The living conditions among the Batwa community who were recently relocated to a new site in Buterere district, in Bujumbura Mairie, are "very precarious", a recent joint assessment team of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Burundi, a representative of the Ministry of Reintegration and Reinstallation of Refugees and Displaced Populations of Bujumbura Mairie found out.

A spokesman for the 3,000 Rwandan rebels being prepared by the Congolese Government for their eventual repatriation says a dialogue between the rebels and the Rwandan government needs to take place before they can return home.

Uganda's Amnesty Commission chief Justice Onega has said that rebels convicted of treason are eligible for pardon under the government's amnesty initiative, the 'New Vision' reported on Wednesday.

The Banyamulenge, Congolese Tutsis of eastern DRC allied to the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) rebel movement, have issued a list of conditions in a document titled "Manifeste banyamulenge du 1er Aout 2001 pour la paix au Kivu" ("Banyamulenge Manifesto of 1 August 2001 for Peace in Kivu").

The government of Sudan has written to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan requesting that the international community, and the United Nations in particular, condemn "the ongoing aggression by the rebel movement (Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army) against the Sudanese people in general, and the people in the south in particular."

Over 800 people reduced to living in makeshift shelters by the side of the Thika-Naivasha road have complained that they were harassed by forestry officials into leaving Kyeni Forest, 95 km from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in recent months after living there peaceably and with the government's agreement for eight years.

Does the humanitarian community understand the relationship between finance, war and peace? How does the financial sector reinforce poverty and inequality and fuel conflict?

Throughout the world, refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and internally displaced persons are the victims of racial discrimination, racist attacks, xenophobia and ethnic intolerance. Racism is both a cause and a product of forced displacement, and an obstacle to its solution. In 2000, some 150 million migrants were living outside their countries of birth. Of these, some 50 million people were forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, and human rights violations.

The British Government will not condemn the 300 years of the transatlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity at the United Nations conference on racism that begins in South Africa on Friday, Baroness Valerie Amos said on Thursday.

Zimbabwe is facing a humanitarian disaster following the eviction of tens of thousands of black farm workers by government-backed militias, it was claimed on Friday.

Economists at the IMF have warned of a "significant danger" of a global recession along the lines of those in the early 1980s and early 1990s, reports the Financial Times (p.16). A leaked draft version of the Fund's World Economic Outlook predicts the world economy will grow by 2.8 percent this year but states that there could be "a much deeper and more protracted global downturn."

The United States government is under fire following the release this week of declassified papers proving that Washington knew about Rwanda's impending 1994 genocide but did nothing to stop it.

United Nations plans to set up cross-border checks on biological weapons have been scuppered by United States opposition to a draft text painstakingly hammered out by 60 countries over the last seven years.

The world's largest logging deal - between Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe - has been helping to fuel the Congo's bloody conflict and threatens to undermine its fragile peace process, says a global resources watchdog.

One of the key sticking points threatening to drive away United States officials from the World Conference against Racism - the question of whether Zionism is a form of racism - has been "done away with", according to a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights who heads up the talks this week.

As Burundi prepares to start, on 1 November 2001, a period of transitional government and institutional reform, Amnesty International today, in an eight-page appeal, Burundi: Preparing for peace, highlighted measures which should be implemented now by the current government, political leaders, leaders of armed political movements, civil society and the international community to protect human rights.

(Because of their race, the colour of their skin or their national origin, more and more people today are the target of serious discrimination at the workplace, on the labour market and in the community. Determined to combat this phenomenon and its impact on the trade union struggle for social justice and freedom, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, attending the WCAR, has produced a report on racism and xenophobia.

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has announced he will not run in the next election. However, the ongoing instability in the country means that a date for that election remains far from clear. President dos Santos told the congress of the ruling MPLA that the election could take place in 2002 or 2003.

Leading government officials in Côte D'Ivoire have incited a violent xenophobia that is threatening to destabilize the country, Human Rights Watch charged in a new report released today.

Human Rights Watch said today that it expected the upcoming United Nations-sponsored World Conference Against Racism to lead to concrete programs to combat racial discrimination around the world.