The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUC, is to send a team to investigate a reported massacre in Ituri District, eastern DRC, a MONUC official told IRIN. According to local authorities, armed men said to belong to a militia group called the Front des nationalistes integrantistes (FNL) killed at least 100 people in Gobu, a lakeside village some 60 km north of the town of Bunia.

Malawi's three main opposition parties have pulled out of a coalition deal that seeks to wrestle power from the ruling United Democratic Front in the May 18 general elections. The refusal to join the coalition has dashed hopes of a united opposition ever getting into power in Malawi as did Mwai Kibaki's Rainbow Coalition in Kenya in December 2001. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the Movement for Genuine Democracy (Mgode) last Friday snubbed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing ceremony in the commercial centre, Blantyre, leaving six other relatively small parties to go it alone.

With people still left guessing as to whether he intends holding formal talks with his country's opposition, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe added a new dimension to the drama this weekend when he was allegedly rushed to South Africa after collapsing at his home in Harare. The speculation about the Zimbabwean leader comes at the tail end of a week of debate about South Africa's role in helping to resolve the political situation in Zimbabwe. On Thursday South African President Thabo Mbeki said Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party had agreed to enter into formal talks with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on resolving Zimbabwe's long-running political crisis. But the MDC's Secretary for Information and Publicity, Paul Themba Nyathi, told IPS that his party was extremely sceptical about "the nature of Mugabe's commitment to a process of dialogue".

Please pass on my sincerest appreciation for Ms. Gutridge's editorial on 'Our Sacred African Anger' (Pambazuka News 139). It is an amazing piece, impassioned, witty, poignant and timely. There are many Americans here who feel similarly, including myself. We too would say good riddance to the 'axis of evil'- Bush, Cheney and the puppets of the extreme right. I will not even attempt a justification of this administration's wrongs, there is none. I will endeavour to suggest, however, that for many Americans, the propaganda and hatred of this administration, and the imperialist legacy of this country, are not manifest in our hearts, our minds or our beliefs. If only we had more courageous politicians that would deliver the same honest, scathing and accurate accounting that you have. Thank you for your words.

Yes, you poured out all you had in your mind, but, believe me, no one is listening. American folks are not tuned to do that. It is so true, that there will come a time when the power of cruise missiles and "smart" bombs will not count, human spirit will prevail. Not in this world arrangement, though. Implosion as a result of overweight and overbearing is bound to take place. Not today nor tomorrow. For the time being, let us be the suckers.

I just read Ms Gutridge's article and it moved me (Pambazuka News 139: Our Sacred African Anger). I feel the same way she does about all that she has discussed.
I am 24 years old and have lived in different countries in Africa all my life including Zimbabwe and South Africa. From a young age I learned the effects that USA policies have on our continent and have had a negative impression of the US. I have made friends of people from the US but always criticised and usually disagreed with almost every stand I ever heard the US had made. A friend who is half-Namibian and half-American suggested that I should not be so quick to judge a country that I had never been to so last year I embarked on a three-month tour of the country.

I tried to be open-minded but found that most of my opinions were correct, on the whole my impression of Americans is that they are ignorantly arrogant and convinced of their own importance. At the same time, they seem ignorant of the suffering of others at the hands of their government and also unconcerned with the internal policies of that same government. It seems not to matter to them that this government of theirs that they defend so loudly is spending more money on armaments and space exploration than they do on health and education combined. It’s tragic that this should be the most powerful country in the world. Thank you Ms Gutridge for your articulate and compassionate article. And thank you Pambazuka for keeping me informed.

The Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) says it expects the Electoral Commission to seriously consider extending further the registration period for elections later this year to enable those that failed to register because of lack of materials to have a chance to register. "The registration exercise should serve as a lesson to all stakeholders (donors, civil society organisations and the MEC) on the importance of voter and civic education for the success of this election. It is hoped that the lack of resources by civil society organisations to conduct voter and civic education, which has negatively affected the registration process, will be rectified so that the electorate will see the need to fully participate in the May 18 elections.”

The East African Law society has added its voice to calls for Uganda president Yoweri Museveni to step down at the end of his constitutionally stipulated two terms. Speaking at the launch of the inaugural East African Human Rights Report for 2003, the chief executive officer of the East African Law Society, Donald Deya, said debate on the constitutional reform to allow Museveni another term should not be allowed. "We urge the president of Uganda not to violate the constitution in any way to allow himself another term of presidency," he said.

Manuel Orozco, Inter-American Dialogue, Washington, DC, morozco@thedialogue.org, presents some useful slides looking at remittances, hometown associations and rural development from a Latin American perspective.

The Foundation for Democracy in Africa and New College of Florida are pleased to announce a new scholarship program aimed at bringing more talented Africans to the state Honors college. The scholarship is designed to identify and help an African student to attend a four-year degree program at the New College of Florida. Desired students should have passed the TOEFEL and completed the secondary school placement exams in their country. All applicants must meet the New College of Florida’s admission requirement to be eligible. For more information on the African Scholarship Program, please contact The Institute for democracy in Africa: 600 Brickell Avenue Suite 704 Miami, Florida 33131. U.S.A Tel: 305 416-9201 Fax: 305 416-9203 www.democracy-africa.org

The Foundation for Democracy in Africa (FDA) – a U.S.-based African diaspora-led human rights organisation – has been instrumental in establishing an International Studies Partnership exchange programme involving FAWE Girls’ School in Kigali, Rwanda and Miami Carol City Senior High School in Miami, Florida. The programme aims at promoting cultural and curriculum exchanges between the two schools. The Education for Development Initiative (EDDI)/ USAID and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation are sponsoring the programme.

Fifty-three new unregistered political parties and organisations have formed a coalition protesting their exclusion from the on-going talks between the Ugandan government and multi-parties, reported official media on Friday. The Ugandan government delegation held two preparatory talks with a total of 11 political parties this week on transition to pluralism in the east African country. Seven political parties were invited on Monday's talks and another four parties invited on Thursday.

The blame for recent attacks on the United Nations Mission (MONUC) in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as well as summary executions of civilians, abductions and daily extortion, has been laid at the feet of a recently promoted militia leader, MONUC says. "Witnesses and complainants have accused Commander Bosco Ntaganda of committing gross human rights abuses. He is charged, among other things, with the summary executions of two people in Bunia in March 2003, kidnappings, rapes, barbaric acts on civilian populations, daily extortion of people's money and items in Ituri, illegal levying of taxes and other offences," MONUC said.

Nine more judges have been accused of corruption and abuse of office, in a formal report by the Law Society of Kenya. The five Appeal Court and four High Court judges - eight of whom are still serving - are among a total of 14 named in the report on graft in the Judiciary which has yet to be released. Five of the 14 have already been named in the Ringera report on corruption on the bench, and have either resigned or are waiting to appear before disciplinary tribunals which will decide their fate.

For at least one African activist who attended the just-concluded World Social Forum (WSF) in Mumbai, India, enough is enough. After attending the last four WSF meetings, Mohau Pheko, a gender and economic activist from South Africa, says she will not be attending the next event. Speaking to Terraviva (http://www.ipsnews.net/focus/tv_mumbai/viewstory.asp?idn=232) , the official newspaper of the World Social Forum, Pheko said: “Until and unless more grassroots people, especially from Africa, become part of this process I don’t honestly see the need to come and mix with the same people and say the same things to each other.” She makes a valid point, questioning how the neo-liberal order is supposed to be replaced by people-centred, people-oriented development when the “people” are absent from the forum that is supposed to shape that very development. "Besides as NGOs we have been delegitimised by our own governments and it will not only be strategic but logical that we stop analyzing on behalf of other people and bring the voices and make visible those who live the experiences we want changed on board,” she says.

War dominated WSF, with strong statements against the United States, such as when Indian author Arundhati Roy (http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=331358) said: "For the first time in history, a single empire with an arsenal of weapons that could obliterate the world in an afternoon, has complete, unipolar, economic and military hegemony…It uses different weapons to break open different markets. There isn't a country on God's earth that is not caught in the cross hairs of the American cruise missile and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) cheque book." From an African point of view, poverty, massive external debt, HIV/AIDS and corruption were some of the key issues placed on the Agenda at the WSF. Although estimates of African attendance at the forum ranged from between 300 and 500 - a small amount out of the total 100 000 delegates and up from only 30 two years ago - WSF organisers say they will examine the possibility of holding the event in Africa in 2006, a decision that will greatly advance Africa's cause within the forum.

The WSF is seen as an important event to enable civil society to form common ground and strategise over common problems related to the global policies that act to the detriment of citizens in the south. But as John Moru - Policy and Research Advocacy Officer with ActionAid, a nongovernmental organisation based in Nigeria's capital city, Abuja, told Terraviva (http://www.ipsnews.net/focus/tv_mumbai/viewstory.asp?idn=269 ): "Recognising the fact that poverty, corruption and ineffective public enterprises pervade the regions that have produced this large Mumbai gathering, it is so sad that going home after this historic event will bring me back to the stark realities of the enormous work to be done towards effecting the various recommendations of this Forum with scanty civil voices that need great amplification.”

Outside of the concerns of the African delegation, debate over the future shape of the World Social Forum is raging. Already, who controls the WSF and how has become a hot topic, as well as what is seen by some as a top-down approach to decision-making and a lack of transparency. This includes a questioning of exactly how open the WSF actually is. As Jai Sen has argued (http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1417.html), instead of being the “open space” that the marketing hype proclaims it to be, it is actually a highly structured and in some cases exclusive gathering, limited to those broadly classified as the 'left'. “In short, we are already witnessing the crystallisation and rise not only of corporatism but also of orthodoxy and dogma, which I suggest constitutes a fundamental challenge to the future of the WSF.”

In an essay on the WSF (http://www.choike.org/documentos/wsf_s502_albert.pdf), Michael Albert points out that in contrast to the localized forums worldwide, the WSF has yet to attain the same level of transparency and accountability. This is not to take away from the value of the WSF, he says, but “there are often sharp and even destructive differences between the WSF's layers of participants”. Albert puts forward eleven thoughts for the future of the WSF, which include emphasizing local forums as the foundation of the worldwide process; Mandating that the decision-making leadership at every level should be at least 50 per cent women; Having the Forums from wealthier parts of the world charge delegates and organisations and attendees a tax on their fees to apply to helping finance the Forums in poorer parts of the world; Feature grassroots activists from movements around the world much more prominently in major events and throughout all Forums to strengthen the WSF and local Forums as vehicles for their activity and counter tendencies toward elitism; Mandating that Forums at every level, including the WSF, welcome people from diverse constituencies.

It is clear from these and other articles written about the WSF, that the rapid growth of the WSF has in itself presented real challenges along the lines of governance and representivity that the WSF will have to overcome if it is to avoid being seen in the same light as the exclusive World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the business only meet that the WSF was first set up to counter. In the meantime, and problems aside, as one activist writes “Participatory? I don't think the WSF processes are really participatory in a democratic sense, but it is open, and it is full of mutual respect (almost everywhere), and that is so valuable you forgive all the other problems.”

* Compiled by Patrick Burnett, Fahamu. Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

* See the Women and Gender, Development, HIV/AIDS and Social Welfare sections of Pambazuka News for more stories from the WSF. Visit http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/eventos/1.html for more Up-to-date information on the WSF.

Increasing integration has made the great challenge of reducing poverty and advancing human development more achievable than ever, and more dependent than ever on good global economic governance. This paper from the Global Development Centre sets out the economic logic for why good global economic governance matters for reducing poverty and inequality in the world, and then develops several arguments for how better representation of developing countries in the IMF, the World Bank, and other multilateral institutions would make those institutions more effective in that task.

Malawi has sent a delegation to Washington to try and persuade the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to release crucial development aid frozen three years ago, officials said on Wednesday. Last October the IMF said it would soon resume disbursing $47 million outstanding from an aid package earmarked for the impoverished southern African country under its Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF) arrangement. Soon afterwards, the European Union (EU) and the Common Approach to Budgetary Support (CABS) - a group of European countries that support Malawi - also announced they would resume aid. But a senior government official said none of the donors which pledged support for Malawi last year had kept their word.

On 18 June 2001, a snippet was carried in Pambazuka News about two U.N. employees who appeared in a Kenyan court in connection with extorting money from refugees seeking resettlement. Pambazuka News is pleased to learn that one of these employees, Cyril Ubiem, has since been acquitted of all charges. "I was accused wrongly and vindicated by a non guilty court judgement ...I went through the normal process of the law and trials in the Kenyan courts and was acquitted of all the charges in July 2003,” Ubiem said in correspondence with Pambazuka News.

A major cause of Africa's problems is trade policies (Pambazuka 139: How Africa develops Europe). Cheap food imports hamper investment by farmers and cause a rural crisis that drags the rest of society with it. In itself, the situation in rural Africa is not so different from that in, say, 18th century Europe, where population growth also necessitated farmer investment in sustainable agricultural intensification. Like African farmers today, European farmers struggled with bad roads, corrupt officials, traditional property rights, and so on and so forth. However, they had one decisive advantage: population growth still raised the prices of agricultural products. This helped farmers to invest in fertilizing and soil/water conservation in spite of these obstacles.

In our time, the industrial revolution has broken the relation between population and prices. Since the late 19th century, the world has been faced with overproduction and recurrent price falls in international agricultural markets. Western countries responded by erecting high tariff walls behind which their farm progress could continue. Countries like South Korea and Taiwan have followed their example, thereby securing green revolutions that became engines of industrialization. Yet in spite of all this, international financial institutions and their advisers keep pressuring African governments not to protect their farmers. As a consequence, the latter are faced with unfavorable price-ratios that prevent them from investing in sustainable land management, so that increase in population pressure on the land leads to vicious cycles of poverty and soil degradation.

The resulting malaise drives young people to the cities, but as poor rural hinterlands do not stimulate industry, they find little employment and are pushed into marginal service activities and political fights for the public jobs that still remain after structural adjustment. This jostling for jobs leads to persistence of overstaffed bureaucracies that are in their turn paid for by overtaxing the farmers, pushing domestic agricultural prices even below world market levels. For many western development experts, this is the prime cause of Africa's troubles. In reality, it is largely a reinforcing feedback effect of a crisis that has it origins in the non-protection of farmers against low international prices.

Should Africa protect its farmers to revitalize its economy? Orthodox economists say no: protection would reduce efficiency, breed rent-seeking pressure groups, and hurt poor food consumers. In reality, higher agricultural prices would encourage innovation, and reduce over-exploitation of soils and under-utilization of labour. Farmers are too far removed from political power to be able to exploit the rest of society. And higher agricultural prices would reduce poverty because they create employment and raise worker incomes.
For a further elaboration of this viewpoint see

The history and the present life of the San, indigenous people of the southern Africa, is a sad story of a people who after surviving genocide at the hands of other African ethnic groups and European colonialists had to endure slavery and oppression, while in the process losing their land, language, culture, and traditional way of life.

In Botswana, where there is a population of about 60,000 San people, the government refuses to recognise the San as indigenous, claiming that every Motswana is indigenous in Botswana. This self-serving argument is presented to anyone who argues that historical and archaeological evidence has proved that the San people have lived and hunted in the southern Africa for over 35,000 years.

There is no official recognition of the San people as a distinct ethnic group in Botswana, and they are excluded in the country’s house of chiefs (1). A name used to refer to the San is “Basarwa” - a demeaning word suggesting servitude. They are among the poorest, totally marginalised and landless. Title deeds and the 1968 Tribal Land Act which aimed to regulate land allocation and rights (2) left the San people with no land to call their own.

In the name of development - meaning game lodges and safari companies which results in tourists and profits for the wealthy few, the San people have been, since 1997, subjected to forced removal from The Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The game reserve was set up in 1961 while Botswana was still a British Protectorate. The idea was to put all that belonged in the bush in a game reserve; you will remember that the colonialists referred to the San as “Bushmen”.

Before 1997, there were about 3,000 San people who lived in the 52,000 square km reserve (3) and in total there were six villages (4), but today there are only about 500 San people who still live in the reserve (5). A reason given by the government for the removal of the San people is that the game reserve is not for humans rather to preserve wildlife; furthermore, the government claims that it has become too expensive to bring basic services for the San people living in the reserve, hence it is moving them to a better site 60 km away from the reserve.

When the government came up with the idea to remove the San people in 1997, it stressed the point that those who were being removed would be given a “new and modern life”, replete with better clinics, schools, financial assistance for businesses, farm plots and livestock.

The real reason behind the removal of the San people is to create a tourism industry in that country while diversifying the country’s economy at the same time. The International Monetary Fund made it clear to the Botswana government that it must pursue the diversification of its economy and move away from dependence on diamond revenues, continued government spending and expansion of the civil service (6). Diamonds account for three quarters of Botswana export earnings, one third of its GDP and 50 percent of government revenues (7). This is generated by Debswana - a company jointly owned by the government and De Beers, and is the world’s biggest uncut diamond producer in value terms.

Survival International believes that the main reason for the government to remove the San people is that the game reserve which they once considered barren houses one of the world’s richest diamond fields. And according to the United Nations news agency, IRIN, test drilling has already taken place at Gope - a location within the reserve. Clifford Maribe, assistant director of the research and information division in the Government Foreign Affairs Ministry, has been quoted as saying: “The government has made no secret that there is general exploration for minerals throughout the country, including Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). However, at this point in time, nothing other than the Gope deposit has been found in the CKGR” (8).

Moreover, according to the Survival International, the International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank, has given credibility to the exploration by providing Kalahari Diamonds (part owned by Billiton - an Anglo-Australian multinational) with $ 2-million.

In their struggle to exist, the San’s traditional knowledge is also under threat. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research of South Africa (CSIR) patented in 1997 a plant that the San used to eat to ward off hunger and thirst on long hunting trips. According to tradition, the San did not eat while hunting and the plant helped suppress appetite. The CSIR then licensed the UK- based Phytopharm, which in turn licensed the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to develop the Hoodia cactus into a “miracle slimming drug”. It is reported that Pfizer hopes to have the “dieter’s dream” treatment in pill form by 2007. As for the San, royalties are coming their way; the mainstream media is quick to point out.

Perhaps the most revealing story of the day-to-day struggle of the San people in Botswana is an extract below, taken from a story by Saikuta, a storyteller from old Xade district that used to be in the game reserve.

“Just before the time of the year you call Christmas I went hunting and shot a gemsbok. The same day the Game Warden came around, took my hunting license, and said: don’t you see that this has expired a long time ago? And I said: but you know I can’t read. Never mind, this one is expired. So where is the animal? So I go with the Game Warden, show him the animal, and he takes it all, skin, bones, meat, horn. He takes it to feed his own family. He tells me that this time he will not fine me.

Every time I see him I ask for my new license. Take it easy, this is not the time for hunting. And I say: But this is the time when we San people go hunting. This is when the game is around. Nonsense, old man, you must wait until I tell you. This is the government game, and we decide when you are allowed to hunt.

Many, many days passed and we nearly died from hunger. My son was nearly dying from hunger. I know well enough, he belongs to the government. The government owns all of us, and we own nothing. So it was difficult for me to make this decision: should I leave the government’s son to die, or should I shoot one of the government’s elands. Which of the two had to die? So I went hunting. I shot an eland, butchered it, and went home, but the Game Warden was already there waiting for me: You shot an eland, now you must go to jail. They took me and the eland to Ghanzi district, and once we were there they started to sell the meat. And I asked: is it the meat of the eland that I shot that you are now selling? You are not allowed to sell game meat, that much I know. Now you watch yourself or you will stay in jail for so long that no one will recognize you when you come out.

So I was silent.

Then I came before the magistrate, and I told him the story as I have told you now. You are too old to hunt. You are supposed to live from the mealie meal that the government gives you, the magistrate told me. But I never received any mealie meal. Yes, your name is in the book. Go home and wait, and you will get a bag every month; the magistrate told me. Then he gave me six months suspended sentence. Now it is May, and the mealie meal has been distributed five times already, but my name is not in the book.

So now I again am faced with the same dilemma. Who should die, the eland or the son of the government.” (9)

* This article was first published on
Reprinted with kind permission of the author.

* Please send comments on this editorial - and other events in Africa -
to editor@pambazuka.org

References:
1.United Nations news agency, IRIN.
2.The Inconvenient Indigenous, by Sidsel Saugestad
3.UN news agency, IRIN
4.The Inconvenient Indigenous, by Sidsel Saugestad
5.African Eye News Service
6.Business Day 25/11/99
7.Financial Times
8.UN news agency, IRIN
9.The Inconvenient Indigenous, by Sidsel Saugestad