Burundi: En bref ce 19 MARS 2006 ...

Donated computers headed to Rwanda

By JENNIFER STEWART Staff Reporter | HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA | Sunday March 19, 2006
Almost two dozen computers are destined to leave Halifax for Rwanda on Monday, part of a local project aimed at educating the public about the dangers of AIDS and HIV.

The 23 used laptops, donated by Acadia University, will be set up at a high school in Kigali, where students will work online with their peers from Auburn Drive High School in Cole Harbour to write and distribute articles for a national AIDS awareness campaign.

"The situation in Rwanda is such that it’s very, very hard to reach a lot of the young people in the country because their communications aren’t up," especially the electronic aspect, said Ray MacLeod, a teacher at Auburn.

"They’ve got huge HIV rates over there. . . . I mean, everyone looks at the major disasters that are going on in the world right now, but there are more people dying over there from AIDS than there are, for example, from the tsunami that happened in the Far East a year or so ago.

"It’s a scary situation."

Mr. MacLeod said CBC-TV host Anna Dirksen, an Auburn graduate, came up with the idea after returning from Rwanda in January 2005. He said the computers were ready to go in the fall, but the Toronto shipping company that was expected to deliver them didn’t work out.

After that happened, Ms. Dirksen managed to raise money to ship the computers through a Toronto elementary school that raises money for Sports for Peace, one of the project’s sponsors.

Mr. MacLeod said the idea of young people helping other young people was seen as the best approach to the generation gap.

"They really want to get the information out into the field," Mr. MacLeod said of the teens, noting that although many of the Auburn students originally involved in the project have graduated, they still plan to participate whenever possible.

Auburn students will be on hand Monday to assist Pac-N-Save Shipping, which will send the computers to Toronto. There, the equipment will be shipped by air with Omega Trans later in the week.

UGANDA

Museveni warns DRC over Kony

By Vision Reporter | Sunday, 19th March, 2006
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni (right) has warned that Uganda would pursue the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) if attacked.
“If they (LRA) attack any part of Uganda we shall follow them into Congo with or without approval,” Museveni said in an interview with Sunday Vision.
He pointed out that Uganda had a right to self-defence under international law.
Following intensified pressure from the UPDF, the rebels have left their bases in southern Sudan for Garamba National Park in northeastern DRC.
During the interview, Museveni, who was in an excited mood, talked about his plans for the next five years: dismantling IDP camps, fighting corruption in high places, prosperity for all, energy and the environment issues. He also hinted at reforming the NRM’s internal electoral system and the question of independents.
The President also told Sunday Vision about his turning point in life and who he regards as his role model.

Uganda's Museveni warns Congo on LRA rebels
March 19 2006 | INT.IOL.CO.ZA

Kampala - Uganda will not hesitate to send troops back into Congo if it is attacked by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels hiding there, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni said in an interview on Sunday.
Uganda says LRA leader Joseph Kony fled hideouts in southern Sudan this week and joined his deputy in the lawless jungles of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Museveni told the state-owned Sunday Vision newspaper the Ugandan military would respond firmly to any LRA incursion.
"If they attack any part of Uganda, we shall follow them into Congo with or without approval," the president said.
"Under international law, we have a right of self-defence. That one we have said and it is clear."
DRC holds its first democratic polls in four decades on June 18 to try to bring order after years of violence in the vast central African nation.
The UN and the Kinshasa government have turned down several recent Ugandan offers to chase the LRA over the border.
Kony, who has no clear political agenda other than opposing Museveni, has waged a 20-year rebellion from bases in northern Uganda, southern Sudan - and now northeastern DRC.
Worst hit has been northern Uganda, where some 1,6 million people have been forced into squalid camps by the bloodshed.
In Sunday's interview, Uganda's newly re-elected president said the settlements would soon be a thing of the past.
"They will disappear this year because Kony has been defeated," Museveni said. "The army is very strong now. It is not possible to have these (guerrilla) groups back."
Even camp residents in the worst affected Acholi region would start going home soon, he said, "maybe around April".
The 62-year-old former rebel won polls last month that pitted him against his former doctor and ally Kizza Besigye.
Besigye is facing treason charges his supporters say are politically-motivated, including that he plotted with the LRA and other insurgents to seize power. Besigye denies it.
Asked whether he would appoint any opposition leaders to his next cabinet, Museveni gave little room for doubt.
"No way. That one is categorical," he told the paper. "These opposition groups are not principled."

Uganda earns more from coffee exports, but volume down

Kampala, Uganda, 03/19 - ANGOP - Uganda exported 165,762,60 bags of coffee worth US$16.1 million last month, representing an increase of 30.1 percent in income over the same month last year, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) said in a report.

The report, however, said the exports represented a drop of 22.6 percent in volume over the same period last year.

According to the Authority, exports in the first five months of the coffee year 2005/06 (October/February), fell by 15.1 percent from 1,035,061 bags to 879,097 bags.

But there was 40.7-percent increase in value, from US US$52.8 million to US$74.2 million, compared with the same period last year.

"The improvement in value is in tandem with global trends," UCDA said. "The drop in volume, compared to last year, is attributed to a small crop in 2005/06 arising from bad weather that led to poor bean formation due to defoliation."

It explained that "the situation was made worse by the nationwide political campaigns, which caught the traders` attention, resulting in low procurement."

Uganda held multiparty general polls last month.

The report said the high yielding and widely grown Robusta coffee type, registered exports totalling 91,107 bags or 55 percent of February`s total.

Arabica, considered the best quality type and fetching higher value, was 74,655 bags, representing 45 percent.

The main destination of Uganda coffee in February was the European Union (EU) countries, which accounted for 107,730 bags, some 65 percent down from the 184,096 bags in January.

Although exports to Africa went to only Sudan, as opposed to January when some went to Egypt and Morocco, there was an improvement in quantity of 30.8 percent from the 35,560 bags in January to 46,520 bags in February, the report added.

UN envoy urges Uganda to peacefully resolve northern conflict

www.chinaview.cn 2006-03-19

KAMPALA, March 19 (Xinhua) -- A UN envoy has urged the Ugandan government to demonstrate commitment to resolving the conflict in the north through peaceful means, local media reported Sunday.

Dennis McNamara, director of the Internal Displacement Divisionof the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, was quoted as saying that the conflict was "one of the world's most serious humanitarian crises."

The insurgency of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony in northern Uganda has left tens of thousands dead and some 1.4 million displaced in the past 20 years.

"We have failed the people in the north. They are crowded in camps without being protected. This is a huge challenge nationally and internationally,'' said McNamara who is based in Geneva, Switzerland, while addressing the launch of a report on northern Uganda Friday.

In comparison with situation in Darfur, western Sudan, the envoy described the situation in northern Uganda even worse regarding the crude mortality rates among displaced children.

"You cannot achieve peace and security when you militarize the whole area," said the envoy, who had just concluded a week-long multi-donor mission in Uganda

The 41-page report by the Refugee Law Project titled, Only Peace Can Restore the Confidence of the Displaced was described by the Ugandan army as having "gross inaccuracies''.

"A military situation requires a military action. In a war situation there is no law and order. `You cannot resort to peaceful means. Agreeably we have had our weaknesses, but we have learnt lessons and addressed these weaknesses,'' Felix Kulayigye, Defense spokesman told the audience in the launch.

The report covered issues of conflict resolution, the National Internally Displaced Person (IDP) Policy, IDP protection, humanitarian access, livelihood and a possible scenario for return of IDPs to their homes.

Northern Uganda only needs peace
Sunday, 19th March, 2006 | SUNDAY VISION | Grace Okeng | Brussels, Belgium
THERE has been much talk about the NRM government marginalising northern Uganda by not providing political and national “cake”. But these are not the priorities of the common man in northern Uganda!
Cabinet positions and top government jobs will not help them. All they are pleading for is an end to war and cattle rustling by the armed Karimojong. This is because they believe, and rightly so, that the State possesses the power of coercion to deliver security.
The rest they can gamble by themselves. War is a catalogue of blunders and all of us, whether we are killers, freedom fighters, liberators, or whatever we call ourselves, have contributed to it.
However, finger-pointing will not deliver the peace we desire. Let’s try and unite to solve this.

Uganda opposition leader questioned on possible election law violations
Jaime Jansen | Saturday, March 18, 2006| AFP has more.

[JURIST] Police in Uganda JURIST news archive] have summoned opposition leader Kizza Besigye [BBC profile] to question him about alleged electoral law violations during last month's elections [JURIST report]. Besigye purportedly waved the lid of the ballot box at the polling station where he placed his vote, and if true, violated the law that states that "a person who without due authority, destroys, takes, opens or otherwise interferes with a ballot box…commits an offence." Press photographers captured images of Besigye waving the lid of the ballot box, but questions remain as to why the ballot box was not properly sealed, as required by law. Besigye, meanwhile, has said that the Ugandan Electoral Commission [official website] is frustrating the legal challenge [JURIST report] lodged by the Forum for Democratic Change [party website] against the election results by failing to turn over tally sheets [Daily Monitor report] showing election returns.
Besigye, who has represented the strongest challenge against Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni [BBC profile] over his 20 year rule, has faced other criminal charges recently, including rape and treason. Besigye was acquitted [JURIST report] of the rape charge and the treason charge is still pending [JURIST report] in court. Besigye has said that all of the charges are politically motivated and were aimed at destabilizing Besigye's campaign against Museveni.

Uganda: Ministers cited for electoral misconduct
March 19, 2006 | Source: Sunday Monitor |By Andnetwork .com

The Ugandan Ministers, Kahinda Otafiire and Mwesigwa Rukutana are among several prominent figures named as perpetrators of a number of irregularities in the February 23 presidential elections.
The two ministers are named particularly for intimidating opposition voters in their constituencies in Bushenyi and Ntungamo districts. Dr Kizza Besigye, who was the FDC presidential candidate, contends that it is because of the irregularities that he lost the election to President Museveni. He has consequently filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to nullify the results and order a re-run.
To support his case, the FDC leader has rounded up more than 100 witnesses, almost all of them party supporters, who have sworn affidavits that speak of intimidation, under-age voting and intimidation, amongst other ills reportedly committed in Mr Museveni’s favour.
Intimidation
Ms Conatance Kagonyera of Rushenyi in Ntungamo District alleges that she saw Rukutana slap an FDC agent when he complained about underage voting in the area.
Three other people from Rushenyi, Mr Rukutana’s constituency, accuse him of ordering their detention at Ntungamo Police Station on February 23 and later denying them their right to vote when he ordered them not to step at any polling station.
On the previous day, the three men - Mr Alex Kamuhangire, Mr James Bakarema and Mr Charles Karugaba - had been rounded up by an ISO operative and four others, including Rukutana’s driver, “and they beat us terribly”.
Mr Ssali Mukago, also from the same area, claims that he saw and made recordings of Rukutana and Kampala Casino boss Bob Kabonero chasing away Besigye's agents at various voting centres.
In one of the affidavits, Maj. Gen. Otafiire, the Water, Lands, and Environment minister, is accused of having intimidated FDC agents in Ruhinda County. The affidavit sworn by Mr Ephraim Tibatisana alleges that Otafiire, who is the area MP, ordered his escorts and some LDUs to chase away FDC agents to a distance of 40 metres from the polling station. “[He] left there… his soldiers to make sure that we remained where we were,” Tibatisana swears in the affidavit.
Mr Ibrahim Sebowa alleges that the presiding office at Omumahe Polling Station in Bunyaruguru County in Bushenyi denied FDC agents access to the station in front of the barracks because “we were a security threat to the state and rebellious”.
Besigye’s lawyers are also ready to demonstrate that at Kafulu Trading Centre still in Bushenyi, the presiding officer, clad in an NRM T-shirt and wielding a club, walked besides the voters as they went to tick their ballots in order to ensure and insist that they voted for Museveni. In the same district, an LC-III chairman in Buhweju, Mr Colonel Rutankundira, who was dressed in an NRM T-shirt, campaigned at the polling station and promised retribution to FDC supporters contrary to the law.
And after voting, Mr Gilbert Bintabara, an ISO operative, ordered FDC agent John Fischer Tumuheirwe to sign the declaration forms if he wanted to live. “Bintabara tried to ambush me together with the FDC chairman on my way home and threatened to run over me with his car,” Tumuheirwe alleges in his affidavit.
Bintabara is also implicated in another incident of intimidation in Apollo Twinomujuni’s affidavit in which he states that the ISO operative, with other men carrying guns, threatened people and told them to vote for Museveni. “Bintabara personally manhandled our party agents and sent them away from the polling station in my presence and dared me to do whatever I could if I was man enough,” writes Twinomujuni.
In Kibuku,Budaka District, Mr David Dongo claims that a numberless yellow Pick-up truck with several stick-wielding men and soldiers apprehended the polling station’s presiding officer and chased away agents from parties other than NRM.
Another case of intimidation was in Ruti, Mbarara where Ms Damali Nagawa was arrested by an ISO agent at 6 a.m. on her way to the polling station, and was locked up with 300 others at the Mabarara CPS until 3 p.m. They were later “released without any formal police bond”, the affidavit reads.
Mr Fred Kagumire claims that he complained to the Commonwealth Observers in Kinoni Sub-county about the absence of FDC agents because they had been chased away by the LC-III chairman who held the register and chose who voted. “They told me there is nothing they could do apart from taking photographs of the stations,” Kagumire says.
He also claims that at Rushere Trading Centre, the presiding officer pre-ticked the ballots with a marker in favour of Museveni and issued them to well-known FDC supporters. “The tick would not appear immediately.
At the time of counting, these ballots appeared with two ticks, one by the marker and the other made by the voter and those with a Dr Besigye tick were invalidated,” Kagumire alleges. Kagumire says he was forced to leave the station manned by a one Mukasa, the commander of the 2nd Division, who threatened to “destroy” him.
Disenfranchisement
This is another ground for Besigye’s petition. He claims that many of his supporters were deliberately struck off the national register thus denying them their right to vote much as they possessed their cards.
And to prove that, Ruhinda’s Tibatisana alleges that he was denied his “right to vote by the presiding officer because I was an FDC agent”, and that “the same presiding officer gave away several ballot papers asking voters to tick against President Museveni’s name. In exchange, the voters were given Shs1,000 or more.”
Going by the number of affidavits, disenfranchisement took place mostly in Nebbi District. In one affidavit from Mbarara, Mr Rogers Atukwase states that LCs at Kamukuzi Polling Station deliberately omitted his name and many others for being Besigye supporters.
According to the affidavits, many people from Iganga District failed to find their names on the voters’ registers, with the witnesses alleging that despite complaints and appeals to the presiding officers, they couldn’t be allowed to vote. Other affidavits also indicate that several FDC agents around the country were illegally detained on polling day for hours and in the end they never voted.
Underage voting, according to Mr Milton Basiimika, was evident in Kagugu Parish in Ntungamo, where the presiding officer allowed children below 18 to vote and directed them to vote Museveni. However, Basiimika was chased away by Museveni’s supporters and a policeman on the orders of the presiding officer when he insisted on looking at the register to establish the names of the voters.
Pre-ticked ballots
In Pallisa, according to an affidavit sworn by Mr Isaac Mwesigwa, four men travelling in a yellow Pick-up truck without registration plates arrived at Kabolwa Polling Station with pre-ticked ballot papers in favour of Museveni, Kamba Saleh for area MP and Ms Jennifer Namuyangu for woman representative. The serial numbers of the pre-ticked ballots are also written on the affidavit.
Mwesigwa’s affidavit further says that the presiding officer, one Malevu, “altered the results in favour of President Museveni and discarded the declaration forms signed by the agents, replacing them with those forged by himself”.
Back in Ntungamo, Mukago alleges that voting took place on the election officers’ tables in full view of the presiding officers and their assistants. “The presiding officers vowed never to allow secret voting and I recorded them in the tape I have submitted,” he says in his affidavit.
Mukago also alleges that the presiding officers issued multiple ballots to NRM supporters flushing the thumb sign who would then vote for others. “For example, a one Tumusiime of Rubaale and Alex Twebuuze, a sub-county councillor for Rubaale, voted many times in the name of other people.”

Tanzania targets water for all by 2015

2006-03-19 SOURCE: Sunday Observer By Christopher Magola

Every year Tanzania has been joining the international community to mark World Water Week(16-22 March) which reaches its climax on World Water Day-WDD-on 22 March. The theme of The World Water Week 2006 is: ’’Water and Culture’.

At a news conference, the Minister for Water, Mr. Stephen Wassira, said while greater parts of the country are facing an acute water shortage which has affected land production and resulted in famine ’’compared to other years, we will not have a national commemoration but every region will draw up independent programme for the celebrations.’’

Tanzania has always used World Water Day as the climax of its Maji Week Commemorations held from Village to National level to provide opportunity for water sector stakeholders to get clarification on water policy and evaluation of water service in respective areas and the nation as a whole.

In addition to clarification on water policy and evaluation of water services, the Water Week is also used to educate people on the importance of protection and conservation of water sources and the judicious use of water for domestic and socio-economic activities without affecting the environment or health.

In recent years, water has been termed as a golden blue to show the importance of water and mankind’s development. It is suggested that The Third World War will be fought over a scramble for water.

In the early 1990s, most countries had plenty of water but due to increased population growth and misuse of water and environmental degradation, it is estimated that by the year 2025, all African countries will have an acute water shortage. Sub Saharan African countries including Tanzania will be worst affected.

According to the Ministry of Water, available water for human consumption in Tanzania is estimated to be 2,700 cubic kilometres, and water per capita is 1,700 cubic metres a year. However, due to various factors including population growth, the water per capita is expected to decline to 1,500 cubic metres by 2025.

Experts say enough clean and safe water should be a shared responsibility calling for close cooperation between responsible Ministries of Water and Health on one side and people both in urban and rural areas on the other .

Available statistics show access to safe and clean water supply services in rural areas in Tanzania with a population of 35.4 million has increased from 46 percent in 1995 to 53.56 percent, while access to safe and clean water supply services in urban areas has increased from 68 in 1995 to 73 percent last year.

During a familiarization tour of the Ministry of Water, President Jakaya Kikwete directed the Ministry to come up with special programmes to facilitate water availability instead of investing in improving the infrastructure.

He said priority should go to ensuring that water was available to people for domestic and economic use as stipulated in the 2005 CCM election manifesto. ’’We must ensure water is available. You can do anything you want to improve the infrastructure, but if there is no water, then it amounts to zero work,’’ he said.

The Cabinet approved the revised National Water Policy (NAWAPO) on 22 July 2002. The revision of the policy was done through a multi-stakeholder consultation following national and international socio-economic policy reforms in the 1990s.

The four key issues in the revised policy are: (1) demand responsive approach (DRA) principle leading to community ownership and management (COM) of water/sanitation facilities; (2) private sector participation (PSP); (3) integration of water supply and sanitation and; (4) decentralization of service delivery from central government to district councils.

A water sector stakeholders’ workshop was held in Dar es Salaam last year to discuss and provide inputs for the improvement of a draft National Water Sector Development Strategy which aims to spearhead implementation of the 2002 National Water Policy.

Government policy on water aims at achieving equitable access to and adequate sustainable supply of clean safe water both in rural and urban areas. The policy goal is to ensure universal access to a clean safe water supply within a distance of 400 metres from people’s homes.

The Minister for Water, Mr. Stephen Wassira, told reporters recently that his Ministry’s main challenge is to meet the National Poverty Reduction Strategy (MKUKUTA) target that calls for ’’water for all by the year 2015’’.

He said under the National Water Sector Development Strategy, the government aims at increasing the water supply from 73 to 90 percent in urban areas, and from 53.5 to 65 percent in rural areas.

The objective of the strategy is to harness efficiently available scarce water resources to secure stability in hydropower generation, sustain agricultural output and water supply services at large.

Under the strategy in addition to lake, river and underground water rainwater harvesting will also be given the highest priority.

For centuries, people have relied on rainwater harvesting to supply water for household, landscape, livestock, and agricultural uses. Before large centralized water supply systems were developed, rainwater was collected from roofs and stored on site in tanks known as cisterns.

With the development of large, reliable water treatment and distribution systems, and more affordable well drilling equipment, rain harvesting systems have been all but forgotten, even though they offer a source of pure, soft, low sodium water.

Even in Tanzania, rainwater harvesting was practised especially in the past. Most old buildings of schools, colleges or hospitals and even staff quarters built in the past were installed with systems whereby rainwater was collected mainly from roofs and stored in tanks or cisterns. This is in addition to ponds and dams.

A renewed interest in rainwater harvesting is not only in Tanzania but elsewhere in the world due to the escalating environmental and economic costs of providing water by centralized water systems or by well drilling and potential cost savings associated with rainwater collection systems.

The government’s decision under its National Water Development Strategy to give priority to Rainwater Harvesting could be a solution to the water crisis in Tanzania particularly in semi-arid areas where rainwater harvesting can be exciting and rewarding.

One third of Tanzania receives less than 800 millimetres of rainfall, and is thus arid or semi-arid. Only one third of the rest of the country has precipitation of above 1,000 millimetres. However about seven percent of Tanzania’s land surface is covered by lakes and big rivers flowing into the lakes or to the Indian Ocean.

That is why the new national water development strategy gives priority to rainwater harvesting to tap the thousands of cubic metres of water that continue to drain into the ocean while people face water shortages.

However, analysts say in marking The National Water Week there is a need for Tanzanians to re-visit things to be done to ensure sustainability of water sources as emphasized during last year’s Water Week celebrations. These include:

lProtection and conservation of water sources- preventing farming not putting structures near water sources, avoiding indiscriminate tree cutting or bush fires and control of indiscriminate forest harvests in order to protect water sources most of which are in forests.

lPeople must not pollute river water and springs through washing clothes or vehicles and disposal of light and heavy waste while livestock keepers should not take animals to graze near springs.

lAll areas of water sources should be preserved and should not be destroyed through farming or livestock keeping, and a campaign on tree planting should be given a new impetus while underground water should be used sparingly since its a treasure which has to be exploited wisely.

Nord-Kivu : calendriers et agendas à l’effigie de Joseph Kabila font trembler les partis politiques à Goma

L’agitation est manifeste dans les rangs des partis politiques basés à Goma dans la province du Nord-Kivu depuis que les partisans du Chef de l’Etat, Joseph Kabila, procèdent à la distribution des calendriers et agendas à son effigie
Kinshasa , 18.03.2006 | Politics | MMC | DIGITALCONGO.NET

La distribution des calendriers et agendas à l’effigie de Joseph Kabila donne des sueurs froides à certains partis politiques basés au chef-lieu de la province du Nord-Kivu. Bon nombre de ces formations politiques accusent le Parti du peuple pour la reconstruction et la démocratie (Pprd) d’anticiper la campagne électorale.
De l’avis de plusieurs observateurs, le fait de distribuer les calendriers et agendas à l’effigie de Joseph Kabila n’a rien à voir avec un quelconque marketing politique dicté par des visées électoralistes.

Même sous d’autres cieux, les portraits du président de la République sont placés dans les lieux publics sans que cela ne puisse frustrer qui que ce soit.

«Il ne faudrait pas que les autres partis s’agitent lorsqu’ils voient les effigies du président de la République. Nous ne sommes pas encore en campagne. Nous le ferons le moment venu, et très sérieusement», a déclaré dernièrement le président provincial du PPRD Nord-Kivu.

Il réagissait aux propos d’un cadre de l’Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social (Udps) qui dénonçait l’activisme politique du Pprd et considérait cette distribution des calendriers et agendas à l’effigie du chef de l’Etat comme le début d’une campagne électorale qui ne dit pas son nom.

Le Rcd est-il encore et toujours un mouvement politico-militaire ?
Peut-on tolérer un énième embrasement du pays signé encore et toujours par ce parti ou mouvement politico-militaire ?
Kinshasa , 18.03.2006 | Politics | (CP) | Nsi Bamfumu | La République | DIGITALCONGO.NET

Il semble que la non reconnaissance par le chef de l’Etat ou le Gouvernement des territoires de Minembwe et Bunyakiri, de la collectivité de Bwisi et de la commune bukavienne de Kasha créés par le Rcd (Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie) serait un motif pour la reprise des hostilités au Sud-Kivu, à l’Est de La République démocratique du Congo. La menace est proférée par des leaders de cette ex-rébellion soutenue militairement par le Rwanda.
Nous savons effectivement que ce qu’on appelait il y a quelques temps Rcd/Goma était la principale opposition au gouvernement de la Rd Congo. Nous savons que ce mouvement politico-militaire qui figurait parmi les signataires de l’Accord global et inclusif à Pretoria, en Afrique du Sud, en décembre 2002, fait partie des institutions de la transition en sa qualité de l’une des cinq composantes ayant bénéficié des dividendes multiformes à l’issue du partage équitable et équilibre du pouvoir.

Nous savons également que le Rcd/Goma comme d’autres composantes et entités ayant eu des forces armées, s’est métamorphosé en un parti politique. Le Rcd, selon La Constitution en cours à cet instant même, celle promulguée solennellement le samedi 18 février 2006 au Palais du peuple par le Chef de L’Etat Joseph Kabila Kabange, n’est plus qu’un parti politique au même titre que les 263 autres (ou plus) qui composent le microcosme politique congolais.

Comment, à ce titre et comme chaque fois que les choses se gâtent pour le Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie, se croit-il permis d’évoquer la reprise des hostilités ? L’article 6 de la Constitution susmentionnée stipule : « ... Les partis politiques se forment et exercent librement leurs activités dans le respect de la loi, de l’ordre public et des bonnes moeurs. Les partis politiques sont tenus au respect des principes de démocratie pluraliste, d’unité et de souveraineté nationales... »

Avec le brassage des militaires ayant appartenu à cette ex-rébellion au sein de la nouvelle armée, les Fardc, peut-on tolérer un énième embrassement du pays signé encore et toujours par ce parti on mouvement politico-militaire ? Nous le répétons encore une fois, le sang du peuple a trop coulé, surtout là à l’Est. On n’a plus besoin d’autres foyers de tension!

Le Gouvernement congolais et son armée, le Ciat et la Monuc doivent faire échec à toute tentative de reprise des combats à travers tout le territoire national. Tous les efforts fournis et tous les sacrifices consentis pour parvenir à la (re)fondation de la nation congolaise méritent d’être consolidés.

DRC child recruiter gets death
18/03/2006 19:55 - (SA)
Bukavu - A soldier in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has become the first person in the war-scarred country to be convicted of recruiting child soldiers.

Major Jean-Pierre Biyoyo was tried at a military tribunal in the eastern town of Bukavu. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment on Friday.

Four of his co-accused were given prison terms of between two and five years for desertion.

Biyoyo was also found guilty of desertion, for which he was sentenced to death.

Daniela Baro, spokesperson for the child protection service of the United Nations mission in the DRC said: "It is the first time a DRC court has tried and convicted a soldier for recruiting children.

"This is very important because the penal code does not punish child recruitment as such, while the International Criminal Court considers it a war crime.

"The courts here can sanction it by means of such charges as kidnapping and illegal detention."

Baro said tens of thousands of children had been conscripted into various armed groups in the conflicts raging across DRC between 1996 and 2003.

African human rights experts to meet in Kenya over graft

www.chinaview.cn 2006-03-19

NAIROBI, March 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Experts are due to meet in Kenya on Monday to share ideas on how to develop credible materials on human rights dimensions of corruption, officials said here Saturday.

The three-day conference will bring together regional stakeholders including United Nations rights experts, civil society organizations and national human rights institutions from 15 African countries, said a statement from Kenya National Commission of Human Rights (KNCHR).

"The objective of the conference is to deepen understanding of corruption as a critical human rights issues, often the most important impediment to the enjoyment of human rights," the KNCHR said.

The meeting is intended to enhance the commitment of the participating human rights defenders and pro-democracy movements to anti-corruption work, it said.

The commission said the meeting will also seek to find ways to encourage African states to sign and ratify both the UN Convention Against Corruption and the African Union Convention on Prevention and Combating Corruption.

"The KNCHR believes that corruption is the single most critical impediment to the realization of human rights and further democratization in most countries of Africa. Corruption has been aptly been described as a cancer festering within society, enriching a few and impoverishing many," it said.

The conference will also be attended by ministers, diplomats, development partners, key human rights defenders worldwide, institutions charged with the mandate of fighting corruption, the media, lawmakers, the private sector and members of the public.

2,000 rape claims against British soldiers in Kenya 'were fabricated'
Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent | 19/03/2006 | telegraph.co.uk

A criminal investigation into allegations that British troops raped more than 2,000 Kenyan women over a 30-year period is set to close without a single soldier being charged.

The inquiry, which was launched by the Royal Military Police in 2004 has failed to uncover any evidence of wrongdoing by any British soldiers.

It was claimed that the attacks, said to date from the 1960s to 1990s, were committed by troops taking part in military exercises in northern Kenya. They included allegations that children were gang raped.

However, the Sunday Telegraph has learnt that investigators, who interviewed more than 2,000 women, believe that the majority of the allegations were fabricated by tribes people hoping for compensation from the British Government.

During the course of the investigation, it was also discovered that some of the alleged rapes took place when no British troops were stationed in Kenya.

In other cases, reports in police ledgers had been entered years after the date of the alleged assault.

A number of officers have been interviewed to find out if they had ever been made aware that soldiers had attacked women living in the training area.

It is understood that inquiries have failed to substantiate any of the claims.

The files on the rape allegations will now be sent to Lt Gen Robin Brims, the commander of the Field Army, and the Army Prosecuting Authority, the military equivalent of the Crown Prosecution Service, who will decide whether any further investigation is needed.

A senior defence source said last week that the case will close without any charges being brought against any soldiers.

The source said: "This was always going to be a difficult investigation because many of the soldiers who served in Kenya have left the Army and some may even be dead.

"The investigation has been thorough but there is no hard evidence linking any soldier to any rape."

It is understood, however, that the military police did interview one Kenyan women who gave birth to a child with Nepalese features, while other women had also given birth to children with European features.

The source explained: "Short of carrying out DNA tests on the whole of the Army and all of the Gurkhas it is going to be difficult to discover whether the fathers of these children were members of the British Army.

"Even if that can be proved there is no evidence that they committed rape."

The rape investigation was launched following allegations made by Martyn Day, a criminal injuries lawyer, who helped to secure a £4.5 million compensation package from the Government for 233 Masai killed or maimed by munitions left by the British Army after exercises in northern Kenya.

In January Mr Day admitted that many of the rape allegations were probably false and had been made by "opportunist" women hoping to claim compensation.

Mr Day has previously said that although 2,000 women claimed they had been raped by soldiers the actual number was much less and that he had uncovered substantial supporting evidence in 12 cases.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said that the investigation was in its final stages.

Drought drives Kenya families into clashes with Ugandans

March 19, 2006 | Source : Sapa | By Andnetwork .com

A drought that has east Africa in its searing hold has forced hundreds of Kenyan families from their northern dustbowl into neighbouring Uganda, where they risk deadly raids by rival pastoralist communities.

In Kalopeto, a makeshift camp of scattered grass huts at the foot of a hill that marks the Kenya-Uganda border, about 600 families, who recently returned from Uganda due to attacks by armed raiders, contemplate returning to escape the scorching drought.

"This drought is threatening our lives. It poses a great risk and the only alternative in the extreme scenario is to move to Uganda," said an elderly Akaru Lomukuny, as she prepared her return to Uganda, where conditions are more bearable.

Kenya's vast, mainly desert northern region has been neglected by successive governments since independence from Britain in 1963.

For years, the pastoralist communities there have fought over scarce resources in a scenario similar to the situation in other parts of a swathe of Africa stretching right across to the continent's western Atlantic coast.

For more than a decade, UN agencies and relief organisations active in areas on the southern edges of arid lands and the vast Sahara have combined funding requests with warnings of the devastating economic and social fallout from creeping desertification.

These are the sort of questions being raised at the World Water Forum in Mexico City, which opened Thursday and runs through March 22 with dire appeals for better global water management and admissions that little has improved since the last such gathering in 2003.

In Kenya's Oropoi village, some 600 kilometres (375 miles) north of Nairobi, about 500 families deserted their homes and moved to Uganda early this month, according Charles Lokala, a village elder.

Villagers here have been struggling to survive after the only water source in a radius of 40 kilometres (25 miles) dried up and pasture scorched by the blazingsun,soaring temperatures to between 40 and 50 degrees centigrade.

They now face the dilemma of whether to stay or move to Uganda and face the armed Dodoth tribesmen, who in January raided them and stole their cattle.

"Many people were shot during the attack during which they raped a woman," said Esinyen Lopidar, a 28-year-old resident of Oropoi.

However, the conflicts became more sophisticated and murderous with the acquisition of modern weapons trafficked through porous borders mainly from lawless Somalia, a horn of Africa nation equally ravaged by drought.

A recent disarmament drive by the government has had little effect although some residents say they have been rendered defenceless in the face of attacks from heavily armed rival
communities.

"The government has disarmed us, but nobody has disarmed the Dodoth" tribe, said Erot Muria, another village elder. "The problem is also the alliances between the Dodoth of Uganda and the Toposa tribe from south Sudan, it is increasing their fighting capacity."
According to George Otim, an official with British charity Oxfam, there are still weapons in circulation among the local tribes.

"The estimation is that there is over 60,000 guns in the Turkana region. The disarmament has got a very minimal impact here," he said.

The drought that has claimed at least 40 lives in Kenya since December and feared that many more lives have been lost, has been turned into a lucrative business run by middle men who financed armed raiders, according to some villagers.

"The issue of livestock has gone in a kind of trade with the middlemen," Lokala said. "They take advantage of the drought to arm some tribe so that they can steal cattle and then they sell it in Uganda in rich markets."
Up to 11 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti are on the brink of starvation due the current drought, according to the United Nations.

Kenya: Lobby to roll out anti-debt campaign

March 19, 2006 Source: Nationmedia By Andnetwork .com

A campaign to drum up support for cancellation of Kenya's external debt will be launched during an inter-faiths prayer meeting at Nairobi's Jeevanjee Gardens next Saturday

Postcards soliciting signatures on anti-debt repayment will be distributed during the meeting scheduled to start at 10am, according to a statement issued yesterday.

Religious leaders from the Catholic and Anglican churches, Muslims and Hindus have organised the event following their meeting last week at the Holy Family Basilica, Nairobi.

The initiative aims to lobby the Government to take concrete action on the debt burden and create public awareness about its impact on the lives of Kenyans.

Petition MPs

During the campaign, Kenyans will be expected to sign a postcard to petition all Members of Parliament to demand the cancellation of the national debt.

The climax of the campaign will be the presentation of the signed postcards to President Kibaki on or about the time of this year's Budget Speech in June.

With the slogans "Debt is Poverty", "Debt is Slavery" and "Refusing to Pay is Justice", the postcards also ask the Government to enact appropriate laws and to ensure the public approves loans before it (the Government) endorses them or signs funding agreements.

The Catholic Economic Justice (CEJ) in conjunction with other faiths-based institutions and civil society organisations whose representatives attended last week's meeting planned the campaign.

The postcard campaign also urges all Kenyans to put pressure on decision makers at various levels of Government to say no to repayments of the national debt estimated to be about US$10 billion. "Kenya’s exclusion from last year's debt relief granted by the G8 countries to some other poor countries had impacted negatively on the lives of the majority poor people in the country," the religious leaders said in yesterday's statement. "Repaying the debt was injustice and harmful, it was slavery and it was a burden."

Last week's function was attended by religious leaders from the Anglican and Catholic churches, the Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims (Supkem) and the Hindu Council.

Nakuru Catholic Bishop Peter Kairu, who is the chairman of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, represented the Catholic Church while the Rev Peter Karanja, the Provost at All Saints' Cathedral, represented the Anglican Church.

Others were the Director General of Supkem, Mr Abdul Latif Shaaban, and the Hindu Council General Secretary, Dr Sunil Shah.

"The poverty in which most Kenyans live is reflected in the congestion in the provincial hospitals and the lack of drugs in most public health institutions," Bishop Kairu said.

In an interview with the Sunday Nation, Bishop Kairu appealed to all Kenyans to support the new initiative by signing the postcards during the next three months.

While over 18 million Kenyans, representing 56 per cent of the total population, live in abject poverty, earning less than a dollar a day, the country is tormented by a debt of about US$10 billion. We urge Kenyans to make a commitment to ask the Government to recognise that Kenyans won’t take up this any more," the Rev Karanja said.

Brazilian Specialist Acknowledges Angola`s Water Potential

March 19, 2006 By Andnetwork .com Source: Angola Press

The Chairman of the Environment Association of Catarina State (Brazil), Sergio José` Grando, said in Mexico city that Angola possesses good water reservoirs and said it should take advantage of the forum to gain experience.

Addressing the Angolan press, alongside the IV World Water Forum, the specialist on environment referred that in future, water will be much more important than oil from the point of view of life.

He added that, from this forum, all countries could better know the best way to profit from water so that the world can better stand for development for all.

One of the objectives of this forum is to highlight public actions which might contribute for the implementation of decisions on water and sanitation, adopted by the World Water Council on the precious liquid, during the 13th session on sustainable development held April 2005.

The world conference, which goes until March, is a initiative by the World Water Council, affiliated to the United Nations, in coordination with the Mexican Government, through its National Commission, and happens under the theme "Local actions for a global problem".

Angola: Angolan Delegation At Conference On Biological Diversity

Luanda, 03/19 - ANGOP - An Angolan delegation led by the Urbanisation and Environment Minister, Diakumpuna Sita José, attends from March 20 to 31 of this year in the Eighth Conference of the Parts of the Convention on Biological Diversity, to be held in Curitiba region, Brazil.

In the conference, Angola will present its experience on the preservation of the biodiversity.

Besides the manager of the elaboration project of the Strategy and National Action Plan for Biodiversity (NBSAP), Vladimir Russo, the Angolan delegation includes directors of natural resources, Soki Kwedikwenda, of the juridical department, Ana Vumi of the international interchange section, Arsénio Machado.

Angola signed this convention and became part of it in 1998. Since then, it carried out actions for the preservation and sustainable use of the biodiversity.

It has eight areas of priority interventions and aims at including in its development policies and programmes measures for the preservation and sustainable use of the biological biodiversity and the fair and equitable distribution of biological resources.

NBSAP is a project of the Urbanisation and Environment Ministry with the financing of the United National Development Programme (UNDP) and of the Global Environment Fund (GEF).

The project also counts with the support of the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (NORAD).

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Ethiopia earns over 103 million dollars from export of sesame

Source: Xinhua | March 19, 2006

Ethiopia said on Sunday it has earned 103.7 million U.S. dollars from the export of over 122, 000 tons of sesame during the last three months since December last year.

Abera Geyessa, head of the Export Promotion Department of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, told journalists that the product now has a 30 percent share of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), exceeding coffee that contributed a 60 percent share to the GDP three years ago.

China, Africa, Europe and America are the major potential market places, Abera said.

Located in the equatorial belt, Ethiopia has an ideal climatic condition that helps in producing sesame. Also, sesame produced in Ethiopia is of top quality.

Ethiopia is among the least developed countries where the economy is primarily agriculture based and quite backward. Like many other nations in Africa, Ethiopia relies greatly on the trade of primary goods.

Think tank moots transitional force for Darfur

Nairobi, Kenya, 03/19 - ANGOP - A military force from a capable UN member state should offer to lead an interim peacekeeping mission in Sudan`s volatile western region of Darfur until a full UN force takes over the peacekeeping there, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group has said.

The conflict resolution group said in a report released here Friday that the UN Security Council should pick France to lead a blue-helmet stabilisation force - consisting of 5,000 troops - to hold the line until a full UN mission is put together.

The latest ICG report, dubbed "Saving Darfur," examines the seriously deteriorating situation in western Sudan region and along the Chad-Sudan border.

ICG argues that a highly capable and mobile UN-led force must be sent immediately to Darfur to stabilise the situation until a broader UN mission can take over in October.

"The small African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) has reached its military and political limits", said John Prendergast, Crisis Group Senior Africa Adviser.

"There`s just no way AMIS can give civilians the protection they need and prevent this war now escalating".

"France seems the most promising candidate, with troops and aircraft already in the area. But other states must help too," the ICG said in its latest briefing on Sudan.

The group expressed fear that without rapidly boosting international forces in the region, the Darfur crisis and the escalating proxy war between Sudan and Chad would cost tens of thousands more lives and destabilise a wide swathe of Africa.

But the Sudanese government has reiterated its opposition to the deployment of the UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur, saying they could only be allowed after the Darfur rebels reached a peace agreement with the Khartoum authorities.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol said in Nairobi Friday that Khartoum would oppose the deployment of a UN mission if its mandate is not part of an agreed monitoring mission agreed in the peace talks continuing between the government and the Darfur rebels.

"We are ready to discuss with the UN after peace in Darfur. We are opposed to the non-African troops and even if the September deadline for the deployment of the UN peacekeepers elapses without a peace agreement in Darfur, we would oppose the deployment," Akol said.

Earlier this month, the African Union extended the AMIS mission in Darfur to 30 September, and accepted in principle a UN mission thereafter.

"The situation cries out for a new multinational force with a strong protection mandate, distinct from AMIS but working with it, to bridge the gap over the crucial next six months," the ICG report said.

Africa to benefit from the creation of "water peacekeepers"

Mexico City, Mexico, 03/l6 - ANGOP - The president of the World Water Council (CME), Loïc Fauchon, has announced in Mexico City of the creation of a group of "water peacekeepers" to mainly intervene in Africa.

"Water peacekeepers will be trained by a body of experts specialised in water issues. These peacekeepers could, for Africa, intervene in droughts or natural disasters under the aegis of the African Union," Fauchon told a Thursday news conference.

Speaking after the opening of the fourth World Water Forum, he said that "these peacekeepers could quickly assess the needs for reconstruction in the water sector."

He affirmed that the "water peacekeepers" that will intervene in Africa will exclusively come from African countries that have, in some cases, a "good level of expertise in the area of water management."

He added: "It`s no use going to look for peacekeepers elsewhere outside Africa. The expertise is in place. It only needs to be used."

"In the coming months, the World Water Council will take the necessary measures for the implementation of this water peacekeepers initiative," he said.

PanAfrica [opinion]: Darfur: West Now Says Africans Can't Help Themselves! AU Agrees

The Nation (Nairobi) | OPINION | March 17, 2006 | Mark J. Sorbara
Nairobi

When a couple of African countries deployed peacekeeping troops to Darfur under the command of the African Union, it symbolised a coming of age of the AU. Africans were finally saying: "we can solve our problems ourselves." Indeed it was hailed as a historic move that should receive international support.

Now with the decision to hand over African Union Mission in Darfur (AMIS) to UN control in September, the international community has given a vote of no-confidence to its own policies and the policies and actions of the AU. The AU, for its part, has accepted the premature verdict and has given up on Africa as well.

AMIS is without question the most important manifestation of the African Union thus far. It is a test case for the young AU's ability to project Africa's new co-operative framework from theory into practice and begin to address Africa's challenges.

The mission is also a test case for Western countries to live up to their catch phrase "helping Africans help themselves." For the past decade the international community has tried to increase the capacity of African countries to take part in peace-keeping operations - from RECAMP (Reinforcement of African Peace-keeping Capacities) unveiled by France at the Franco-African Summit in 1998, to the 1997 US-inspired African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI), re-branded in 2004 as African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA).

These new arrangements were designed to respond to the wish of African states to handle their own security issues and the desire of the international community to reduce their exposure to African conflicts.

On March 10, a closed-door meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa decided in principle to transfer AMIS from an AU mandate to a UN mandate. As Alpha Oumar Konare, the Chairperson of the AU Commission, stated: "The Commission indicated that transfer should be understood as meaning the handing over of the peace-keeping role in Darfur to the UN, while the AU remains actively involved in other aspects of the peace process such as the peace talks in Abuja, the operation of the joint commission as well as in the implementation of any peace agreement resulting from the talks."

It was clear the AU was pressured by the international community into supporting the transfer; because instead of undertaking their traditional role of ignoring African conflicts, Western powers were quick to embrace the AU decision. Even the US Department of State, which is not exactly UN or Africa-friendly, in a press release issued on March 13 stated that, "although the African Union Mission in Sudan has provided 'initial stabilisation and reduced large scale organised violence,' the United States is continuing to work with the UN Security Council for the authorisation of a UN peace-keeping mission."

Even before the AU decision was made, the British government expected the mandate to be transferred. While in Sudan on February 22, the International Development Secretary Hilary Benn stated that the "funding for AMIS is running low and the international community must do more to ensure the African Union can operate effectively as preparations are made for a handover to the United Nations."

A day after Hilary Benn's foreshadowing, Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol stated, "The Government of Sudan strongly rejects the proposal of an international force to be deployed to Darfur and rejects the transition of operations in Darfur from AU to UN the UN has no mandate in Darfur, it is the AU that has the mandate there."

Sudan even threatened to leave the AU if AMIS was transferred to a UN mandate, but once the AU's decision was made and a formal request was put to the UN, it would have been hard for Sudan to maintain its hard-line position. Hence, after the Peace and Security Council meeting, Akol ignored the reality of the situation and said that the six month extension of the AU mandate until September 2006 was "a victory for Africa."

Mr Danson Mungatana, the Kenyan Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, struck a different tone, on his return from the AU meeting in Addis Ababa. AMIS "has been costing the AU an average of $23 million every month to maintain the 7,000 member force the Union will now be relieved of that heavy burden." With the mandate transfer, the wider international community under a UN framework will take on greater logistical and financial cost of the peace-keeping operations in Sudan. As Mungatana stated, "It will only involve the soldiers changing their AU green beret to the UN blue."

Although AMIS is a huge financial commitment for the cash strapped AU, a majority of its funding comes from the EU. Some $340 million of the mission's $465 million budget is provided through the EU's Africa Peace Facility, which was established at the AU Heads of State meeting in Maputo, in 2003.

The EU's Directorate-General for Development stated in a document entitled "Securing Peace and Stability in Africa," that, "the first principle is ownership. The Peace Facility will support the African Union and Sub-Regional organisations in taking care of African conflicts and stimulating the search for an African continental solution. This will help reinforce the political authority of the AU as well as its technical potential.

The second principle is to encourage African solidarity. Yet at the same time the document also states that "the African Peace Facility will support AU initiatives designed to promote and accelerate the establishment of the appropriate conditions for the UN to intervene and fulfill its international responsibilities."

So what is the Africa Peace Facility designed for? The creation of a sustainable African solution to African conflicts or simply to send Africans to conflict zones first and take the brunt of the losses and clear a path for more important UN soldiers to do the job? Judging by the fact that the Facility only has a three year life span, and is set to expire in 2007, at which time new funding arrangements for AMIS will have to be found, seems to suggest the latter is the answer. Well, at least it is an improvement on the previous policy, which was focused on ignoring African conflicts altogether.

Mark J. Sorbara is freelance writer and researcher on African issues

Africa Insight is an initiative of the Nation Media Group's Africa Media Network

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USA : West Africa collectively the third largest cotton exporter, says USDA report

March 18, 2006 | United States Department of Agriculture

Burkina Faso, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, and Benin account for about 80 percent of cotton production in West Africa and 90 percent in Francophone West Africa.

In a United States Department of Agriculture report prepared by Prepared by Susan Reid titled: Cotton and Products West Africa Region: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, and Mali, states that while domestic cotton lint consumption is less than 10 percent of the region’s cotton distribution, exports, primarily destined for Asia, account for the remainder.

Collectively, Burkina Faso, Mali, Benin, and Cote d’Ivoire are the third largest world exporter of cotton behind the United States and Uzbekistan.

In line with the World Bank/IMF recommendations, all four countries are pursuing, albeit at varying stages, steps to liberalize state-controlled cotton sectors.

Click to download report: Cotton and Products West Africa Region: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, and Mali.

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