http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbThu, 18 Mar 2010 15:54:07 GMTBAGHDAD Thursday, March 18, 2010 (IRIN) - A housing project in Diyala Province, sandwiched between Baghdad and the Iranian border, could raise tension between Arabs and Kurds, observers say. BAGHDAD Thursday, March 18, 2010 (IRIN) - A housing project in Diyala Province, sandwiched between Baghdad and the Iranian border, could raise tension between Arabs and Kurds, observers say.

The local authorities in Diyala have approved the construction of residential units for 3,000 Arab families forced out of their homes in the predominantly Kurdish town of Khanaqin (in the northeastern part of the province) after the 2003 US-led invasion.

“I see no solution to the existing Arab-Kurd dispute, but it [the project] will further set the stage for more complications,” Saleem Jabir Hassan, a Baghdad-based analyst with The Peace Journal, a local weekly, told IRIN.

He said the move could lead to increased tension between Arabs and Kurds. “If this works then it will encourage other areas to do the same, and maybe it will culminate in forcing Arab families to move to such complexes.”

However, some analysts, like Munaf Abdullah Qassim, a lecturer at the University of Karbala, welcomed the move.

“There was Arabization in all Kurdish areas… There must be a fair solution for those Kurds who lost their homes and land, and help must be given to Arabs to help them find other places… This is one of the solutions,” Qassim said.

The Diyala authorities were recently approached by some Swiss companies to build 3,000 residential units for poor families in the province.

We accepted the offer and allocated land for the project, Diyala Governor Abdul-Nassir Al-Mahdawi told IRIN.

He said priority would be given to some 3,000 displaced Arab families forced from their homes in Khanaqin by Kurds who said the town should be part of their northern self-ruled region of Kurdistan.

Khanaqin is predominantly Kurdish, while most people in Diyala Province are Arabs.

“Arabization” policy

As part of its “Arabization” policy, Saddam Hussein’s regime drove tens of thousands of Kurds and non-Arabs from northern areas in the 1980s and 1990s, replacing them with Arabs from the impoverished south.

The Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) said in a 4 March report [http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004BE3B1/(httpInfoFiles)/B0DB25F7122F4390C12576DC003B49AF/$file/Iraq_Overview_Mar10.pdf] that after 2003 thousands of displaced Kurds, Turkomans and others began returning to the north, and Arabs were forcibly displaced.

According to a November 2009 report [http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004CE90B/(httpDocuments)/84B66500639FB3C9C12576CF003ACAED/$file/0216_iraqi_displacement.pdf] by The Brookings Institution - University of Bern Project on Internal Displacement entitled Resolving Iraqi Displacement: Humanitarian and Development Perspectives - before the 2003 conflict the displaced were estimated at one million, two-thirds in the north, and a third mainly in the south.

“There was a demographic change when some tribes were brought by Saddam Hussein to Khanaqin to Arabize it. Since 2003 the Kurds have forced them out of their homes and they are living now in [former military] camps and abandoned government buildings,” Al-Mahdawi said.

Meanwhile, observers have warned that rising tensions over disputed territory in northern Iraq could trigger further displacement, the IDMC report said.

sm/at/cb

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88465NAKIVALE Thursday, March 18, 2010 (IRIN) - A farming ban imposed on Rwandan refugees in southwestern Uganda is raising concerns for their food security, while proposed cash transfers could boost both food prices and theft, warn aid workers and local officials, who are urging the government to rescind the directive.NAKIVALE Thursday, March 18, 2010 (IRIN) - A farming ban imposed on Rwandan refugees in southwestern Uganda is raising concerns for their food security, while proposed cash transfers could boost both food prices and theft, warn aid workers and local officials, who are urging the government to rescind the directive.

"The situation with the Rwandan refugees remains unclear. They were stopped from cultivation so as to encourage them to voluntarily return home but the number of those who left is low," Festo Wafuta, the senior Ugandan official in the Nakivale camp, told IRIN. "As yet we do not have a clear solution from the government about the Rwandans; right now most of them are relying on food distributed by WFP [UN World Food Programme]."

The Rwandan refugees were last year given until August to voluntarily repatriate but only 5,000 left, while the remaining 16,000 went to live with nationals near the settlements but returned to the camps once the repatriation period ended.

"The food situation only got out of hand late last year when we had riots here at Nakivale; those who rioted were mostly the new refugees who had not cultivated their land; we hope the food distributions will continue until April when [WFP] cash transfers are expected to begin," Wafuta said.

He said government officials had recommended WFP continue supporting the refugees by distributing full rations to them.

"Without the food distributions, we run the risk of extreme hunger among some of the refugees, increased cases of robbery as well as increased hunting in the nearby national park," Wafuta said. "If this directive were rescinded, then life for the Rwandan refugees would greatly improve."

“Not a holiday camp”

Government Minister for Disaster Preparedness, Relief and Refugees, Tarsis Kabwegyere, said the ban on cultivation would not be lifted soon, adding that “if the refugees insist, we shall chase them or they can contact UNHCR [the UN Refugee Agency] so that they are relocated elsewhere.

“This is the government position. UNHCR knows about it and they should arrange with the refugees and take them to another country. This is not a holiday camp. These people were told that the conditions [in Rwanda] were conducive for them to go back home,” Kabwegyere told IRIN by telephone.

According to UNHCR, the refugee status of many Rwandans in Uganda may be lifted by the end of 2011, but only after various conditions have been met.

Cash caution

Stanlake Samkange, WFP country director for Uganda, said plans were under way to start a cash transfer system in April to help Rwandan refugees improve their livelihoods.

However, local officials in Nakivale said with a cash transfer food prices could rise dramatically as vendors will know the refugees have money.

Wafuta said: "This could also trigger an increase in incidents of robbery and house breakages as people look for the money the refugees will have received.

“We are also concerned about the refugees who sell the food they have produced; our efforts to regulate this have not achieved much. This has resulted in some refugees selling all their produce and in cases where the head of the house indulges in alcohol, the result could be hunger for the children and may also contribute to an increase in sexual and gender-based violence."

"We can't go back"

Most of the Rwandan refugees are ethnic Hutus. They said they feared returning home because of "hostility", insecurity and persecution by their neighbours and government officials who consider them to have been involved in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Glodetta Uwilingiye, 36, mother of five in the Kyaka II settlement, formerly from Byumba region in Rwanda, said: "I can't go back because there is no just law in Rwanda; my husband died in 2002. Who will guarantee my security if I return home yet my neighbours are suspicious of me?"

Since the farming ban was issued, she said, life had become harder and she was having problems keeping two of her children in school.

"I make about 1,000 [Uganda] shillings [$0.50] whenever I go out to do petty jobs for Ugandans or the Congolese refugees. This is not enough to buy food and pens and books for my children; they have had to stay home recently as I try to make more money," Uwilingiye said.

David Mugenyi, commandant of the Kyaka II settlement, said Rwandan refugees considered extremely vulnerable, such as widows, single parents, the disabled and child-headed households, were being considered for assistance as the government reviews the non-cultivation directive.

"We are human and we know that some of these refugees are living in difficult conditions, so we assist whenever we can," he said.

In the capital, Kampala, UNHCR said the government had agreed to revisit the decision barring Rwandan refugees from cultivating the land.

js/vm/mw

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88472NAIROBI Thursday, March 18, 2010 (IRIN) - Nicodemus Manyala knows he is HIV-positive and needs life-prolonging antiretroviral therapy (ART) to remain healthy, but fear of treatment interruptions has made him reluctant to start on the drugs.NAIROBI Thursday, March 18, 2010 (IRIN) - Nicodemus Manyala knows he is HIV-positive and needs life-prolonging antiretroviral therapy (ART) to remain healthy, but fear of treatment interruptions has made him reluctant to start on the drugs.

"Every time you listen to the radio or even read a newspaper, you hear there are no drugs for people like me... you hear they are not enough," the cobbler told IRIN/PlusNews at his home in the sprawling slum of Kibera in Nairobi. "I am told if you decide to take these drugs, you can't stop. What happens when you can't get them?"

The Kenyan government has been grappling with drug shortages following a court case http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86546 that held up the procurement of ART for several months; on 4 March, however, the High Court dismissed the case against the Kenya Medical Supply Agency, allowing it to go ahead with the purchase of drugs worth an estimated US$10 million.

"Now that it [the court case] is behind us, we expect to bring in drugs in the next three to four weeks to stem the shortages," said Irene Mukui, the ART programme manager at the National AIDS and Sexually transmitted infections Control Programme (NASCOP).

Even so, uncertainty remains about whether the government can provide ART to an estimated 7,000 new patients per month, especially in light of guidelines by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) that are likely to increase the number of people needing treatment, dwindling donor funding and squabbles between the country’s two health ministries.

New guidelines, no resources

WHO released new guidelines on ART in December 2009, raising the CD4 count - a measure of immune strength - at which HIV-positive people should start ART from 200 to 350. Research has shown that starting ART earlier reduces the rate of death and opportunistic disease. AIDS advocates http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88368 have already raised the alarm about the ability of developing countries to implement the new guidelines.

"The new guidelines will definitely come with challenges, especially in terms of availability of resources," Mukui said. "It means our resource requirements will increase by about 20 to 30 percent in terms of costs because it means more people will therefore qualify and will need to be put on treatment."

By end of 2009, Kenya had about 360,000 people on ART; even before the new guidelines kick in, the government has a funding shortfall of about $33 million for the purchase of antiretrovirals for this year alone.

"Other than dealing with more patients, which therefore means buying more drugs, we will also be forced to recruit more health workers to meet the demand, so the rapid increase will pose a great challenge," Mukui added.

Dwindling donor funding

Kenya is dealing with flat-lined funding from the US President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) and two consecutive rejections http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86969 by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria due to questionable accounting and management of funds. According to the Kenya National Aids Strategic Plan, Kenya will have a financing gap of about $1.7 billion for HIV prevention, treatment and care by 2013, taking into account new WHO guidelines.


The Ministry of Finance has promised to allocate about $1.3 million to the Ministry of Health in the next financial year for the purchase of antiretroviral drugs to supplement donor funding, but this will barely scratch the surface of the requirements.

Mixed-up ministries

NASCOP's Mukui noted that mechanisms had been put in place to ensure proper management and implementation of HIV programmes, while the government was looking at ways to bridge the gaps in AIDS funding. However, insiders at the two health ministries say until clear roles are assigned to each ministry, little progress will be made in coordinating the national AIDS programme.

In 2008, Kenya split health into the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation and the Ministry of Medical Services. Local media have reported wrangling over roles and access to financing – NASCOP, for instance, is divided between the two ministries, while each health ministry is headed by a minister from opposing parties of Kenya's coalition government. The National AIDS Control Council, on the other hand, falls under the Office of the President's Ministry of Special Programmes.

"Everybody wants AIDS money – the competition that plays out within the political circles finds its way in managing health issues," said an official at the Ministry of Medical Services, on condition of anonymity. "Positioning for these monies is at the centre of all these squabbles you see between these two ministries.

"We would be lying to say we can meet the universal access targets this year; we are not even halfway there," he added.

ko/kr/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88474JOHANNESBURG Thursday, March 18, 2010 (IRIN) - True to its word, the African Union (AU) has announced the imposition of sanctions against Madagascar's "de facto authorities" – exactly a year after Andry Rajoelina, backed by the military, ousted former President Marc Ravalomanana. JOHANNESBURG Thursday, March 18, 2010 (IRIN) - True to its word, the African Union (AU) has announced the imposition of sanctions against Madagascar's "de facto authorities" – exactly a year after Andry Rajoelina, backed by the military, ousted former President Marc Ravalomanana.

The AU set a deadline in February, and warned that it would target Rajoelina's government - known as the Higher Transitional Authority - if it failed to implement an agreed power-sharing deal that would create a transitional coalition with Madagascar's four rival political parties.

"Starting from 17 March 2010", the bloc would impose "a travel ban against all members of the institutions set up by the de facto authorities born out of the unconstitutional change [of government], and all other individual members of the Rajoelina camp whose actions impede the AU and SADC [Southern African Development Community] efforts to restore constitutional order," said an AU Peace and Security Council communiqué.

The AU said it would also freeze the financial assets of all those "impeding the AU and SADC efforts to restore constitutional order", and pressed for the further diplomatic isolation of Malagasy authorities in non-African international organizations, such as the UN. The AU and the SADC both suspended Madagascar's membership in 2009.

The decision affects Rajoelina and 108 others, including senior military officials, advisers and judges. The Higher Transitional Authority does not conform to Madagascar's constitution and is largely unrecognized by the international community.

Rajoelina publicly renounced the internationally mediated power-sharing and coalition agreements in December 2009, refusing to share power with the three other political factions, each represented by a former president - Marc Ravalomanana, Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy - and bickering over top government posts.

"I hope that these targeted sanctions will spur Andry Rajoelina into cooperating with the international community, and that they serve as a wake-up call," Ravalomanana commented in a statement on 17 March.

Beyond sanctions and reconciliation

Richard Marcus, Director of the International Studies Programme at California State University in the US, said it was uncertain whether sanctions and the international community's push for reconciliation would have the desired effect of breaking the political deadlock.

"We shouldn't ignore the erosion of trust between leaders, and recent Malagasy history. Ravalomanana and Ratsiraka did not share power in 2002 [when a disputed election led to months of violence]. Why, in the perspective of some, should he [Rajoelina]?"

"Everyone in Madagascar and in the international community wants to see an end to the crisis. The question the international community should be asking is: 'Do they [the four political leaders], in sum, represent the people of Madagascar?' It is far from clear that the four combined are representative."

Marcus said the mediation efforts were ignoring large influential groups in Madagascar, like significant regional leaders, a powerful private sector, civil society, entrenched church groups, a largely ethnically based aristocracy, and disparate military factions. "None of the four individually can deliver these groups, and it is far from clear that the four together can."

tdm/he

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88477SANAA Wednesday, March 17, 2010 (IRIN) - What mechanisms are in place to ensure that international aid reaches its intended recipients in Yemen rather than corrupt officials? How effective has aid delivery been hitherto?SANAA Wednesday, March 17, 2010 (IRIN) - What mechanisms are in place to ensure that international aid reaches its intended recipients in Yemen rather than corrupt officials? How effective has aid delivery been hitherto?

These are some of the questions aid workers and analysts have been asking as instability looms in the wake of widespread political turmoil and a faltering economy.

On the face of it Yemen has significant problems: Dwindling oil revenues; 250,000 internally displaced persons; growing discontent in the south; fears over increased Al-Qaeda activity; stubbornly high youth unemployment and a rapidly growing population; food insecurity; shrinking water resources - and many more.

Recent international aid conferences on Yemen - in London on 27 January and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) on 27 February - have attempted to address or prioritize some of these problems.

Ahead of the London conference, Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi pleaded for more international aid to combat unemployment and poverty which are seen as exacerbating the current political turmoil.

But, according to a September 2009 Carnegie Endowment report entitled Yemen: Avoiding a Downward Spiral, foreign aid is hampered by capacity limitations and domestic corruption.

“A major question for foreign donors is whether Yemen has the capacity at present to absorb more aid money,” the report said.

Former Finance Minister Saif al-Asali told the Yemen Observer in March 2009 that, in general, government institutions were not in a position to use effectively the money provided. “The government believes it can use the [aid] money through Yemeni institutions, but the donors believe that these Yemeni institutions are not [good] enough and unable to use the money effectively.”

A senior international aid official who requested anonymity said: “Aid and delivery of basic services to local communities is a major challenge in Yemen. There is no existing compact between government and citizens on the delivery of basic services funded by income tax… There is no system I'm aware of which tracks the flow of aid through to the point where it should reach communities.”

There needs to be greater decentralization of decision-making and budgetary control - to district level - if basic services are to reach the vast majority of the population, he said.

“International supporters of Yemen need to consider channelling more development funding through international and national civil society organizations, alongside its direct support to government and parastatal agencies.”

Absorption of development aid appeared to be related to the capacities of line ministries and the major Yemeni parastatal and civil society organizations, he added.

Corruption

Mohammed al-Dhahri, a professor at the Sanaa University, told IRIN aid money is often mis-spent by corrupt government officials, something echoed by another analyst.

"Development aid to Yemen is often stolen, misappropriated or diverted from the intended recipients… Without a new regimen of oversight and financial transparency, donor aid will have little impact on the lives of the neediest Yemeni citizens,” Jane Novak, a US-based analyst and expert on Yemeni affairs, told IRIN.

Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2009 gives Yemen a very low ranking (17th out of 19 countries in the Middle East and North Africa).

Mustafa Nasr, chairman of the Economic Media Centre, said international aid should be based on guarantees Yemen can give donors. "Corruption and the conflicts of interest of government members make it impossible for Yemen to make effective use of donor funds and local resources," he said.

Tribal patronage

"A small part of [international] aid is spent on projects and the remainder goes to senior tribal leaders in exchange for their allegiance to the state," al-Dhahri told IRIN.

“Support to tribal leaders has been a key element of the patronage system in Yemen for centuries… [but] the appropriateness and viability of its continuance in contemporary Yemen, particularly in the light of drastic recent falls in national revenue, has to be open to serious question,” said the above-mentioned senior aid official.

Commenting on how the US Agency for International Development (USAID) deals with corruption and patronage in Yemen, Murad Barakat, USAID’s democracy and governance specialist in Sanaa, said: “USAID does not work directly with the Yemeni government; we do not face any of these issues [corruption/patronage] directly. USAID implements its projects through implementing partners such as Save the Children, NDI [National Democratic Institute], UNDP [United Nations Development Programme], etc,” Barakat said.

“USAID also provides support to SNACC [Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption], HTB [Higher Tender Board], and COCA [Central Organization for Control and Audit] to improve transparency and credibility within these key government institutions. Currently USAID provides SNACC with a legal adviser to support them in selecting, processing and prosecuting corruption cases… There has been a certain amount of political will to combat corruption, mainly from SNACC.”

In February Transparency International (TI) launched a handbook to help aid groups combat practices that stop help from reaching the needy.

Some US$4.7 billion was pledged for 2007-2010 at a major donor meeting in London on 15-16 November 2006. However, according to some reports, less than 10 percent of that amount has so far been delivered, with donors concerned the government lacks the capacity to make efficient use of the funds.

ay/at/cb/oa

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88451YANGON Wednesday, March 17, 2010 (IRIN) - A lack of capacity on several levels is likely to hamper Myanmar’s bid to change its political structure, diplomats and analysts say. YANGON Wednesday, March 17, 2010 (IRIN) - A lack of capacity on several levels is likely to hamper Myanmar’s bid to change its political structure, diplomats and analysts say.
 
The military government this month took another step on the "roadmap" for what it says will be a transition to democracy when it unveiled laws for an election later this year, the country's first in two decades.

The government has said the roadmap, launched in August 2003, will lead to a "discipline-flourishing democracy".
 
Among the changes to be made will be the creation of a presidential system of government, a bicameral legislature and 14 regional governments and assemblies, which the International Crisis Group describes as “the most wide-ranging shake-up in a generation”. [http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6280&l=1]

But given the military's reluctance to relinquish its grip on power and the long suppression of democratic activity in Myanmar, diplomats say the transition will face significant challenges - one of the most critical being whether the public service has the capacity to sustain the change.

A top-down decision-making process and limited development assistance and exposure to capacity-building programmes are among the factors that would hamper the ability of the public service to sustain a transition.

"There is obviously insufficient bureaucratic capacity in Myanmar today to manage and implement a 'transition to democracy'," Trevor Wilson, the Australian ambassador to Myanmar from 2000 to 2003, told IRIN.

Lack of experience

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, when military commander Ne Win seized power in a coup.
 
The lack of experience with a genuine parliamentary government since has contributed to a situation where "democratic processes of decision-making - involving open public debate, meaningful consultation, and responsive and caring structures - were almost unknown”, said Wilson.

"These processes cannot be introduced overnight, but need to be learned and practised," he said.

"There are some excellent officials, with good technical knowledge and experience," said a British diplomat based in Yangon. "But the worry is that this is an ageing demographic, close to retirement," said the diplomat, who requested anonymity in line with British government policy.

"The younger generations, whilst committed and with a level of expertise, have lower qualifications and less experience or exposure," the diplomat said.

Centralised decision-making

Myanmar is ruled by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), where power is concentrated in a group of high-ranking military officials who maintain tight control over political decisions.

"The structure of decision-making, highly centralised, also has an impact on the effectiveness of the public service as a whole, and the ability and morale of individuals within a structure that does not encourage personal responsibility or initiative," said the British envoy.

Another Yangon-based diplomat said that while the public service had well-developed administrative processes, "considerable developmental support" in basic areas such as parliamentary services, public sector budgeting and policy development and application would be needed.

"Policy is issued in the form of orders and therefore tends not to have the benefit of cross-ministry coordinated consultation to ensure that the law itself is not in conflict with other policy areas," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Sanctions and international support

Unrealized public sector capacity is mainly due to chronic under-investment in education, but the withdrawal of international financial institutions (IFIs) has also hampered reform efforts.

The European Union imposed sanctions on Myanmar in 1996 and the US a year later, while international assistance has been restricted mostly to humanitarian programmes.

The persecution of Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi - who has spent about 14 of the last 20 years in detention - and the harassment of her pro-democracy party, were the underlying rationale for the move.

"The system is badly in need of restructuring and this can really only come about with exposure, technical advice and financial input," said the British diplomat.

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank blocked development lending to Myanmar as part of western sanctions, while senior officials only had limited contact with the organizations and opportunities to train and learn, said Wilson.

"Sanctions have made a bad situation worse by cutting off much normal contact and exchange with democracies," he said.

David Steinberg, director of Asian Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, said the gap created by the absence of IFI training programmes should have been taken up by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) [http://www.aseansec.org/], of which Myanmar is a member.

ASEAN "would be the logical place to have them and they should have begun long ago", Steinberg said.

But while sanctions are a factor, "the blame has also and fundamentally to be placed on the Burmese administration, which through thought control, censorship, and fear of alternative ideas has stifled creative thinking and scholarship", he said.

contributor/ey/ds/mw

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88455JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, March 17, 2010 (IRIN) - Madagascar's history is marked by a struggle for political control. The country gained independence from France in 1960, but since then it has been plagued by assassinations, military coups and disputed elections. Here is a timeline of the major events in the island's turbulent history.JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, March 17, 2010 (IRIN) - Madagascar's history is marked by a struggle for political control. By 1700, France and England had attempted to establish settlements, while the rulers of the island's many kingdoms fought among themselves for dominance.

During the 1700s the Merina ethnic group gained control of the central plateau and established a monarchy; with British help they eventually ruled most of the island. Their reign came to an end when French marines landed on the island in the 1880s and France instituted colonial rule.

Madagascar gained independence in 1960, but since then it has been plagued by assassinations, military coups and disputed elections. Here is a timeline of the major events in the island's turbulent history.

1946 - Madagascar becomes an Overseas Territory of France.

1947 - Thousands are killed when the French put down an armed rebellion in the east.

1958 - Madagascar votes for autonomy.

June 1960 – The Malagasy Republic (Madagascar) gains independence with Philibert Tsiranana as president.

May 1972 - Huge crowds led by students gather in Tananarive, the capital, to demand Tsiranana's resignation. Power is handed to army chief Gen Gabriel Ramanantsoa, who heads a provisional government.

June 1975 - Didier Ratsiraka, a military commander, becomes head of state.

December 1975 – Ratsiraka is elected president for a seven-year term in a national referendum. The country is renamed the Democratic Republic of Madagascar.

August 1991 - Mass demonstrations and civil service strikes start. Over 100,000 people march on the presidential palace and the presidential guard responds with gunfire and grenades.

October 1991 – Ratsiraka remains president but relinquishes power to Albert Zafy, head of the newly established High Authority of the State.

March 1993 – Zafy is elected president, defeating Ratsiraka.

April 1996 – Thousands demonstrate against Zafy amid calls for a military coup in the capital city, Antananarivo.

August 1996 - Zafy is impeached on allegations of corruption.

January 1997 – Ratsiraka makes a political comeback after the constitutional court finds that he won the presidential election in November 1996.

February 1998 – Members of the opposition, including Zafy, make an unsuccessful attempt to impeach Ratsiraka.

December 2001 – Ratsiraka faces Antananarivo mayor Marc Ravalomanana in the first round of the presidential election.

January 2002 - Daily protests pressure Ratsiraka's government for a recount of presidential election ballots. Madagascar's High Constitutional Court certifies that Ravalomanana got 46.2 percent of the votes and Ratsiraka got 40.8 percent - neither has the required majority of 51 percent. A runoff is set within two months but thousands of Ravalomanana's supporters take to the streets in protest. Ravalomanana calls for a national strike.

February 2002 – Ravalomanana declares himself president after two months of dispute. Ratsiraka declares martial law in the capital.

March 2002 - Ravalomanana forms a rival government and seizes the defence ministry - the last ministry controlled by Ratsiraka's government - and calls an end to the national strike. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) calls for a government of "national reconciliation" until a new ballot is held, but Ratsiraka rejects the proposal.

April 2002 - The Supreme Court annuls the disputed results of the December 2001 presidential election and after a recount hands the presidency to Ravalomanana with over 51 percent of the vote. Ratsiraka says he will not abide by the decision.

May 2002 - Ravalomanana is sworn in as president. The international community shows cautious support.

June 2002 - Ratsiraka flees to France. He returns and calls for fresh talks, but Ravalomanana rejects this.

July 2002 - Ratsiraka seeks exile in France, marking the end of the seven-month political crisis. In a show of support for the new administration, donors pledge US$2.3 billion in aid.

December 2002 - Ravalomanana's party, I Love Madagascar, wins 102 of the 160 seats in parliament in key elections, seen as a test of popular support for the president.

February 2003 – A former head of the armed forces is charged with mounting an attempted coup against Ravalomanana.

July 2003 - After a year-long suspension Madagascar is readmitted to the African Union (AU).

December 2003 – Ratsiraka, still in exile, is sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the 2002 political crisis.

May 2006 - Opposition parties boycott talks with Ravalomanana ahead of presidential elections to be held in December.

November 2006 - Tensions flare briefly when an army general's call for Ravalomanana to stand down ahead of presidential elections the following month is "misinterpreted" as a coup attempt.

December 2006 – Ravalomanana wins the presidential election with 55 percent of the votes.

****The most recent crisis****

December 2008 - Andry Rajoelina, Mayor of Antananarivo and owner of the Viva TV station, airs an interview with exiled former president Ratsiraka; authorities promptly shut down the television station.

January 2009 – Thousands take to the streets demanding a new government. Dozens are killed as protests turn violent. Opposition leader Andry Rajoelina calls on Ravalomanana to resign as president and proclaims himself in charge of the country.

February 2009 - Rajoelina is sacked as mayor of Antananarivo. At least 28 people are killed when security forces open fire on an opposition demonstration in the capital. The country's defence minister resigns. Rajoelina and Ravalomanana meet to resolve the crisis but talks stall. The AU warns it will condemn any unconstitutional change of power.

March 2009 - Soldiers in a military camp outside Antananarivo mutiny and say they will defy government orders to repress civilians. Madagascar's army chief issues a 72-hour ultimatum to the feuding political leaders to resolve their disputes or face military intervention. Ravalomanana proposes a referendum as a solution; fearing further unrest he resigns, ceding power to the military. Rajoelina assumes power with military and high court backing. The AU and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) suspend Madagascar.

April 2009 - Security forces clash with supporters loyal to Ravalomanana.

June 2009 - Ravalomanana, in exile in South Africa since March, is sentenced in absentia to four years in prison for abuse of office.

August 2009 - International mediators broker a power-sharing agreement in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, between Madagascar's political rivals who agree to create an interim government to end months of violence. A second round of talks in Maputo ends without agreement on who should be prime minister, or hold other key cabinet posts.

September 2009 - Rajoelina unilaterally names a new "unity" government, amid wide international condemnation.

October 2009 - Madagascar's opposing political factions agree to retain Rajoelina as head of the transitional government, but will not allow him to run in presidential elections. A consensus prime minister is appointed.

November 2009 - Madagascar's political rivals meet in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, and agree on a transitional consensus government until fresh polls are held in 2010. Rajoelina retains the presidency but is flanked by two co-presidents.

December 2009 - Rajoelina distances himself from the power-sharing deal, boycotts new talks in Maputo, and announces a plan to hold parliamentary elections in March 2010. Opposition accuses Rajoelina of stalling on implementing a consensus government.

Jan 2010 - Rajoelina snubs the African Union's top diplomat, and again rejects calls for consensus government.

February 2010 - Rajoelina postpones the parliamentary election until May. The AU threatens Rajoelina and his administration with sanctions unless the power-sharing deal is implemented by 16 May 2010.

tdm/he

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88457NAKIVALE Tuesday, March 16, 2010 (IRIN) - Umaru Swaray, 33, was a child soldier during Liberia’s civil war. Separated from his family, he walked for months crossing the continent to Uganda, searching for his family, who had escaped the war. He found them in Kampala in 2004 – on the day they were leaving for the Netherlands. NAKIVALE Tuesday, March 16, 2010 (IRIN) - Umaru Swaray, 33, was a child soldier during Liberia’s civil war. Separated from his family, he walked for months crossing the continent to Uganda, searching for his family, who had escaped the war. He found them in Kampala in 2004 – on the day they were leaving for the Netherlands.

Swaray’s parents and nine brothers had been granted refugee status by the Dutch government but their reunion came too late for him. IRIN spoke to him at Nakivale refugee settlement in western Uganda:

“My mother was holding me so tight in her arms and wouldn’t stop crying. I knew there was something she didn’t have the courage to tell me.

“We were too many, the government said. So I had to stay in Uganda.

“It was hard to hold back the tears while telling my mother not to worry about me, that it was for the best. That at least they would be fine.

“One day we will be together again, I told her. But I wonder if that will ever happen.

“I have learned a trade to make a living. I worked as a barber for some time in Kampala. But when I was threatened by a Liberian, the Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugees decided to send me to Nakivale to ensure my personal safety.

“I have lived here since 2008, in a mud hut which I built myself. I have a small garden where I grow cassava and other vegetables. This small house reminds me of the one I was in with my family in Bomi county, Liberia.

“Life is hard here. I don’t feel good here. I am the only Liberian in the settlement and as such I am isolated from the other people living here. I tried to mingle with the Congolese, my mother is Congolese after all; with Somalis and Rwandans, but everyone sticks to his own people. I have no friends.

“I wish I could find a single friend among them, someone to talk to. I wish I could at least do what I love, open a barber shop. But I am too afraid even to try. I am sure no-one would come to me. Here everyone goes to the shops of people belonging to their tribal affiliation. Why would they go to a Liberian?

“So the only thing I wish for myself is be able to join my family and have a normal life, just like everyone else.

“I was told this may not be possible. Since I am too scared for my life to go back to Liberia, I have no other option than to stay here. At least I feel safe here.

“I would go anywhere, anywhere, if I could find some peace of mind. Every man needs that.”

cp/eo/mw

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88440ANTANANARIVO Tuesday, March 16, 2010 (IRIN) - Madagascar's political deadlock masks an increasingly fragile humanitarian situation that will keep deteriorating if no solution to the ongoing crisis is found. ANTANANARIVO Tuesday, March 16, 2010 (IRIN) - Madagascar's political deadlock masks an increasingly fragile humanitarian situation that will keep deteriorating if no solution to the ongoing crisis is found.

A year after former President Marc Ravalomanana was forced from power by current President Andry Rajoelina and part of the army, the country is still without an internationally recognized government.

The African Union (AU) is set to announce what action it will take against Rajoelina and his administration, known as the Higher Transitional Authority (HAT), should they fail to implement agreed power-sharing measures - signed in 2009 with the leaders of Madagascar's three other main political parties - by March 17, exactly a year after the coup-style change of leadership.

Amid the political turmoil and economic decline, aid organizations are worried about a worsening humanitarian situation and diminishing capacity to respond to emergencies on the disaster-prone island - in the most recent calamity, tropical storm Hubert struck Madagascar's east coast on 10 March, killing at least 36 people and leaving some 37,000 homeless.

Dramatic cuts in public spending by a government struggling to deal with the combined economic impacts of a domestic political crisis and the global financial crisis has meant that basic commitments in sectors like health and education cannot be met.

"The one thing that ... [everyone] should be able to agree upon is that the longer the crisis drags on, the worse the economic situation becomes for the Malagasy people," said John Davis, Madagascar country director of CARE International, which works to reduce poverty.

"What has been difficult over the last year is that food security issues in the south have become more severe, and we have seen tropical storms and flooding affect some areas. As a result, we are seeing signs of declining livelihoods, but it is hard for outsiders to understand these various distinct and recurrent humanitarian crises and separate them from the political situation," he told IRIN.

Economic hardship

It's been a tough year. The World Bank noted in its February Programme Update that "the existing political situation and the global financial crisis are exacting a heavy toll on Madagascar's economy, leading to a decline in economic growth and job losses."

Falling demand for Madagascar's main export products, including vanilla, cloves, coffee and shrimps, has reflected the downturn in global trade. As a direct result of the political crisis, international donors cut non-essential humanitarian aid, which previously accounted for up 70 percent of government spending, the International Monetary Fund noted.

The World Bank put job losses at 228,000, mainly in urban areas and largely as a result of a sharp decline in tourism and the suspension of a preferential trade agreement with the US, on which Madagascar's textile industry had relied heavily. Up to 50,000 jobs are at risk as textile factories that can no longer afford to export to the US start closing.

According to the Bank, economic growth in Madagascar collapsed to just 0.6 percent in 2009, from 7 percent in 2008. The figures suggest that public investment is down by around 30 percent, construction by 40 percent, imports by 22 percent, and energy consumption by 15 percent.

Tax collection was down about a quarter in 2009, and a February brief by the Bank's Lead Madagascar economist concluded that "authorities need to get more out of each dollar they spend. The local economy has certainly been in recession since the second quarter of 2009 and perspectives are even more sombre for 2010."

Social hardship

Nearly 70 percent of Malagasy live below the poverty line, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). "In this context ... ensuring the basic rights of the population remains crucial," UNICEF said in a report released in February. "The situation presents a risk of increasing vulnerability levels, particularly of children and women."

With social investment estimated to have shrunk by around US$200 million, the corresponding cut in the health budget has brought the provision of basic services into question, in particular common inoculations like measles, tetanus, polio and BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin a vaccine against tuberculosis), up to half of which is paid for by the government.

"Our priority now is to monitor child vulnerability and to respond accordingly, taking into consideration the erosion of essential services for children," Bruno Maes, head of UNICEF Madagascar, told IRIN. The agency projects that expenditure on routine vaccinations will double in 2010 to plug the gap in government funding and ensure that children receive routine inoculations in 2010.

Continued support

Despite some donor disengagement the international community has remained remarkably supportive said Benoit Kalasa, acting Resident Coordinator for the UN system in Madagascar. "They have not abandoned the Malagasy population ... who have already paid a high price for political instability in the past."

The World Bank, Madagascar's largest donor, has processed no fund withdrawal requests since 17 March 2009, but "with a view to minimizing adverse impact on the lives of poor Malagasy citizens", the Bank had resumed disbursements for critical project components with a "direct bearing on human well-being", such as nutrition, HIV/AIDS and food security, the Bank said in its February statement.

USAID, another large donor, halted "development" aid but increased "humanitarian" aid. Richard Marcus, Director of the International Studies Programme at California State University in the US, who has just returned from Madagascar, noted that "very few donors have pulled out" completely.

Besides the money, it was also important that donors stayed "because it is relatively easy to ramp up funding if conditions allow when there is still an operating country office ... it can take years before new funding initiatives can be negotiated and the infrastructure for funding can be established," Marcus told IRIN.

Still, the reduction in project spending by donors is being felt, particularly in social sectors like education and healthcare, and "that pressure will increase dramatically in 2010," Marcus warned.

"The current government is surely under financial pressure", he said, and without external support from donors "It will be increasingly difficult to meet public salary demands. That is a priority in Madagascar, as civil servants are well organized and have a history of leading social action, particularly in the capital."

Breaking the cycle

Resolving Madagascar's political crisis is a long-term project that will take complex political reform and education. Since the beginning of the crisis the international community has taken the winding path of reconciliation between the island's current and three former presidents. An International Contact Group has been formed to broker dialogue between the parties.

"There were several factors that sparked the current crisis: first among them was poor governance, characterized by a collision between public and private interests [under former president Ravalomanana]," said Guy Ratrimoarivony, director of the Centre for Diplomatic and Strategic Studies, based in the capital, Antananarivo.

"This helped spark popular discontent at a time when Madagascar was also suffering from the global economic crisis. Rajoelina was a catalyst, the person that came to represent the opposition." He suggested that political dialogue should include national discussion of issues as complex as federalism and decentralisation.

"To avoid a repeat crisis, I believe the civil society should play a role, and that it is necessary to completely restructure the republic. We need to start from the base, to see what people want and what they attach value to," said Ratrimoarivony, who believes that Madagascar needs a new constitution to lay the foundation of a more stable state.

However, some observers say the strength of the civil society movement in Madagascar has historically been weakened by political bias. "Civil society is not independent, and successive governments have worked only with those groups that support them," Hanitra Rafolisy, president of the National Union of Human Rights, a platform for rights groups, told IRIN.

"The number of people out of work rises every day, the number of children not in school rises every day, and every day the security situation deteriorates," he commented.

Ratrimoarivony said finding a sustainable solution to Madagascar's seemingly chronic political instability could take many years. "Education is fundamental; we need education and time. This may take one or two generations, but we must start now to change the mentality of young people."

Marcus pointed out that "Every president since independence has manipulated the constitution to suit his needs. The populace appears, if anything, sickened by leadership, and perceive the problem as a battle between leaders from which they suffer, but of which they are not a part."

cc/tdm/he

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88447BOSASSO Friday, March 12, 2010 (IRIN) - In an attempt to deal with a growing influx of migrants, authorities in Somalia's autonomous region of Puntland are adopting new measures to stop people from undertaking the hazardous journey to Yemen, officials said.BOSASSO Friday, March 12, 2010 (IRIN) - In an attempt to deal with a growing influx of migrants, authorities in Somalia's autonomous region of Puntland are adopting new measures to stop people from undertaking the hazardous journey to Yemen, officials said.

"The problem of migrants is not going away and the Puntland authorities, particularly in the Bari region [Bosasso area], had to come up with a new strategy to deal with this problem," said Mohamud Jama Muse, director of the Migration Response Centre (MRC) in the regional capital, Bosasso.

MRC was created in April 2009, under the office of the Bari governor, to "register and provide counselling and assist" the migrants. Between April and December 2009, it registered 7,223 persons.

"This number is smaller than the actual number," Muse told IRIN on 1 March. "You have to understand, a lot of these people are not very trusting of authorities, so they never bother registering."

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 78,487 Ethiopians and Somalis crossed into Yemen from Somalia and Djibouti in 2009, of whom 685 died.

So far in 2010, 5,032 have crossed and four have died, said Roberta Russo, spokeswoman for UNHCR Somalia.

Learning to fish

Muse said the government had adopted a two-track approach. Apart from the MRC, security forces had cracked down on smugglers and closed the ports from which they operate.

"With the help of IOM [International Organization for Migration] we started a pilot project with a local NGO, Red Sea Fishing Organization [RESFO], in skills training and income generation, for 100 migrants and locals to teach them skills to make a living," he explained.

The group is taught how to fish, process the catch, repair nets and keep books.

"We are even teaching some of them to swim," said Mohamed Said of RESFO. "The aim is to provide an alternative to boarding those boats [to Yemen]."

The project aims to integrate the migrants into the community, said Ahmed Muse Mohamed, IOM officer-in-charge in Bosasso. "We want to create opportunities here for them so they don’t have to go on these dangerous journeys," he added.

Too weak to walk

"By the time they reach us they have walked over 1,000km and are dehydrated and almost starving," said Muse, and reports indicated some died on the way to Bosasso.

Abdi, not his real name, came from Ethiopia four months ago. He walked 760km to reach Bosasso, with the aim of going to Yemen.

He and six others had to avoid being stopped by security forces or attacked by bandits. "It is not a trip I would want to make again," he said. "It was too difficult and dangerous. By the time I arrived I was so weak I could barely walk."

He has registered with MRC but has not started the training yet.

Addis Tolosa, 30, an Ethiopian migrant who has been in Bosasso for a couple of years, went to Yemen but was intercepted by the Yemeni coastguard and returned to Bosasso.

He is now being trained by RESFO. "I don’t have the means to go back [to Yemen] so I am now in this training to learn how to earn a living," said. "As soon we finish the training I will get fishing gear and go to work."

Some locals, however, insisted they would still like to go to Yemen.

Mohamed Hassan Shire, 23, from the coastal town of Kismayo, 2,000km south, arrived in Bosasso six months ago. He said he left out of fear he would be forcibly recruited into a militia.

"I came here because I was not safe in Kismayo," he said. "People I knew died trying to get there [Yemen]. I know also that what I am doing is like flipping a coin, but I will try it. I have no other option."

More help needed

The former Puntland Bari Governor Muse Ghelle (replaced on 6 March) told IRIN he was determined to help the potential migrants. "With the very little resources we have we are trying but we need help," he added.

He called on the international community to increase its support to Puntland to help it deal with the growing influx of migrants.

Puntland would not be able to cope on its own. "We need more meaningful help from the donor community," he said.

Muse of MRC said the migrants needed emergency food upon arrival, temporary shelter, a health centre and a reception centre to receive them.

"Most of these people are economic migrants and when they come here they have exhausted what little they had, so it is important to at least have somewhere where they can get some help immediately."

ah/mw

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88405NAIROBI Friday, March 12, 2010 (IRIN) - Government troops - the FARDC - in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are to blame for much of the epidemic of sexual violence in the east of the country, according to US and UN reports detailing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity by various groups there.NAIROBI Friday, March 12, 2010 (IRIN) - Government troops - the FARDC - in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are to blame for much of the epidemic of sexual violence in the east of the country, according to US and UN reports detailing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity by various groups there.

FARDC is trying to rout the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR) and the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) from the Kivu region and Oriental province in eastern Congo, but operations have been criticized for their impact on civilians.

“Armed groups such as the LRA and FDLR commit atrocities that amount to grave breaches of international humanitarian law and, in some instances, may also constitute crimes against humanity,” according to the UN experts.

“In North Kivu, an assistance provider for victims of sexual violence recorded 3,106 cases between January and July 2009; half of these cases were perpetrated by FARDC members,” a group of seven UN experts said in their second report on the situation in DRC, submitted to the Security Council on 8 March.

Many of the FARDC troops used to be members of rebel groups who joined the army as part of peace initiatives.

In 2009, groups still under arms “continued to commit numerous, serious abuses - some of which may have constituted war crimes - including unlawful killings, disappearances, and torture”, according to the US government’s annual global human rights report, released on 11 March.

The UN experts added arbitrary arrest, forced labour and extortion to this litany of abuses.

In Dungu territory of Oriental Province, according to the US-based Enough Project, soldiers committed 116 rapes in a single neighbourhood last October.

“A particularly egregious case involved the gang rape of a pregnant woman by five Congolese soldiers near the market of Bangadi on 8 October, 2009,” it said.

FARDC commander General Leon Mushale told Enough the problem was isolated: “It is the fault of the man, not of the organization … we are dealing with the problems on a case–by-case basis,” he said.

“There is a correlation between peace and rape,” Bora Kawende, acting head of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) office in North Kivu, recently told IRIN. “During war, soldiers here commit collective, massive rape.”

Legal gaps

The UN experts’ report said impunity, absence of the rule of law and women’s subordinate social and legal position reinforced a climate of general acceptance and tolerance for violence against women and girls in increasingly militarized societies, such as eastern DRC.

"The application of the law is weak," Kawende said. “And if a perpetrator is sentenced, the government must have a good jail where he can stay,” she added. In Mbandaka, a soldier was sent to jail for rape, but could not be locked up because the prison had been destroyed during the war.

Congo’s military justice system, the experts said, had retained jurisdiction over most cases involving serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, but was weak and susceptible to executive interference by military or political decision-makers.

“The solution is justice, justice, justice,” said Esteban Sacco, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs (OCHA) in North Kivu. “There has to be a system that brings to justice those who commit the crime of rape.”

Speaking at a seminar in Goma, North Kivu prosecutor-general Mulumba Kifulya said arrests and prosecutions took too long, and many victims were too poor to pursue cases or preferred to keep quiet.

Involving men

The charity, Women for Women, called on men to help reduce sexual abuse. “In December, we held a seminar for 550 trainers of trainers, including soldiers, clergy, traditional rulers and local administrators,” Clovis Mulungula, sponsorship assistant, told IRIN. “In the seminars, we noticed that some men did not know the consequences.”

At least 1.36 million are displaced by violence in the Kivus, according to OCHA. In Hauts Plateaux, Uvira region of South Kivu, thousands of civilians have been trapped by conflict since February, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said.

"We heard from people who have reached our medical structure that there are many civilians who are afraid to come to the hospital,” Philippe Havet, MSF's head in DRC noted on 11 March. “They are in constant fear of being attacked.”

eo/am/mw

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88410NAIROBI Thursday, March 11, 2010 (IRIN) - Rwanda's upcoming presidential election has cast a spotlight on its democratic credentials, with observers warning that allegations of intimidation of opposition leaders could mar the process.NAIROBI Thursday, March 11, 2010 (IRIN) - Rwanda's upcoming presidential elections has cast a spotlight on its democratic credentials, with observers warning that allegations of intimidation of opposition leaders could mar the process.

"It is a very important event for our country because it is the second time we are electing a head of state," Chrysologue Karangwa, President of the Electoral Commission, told IRIN. "The people are preparing themselves for it."

Observers say the prevailing political environment restricts opponents of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).

“Rwanda needs to allow the democratic process, to create political space for everybody,” a Nairobi-based regional analyst, who requested anonymity, said. “Otherwise the elections will be a fait accompli. That will undermine Rwanda's democratic growth.”

Paul Kagame has been president since March 2000, after leading the RPF to power in July 1994 and ending the Rwandan genocide. The slaughter of more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus was by far the bloodiest chapter in a long power struggle between the minority Tutsis and majority Hutus.

In August 2003, Kagame won 95 percent of the votes in the first national elections since 1994. His main competitor, Faustin Twagiramungu, won 3.5 percent.

Kagame is widely expected to be nominated again as the RPF flag-bearer in the 9 August election, but recent incidents involving other potential candidates have fuelled concerns that the poll will not be fair.

Election questions

"It is very difficult to imagine any opposition candidates who can get a significant share of the votes," Thomas Cargill, assistant head of the Africa Programme at Chatham House, said. "The RPF dominates political life in Rwanda, but it is good for Rwanda to start going through the motions."

He warned, however, that elections sometimes delivered only a semblance of democracy. "Like Ethiopia and Uganda, the governments of the day need to maintain the strings of power in some kind of democratic process. So you need an opposition.

"These governments tread a fine line - allow the opposition to operate and field candidates, but in a way that does not readily give them any chance," he added.

Aid workers in the capital, Kigali, and in Goma, in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), are concerned about the potential fallout.

"A political crisis in Rwanda could trigger a humanitarian problem, including displacement across borders," an international security observer at an aid mission in Goma told IRIN. "There is also the unresolved question of armed Rwandan militias in DRC."

The alleged “lack of political space” in Rwanda is frequently cited by the Hutu diaspora, refugees and such DRC-based militias to justify their refusal to return home.

Karangwa insisted nothing would disrupt the polls. "I can assure you the forthcoming elections are going to be free and fair," he told IRIN on 10 March. "We are working towards that objective and are totally open."

Jean Paul Kimonyo, a policy adviser to Kagame, writing in The New Times newspaper of 9 March, said the country was on the right political track. "The issue here is how do you ensure political cooperation when confrontational politics will almost certainly lead to renewed violence?

"Under President Kagame’s leadership, Rwanda has persistently ensured ownership of its nation building process by its citizens. It is much more challenging but certainly more promising."

Impressive gains

Rwanda has, since 1994, recorded impressive gains towards the Millennium Development Goals, according to the UN Development Programme. Primary school enrolment, for example, is now 97 percent of all school-going age children.

Family planning, according to the World Bank, has tripled in the last three years, while assisted deliveries have increased from 39 to 52 percent. The use of insecticide-treated nets is up by 70 percent, and under-five mortality has fallen by 30 percent.

Policies and laws that guarantee equal opportunities for men and women, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, have resulted in Rwanda holding a world record of women parliamentarians: 56.3 percent, just ahead of Sweden at 46.4 percent.

This year, according to Finance and Economic Planning Minister John Rwangombwa, the economy should grow by 7-8 percent, up from 5.5 percent in 2009.

Nevertheless, Rwanda “needs to open up and encourage past wounds to heal positively”, a diplomat in the capital, Kigali, told IRIN. Advocacy groups claim a lack of respect for basic political and human rights, and harassment of perceived political opponents.

According to the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), an Indian NGO, article 13 of Rwanda’s constitution, which makes it an offence to engage in “revisionism” or “negationism” [denial of genocide], has been “broadly defined to include anyone who disagrees with the ruling RPF’s account of the genocide”.

"CHRI is deeply concerned at the continued restrictions and threats to opposition parties in the run-up to Rwanda’s Presidential elections,” it said in 6 March statement.

Referring to a 25 February warning by the security ministry that politicians who “slander the country” or are “against public unity” would be punished, it called for “immediate steps to ensure respect for the basic, universal rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly of opposition parties”.

Attacks on opponents

The 3 February attack on Victoire Ingabire, president of the United Democratic Forces party, and her aide Joseph Ntawangundi, by a mob in Kigali was the most visible example of opposition harassment so far, the Nairobi analyst said. Attacked while reportedly collecting party registration documents, she reportedly lost her passport, while Ntawangundi was severely beaten.

Ingabire returned to Rwanda in January, after living in Europe for 16 years. During a visit to the Gisozi Genocide memorial site, she upset survivor groups by alluding to the killing of Hutus, 85 percent of the population.

The day after the attack on Ingabire, Frank Habineza, president of the Green Party, reported being threatened. Earlier, the leader of the Ideal Social Party, Bernard Ntaganda, was called before the senate to answer accusations relating to propagation of genocide ideology.

Soon after, local government minister James Musoni warned politicians "who violate the constitution and the rule of law by politicking along ethnic lines. Whatever they do should not be a stumbling block to people's peace, unity and security," he said in a press statement.

“Politicians and all those who wish to practise politics are not allowed to do anything that undermines the sovereignty of Rwanda and its citizens."

The attack on Ingabire, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said, “appeared to have been well coordinated, suggesting it had been planned in advance”.

"The Rwandan government already tightly controls political space," said Georgette Gagnon, HRW’s Africa director. "These incidents will further undermine democracy by discouraging any meaningful opposition in the elections. On several occasions, the government has used accusations of participation in the genocide or ‘genocide ideology’, as a way of targeting and discrediting its critics.”

Karangwa denounced HRW. "That woman has not been beaten, not at all," he told IRIN. "I do not believe the entire Human Rights Watch report. In our country there is no intimidation or harassment of opposition leaders."

Kigali resident Joseph Barigye said Ingabire had "provoked" people. "The memories [of the genocide] are still fresh, so one needs to talk to people carefully," he told IRIN. "And that is the reason Kagame will win again."

Silencing critics

Ingabire, in an interview with The EastAfrican newspaper on 15 February, said: “Kagame's government is not ready to accept opposition. This is why they sent young men to beat me and my aide two weeks ago - which was a true reflection of the lack of democracy and freedom of expression in Rwanda.

“This treatment extends to all opposition politicians,” she added. “We are not enemies. Instead, he uses the genocide ideology against us. The genocide took place 16 years ago and now is the time for democracy.”

Kagame told a recent news conference that Ingabire had "gone too far in abusing the country’s goodwill in attempting to destroy [Rwanda’s] positive steps", but "whoever tries to act in contradiction to what the laws say will not be given room".

Meanwhile, there are concerns about Kagame’s relations with the media after he publicly accused unnamed journalists of conspiring with two former military officers he accused of carrying out two recent grenade attacks in the capital.

“Kagame’s televised warnings will help silence critics prior to the August presidential election," wrote Tom Rhodes, Africa programme coordinator of the Committee to Protect Journalists, on the organization’s website.

“With pro-government media outlets outweighing the country’s beleaguered private press, the chances of balanced election coverage are now slimmer than ever,” he added.

Chatham House’s Cargill said Rwanda's past had to be put in context. "There are clearly some authoritarian tendencies within the Rwandan state, but Rwanda is coming from a place few countries have to been in recent years," he told IRIN. "Still, there is a need for balance because the government is using all the advantages of incumbency."

eo/am/mw

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88392LUSAKA Thursday, March 11, 2010 (IRIN) - Parity Zulu, 17, constantly recited a Biblical verse asking God for protection from her persecutors while her mother ferried her to hospital following complications from the teenager's illegal abortion.LUSAKA Thursday, March 11, 2010 (IRIN) - Parity Zulu, 17, constantly recited a Biblical verse asking God for protection from her persecutors while her mother ferried her to hospital following complications from the teenager's illegal abortion.

Her mother, Margaret, was unaware that her daughter had paid K350,000 (US$74) for a back-street abortion three days earlier. "All the way to the hospital I asked my child what happened. She wouldn't tell me. Then she began to sing Psalm 57, a cry for help. I began to suspect she was aborting a pregnancy," she told IRIN.

At the hospital's emergency admission desk, Zulu's medical condition was immediately apparent to Nurse Serephina Moonde. "I can tell a botched abortion as they come in through the doors - on average I see up to ten new patients a day. Women and young girls coming in, bleeding - sometimes we can save them; other times, like in Parity's case, it's too late - their wombs are rotting and they have lost too much blood."

Moonde said she had seen the results of the horrific methods women sometimes used to induce abortion: drinking crushed glass boiled with coca-cola, inserting crudely sharpened wooden sticks into the cervix, taking heavy doses of anti-malaria tablets, and even ingesting poisons such as battery acid.

Zambia's maternal mortality rate of 591 per 100,000 live births is one of the highest in the world, according to the 2008 Demographic Health Survey (DHS), the most recent.

One-third of maternal deaths are thought to be the result of abortion, but a shocking statistic is that 80 percent of the women who die from abortions are under the age of 19.

Abortion law

The Zambian Termination of Pregnancy Act 1972 is based on British colonial legislation, which permits abortion when continuation of the pregnancy can be proved to be detrimental to the mother, or the child, or both.

The law states that those wanting a termination must seek the consent of three physicians, but this requirement may be waived, if the abortion is deemed an emergency, to save the woman's life or prevent grave permanent injury to her physical or mental health.

In 2009 the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in the capital, Lusaka, the country's largest medical facility, recorded 5,295 abortions, of which 5,246 were a consequence of incomplete abortions; 31 women died as a result of complications.

Only nine terminations of pregnancies were performed at UTH in 2009, according to the provisions of the law, down from the 2008 figure of 126 legally performed terminations.

Dr Peter Mwaba, UTH's managing director, told IRIN that the hospital was a place of last resort, and the statistics did not include women seeking help for complications from an abortion at other public or private clinics.

He said many women did not have access to effective contraception, and there were gender inequalities as well as deeply entrenched stigmas around abortion, which contributed to women practicing self-abortion or seeking other unsafe procedures. Women seeking to terminate pregnancies were also making use of the greater availability of a variety of drugs at pharmacies and private clinics.

It was the attempts to procure abortions this way [unsafely] that brought on the complications - it was basically guesswork, and that was why women arrived at hospitals "half dead", he said.

Holo Hachoonda, a clinical director at the Planned Parenthood Association (PPAZ), told IRIN that many health practitioners did not understand the abortion law, and were reluctant to provide these services.

"People still do not see abortion as a right backed by law. They still also have not gotten used to the thinking that a woman has rights over her own body, and can make decisions about something like abortion," he said.

Mary Beth Jones, 46, decided to seek an abortion after falling pregnant with her fifth child. At the clinic she was asked why, as a married woman who had no health issues, she wanted an abortion. Had she had committed adultery?

"They wanted me to tell my husband, go through couple counselling, etc. I also felt they were judging me, and I was afraid that there would be no confidentiality, as we were being lumped together like naughty children and lectured. I can imagine how horrible it must be for a young girl seeking an abortion," she told IRIN.

Jones resorted to a herbal remedy from a traditional healer to induce a miscarriage. "I haemorrhaged so badly I ended up in hospital and had to have my womb removed. Needless to say, I am now a divorcee."

Religious barriers

In an effort to improve the efficacy of the Act, in June 2009 the government launched the Standards and Guidelines for Reducing Unsafe Abortion Morbidity and Mortality in Zambia, for interpreting the 1972 legislation.

The guidelines provided for abortions to be performed in the interests of a women's physical or mental health; nurse practitioners had been trained to provide medical abortions and first-trimester abortions; women no longer had to stay overnight in hospital after the procedure. Family planning services, including abortion services, have been extended throughout the country.

However, the biggest challenges to abortion are the deeply held religious views that think girls engage in sex when they should not, and see abortion as a sign of promiscuity.

Zambia's more than 11 million people are predominantly Roman Catholic, but conservative evangelical churches have grown considerably in recent years; in combination these represent a formidable degree of social disapproval of terminating pregnancy.

Suzanne Matale, Secretary-General of the Christian Council of Zambia (CCZ), the Catholic Church's mother body in Zambia, told IRIN that life began at conception. "There are no grey areas, no room for discussion. We condemn abortion. It's an absolute no-no."

Government spokesman Ronnie Shipakwasha, a Pentecostal church elder, told IRIN the abortion law would not be touched until there had been wide consultations with medical authorities, policy-makers and religious bodies.

He did not provide a timeframe, and there has been no call for this dialogue; he said the law, read in conjunction with the guidelines, was sufficient to ensure safe abortions.

"We just need to make this information available," he said. "We are a Christian country, so the church's teachings on morality are a major factor in how we deal with the issues of abortions."

zg/go/he

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88393HANOI Tuesday, March 09, 2010 (IRIN) - Serious efforts are under way to respond to the impact of climate change in Vietnam but a lack of capacity and resources remains a challenge, experts say.HANOI Tuesday, March 09, 2010 (IRIN) - Serious efforts are under way to respond to the impact of climate change in Vietnam but a lack of capacity and resources remains a challenge, experts say.

Vietnam has been identified as one of 12 countries at highest risk from climate change and is the most threatened by rising sea levels, according to World Bank studies. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=85179]

UN-cited data on global climate change and model studies show that Vietnam is at increased risk of floods and droughts, saline intrusion and increased health risks from heat waves, dengue fever and malaria.

However, experts say the government has acted quickly and is leading neighbouring countries such as Cambodia and Laos in trying to create policies to respond to climate change.

The National Target Programme (NTP) was approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in December 2008, and began implementation last year.

“Vietnam is to be commended for having pulled this off so quickly,” Koos Neefjes, policy adviser on climate change at the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam, told IRIN.

Coordinated by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), the NTP is intended to help develop an overall climate change strategy, including goals for adaptation and the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.

The document lays out responsibilities for ministries and government agencies and asks all cities and provinces to devise their own climate change action plans by the end of this year, to be implemented by 2015.

It also aims to assess climate change impacts and ensure assessments are incorporated into development and investment plans.

Challenges

Vietnam is home to two major fertile plains, the Mekong Delta and Red River Delta, key agricultural areas and home to 40 percent of the country’s 86.2 million inhabitants.

They were identified as the most vulnerable areas in a November 2009 government report [http://www.roap.unep.org/pub/VTN_ASS_REP_CC.pdf] supported by the UN Environment Programme, which stated that more than one-third of the Mekong Delta could be submerged if sea levels rose by 1m.

Nine of the 10 provinces in Vietnam likely to be worst hit are in the Mekong Delta, but the effects on Ho Chi Minh City could be equally devastating.

Besides hosting potential climate change “refugees” from the Mekong Delta, infrastructure and housing would be damaged in the city, energy demands would increase, as would vector-borne diseases, experts say.

Vietnam is well-versed in water management because of a history of disasters such as floods, but there are questions over its capacity to fully implement policies, they say.

“The policy frameworks are very good. [The problem is] the capacity in government agencies to pick up on policy commitments. It’s not only skills,” said Jeremy Carew-Reid, director of the Australia and Vietnam based-International Centre for Environmental Management (ICEM) consultancy [http://www.icem.com.au/index.htm]. There are possible hurdles in multi-tiered government with 58 provincial administrations.

“The challenge is to do the planning of the sectors [such as agriculture] as well as the planning in provinces,” said Nguyen Van Kien, climate change adviser to the UK Department for International Development (DFID) in Vietnam.

Strong coordination between sectors and effective oversight are needed at a national level, while capacity, technical expertise and awareness of climate change varies from ministry to ministry, according to a UN discussion paper on Vietnam and climate change released in December 2009. [http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MDCS-7YCJ3Y?OpenDocument]

“Provinces and lower-level authorities must rapidly develop their action plans to respond to climate change too, which will also require large-scale awareness raising and capacity-building efforts,” it says.

Funding questions

The government said last month it needed US$3-$5 billion until 2015 to respond to climate change.

“To protect Vietnam’s deltas and coastal regions from … sea level rise and related saline water intrusion, large investments in research and design are needed, followed by investments on an unprecedented scale.”

For the NTP, the government is aiming for foreign and private sector capital to comprise 60 percent of the funds needed for the activities outlined.

However, experts say it will be difficult to attract private sector funding for adaptation or mitigation measures. Meanwhile, Vietnam also needs to develop the capacity to access international financing available for climate change adaptation.

“Vietnam still needs to raise the money itself,” said UNDP’s Neefjes. “The high economic growth the country is experiencing is the magic bullet. Vietnam realizes it will have to rely on itself. If you can keep the economic growth up, the money will flow in the right direction.”

hc/ey/mw

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88362BOSASSO Monday, March 08, 2010 (IRIN) - A long civil war, frequent droughts, unemployment and high food prices have led to an increase in the number of street children in Bosasso, the commercial capital of Somalia’s self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, with NGOs and government officials calling for urgent steps to resolve the problem. BOSASSO Monday, March 08, 2010 (IRIN) - A long civil war, frequent droughts, unemployment and high food prices have led to an increase in the number of street children in Bosasso, the commercial capital of Somalia’s self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, with NGOs and government officials calling for urgent steps to resolve the problem.

"In the past, most of the children on the streets of Bosasso were from south-central Somalia," said Muse Ghele, governor of Bari region. "Now we are noticing more and more locals both from urban and rural areas.”

Between 4,500 and 5,500 children are on Bosasso's streets, according to the governor.

Abdulaziz Mohamed Hamud, child protection consultant with OxfamNovib, told IRIN: “You have to understand that numbers of street children are estimates and could be even higher... There are no exact figures but the numbers seem to be increasing daily."

Young providers

The children, according to Abdihakim Farah Arush, chairman of the Bari Child Protection Network (BCPN), fall into two categories: those who work to help their families, mostly local and internally displaced (IDPs) who go home at night; as well as those who sleep on the street, mostly substance abusers.

The reasons for the children being on the street vary, he said. Many of those from south-central Somalia were separated from their families on their way north while others end up on the streets to help their families, or fend for themselves.

Shoe-shining and car-washing, serving as porters or washing sacks in the market are the jobs of most of the street boys in Bosasso.

Arush said while most street children were boys, more and more girls were joining them, cleaning business premises or people’s homes. Some children as young as two or three were put on the streets to beg by desperate families.

Hamud of OxfamNovib said most of the children suffered abuse and physical violence. "Many of them have the scars as proof. On the street at night they are easy prey with no one to protect them."

Risks

Many have been infected with "all sort of diseases, such as TB, skin diseases; while many others suffer from malnutrition. Most don’t know what they suffer from," Hamud added.

Abdullahi Said, 12, is on the street because he has to help his mother with his three younger siblings. He collects garabo (leftover khat) and sells it to those who cannot afford the good khat or he shines shoes. On average, he takes home 30,000 Somali shillings (about US$1) a day.

"What I make from garabo and shining shoes is what I take home to help my mother feed us,” he told IRIN. Said’s father died in 2009 so the responsibility of helping his mother care for the family fell on him.

“My mother used to go to the market and do any job she could find but now she cannot even do that. She just had the baby,” he said.

There are no agencies that help the street children directly, said Hamud.

Arush’s agency is part of a child protection network in Puntland. "Unfortunately we cannot provide material support but we advocate for them and when we get information that they are in trouble we try to intervene,” Arush said.

Hamud said a lot more was needed to help the children. "First, serious assessments need to be carried out to determine the extent of the problem,” he said. Many of the older children were turning to crime. “They not only pose a security, but also a social, risk. We need to address their needs as a matter of great urgency.”

Legal intervention needed

He said Puntland should have a separate juvenile justice system to deal with child offenders. “Now, children arrested by the police end up in the same cells as adults, where they are vulnerable to abuse.”

He said those involved in child protection were trying to lobby the legislature for a Juvenile Justice Law, aimed at guaranteeing children's rights, so that children would no longer be kept in jail with adults or tried in adult courts.

“Agencies and local authorities should do everything possible to provide them with an alternative to the streets.”

Governor Ghele said the authorities had identified a site to build a home for the children but did not have the financial resources to build and operate it. "We need a lot of support if we are going to put them in safe homes," he said.

ah/mw

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88351LOMÉ Sunday, March 07, 2010 (IRIN) - An empty market, tightened security and a general wariness of possible violence have greeted the announcement of President Fauré Gnassingbé’s re-election, pending constitutional court approval, with 61 percent of the two million votes cast on 4 March. LOMÉ Sunday, March 07, 2010 (IRIN) - An empty market, tightened security and a general wariness of possible violence have greeted the announcement of President Fauré Gnassingbé’s re-election, pending constitutional court approval, with 61 percent of the two million votes cast on 4 March.

Business at the largest market in the capital, Lomé, has slowed after anxious merchants shuttered their stands. “I am waiting to see how the country will be after results are announced to continue my work in the market,” fish vendor, Da Vivi, told IRIN. “Since Friday [5 March] I have not been to the market because I do not know what will happen. My life is more important than money.”

Demonstrations were quickly dispersed with tear gas during the vote count and again on 7 March. There have not been reports of excessive use of force, according to local human rights groups. Hotlines set up to report poll violence remained silent.

President Gnassingbé was elected in a 2005 contested poll that led to a bloody security crackdown, hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands of Togolese fleeing to neighbouring countries, according to the UN.


Photo: Etonam Ahianyo/ IRIN
Lomé's largest market was empty on 7 March during an electoral row
Leading opposition candidate, Jean-Pierre Fabre, told IRIN on 7 March that his party, the Union of Forces for Change, will dispute the vote with daily demonstrations. “We will launch a popular uprising until victory is ours.” Even though counting has proceeded publicly, this has not stemmed the opposition’s accusations of fraud. “They [ruling party] want to hide the real results to put forth false ones. And we will not accept it,” Fabre told IRIN.

The ruling party has dismissed claims of fraud as “fantasies from the opposition to foment violence” in the country’s most closely observed election since Togo started holding multi-party elections in 1993. There were more than 3,000 local and international election observers covering almost 6,000 voting stations.

A newly formed youth group – Citizen Movement for Change – claiming hundreds of members trained in “democracy vigilance” is ready to take to the streets, said one of its leaders, Guillaume Messan. “People of Togo, if you love your country and are ready to die for it, know that the time has come to fight for the liberation of your country,” he told IRIN on 6 March.

A political and security professor at the University of Lomé, Sodokin Koffi, told IRIN how the armed forces responds to these threats and any eventual outbreak will determine if lives are lost. “The security forces were trained before the elections and I hope they use conventional methods [to put down violence] that we have seen [used] elsewhere so the worst cannot happen.”

Relief workers have been trained in every potential election outcome, Togolese Red Cross director of relief services, Amah Victor Sodogas, told IRIN. “We went through simulation exercises in January and have been on alert. Given the tension, anything can happen and we are ready.”

ea/pt/ci

/// This article includes updates to the report first published on 6 March.///http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88337BAGHDAD Sunday, March 07, 2010 (IRIN) - Amid tight security and strict limits on vehicle movement, millions of Iraqis hoping for change went to the polls on 7 March in what is the country’s second parliamentary election since the US-led invasion of the country toppled former president Saddam Hussein in 2003. BAGHDAD Sunday, March 07, 2010 (IRIN) - Amid tight security and strict limits on vehicle movement, millions of Iraqis hoping for change went to the polls on 7 March in what is the country’s second parliamentary election since the US-led invasion of the country toppled the government of former president Saddam Hussein in 2003.

“I hope this time we get a strong government capable of maintaining security and stability and able to help all displaced people go back to their homes,” said Saif Abdul-Qadir Naji, 38, one of more than 2.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country, according to the UN Refugees Agency (UNHCR).

Naji, a Shia Muslim from Baghdad’s Sunni-dominated southern suburb of Youssifiyah, said he fled his home with his family in late 2006 after receiving threats from Sunni militants at a time when sectarian violence shot up because of the bombing of a Shia shrine.

He returned to his home in late 2008 when the security situation started to improve, only to be driven out after just nine days.

“Militants broke into a nearby house belonging to another formerly displaced family, killed them and bombed their house so we fled again fearing the same fate. And I returned to the same two rooms I rent in a house,” Naji said, adding that his family had initially lived in a tent in an IDP camp but found conditions unbearable.

Challenges ahead

Facilitating the return of IDPs and the nearly 2 million refugees outside the country is one of the biggest challenges the new government faces. While some 300,000 have returned over the past two years, “large-scale returns have not taken place”, according to UNHCR.

Other challenges are insecurity, corruption, unemployment and poor public services, according to analysts.

“The outgoing government has been handcuffed from the beginning due to political wrangling, which took its attention away from improving basic services, health and education institutions, fighting corruption and creating job opportunities,” Mohammed Abdul-Aziz Jassim, a political sciences lecturer at the University of Anbar, told IRIN.

“Although it achieved some improvement in the security situation, which allowed some of the displaced people to return to their homes, it couldn’t offer services and other things as all the political parties were preoccupied with how to boost their power,” he said.

He hoped that the new government would “take office as soon as possible to handle daily needs” and not get bogged down in protracted negotiations between political groups to form the government, creating a power vacuum that would take the country backwards.

More than 6,200 candidates across Iraq are competing for 325 seats in parliament, according to Iraq’s Independent Electoral Commission, while some 19 million Iraqis are eligible to vote.

Observers say the new government will face a crucial test to improve security and national reconciliation before US troops withdraw from the country in 2011.

Bigger role for NGOs?

While improved security since early 2008 has encouraged some foreign and local aid agencies to resume their operations in Iraq, and a new law giving more freedom to NGOs was passed in February, Iraqi activists are hoping for a new era of cooperation with the next government.

“The government and statesmen are still far from understanding the role and concept of NGOs,” Hanaa Adward, head of Baghdad-based Al-Amal NGO, said. “So I hope the coming period will bring new people who understand NGOs and the importance of having a partnership between them and the government.”

Ahmed Hassan Rasheed of the NGO Human Relief Foundation said bureaucracy and an absence of cooperation with some ministries were the main obstacles NGOs faced in doing their jobs.

“There is no link between NGOs and the interior and defense ministries to facilitate, for example, the transportation of aid materials or when implementing projects,” Rasheed said. “The problem is not with the law but with the one who implements the law, and whether he knows how to implement it properly.”

sm/edhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88339LOMÉ Friday, March 05, 2010 (IRIN) - Vote counting is underway in Togo, a day after presidential polls closed, with electoral authorities saying they are concerned not to repeat the mistakes of the violence-marred 2005 ballot. LOMÉ Friday, March 05, 2010 (IRIN) - Vote counting is underway in Togo, a day after presidential polls closed, with electoral authorities saying they are concerned not to repeat the mistakes of the violence-marred 2005 ballot.

The head of the independent electoral commission, Tafa Tabiou, told IRIN that the results would not be announced progressively by voting districts, as in previous elections. "We are still learning our lessons about democracy, and we fear that partial results that would be a bit different from the final ones would only incite unrest."

Counting is taking place publicly so voters can see which ballots are rejected. The president of the truth and reconciliation commission - created to address past human rights abuses - said the largely peaceful election was a "significant" step on the country's road to reconciliation.

Togo's 2005 presidential election was condemned by much of the international community, and hundreds died in the ensuing opposition protest. Casting his ballot on 4 March, voter Ayaba Esiomlé commented, "It is not easy to pardon [past crimes] ... but if these elections are transparent, that will show us that reconciliation is possible, and we would be more likely to forget more quickly the past."

pt/ea/oa/he
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88329KATHMANDU Thursday, March 04, 2010 (IRIN) - Efforts to help thousands of families displaced during Nepal’s decade-long armed conflict (1996-2006) to return to their homes or resettle have stalled over government inaction, leaving many unassisted, aid agencies say.KATHMANDU Thursday, March 04, 2010 (IRIN) - Efforts to help thousands of families displaced during Nepal’s decade-long armed conflict (1996-2006) to return to their homes or resettle have stalled over government inaction, leaving many unassisted, aid agencies say.

There are an estimated 52,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) registered with the government, according to the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction (MOPR), although the UN estimates there could be up to 70,000.

In 2007, the government formulated a national IDP policy that allowed for the return, integration and resettlement of IDPs.

Crucial directives for implementing the policy on the ground were also submitted to the Cabinet at the end of 2007, but are still waiting to be approved.

“The failed implementation of the IDP policy is clearly at the heart of the problem,” said Frederik Kok, senior country analyst with the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

“The failure to adopt the directives is undermining return efforts and preventing IDPs from enjoying their full rights,” he told IRIN.

The IDP policy provides assistance which includes shelter, food, security, health services, training and appropriate compensation. It also includes a rehabilitation programme for IDPs to help them recover their lives where they used to reside.

The directives were intended to give clear instructions from the central government to district-level officials on how to implement this policy.

Wendy Cue, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Nepal, said information about the IDP policy and its implementation had not been transmitted to district-level authorities, who are key in ensuring IDP returns and rehabilitation.

“The displaced people haven’t received the type of assistance they need in terms of legal assistance or access to information that the government should provide,” Cue told IRIN.

Assistance lacking

About half of the IDPs are in Kathmandu, where they live in squatter settlements, crowded neighbourhoods and along the Bagmati river. Families are also scattered in the urban areas of Bardiya and Dhangadi districts in the country’s mid- and far-western regions, and other major cities such as Biratnagar and Nepalgunj. “We... have been constantly making efforts to help the IDPs,” Shankar Prasad Pathak, a senior official from the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction, told IRIN.

“We will be introducing an IDP rehabilitation programme which includes income generation and reintegration support for the IDP families,” he added.

In spite of these efforts, displaced families still lack access to basic services such as water and sanitation, and health and education, and have poor livelihood opportunities, say agencies.

Mistrust

Meanwhile, those IDPs who do attempt to return to their homes face a number of obstacles, according to the latest report on Nepal IDPs issued on 28 January 2010 by the IDMC. [http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004BE3B1/%28httpInfoFiles%29/FFF5958EB13C0AF8C12576B900395E1D/$file/Nepal_Overview_Jan10.pdf]

Returnees have to cope with inadequate livelihood opportunities and discrimination borne of the mistrust amongst communities generated during the years of conflict. Along with the IDPs, returnees are also locked in a struggle to win back homes and land confiscated by the rebel Maoists and their supporters during the conflict.

“We have lost all hope of ever reclaiming our land and have lost our only source of livelihood,” said Dipendra Shrestha, originally from mid-western Bardiya District, but who fled the conflict and now lives in Nepalgunj city.

“The question is, what do they return for when they have no land to grow their crops and many suffer from insecurity,” said Bhola Mahat, regional coordinator of the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), [http://www.insec.org.np/] a Nepali human rights group.

Losing interest?

Besides the stalled implementation of the government’s IDP policy, aid workers say they are now concerned about diminishing interest by the international aid community in this issue, now rarely discussed.

Since 2008 there has been a gradual disengagement of the UN and the international community in general, including international NGOs, from the issue of conflict-induced IDPs, according to the NRC.

“Priorities have now again shifted back to development programmes with decreasing funding available for humanitarian programmes,” said the NRC’s Kok.

The humanitarian community has also lost its capacity, while local and international NGOs and UN agencies are no longer as active on the issue as before, said OCHA's Cue.

“We are trying to get together and find the capacity to have somebody who can focus on this issue to work with the government and get the IDP directives passed,” she added.

Government forces battled Maoist guerrillas for 10 years before a peace agreement was signed in November 2006, ending an anti-monarchist revolt that killed more than 13,000 people.

nn/ey/cb

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88310BUJUMBURA Thursday, March 04, 2010 (IRIN) - As Burundi approaches elections designed to cap the country’s democratic transition after years of civil conflict, there is growing concern about worsening security and limits to political freedom.BUJUMBURA Thursday, March 04, 2010 (IRIN) - As Burundi approaches elections designed to cap the country’s democratic transition after years of civil conflict, there is growing concern about worsening security and limits to political freedom.

“The situation is explosive,” Pierre Clavier Mbonimpa, chairman of the Association for the Promotion of Human and Prisoner Rights (APRODH), told IRIN.

“Demobilised people [former members of now defunct armed groups] have become uncontrollable,” he said. (Read an IRIN story on the prevalence of weapons and political youth wings)

“Youths from the [ruling] CNDD-FDD party cause many problems in the country. But in reaction, the [opposition] FRODEBU youth has become very active. Judging by their name, Intakangwa, which means ‘those who cannot be frightened’, they are prepared to respond to any provocation,” said Mbonimpa.

Elections for councillors in Burundi’s 117 communes take place on 21 May. There is a presidential election on 28 June, a legislative poll on 23 July, and senators will be elected on 28 July. In September, Burundians will vote for heads of 2,639 “collines”, the country’s smallest administrative units.

“People are killed in their houses for unknown reasons,” according to François Bizimana, spokesman for the CNDD opposition party.

“When we organize meetings, the Imbonerakure break them up and beat our supporters,” he said, referring to the ruling party’s youth arm, whose name means “those with foresight”.

“Some of our supporters are arrested. How can people come to meetings under such conditions? How can people vote for our programme if we have no chance to explain it?” he asked.

“They used to sing war songs to intimidate our members, but they have now passed from threats to acts, killing our supporters here and there,” alleged Jean-Bosco Havyarimana, spokesman for the National Liberation Forces, one of several rebel groups turned political parties.

Destabilizing factor

Party youth wings are a “major destabilizing factor” in Burundi, Gertrude Kazoviyo, deputy president of the Observatory of Government Action, warned while presenting the annual report of the Forum of Civil Society Organizations in late February.

Alexis Sinduhije, leader of another opposition party, the Movement for Solidarity and Democracy, who spent several months in jail in late 2008 and early 2009 for insulting President Pierre Nkurunziza, accused “agents of the national intelligence service” of killing two student members of his party in February 2010.

“I do not know if an arrest warrant has been issued, but they have not been prosecuted,” he told IRIN.

Ruling party chairman Onesime Nduwimana dismissed the idea that politics or the elections were linked to recent killings in Burundi. Cases of one kind of manslaughter or another feature in newspapers on an almost daily basis. According to APRODH, in 2009 there were 411 killings in Burundi, a country of some eight million inhabitants.

“We have a history of conflicts of every kind, conflict over land… People can kill each other because of what they have gone through during the civil war. But there is a tendency to use some facts for political ends,” he said.

For Salathiere Muntunutwiwe, a political analyst and university lecturer, the prevailing climate imperils the whole electoral process.

“In the absence of the free exercise of political competition, people will not have the right to choose whoever they want. Coupled with the opposition parties’ mistrust of the government’s ability to organize free and fair elections, this could lead to the rejection of the election results,” he said.

Isolated cases

But as far as the ruling party chairman was concerned, by and large the situation was under control. “There are isolated cases in provinces where the administration is weak and not well organized, like Kirundo [in the north], or zones like Kinama, in the capital. However, those behind such acts are punished accordingly,” Nduwimana said.

“Compared with the situation of the 1960s and in 1993 the situation is more favourable. Today there is no ethnic or regional mistrust among Burundians, there is no situation of war as it was in 1993,” he added.

While discounting the likelihood of a return to full-scale war, Sinduhije, the once-jailed opposition leader, believes the instability is a deliberate ploy by the ruling party “to have its term extended or to force people to vote for it”.

A view echoed by FRODEBU’s chairman, Leonce Ngendakumana, who in late February accused elements of the police and army of “intimidating the population to force them to vote for the ruling party”.

Police neutrality questioned

The partisan nature of some in the security forces is in part due to the fact that many were drawn from former rebel groups integrated into state machinery after signing peace accords.

“In spite of the training, some elements of the national security forces have not yet [internalized] that they have to remain neutral during the electoral process,” explained Kazoviyo of the Observatory of Government Action.

In a February report on Burundi, Ensuring credible elections, the International Crisis Group also noted that “the police have remained passive or become accomplices to the ruling party abuses”.

“There are thus legitimate fears they could become politicized, similar to the national intelligence service, which is already trying to destabilize the opposition,” ICG warned, calling for neighbouring countries to provide a regional force to help train their Burundian counterparts and to support election security and monitoring.

Grievances over living conditions among the lower ranks are yet another cause for concern, after protests led to some arrests and sackings.

“There is serious mistrust between junior officers and commanders. A delegation of junior officers came and told me that if their claims were not met before the elections, the polling stations would be burned,” Mbonimpa, the human rights activist, told IRIN.

jb/am/mw 

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88313LOMÉ Thursday, March 04, 2010 (IRIN) - As up to 3.2 million Togolese cast their ballots in the presidential election on 4 March, IRIN asked voters and experts what it would take to reach true reconciliation after decades of political violence. This is the first of a two-part series on Togo's road to reconciliation.LOMÉ Thursday, March 04, 2010 (IRIN) - As up to 3.2 million Togolese cast their ballots in the presidential election on 4 March, IRIN asked voters and experts what it would take to reach true reconciliation after decades of political violence. This is the first of a two-part series on Togo's road to reconciliation.

"Impunity will no longer be tolerated, the blood of Togo's sons and daughters will no longer flow freely on our land, the land of our ancestors." These words, penned five months after a bloody poll in April 2005 that killed at least 400 and dispersed tens of thousands, formed the basis of a truth and reconciliation commission, created to help the country move past decades of recurring political violence.

"Elections will not be enough to bring together the people," said Gameti Akuyo, a fabric vendor in the capital, Lomé. "Those who carried out violence must recognize their wrong and ask for pardon. If not, reconciliation is just a joke, and evil will continue."

President Fauré Gnassingbé, whose post is up for grabs, took power after his father died in early 2005 in an election marred by a security crackdown that included torture, rape and extrajudicial killings, according to Amnesty International, a human rights watchdog.

The truth and reconciliation commission was formed in 2006 as part of a peace pact between the opposition and ruling parties, but its president, Christian Barrigah, told IRIN that the commission had not yet begun the formal process of reconciliation so as to not destabilize the country before the elections.

When to start?

"We decided not to inflame again the hearts of Togolese [so near the election], but instead to ensure the holding of transparent elections ... to begin the reconciliation process afterwards," Barrigah told IRIN.

The commission interviewed more than 20,000 people in July 2008 about their vision of justice and reconciliation, and decided not to proceed with identifying the perpetrators of human rights abuses, or rendering justice.

But peace pacts and elections do not always guarantee lasting peace. "The commission is here to offer to Togolese the peace of mind of 'never again'. We have had violence, but still do not know who is guilty," a Lomé-based traditional justice expert, André Anfanou, told IRIN. "Beyond raising awareness [about its mission], which is a good thing, the commission should have the courage to propose harsh punishments."

Until the Togolese could close this chapter, there would always be the risk of renewed political violence, he said. "The same causes can produce the same effects ... You have to somehow attack as much as possible these germs of violence."

Voter Ankra Wiliam was sceptical about lasting reconciliation. "It is the same ruling party that was in place during the 2005 violence, and I am sceptical we will reach a true reconciliation when the process is managed by the same people who have hurt us - I strongly doubt it."

Next steps

Commission president Barrigah told IRIN that once the elections were over, the group would start identifying the perpetrators of human rights abuses and "soothe the hearts of Togolese, and help them heal their wounds."

The 2007 legislative election was judged to be mostly fair and free, which unlocked a 13-year partial freeze on funding by the European Union (EU), imposed in protest over Togo's human rights record. The EU, Togo's largest bilateral donor, has re-launched programmes and committed US$441 million from 2008 to 2013.

Yet elections were only a first step in reconciliation. "A presidential election is not enough to reunite Togolese, but a well-run one would mark a very important step in the process of reconciliation," Barrigah commented.

Unlike the presidential poll in 2005, the 2010 presidential election is being scrutinized by hundreds of international election observers and more than 3,000 local observers.

The office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights in Togo is on alert; two hotlines have been set up to report any violence; 600 Togolese Red Cross volunteers were trained in election day scenarios and have been posted at all voting stations, and a number of Togolese simply chose to abstain from the vote.

Ajavon Zeus, president of the Collective of Associations Fighting Against Impunity in Togo, a local NGO, told IRIN: "Reconciliation is not an incantation, it is not a slogan, it is concrete acts that must be carried out."

pt/ea/he
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88317KHARTOUM Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - Weeks of fighting in parts of Darfur have raised concern over the plight of civilians, as insecurity has prompted humanitarian agencies to suspend activities in some areas.KHARTOUM Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - Weeks of fighting in parts of Darfur have raised concern over the plight of civilians, as insecurity has prompted humanitarian agencies to suspend activities in some areas.

The clashes have led to displacements in eastern Jebel Marra in South Darfur and North Darfur states, and in western Jebel Marra and the Jebel Moon region in West Darfur state, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update on 2 March, stressing that accurate information from the ground was very scarce because of lack of access.

The rebel Sudan Liberation Army, Abdel Wahid Nour faction (SLA-Nour), which refuses to join peace talks with the Sudanese government until a full cessation of hostilities is implemented, has accused government forces of attacking its positions east of Jebel Marra.

"There were random air attacks on villages," Al-Sadeq Al-Zein Rokero, an official with SLM-Nour faction, said. "The situation is very tragic. This may be the most violent attack by the Sudanese armed forces."

However, Sudan's army spokesman, Al Sawarmi Khaled, denied there had been any government military action. "The armed forces are present in the area to preserve order. They did not clash with Abdel Wahid's forces."

The US State Department cast doubt on this denial in a statement expressing extreme concern “about reports that Government of Sudan forces are conducting offensive operations against ... [SLA-Nour] positions in the Jebel Marra area of Darfur that have reportedly caused significant civilian casualties, displacement, and the evacuation of humanitarian organizations".

The statement called on both parties “to refrain from further violence and to allow the Joint African Union-UN Mission in Darfur access to Jebel Marra to assess the humanitarian situation and restore stability".

OCHA spokesman Sam Hendricks said media reports about the number of casualties in the recent fighting were unreliable.

“There is no way to find about casualties. There is no access to areas affected by the fighting," he said.

Malnutrition concerns

French aid group, Médecins du Monde (MdM), the only medical NGO in the Deribat area in eastern Jebel Marra, suspended operations after attacks last week, which resulted in the displacement of more than 100,000 people, the group stated on its website.

In the towns affected by the fighting - Marra, Kidingeer, Leiba and Fugoli, Feina and Deribat - three other NGOs suspended operations because of insecurity and fighting, Hendricks said. Besides water and sanitation, the NGOs also dealt with food, education, NFIs and livelihoods.

"The situation is very bad. We are really concerned," said Jerome Larche, head of MdM's Sudan programme. The population no longer had access to any medical facility, Larche said.

Malnutrition, which the French aid group was addressing, and access to clean water, were among the main problems for the population in the area, Larche said.

"After the fighting started, we had reports that six children died from malnutrition complications. The rate of acute malnutrition is going to increase if we cannot go back to the area soon," Larche said.

The NGOs, whose offices were looted during the fighting, are preparing emergency intervention to return to Deribat as soon as the fighting stops.

In western Jebel Marra, fighting since January between SLA-Nour factions, and between Sudan's government forces and SLA-Nour, displaced several villages, including Nertiti, Guldo and Thur, which are now reportedly calm, OCHA said in its update.

In Nertiti, a joint UN and NGO assessment estimates about 2,000 households recently arrived in the area.

In Guldo, leaders of the community, which is hosting the newly displaced, estimated about 3,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) were staying in the village. "Food shortages are of concern in the area due to the combination of poor harvest and lack of access to markets," the OCHA update stated.

In Thur, the Government Humanitarian Aid Commission, HAC, estimates around 1,760 IDP households are newly arrived.

Poor harvest

In North Darfur state, Aradeep, Katur, Fanga and Gosdor are among the areas affected by the fighting.

Local sources have said it is likely most of Gosdor's 12,000 people have moved to the hills, where food needs are a major concern, due to a recent poor harvest.

In West Darfur, clashes in January and early February between the Sudanese armed forces and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, before the two parties signed a ceasefire agreement on 23 February, have led to unconfirmed reports of the displacement of around 4,000 people in Selea.

"Confirmation of overall affected population remains impossible until assessments can be conducted," the OCHA report said.

In anticipation of urgent needs, the World Health Organization and NGO partners have pre-positioned emergency health supplies for transfer to Kulbus hospital.

mm/am/mw

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88293ABIDJAN Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - After weeks of protests, some which turned deadly, the opposition has joined a new government and called off any further demonstrations. Ivoirians took to the streets following the latest delay in legislative and presidential elections, scheduled to take place in March after six postponements in five years. Disputes over the electoral roll – and who is or is not a true Ivoirian and thus eligible to vote – continue, creating an increasingly xenophobic and violent atmosphere across the country, according to rights watchdog Amnesty International. Here is a timeline of events leading to the current political crisis. ABIDJAN Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - After weeks of protests, some which turned deadly, the opposition has joined a new government and called off any further demonstrations.

Ivoirians took to the streets following the latest delay in legislative and presidential elections, scheduled to take place in March after six postponements in five years.

On 12 February Laurent Gbagbo dissolved government and the Independent Electoral Commission; in response, opposition party leaders stopped recognizing President Gbagbo as head of state.

Disputes over the electoral roll – and who is or is not a true Ivoirian and thus eligible to vote – continue, creating an increasingly xenophobic and violent atmosphere across the country, according to rights watchdog Amnesty International.

Here is a timeline of events leading to the current political crisis.

26 February 2010
A new electoral commission headed by a member of the opposition is formed. Opposition leader calls off demonstrations, announces the opposition’s acceptance of 11 positions in the new 27-member government.

23 February 2010
The president's office announces a partial government, without opposition party representation.

22 February 2010
Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso, mediator in the Ivorian political crisis, arrives in Abidjan, the economic hub of Côte d'Ivoire, to try reconciling the parties.

Two demonstrators are killed during protests in Daloa, about 150km west of the capital, Yamoussoukro, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

18-20 February 2010
Protesters take to the streets on the 18th in Issia in the centre-west, on the 19th in Gagnoa, about 130km southwest of Yamoussoukro, on the 20th in Man in the far west, and also in Korhogo in north-central part of the country. Five protesters are killed in Gagnoa.

On 20 February thousands of protesters march in Bouaké, the second largest city in Côte d'Ivoire, smashing shops, looting a government building, and setting fire to cars.

15-17 February 2010
Protest demonstrations take off in Katiola, in the interior of the country, on 15 February and in Bouaké on the 17th .

12 February 2010
President Gbagbo dissolves the Independent Electoral Commission.

Opposition parties call for people to protest on the streets. A group representing Côte d'Ivoire's leading opposition parties, Rally of Houphouétistes for Democracy and Peace, issues a communiqué stating they no longer recognize President Gbagbo as head of state. Elections are deferred for the sixth time.

11 February 2010
Voter registration for pending elections is suspended.

9 January 2010
President Gbagbo accuses electoral commissioner Robert Mambe of fraudulently adding over 429,000 names to the electoral list of people he said were not proven to be native Ivoirians.

3 December 2009
Burkina Faso mediators announce an election deadline of early March.

14 November 2009
The Independent Electoral Commission confirms that elections will not be held on 29 November as planned.

29 October 2009
UN renews sanctions against Côte d'Ivoire until 31 October 2010.

16 October 2009
Independent Electoral Commission announces a provisional voter list will not be ready for another month.

16 June 2009
Independent Electoral Commission proposes holding elections in the last week of November and the beginning of December at the latest.

26 May 2009
Rebels controlling the north of the country officially hand power over to civilian administrators, which aim to restore government control over the whole country. However,rebels still retain much control over local economy and security forces.

14 May 2009
Prime Minister Guillaume Soro announces presidential elections will take place on 29 November.

18 November 2008
Elections supposed to be held in December 2008 are delayed.

30 July 2008
President Gbagbo visits rebel headquarters in Bouaké for a "Flame of Peace" ceremony to symbolically burn weapons.

24 April 2008
Ivorian Political Party Code of Conduct is adopted at a ceremony attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President Gbagbo, Prime Minister Soro, high-ranking members of the diplomatic community and Ivorian civil society representatives.

14 April 2008
Council of Ministers announces presidential elections will take place on 30 November 2008 under the peace plan, as proposed by the Independent Electoral Commission.

15 January 2008
UN Security Council Resolution 1795 is passed, giving the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Côte d'Ivoire the power to certify elections.

27 November 2007
President Gbagbo and Guillaume Soro sign a peace accord in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital, fixing the date for legislative and presidential elections for June 2008 at the latest.

20 November 2007
The new Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Côte d'Ivoire, YJ Choi, arrives.

15 October 2007
Elections that were to be held in November 2007 are put on hold as voter identification and registration are not complete, according to the government.

30 July 2007
President Laurent Gbagbo travels to central town of Bouaké, stronghold of the former rebels, in his first visit to rebel territory since the rebellion began. Officials burn a pile of arms in a ceremony, declaring “the war in Côte d’Ivoire is over”.

29 June 2007
Prime Minister Guillaume Soro's aircraft comes under attack in the northern Ivorian city of Bouaké, headquarters of his former rebel group. Four people are killed and a number injured from the attack but Prime Minister Soro emerges unhurt. The UN mission in Côte d’Ivoire subsequently endorses the Prime Minister's call for an independent international inquiry into the incident.

18-19 June 2007
A Security Council mission visits Côte d'Ivoire to assess progress of the peace process in the country and to exchange views with parties to the conflict on how to move forward the peace process.

17 May 2007
Government militias start to disarm.

11 April 2007
A quadripartite agreement to eliminate the buffer zone known as the zone of confidence is signed by the Defence and Security Forces of Côte d'Ivoire (FDS-CI), the Armed Forces of the Forces Nouvelles (FAFN), the commanders of the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire and the French Licorne forces.

4 March 2007
President Gbagbo and rebel leader Soro sign the Ouagadougou peace deal under the aegis of Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré. The pact sets a new timetable for organising elections in Côte d'Ivoire and reuniting the country.

31 October 2006
Presidential elections are cancelled.

17 October 2006
The African Union Peace and UN Security Council extend President Gbagbo's mandate by one year, during which time the roadmap is to be fully implemented. President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa is replaced by the African Union Chairman as mediator.

6 October 2006
An extraordinary summit is held with ECOWAS leaders, at which recommendations for a roadmap to peace in Côte d'Ivoire are put forward.

12 July 2006
The president’s party Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI) calls for a boycott of the voter identification hearings which sparked bloody demonstrations by the Young Patriots (a militia close to President Gbagbo) who blockaded various cities to prevent the identification process.

4 December 2005
Charles Konan Banny, the governor of the Central Bank of West Africa States, is appointed interim prime minister by mediators.

8 November 2005
The first meeting of the newly established International Working Group (see 21 October 2005) is held.

31 October 2005
Presidential elections are cancelled.

21 October 2005
Security Council adopts resolution 1633, endorsing the previous African Union decision, extending President Gbagbo's term by one year, deciding that a new prime minister acceptable to all parties and with executive powers should be designated; establishing a roadmap for disarmament, identification and organisation of elections supervised by an International Working Group; and strengthening the threat of sanctions against individual spoilers.

29 June 2005
The Declaration on the Implementation of the Pretoria Agreement, signed on 11 April, on the peace process in Côte d'Ivoire is signed in Pretoria under the auspices of the African Union.

6 November 2004
The national armed forces of Côte d'Ivoire attacked the French Licorne forces. The Council condemns the attacks and confirms that French forces and the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) are authorized to use all necessary means to fully carry out their mandate.

30 July, 2004
West African heads of state come together in Accra, capital of Ghana, to get opposition party leaders in Ivory Coast to sign the Accra 3rd Agreement, fixing a calendar for disarmament of the militia and rebels.

27 March 2004
Rebels and the opposition party, Rally for the Republic, pull out of the government after an anti-Gbagbo march is banned, leading to protests in which more than 100 are killed.

27 February 2004
Security Council adopts resolution 1528 establishing UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI). The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) forces and the UN Mission in Côte d'Ivoire's (MINUCI) authority is transferred to the new mission.

13 May 2003
Security Council adopts resolution 1479 establishing the UN Mission in Côte d'Ivoire (MINUCI) with a mandate to facilitate the implementation of the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement and of the ceasefire.

March 2003
A government of national reconciliation is formed with members from the rebel ranks and a consensus prime minister, Seydou Diarra.

24 January 2003
The French sponsored Linas-Marcoussis Agreement is signed between the Ivorian government and all political forces.

aa/aj/he/oa

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88295JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - The "absurd" claim by Gauteng's police chief that South Africa's richest province was home to as many as three million "illegal" immigrants was part of a pattern by government departments to blame undocumented migrants for their own shortcomings, Loren Landau, director of the University of the Witwatersrand's Forced Migration Studies Programme (FMSP), told IRIN.JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - The "absurd" claim by Gauteng's police chief that South Africa's richest province was home to as many as three million "illegal" immigrants was part of a pattern by government departments to blame undocumented migrants for their own shortcomings, Loren Landau, director of the University of the Witwatersrand's Forced Migration Studies Programme (FMSP), told IRIN.

Simon Mpembe, Gauteng's acting chief of police, reportedly told the police parliamentary portfolio committee in Cape Town on 2 March that there were "more people to police, but we don't have enough officials to do the extra work. We can't say we won't police them because they come from another country."

Landau said statements like this were "worrying", and "we should not let the police commissioners' prevarications and fabrications distract us from the reality that they [police] spend far too much of their time and money on policing non-nationals."

A FMSP study conducted in 2009 - One Burden Too Many? A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Immigration Policing in Gauteng - found that the police spent a quarter of their annual budget, or R350 million (US$48 million) in Gauteng alone, on immigration policing, despite instructions from senior officials that this was not a priority.

The 2007 Community Survey by Statistics South Africa, the most recent and accurate data available, estimated the number of foreign-born residents - including South African citizens - at about 1.2 million people, or 2.79 percent of the population. The number foreign nationals residing in Gauteng was put at 580,000.

"That number has undoubtedly increased in the last three years, but the numbers are still likely to be under 2 million - and that is for the whole country. Unless the police have conducted their own survey, they are evidently fabricating the numbers to suit their purposes," the FMSP said in a statement.

Landau commented that undocumented foreign nationals were "blamed for all their [police] failings, and it's not the first time [government departments had blamed foreign nationals]" for their inadequacies. He cited instances where the departments of housing, home affairs and education had attributed their "non-performance" to foreign nationals in South Africa.

At the same parliamentary briefing, Limpopo chief police Calvin Sengani said the province, which borders Zimbabwe, had to deal with foreign nationals "flooding our towns and cities. They cause a great number of problems with crime; we arrest them and protect them with resources that are intended for our citizens."

Landau said the claim that undocumented foreign nationals were responsible for one of the world's highest crime rates was not borne out by statistics, which showed that most crimes were committed by South Africans.

The police "spend their time looking for foreigners - it helps their own legitimacy [because foreigners are blamed for crime], and this is then seen as fighting crime. It is a spurious logic. They [the police] are not getting the serious criminals, they are getting the guys selling tomatoes on the street without a licence," he said.

The "real issue" was that it was difficult for people to come to South Africa legally; if there was a regional migration system about 85 percent of undocumented foreign nationals would have documentation, Landau commented.

Dangerous talk

Mpilo Shange, an advocacy officer at the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa, said statements blaming foreign nationals for crime were "dangerous".

Since May 2008, when xenophobic violence swept through South Africa, killing at least 62 people and displacing 100,000 others, the government had started addressing the issue, but "a lot still needs to be done", she said.

Xenophobic violence has often accompanied service delivery protests, which have mushroomed across Gauteng Province since the beginning of 2010. Attacks on foreign owned shops and businesses have been reported. Shange said, "We are worried about it [protests combined with xenophobic violence]."

go/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88303LOMÉ Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - More than 3,000 local election observers, 6,000 soldiers, and representatives of international election transparency watchdog groups are scattered across Togo on the eve of a presidential election crackling with tension, yet billed as a "national reconciliation" by its leaders.LOMÉ Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - More than 3,000 local election observers, 6,000 soldiers, and representatives of international election transparency watchdog groups are scattered across Togo on the eve of a presidential election crackling with tension, yet billed as a "national reconciliation" by its leaders.

Observers, international agencies and Togolese voters are hoping for the best, but are also preparing for the worst. Godwin Agodzé, who lives in neighbouring Ghana, told IRIN: "Many have come from Togo asking me if I will rent them rooms where they can live if the elections do not go well in Togo. We see, daily, worried Togolese coming to Ghana."

In 2005 tens of thousands of Togolese fled east to neighbouring Benin or west to Ghana after a security crackdown in which hundreds died. Despite a 2007 legislative election ruled to be largely free, fair and peaceful, Togolese rattled by a violent electoral past have been opting for safer havens.

Contingency

"People have already started leaving Togo for Benin, perhaps as a precaution. They cannot be classified as refugees, as this is a pre-emptive movement," Patrick Nicholson, an emergency services director at the Catholic NGO, Caritas, told IRIN.

The UN Refugee Agency-led group of agencies and NGOs in Benin working on human rights have prepared an emergency plan, should tens of thousands again seek refugee in Benin as in 2005.

The plan outlines four scenarios, ranging from a peaceful election to armed civil conflict, with a violently contested election most likely. "Despite the calm appearance of preparations thus far, the UN and partner agencies are still sticking with scenario 3 as the most probable, because there is still the risk," Nicholson told IRIN.

"We will not say there is no more risk until results are announced and there is no violent reaction. People can be unpredictable, and we do not know how they will react."

Various NGOs, including Red Cross Benin, CARITAS, the International Federation of Red Cross, and UN agencies have prepared an early warning system that will be activated if Togolese start fleeing en masse to Benin.

In Togo, the UN office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has monitoring stations throughout the country, and has set up two phone numbers where people can report electoral violence: 800 40 40 and 252.

Change or death?

The seven presidential candidates, including the incumbent, President Fauré Gnassingbé, have repeatedly called for peaceful elections, for people to accept the election results, and to abstain from violence. "Nothing can justify the deaths of Togolese, not even a change of power," Gnassingbé said.

A group of youths calling themselves the Citizen Movement for Change (MCA) have rallied under the motto, "change or death", usually holding meetings at unannounced sites; hundreds turned up at a rally on 27 February.

"We will no longer tolerate disorder in Togo. Members of this group have started to recruit people to seed hatred on voting day and during announcements of results," said the head of Togo's security forces, who has put the group under surveillance.

Fulbert Attisso, an MCA leader, told IRIN that a loss by the opposition would be accepted peacefully – if there is no cheating. "If there is fraud, we are ready to die to extract from the ruling party's hand a victory for the opposition," he insisted.

An opposition youth leader not affiliated with MCA, Sylvio Amedégbé, told IRIN he was ready to contest a fraudulent election. "If the ruling power ever tries to steal this vote, we are ready to take to the streets to reclaim victory."

Hubert Atuyo, a supporter of the ruling party, Rally of Togolese People, told IRIN the president's supporters would accept defeat. "We are prepared to accept election results, whichever is the winning party, but we are sure it will be landslide for the president."

On the day

Land borders will be closed as of midnight on Wednesday 3 March. Restaurants and popular meeting spots have been ordered to close on voting day, 4 March, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Only authorized vehicles will be allowed on the roads.

The lead-up to this election has been less tense than previous ones, the head of the National Civil Society Commission and an election observer, Colombo Kpakpabia, told IRIN.

"We have put out the message across the entire country that people should accept the results, and we are confident that nothing [violent] will happen," he said. "It would be a shame if the opposite were to happen."

ea/pt/he

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88305