I'm a human right activist and I like issues reported in PAMBAZUKA.

Dr Nneka Nora Osakwe - Language Intervention Associates, Enugu ,Nigeria

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 100 countries, to express our serious concern at the closure of the independent daily newspaper Al Watan and the censoring of two others. According to reports, the director-general of the internal security police ordered Al Watan to shut down on 28 December along with its publishing company, Compagnie de la Corne de l'Afrique. State security officials reportedly burst into the newspaper's offices and ordered staff to leave.

The Kenyan body politic is so severely affected by bribery and corruption that it is not realistic to expect it to ever recover without the application of drastic remedies. You can hardly find a public official on whom two people agree is clean. Everyone in public life is expected to be corrupt. Everything that anyone has got is seen as corruptly acquired. Public figures are believed to be corrupt and those who have property are thought to have acquired it corruptly.

The Danie Craven stadium in Stellenbosch was reminiscent of a picnic on Tuesday night. African National Congress delegates converged under trees in the grandstands, to finetune their preference for the leaders they want included in the ANC's national executive committee. The national executive committee (NEC) of the ANC is the highest decision-making body between party conferences, and is very influential in implementing and shaping the policies of the ANC.

FATWAS AND DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS: THE TIME TO INTERVENE IS NOW
5 December 2002
An article written in mid-November by journalist Isioma Daniel about the Miss World beauty pageant and published by ThisDay newspaper in Nigeria sparked protests by Muslims and subsequent riots killed an estimated 200 people. Rotimi Sankore, Coordinator of CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights, argued that failing to halt 'politically' motivated rights violations at the starting blocks can often have devastating effects for society.

BLACK HISTORY: SIGNIFICANCE FOR THE DIASPORA AND AFRICA
14 November 2002
History has shown that racial superiority, which rationalises racism, is a myth. If all races are equal, then there is no basis for racism and economic exploitation, just as there never was any basis for slavery and colonialism beyond greed. The correction of contemporary understanding of Black history has massive implications for people of African descent and identity, in relation to racism, human rights, dignity and self-respect, argued this editorial.

PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS
19 September 2002
University of Dar Es Salaam Professor of Law, Issa G. Shivji, argued that the language of rights articulates the most pressing concerns of the large majority of people, while at the same time providing for the language of resistance and the changing of existing conditions. It is important that activist NGOs and other human rights advocates are conscious of the different perspectives on human rights, so that they know what to promote, in whose interest and in which direction, he says.

THE MISSIONARY POSITION: NGOS AND DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
15 August 2002
Development NGOs operating in Africa have inadvertently become part of the neo-liberal global agenda, and thereby serve to undermine the battle for social justice and human rights in much the same way as their missionary predecessors, argued this paper in the July issue of International Affairs. The paper said that the contribution of NGOs to relieving poverty was minimal and they played a “significant role” in undermining the struggle of African people to emancipate themselves from economic, social and political oppression. NGOs faced a stark choice: They could move into the political domain and support social movements that sought to challenge a social system that benefited a few and impoverished the majority; or they could continue unchanged and thus become complicit in a system that left the majority in misery.

DEATH BY STARVATION IN MALAWI
13 June 2002
News of famine in Malawi began to reach the ears of urban policymakers in Lilongwe and foreign capitals from October 2001. The Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN) and the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace had attempted to mobilize activist groups to pressurize the Government to declare a “famine”, but was unsuccessful, their data being dismissed as lacking credibility. By June 2002, the disaster had claimed nearly a thousand African lives. This policy brief from ActionAid scrutinized the failure of macro-economic and structural policy to safeguard against the famine in Malawi.

http://www.fpif.org/outside/commentary/2002/0204nepad.html

"WHAT WENT WRONG?" - INTERPRETING ZIMBABWE'S ELECTION
14 March 2002
The people of Zimbabwe re-elected Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) president Robert Mugabe in early March by a vote of 1.69 million to 1.28 million for his closest opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai. What will democratic activists in Zimbabwe do in response to the rigged elections, asked Patrick Bond and Raj Patel? The gut- reaction seemed to be one of hunkering down to overcome the shock of what many term “the mugging.” Activists were overcome with exhaustion, intimidation and the sheer challenge of going up against the repressive arms of the state. More than a thousand civil-society election monitors were arrested. Army and police patrolled the ghettoes and the mood of fear and loathing was palpable. At this crucial juncture, leadership appeared to be lacking.

Nearly half of Zambian urban voters received gifts from politicians to influence their vote in presidential elections at the end of last year, Transparency International Zambia, an anti-corruption lobbying group, said.

The much-vaunted New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) faces an assortment of obstacles - including the Zimbabwe crisis - and a range of negative perceptions which hover ominously over it, a business forum on the continental recovery programme heard last week.

Bellanet has produced a report that argues that since ICTs are so widely applicable for many development projects, there is huge diversity in the approaches, methods and findings of ICT's assessments. This, they state, makes it very difficult to have an accurate appreciation of the role of ICT's in development.

Kenya's opposition accused the government on Wednesday of trying to buy votes and loot public funds after it made a flurry of large payments to businessmen ahead of general elections on December 27.

South African President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday defended his deputy's right not to resign over corruption allegations. A day after launching a crackdown against graft by members of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), Mbeki said deputy President Jacob Zuma was not obliged to step down simply because the elite police Scorpions were investigating him.

Namibians will have to pay a special 'orphan tax' from April next year because of the severe orphan crisis facing the country, Cabinet has announced.

Please allow me to salute the Centre for Research Education and Development (CREDO) for their terrific letter to Amara Essy, Chairman Ad Interim, Commission Of The African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (see OPEN LETTER ON AFRICA'S HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD AND THE AFRICAN UNION, Pambazuka News 92). And thank you Pambazuka for publishing it.

I am particularly intrigued by the issue of "restriction on freedom of movement" for Africans within Africa in preference of non-Africans. And if at all Africans benefit from regional bodies like the EAC, the free movement between borders benefits our heads of state and not ordinary Ugandans, like me.

In addition, I wish the AU could address seriously the issue of citizenship for non Afro-Africans without discrimination and in particular Asian-Africans. Lastly, since all AU member states are male, we wish to see permanent seats allocated to a woman representative from each AU member state.

Armed groups involved in conflict in countries from the Philippines and Afghanistan to the Congo have been using youths under 18 as soldiers despite international calls to stop the practice, the United Nations said on Monday.

A maize scam in which known top Zanu PF officials are allegedly purchasing the scarce staple grain in large quantities for resale at exorbitant prices on the black market has hit Gutu district.

Voters in Benin went to the polls last Sunday in the country's first municipal elections since the end of one-party rule in 1990. Some three million people were eligible to elect their mayors and municipal councillors, previously designated by the government

The Speaker of the National Assembly and Chairperson of the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum, Ms. Ntlhoi Motsamai, says the forum is committed to the struggle for justice, democracy, gender equality and equity. The forum is also committed to the rule of law, sustainable development and ensuring good governance in the SADC region.

The Court of Appeal of Lesotho has granted an application by the Canadian engineering company Acres International for the suspension of payment of a R22-million fine imposed on the firm for bribing a senior official of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.

We enter the festive season as a nation in despair. Traditionally the season is a period enabling us to share gifts, express our love, facilitate family reunions and, above all, remember the birth of Christ. The year 2002 has been the most difficult one for the majority. After the stolen election in March, we were thrust into darkness. We were disabled by the scale of the theft of our voice.

Senegal is one of several heavily indebted poor countries facing years of delays in debt relief for failing to comply adequately with IMF structural adjustment programs. The privatization of groundnut (peanut and other crops) agriculture is part of the restructuring required by the IMF and World Bank. Other countries stalled in their debt relief programs because of structural adjustment conditions include Malawi, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, SaoTomé & Principe, Honduras and Nicaragua. Over the past year almost half of the twenty countries in the IMF/World Bank debt relief program, the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative, have been stalled completely.

Lt. Gen. Salim Saleh has said that he did not take any bribe from Emmanuel Katto in order to help the businessman win a government contract to supply MI-24 helicopter gun-ships.