven percent, and was signed during Bill Clinton's administration. But it has been viewed more sceptically by President George W. Bush -- who claims the protocol will harm the U.S. economy.

"The U.S. is opposed to reduction in global pollution, and needs to catch up with the world in ratifying the protocol," John Stanton, vice president of the National Environmental Trust -- a Washington-based NGO -- told IPS.

However, American officials claim the most effective way of addressing global warming is through a mix of voluntary partnerships between wealthy and developing nations aimed at spurring economic growth while simultaneously reducing pollution.

"We will make more progress if our actions to address climate change are integrated into those designed to meet other social and economic goals including energy access, poverty reduction, energy security and economic growth," Paula Dobriansky, the U.S. undersecretary of state for democracy and global affairs, said at the meeting.

Concerns at the gathering also focused on China, an ascendant economy that may overtake the United States as the leading emitter of carbon dioxide before 2010.

As a developing country, China is not subject to mandatory reductions in its emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. But, civil society organisations attending the conference demanded that a future review of the protocol tackle the issue of rapidly-growing economies -- also including India and Brazil -- which stand to become significant sources of greenhouse gases.

Poor nations that lack the resources to cope with climate change are expected to be amongst states hardest-hit by shifting weather patterns, said to result in prolonged drought, recurrent floods and excessive heat, among others.

An Adaptation Fund is provided for under the Kyoto Protocol to help developing countries deal with climate change.

African governments say the three-million-dollar fund is too bureaucratic, and that it has been of greater benefit to Asia and Latin America.

However, the conference resolved to streamline the distribution of the fund to make it more accessible to Africa -- a move welcomed by Kivutha Kibwana, Kenya's minister for natural resources and environment.

"The conference has delivered on its promise to support the needs of developing countriesÉThe spirit of the conference has prevailed," he noted.

Still, civil society organisations accused African negotiators at the conference of lacking vigour while lobbying for initiatives and issues affecting the continent -- including the creation of a special adaptation fund for Africa. The groups argue that the continent needs its own fund, as it is at greatest risk from climate change.

"Africa should consider that it did not perform, because none of its interests was met. African leaders got zero out of ten, if I was to rate their performance at the meeting. There is nothing we are taking home with us for the citizens of Africa," Akumu remarked.

The next round of international climate change talks is expected to be held in Bali, Indonesia, next year.

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2. Mauritania: Peaceful polls held Sunday

Pan African News Agency November 19, 2006

Nouakchott - The European Union said it was impressed by the peaceful environment characterising Mauritania's first democratic elections taking place Sunday slightly one year after the ouster, on 3 August 2005, of former leader Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya.

"Elections are going on with calm in the country and all polling stations have received their electoral materials according to information collected from European observers," the president of the EU election observer mission in Mauritania, Marrie Anne Issler Beguin, said during a media briefing here Sunday.

The EU has deployed 72 observers in the country, comprising 25 who had arrived weeks earlier to monitor the electoral preparations.

About 1.1 million registered voters are expected to cast their ballots to elect 95 MPs for the new parliament and 316 civic authority leaders.

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3. Uganda: Police break opposition rally

The Monitor (Uganda), by Emmanuel Gyezaho, Jude Lugya, Zurah Nakabugo, Steven Kibuuka & Abu Kisige November 19, 2006

Kampala - Polica yesterday fought running street battles with FDC supporters and blocked the party from launching its membership cards at Constitution Square.

Pandemonium broke out shortly before 1 p.m. when FDC President Kizza Besigye and Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu, the party's Organising Secretary, arrived at the venue.

A host of FDC supporters, upon seeing Besigye and Muntu, swarmed the Constitution Square (former City Square) to witness the official launch of the party's cards.

However, they received a rude welcome when police immediately fired teargas canisters into the crowd, sealing off Kampala Road. The police also sealed off Buganda Road and Ternan Avenue.

Hundreds of party supporters fled as Besigye and Muntu took safety in their vehicle, a sky grey Mitsubishi Pajero. The police at CPS briefly held the FDC National Chairman Dr Sulaiman Kiggundu with about 10 others.

Besigye said he had travelled to CPS, adjacent to the Constitution Square, a venue the party had selected for the occasion, to negotiate with the police to allow FDC proceed with its function.

While police chased the fleeing party supporters, Besigye and Muntu were involved in a verbal exchange with the Assistant Regional Police Commander, Taire Idwege.

"We are asking you to leave," Idwege told Besigye. "We are going to disperse your people with reasonable force." Besigye stood defiantly in his open roof Pajero and flashed the FDC two-finger sign, drawing massive ululation from supporters standing some metres away. Police engaged them in running street battles as they attempted to join their leader.

"Twagala Besigye nga sente (We love Besigye like money)," the supporters chanted as the police dispersed them. But they would regroup and come back.

The police barred vehicles from parking along the streets adjacent to the Constitution Square. Hordes of police constables, LDUs and KCC law enforcement officers were seen patrolling along Kampala Road and Buganda Road. On Jinja Road, heavily armed Military Police stood on guard. At CPS, a police water cannon vehicle and a Fire Brigade truck remained on the ready.

But the police yesterday said the unusual deployments were not related to the FDC event. Grace Turyagumanawe, the Regional Police Commander for Kampala Extra, said: "Ours is normal deployment. We are deploying because of the festive season and we are carrying out mock exercises as we prepare for Chogm (Commonwealth heads of Government Meeting)." However, he admitted that the police had written to FDC advising them to launch their party cards outside the city centre. "The launching in the city centre is not suitable because of the attendant difficulties bound to arise," the Deputy Inspector General of Police Julius Odwe wrote to FDC.

"The square is not ideal for political activities because of the likely disruption of business activity in the city centre," Odwe's letter said.

However, FDC Spokesman Wafula Oguttu said the police argument was hollow. "Most of the businesses and shops on Saturday are always closed in the afternoon, so our launch cannot disrupt any activity," he said. Police Spokesman Edward Ochom had earlier told the press at CPS that the police had advised FDC to use areas like Nakivubo Stadium, Kololo Airstrip, Lugogo and Namboole.

Later the police unleashed the stinging liquid chemical on Besigye's vehicle to make him succumb and leave the Constitution Square, shortly after Kiggundu and other supporters had been released from the cells. They were all released without recording a statement.

Kiggundu defied the police orders and crossed over to Besigye's car. "I am the chairman of the party. I cannot leave here without knowing whether Besigye is safe in the vehicle," Kiggundu told the police.

At 1:45 pm, a tear gas canister was cast a few metres from Besigye's vehicle exploding into a thick cloud of irritating smoke that engulfed his car. Five minutes later, Besigye, who had been joined by Kiggundu in the vehicle, drove away towards Rwenzori House but later made a U-turn and drove past CPS to Kampala Road and branched off to Johnson Street.

Waving his trademark V-sign, Besigye was joined by hundreds of jubilant supporters as they proceeded downtown, leaving many businesses at a standstill and headed to FDC head office in Najjanankumbi. At Najjanankumbi, Besigye addressed a press conference and vowed to sue the government. "Today, the ugly head of police brutality, fascism, intimidation and harassment of FDC was reared once again as police and other dubious looking people dressed in blue unleashed terror on the peaceful people of Uganda," Besigye charged.

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4. Zimbabwe: Government to compensate white farmers

Business in Africa (South Africa) November 16, 2006

Harare - The Zimbabwean government has invited over 1000 white farmers to collect compensation for farms that were seized under President Robert Mugabe's directives.

Secretary of lands, Ngoni Masoka, issued a statement in state-run newspaper The Herald calling for dispossessed farmers to contact the lands ministry.

Masoka said: "The former owners or representatives should contact the ministry of lands, land reform and resettlement as a matter of urgency in connection with their compensation."

The spokesman did not indicate whether compensation would be market related or whether machinery and land development costs would be taken into account when reaching a figure.

Many of the white farmers had left Zimbabwe already to neighbouring Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa, while some had settled in Nigeria.

Mugabe's government dispossessed at least 4,000 white farmers under his controversial land reforms programme. The aim was to distribute farms to "landless blacks", however, many were now owned by Mugabe's political allies.

Regardless of the aims, the programme was poorly mananged, which led to a massive slump in agricultural production. Zimbabwe was once considered the breadbasket of Southern Africa.

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5. East Africa: Political community for for new drive

The New Times (Rwanda), by Jumah Ssenyonga November 18, 2006

Kampala - Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are in agreement that the ambitious aims of the East African Community (EAC) need to be given a new drive so that a real political federation could be implemented.

The economic body set to adopt the entry of Rwanda and Burundi on November 29, has already implemented a Customs Union between the three member countries, with Kenya maintaining that the step is not enough to cause real regional integration. President Mwai Kibaki, the Kenyan President in a recent release expressed the urgent need to streamline operations of the Customs Union by addressing non-tariff barriers such as customs, licenses, immigration and administrative procedures.

"These barriers not only increase the cost of doing business but also slow the pace of transactions, thereby reducing the attractiveness of our market," Kibaki said in the release.

"The EAC should adopt a new drive to the deepening of the East African Community (EAC), measures as a Customs Union, a joint approach against famine, a common tourism market and a political federation, further outlining the admission of Rwanda and Burundi.

In the release Kibaki, also pointed out that the global economy has witnessed a shift from smaller markets based on individual countries to regional partnerships characterised by large economic blocs.

"The examples in Europe, Asia and America give us confidence that we are moving in the right direction," Kibaki said in the release. He cited the Customs Union that was "now working well," resulting in a steady increase in trade among the partner states.

Kibaki also noted that more investors and companies were treating East Africa as a single market and the region was witnessing a steady growth of cross-border investments and services.

'However, we still have a long way to go before we can realise the full potential of our cooperation', he added. Kibaki further noted that while the EAC was continuing to facilitate and encourage free movement of goods and services, focus has now also shifted towards infrastructural projects.

'The concession of the Kenya-Uganda railway is ongoing, while several roads projects linking the East African countries are underway, signifying closer partnership', the release quotes Kibaki.

The Kenyan President also discussed the devastating effects of the current drought to the entire region and conceded that measures be intensified with actions at regional levels to check the effects of the drought. Earlier in a statement given by John Arap Koech, the Kenyan EAC minister and Chairperson of the Council of Ministers, indicated that the three leaders of the regional bloc had earlier agreed to develop East Africa "as a single tourist destination" and the operationalisation of Lake Victoria Basin Commission.

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6. Somalia: Kofi Annan warns neighbours to stay out

The Reporter (Ethiopia) November 18, 2006

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned Somalia's neighbours to stay out on Wednesday, as UN experts painted an alarming picture of foreign and extremist intervention in a nation on the brink of all-out war that could engulf the Horn of Africa.

"We have a very serious situation in Somalia," Annan told reporters at a UN climate change conference in the Kenyan capital, urging the country's weak government and powerful Islamist movement to return to peace talks.

As a new report emerged detailing "rampant arms flows" to both Somali sides in violation of a 1992 UN arms embargo, he also called for other nations to keep clear and prevent the situation from deteriorating into full-scale war. "It is already a difficult and volatile situation," Annan said. "We do not need to see it further complicated by neighbouring countries rushing in with troops or guns to support one side. It will only compound the problem."

The report, to be presented this week to the UN Security Council, says that seven nations and the militant Lebanese movement Hizbullah have sent military aid to the Islamists, while three countries are backing the government. It says the "unprecedented and highly exacerbated" situation contains "all of the ingredients for the increasing possibility of a violent, widespread, and protracted military conflict" in most of Somalia.

"Moreover, there is the distinct possibility that (it) may spill over into a direct state-to-state conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, as well as acts of terrorism in other vulnerable states of the region," it says.

Arch-foes Ethiopia and Eritrea, still at odds over their 1998-2000 border war, have thousands of combat troops in Somalia, according to the report. Both countries deny this, although Ethiopia admits to sending military advisers. Backing the Islamists are Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Hizbullah, while Ethiopia, Uganda and Yemen are supporting the government, according to the report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.

Nearly all of the named nations deny violating the arms embargo but the report provides detailed information about weapons shipments, including shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles and other sophisticated equipment, and the provision of other military aid.

The 80-page report covers the period from May to October, during which time the Islamists seized Mogadishu from US-backed warlords and took control of much of southern and central Somalia, imposing a harsh brand of Sharia law. The Islamists and government are now girding for battle in two areas, one around the government seat of Baidoa and the other near the border with the semi-autonomous enclave of Puntland, north of Mogadishu.

The report records names, dates and locations of such transactions, including a donation to the Islamists of one million dollars by Libya and the creation of a reciprocal relationship between the Islamists and Hizbullah. Eritrea, it says, provided the Islamists with "at least 28 separate consignments of arms, ammunition and military equipment," including a July 23 delivery of the surface-to-air missiles and infrared-guided anti-tank weapons.

Shipments to the Islamists from other countries, notably Iran, Egypt and Syria are also detailed, as is the July 27 departure of 200 Muslim gunmen from Somalia to Syria "to undergo military training in guerrilla warfare."

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7. Kenya: Constitutional review talks collapse as five parties walk out

The Nation (Kenya), by David Mugonyi November 17, 2006

By David Mugonyi

Nairobi - The new talks initiated by the Government to give the country a new constitution collapsed yesterday when the representatives of political parties walked out.

The plan, which had brought together representatives of the Government, political parties and civil society, failed after Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Martha Karua rejected key minimum reforms proposed by a committee formed two months ago.

The five parties represented were Kanu and LDP, which form ODM Kenya, Ford Kenya, National Labour Party and Mazingira Greens Party of Kenya.

Tensions ran high during the meeting of the Multi-Sectoral Review Forum at the KICC, Nairobi, as co-chairman Dalmas Otieno and other representatives stormed out, with an MP vowing to take the war to Parliament.

Before they left, there had been bitter exchanges between Mr Otieno and Mr Otieno Kajwang', on one side, and Ms Karua and other proponents of comprehensive reforms on the other.

This latest development appears to dash any hopes of enacting a new constitution before the elections expected to be held by December, next year.

The representatives of ODM-K, Ford-K and several other political parties said on leaving the venue that they would not be party to agreements reached between the Government and other players.

Mr Otieno represents Kanu and Mbita MP Kajwang', the Liberal Democratic Party. They were joined by Ford-K's Eugene Wamalwa.

Mr Kajwang' said: "It is a waste of time to sit here, agree on reforms and then one person throws all of them out. The committee has given its report to the minister who has said she will only accept one part of it - entrenching the review in the Constitution."

Before driving off, Mr Kajwang' said: "We will wait for her in Parliament to see how she will entrench that review in the Constitution."

And Mr Otieno said: "We cannot work with a minister who is not a reformist...she cannot lead this process." Mr Wamalwa said: "We were shocked that our report, which proposed laws necessary for a free and fair election, was trashed and only the entrenchment of the review in the Constitution accepted."

Mr Dalmas Otieno , storms out of the review talks at KICC, Nairobi yesterday. Mr Otieno is the chairman of the multi-sectoral forum, which brought together representatives from the Government, political parties and NGOs. The representatives of the parties walked out on a powerful Government delegation led by Ms Karua, who was receiving a report of the review forum.

The Government wants a comprehensive review by next September. However, the Opposition says it is not possible to have a new constitution by that time, hence their clamour for minimum reforms targeting specific areas. Also to distance themselves from the Government position were Mr Kennedy Kiliku (National Labour Party and Mr John Makanga (Mazingira Greens Party of Kenya). Mr Kiliku alleged that the Government had rejected four key proposals for minimum reforms to "throw the whole review process into a stalemate".

The former Changamwe MP added: "We will not act as a rubber stamp to what the Government wants." A section of civil society and women's groups also insisted on the adoption of minimum reforms popularly known as the "November Package" ahead of the elections.

The opposition parties and Narc affiliate Ford-K, want the minimum reforms effected to level the playing field ahead of next year's General Election.

Among the proposals rejected yesterday were those calling for the reduction of members of the Electoral Commission from 22 to nine, giving the body financial autonomy and power to deal with electoral offences.

In addition, 74 seats created for women would also await the comprehensive review. Proposals for four seats each proposed for youths, trade unions, pastoralists, people with disability and minority groups, were also shelved. In total, the forum proposed that Parliament have 358 MPs - the current 210, new constituencies (42), women (74), marginalised groups (20) and political parties seats (12, six for women).

Other recommendations that were shelved include Parliament controlling its calendar and allowing independent candidates to contest elections.

And the Government also gave a glimmer of hope that another minimum reform - enactment of the Political Parties Bill, to allow for funding of parties - would be accepted.

However, it refused to grant the multi-sectoral forum their request to continue meeting to finalise deliberations on the Elections Bill and Local Government Act to allow for direct election of mayors by the people. The forum had also asked to be allowed to isolate contentious issues and prepare for the next phases of the review and to lobby MPs to approve essential constitutional amendments.

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8. Zambia: Chiluba unfit to stand trial

The Times (Zambia), by Maya Ntanda November 18, 2006

A Lusaka magistrate's court has ordered the immediate release of second Republican president, Frederick Chiluba's passport to enable him travel to South Africa for specialist treatment.

Acting High Court deputy registrar, Jones Chinyama, made the order after the adhoc committee of doctors chaired by University Teaching Hospital director, Dr Tuckson Lambert, which examined Dr Chiluba, presented the medical report to the court in chambers.

The doctors recommended that because of Dr Chiluba's poor heart condition, he was not fit to stand trial either in person or by video link.

His heart condition was serious and had now developed a heart block besides the problem of dilated cardiomyopathy with renal and hepatic dysfunction, which was diagonised in South Africa.

The condition made him a candidate for a possible heart transplant.

The doctors further recommended Dr Chiluba's immediate evacuation to South Africa for treatment so that doctors who had been managing his condition could consider inserting a pace maker after reviewing him.

Earlier, Dr Chiluba through his lawyer, Robert Simeza and his personal physician, Dr Justin Kangwa, had applied to the court to release his passport and had attached a certificate of urgency, certifying that the application for variation of bail conditions was one of extreme urgency.

State prosecutor, Mutembo Nchito, however, suggested that Dr Chiluba should be primarily treated at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH).

And after court, Dr Chiluba's spokesperson, Emmanuel Mwamba, said the former head of State was aggrieved by The POST newspaper article of November 10, which stated that he was fit to stand trial.

Mr Mwamba said Dr Chiluba felt that the newspaper was allegedly collaborating with other forces determined to have him killed and that they were dangerously doing propaganda, which could set the nation alight.

He claimed that the newspaper had gone too far and had engaged in total lies even when they were aware of the details of the report and wondered whether it was an attempt to rig his medical report.

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9. South Africa: A bloody Christmas

Mail and Guardian (South Africa), by Pearlie Joubert November 17 2006

Gang-related shootings and attacks on the Cape Flats are on the increase yet again, and gang bosses warn that more violence can be expected as a result of large numbers of gang members being released from prison over the past few months.

The department of correctional services said recently that about 20Ê000 prisoners are released every year after serving only half their sentences, sometimes even less, as part of the early parole programme.

In the Western Cape, hundreds of prisoners have been released on the early parole programme over the past year. All prisoners, irrespective of the crimes they have committed, qualify for early release if the parole board so decides.

In the past five weeks at least six people have died and about 27 been injured in gang warfare on the Cape Flats. Most of these attacks have occurred in the Kensington area, Hanover Park and Elsiesriver.

One of the senior American gang leaders in Hanover Park, Kat September (not his real name), said three people have been shot dead and at least 20 injured in the past month.

The two rival gangs in Hanover Park are the Americans and the Ghetto Kids, with members of the Number gang (the 26s, 27s and 28s, which are historically prison gangs) playing an important role here.

ÒThereÕs big shit brewing. WeÕre all preparing ourselves for heavy violence over December. A whole lot of senior Number gang leaders have been released over the last couple of months and they need to show that theyÕre still important and dangerous. Gangsters and murderers are taken to prison and things calm down, but theyÕre back in the community very quickly -- and now theyÕre angry and need to prove themselves. ItÕs very tense here,Ó said September. Rival gangs are fighting over turf and controlling the massive drug market in Hanover Park.

Meanwhile, residents in Elsiesriver say nightly shootings and killings have flared up again. ÒI know of at least three young men who have been shot and killed in the past month,Ó said Salie Norman. ÒSome senior 28 gang leaders came back from prison over the past couple of months and we heard that the peace accord between the 28s and the Americans is off. TheyÕre fighting about who sells his drugs where. We will have a bloody Christmas again,Ó he said.

The Mail & Guardian spoke to two top gang bosses in Cape Town who both deny they are gangsters, but have complained about the recent increase in violence on the Flats.

In Kensington the alleged leader of the Americans, Igshaan Davids -- or Sanie the American, as he is known -- survived an assassination attempt while dropping three of his children off at school 10 days ago. Davids, who denies he is a gang boss and calls himself a businessman, says there is Òdefinitely a new spate of violenceÓ on the Cape Flats and in Kensington. ÒThereÕs tension in the air. Apart from the attack on my life, we know of at least four other people who have been shot and killed in a couple of days.

ÒPeople believe that ÔOugatÕ PattersonÕs Wonder Kids are behind the sudden increase in attacks in Kensington. TheyÕre desperate to enlarge their drug-selling turf. The two guys who shot me are Wonder Kids and one of them lives in Hanover Park. The police know this,Ó said Davids.

Christopher Patterson, who also calls himself a businessman and denies that he is the gang boss of the Wonder Kids, says he does not know who tried to kill Davids. ÒSanie says he was shot by Wayne ÔTjopsÕ Williams. The police have come to look for Williams here. Williams is in Pollsmoor prison, not here,Ó said Patterson, who prefers to communicate through his spokesperson, Abdura-giem Booth.

ÒKensington is littered with American gangsters. The problem is that the police are working with the Americans. Over the past couple of weeks the cops have been raiding houses and they confiscate guns and then sell it to the Americans, which is causing all the problems,Ó said Booth.

Oddly, the police are denying that there has been an increase in gang-related violence on the Flats. Despite numerous attempts by the M&G to obtain information, the South African Police Service refused to divulge the number of gang-related attacks that have taken place over the past couple of weeks or to allow any of the police officers working on the Cape Flats to speak to the M&G. ÒAsk the minister of safety and security for information,Ó said media spokesperson Superintendent Billy Jones.

When the M&G approached correctional services for comment on how many prisoners have been released on early parole, the Deputy Commissioner of Communication, Manelisi Wolela, would not comment, saying instead in a written statement that he wondered whether he should continue to lend credence to the M&GÕs Ògovernment-bashing mode of operationÓ.

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1. Somalia: Talks collapse, making the Horn tenser

2. DRC: Kabila leading in counting of votes

3. Africa at large: Positive growth predicted for sub-Saharan Africa

4. Africa at large: 2,500 deals cut in China

5. Africa at large: 'Win-Win' deals at China-Africa summit

6. Africa at large: China is a friend, but let's watch it (comment)

7. Zimbabwe: Warning of new house demolitions

8. Chad: Regional rebel groups gain ground

9. Uganda: Illegal weapons and death in Karamoja (comment)

10. Ghana: On debt time bomb? Warning over new loans

11. Côte d'Ivoire: Another UN Resolution, Another Controversy

*****NEWSandBACKGROUND******

1. Somalia: Talks collapse, making the Horn tenser

The Reporter (Ethiopia) November 4, 2006

Failure by the interim federal government of Somalia and its rivals the Islamic Courts to sit for negotiations in Khartoum has raised concerns that the country maybe edging to a civil war. The international community also fears the situation could evolve into an open regional conflict.

Late Wednesday, following requests by the Islamic Courts the talks were postponed indefinitely. The Islamic Courts have persistently been refusing any dialogue with the weak transitional government, unless Ethiopian troops are out of Somalia.

Ethiopia denies existence of a large number of troops but has admitted that it has sent a few hundred officers to train the army and police of the interim government. Eritrea on the other hand has been accused by the UN and others of supporting the Islamic Courts and of the existence of its troops in Somalia. It categorically denies it.

Some officials of the interim government who were in Sudan have denied reports that they had agreed to a postponement of the talks. Other reports have it that, the Speaker of Parliament Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden has decided to negotiate with the courts by traveling to Mogadishu tomorrow.

Aden said yesterday that he had not consulted the prime minister or the president regarding his decision. Observers believe the move is a challenge to the president's and the prime minister's authority and places the existence of the government at risk.

Aden who himself is from Mogadishu said in Nairobi that he was going there to seek peace and that he did not consult the president and his prime minister because: "it is impossible for them to reject it, as we are only seeking peace and reconciliation," according to an Associated Press report.

The two parties have been urged to exercise restraints and commit to a previous Khartoum agreement. The involvement however, of other nations-specially arch rivals Eritrea and Ethiopia could complicate the matter. The US, following the collapse of the Khartoum talks, voiced its concern that an open war between the two sides could draw in Eritrea and Ethiopia and turn into a regional conflict. State Department spokesperson, Sean McCormack called on Somalia's neighbors to play a positive role.

He said during a news conference: "We believe that the most hopeful course forward begins with the Transitional Federal Institutions and the Islamic Courts coming together. We don't believe that the Islamic Courts are a monolithic institution. There are a variety of different factions with the Islamic Courts that are vying to control what path the Islamic Courts will take. So we are trying to encourage a political discussion, as opposed to the ways that disputes in Somalia have been, for the past two decades resolved, via the use of violence. We would advocate resolving any differences through negotiations, coming together around the table."

The spokesperson also said that US embassies in Ethiopia and Kenya have issued "warden messages" to all American citizens living in or visiting both countries warning them of possible terror attacks by extremists form Somalia. McCormack said such advisories are issued when there is specific information about the possibility of attacks, but he provided no details, the VOA reported.

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2. DRC: Kabila leading in counting of votes

South African Broadcasting Corporation November 7, 2006

According to the latest results released by the electoral commission, Joseph Kabila, the DRC president, has maintained a sizeable lead over the former rebel leader and Jean-Pierre Bemba, the vice president, challenging his seat in a historic runoff election.

The tally of about 1.8 million ballots out of 25 million registered voters have Kabila well ahead with 70% of the vote compared with 30% for Bemba.

John Stremlau, the head of the peace programme at the US-based Carter Centre, said: "To the credit of the international community led by the United Nations the candidates did sign a statement on the eve of the election, saying they would respect the results. Their habits of co-operation are not well-grounded. It looks like right now, there may be enough push coming from the people of the Congo and the international community to restrain them in that critical moment when they'll have to say we'll join the opposition and continue to be loyal Congolese in the interest of the country, Africa and the world. They don't think that way historically because they haven't had the opportunity. Now they have the opportunity - thanks to the large measure to South Africa's dedication to a political solution of this problem."

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3. Africa at large: Positive growth predicted for sub-Saharan Africa

South African Broadcasting Corporation November 6, 2006

Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa, excluding Zimbabwe, is expected to reach 6% next year. That is the prediction of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its Regional Economic Outlook published today. The IMF report says growth in sub-Saharan countries is expected to slow down from 5.6% last year to 4.8% this year, mainly as a result of a decline in oil production by countries such as Nigeria and Angola.

South Africa's revised growth prospects, largely due to high international oil prices this year, is also expected to drag the rest of the continent down.

However, the IMF says all this is just a temporary setback. "Improved policy, greater stability and favourable international circumstances that have led to increased investment flows all points towards solid growth in the region in the coming few years," said John Lipsky, the deputy MD of the IMF.

The IMF also expects inflation in the region to drop from 8.2% last year to 6.9% this year. Zimbabwe is not included in the estimate.

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4. Africa at large: 2,500 deals cut in China

East African Business Week (Uganda), by David Mugabe November 6, 2006

China and Africa were scheduled to discuss nearly 2,500 separate deals as the third Sino-Africa summit commenced on Friday in Beijing. The summit, the biggest in China's history reflects the importance that energy-hungry China is placing on its relations with resource-rich Africa as the two celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations.

Available reports indicate that the China-Africa trade has risen to about $42 bilion by 2005. China continues to roar as an emerging and dominant economic powerhouse. Its massive industrialization has led her to court Africa for its vast raw material base.

China, with nearly $1 trillion in reserves and a voracious appetite for natural resources, has decided to spend some of its billions of dollars in savings to secure access to the oil, gas, copper, coal and other mineral riches that lie beneath the soil of many African countries.

China imported 38 million tonnes of crude oil from the continent in 2005 and has made major investments in oil and gas projects in countries including Kenya, Angola and Nigeria. Africa in turn looks at China as a source of cheap loans and merchandise.

The summit was expected to draw nearly 50 heads of state from across Africa, a continent that every day tries to find her standing among the world's economies. Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni delivered address at the summit opening. Boosted by the visit of the Chinese Prime Minister Mr. Wen Jiabao earlier this year, Ugandan entrepreneurs flew in droves to the Chinese capital.

The team comprising over fifty entrepreneurs, technocrats and several cabinet ministers hope to take their Uganda-China relation to another level. Museveni is at the forefront of a campaign about Uganda as a destination of choice for investments. Museveni and the Chinese Prime Minister held bilateral discussions. A business conference between the Ugandan delegation and Chinese entrepreneurs was also expected as well as a concurrent trade exhibition.

China is currently ranked 10th among Uganda's top foreign investment inflows. The executive director of Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), Ms Maggie Kigozi said last week that China has been a priority country for UIA for the last five years. Kigozi said previously, the only notable Chinese investment in Uganda was the Fang Fang restaurant.

"If we continue at this pace, China will top the FDI rankings for Uganda," said Kigozi.

China has since gone into leather production, mining and energy. Two energy projects have been opened at Nsongezi and Kikagati at the Uganda-Tanzania border. The first meet of Sino-African entrepreneurs was held in 2003 in Ethiopia in 2003.

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5. Africa at large: 'Win-Win' deals at China-Africa summit

Inter Press Service (Africa), by Antoaneta Bezlova November 6, 2006

A flurry of trade deals worth two billion US dollars were signed here during an unprecedented China-Africa summit, aimed at forging closer links with the resource-rich continent. But while talking business China showed susceptibility to criticism that it is behaving like a modern colonial power.

The announcement of the deals on Sunday came after Beijing pledged to double China's aid to Africa from its 2006 level by 2009. Speaking at the summit, President Hu Jintao promised three billion dollars in preferential loans, two billion dollars in export credits and the setting up of a five billion-dollar fund to encourage Chinese investment in Africa.

Hu declared China's newly forged strategic partnership with Africa would be based on "political equality and mutual trust". He emphasised also the "win-win economic cooperation", noting that China and Africa conducted 40.6 billion dollars of trade in the first nine months of the year, up 40 percent on a year earlier.

"Common destiny and common goals have brought us together," Hu said, evoking Chinese and African nations' shared fight against colonialism.

Acknowledging China's rise as an economic powerhouse, Hu promised Beijing would forgive more debts owed by the poorest African countries and grant more of their goods tariff-free import status. China has so far written off the debt of 31 countries and given an estimated 5.5 billion dollars in assistance.

Yet, Beijing refused to link its aid and growing investment in the continent to human rights or democracy as the United States and western countries have demanded.

"Chinese assistance to Africa is sincere, unselfish and has no strings attached," Premier Wen Jiabao said at a gathering of Chinese and African entrepreneurs held as part of the two-day Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit.

Human rights groups have been concerned about China's willingness to turn a blind eye on unethical policies of African governments while looking for oil and raw materials to supply its burgeoning economy.

China recently welcomed Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, who is largely ostracised in the international arena for his authoritarian and racially discriminatory rule.

Beijing is also a staunch supporter of Sudan regime, which has been accused of allowing genocide in its Darfur region. At least 200,000 people are said to have died as a result of Khartoum's policies, but Sudan's economy is booming largely on the back of oil exports to China.

Both Mugabe and Sudan's President, Omar al-Bashir, were among the 48 African leaders and representatives who attended the Beijing summit. It prompted the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) to appeal to Chinese leaders to stop aiding their regimes by providing aid and supplying them with electronic-surveillance technology.

"A truly revolutionary approach for any power in Africa, and particularly one that prides itself on its solidarity with the developing world, would be to stand with the people of Africa and support their basic human rights," HRW said in a statement.

With half-a-century of communist rule, China has been averse to making overt diplomatic interventions in other countries' domestic politics. As China's influence on the international arena has increased though, its policy of "non-interference" has come under fire as self-serving and inappropriate for an emerging global player.

But at a press conference with the foreign ministers of Ethiopia and Egypt, Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing rejected such criticism saying China respected the choices made by African countries and would not impose China's development mode on the continent.

Chinese commentators have also described the forum as an unprecedented opportunity for African leaders to get their voices heard in the international arena.

"No matter how highly you value the importance of the summit in this regard, you cannot overrate it," said Liu Naiya, an African expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Having been politically and economically marginalised after the Cold War, African countries must rely on cooperation with the South in order to advance their dialogue with the North, Liu argued.

Beijing has pledged to lobby with the United Nations to pay more attention to economic development of Africa, and to promote South-South cooperation. The 1.9 billion dollars worth of trade deals signed during the Nov.3-5 summit cover cooperation in a wide range of areas such as natural resources, infrastructure, finance, technology, textiles and communication.

The largest among them are a 938 million dollar deal for China's state-owned CITIC to set up an aluminium plant in Egypt and a 300 million dollar deal to upgrade a highway in Nigeria.

Fending off criticism that its large investment projects bring with them expatriate Chinese workers and do not leave any legacy of skill transfer, Beijing announced it will train 15,000 African professionals while sending agriculture experts and youth volunteers to work in the continent. It said it would double to 4,000 the number of scholarships given to African students by 2009.

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6. Africa at large: China is a friend, but let's watch it (comment)

Nation (Kenay), by Macharia Gaitho November 7, 2006

Call it the lure of Chinese money. There is no other power on earth that could have had virtually every African Head of State trooping to Beijing salivating at the prospect of being showered with presents by a country that is seriously working to establish itself as more than just a superpower in the population league tables.

Oh, what a friend we have in China. The African leaders who gathered in China with more enthusiasm than they show for African Union summits did fly home with some goodies.

By the conclusion of the China-Africa Summit, deals worth some $1.9 billion had been signed. The host, President Hu Jintao, had also pledged to offer $5 billion in loans and credit to Africa, and to double aid to the continent by 2009.

Red China may be a recent convert to capitalism, but it has learnt to play the game hard and fast. The ardour with which it is wooing, Africa, make no mistake, is not out of kindness, charity and empathy for the poor people of the troubled continent.

China has for as long as anyone can remember played the role of a friend of Africa - although its interventions in the past were usually limited to spreading revolution and countering the capitalist running dogs who dominated the continent because of their imperialist links.

It may be a good friend of Africa, but China is also a nation that takes a cold and hard assessment of what it takes to win friends and influence people; and secure its energy needs.

As part of its campaign to play a major role on the world stage, China needs to supplant the West as Africa's chief trading partner. It has a special interest in conquering Africa's vast untapped energy resources to feed its own superheated growth.

A casual look will reveal that the major deals signed in the past two years with Africa were mostly energy-related. This includes the deal signed in April this year when President Hu called on Kenya. Just one of the many destinations he and other top Chinese government and party leaders have visited on frequents tours of Africa.

The Chinese National Oil Corporation concluded a deal allowing it to explore six blocks totalling 115,343 sq km in the north and eastern Kenya.

Some major Western companies, which have been looking for oil in the region for decades, were not amused. Nor were their governments.

They took it that China had finally breached the last redoubt in the region. And those are the same attitudes they are employing with their growing alarm about creeping Chinese influence in Africa, at their expense, they presume.

Such fears are misplaced. If the Chinese want to do business with us and are willing to tread where the West has been shy to venture, we must welcome them with open arms. We have nothing to fear because they long ago wised up, embraced capitalism - even if they are loath to admit so - and stopped exporting revolution.

But, at the same time, lest us not delude ourselves that we have found the saviour that will free us from the exploitative clutches of Western capitalist imperialists. We have to be wary of the danger of running unthinking into embraces that will merely replace one imperialist for another.

We must keep in mid that the Chinese are now capitalist too, and their push into Africa is driven largely by their own economic and geopolitical interests.

I have always found extremely shallow the argument that our "look East" policy will liberate us form Western domination. Some have even stated that criticism we have faced from Western countries over issues such as corruption is driven by anger, or jealousy, over our growing links with China.

Such an argument is neither here nor here. We must look towards China and the East, in general, as part of strategy aimed at our commercial and economic self-interest, not merely to reduce dependence of traditional "development partners" - the now politically-correct term for donor nations - that have the irritating habit of lecturing us on issues such as the unwillingness to prosecute the war against corruption.

The mere fact that China will not intrude into our domestic affairs and will never lift a finger against corruption or human rights abuse must not be the reason we look East.

The fight against corruption, the struggle to establish democracy and good governance, to uphold human rights, are matters we must push on our accord and not things we must only aim at reluctantly on prodding from the West.

Our growing relations with China must be based on what is good for attracting development aid, direct foreign investment, and penetrating a vast new market. It is not a policy to be dictated by petty and shortsighted politics.

China's trade with Africa is expected to top $50 billion this year and to double from that figure by 2010.

Africa is now supplying a third of China's oil imports, and much of the new oil exploration, often in areas neglected or abandoned by Western oil firms, is being undertaken by Chinese companies.

China is also undertaking, both as aid and as straight commercial contracts, major infrastructure development projects - highways, rail lines, dams - across the African continent.

As long as China is so willing to invest in Africa, we must not miss out on the bounty, but we must engage with our eyes wide open.

Meanwhile, some food for thought: I was at a gathering of journalists from all over Africa the other month, and the conversation over drinks invariably turned to China. Almost everyone was conscious and supportive of the Chinese push into Africa. But with a caveat:

They were happy with increased aid and investment, and with the efficiency and expertise of Chinese road and rail engineering firms. They were also pleased that China was becoming a serious competitor to the West for the affections of Africa.

But almost to a man, and woman, a great deal of anger and frustration was being expressed about the influx of Chinese petty traders competing with, and even pushing out, local small traders from the streets of Nairobi, Johannesburg, Gaberone, Kampala, Lilongwe, Windhoek and Accra.

Lesson: We may be happy with the Chinese competing with the big Western multinationals, but we won't be when they compete with us.

Mr Gaitho is the Nation's managing editor for special projects

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7. Ghana: On debt time bomb? Warning over new loans

Accra Mail (Ghana) November 6, 2006

The World Bank has sent a startling warning, citing Ghana together with Rwanda as countries sitting on a time bomb of "cycle of indebtedness" due to proposed Chinese loans that might pose a danger to the country's economy in future.

The Bretton Woods institution accused China of acting as a "free rider" by providing loans to states that have recently seen their balance sheets greatly improved, the Power and Interest News Report (PINR) reports on its website.

The report noted the concern of western leaders and the World Bank on China's loan practices in Africa. These practices have been criticized alongside China's alleged ignoring human rights issues and not promoting transparency in accounting.

The U.S. Treasury Department paper released on September 15 highlights concerns about a $500 million loan to Ghana and $2.3 billion in financing for a dam in Mozambique and asked China to be a "responsible stakeholder" in the international system.

China has defended its actions by claiming that aid payments should not be tied to politics. Beijing says it has promoted human rights issues, and worked with the global community to tackle some of Africa's most intractable problems. It notes that since 1990, China has participated in a total of 12 U.N. peacekeeping operations in Africa, and 1,273 Chinese peacekeepers are currently working for seven U.N. missions in Africa.

China said if the West honored its aid packages after canceling the debt, then Chinese loans would not be needed in these countries. "Business is business. We try to separate politics from business."

The Power and Interest News Report says however, that after analyzing China's record in Africa, it becomes clear that there is a strategic logic behind its lending practices. It says while China is primarily interested in securing natural resources, it also promotes a particular ideology: development before democracy. "Beijing is keen to export this model on which it has built its power, and many countries shunned by the West are attracted to this thinking. When China's model is questioned, the response can be harsh.

"It can be noted that in the run up to Zambia's elections on September 28, opposition candidate Michael Sata gained strong backing by criticizing Chinese business practices and threatening to renew ties with Taiwan if elected. Miners at the Chambishi copper mine rioted over pay and working conditions earlier this year, and Sata's candidacy tapped into growing resentment to Chinese investments. China warned it would cut diplomatic ties and put investments on hold if Sata were to win the election.

"In the end, a divided opposition failed to dislodge the incumbent president, and China's investments remained secure."

According to the report, anecdotal evidence suggests that similar anti-Chinese sentiment is spreading throughout Africa. Cheap Chinese imports threaten the sustainability of domestic manufacturers; working conditions on Chinese-funded infrastructure projects have been criticized; and China has come under fire for importing Chinese labour to complete the projects.

The report speculates that comparable heavy-handed responses from China may become the norm as its business interests draw ire from the poor in Africa. Some observers in Africa however wonder if the World bank is justified in its criticism or whether it is part of what is becoming a turf battle between the West and China.

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8. Zimbabwe: Warning of new house demolitions

ZimOnline November 7, 2006

The Zimbabwe government is planning fresh home demolitions, a little over a year after a similar campaign to destroy informal settlements and backyard shacks left at least 700 000 people without shelter or a means of livelihood.

The government in May last year ordered the police and army to demolish thousands of backyard shacks, informal settlements and informal business kiosks, in a campaign President Robert Mugabe said was necessary to smash crime and to restore the beauty of Zimbabwe’s cities.

In addition to those left homeless, another 2,4-million people were indirectly affected by the military-style demolition exercise.

Sources told ZimOnline that Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo, who oversaw last year's demolition exercise, has set up a task force comprising officials from his department and the police to lay out the groundwork for a new offensive against slum dwellers and informal traders.

"There is some kind of a brigade that is being set up within the police specifically for that mission," said a senior official in the Ministry of Local Government, who did not want to be named because he did not have clearance from Chombo to speak to the press.

"New illegal structures have come up since Operation Murambatsvina. We will target these structures that have sprouted up and others that somehow survived the first Murambatsvina," said the official.

Chombo confirmed the government was planning new home demolitions but said these would be on a much smaller scale than Murambatsvina.

He said: "It is not Murambatsvina. But the spirit of Murambatsvina should not die. To ensure that we don’t reverse the gains of Murambatsvina we will do regular follow-ups. We cannot just watch while chaos prevails and people build wherever they want.

The government, bowing to international pressure after the home demolitions, announced in August last year that it was launching a new reconstruction programme to build houses for people whose homes it had destroyed.

But only a handful of houses have been built because the government -- which is battling to raise cash to import food, electricity and fuel among other key national requirements -- did not have resources.

Thousands of homeless families have tracked back to the sites of their former shantytowns to rebuild their shacks after the government failed to provide the homes it promised under the new home-building exercise dubbed Operation Garikayi/Hlani kuhle.

Rodrick Chinyau, who appeared to be the leader of about 30 families squatting in Epworth near Harare, said: "We have nowhere to go. The government destroyed our houses last year forcing us to come here. The number of people here is increasing every day and this will be the case until we get decent accommodation."

Chinyau however said officials from Chombo's department had visited the settlement and gave the families up to the end of this week to vacate or be forcibly removed.

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9. Chad: Regional rebel groups gain ground

Mail & Guardian (South Africa), by Stephanie Hancock November 6, 2006

The Chadian Army is stepping up reinforcements in the east of the country as it struggles to deal with rebels intent on overthrowing President Idriss Déby Itno. An upsurge in attacks in the past few weeks has left hundreds of soldiers dead and wounded, and counter-offensives launched by Déby's men have failed to quell the rebellion.

The most recent attempt to inflict losses on the rebels backfired spectacularly when government troops fell into an ambush in Hadjer Meram, in south-eastern Chad last Sunday.

The army lost its second most senior commander, General Moussa Seugui, in the battle as well as dozens of other soldiers. Observers fear this latest upsurge in violence could prove disastrous for Chad's relations with neighbouring Sudan, and warn the conflict could engulf this region of central Africa.

Chad has repeatedly accused Sudan of backing the rebels, and last weekend publicly announced that Khartoum had bombed four villages in eastern Chad, a charge Sudan staunchly denied.

During the past few months of summer rains, Chad has had relative peace. But now the rains have finished and the seasonal rivers have dried out, allowing rebels in trademark Toyota pick-ups to begin roaming the region again.

Fighting between government troops and rebels began with renewed intensity in October, and already relations with Sudan appear to have hit rock bottom. Chad cut diplomatic ties with Sudan back in April after a rebel attack on the capital N'Djamena, but resumed an uneasy truce with Khartoum in August.

But now the two neighbours have begun trading accusations once again, and with both Sudanese President Omar Al-Bachir and Déby openly backing rebels trying to bring down the other's government, observers fear a proxy war could begin.

"In Chad a strong, well-organised rebellion, backed by China and Sudan, is pitched against a weak, divided national army with military support from the French," a diplomatic source told the Mail & Guardian.

"On the other hand, the rebels in Sudan have support from Déby as well as Europe but are weaker, and they face a strong, united army led by Al-Bachir, who enjoys popular support from his troops. There is no predicting how things will turn out, but the only certainty is that the next few months will see more violence."

Humanitarian actors are alarmed that the conflict has resumed so quickly after the end of the rains. They say that as long as peace in Sudan's Darfur region remains elusive, widespread instability will continue to plague this region.

Violence from Darfur has been spilling into Chad for more than six months. Eastern Chad and Darfur share the same ethnic make-up, and Janjaweed attacks and related insecurity have already displaced more than 50 000 Chadians.

"The Janjaweed are clearly linked to the rebellion," said a leader from the region of Dar Sila, which has been victim of most of the cross-border ethnic violence.

"The Janjaweed is an Arab alliance from Sudan intent on killing Negroes, and they are profiting as rebels move across the porous Chad-Sudan border to capture territory and put pressure on Déby," he added.

The president has survived several rebellions during his 16-year reign. The group behind the latest clashes, the Union Force for Democracy and Development (UFDD), is a newly formed alliance comprising Mahamat Nouri, a Gorane who defected from his post as ambassador to Saudi Arabia to join the rebellion three months ago, as well as Acheikh Ibn Oumar, an Arab who was formerly a minister in Déby's government.

In addition to UFDD, several other rebel groups are also waiting in the wings to take power should Déby be ousted, and observers agree any transition of power in this central African nation will be far from smooth.

"This Gorane-Arab alliance is not a natural one, and if Déby is overthrown the alliance will fall apart," said another diplomatic source. "On top of this, there are other ethnic groups who head up rebel groups including the Tama and the Zaghawa, Déby's own clan, who will want their share of the pie. There is a high risk of civil war."

In another alarming development, Central African Republic (CAR), which borders both Chad and Sudan, also looks like it could now be swept into the conflict. Observers have been warning for months that CAR could become engulfed by the violence, and alarm bells were ringing this week after news that rebels who took the northern Central African town of Birao apparently launched their attack from Sudan.

CAR was implicated in the Chad-Sudan crisis back in April, when rebels crossed from Sudan into CAR to launch an attack on southern Chad. CAR's President Francois Bozize and Déby are close allies, with Chad reportedly backing Bozize’s rise to power in a coup in 2003. Should CAR join Chad against Sudan, there is no telling where the conflict could lead.

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10. Uganda: Illegal weapons and death in Karamoja (comment)

Monitor (Uganda), by Moses Sserwanga November 7, 2006

Marauding Karimojong warriors struck again last week, killing 22 people including a battalion commander. This figure only accounts for fallen army servicemen. The death toll on the civilian population - that is suffering this vicious cycle of violence - is unknown though believed to be in double figures.

Decades of cattle rustling by the Karimojong warriors is part of a wider Ugandan problem - the gun culture that has bred violence in almost every part of this country. In Karamoja region alone it's estimated there are 30,000 illegal guns. Only about 19,000 of these have been recovered since September 2004 when the government launched a more direct and forceful disarmament exercise to pacify the region.

For good measure, President Museveni has pronounced himself on the matter and stated in no uncertain terms that he will not tolerate "democratic sickness" that allows unconstitutional practices in the country.

Permitted, the president has a point here: but the problem of illegal guns and the government's mandate to collect and destroy these killer machines should take on a national outlook. This is because the gun culture where they’re too many illegal firearms in the wrong hands is a national issue, which has taken on a difficult tenor.

And here is the gloomy picture. Uganda is listed among the countries that have grossly abused the Russian made Kalashnikov assault rifle also known as (a.k.a) AK 47.

According to a report compiled by Control Arms Campaign being championed by Amnesty International, Oxfam International and the International Action Network on Small Arms; the AK47 will remain a killer machine for the next 20 years unless urgent and elaborate measures are put in place to regulate its use.

A conservative estimation of illegal guns in this country is put at 50,000 and many of these are found in the lawless Karamoja corridor, northern and some parts of western Uganda plus of course the capital Kampala.

There are about 100 million AK47s and variations of its design produced in 18 countries and used in 82 countries. About 30 million illegal guns are in circulation in black Africa alone and they have been used to kill nearly three million people.

Although the government should be commended for its efforts to deal with the problem albeit on a limited scale, the stark reality is that illegal use of guns is widespread and real. A nation wide campaign should be launched urgently to rid the city, major towns and the countryside of illegal firearms.

Even people who lawfully carry guns, i.e. our armed forces and the licensed gun owners, should be responsible and accountable to the law. There are these wanton scenes on our roads and in neighbourhoods: People who have the "privilege" of holding a gun or driving an army registered vehicle or even having an army jacket hanging on a car seat, think or are under the illusion that they are a law unto themselves.

Should you dare question their illegal actions they would, at the slightest opportunity, draw a gun or shout you down. This gratuitous behaviour should not be allowed to take root in our young democracy.

The proliferation, especially through porous borders with our neighbours DR Congo and Sudan, coupled with trafficking in the city and towns (you have seen news reports of some errant members of our armed forces hiring out guns) is a complex local and international problem that calls for a tough legal response. Poverty is another factor that has aggravated the problem.

How else do explain the recent spate of killings by needy and ill trained private security guards who have turned their guns on the very people they are supposed to guard - to rob a few thousand bob and airtime cards at petrol stations.

The human cost of gun related crime is frighteningly too high. Due to the seriousness of this matter the law that governs the use of guns, the Firearms Act, is that of strict liability. This means that unlike in other criminal cases where the prosecution bares the burden of proof, for misuse or illegal possession of firearms, the burden shifts to the accused person to show his innocence.

The law mandates District Police Commanders to be the licensing officers of firearms in their areas of jurisdiction. And the district police commander has the discretion to refuse to issue a firearm certificate without assigning any reason for the refusal. Only people above the age of 25 are allowed to own licensed guns and they must be of proven sound mind and temperate habits.

A person who is licensed to carry a gun is under obligation by the law to always carry a valid firearm certificate. Thus a firearm certificate entitles the holder to purchase, acquire, have in his possession or use the ammunition described in the certificate. It's an offence for a person under the influence of alcohol to carry a firearm.

It’s also a requirement of the law for every person licensed to carry a gun, to keep such firearm or ammunition in safe custody and to ensure that the weapon is not at any time available to any person not lawfully entitled to possess it.

But much as there are laws to govern the use of firearms, its imperative for government to carry out a national inventory of all the guns held by our armed forces and the civilian population. A deadline should be set to have all people in illegal possession of firearms to surrender such weapons and impose heavy penalties for transgressors.

The government should also put in place strong monitoring structures to ensure that there are no more illegal guns in circulation. It's only when the illegal use of firearms is brought under control that we shall have sanity returning to most of the country. There is no place for armed violence in a democracy. In this column next week: Sheik Mubajje's private prosecution viz the constitutional powers of the Director of Public Prosecution.

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11. Côte d'Ivoire: Another UN Resolution, Another Controversy

Inter Press Service (Africa), by Fulgence Zamblé November 6, 2006

Abidjan - For Siméon Konan of the non-governmental organisation Initiative for Peace (Initiative pour la paix), based in Côte d'Ivoire's financial centre of Abidjan, efforts to bring peace to the West African country leave something to be desired -- a recent United Nations Security Council resolution on Côte d'Ivoire notwithstanding.

Resolution 1721, adopted unanimously last week in New York, gives President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny another year in office; this is in a bid to have authorities disarm militias and identify voters ahead of elections to be held before the end of October 2007.

The resolution has also sought to bolster Banny's powers so that he can push the peace process forward more vigorously. In the process, presidential powers have been reduced, Gbagbo being accused of obstructing efforts to normalise the situation in Côte d'Ivoire. (The prime minister was appointed to his post last December to supervise the disarmament of rebels and government militants, and organise polls. Côte d'Ivoire has been divided into a rebel-held north and government-controlled south since a failed coup in 2002, with rebels claiming that they took up arms to fight discrimination against northern communities.)

However, Gbagbo has warned that aspects of the resolution which conflict with the Ivorian constitution will not be respected. This could put the president on a collision course with Banny, if the prime minister's expanded powers are alleged to be overstepping the constitutional mark.

"Things are still unclear because the politicians have failed. They should give way to civil society and a truce to get the country out of this crisis," said Konan.

These words were echoed by Madeleine Ekponan, a primary school teacher in Abidjan. "They (politicians) accept anything that suits them personally, but reject everything else. The politicians need to take a political leap and look toward the interests of their country," she told IPS.

Last Friday, an opposition newspaper went one step further in denouncing recent developments, giving the headline "U.N. Proposes 12 Months of Hell for Ivorians" to describe the extended political transition brought about by the Security Council.

"The resolution is partially rejected," political analyst Maurice Faé said in interview with IPS. "That should be expected, especially since in the government, the resolution will create a split at the highest levels."

An initial draft of the resolution, proposed by France, supported the primacy of the Ivorian constitution -- but stipulated that the prime minister could make appointments to civilian and military posts. However, reservations by other member countries of the Security Council led to the suppression of these provisions.

Still, Albert Tévoèdjré, a former representative in Côte d'Ivoire of the U.N. secretary-general, insists the resolution has merit.

"We think that it's a precise resolution that should not raise any objections," he noted during a radio interview.

Resolution 1721 follows resolution 1633, taken in 2005 by the U.N. -- also with a view to having elections held in Côte d'Ivoire. Polls were initially scheduled for October 2004, but have now been postponed twice.

In the face of Gbagbo's warnings on the constitutional legitimacy of the latest resolution, the prime minister's supporters have come out swinging.

"President Gbagbo is rowing against the resolution's current," said Adama Bictogo, Banny's political advisor. "He just showed his refusal to support the resolution and his will not to exit the crisis."

The rebel New Forces (Forces Nouvelles) has welcomed the fact that the resolution complies with its request for joint leadership by government and rebels of the country's armed forces. For the past few months, the New Forces has been calling for warring armies to be merged and led by officers from the two camps.

But the opposition Rally of the Republicans (Rassemblement des républicains. RDR) does not believe that Gbagbo should have been retained as head of state.

"The chief of state should have been removed and replaced with a High Council of the Republic to monitor implementation of the peace process and support the prime minister in the exercise of his duties," said an RDR statement issued Thursday in Abidjan -- adding that the suspension of the Ivorian constitution might have been in the better interests of the country.

Another opposition grouping, the Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (Parti démocratique de Côte d'Ivoire), also expressed its regret "that Gbagbo was retained", and appealed to the international community "regarding the stalling attempts by the head of state and...for complete enforcement of the new resolution to truly put an end to the crisis".

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1. Africa at large: Wrapping up China-Africa summit

2. Africa at large: Africa, China must work as partners

3. Africa at large: US plans to scale up military presence in the Horn of Africa

4. Africa at large: Need for prize a sad indictment (comment)

5. Southern Africa: Tanzania, SADC members resolve to have a Customs Union by 2010

6. Rwanda: Controversy over plan to join East African Economic Community

7. Rwanda: Prosecution dissatisfied with "France evidence"

8. Nigeria: Vice President might run for presidency

9. Sudan: AU body to discuss Darfur AU force future

10. Uganda: Karamoja violence must be confronted (editorial)

11. Cape Verde: 5th in world in terms of emigrant remittances

************NEWSandBACKGROUND**************

1. Africa at large: Wrapping up China-Africa summit

Times of Zambia (Zambia), by Cecilia Mulenga November 6, 2006

Beijing - Africa leaders including President Levy Mwanawasa have pledged their commitment towards the One -China policy. The pledge was made at a two-day Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) that closed today in the Chinese capital, Beijing.

Heads of State and government representatives also adopted a declaration proclaiming the establishment of a new type of strategic partnership between China and Africa. Under this proclamation, the partnership between the two sides would be focused on political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and cultural exchanges.

The declaration was read out at the close of the landmark summit during a brief ceremony witnessed by more than 48 Heads of State and government leaders who remained standing as they listened to their position on the China-Africa relations being announced at the Great Hall of the People.

"We hold that the establishment of a new type of strategic partnership is the shared desire of China and Africa. It serves our common interests and will help enhance solidarity and mutual assistance among developing countries and contribute to durable peace and harmonious development in the world," the leaders declared.

Host President Hu Jintao read out the first part of the declaration in the Chinese language while FOCAC co-chairman Meles Zenawi, who is Ethiopian Prime Minister, looked at the second part which he read out in English. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose country will host the fourth ministerial conference in 2009, read out the third section in the French language.

The features constituting the strategic partnership between China and Africa would translate into increased high-level visits, strategic dialogue and enhancing mutual political trust. The partnership would also call for the deepening and broadening of mutually beneficial cooperation and give priority to cooperation in agriculture, infrastructure, industry, fishing and technology, among others.

The FOCAC members would also increase an exchange of views on governance and development to learn from each other, enhance international cooperation and equally the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. They proposed to enhance South-South cooperation and North-South dialogue to promote balanced, coordinated and sustainable development of the global economy to enable all countries to share benefits and realise common development and prosperity.

They declared that they had reviewed their sincere friendship, solidarity and cooperation between China and Africa over the past half century. They also discussed the common goals and direction for growing China-Africa cooperation in the new era and decided to bolster the role of the forum to promote friendship, peace, cooperation and development.

On the one-China policy and support for China's peaceful reunification, the African leaders reiterated their adherence to the policy and added that they were greatly inspired by China's rapid economic development. The declaration further stated China’s reaffirmation towards its support for African countries in their efforts to strengthen themselves through unity and to independently resolve Africa's problems, its support for African regional and sub-regional organisations in their efforts to promote economic integration and backing African countries in the implementation of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) programmes.

The Beijing Summit declaration also stated that the FOCAC leaders prodded the United Nations to strengthen its role through reform, pay greater attention to development and give priority to increasing the representation and say of the African countries in the UN agencies.

In pursuit of peace and development, a call was made to the international community to encourage and support Africa pursue peace and development. The declaration stated that developed countries were urged to increase official development assistance and honour their commitment to opening market and debt relief to enhance Africa's capacity in poverty and disaster reduction and prevention and control of desertification, and help Africa realise the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The historical Beijing summit was officially opened on Saturday with Chinese President Hu Jintao unveiling an eight-point aid package which included among other measures the decision by China to set up a China-Africa Development Fund amounting to US$5 billion, aimed at guiding and supporting Chinese companies making investment in Africa in accordance with the principle of market operation and mutual benefit.

The aid package was applauded by African leaders and the FOCAC co-chairman, Mr Zenawi noted that the summit was not merely about reaffirming the China-Africa relations but also about renewing it.

AU chairman Denis Sassou Nguesso, who is also President of Congo Brazzaville, was also accorded the platform to speak at the same function. The summit which was called to come up with two documents, the declaration of the Beijing summit and the Beijing Action Plan (2007-2009), was also marking the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of diplomatic ties between China and African countries.

The official opening of the summit was followed by the opening of a high-level discussion by African and Chinese leaders and also a business entrepreneurs conference between the Chinese and African entrepreneurs were held and closed today. The senior officials meeting and the third ministerial conference were called earlier with the latter closing yesterday.

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2. Africa at large: Africa, China must work as partners

South African Press Association (SAPA) November 6, 2006

The "strategic partnership" between Africa and China needs transparency and good corporate governance, says President Thabo Mbeki. "Our strategic partnership should strive for a fair and equitable global trading system that is characterised by transparency, good corporate governance, predictability and poverty alleviation and eradication," he told the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation Summit in Beijing yesterday.

Among those present were Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia. China's commitment to Africa had already seen tangible and concrete results, particularly in human resource development, debt relief and investment, the South African president said.

Africa, in turn, would help China's development, evident through the supply of raw materials, other products and technology transfer. Mbeki quoted from Jintao's speech on Saturday, in which he mentioned China's goal of building a "moderately prosperous society" and accelerating "socialist modernisation".

"Our overall goal is to quadruple the gross domestic product of 2000 by 2020 so that we will achieve greater progress in economy, democracy, science, education and culture, make the society more harmonious and ensure a better life for our people," the Chinese president said.

Mbeki said as Africa harnessed its abundant natural and human resources, it welcomed a "fair and equitable" partnership with China so that both could accelerate their economic growth.

"May we use this forum as a stepping stone towards transforming our continental relationship with China, based on a shared vision and understanding of our developmental challenges and the advancement of the New Partnership for Africa's Development objectives," Mbeki said.

The two sides were to double their trade to $100bn in four years, French news agency AFP reported earlier. Trade deals worth $1,9bn were announced at the summit yesterday. The 16 contracts announced covered co-operation in natural resources, infrastructure, finance, tech- nology, textiles and communications, said Wan Jifei, chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

By far the biggest deal was one worth $938m, for China's state-owned Citic conglomerate, to set up an aluminium plant in Egypt. A new copper project, worth $200m, in Zambia was also announced, along with plans to build a $55m cement factory in Cape Verde. A mining contract with SA, worth $230m, was also announced.

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3. Africa at large: US plans to scale up military presence in the Horn of Africa

The EastAfrican (Kenya), by John Mbaria and Kevin J. Kelley November 6, 2006

The United States has dramatically increased its involvement and arms sales to the Horn of Africa and East Africa in the last three years and plans to consolidate its focus on sub-Saharan Africa by unifying its military command structure.

Senior officials at the Pentagon are said to be in the final stages of work on a proposal to create an Africa Command within the US military, and were expected to present a plan to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld by the end of this month.

An official who works for the top US military officers says a group in their policy office is working to finalise a proposal to be sent up the chain of command to Secretary Rumsfeld and, if he approves, to President Bush. The official, who requested anonymity because the issue has not been decided, says the group has a deadline of the end of October. Another official described the effort as "tracking fairly quickly," and said Africa Command is "quickly becoming a reality."

Officials say the policy team is working on what one calls a "milestone" proposal developed at Rumsfeld's request by senior officers from European Command, Pacific Command and Central Command, and delivered to the Pentagon two weeks ago. Those three commands now share responsibility for US military activity in Africa.

An official of European Command, which led the effort and has responsibility for most of the continent, says key African "partner nations" were consulted about the idea of establishing an Africa Command, and that they were "very supportive." The official says US embassies on the continent were also consulted.

Secretary Rumsfeld expressed support for the idea of creating an Africa Command during a Town Hall meeting with Pentagon employees last Friday.

"Pete and I are for it and we have been pushing and pushing for six months and trying to get the system to come up with the details as to exactly how it would be done," said Rumsfeld. "Pete" refers to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace.

General Pace also offered support for the idea of an Africa Command, saying that terrorist leaders have expressed their vision for control of much of the world and that more focus on African security should be part of the US response.

"They want to re-establish a caliphate from Spain, all of Europe, Africa, across Asia, Indonesia," said General Pace. "They have said that very plainly. That challenge is there. We need to arrange ourselves in a way to address that challenge, and Africa Command, in my opinion, is a right way to confront part of that problem."

According to information made available to The EastAfrican, the unified Africa Military Command will consolidate the current split command structure of the US European Command controlling most of Africa and the Central Command directing US military activities in Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya into a single command.

Besides, direct US arms sales to East Africa and the Horn of Africa countries - Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda Uganda and Zambia - have shot up from under one million dollars in 2003 to over $25 million in 2006. Djibouti leads the list with nearly $20 million in direct arms purchases in 2005 and 2006.

Ethiopia also shows a dramatic increase of arms purchases. In 2006, an estimated $8 million worth of weapons will be directly sold and with another $5 million estimated in 2007. This is an increase from only $250,000 in 2005 and $750,000 in 2003.

Weapons sales by authorised private weapon companies, like the recently accused Select Armor, says a report in defenselink.mil/news/ website run by the State Department, have also soared. Figures recently released by the Department show that private arms sales will hit an all time high of an estimated $9.5 million in 2007, which is down from a 2005 high of nearly $15 million. Uganda leads this list with nearly $9 million in purchases from US authorised private arms dealers, and Djibouti once again hits near the top of the list with nearly $6 million in purchases in 2005 and 2006.

Uganda's purchase of weapons through private companies like Select Armor, may be significant in light of a recent article by Africa Confidential that claimed US and Kampala-based Select Armor was being used to funnel weapons to Somalia's government in their fight against the Islamic Courts Union. According to the reports, Select Armor promised to provide end user certificates as part of their service, which if true, may violate the current UN arms embargo on Somalia.

Overall, direct US weapons sales increased from $39.2 million in 2005 to nearly $60 million in 2006. In both years, East Africa and the Horn accounted for nearly 40 percent of US weapons sales to Africa, and this demonstrates the US military's strategic shift to the region.

The United States has also increased its Djibouti's counter terrorism base. The Special Operations Combined Joint Task Force at Camp Lemonier has grown from 800 soldiers in 2003 to 1,800 today.

Access to strategic airfields and ports has also increased for the US military. Beyond Camp Lemonier in 2003, the US had an agreement with Kenya that allowed it access to the port of Mombasa and airfields at Embakasi and Nanyuki. Since then the US has extended its regional influence with "cooperative security locations" that provide basing structures for regional operations when needed.

Zambia and Uganda have joined Kenya in this unique arrangement. At Entebbe, the US has constructed two K-Span steel buildings to house troops and equipment. The so called "Lily Pad" arrangement will allow the US military to use the base when needed in times of conflict or as a staging area for a conflict within the region. They are bare bone facilities surrounding an airstrip with installed communications equipment and warehoused supplies. Many times these facilities are manned by local soldiers, which lowers the US footprint but still provides security.

Strategically, the US military has developed a regional operations plan that centres on Djibouti to support the Horn countries. It anchors the southern flank with bases in Kenya, Zambia and Uganda to the west.

The US strategy in East Africa and the Horn is strategically positioned in two areas. First, it can immediately assist Kenya if the fighting in Somalia spills over into Northern Kenya.

For the past month, a steady stream of Somalia refuges have crossed into Kenya challenging the drought stricken region further and increasing tensions between Kenya and Somalia.

Second, like in Nigeria, it can be used to ensure an uninterrupted flow of oil from the newly discovered fields of Uganda and Kenya, and it opens the door to the construction of a well-protected oil pipeline carrying oil for the interior of Central Africa to the port of Mombasa. It also provides a strategically located airbase to support future military operations to the north in Sudan or to the west.

The expansion of the US military influence in the Horn of Africa is counter balanced by a growing French presence in Chad and the Central African Republic. France has increased its troop numbers in both countries to fight a growing rebellion in the region. Recent reports describe a rapid French military build-up in Chad with the arrival of 600 French mercenaries, four attack helicopters, and 12 Brazilian-made tanks at the end of September.

The Great Lakes Centre for Strategic Studies (GLCSS) believes the French and US military build-up may be part of a unified Sub-Saharan strategy. Both countries currently co-operate in Djibouti in a resource sharing arrangement. In the last two years, the United States has aided the French-backed Chad government in the fight against Algerian Salafist guerrillas operating in Chad.

In 2004, the US flew a P3 Orion surveillance aircraft from a base in Southern Algeria over Northern Chad. The intelligence from those flights was fed to the Chadian forces fighting the Salafist group.

Although there are indications that US arms sales to Africa may be drastically reduced in 2007, this appears to be highly unlikely considering the increased fighting in Somalia and an unstable situation in Sudan. If the Sudan government is destabilised over the international confrontation in Darfur, the repercussions for the region, and Sudan, will be drastic and fuel an increased influx of weapons to the region.

Reported by John Mbaria in Nairobi and Kevin J. Kelley in Washington

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4. Africa at large: Need for prize a sad indictment (comment)

Business Day (South Africa), by Dianna Games November 6, 2006

Driving through the streets of Lagos last week, I noticed the mushrooming of larger-than-life posters of aspirant presidential candidates making known their ambitions for the April 2007 elections. Dotted among them are posters of those wanting a slightly lower rung on the political ladder - the Lagos state governor's job. The posters promise delivery and a better life, even as they stand boldly above some of the worst slums to be found anywhere.

Many Nigerians are sceptical about these promises and say people mostly "live past" the politicians and get on with their business, in the belief that the quest for office in their country is not about delivery, but about naked power and enrichment. The surroundings would certainly seem to suggest this. In some areas, the new posters were the only sign of any new spending in what must be decades.

Up to 20 people have already indicated their interest in becoming Nigeria's next president. This is a figure that would surely add to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's proclaimed irritation last week about the unseemly number of people wanting to become presidents in Africa. Mugabe is one person who should understand why people clamour for the job, given the lengths to which he has gone to hang on to his presidency for 26 long years.

It is something of a mystery why so many egotistical leaders appear unconcerned about the legacy they will leave. The longer they stay in power, the more distant they often become from their people's needs and the more they get caught up in their own self-importance.

Is it so difficult to do the right thing? Improving peoples' lives does not dilute political power, as a number of Asian countries have shown.

Nelson Mandela has surely shown his counterparts the enduring rewards of good and responsible leadership. The awards and adulation continue to flood in. Only last week he received an award from Amnesty International. The organisation said he had come to symbolise all that was hopeful and idealistic in public life. The world badly needed the enlightened leadership Mandela exemplified, it added. Africa is no exception.

Much has been said about the fact that African leaders face a severely scaled-down existence once they leave power. But the fact is that only a few have anything significant to offer Africa's development once they become ordinary citizens again. Their attractiveness is undermined by poor track records of governance and limited achievements.

Poverty in Africa is a vexed issue. Resource and capacity constraints are part of the problem; the bigger problem is poor leadership, focused on self-interest and short-term gains. In too many countries, politics is about power, not about poverty alleviation.

In the normal course of things, former heads of state ought to be the very people who can contribute to resolving Africa's many challenges. But there is little incentive to seek advice from leaders who have left their people poorer for their rule. That said, there does seem to be a trend for Africa's former presidents to sit in ineffective forums pontificating about how to solve the very same problems they did so little about resolving when they had the chance; indeed, problems some of them even created.

There are at least two organisations established for this purpose - the Africa Forum, established earlier this year, and the African Presidential Roundtable. The latter, which met in SA earlier this year, highlighted some of the ironies of such gatherings. For example, Kenya's former president, Daniel Arap Moi, who oversaw the entrenchment of corruption in Kenya, told the gathering that corruption was a "deadly thing that has destroyed many nations". He forgot to mention his own leading role in it.

Ex-Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda, whose 27-year rule left Zambia in a political and economic mess, is a regular feature at such gatherings, hailed by his peers as a visionary.

The sheer scale of the challenges still facing African countries and the ever-present issue of enrichment as a main attraction of the top job make the new proposal by Sudanese cellphone mogul Mo Ibrahim an interesting one. He plans to financially reward African presidents as an inducement to good governance - and name and shame the poor performers. "We want to celebrate the guy who managed to take his people out of poverty. That deserves the largest prize in the world," he said at the project's launch.

If it achieves its purpose of improving governance, it will be applauded. But it is a sad indictment of African leadership that material inducements are being created to get them to face up to the continent's moral challenges.

*Games is director of Africa @ Work, an African consulting company.

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5. Southern Africa: Tanzania, SADC members resolve to have a Customs Union by 2010

The EastAfrican (Kenya), by Wilfred Edwin November 6, 2006

The Southern African Development Community has asked its Ministerial Task Force to develop a road map for the implementation of a SADC Customs Union programme by the year 2010.

The just ended Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and governments held in Midrand, South Africa, reaffirmed its commitment to the establishment of a SADC Customs Union and directed the Ministerial Task Force to undertake a study to evaluate an appropriate model. The Customs Union will comprise the member states of Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mauritius, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana, Angola and South Africa.

At the Summit of the Heads of State and Government that met to consider the regional, economic and political integration of the bloc members, Prime Minister Edward Lowassa represented Tanzania.

Pakalitha Mosisili, the chairperson of SADC and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Lesotho, said at the SADC Extraordinary Summit: "The Customs Union framework has been a subject of extensive discourse at the national and regional levels, and we now have some measure of clarity on not only the challenges associated with this difficult process, but indeed the long term benefits of this market integration."

But SADC wants the establishment of Customs Union to be preceded by a Free Trade Area (FTA) first, come the year 2008.

The report of the Task Force will answer the question of how ready the regional bloc will be to launch the FTA in January, 2008 and what steps will be necessary to take to ensure that Customs Union is launched in 2010. The Summit noted progress made in the attainment of an FTA and concluded that the SADC Free Trade Area programme is on course and that it will be launched as planned by 2008.

SADC economic regional integration plan comprises market integration through, successively, a Free Trade Area, a Customs Union and a Common Market. To achieve these, a number of instruments have been signed and ratified and or are in the process of being signed, such as the SADC Trade Protocol and the Protocol on Finance and Investment.

The Task Force, which comprises the member states' Ministers of Finance, Development, Trade and Industry, is to prepare a road map for accelerating the establishment of the Free Trade Area (FTA) by 2008, the Customs Union by 2010, the Common Market by 2015 and Economic Union by 2018.

However, the Summit noted that SADC's trade patterns consist mainly of commodities and that there is a need to diversify the SADC economies and increase intra-regional trade and growth.

It also noted that the establishment of the FTA should take cognisance of developmental integration elements such as infrastructure, poverty alleviation and sustainable development.

The key challenge for SADC is to establish a Common Market within a reasonable time frame in order to increase the percentage share of SADC trade in the world market.

But reports indicate that this will only be possible when member states comply with the decisions agreed within the framework of the SADC Trade Protocol and speed up implementation.

This also entails compliance with and implementation of WTO obligations as well as taking advantage of preferences provided under the Cotonou Agreement and the US Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).

It will be essential therefore to address the supply side constraints as well as competitiveness of industry with regard to production and to cushion the impact of the international tariff reduction on the smaller, landlocked and less developed members of SADC.

As SADC moves to higher levels of integration such as the Customs Union, the issue of overlapping membership of SADC countries in a number of other regional bodies and the conflicting obligations arising therefrom should be addressed urgently, further reports argue.

A resolution on this issue would strengthen SADC as a building block of the African Union. The challenges posed by globalisation, especially within the framework of the WTO, Agoa and the Cotonou Agreements should be taken into account.

The member states with overlapping membership in other trade blocs are Tanzania, which is also a member of the East African Community, Angola, Madagascar, Malawi, and Mauritania. The later four also belong to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).

Other member states with overlapping membership between Comesa and SADC are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The EAC, Comesa and SADC have many ambitions in common. They all aspire to their respective Customs Unions, monetary co-operation, common markets and, in the case of the EAC, political federation. SADC exports are mainly primary and unfinished goods. About 90 per cent are mineral and agricultural goods, and imports are mainly capital and intermediate goods.

Only South Africa - which is also the continent's economic powerhouse - and to a limited extent, Zimbabwe, have the capacity to produce capital and intermediate goods. This impacts negatively on the development of the region and leads to imbalances in economic levels. Furthermore, the region produces similar primary goods, which are mainly agro and mineral based.

The SADC region produces significant quantities of major metals and minerals. It contributes about 53 per cent of the world's vanadium, 49 per cent of its platinum, 40 per cent of its chromite, 36 per cent of its gold, 50.1 per cent of its diamonds and 20 per cent of its cobalt.

A number of SADC countries rely on this sector for their foreign exchange earnings and therefore there is potential for investment and wealth creation in it. However, the region has been experiencing a rising incidence of illegal mining and trade in diamonds and gemstones.

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6. Rwanda: Controversy over plan to join East African Economic Community

Inter Press Service (Africa), by Aimable Twahirwa November 5, 2006

Kigali - Rwanda and Burundi may be sworn in as new members of the East African Economic Community (EAC) when the grouping holds its next summit, Nov. 30, in the Tanzanian financial centre of Dar-es-Salam. The regional organisation presently comprises Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and is headquartered in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha.

"We're in the process of organising a big celebration to welcome Rwanda into the organisation," said Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete during his first visit to Rwanda earlier this year.

Rwandan Finance and Regional Planning Minister James Musoni told IPS that the Central African nation's entry into the EAC would be of particular help to local businesses, enabling them to import and export products through the ports of other community member states (Rwanda is itself landlocked): "I'm sure that entry into the EAC will be a success that will be felt very shortly."

Mary Baine, general commissioner for the Rwandan Revenue Office, also notes that customs duties will be reduced for Rwandan importers if the country becomes an EAC member, which will -- in turn -- spur national and regional trade.

But others are less optimistic about the eventual benefits of the community for Rwanda.

"The Rwandan economy risks being wiped out by a ferocious price and promotional offer war waged by other members of the EAC," an economic researcher who teaches at the National University of Rwanda at Butare, in the south of the country, told IPS.

A political researcher and observer also expressed concern over whether the will of the Rwandan people had really been taken into account in debates over the country's possible membership of the EAC.

"It's sad that the people and other stakeholders were not sufficiently consulted before applying for membership. If there's any possibility that this regional organisation will eventually fail, the citizens of our countries will be the main victims," the researcher said in an interview with IPS.

For his part, Bonaventure Bizumuremyi -- publication director of 'Umuco' ("culture", in Kinyarwanda), a bi-monthly independent journal published in the Rwandan capital, Kigali -- even has doubts about the long-term prospects of the EAC.

"There's no guarantee...that this regional organisation will last. It's a monumental mistake not to take into account the failure of other regional integration organisations," he said.

Bizumuremyi cites the example of other groupings that Rwanda joined but which no longer exist, notably the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries and the Organisation for the Management and Development of the Kagera River Basin. "It's important to first look into the past and meticulously examine what Rwanda has to gain by joining this new organisation," he told IPS.

President Paul Kagame indicated during an August press conference in Kigali that Rwanda was in no hurry to join the community.

"All the member countries must agree on reciprocity so that each EAC nation derives advantages," he said. "Rwanda doesn't need to belong to several regional organisations. Instead, we must place priority on the major advantages the country can gain, especially in the domains of the economy and social welfare."

The history of the EAC can be traced back to a customs union established in 1917 by Kenya and Uganda. The former Tanganyika, which later merged with the island of Zanzibar to become Tanzania, joined this organisation in 1927 -- while the community itself was established in 1967.

In 1977 the EAC was dissolved because of differences between the three member states, but was relaunched in 1996 when the Kenyan, Ugandan and Tanzanian heads of state signed a new agreement on trade.

The EAC works in various sectors, ranging from trade, customs, transportation and communication to energy, agriculture and the environment.

Besides creating a customs union and allowing the free circulation of goods and persons, EAC member countries intend to launch a single currency by 2007, according to Juma Mwapachu -- the secretary-general of the EAC, who spoke during a press conference in Kigali recently.

He added that trade and foreign investment in the EAC region, which has more than 110 million inhabitants, would be strengthened with the inclusion of new member countries.

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7. Rwanda: Prosecution dissatisfied with 'France evidence'

New Times (Rwanda), by Felly Kimenyi November 6, 2006

The Prosecution is dissatisfied with the move by the French Ministry of Defence to declassify 105 intelligence documents. The documents are to be handed to the judge who is investigating the role of French soldiers in the 1994 Genocide.

"That is not enough, let them sanction the inventions to kick off and let them come here to find out the real truth of what happened," said Rukangira, who was reacting to the French Defence Minister, Michele Alliot-Marie's order, in respect to a lawsuit filed by four Rwandan survivors, accusing French soldiers of complicity in the Genocide.

Rukangira stressed that the French were obliged to tell the world about what happened in Rwanda during the Genocide.

"It was simply not a favour to Rwanda; they are trying to fulfil their obligation," he said and added: "Let them expedite the process and everything will be fine with us."

He further castigated the French defence ministry which decided to terminate investigations by Brigitte Renaud, saying little had been achieved in regard to the investigations since then.

"For instance, the one who was appointed (Renaud's replacement) has been talking of coming here for several months but she has not," Rukangira said on Friday.

Contacted, the head of the commission instituted by Rwanda to investigate the role of France in the Genocide said that his commission would not benefit much from the information contained in the reports.

"It is of much more benefit to the Prosecution but we are in touch and we are aware of the announcement by the French defence ministry," Jean de Dieu Mucyo, himself a former Prosecutor General, said on phone last week.

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8. Nigeria: Vice President might run for presidency

Daily Trust (Nigeria) November 06, 2006

The Vice President, Atiku Abubakar is billed to declare to run for the presidency on November 26, under the recently launched Action Congress (AC), Daily Trust has learnt from sources close to the vice president. The news has been strenuously denied by the Media aide to the Vice President, Garba Shehu. Mr. Shehu said: "The VP has no plans to leave the PDP, a party he built. It is his party and he has no plans to leave."

On the suspension of Atiku from the PDP, he said there was hope in the Atiku camp. He said: "We hope we shall get justice from the courts before the expiration date of form collection." Atiku himself over the weekend, assured his constituents that he was positive he will win the court case and still run for elections. He was however silent on whether he will run under the PDP, fuelling the fears that he may opt for the AC.

A well placed source inside the Atiku camp confirmed to Daily Trust a switch is on the cards. The source said: "Atiku is seriously making plans to use the Action Congress (AC) as a platform to run for elections. In fact, he has concluded plans to make a formal declaration on the 26th of this month (November)." The PDP form collection exercise comes to a close by December.

Many believe it would be too late for the Vice President to make an impact or begin campaigs by that date. But when contacted, Director, Media and Publicity of AC, Lai Mohammed, told Daily Trust yesterday that he has no information regarding the VP's alleged plans to defect to the AC. He said, "I'm sure it is mere speculations because the party is still organising itself. We still don't have an approved timetable for congresses or convention, let alone speak of primaries." But a chieftain of the AC, Ibrahim Hassan, said the VP is welcome to join the party. He said, "I'm personally inviting the VP to join."

Hassan, a former minister in the second republic, noted further "the PDP does not want him and there are two factions. They have suspended him so what do you think he should do. He is free to decamp and leave the PDP and nothing will happen. He will still remain the VP because it is only legislators who can’t leave their parties and remain in office. It does not apply to the VP."

The AC, a welter of political parties is easily associated with the VP due to the prominence of both the Alliance for Democracy (AD), and the ACD, parties believed to be pro-Atiku in outlook. The VP who is currently locked in a legal tussle with the President over corruption charges, is said to be assiduously working to "rubbish the President in the PTDF scandal".

His game plan, according to competent sources, is to turn the heat on President Obasanjo by further implicating him in the sordid deals of the fund. Attempts by aides to broker a peace deal between the President and his deputy collapsed last month with each side claiming it was lured into the peace initiative.

Concerned aides of the President believe that if it is not properly handled, the PTDF issue might cause the President some embarrassment. The Atiku camp claims it has over 20 cheques it is prepared to make public showing that Obasanjo is probably culpable in the entire deal.

Meanwhile, Abuja will play host Tuesday to the campaign team of Gov. Donald Duke as he formally declares for the presidential race. Media chairman of the event, Nkem Ossai, told Daily Trust that the event will hold at the International Conference Centre. Duke's entrance into the presidential race is coming against the backdrop of increased agitation for power shift to the South South. Already, two governors from the region, Peter Odili and Victor Attah of Rivers and Akwa Ibom state respectively, have since made their declaration.

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9. Sudan: AU body to discuss Darfur AU force future

Sudan Tribune November 4, 2006

The African Union Peace and Security council is to meet at the presidents levels on the 24th of November in Brazzaville; to decide whether they will extend and enhance the current AU peacekeeping mission there at the end of their term which expires on the 31st of next December, 2006.

Presidential Adviser Majzoub Al Khalifa, Friday discussed with the Chairperson of AU Commission Alpha Omar Konare, the Sudanese government contacts with holdout rebels to resolve Darfur crisis and efforts to implement the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA).

A Sudanese official said the meeting was within the context of the continued consultations between the government of National unity and the African Union.

The AU Security Council had pointed out during its last meeting held in New York that consultations should continue between the African Union and the government of Sudan and the United Nations with the regards to the coming step and how the African Union mission in Darfur could be assisted.

The head of the AU Peace and Security Council, Said Djinnit, will visit Khartoum soon to complete the consultations initiated on provision of assistance to the African Union Mission in Darfur and that could be assisted.

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10. Uganda: Karamoja violence must be confronted (editorial)

Monitor (Uganda) November 6, 2006

A visitor to Uganda in the last two weeks or so could be forgiven for thinking that the chaos reigning in parts of Karamoja sub-region is a recent development.

The truth, however, is that armed cattle rustling has been going on for more than a decade or two in this part of Uganda. Fuelled by a lucrative small arms trade from Ethiopia, South Sudan and parts of northwestern Kenya, this criminal method of acquiring illegal herds has proved intractable for the main reason that both internally and within the region, our political leaders have not invested enough energy in seeking a lasting solution.

It is a well known fact that the Karimojong are suspicious of their neighbours in Kenya (Pokot and Turkana) because of their historic cross-border raiding. But the problem is aggravated internally by the intra-Karimojong inter-clan rustling. The Matheniko warriors, Dodoth raiders, Jie fighters, Pokot or any other sub tribe in the region have at one time or another attacked the other with fatal circumstances. Add to this already explosive mix, the Toposa factor from south Sudan and you have a large problem on your hands.

Isn't it then strange that the leaders in the region have never taken an aggressive or at least active interest in resolving this low intensity internal armed violence?

Beyond the occasional forum at which either junior ministers or, rarely, full Cabinet ministers present 'papers on disarmament' follow through action has been lacking. There is a current Inter-governmental Authority on Development (Igad) initiative on the table which about one year ago seemed to suggest that finally political will was being placed behind the unhelpful rhetoric of years gone by. This , unfortunately, was also too optimistic a view to hold.

East Africans and other persons in the horn of Africa, who have been affected in by the armed violence in Karamoja and northeastern Kenya must demand that their respective governments address this pressing matter.

It is not enough for the leaders to issue high sounding warnings every now and then about the terrible calamity that awaits those who refuse to disarm. The[y] must show a real commitment to look at the root causes of this rustling beyond the simplistic culture-based arguments.

Water has to be made available to the pastoral communities, infrastructure like roads, schools and hospitals has to be established to drag these areas of the two region out of the comparative 'Stone Age' in which they have stagnated in. Hand-wringing in despair each time large scale loss of life is reported will not help on this one.

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11. Cape Verde: 5th in world in terms of emigrant remittances

A semana (Cape Verde) November 3, 2006

Cape Verde is fifth on a list of countries in which remittances from emigrants living abroad contribute most significantly to the economy. Total remittances break down to US$ 321 per inhabitant per year.

Remittances from the Cape Verdean diaspora in 2002 represented 23.3% of the country's gross domestic product, according to the latest available data.

This is one of the facts revealed by the report "Perspectives on International Migrations," elaborated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The report also reveals that in 2004 Cape Verdeans constituted the third largest foreign community in Portugal, following Brazilians and Ukrainians. The number of immigrants from Cape Verde living in Portugal has gradually increased, from some 38,000 in 1995 to 64,000 in 2004. 29,000 of this total are women.

At the same time, the number of Cape Verdeans working in Portugal has increased much more slowly, from some 22,000 in 1995 to slightly more than 33,000 in 2004, figures that reflect the growth of the Cape Verdean student population in the European country.

The number of Cape Verdean citizens entering Portugal began to rise in 1998, reaching a peak in 2001, with more than 7,000 people. Since then numbers have dropped, standing at fewer than 2,000 per year in 2003 and 2004.

In 2004, 12% of the foreigners entering Portugal were Cape Verdean, accounting for the second-largest group after Brazilians. This number represents an increase in comparison to the average of 7% registered between 1990 and 2003.

More than 20,000 Cape Verdeans took advantage of the three special amnesty periods created for illegal immigrants in Portugal in 1992-1993, 1996 and 2001. In addition, 1,830 Cape Verdeans acquired Portuguese citizenship between 1995 and 2004.

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Uganda: Press Homophobia Raises Fears of Crackdown Government Campaign Against Gay and Lesbian Community Escalates

(New York, September 8, 2006) - In a country where a sodomy conviction carries a penalty of life imprisonment, a Ugandan tabloid's decision to publish the names of alleged homosexuals is a chilling development that could presage a government crackdown, Human Rights Watch said today. The lesbian and gay community in Uganda has long been stigmatized and harassed by government officials.

"For years, President Yoweri Museveni's government routinely threatens and vilifies lesbians and gays, and subjects sexual-rights activists to harassment," said Jessica Stern, researcher in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program of Human Rights Watch. "At a moment when sensational publicity has spread fear among a whole community, the authorities must exercise their responsibility to protect, not persecute."

Human Rights Watch called on Ugandan authorities to:
* End a long campaign of homophobic statements by top officials, including President Museveni;
* Cease arrests under the sodomy laws and promptly repeal them; and
* Offer protection against violence and harassment to human rights defenders working to protect lesbian and gay rights.

On August 8, the tabloid paper Red Pepper published a list of first names, workplaces and other identifying information of 45 alleged homosexuals, all men. The paper claimed it was publishing the list "to show the nation - how fast the terrible vice known as sodomy is eating up our society." The paper has since told civil society activists that it plans to publish a similar list of alleged lesbians.

Homophobic allegations in the Red Pepper have previously led to police action. In 2002, the tabloid ran banner headlines and photographs about an alleged wedding between two women. Kampala police promptly arrested the women in question. Although they were freed when an attorney intervened, they were jailed again and held for several days, allegedly for their own safety, after a mob threatened them. A Ugandan pastor who had counseled them was later forced to leave the country.

Same-sex sexual relations are criminalized in Uganda under a sodomy law inherited from British colonial rule. Section 140 of the Penal Code criminalizes "carnal knowledge against the order of nature" with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Section 141 punishes "attempts" at carnal knowledge with a maximum of seven years' imprisonment. Section 143 punishes acts of "gross indecency" with up to five years in prison. In both Britain and Uganda, these terms were long understood to describe consensual homosexual conduct between men.

Background

For close to two years, Human Rights Watch said, officials have regularly threatened and harassed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Ugandans.
In October 2004, the country's information minister, James Nsaba Buturo, ordered police to investigate and "take appropriate action against" a gay association allegedly organized at Uganda's Makerere University.

State-owned media have repeatedly called for stronger measures against homosexual conduct. On July 6, 2005, a writer in the government-owned New Vision newspaper urged authorities to crack down on homosexuality, saying, "The police should visit the holes mentioned in the press, spy on the perverts, arrest and prosecute them. Relevant government departments must outlaw or restrict websites, magazines, newspapers and television channels promoting immorality - including homosexuality, lesbianism, pornography, etc." Later that month, local government officers raided the home of Victor Mukasa, a lesbian activist and Chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda. They seized documents and other materials, and arrested another lesbian activist and held her overnight.

On September 29, 2005, President Museveni signed into law a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The amendment says that "marriage is lawful only if entered into between a man and a woman," and specifies that "it is unlawful for same-sex couples to marry." A parliamentary spokesperson said at the time that criminal penalties for engaging in such marriages would be imposed later.

The government has also silenced discussion of gay and lesbian rights and lives. The Broadcasting Council, a board of government censors, fined a radio station 1.8 million shillings (more than US$1000) for hosting a lesbian and two gay men on a talk show, where they protested against discrimination and called for repeal of the sodomy laws. In February 2005, the Media Council - a state censorship board - banned a staging of the play, "The Vagina Monologues," by the U.S. author Eve Ensler, because it "promotes illegal acts of unnatural sexual acts, homosexuality and prostitution."

Men named in the Red Pepper's August 8 article have reportedly already been threatened and harassed. Ugandan activists point out that, in a deeply patriarchal society, accusations against alleged lesbians could subject them to violence in the family and community. U.N. statistics in 2000 showed that 41 percent of Ugandan women had suffered domestic violence.

A March 2005 Human Rights Watch report on "abstinence-until- marriage" HIV programs in Uganda found these programs were denying young people accurate information on HIV transmission and on sexual health. These programs also intrinsically discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. With a legal ban in place against gay or lesbian relationships, the programs promote only permanent abstinence and are uniformly silent about safer sexual practices. Promoting abstinence until heterosexual marriage is the continuation of an outright denial by the Ugandan government that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people exist. In March 2002, while accepting an award for his country's HIV/AIDS prevention programs, President Museveni said simply, "We don't have homosexuals in Uganda."

"Uganda's once-successful HIV/AIDS prevention programs are already reeling from the impact of silence and bad science," said Stern. "Driving vulnerable people underground can only hamper those programs further."