Burundi: En bref ce 31 MARS 2006 ...

SA soldiers honoured for stability in Burundi
March 31, 2006, www.sabcnews.com

South African soldiers are to be honoured for their role in bringing about a peaceful transition in Burundi.

Mosiuoa Lekota, the defence minister, has paid tribute to members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) deployed to guard Burundi leaders during the transition.

He says he will soon ask President Thabo Mbeki, as commander-in-chief of the SANDF, to formally pay tribute to these soldiers. Lekota says the defence force is ready to continue to work with other countries to bring about stability on the continent.

UN special envoy McAskie in Burundi retires

Bujumbura, Burundi, 03/31 - ANGOP - UN special Representative and head of the UN Operation in Burundi (ONUB), Carolyn McAskie, on Thursday announced her retirement and departure on Friday ahead of the end of her two-year mandate 31 December 2006.

McAskie also told a farewell press conference that Sudanese Nourredine Satti, who served as deputy special representative in Burundi, would replace her as head of the ONUB for the rest of the tenure.

McAskie, aged 60 years, 35 of which she spent working in the UN system, said she would directly return to Ottawa in her native Canada to spend her retirement.

Indeed, she is ending her long diplomatic career in a way that many other peacekeeping missions would certainly envy across the world.

The short UN mission firmly leaves Burundians with democratically elected state institutions from the top to bottom, as well as a new national army and police more reassuring for all political and ethnical components in Burundi.

However, the satisfaction would have been complete if the last rebel group still active in the country -- the National Liberation Front (FNL) -- had accepted to negotiate like other factions did after a decade of civil war ahead of a comprehensive peace in Burundi, McAskie lamented.

Poverty is also an important factor likely to shake Burundi`s political achievements, and McAskie re-iterated her repeated calls on the international community to financially support the country in its quest for an economic and social welfare.

Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania plan hydroelectric dam
Kigali, Rwanda, 03/31/2006 - ANGOP- Neighbours Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania are finalising discussions on the joint construction of a $205- million hydroelectric dam with donor assistance in Rusumo, southeastern Rwanda, an official source said here Thursday.
Energy ministers from the three countries began meeting here Thursday to scrutinise and approve decisions taken earlier by their experts concerning the contribution of each country, in view of available donor funding.

LE NONCE APOSTOLIQUE AU BURUNDI, MONSEIGNEUR PAUL RICHARD GALLAGHER REND UNE VISITE DE COURTOISIE A LA PRESIDENTE DE L'ASSEMBLEE NATIONALE
Bujumbura, le 30 Mars 2006 (RTNB)-Le Nonce Apostolique au Burundi, Monseigneur Paul Richard Gallagher a rendu une visite de courtoisie à la présidente de l'assemblée nationale, madame Immaculée Nahayo. En effet, les deux personnalités n'avaient pas encore eu l'occasion de se rencontrer officiellement depuis la mise en place des nouvelles institutions. Il a déclaré à la presse à l'issue de l'audience que le Saint Siège soutient l'application du protocole de Nairobi qui prohibe les armes légères dans la région.

LA PRESIDENTE DE L'ASSEMBLEE NATIONALE RECOIT EN AUDIENCE LA REPRESENTANTE SPECIALE DU SECRETAIRE GENERAL DES NATIONS UNIES
Bujumbura, le 30 Mars 2006 (RTNB)-La présidente de l'assemblée nationale madame Immaculée Nahayo a reçu en audience la représentante spéciale du secrétaire général des Nations Unies, madame Carolyn Mc Askie. Madame Mc Askie a laissé entendre qu'elle est entrain de dire au revoir à toutes les personnalités qu'elle a pu côtoyer durant sa mission a Burundi. Elle a félicité la présidente de l'assemblée nationale pour tout ce qu'elle est entrain de faire pour son pays et l'a encouragé d'aller de l'avant.

LE DEUXIEME VICE-PRESIDENT DE LA REPUBLIQUE RECOIT EN AUDIENCE UNE DELEGATION DES HOMMES D'AFFAIRES INDIENS ET UNE DELEGATION DE LA BANQUE AFRICAINE DE DEVELOPPEMENT
Bujumbura, le 30 Mars 2006 (RTNB)-Le deuxième vice-président de la République, madame Alice Nzomukunda a reçu ce mercredi 29 mars 2006 une délégation des hommes d'affaires indiens. Madame Alice Nzomukunda a déclaré à la presse que les hommes d'affaires indiens ont promis d'apporter leur know-how au Burundi en matière des secteurs de la santé publique de l'éducation et de l'agriculture. Un des hommes d'affaires indiens qui conduisait la délégation a déclaré à la presse que l'Inde pourrait aider à la réhabilitation et à la modernisation de la Société Sucrière de Moso (SOSUMO). Le deuxième vice-président a également reçu en audience une délégation de la Banque Africaine de Développement (BAD). La délégation de la BAD est au Burundi pour préparer le deuxième programme de réforme économique et de gouvernance. Le chef de délégation de la mission de la BAD a déclaré aux journalistes que le programme coûtera quelques quarante millions de dollars et a été approuvé par le conseil des gouverneurs de la BAD.

KIBONDO, TANZANIA, 30 March (IRIN) - In a small locality of Kibondo District in northwestern Tanzania, a mere two-hour drive from the border with Burundi, is a temporary camp called Nyakimonomono, which hosts at least 7,000 Burundian refugees who have fled a food crisis in their country.

The congestion is striking. Every inch of the camp is packed with people - mainly children running around the place. At least 80 percent of the refugees came from Gisuru, a town in Burundi's eastern province of Ruyigi that has been hit hard by the prevailing drought. Almost everyone at Nyakimonomono had been a refugee once before and had returned to Burundi with the democratic elections in 2005.

"The drought hit, and I had nothing to feed my 10 children," said Leonidas Kananiro, one of the refugees. "I had just returned from the Tanzanian camps after having lived there for four years. I cannot grow anything on my land now; it has not been tended to since I left. It's practically a desert now."

Kananiro was sitting on his makeshift bed in one of the tents. His family is among the lucky ones who fled with a small mattress. Most of the refugees sleep on wild grass that they hang out to dry during the day.

Marcellina Ntakiyica, a single mother, came to the camp to save her children from starvation. Her youngest, who is three years old, is being treated at the health centre. It often rains heavily in this region of Tanzania, increasing the risk of disease. Many of the children are coughing.

"I had just returned home when the drought hit," she said. "I had absolutely nothing. No harvest to look forward to and no food assistance. I had been away for nine years and could not cope on my own."

Arrival of first wave of refugees

The first wave of refugees fleeing the drought in Burundi's Kirundo province entered Tanzania in May 2005. An estimated 200 people were placed in the Mtendeli transit camp in Kirundo and remain there to date. More refugees crossed the border in January 2006, bringing the total number in the Bukiliro, Mugunza and Nyakimonomono way stations to at least 10,000.

Bayisa Wak-Woya, head of the Kibondo sub-office of the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said 70 people enter Tanzania everyday. "The people in these way stations were not seeking asylum in the legal sense," he said. "They came because there is a shortage of food in their villages. The Tanzanian government is accommodating them on humanitarian grounds."

No screening process to decide whether or not to grant the refugees asylum was taking place, and UNHCR was not insisting there be one.

However, some refugees complained that lack of security back home was the main reason for their recent flight. They said they were hoping to be granted asylum because of gross violations of their human rights by both rebels and government authorities in Burundi.

Jeremie Ndimubandi from Butaganzwa in Ruyigi said he was being singled out in a witch-hunt for members of Burundi's remaining rebel group, the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL).

"I fled because I feared for my life," he said. "My friends, all former refugees, were arrested for supposedly being FNL supporters. So, I left the next day because I knew my turn was next."

Wak-Woya said there were genuine asylum seekers among the people staying at the temporary camps, but for the moment, they had not been separated from the drought-affected people. "When food is available on the other side [Burundi], those who are here because of the food shortage will go back," he said.

Those who fled in genuine fear of persecution probably would not go back, and only then would a screening process begin.

Minister's pledge

Burundi's minister for solidarity, gender and human rights, Francoise Ngendahayo, visited the drought-affected people on 22 March. The deputy minister for home affairs, Bernard Membe; Ruyigi Governor Moise Bucumi; and Makamba Governor Reverien Ndikuriyo accompanied her. The aim of the visit was to reassure the refugees that the Burundian government was doing all it could to organise a full-scale food distribution in the drought-affected provinces. She promised a speedy solution to the food shortages.

"We have in Burundi the same humanitarian agencies that are assisting you in Tanzania," she told the refugees. "So we can offer you food assistance back home in the same manner you are receiving it today."

Governor Moise Bucumi promised to establish a food-distribution centre in Gisuru town, from where the majority of Nyakimonomono refugees come. Still, the visit by the Burundian officials was met with much scepticism and grumbling among the refugees.

"I will gladly go home, but only if the government gives us food, not speeches," Sylvie Maniraho said.

Some of the refugees, like Gerard Ntacombonye, were even downright hostile. "I left [Ruyigi] because I did not want to die," he said. "These are leaders I voted for because I thought they would help me. Foreign aid has arrived, but they buy fancy cars instead and lie that they have given food to the population."

Rwanda: Des entraves dans les micro-finances malgré les promesses

Inter Press Service (Johannesburg) | 30 Mars 2006 | Aimable Twahirwa | Kigali

Le Rwanda avait lancé, en octobre 2001, les premières entreprises de micro-finance. Le gouvernement et les partenaires au développement avaient bien accueilli cette innovation dont la mission était de contribuer à la réduction de la pauvreté.

Pour les autorités, les micro-finances devraient favoriser les populations les plus démunies, essentiellement dans le monde rural. Mais, selon des analystes financiers, cette initiative risque de n'aboutir à aucun résultat attendu, à cause d'une prolifération de nouvelles entreprises dans ce secteur où la responsabilité de contrôle incombe pourtant aux pouvoirs publics.

Le nombre exact des entreprises de micro-finance opérant au Rwanda n'est pas connu jusqu'ici puisque plusieurs d'entre elles sont exploitées sans l'aval du ministère du Commerce, de l'Industrie, de la Promotion des Investissements et des Coopératives, qui est en charge de ce secteur.

Bernard Itangishaka, directeur général de l'Union des banques populaires du Rwanda, opérant depuis 1975 avec 146 branches partout dans le pays, dans des services de micro-crédits, estime que quelque 200 entreprises de micro-finance existent actuellement au Rwanda, mais dont la plupart ne remplissent pas les conditions exigées pour leur exploitation. Elles emploient en moyenne une dizaine d'agents.

Le rôle de la Banque centrale dans les services offerts par ces coopératives d'épargne et de crédit se limitent uniquement à l'agrément de leurs statuts de fonctionnement, en exigeant simplement qu'un dépôt de 10.000 dollars soit versé au Trésor public conformément aux normes garantissant l'exploitation de toute autre institution financière de micro-crédit.

Par exemple, le pasteur d'une secte locale, qui est également promoteur d'une coopérative d'épargne et crédits, dénommée 'Gisubizo' (qui signifie Solution, en langue nationale Kinyarwanda), a terni l'image du secteur de micro-finance, en octobre 2005, en escroquant des centaines de ses clients avant de fuir le pays. Il a empoché tout l'argent qui était déposé dans les caisses de son entreprise.

En l'absence d'une législation adéquate régissant ce secteur, les autorités de tutelle des micro-finances continuent de plaider devant le parlement rwandais pour l'adoption d'une loi dans les délais raisonnables. Un projet de loi est déposé devant le parlement depuis 2003.

James Musoni, un ancien ministre rwandais du Commerce, qui assure le contrôle des coopératives d'épargne et de crédits, a expliqué à IPS que cette loi fixera des normes ainsi que les règles du jeu dans l'exploitation des micro-finances, tout en contrôlant l'aptitude des entreprises à exercer dans le secteur, en fonction notamment des capitaux investis.

"Cette situation de cafouillage nous interpelle à mettre des garde-fous dans ce domaine. Nous voulons limiter l'afflux des aventuriers qui investissent dans les micro-finances pour leurs propres intérêts tout en escroquant la population", a déclaré Musoni.

La 6ème conférence panafricaine des coopératives d'épargne et crédits s'est tenue à Kigali, la capitale rwandaise, en octobre 2005. Le Premier ministre rwandais, Bernard Makuza, avait déploré, à la rencontre, le fait que l'argent investi par les micro-finances soit "davantage orienté vers d'autres initiatives commerciales au détriment de la mission principale qui leur est assignée, celle de contribuer à la réduction de la pauvreté". D'où la nécessité de mieux contrôler les opérations des micro-finances, avait-il ajouté.

Selon les organisateurs de cette rencontre panafricaine qui avait pour thème "Pour une meilleure sécurité de l'épargne", l'objectif primordial était de faire une autocritique en vue d'améliorer leurs services, compte tenu des attentes et besoins de leur clientèle. Ce qui est "primordial" pour ces coopératives, c'est de "normaliser leurs services et de réajuster leur politique d'épargne", conformément à l'éthique professionnelle et à la bonne gestion, ont souligné les participants.

Concernant une critique relative aux taux d'intérêt très élevés chez les micro-finances par rapport à d'autres banques commerciales ordinaires, Charles Ingabire, un des promoteurs de 'Solidarité féminine - Iwacu', une coopérative spécialisée dans l'octroi des crédits aux femmes entrepreneurs, rejette cette accusation. Il a souligné à IPS les avantages des micro-finances qui, affirme-t-il, ciblent tous les groupes sociaux sans discrimination aucune en tenant compte du revenu de chaque client.

Le taux d'intérêt annuel, pour les micro-finances, varie de 18 à 24 pour cent tandis que pour des banques ordinaires, le pourcentage est estimé entre 11 et 13 pour cent, selon des sources officielles.

A ce jour, quelque 2,5 millions de personnes ont bénéficié de crédits des micro-finances au Rwanda, essentiellement des groupes démunis auparavant, mais qui ont amélioré leur niveau de vie grâce à leur accès aux prêts des coopératives, selon Ingabire.

"Nos interventions embrassent les domaines d'intérêt social dont les crédits de commerce, les mutuelles de santé, l'agro-élevage, l'artisanat et même l'avance sur salaire", explique Ingabire qui vante également "l'efficacité et la rapidité des services de micro-finance dans l'examen, l'approbation et l'octroi des crédits".*

Rwanda: Kagame’s COMESA chairmanship extended

March 31, 2006 Source: Newtimes By Andnetwork .com

Rwandan President, Paul Kagame’s term as Chairman of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) will stretch to November, instead of the earlier date of June, the President has said.

Kagame, who assumed the office last June, was on Thursday, March 30 addressing a well-attended press conference at Village Urugwiro, in Kacyiru. He said the development was occasioned by Djibouti’s request to member states that this year’s COMESA Heads of State Summit be held in November instead of June.
He said members had suggested that the meeting takes place elsewhere at the initial date in June, but that Djibouti insisted that Rwanda remains the chair until it (Djibouti) is prepared to host the summit and takeover.

The COMESA chairmanship is a one year term that rotates among all the member states. At present, the regional grouping has twenty member states, following the admission of Libya on June 3, 2005.
Currently, Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh is the economic bloc’s vice chairman, and normally, a country whose President is the grouping’s vice chairperson, becomes the next chairperson.
Without giving details, President Kagame said Djibouti is still making necessary infrastructural preparations to host the summit.
Commenting on his tenure at the helm of COMESA, the President said he had worked towards promoting a stronger and more united bloc, as well as enabling the free movement of goods and services.
Meanwhile, President Kagame has confirmed that Rwanda would be represented at the upcoming Seventh East African Community Heads of State Summit slated for April 5 in Arusha, Tanzania.

He, however, did not specify whether he would attend in person or delegate. The EAC invited Kagame and his Burundian counterpart Peirre Nkurunziza, to the summit.
“We received the invitation and Rwanda will honor it. If I don’t go there, someone else will,” Kagame said.
While on his first visit to Rwanda last week, Tanzania’s President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete said Rwanda would be admitted to EAC in November. Kikwete is the current Chairman of the three-nation group.
On the issue of Rwanda’s membership to many regional blocs, the President said that a national taskforce had been set up to study the implications of the country belonging to many regional groupings.

Besides COMESA, Rwanda is also a member of the Economic Community for Central African States (ECCAS) and the Community of Great Lakes Countries (CPGL).
“We are awaiting the taskforce to give us their report and take a decision from an informed position,” he said.
He however insisted that Rwanda was keen on joining the EAC, adding that the taskforce was also looking at the type of considerations Rwanda will have to make upon joining the community.

Rwanda: Genocide survivor in UK for operation

March 31, 2006 By Andnetwork .com

Genocide survivor Odette Mupenzi is now in the United Kingdom for a series of operations that will include a facial surgery.

The 30-year-old lady, whose face was destroyed during the 1994 Genocide, has been having difficulties with eating. Several operations in Switzerland, South Africa and Germany hospitals had failed due to lack of funds.

A financial appeal was launched for Mupenzi by Metro, one of the most circulated newspapers in Britain, to fund her medical bill in Britain. Metro and British charity groups, Aegis Trust and the Pears Foundation, responded by raising £50,000 to cater for her treatment by Ian Hutcheson, one of the UK’s leading facial surgeons. She will be cared for by Aegis volunteers in Nottinghamshire.

As she prepared for her long awaited surgical assessment recently, Mupenzi said: “I’m so grateful to everyone who has helped. I want to thank everyone.”
Mupenzi was hideously disfigured when militiamen burst into a school where she and her family were hiding in 1994. They shot her in the jaw and torso and hacked her face with machetes.

At the hospital, doctors dressed her infected wounds and fed her by syringe.
“I did not think I would ever get well again. Then I saw all the efforts people were putting in, which made a difference. Now I have hope,” she said.

Rwanda: Murigande hails regional MPs

March 31, 2006 By Andnetwork .com Source: Newtimes

The Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Charles Murigande has lauded the role played by a regional grouping of MPs, the AMANI Forum, in building unity among member states.

The Minister, who was addressing participants at the AMANI Forum Partnership Meeting... appreciated the improving ties between states in the Great Lakes region
The Forum has contributed to peace building in Burundi, and brought back peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” said Murigande, who also took a swipe at the international community’s indifference after witnessing the preparations for the 1994 Genocide.
“The international community ignored Rwanda during the planning of the 1994 Genocide,” he said.
He added that some western countries had responded positively after the Genocide.
“Though some countries have deliberately refused to admit their role during the 1994 Genocide, some have responded positively, and we appreciate their efforts,” he told the MPs.
AMANI Forum is an initiative of African parliamentarians in the Great Lakes region. The MPs are from Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, and Zambia.
Since its inception in 1998, AMANI has undertaken a big number of initiatives that have contributed towards reduction of violence and the peaceful resolution of conflicts the region.

ANGOLA

Angola, US Governments Join Hands to Fight Malaria

March 31, 2006,
Source : Angola Press
By ANDnetwork .com

The Governments of Angola and the United States of America on Thursday in Luanda signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Initiative of Fight Against Malaria, by President George W. Bush, aimed at reducing death rate from this disease in Angola.

The Memo has the goals to enhance capacity building of national programs, at all levels, and strengthen the system of coordination and mechanism of communication amongst all stakeholders involved in the initiative to roll back malaria.

This initiative entails a number of interventions on how to quickly increase the use of combined therapeutic schemes based in artemisia by-products for the treatment of complicated malaria and the distribution of insecticide-impregnated mosquito nets.

Further interventions are the preventive and phased treatment with other drugs to prevent pregnant women from getting malaria, and intra house spraying in zones with epidemiological indications.

The improvement of the quality and availability of malaria diagnose services, including fast test, well as reinforcing the management system of anti malaria drugs, information, education and communication for health with regard to this disease and the oversight network system are other objectives of the memorandum.

The signed document is part of the challenge launched in July 2005, by President Bush, aimed at reducing in 50 per cent the death rate over malaria on children living in sub Saharan Africa and ensures the increment of funds for prevention and treatment of over one billion people in five years.

The US Ambassador to Angola, Cyntia Efird, said that, through this initiative, the American government will disburse, as from 2008, an additional USD 300 million per year for the whole world for the prevention and combat against malaria. This funding will benefit up to 130 million people in some most affected African countries.

Attending the ceremony, which happened in the premises of the Ministry of Health, were government members diplomats accredited in Angola, members of parliament and other guests.

Angola: Avian flu takes Angolan Govt officials to South Africa

March 31, 2006
Source: Angola PressBy Andnetwork .com

The Ministers of Health and of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sebastião Veloso and Gilberto Buta Lutucuta, respectively, left today for South Africa in order to participate in a meeting organised under the aegis of FAO and SADC, which will analyse strategies of fight and prevention against bird flu.

Speaking to ANGOP at Luanda`s "4 de Fevereiro" Airport, moments before embarking, Gilberto Buta Lutucuta informed that during the meeting, to be held from April 01 to 02, they will be acquainted with information relating to the current state of the disease that is spreading, having started in Europe and now it is affecting some African countries.

According to the official, the situation in Africa is very worrying because, besides the avian flu, its virus is very dangerous to the human health.

Concerning the preventive situation in Angola for the fight against the avian influenza, Gilberto Lutucuta said that the country is also endangered because migratory birds spread the virus.

He added that a Presidential dispatch was issued in order to control the situation, with the creation of a commission co-ordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with the collaboration of other organs of the State.

U.N. to help refugees in Zambia return to Angola

Friday, March 31, 2006

Manage Alerts | What Is This? LUSAKA, Zambia (Reuters) -- The United Nations refugee agency plans in 2006 to repatriate 12,000 Angolan refugees who fled to Zambia to escape a 27-year civil war in the former Portuguese colony, a U.N. official said on Friday.

The U.N High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), along with the International Organisation for Migration, will spend $4.7 million on the repatriation plan, according to UNHCR spokesman Kelvin Shimo. It was suspended last year due to financial constraints and fierce opposition from some refugees.

Nearly 250,000 Angolans found haven in Zambia after civil war broke out in the 1970s between government forces and the UNITA rebel movement. The conflict ended in 2002 after UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi was killed by government forces.

Shimo said 63,000 Angolans had returned home with the help of aid agencies and Zambian authorities since 2003 when a voluntary repatriation programme started.

But some of the refugees have declined to return, settling in the western part of Zambia, officials said.

UGANDA

KAMPALA, Uganda -- A fire destroyed a school dormitory where the children had been reading by candlelight, killing at least 10 of the students, police said Friday.

Police and firefighters were searching for missing students in the elementary school in Kabarole, 200 miles west of the Ugandan capital, Kampala, said police spokesman Patrick Onyango.

There were 70 students in the dormitory when the fire broke out late Thursday.

Police managed to evacuate most of of the children, but some were unaccounted for, said Kabarole Regional Police Commander Paddy Musana.

Onyango said 12 students were killed, aged between 7 and 13, and one child was hospitalized. But Musana said 10 students were killed and none were hospitalized. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.

"The school had no power last night (Thursday) so the students were reading by candlelight. It seems one of the candles wasn't put out and set fire to a bedsheet," he said.

Uganda unveils "Marshal Plan" for the conflict-ravaged north

Source: Xinhua 31-03-2006
http://english.people.com.cn/200603/31/eng20060331_254990.html

Uganda unveiled a master plan for the war-ravaged north after nearly two decades of conflict, destruction and human degradation, a state-owned newspaper New Nation reported on Friday.

Post-conflict northern Uganda is now heading for what can be dubbed as the "Marshal Plan," a multi-million dollar recovery and development strategy to be launched next week, led by the 21 member Joint Country Coordination and Monitoring Committee (JCCMC), chaired by Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi.

JCCMC, including nine of them from the government, is tasked to improve security and living condition of the Internally Displaced People (IDP) Camps, Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa told a UN- organized meeting in Geneva last week.

A major challenge is to decongest the camps from 10,000 - 60, 000 persons per camp to 1,000 - 3,000 to improve service delivery and enable them get closer to their parishes and villages, according to Kutesa.

JCCMC also aims to reduce mortality rates of 378 in the camps to 0, and resettle IDPs voluntarily. It seeks to improve access to humanitarian assistance health, education, water and sanitation.

A senior government official compared the JCCMC to the 1947 plan by the United States Secretary of State, George C. Marshal, to reconstruct Europe after World War II.

In an eight page document, Kutesa said JCCMC would run from April 2006 to July 2007, and thereafter be periodically reviewed.

Besides government representatives, the JCCMC comprises of six members from the core partners group including the U.S., the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Canada and South Africa, four from the United Nation agencies and the rest from non governmental organizations (NGOs).

Expounding on the JCCMC strategy, the director of the Media Centre, Robert Kabushenga, said it would succeed because the Police and the army would be strengthened to repel any external threat from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and other forces, noting the government considers the war in northern Uganda over.

Meanwhile, a report, released ahead of the arrival of UN's humanitarian chief Jan Egeland in Uganda, said Thursday the rate of violent deaths in northern Uganda is three times higher than in Iraq.

The violent death rate for northern Uganda is 146 deaths a week, or 0.17 violent deaths per 10,000 per day, the report said.

"The Ugandan government, the rebel army and the international community must fully acknowledge the true scale and horror of the situation in northern Uganda," said Kathy Relleen, a policy adviser to Oxfam, one of the organizations behind the report.

But the army said life and work in northern Uganda was steadily returning to normal after the LRA rebels were decimated and not worth talking about.

"There are no more LRA to talk about so those who talk about up- scaling our engagements with the LRA are simply daydreaming," army spokesman Felix Kulayigye said.

Public transport in, out and within the north is very normal and brisk, he said, adding that commercial traffic to southern Sudan and Kotido through Patongo, Adilang up to Abim, was bustling.

He said a total of 46 people were killed by the LRA rebels in the last six months in a statement.

The report, by the Civil Society Organizations for Peace in Northern Uganda, put the cost of the war in the north at 1.7 billion U.S. dollars over the 20 years, equivalent to the US's aid to Uganda between 1994 and 2002.

Uganda: 'Uganda Cannot Meet WTO Requirements'
The Monitor (Kampala) March 31, 2006 Joseph Olanyo
Kampala

Uganda has not yet developed the necessary capacity to meet the requirements of the World Trade Organisation agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade.

According to the Minister of Tourism, Trade and Industry, Mr Daudi Migereko, Uganda still needs to participate in the international standardisation process to be able to succeed in the international market, which is becoming more competitive each day.

Speaking during an awareness workshop on World Trade Organisation and technical barriers (referred to as TBT) that govern the application of standards in the market place, Migereko said: "Our ability as a nation to effectively implement the WTO/TBT agreement is constrained by a number of factors. We rarely participate in international standardisation and even where we participate, we have no sufficient scientific data to back up our arguments."

The Head of Standards Division Uganda National Bureau of Standards, Mr Patrick Sekitoleko, identified poor application of standards right from the level of manufacturing to production, misinterpretation of standards by the enforcers and lack of capacity to test the products as some of the technical barriers in the East African region.

"Rules are weak, if not, they are poorly drafted to address the needs. Most institutions lack capacity. So, if you can't test the products, then you technically cant inspect," Sekitoleko said.

The workshop, which drew participants from various sectors, was organised by the MTTI and UNBS and sponsored by the East African Community and the German Agency for Metrology (PTB).

It was held at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel on March 28.

The WTO agreement on TBT, establishes a universally acceptable approach for reduction of technical barriers to trade. It advocates the use of either regional or international standards.

The WTO rules make a clear distinction between standards and technical regulations. UNBS was set up with a mandate to formulate national standard specifications for commodities, enforce standards in protection of the public against harmful ingredients.

Uganda: Global Fund is a Misnomer: Let's Call It Global Fraud
The Monitor (Kampala) / March 31, 2006/Linda Lilian
Kampala

You have heard of Global Fund in Uganda, then you heard wrong, because it is not Global Fund but, global fraud in the whole sense.

A good journalist with a nose for news can smell it from a distance, that the global fund was actually a fund made out to a few individuals in Uganda's political machinery. No sane Ugandan should look away from such a scandal unless patriotism was lost somewhere between sanity and insanity - call it temporary insanity.

It all started in June last year. There was something strange about the Global Fund management. Some individuals were actually fiddling with the Global Fund cash. It was just round one and yet the expenditure and accountability seemed unrealistic.

It is said the Global Fund has five grants in Uganda worth $201 million , no wonder the hungry egoistic embezzlers got excited, but too excited to cover up their tracks right.

Imagine hefty funds being spent on one individual's illness because he was a freedom fighter, yet thousands of Ugandan children are dying of malaria. Surely with such scam bugs, will we live tomorrow or the future ends today?

The Executive Director in Geneva will resign to salvage his honour, but the Ugandan Ministers behind the swindling will keep put and stubbornly claim ignorance to their obvious misconduct.

English Author Ashleigh Brilliant once confessed that "I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it." This seems the way to go for most Ugandans and it is ruining our nation.

The picture presented in the Global Fund scandal is that Ugandans are indifferent to issues crucial to their survival. They are more concerned with other people's business like going to Iraq, but cannot think of settling the score between Kony and Uganda once and for all.

Ugandans are concerned with Congo affairs and not their home affairs, that involve health issues and the massive corruption. We point fingers at others and forget to look at ourselves and how bad we look.

This country is full of criminals untouched and they set the pace for future criminals, because the role models are right there sitting mighty and high in government.

Ugandans believe in money and not humanity. They worship money and have forgotten the cry of the people in need. Now that the Aids, malaria and tuberculosis funds are mismanaged what hope do we have for a sick nation?

The coldness in Ugandans' hearts is emotional, mental and physical.

The egoistic Ugandan in power is cold hearted without feeling for the people who chose him or her to lead them. It is all about one's wellbeing and to hell with the others.

Captain Mukula the State Minister for Health in charge of general duties may talk about political medicine and cause laughter, but maybe that is how Uganda wants to have it. If they cannot treat humans with compassion, then they can get political and treat individual interests by feeding the Global Fund into the individual fund or their own bank accounts.

"The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference," Bess Myeron the first ever Jewish Miss America is quoted to have once remarked. Ugandans are accomplices to the Global Fund scandal because all we do is look on and hold no one responsible; instead we cheer the poor managers and uphold them as the best persons in our country.

Vodacom Tanzania breaks two million-subscriber barrier
www.telegeography.com Friday, 31 March 2006
Vodacom Tanzania yesterday reported it has signed up its two-millionth customer since launching operations in Dar es Salaam in August 2000. Vodacom is the largest mobile operator in the country with 2,082,500 customers, ahead of Celtel with 952,690, Mobitel (590,000) and Zantel (230,000). Vodacom is looking to protect its commanding lead by introducing more advanced HSDPA technology. Elsewhere, fixed line operator Tanzania Telecommunication Company (TTCL) has around 145,000 main lines in service.

World Bank cancels Tanzania's debt

March 30, 2006 -Xinhua- By ANDnetwork .com

The World Bank (WB) has announced a 100-percent cancellation effective on July 1 this year of Tanzania's multilateral debt owed to the bank, the International Monetary Fund and the African Development Fund.

A statement issued by the bank's Board of Directors on Thursday has approved the cancellation.

Tanzania is among 17 Highly Indebted Poor Countries that have qualified for the 100-percent debt cancellation.

The International Development Association of the World Bank is expected to provide more than 37 billion U.S. dollars in debt relief for these 17 countries over the next 40 years, according to the statement available on Thursday.

"This is a historic agreement combining increased financing with debt relief that will help poor countries to meet their Millennium Development Goals," the statement quoted World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz as saying.

The countries that enjoy the 100-percent debt cancellation include Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

La Monuc souligne la priorité à donner à la libération d'enfants soldats en RD Congo
Source: United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC)

Date: 30 Mar 2006
La Mission de l'Onu en RDCongo (Monuc) a souligné mercredi la priorité à donner à la libération de tous les enfants qui se trouvent encore dans des forces et groupes armés congolais et à la sécurisation de leur retour à la vie civile.

Lors du point de presse hebdomadaire à Kinshasa, Mme Danielle Barrot, responsable de la protection de l'enfant au sein de la Monuc, a dénoncé "des cas de re-recrutement d'enfants, de harcèlement, d'arrestation et détention illégale et des mauvais traitements à l'égard des enfants sortis des forces ou groupes armés".

La RDCongo est l'un des sept pays les plus touchés par le phénomène d'enfants soldats sur le plan mondial. Il est estimé qu'au moins 30 000 filles et garçons de moins de 18 ans ont été recrutés, de force ou volontairement, dans des forces ou groupes armés en RDCongo depuis 1998 et étaient ainsi exposés aux hostilités, au travail forcé ou à l'esclavage sexuel. A ce jour, plus de 16 800 d'entre eux ont passé par le programme de démobilisation et réinsertion des enfants qui est en crous.

Mme Barrot a salué la première condamnation, le 17 mars dernier, d'un individu pour recrutement d'enfants en RDCongo.

Il s'agit du commandant Jean Pierre Biyoyo, condamné à cinq ans de prison par le tribunal militaire de garnison de Bukavu, chef-lieu de la province du Sud Kivu frontalière avec le Rwanda, pour arrestation arbitraire et détention illégale d'enfants qui avaient déjà quitté les forces armées, ainsi que mouvement insurrectionnel et désertion à l'étranger.

Ce jugement constitue un précédent dans la jurisprudence congolaise et marque un progrès très important dans la lutte contre l'impunité pour ce type de crimes contre les enfants, a dit Mme Barrot.

Elle a rappelé que la loi congolaise du 12 novembre 2004 sur l'organisation générale de la défense et des forces armées interdit l'emploi des civils de moins de 18 ans en cas de mobilisation.

KENYA: One-tonne cocaine haul destroyed
31 Mar 2006 Source: IRIN
NAIROBI, 31 March (IRIN) - Some 1.1 tonnes of cocaine seized from suspected drug traffickers in Kenya 16 months ago were incinerated in Nairobi on Friday amid tight security as government officials, representatives from the United Nations and diplomats witnessed the destruction of what is possibly the largest-ever drug seizure in eastern Africa.

Black smoke billowed from the chimneys of two incinerators at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) as 984 packets of the narcotics were tossed into the high-temperature fire. The destruction of the cocaine would take between seven and 10 hours, according to Davy Koech, the director of KEMRI.

"We are happy that the consignment has been destroyed," said Carsten Hyttel, the regional representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). "The cocaine would have done a lot of damage if it had reached the international market," he added.

The incineration of the narcotics followed several days of verification by forensic experts from Great Britain, Kenya, the United States and the UN. Hyttel said he was satisfied with the inspection process, and that a team of experts would prepare a final evaluation.

The drugs were smuggled into Kenya from South America. Previously, Asian drug traffickers had used Kenya as a transit point for narcotics, Hyttel said. He added that it would be "very serious" if drugs from South America started to be trafficked through Kenya.

Asked why it took so long to get rid of the drugs, the commissioner of the Kenyan police, Maj Gen Hussein Ali Mohammed, explained that the consignment was being used as evidence in proceedings at the chief magistrate's court. Six suspects, including an Italian couple, are on trial in Nairobi for possessing the consignment of cocaine.

The cocaine was confiscated in two raids on 14 December 2004. During the first raid, in Nairobi, the drugs were disguised as roofing material and packed in two shipping containers ready for transport to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. The second raid took place in the Indian Ocean coastal town of Malindi.

Kenya sets ablaze Africa's largest cocaine haul

March 31, 2006 Kenya (AND) By ebby ebby

Nairobi (AND) The US$900 000 cocaine haul which was confistcated by Kenyan authorities has finally been reduced to harmless ashes at intense temperature.

The 1.1 tones of cocaine was burnt in two incinerators at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) where harmless fumes of carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

The burning started at 10.10 am (Kenyan time) and the two incinerators were used concurrently.

Under high temperatures in the incinerators, the drugs were broken down into non-toxic compounds and ashes are to be obscured in a deep pit.

The KEMRI director Davy Koech assured the public that Gases emitted from the chimneys will not be dangerous to the environment.

Koech said one incinerator was burning at a maximum temperature of 900 degrees centigrade, burring 30 kilogrammes of cocaine in an hour while the other was burning at 1,200 degrees centigrade with a capacity of 75 Kgs.

It is a sigh of relieve for authorities dealing with the case.

Saying he was relieved from the 16 month speculation that the drug might have been tampered with, Police Commissioner Hussein Ali, urged the pubic to have confidence in the police force.

Normally, cocaine melts at 90 degrees centigrade and boils at 187 degrees.

At the scene of the cocaine destruction, the Nairobi Chief Magistrate Aggrey Muchelule, who presided over the case in which six people were charged with the trafficking of the cocaine, said the destruction was a judicial exercise and his court would be fully in charge at the site.

Having been packed in polythene, Biosafety department at KEMRI explained that the dark smoke from the chimney was due to the polythene used in packaging the cocaine.

AFRIQUE DU SUD :

What is Hamas doing in South Africa?

By Tim Hughes 31/03/2006 www.haaretz.com

"There will be cloudy weather over parts of racist South Africa," Zimbabwean TV weather anchors would forecast during the dark days of apartheid. Understandable perhaps, but bizarre. Fast forward to contemporary Israel and one wonders whether a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority will accept assistance in dealing with avian flu from the non-existent State of Israel?

Even during the apartheid era, the differences between the South African and Israeli context were greater than the similarities, particularly on the fundamentals. The South African state was universally regarded as illegitimate, yet internationally recognised, de facto and de jure, even by Zimbabwean weather forecasters. Hamas' non-recognition of Israel is of a completely different order in that it denies the right of the State of Israel to exist. Moreover, Israel lives under the constant regional threat of hostile undemocratic regimes and now proto-nuclear powers that seek its destruction and sponsor acts of indiscriminate terror against its people. By contrast, in supporting the overthrow of the apartheid regime, Pretoria's African regional neighbors sought justice and democracy for all the country's citizens, rather than the state's destruction.

Whilst Abu Mazen's official visit to South Africa starting this week has attracted little attention, Pretoria's invitation to Hamas has precipitated consternation in Israel. This is understandable. Responsible for some of the most heinous acts of terrorism, Hamas to date has rejected the international agreements signed with Israel by the PLO/Palestinian Authority and shows no signs of moderating its position as demonstrated by its failure compromise with Fatah to form a government of national unity. It is contended that as an Islamic fundamentalist movement, Hamas cannot compromise its fundamentals without changing the raison d'etre for its existence and there is little prospect of this as a party in power.

Thus Israel is asking of South Africa, "What is there to discuss with Hamas?" What can South Africa deliver that the infinitely more powerful and influential Vladimir Putin could not? Informed Israelis may well question what South Africa hopes to achieve in talking to such a party when its own policy of "quiet diplomacy" toward the Mugabe regime has yielded nothing but embarrassment for Pretoria and further suffering for millions of Zimbabweans.

Indeed there is a strong sentiment of dismissiveness and irritation in Israel at this middle-ranking country on the tip of Africa, with a governing party strongly affiliated to the PLO, "poking its nose in" where it is not wanted. For sceptics, South Africa's naivete and arrogance may have the unintended consequence of conferring recognition of Hamas' policies and positions toward Israel. South African watchers may also point to President Mbeki's own pretensions toward global statesmanship as the key to his personal involvement in facilitating dialogue between Palestinians and Israel.

Such is the case for the prosecution. There is, however, a different interpretation of South Africa's involvement that merits consideration.

Last week at a Foreign Press Association press conference in Jerusalem, former prime minister Shimon Peres contended that his and Kadima's approach to Hamas would be to first seek dialogue. Only as a second choice would a Kadima-led government carry out its four-year plan of disengagement unilaterally. Thus if the principle of dialogue is accepted and the policy of dialogue is the preferred option of a Kadima-led government, the same holds true of the international community and South Africa's desire to have a dialogue with the newly-elected government of the Palestinian Authority.

Secondly, like it or not, many South Africans have a deep and personal interest in the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular. The country boasts an influential, but ever-diminishing Jewish population of some 80,000. There are Jews in the cabinet and parliament, including the leader of the official opposition. South African Jews are highly prominent in business, the judiciary and academia. One is reminded of the links of South African Jewry when walking past Jaffa Gate, restored with the support of South African Jews. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon singled out South African Jews as particularly welcome to make aliyah.

But South Africa also has a much larger Muslim population of some 800,000, many of whom are successful, influential and enjoy strong and growing ties with the Middle East region.

Thirdly, given Israel's often fraught relations at the United Nations, it is worth considering that South Africa is likely to be granted a permanent "African bloc" seat on any expanded United Nations Security Council. Every state needs friends in the international community, none more so than Israel and Palestine. South Africa carries a disproportionate weight in multilateral fora and still enjoys a degree of moral political capital. This is not just derived from its successful transition, but because, since democratisation, it has been a leading advocate of anti-poverty campaigns, debt write-off, trade reform and diplomatic conflict mediation.

South Africa's testimony at the 2004 International Court of Justice hearings on the security wall aggrieved the Israeli government and its abstention from the recent International Atomic Energy Agency vote on Iran's referral to the UN Security Council was viewed as a sop to Teheran, or at worst, an act of hostility toward Israel. Yet South Africa's position was consistent with its approach to international relations, that is to seek consensus in multilateral forums and to oppose injustice, unilateralism and pre-emption.

South Africa's position on Iran's nuclear program was to await the full IAEA report before even considering a vote of referral. As the spurious grounds for invading Iraq demonstrated, being bulldozed or misled into adopting bellicose positions based on highly imperfect or manufactured intelligence is dangerous and counterproductive.

South Africa can teach Israel and Palestine nothing. It has no experience in territorial, religious, or fundamentalist struggles. For South Africans, suicide bombers are a TV image, not a daily threat. It cannot mediate, cajole, nor persuade. It has neither the leverage, nor the political repertoire, to influence the deep and stark realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With all his charisma and credibility as a figure of reconciliation, not even Nelson Mandela could make the desert of Israeli- Palestinian relations bloom.

South Africa is not viewed as an impartial (or even honest) broker by Israel and may even be viewed as a useful idiot by Palestinians. But what South Africa can do and has every legitimate right to do, is to share its story and to provide the protagonists a space for dialogue. Whilst South Africans generally understand far too little about Israeli history, fears and suffering, nor indeed about your particular struggle for identity, emerging from our past, we do have a degree of domestic success in conflict resolution, reconciliation, reconstruction and nation-building. Surely these are some of the issues that go to the very heart of the challenges that confront Israel today?

Tim Hughes is a research fellow of the South African Institute of International Affairs and currently in Israel.

AFRIQUE / U A :

East Africa's Drought Worsening Rivalries Among Nomadic Tribes Violence has increased as clans vie for scarce water and grazing land. The clashes have caused alarm in a region awash in grievances and guns.
By Edmund Sanders, Times Staff Writer March 31, 2006 www.latimes.com/news

OROPOI, Kenya — After waiting seven hours in the baking sun for a turn at the only cattle watering hole for miles, goatherd Lorumor Lokosen erupted when someone shoved his cows ahead in the line.

"Back! Back!" Lokosen screamed, beating the thirsty cows until they reluctantly gave way at the water trough to his goats. Seconds later he and the offending rancher were scuffling in the dust, cursing and swatting each other with sticks until bystanders separated them.

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"The fighting gets worse every day, and it's all over this little trickle," said herdsman Lolimo Lopie Epakal, flicking his hand in disgust through the dribble of water from a spring. "People are losing patience."

As East Africa's drought deepens, competition for scarce resources has fueled increased violence here among rival nomadic tribes forced to share a dwindling supply of water and grazing land in a region awash in grievances and guns.

The British aid group Oxfam International said ethnic-based conflict in northern Kenya was already at its highest level in nearly a decade and threatened to get worse.

This month, Uganda deployed army gunships to break up a cattle-rustling clash between a local tribe and raiders from Kenya. About half a dozen herders on both sides were killed, officials said.

In one of the bloodiest clashes, nearly 40 people were killed in February near the village of Lokamariyang, on the border with Ethiopia, after a Kenyan tribe drove its cattle into a pasture claimed by Ethiopians.

"If we don't get rain in the next month, it will become much more serious," predicted Father Bernard Ruhnau, a Catholic priest who has worked in the area for years.

Similar clashes have been reported elsewhere in East Africa, where the lack of rain is threatening nearly 8 million people with hunger if emergency food supplies do not arrive soon. In many regions, more than 80% of the cattle have died.

Concerns about violence are particularly strong in this bleak, unforgiving part of northern Kenya, where tribal grievances over cattle and land date back hundreds of years. The indigenous Turkana tribe has long-standing rivalries with neighboring clans in Kenya as well as across the borders with Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Exacerbating tensions is the abundance of guns. Tribes were first armed decades ago by colonialists and East African governments, which hoped the clans would provide a buffer against potential invasions.

More recently, proximity to rebel movements in northern Uganda, southern Sudan and Somalia have turned northern Kenya into a thriving marketplace for secondhand AK-47s and German-made G3 rifles.

Despite some recent disarmament programs, more than 60,000 weapons are believed to be circulating in Kenya's Turkana district, the equivalent of more than one gun for every man, woman and child, said local Oxfam manager George Otim.

Drought has forced nomadic communities to travel more than 100 miles in search of food and water, far from their homeland and into the territory of enemies.

In the village of Kalokol, on the shores of Lake Turkana, a dozen fishermen escaped the midday sun on a recent day under some weathered wooden planks. The shoreline has receded nearly a mile during the last year, they said, beaching dozens of rowboats and forcing fish into deeper water farther out. That has led to clashes with Ethiopian fishermen who share the lake along the two countries' border. A few months ago, two local fishermen were shot and killed on the lake by bandits believed to be from Ethiopia.

"Now we avoid that area," said fisherman Joseph Ekamate, 35. "It's not worth the risk of getting killed."

Sometimes the threat also comes from the shore as herdsmen drive cattle to the lakeside in search of grass. Desperate ranchers have raided the fishermen's camp while they were out in their boats.

"My father was shot last month when he was trying to return to the camp while it was being raided," Ekamate said. His father survived, but the bandits stole all the fish.

To the west, at the base of mountains separating Kenya and Uganda, families in the Turkana district have been hit hard by drought, but rivals in Uganda still have plenty of water and grass.

In December, about 600 Turkana families from Naproto village in Kenya were forced to trek west into Uganda in search of water. But when the Turkana women tried to fetch water at a borehole, they were stoned and chased away.

"This is water that belongs to Uganda!" a Ugandan tribesman shouted, Esinyen Lopidir, one of the Turkana women, recounted.

When they set up camp nearby, they came under repeated assault from armed Ugandans, who killed almost 10 clan members in two attacks and stole several dozen cattle, villagers say.

After a month, the Turkana retreated to Kenya. But now tribal leaders say they must return to Uganda, regardless of the risk.

"I don't care if I lose a child, or my husband — it is a desperate situation," said Akiru Lomukuny, a Turkana mother preparing for a return journey.

"We must go back," said Longole Morungole, whose cousin was shot and killed during one of the raids. He rested his hand on an aging rifle he said he had received from the Kenyan government. "If they attack us again, we'll fight until the last man standing."

East Africa: UN Relief Coordinator Arrives in Uganda On First Stop of East Africa Mission

UN News Service (New York) March 30, 2006

United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland arrived in Uganda today on the first stop of a nine-day mission to East Africa, which will take him to four countries that are suffering humanitarian crises due to conflict or natural causes.

Mr. Egeland, who is also the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, is expected to meet with Government, donor and other officials during his stay in Uganda while examining the situation of internally displaced people (IDPs) uprooted in the 20-year rebellion by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

A statement from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that after Uganda, he will then travel to Juba in southern Sudan for more consultations with officials and another visit to an IDP way station before heading to the conflict-ridden Darfur region of that country.

Mr. Egeland will travel to Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, and to a field location in Darfur where thousands of newly displaced people have fled, and then meet with the African Union, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and non-governmental organizations (NGO) working there, OCHA said.

Conflict between Government forces, pro-government militias and rebels has led to the deaths of at least 180,000 people and uprooted more than 2 million others in Darfur over the past three years, and from here Mr. Egeland will visit a Sudanese refugee camp in eastern Chad that houses some of those who have fled.

He will then return to Sudan for meetings in the capital, Khartoum, with Government and UN officials, including those from the UN Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS).

On the final day of the mission on 7 April, Mr. Egeland will travel to Nairobi, Kenya, where severe drought has affected 3.5 million people.

EA commerce body to facilitate trade deals
Friday, 31st March, 2006 By James Odomel in Arusha
www.newvision.co.ug
FORMATION of the East African Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (EACCIA) is a vehicle towards trade-facilitating arrangements the East African Community (EAC) has put in place through various protocols.

The EACCIA was launched recently in Arusha, Tanzania.

The function had various stakeholders like the minister for East African cooperation, Andrew Chenge, Tanzania’s deputy minister for East African cooperation Dr. Diodorus Kamala, EAC’s director general for customs and trade, Peter Kiguta, and Bjorn Soderberg from Spintrack, Sweden.

Board members like Olive Kigongo of Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UNCCI), Elvis Musiba of Tanzania Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) and David Githere from Kenya. UNCCI’s secretary general John Twinomusinguzi also attended.

Olive Kigongo said the chamber would enable East Africa lobby for creation of a conducive environment for cross border trade and investment within the context of the customs union.

“The chamber will dialogue with various organs of East Africa, governments and international institutions,” she said.

Chenge said, “The private sector is determined to be a leader in implementing the various protocols put in place.”
He said the duty of bodies like EACCIA is to create awareness among businesspeople about the above arrangements.

Darfur: AU troops gets funding
29/03/2006 - (SA)
Khartoum - Arab leaders reached a deal on Tuesday to provide funding for cash-strapped African Union troops in the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur, said officials at the summit.

The move came after Sudan pressed fellow members of the Arab League to reject plans for the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers to Darfur, where war, disease and famine had cost up to 300 000 lives in three years.

Announcing a deal after a closed-door session at the summit, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Arab leaders had also agreed to strengthen the AU force by providing troops from Arab states.

The move came after Sudan appealed for the 22-member Arab League to help strengthen the AU force in a bid to stop the plans by the UN security council to send its own peacekeepers.

Political, economic marginalisation

War broke out in Darfur in February 2003 after rebel groups revolted against what they said was the political and economic marginalisation of the region's black African ethnic groups by the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum.

The government responded by unleashing the Janjaweed militia, a force of horse-mounted gunmen, which had been blamed for many atrocities including systemic rape and the burning of villages.

The conflict in Darfur and a subsequent humanitarian crisis had also left an estimated 2.4 million displaced, but Sudan had long been opposed to a wider international role in the region.

Palestinian foreign minister Nasser al-Qidwa confirmed that an agreement had been reached to "finance the AU troops for a period of six months" or until the end of its mission, which was renewed in March.

AU troops may get $150m

He said Arab leaders had called on Arab African countries to send more troops to join the AU force, but had not yet made a decision.

Arab League chief Amr Mussa confirmed an agreement on funding, but declined to disclose the total amount that would be provided by Arab countries.

However, a diplomat close to the talks said an aid package of some $150m was being discussed.

The move followed a vote in the UN security council on Friday to speed up plans to deploy peacekeepers to replace the AU mission.

7 000-strong AU force deployed

But, Sudanese foreign minister Lam Akol had demanded Arab funding for the AU mission to block "attempts to hand over its tasks to international forces".

The 7 000-strong AU force was first deployed in 2004 and was being largely financed by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

The International Criminal Court had told the security council that it had enough evidence of killing, rape and destruction in the war-ravaged region to warrant bringing suspects to trial.

But, the Sudanese government established its own special court in June to try Darfur criminals and had vehemently maintained its right to handle the case domestically.

Pan Afrique: Initiative Ppte : la Banque mondiale approuve l'annulation de la dette de 17 pays pauvres
Le Potentiel (Kinshasa) | 30 Mars 2006 | Amedee Mwarabu Kiboko
Kinshasa

Dès le 1er juillet 2006 la Banque mondiale va éponger 37 milliards Usd représentant la dette de 17 pays les plus pauvres de la planète. Le Conseil d'administration de la Banque mondiale a donné son feu vert à cette annulation le mardi dernier. Cette décision fait suite à la demande du G8 de l'année dernière sur l'annulation de 100% de la dette des pays pauvres les plus endettés.

La Banque mondiale a approuvé mardi dernier l'annulation de la dette de 17 des pays les plus pauvres de la planète pour un montant total de 37 milliards Usd à partir du 1er juillet 2006, a annoncé à l'Afp un porte-parole de l'institution. Le conseil d'administration de la Banque mondiale, qui représente les 184 Etats membres, a donné son feu vert à cette annulation, accédant ainsi à la demande du sommet du G8 de l'été dernier sur l'annulation à 100% de la dette des pays les plus endettés.

En septembre, les assemblées annuelles de la Bm et du Fmi avaient approuvé l'effacement de la dette de 38 pays très pauvres les plus endettés. La Banque africaine de développement était également associée à l'initiative qui bénéficie essentiellement à des pays africains. Mardi, les administrateurs de la Banque mondiale ont approuvé un ensemble de mesures qui vont permettre la mise en oeuvre de cette annulation à partir du 1er juillet et étaler sur 40 ans, des sommes dues à cette institution. Elle s'accompagne d'un mécanisme de compensation dit «dollar pour dollar» destiné à préserver les capacités de la Banque mondiale à financer pleinement des projets de développement.

Les 17 pays éligibles bénéficiaient déjà de l'initiative d'allègement de la dette en faveur des pays pauvres très endettés (Ppte) instaurée en 1996 par la BM et le Fonds monétaire international. Ces pays sont le Bénin, la Bolivie, le Burkina Faso, l'Ethiopie, le Ghana, le Guyana, le Honduras, Madagascar, le Mali, le Mozambique, le Nicaragua, le Niger, l'Ouganda, le Rwanda, le Sénégal, la Tanzanie, et la Zambie.

Un autre pays, la Mauritanie, devrait pouvoir rejoindre ce groupe de bénéficiaires début juillet, selon la même source. Vingt autres pays, essentiellement africains, pourront profiter de l'annulation de leurs dettes auprès de la Banque mondiale dès qu'ils auront satisfait à la totalité des critères de l'inititative Ppte.

L'ensemble du paquet de mesures pour l'annulation de la dette doit encore être approuvé par le conseil des gouverneurs de la Banque mondiale, ce qui sera fait le mois prochain lors de l'assemblée de printemps les 22 et 23 avril, a encore ajouté le porte-parole.

Le Fonds monétaire international avait été la première des institutions multilatérales à approuver l'annulation des sommes dues auprès de ses services par les mêmes pays les plus pauvres, soit un total de 3,3 milliards de dollars. Ses administrateurs avaient donné leur feu vert le 21 décembre dernier.

Le Fmi y avait ajouté deux pays bénéficiaires, le Cambodge (Paris: FR0000079659 - actualité) et le Tadjikistan. La Banque mondiale a obtenu l'assurance du financement à hauteur de 60% du total du coût de cette annulation de dettes sur 40 ans, a encore précisé le porte-parole. Pour les dix premières années de la mise en oeuvre de l'effacement de la dette des plus pauvres, la Banque mondiale a obtenu la garantie d'un financement des compensations à hauteur de 75% par les pays membres de l'institution, selon la même source.

UN /ONU :

USA :

US impotence and lack of resolve in Sudan’s Darfur
Friday 31 March 2006 / Eric Reeves / Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063 / Email: ereeves@smith.edu /
Tel: 13-585-3326 / Website: www.sudanreeves.org

"President George Bush on Wednesday said that ’genocide has to be stopped’ in western Sudan, and that involvement by NATO should send a ’clear signal’"

By Eric Reeves

Mar 30, 2006 — In remarks that do far more to highlight US impotence and lack of resolve, President Bush went on to declare that, "’this is serious business. This is not playing a diplomatic holding game.... When we say genocide, that means genocide has to be stopped’" (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, South African Press Agency [dateline: Washington, DC], March 29, 2006).

Perhaps President Bush has forgotten that his administration made a formal genocide determination over a year and a half ago: on September 9, 2004 then-Secretary of State Colin Powell testified to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that "genocide has been committed in Darfur, and the government of Sudan and the Janjawid bear responsibility." The many hundreds of thousands of Darfuris who have subsequently perished, experienced violent displacement, rape, torture, and the misery of lives defined by fear and deprivation provide gruesomely abundant evidence that the genocide continues. These victims also make clear that the Bush administration does not really regard genocide in Darfur---and increasingly eastern Chad---as urgent or "serious business." In fact, all evidence suggests that the administration is indeed playing precisely a "diplomatic holding game."

Certainly if the President and his State Department think that a highly limited, finally nebulous commitment from NATO to provide transport and minimal logistics to an overwhelmed African Union force somehow sends "a clear signal" to Khartoum’s genocidaires, then we can be in no doubt that disingenuousness and expediency continue to rule US policy on Darfur. And there should be no mistake about the highly limited nature of NATO’s commitment. The word from NATO headquarters in Brussels yesterday was a strong re-assertion of previous declarations by NATO Secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer:

"NATO said it had agreed to a request by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to look at how it could provide support to troops there, but said there was no question of it intervening on the ground. ’No one is discussing, planning or considering a NATO force on the ground in Darfur. That is not one of the options,’ NATO spokesman James Appathurai told a regular briefing. ’We should look at this in the context of what NATO is already providing.’" (Reuters [dateline: Brussels], March 29, 2006)

What NATO is "already providing" consists entirely of transport lift capacity, as well as very limited logistics and training. This is certainly nothing that will change the calculations in Khartoum about how to continue with its genocidal counter-insurgency strategy, or how the regime might politically consolidate the effects of previous genocidal actions. It sends no "clear signal" to Khartoum that it must halt the genocide, but only confirms the regime in its belief that the Western powers are content to substitute words for meaningful action.

Moreover, de Hoop Scheffer has made it clear that NATO will not act without UN authority, precisely the authority that the African Union has recently refused to request. Instead, the AU (at its March 10 Peace and Security Council meeting in Addis Ababa) spoke only of a future handover to the UN---in six months---and this only "in principle." Further, the just concluded Arab League summit (revealingly held in Khartoum) pointedly rejected any UN authorization or deployment unless requested by the genocidaires who make up the National Islamic Front regime. This is the context in which to understand NATO’s position on Darfur:

"[De Hoop Scheffer] ruled out [ ] sending troops from the western military alliance to Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur province. De Hoop Scheffer said he believed that NATO could help in the region during the transition phase from an African Union operation to one led by the UN but only with a clear UN mandate. ’Then we can discuss a NATO role, which I do see in the enabling sphere and not the boots of troops on the ground,’ he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU defence ministers in Innsbruck, Austria." (Agence France Presse, March 6, 2006)

President Bush’s assertion that the "involvement by NATO should send a ’clear signal’" to Khartoum, like his previous declaration that there should be "NATO stewardship" for the Darfur protection mission, is mere political expediency:

"President Bush declared this past Friday [March 17, 2006] that a security force for Darfur will require ’NATO stewardship, planning, facilitating, organizing, probably double the number of peacekeepers that are there now, in order to start bringing some sense of security.’" (New York Times, February 17, 2006)

A month and a half later, and after thousands of additional genocidal deaths, there is no sign of meaningful "NATO stewardship." Again, NATO itself has offered only minimal assistance, and anything more is contingent upon a UN takeover in Darfur that evidently won’t occur for almost half a year---and which Khartoum is already actively working to forestall. The AU force currently on the ground in Darfur, desperately outmanned and outgunned, is overwhelmed by the violence, and daily finds itself less and less able to respond to the insecurity that continues to attenuate the humanitarian lifeline upon which millions of human beings depend.

Nonetheless, the most recent African Union Peace and Security Council Communiqué (March 10, 2006) failed to acknowledge these weaknesses, and refused to move toward an immediate UN handover. Moreover, the AU Communiqué is not only hedged by various contingencies and qualifications---so many as to make the document largely meaningless beyond a vague gesture toward a terminus date of September 30, 2006---it refuses to acknowledge the central shortcoming of the AU mission: that it has no useful mandate to protect civilians or humanitarian operations.

This refusal is simultaneously a function of sheer inability (the AU has neither the manpower nor resources to fulfill such a mandate) as well as the AU’s continued deference to Khartoum, which has allowed the AU force to increase in Darfur only on condition that the mandate not change. The official AU task remains the futile one of monitoring a non-existent cease-fire (one that, significantly, does not include the brutal Janjaweed militia forces). De facto expansion of the mandate by some AU commanders on the ground has made only marginal difference in the protection of civilians and humanitarians; the overall and rapid deterioration of security is obvious to all observers.

Humanitarian workers speaking (necessarily on condition of anonymity) to this writer and to a wide range of journalists, UN officials, and representatives of donor countries paint a terrifying picture of violent threats against themselves and their operations. Many thousands of square kilometers within Darfur (especially West Darfur and the Jebel Marra area) and in eastern Chad are completely inaccessible to humanitarian operations. And the size of these areas only grows. UNICEF reports that "increased insecurity has already prevented humanitarian agencies from teaching over half a million people [in Darfur]; if funding shortages continue, that number will only grow" (UN News Center, March 17, 2006). Insecurity in eastern Chad is too great to permit meaningful assessment, but at least 100,000 conflict-affected civilians---and very likely a great many more---are also beyond humanitarian reach.

Jan Egeland, the conscience on the UN, has also spoken explicitly about the humanitarian realities following from growing insecurity:

"As a result of [deteriorating insecurity], Egeland said, UN relief officials and relief organizations cannot reach more than 300,000 people on the Chad border in western Darfur and the central mountainous region of Jebal Marra because they are too dangerous. These unreachable areas, he said, ’will soon get massively increased mortality because there is nothing else but international assistance.’ He expected deaths to increase markedly within weeks." (Associated Press [dateline: United Nations], March 13, 2006)

Additional hundreds of thousands of civilians are inaccessible in South Darfur and North Darfur states. Egeland went on to declare that "Darfur is returning to ’the abyss’ of early 2004 when the region was ’the killing fields of this world.’ ’We’re losing ground every day in the humanitarian operation which is the lifeline for more than 3 million people.’" Again, in aggregate, UN figures---including those from the UN High Commission for Refugees---suggest a total population in need of approximately 4 million people throughout the greater humanitarian theater of Darfur and eastern Chad.

BUSH ADMINISTRATION POLITICKING ON DARFUR

This is the horrific context in which President Bush has chosen to posture about a NATO role in Darfur, evidently in response to the burgeoning civil society movement in the US. This dishonesty works in effect to politicize the Darfur crisis---taking it from the realm of a moral imperative, accepted as such across the political spectrum, into the arena in which partisan "management" becomes the chief consideration. Comments from NATO officials in Brussels make the point clearly, if not quite explicitly:

"Speaking on condition of anonymity, a NATO official told United Press International that the idea of the alliance dispatching ground troops to the troubled province was a ’non-starter with the Africans, a non-starter with the United Nations and a non-starter with NATO.’ Officials in Brussels also criticized the US president for sending out confused messages about what he expects from the alliance. ’Bush has been a little bit unclear in his language,’ said one, referring to the president’s call for 20,000 peacekeepers to be sent to Darfur under NATO`s command." (UPI [dateline Brussels], March 30, 2006)

In fact, even when Bush spoke of "NATO stewardship" for a Darfur mission last month, it was far from clear that there was any real commitment from within the administration (see my "What Does President Bush Mean by ’NATO stewardship’ of Darfur Crisis?" February 22, 2006 at http://www.sudanreeves.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=93). Notably, after the President spoke in February, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter declared it was "’premature to speculate’ on potential increases in US troops" (Washington Post, February 17, 2006). Privately, Bush administration officials make clear there is no intention of sending US troops to Darfur. The Pentagon comment comported precisely with a statement by US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack following a meeting several days earlier between Bush and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan: "’It’s really premature to speculate about what the needs would be in terms of logistics, in terms of airlift, in terms of actual troops. And certainly in that regard, premature to speculate on what the US contribution might be’" (Reuters [Washington, DC], February 13, 2006).

"Premature" would seem a terrifyingly inappropriate adjective three years into the first great episode of genocide in the 21st century.

During the month of February 2006, when the US was President of the Security Council, Bush’s ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, was unable to garner support for even a provisional resolution authorizing a UN peace support operation in Darfur. This US inability was certainly not lost on the African Union during its deliberations in Addis Ababa prior to the crafting of its March 10, 2006 Peace and Security Council Communiqué, which simply reiterated its previous (January 2006) commitment---"in principle"---to a UN handover, though with a time-frame that now extends to the end of September.

Nor does President Bush give any signs of appreciating the significance of Arab League support for