http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbThu, 19 Nov 2009 19:14:02 GMTBUJUMBURA Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - Next year’s elections in Burundi, billed as a milestone on the country’s long road to sustainable peace, could trigger more conflict because of a combination of widespread illegal weapons and well-organized youth wings of political parties, according to analysts. BUJUMBURA Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - Next year’s elections in Burundi, billed as a milestone on the country’s long road to sustainable peace, could trigger more conflict because of a combination of widespread illegal weapons and well-organized youth wings of political parties, according to analysts.

Power struggles in Burundi have provoked bouts of armed violence and civil war from independence in 1962 until the country’s last rebel group gave up and became a political party in April 2009.

According to Jean-Marie Gasana, a veteran Burundi analyst, the risks associated with the youth wings are exacerbated by the presence “of large caches of arms in the hands of civilians.

"Even more worrying is what happens should the opposition contest the outcome of the elections," he told IRIN in Bujumbura. "We are likely to see a repeat of scenarios... where violence has ensued following flawed elections."

"We could return to civil war,” echoed Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa, founding president of the Burundi Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detainees.

"We have to also pay attention to the police and army, both of which have integrated former rebels into their ranks," he added. "If there is an incident during the elections, these people could be tempted to support their original movements."

Some of the armed, government-controlled former rebels in the capital operate outside the formal structures of the police and army, according to one human rights activist, who asked not to be named.

“The situation could become chaotic because youth [groups] have often been used during past civil wars and this is no different,” said Mbonimpa.

Some of these groups feel unfairly targeted by the authorities. Odette Ntahiraja, the secretary-general of the Mouvement pour la solidarité et la démocratie (MSD), a party registered in June 2009, told IRIN its young supporters were “often denied the right to hold demonstrations.

“Sometimes they are even arrested and some are beaten. Yet other youth groups are armed and go ahead and intimidate people without any action being taken against them,” she added.

Risk of election violence

For the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies, such uneven attitudes by the authorities help to make Burundi a “classroom example of a country at potential risk of election-related violence”.

Jamila El Abdellaoui, a senior researcher in the institute’s conflict prevention programme, says [http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SHIG-7X3DP3?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P] another reason is the reported “[re-]arming of militias by several political parties as tools to intimidate the electorate.

“The fact that the reintegration phase of the country’s recently completed DDR [disarmament, demobilization and reintegration] process has largely failed, especially concerning those returning to urban areas, explains the availability of some former combatants to join such groups,” she argues in an October article.

Pancrace Cimpaye, spokesman for the main opposition Front pour la démocratie au Burundi (FRODEBU), said his party would not arm its young supporters but added that they would “stand up” for the people if they were targeted by the ruling party.

"Our main concern as we head to the polls is security; we urge the international community to pay more attention to this and, if possible, help in the setting-up of a special protection unit specifically for the elections," he said.

For the European Network for Central Africa (EURAC), [http://www.eurac-network.org/web/index.php?] a Brussels-based coalition of advocacy NGOs, “The potential for violence is not yet under control” in Burundi. It cited divisions within political parties, widespread precarious living conditions, bad governance and the fact that “the rule of law is still under construction” as potential drivers of unrest.

For land conflict and human rights consultant Rene-Claude Niyonkuru, land issues are another factor: "We would be mistaken if we said there will be no violence - especially related to issues such as land. The people are frustrated, especially returnees, who are coming home in large numbers. The government had been encouraging them to return [but] it seems the same government is ill-prepared to ensure their smooth resettlement."

He called for the mobilization of the population to address land conflicts: "Why can't we use the election period to interrogate potential candidates on their proposals and commitment to the resolution of land disputes in the country?"

Voluntary disarmament

Civilians across Burundi handed in thousands of guns, grenades and rounds of ammunition during a voluntary disarmament campaign in October. According to Leopold Banzubaze, deputy head of the National Disarmament Commission, more than 80,000 weapons – which Banzubaze said amounted to almost 80 percent of all the weapons in circulation - had been handed in since 2007.

Many analysts believe that despite these campaigns, there are tens of thousands of firearms still circulating in Burundi. According to the commission’s own data, fewer than 2,500 of the weapons handed in during the last phase of voluntary disarmament were rifles. The rest were grenades (10,429), bombs (218) and mines (28).

Officials in Burundi seem to be aware of the risks surrounding the polls.

"I can say there are cases of murders and other killings which are the consequences of our civil war,” Guy-Michel Mfatiye, chief of staff in the Ministry of Human Rights and Gender, told IRIN.

He added that his ministry was working with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to “sensitize the people at different levels from the regional, provincial and even to the communal level on why the elections are important and how to conduct themselves during that period”.

According to the president of the electoral commission, Pierre Claver Ndayicariye, it has established a technical committee on security and is working with the Ministry of Public Security - with the support of donor countries such as the Netherlands and Norway as well as the UN Development Programme - to build the capacity of the security forces to ensure peaceful elections.

"The issue of security is important before, during and after the elections; our message as the electoral commission to political parties is: stop rival youth groups from provoking each other, the parties are on the ground, they can stop any harmful activity by their members," Ndayicariye said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87117HARARE Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - The recent "suicide" of a senior army officer in the wake of a break-in at a military armoury in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, is sowing fears that the missing guns may be used to fuel instability. HARARE Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - The recent "suicide" of a senior army officer in the wake of a break-in at a military armoury in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, is sowing fears that the missing guns may be used to fuel instability.

In late October, 20 Chinese manufactured AK-47s and a number of shotguns were stolen from the armoury at the Pomona army barracks in Harare. The deputy commander of Pomona barracks, Major Maxwell Samudzi, had "committed suicide" while being held in solitary confinement, according to a report in the government newspaper, The Herald.

Local media reports said as many as 120 serving soldiers were detained in connection with the theft and allegedly tortured. Since then, a member of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Pascal Gwezere, has been arrested, allegedly tortured, and charged with the theft.

Morgan Komichi, deputy organising secretary of the MDC, told IRIN that Gwezere's arrest was part of "short- to long-term strategy" by President Robert Mugabe to destabilise the MDC party, led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, which joined Zimbabwe's fragile unity government in February 2009.

The unity government - an uneasy partnership between Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and the MDC - broke down in October after Tsvangirai "disengaged" from it, returning to the fold only after the Southern African Development Community (SADC) intervened.

"What we are witnessing is a ZANU-PF tried-and-tested strategy which has been used since the 1980s, so that they can crack down against our party [MDC]. Searches [by the police and military] have already been conducted at one of the houses used by senior party officials in Harare, while the transport manager [Gwezere] was kidnapped and now faces charges of stealing the guns," Komichi said.

"My interpretation of the development is that there are elements, especially from the military, who are [allegedly] behind the break-in; who, in the event of a constitutional referendum or election, would use the guns to terrorise people," he said.

"If, as is expected, the MDC wins the next election - if it is free and fair - we could see the emergence of armed people with roots in ZANU-PF who would create an unstable environment for an MDC government."

Political analyst John Makumbe told IRIN it was unlikely that the theft of weapons was part of a plan to create a resistance movement to any future MDC government, and was more likely to be the work of one of two ZANU-PF factions, which both wielded influence over the military.

"What is happening is that the two factions in ZANU-PF are trying to upstage and outflank each other in the battle to succeed Mugabe, and we may see some people being eliminated," Makumbe commented.

"It is important to remember that the Air Force commander [Perrance Shiri] survived an attempt on his life [in 2008], and although it turned out that the attempt on his life was based on a love triangle, the suspects have not been arrested, even though the gun used was traced back to the military armoury."

General Solomon Mujuru, a retired Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander, leads the ZANU-PF faction that wants his wife, Zimbabwe's vice-president Joyce Mujuru, to succeed the 86-year-old Mugabe, who has held power since independence from Britain in 1980; the other faction is led by the defence minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa. ZANU-PF will hold its annual conference in December.

"The MDC may still be harassed in connection with the missing guns. However, the most frightening and unsettling prospect is that if there is a referendum, an election, or the power-sharing deal collapses ... ZANU-PF is not capable of winning a free and credible election without terrorising people," Makumbe said.

A relapse into violence?

Political analyst Eldred Masunungure told IRIN the current developments were pointers indicating that the political instability and violence which had rocked the country during the elections in 2008 could return.

"The possibility of a relapse into the 2008 violence is an omnipresent danger; those who engineered the violence are still around, and still have the same resources. All it might take would be the issuing of a new command to unleash more violence. The announcement of the date for another election will see violence increasing, as the infrastructure of violence is still there," Masunungure said.

In 2008 ZANU-PF lost its majority in parliament for the first time since independence, and Mugabe lost the first round of the presidential poll to his rival Tsvangirai - who narrowly missed the 50 percent plus one vote that would have seen him elected president.

Tsvangirai withdrew from the run-off in protest over political violence that killed over 120 people and displaced thousands. Mugabe won the run-off unopposed, but his victory was not recognized by international observers, including SADC.

dd/go/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87119DAKAR Tuesday, November 17, 2009 (IRIN) - The recent upheaval in Guinea has delayed the disposal of toxic chemicals discovered earlier this year at several sites throughout the capital Conakry, according to UN experts.DAKAR Tuesday, November 17, 2009 (IRIN) - The recent upheaval in Guinea has thrown into question the status of toxic chemicals discovered earlier this year at several sites throughout the capital Conakry, according to UN experts.

The products, which can be used to make or refine narcotics, were found in buildings near people’s homes; they are inflammable and pose a public health threat. Instability following a military crackdown on demonstrators has blocked UN drug and crime experts from visiting the sites since August.

“Beyond the fact that these are products that can be used for making narcotics, they are substances that have a very high toxicity level for the population,” Alexandre Schmidt, West Africa head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told journalists in the Senegalese capital Dakar on 16 November. “So there is a public health problem there. These products pollute; they are inflammable; they could explode.”

UNODC in mid-October submitted to Guinea’s military government a proposed plan for destroying the substances and is awaiting a response, according to UNODC officials. The junta had asked the international community for assistance in disposing of the chemicals, saying it did not have the means.

UNODC and Interpol made a joint evaluation mission late August but recent unrest in Guinea forced the UN to suspend follow-up missions; officials do not know what has become of the substances, which include precursors for controlled drugs such as ecstasy (MDMA) as well as solvents commonly used in the processing of cocaine and heroin.

“Up to end of August we knew the quantities, specifications and location of these products,” Schmidt said. He said given the lack of access officials do not know whether the chemicals are still contained at the sites or are being used to make drugs.

On-site

UNODC deputy regional representative Cyriaque Sobtafo told IRIN given the complexity of moving the substances, the agency’s plan calls for disposing of or destroying them in Guinea. He said environmental experts would take part in order to ensure no harm to health and the environment.

In its August evaluation UNODC and Interpol found eight sites storing chemicals – seven with the capacity to make or refine narcotics, one equipped to make fake antibiotics.

“What is worrying is that there is the capacity to produce synthetic drugs – ecstasy,” UNODC's Schmidt said. He said that if the products found in Conakry were made into ecstasy the market value would be 125 million euros (US$186 million).

Officials with the military government were unavailable to comment on the status of the chemicals or an eventual response to UNODC’s proposed plan.

UNODC’s Schmidt said if the government responds favourably the agency would likely get from the UN an “exceptional authorization” for the mission as it would be a “humanitarian intervention”.

np/ajhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87091POCHALLA Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - An increasing number of people in Southern Sudan cannot find enough to eat or adequate pasture and water for their livestock, raising fears of conflict between communities over grazing lands, local leaders warned.POCHALLA Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - An increasing number of people in Southern Sudan cannot find enough to eat or adequate pasture and water for their livestock, raising fears of conflict between communities over grazing lands, local leaders warned.

"Where there was peace, there was no rain and then where there were good rains, there was insecurity," Kuol Manyang, governor of Jonglei State, said.

His counterpart from Upper Nile State, Gutlauk Deng Garang, warned that hunger would force pastoralist cattle herders to move their animals, sharply increasing the likelihood of clashes with rival ethnic groups.

"We expect the cattle herders to start moving soon, and then it is expected [that there will] be conflict between the Lou and the Jikany Nuer," Garang told IRIN recently. Conflict between the Shilluk and Dinka communities had added to food insecurity, he said.

More than 2,000 people have died and about 350,000 have been displaced by violence across Southern Sudan since January, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The World Food Programme (WFP), which began airdropping food in the area on 4 November, estimates that 1.2 million people are already facing serious food insecurity in Southern Sudan.

"Air drops are a last resort to get food into these inaccessible places during this time of hunger," Michelle Iseminger, head of WFP in Southern Sudan, told reporters at Pochalla, a remote settlement on Sudan’s border with Ethiopia.

Wider problem

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the food insecurity in the region is part of the wider threat facing eastern Africa and the Horn, where prolonged drought and mounting conflict have left an estimated 20 million people needing food aid.

The warning came at a tense time for Southern Sudan, which is struggling to recover from a 22-year civil war that ended less than five years ago. Elections are due in April, followed by a referendum on the south's potential full independence in 2011.

"If we are not able to handle the situation well... repairing adequate supplies... we can expect very, very significant levels [of hunger] which can border on the red flag emergency, which becomes a famine," Hilde Johnson, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) deputy executive director, said during an 8 November visit to Jonglei's capital, Bor.

"When natural resources are being diminished on a daily basis, you will see hard pressure coming in on already meagre resources," Johnson added. "This will exacerbate conflict, there is absolutely no doubt."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87057CONAKRY Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - The Diallo family in the Guinean capital, Conakry, has found no trace of Thierno Abdoulaye Diallo, 20, a student, since he set off on 28 September for a football stadium in the city.CONAKRY Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - The Diallo family in the Guinean capital, Conakry, has found no trace of Thierno Abdoulaye Diallo, 20, a student, since he set off on 28 September for a football stadium in the city.

Civil society representatives, political leaders and citizens were gathered at the stadium, waving the national flag, praying on the pitch and chanting, calling on military junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara not to run for the presidency, when soldiers gunned down and raped demonstrators.

Diallo's father and other relatives have come from their village in Dalaba, about 360km from Conakry, to search for him. They have been to military camps, hospitals and morgues in the city, but have found no record or other sign of him.

The Red Cross continues to receive calls from families seeking relatives missing since 28 September, according to the UN in Guinea.

Children in the Diallo household wonder where their big brother is. An aunt showed IRIN the closed door of the young man's now-unused room in the extended family home in Conakry and kept referring to him in past tense.

"He was a gentle, respectful young man and he was always kind with the children – the children in the house ask where he is.

"All we know is that he was with a friend at the stadium that day – not a trace since then.

"On 1 October, the day before the authorities were going to bring bodies out of the morgue for identification, his older brother had to call their mother, who is still in the village. He told her Abdoulaye was at the stadium and we have not heard from him since.

"We are in despair but we continue to search. We have a bit of hope, since we do not have proof that he is dead.

"The situation in Guinea is extremely difficult today – there is no security.

"We go through our days in the household living in worry. I really don't have the words to express what we're going through."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87059KATHMANDU Friday, November 13, 2009 (IRIN) - The government’s continued failure to investigate and prosecute extrajudicial killings during Nepal’s civil war (1996-2006) is ruining lives and devastating victims’ families, while creating a culture of impunity, the UN and rights activists say.KATHMANDU Friday, November 13, 2009 (IRIN) - The government’s continued failure to investigate and prosecute extrajudicial killings during Nepal’s civil war (1996-2006) is ruining lives and devastating victims’ families, while creating a culture of impunity, the UN and rights activists say.
 
Families are still struggling to find justice and see the prosecution of the alleged perpetrators of abuses and killings during the Maoist rebellion.
 
“There is so much frustration among the families of victims as the denial of justice is totally devastating their lives,” Mandira Sharma, a prominent human rights lawyer and executive director of Advocacy Forum [http://www.advocacyforum.org], told IRIN.
 
The human rights NGO has been assisting families of the victims of extrajudicial killings to lobby the government to prosecute the perpetrators.
 
“So many of them have been displaced, become impoverished and their livelihoods destroyed every day as they fight for justice,” said Sharma, outlining the toll on families in their struggle.
 
During the conflict, security forces committed hundreds of extrajudicial killings and widespread torture, while the Maoist rebels also abducted, tortured and killed civilians, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). [http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/10/15/nepal-years-terror-then-broken-promises]
 
Rights groups allege that the perpetrators remain protected by the Nepal Army and the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPNM).
 
Hardship for the families
 
On 17 February 2004, Maina Sunuwar, 15, was abducted, tortured and killed by uniformed soldiers from the Nepal Army, who falsely accused her of being a Maoist rebel.
 
Two months later, officials at army headquarters admitted to Maina’s mother, Devi, that her daughter had died while in detention.
 
Following pressure from the international community, human rights groups and the UN, the military took steps to conduct an internal inquiry into three officers allegedly involved in the killing. (See report: [http://nepal.ohchr.org/en/resources/Documents/English/reports/IR/Year2006/2006_12_01_HCR%20_Maina%20Sunuwar_E.pdf] by UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - OHCHR)
 
However, they were only charged with minor offences and were released after serving six months’ imprisonment.
 
Although it became the most high-profile case of an extrajudicial killing and has been held up as an example of a lack of accountability over conflict-related human rights abuses, Sunuwar, 40, has yet to win justice.
 
“I survive only for the sake of finding justice for my daughter,” an emotional Devi Sunuwar told IRIN. “Now I am hanging [on] to that hope.”
 
Devi and her husband fled their village in Kavre District, about 50km south of the capital, for fear of being targeted over their daughter’s case, and live in extreme poverty in Kathmandu. She suffers from serious health problems and cannot afford any medicine.
 
“So many families have been devastated, not only due to lack of justice, but watching these perpetrators walk scot-free,” said Sharma.
 
Not one prosecution
 
Advocacy Forum has listed more than 60 cases of extremely violent extrajudicial killings but the government has failed to prosecute anyone.
 
“Concrete measures have to be taken, starting with successful prosecutions so that messages are sent that there are consequences for wrongdoing,” Richard Bennett, OHCHR representative in Nepal, told IRIN.
 
“The aim is to create a culture of accountability to replace the culture of impunity,” he said.
 
Bennett said the lack of prosecutions for serious human rights violations was encouraging impunity in the country.
 
“The conflict has finished, but there have been serious politically-related crimes which have not been addressed,” he said.
 
The UN and human rights groups say they are mostly concerned about obstacles created by the military and the Maoists to prevent police investigations of extrajudicial killings.
 
The Nepal Army has denied the allegations of abuse and killings, and officials told IRIN they were committed to the rule of law and would abide by any court decisions relating to cases.
 
But activists say such rhetoric is not enough.
 
“The government could start by taking on a few emblematic cases to send a message widely across the board that it intends to move forward to end this culture of impunity,” said Sarah Levit-Shore, the country director of the international rights NGO, The Carter Center [http://www.cartercenter.org].
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87021JOHANNESBURG Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Did you know that agriculture contributed 42 percent of Nigeria's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008, more than double the 20 percent of revenue that oil brought into the national coffers? JOHANNESBURG Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Did you know that agriculture contributed 42 percent of Nigeria's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008, more than double the 20 percent of revenue that oil brought into the national coffers?

A programme to boost food security, launched in 2001, helped Nigeria's rain-dependant small-scale farmers with irrigation and access to credit and marketing services, said a new UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report taking an in-depth look at 16 countries that have made some headway in reducing the number of hungry people.

Barbara Huddleston, an FAO food security expert, said the study was produced as part of the effort to "stimulate interest in investing in smallholders, asking countries and donors to make a commitment in real people" ahead of the World Food security Summit in Rome, Italy, next week.

Two reports published this week draw attention to agriculture with a caseload of good news stories on improving food security. The FAO report, Pathways to Success, looks at policy initiatives that have improved food security, and new measures taken in the wake of last year's global recession.

The US-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) uses its book, MillionsFed, to look at a mix of food security success stories over a period of years, many of which were driven by NGOs and communities.

In 1990 an initiative driven by Helen Keller International, which works to prevent blindness and reduce malnutrition, and local organizations in Bangladesh encouraged 1,000 households to plant vegetables rich in vitamin A to address a deficiency in this micronutrient, which can cause night blindness: at that time 30,000 children in the South Asian country were going blind each year.

The programme, eventually driven by 70 local NGOs and the government, grew to cover 870,000 households across the country by 2003, and helped improve the food security of nearly five million people - almost four percent of the population.

There is also the IFPRI story of farmers on Burkina Faso's central plateau who have been sowing crops in planting pits and built contour bunds - rows of stones piled up along the contours of the land to capture rainwater runoff and prevent soil erosion - and have produced an additional 80,000 tonnes of food per year.

"These are examples of people choosing to step out of their comfort zones and risk innovation; these people did not wait for external agencies to step in," said Rajul Pandya-Lorch, co-editor of MillionsFed. "We want to highlight the importance of creating the space to allow people to take risks and experiment."

The case studies underline that there is "no single, simple solution to helping farmers be more productive", said Prabhu Pingali, deputy director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which commissioned MillionsFed.

"A comprehensive approach is needed - from investing in improved seeds and healthy soil to supporting effective farm management practices and expanding small farmers' access to markets," he said.

Such efforts pay off with investment in science and technology - improved seeds, fertilizers and pesticides - hallmarks of the "green revolution" that turned around food production in Asia from 1965 to 1990.

Policy decisions like liberalizing agricultural markets, giving land-rights to farmers, investing in rural infrastructure and agricultural extension services also help. The FAO report points out that 84 percent of Vietnam's paddy fields are irrigated, so rice farmers no longer have to depend on the rain.

"In just five years, from 1993 to 1998, the share of people living in poverty fell by 21 percent [in Vietnam]," noted IFPRI, which has also devoted a chapter to land reforms in Vietnam.

The IFPRI and FAO initiatives have many examples of useful ideas to inspire communities and governments. And there is hope - at least 31 out of 79 countries monitored by FAO have registered a significant decline in the number of undernourished people since the early 1990s.

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87014DAKAR Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Six weeks after the deadly military crackdown on civilians in Guinea, families are still searching for loved ones, the wounded continue to need medical care and aid agencies are assisting state health workers cope with the aftermath, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Guinea.DAKAR Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Six weeks after the deadly military crackdown on civilians in Guinea, families are still searching for loved ones, the wounded continue to need medical care and aid agencies are assisting state health workers cope with the aftermath, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Guinea.

The UN on 9 November approved $416,056 from its Central Emergency Response Fund for a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) project to restore medical supplies, stock public hospitals, help treat people wounded in the 28 September violence and address nutritional and water and sanitation needs.

Following the December coup d'état many donors reduced or suspended development assistance, including some for the health sector. Philippe Verstraeten, head of OCHA-Guinea, told IRIN: “It is critical that the UN and aid agencies continue to help Guinea deal with the fallout of 28 September as well as stave off further humanitarian crises, as the situation remains volatile.”

The latest (2-9 November) OCHA bulletin says:

-The Red Cross continues to receive calls from families seeking relatives. “For the moment, access to Camp Alpha Yaya [Diallo / the main military camp and the junta’s headquarters] and to the detention centre at Kassa Island has not been permitted.”

-Hospitals have reported cases of secondary infections in some victims who had hesitated to seek medical care after 28 September for fear of reprisals by the army

-Protection experts say at least 225 victims of the 28 September violence remain seriously traumatized, 45 of whom victims of sexual violence

-Among the remaining protection needs are identification of rape victims, referrals and medical and psycho-social care

-The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), in collaboration with the Health Ministry, on 2-6 November held seminars to reinforce local capacity for treating sexual violence victims; the workshops included training in using rape kits

np/oahttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87017KAUDA Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - The Nuba Mountains, a former frontline region in Sudan’s north-south civil war remain tense, years after the 2005 north-south peace agreement, local leaders and analysts say.KAUDA Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - The Nuba Mountains, a former frontline region in Sudan’s north-south civil war remain tense, years after the 2005 north-south peace agreement, local leaders and analysts say.

Comprising some 48,000sqkm of green uplands and farmland, the area is part of northern Sudan’s Southern Kordofan State, but as during the war, remains politically dominated by the southern-led Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

Tensions and mistrust have remained high between Sudan’s north and south - major political, ideological and religious differences are unresolved – not least in the Nuba region.

"Security is a big problem, with violations and hostility between two parties - the SPLM and the NCP [National Congress Party], and a lot of conflict between tribes," said Kamal al-Nur, commissioner of SPLM-controlled Heiban County in Southern Kordofan.

"We are concerned that violence will escalate as we come closer to the elections - and in the period after the elections - to the referendum," al-Nur added. General elections in Sudan are slated for April 2010, before a southern independence referendum in 2011.

During the war, the Nuba population suffered aerial bombardment, isolation, shortages, land expropriation and forced population movements, according to international human rights groups.

The area is characterized by a mix of ethnic groups and coexistence between Muslim, Christian and traditional believers.

"We fought for long years… for equality, for the right to live as we want and not under the [Islamic] Sharia law of the north," said Younan Albaround, the SPLM chairman in Kauda, the party’s former headquarters for Nuba during the war.

“Popular consultation”

Unlike Southern Sudan and the oil-rich region of Abyei which are due to vote on independence and self-determination in 2011, the 2005 peace deal only set out arrangements for interim power sharing and ”popular consultation” in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

Abyei, Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile are sometimes referred to as Sudan’s “three areas” – transitional and contested-zones straddling the north-south political, military and cultural fault lines.

"Whilst the South and Abyei have clearly defined rights to an independence referendum - guaranteed by the presence of the SPLA and thus with the option of unilateral secession should the peace deal fail to be fully implemented - the two `contested areas’ are only given the ill-defined concept of `popular consultation’ on their future status," said Peter Moszynski, a Sudan analyst who began working in the Nuba region in 1981.

The SPLA’s ranks in the Nuba mountains were largely filled by local people, but those forces have officially pulled out of the region under terms set down by the peace agreement, with only special joint north-south units remaining.

Tensions have also risen following recent comments by senior Southern Sudanese officials in favour of separation, including a speech by the Southern president, Salva Kiir, that voting for unity would make southerners "second class" citizens.

"The Nuba people fear the breakaway of the south because they will be left as an isolated minority in the north - and will also be on the frontline of any future north-south conflict," Moszynski said.

"There are huge concerns that the Nuba Mountains could return to fighting," said Sudan analyst, John Ashworth. "They have no referendums - but many ordinary people are not aware of that yet and will be angry when it finally dawns on them. The `popular consultation’ is vague and probably meaningless."

A public opinion study by the Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) found people saw few positive outcomes for the future.

"Participants report that there is persistent, and potentially explosive, conflict in Southern Kordofan," the March 2009 study entitled Losing Hope noted.

In ethnic terms, the people of the Nuba Mountains usually identify more closely with the “African” southerners than their northern Arab neighbours.

"They describe the conflict as a fight over land and grazing rights. The Nuba argue that Arabs are armed [while the Nuba are not], that Arab traditional leaders are not neutral, and that the central government is behind much of the violence," it added.

"Arab participants say that it is the Nuba who are the instigators, and that they are responsible for the violence and theft in the region."

Few, the study found, were optimistic for the future: "The scale of the current conflict in Southern Kordofan is such that many participants believe the state is close to a return to general, state-wide war."

Similar sentiments were echoed by the International Crisis Group (ICG) in October 2008, in a report on Southern Kordofan entitled The Next Darfur?

"If the NCP, SPLM and international community fail to pay the required attention to the divided region," the ICG warned, "their inaction could come back to haunt them in a way that threatens the stability of the already divided country."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86994FREETOWN Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Some 20,000 people wounded in Sierra Leone's war are receiving micro-grants as part of efforts to rebuild lives and livelihoods in the still fragile country. FREETOWN Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Some 20,000 people wounded in Sierra Leone's war are receiving micro-grants as part of efforts to rebuild lives and livelihoods in the still fragile country.

The initial grants of 300,000 leones (US$80) each are part of a government "reparations" programme, implemented by the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA). The cash is aimed at boosting people's livelihoods, through training or a business start-up, as they await further health, education and other assistance.

NaCSA's Amadu Bangura said they planned to continue assistance in 2010 but were short of funds for the reparations programme; current funding of $3 million was made available by the UN Peacebuilding Fund. The commission is working on securing more funds and appealing to various donors.

Sierra Leone is still facing socio-economic challenges – some remnants of the war, others new. Finance Minister Samura Kamara noted falling diamond prices, decreasing remittances and imports, and drug-trafficking as new burdens. Sixty percent of youths are unemployed, according to the government.

With 300,000 leones a small-scale farmer could buy tools and rice seeds; an informal shopkeeper could purchase a start-up stock of biscuits and other goods.

Peace

Grant recipients told IRIN that nothing would erase the gang rapes endured in the war or restore amputated limbs, but they were grateful for the assistance.

"I am no longer able to do farming with the pain I experience from time to time," said Thomas Masuba, whose hand was amputated. "I will use the money to start a small-scale business, probably selling food and drink."

Madam Kailakkah was a breast-feeding mother when she was gang-raped during the war. She said the initial grant was small but she would do her best to invest in farming. "The 300,000 leones cannot appease me, but [through the country's peace and reconciliation process] I have forgiven those rapists whom I still see around in nearby villages."

Assistance to war victims was among the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Amputees, victims of sexual violence, and others injured in the war are entitled to free medical care, and education and housing assistance under the reparation programme, Bangura said.

Alhaji Lamin Jusu Jarka, head of the national amputees and war-wounded association, said it was good that the government was providing micro-grants to "kick-start" reparations – many injured, unable to find jobs, depended on reparations – but "Delay in the overall implementation of the TRC recommendations is frustrating."

sr/np/hehttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87007COLOMBO Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - One of the more contentious issues in Sri Lanka this year has been the plight of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the north.COLOMBO Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - One of the more contentious issues in Sri Lanka this year has been the plight of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the north.
 
More than 280,000 were in closed camps after hostilities between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended, and in recent months senior UN humanitarian and human rights officials have repeatedly voiced strong concern about conditions there.
 
In an interview with IRIN, Government Agent and District Secretary for Vavuniya PSM Charles - the most senior government official in Vavuniya, where the bulk of the displaced now stay - shared her take on the current return process, conditions inside the camps, and her government’s plans to return thousands to their homes.
 
More than 100,000 have returned already, she said, a number she hopes will increase in the weeks and months ahead.
 
Question: How would you describe conditions inside the camps at the moment?
 
Answer: People are happy since they know that the resettlement process is being expedited to the best of our ability. The IDP population at present [10 November] at the transitional relief villages is around 135,392 people.
 
Q: How many IDPs have been resettled so far - with families, in their previous homes, and with others?  
 
A: Around 104,500 to date [10 November]. They are being sent to Jaffna, Mannar, Mullaitivu, Killinochchi and Vavuniya districts in the north and Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Ampara in the east.
 
We have designated an area in Zone 5 [an area within the Menik Farm IDP camp] which serves as the point where those to be resettled are gathered. Once the formalities are dealt with, we transport them from there to their place of resettlement.  
 
According to the assessment made by UNICEF [the UN Children’s Fund], 65,000 IDPs had to be relocated from the welfare camps before the onset of the monsoons but we have resettled more than half the IDP population housed in the various welfare zones set up in Vavuniya District.
 
Q: Why are these people being sent to the east?
 
A: There are many IDPs who are from the east. They came to the north to visit family, relatives, to attend weddings, and some to attend to official work, and some for various other reasons.
 
They were trapped in the conflict areas when fighting began and could not leave. They wanted to go back to their homes in the east and we have allowed them to go back. In fact some were permanent residents of Vavuniya as well.
 
Resettlement plans
 
Q: What are your plans to resettle the rest of the IDPs?
 
A: Two divisional secretariats - Manthai West and Mannar town in the Mannar District - have been demined. This covers the Giant Tank area as this tank irrigates around 45,000 acres of paddy cultivation. We will be relocating around 5,000 people in these areas. We also hope to send a fair number to Killinochchi, Kanagapuram, Jayanthipuram, Uruthirapuram and Kudhumurippu Grama Niladhari divisions and [the] north part of Vavuniya, some areas in Mullaitivu and Pooneri - all in the north - no sooner the demining is over. I am waiting for the green light. These are the areas where they originally came from.
 
Q: What about those IDPs who wish to stay with family members in the area?
 
A: Relatives and friends who wish to accommodate IDPs have to make a written application providing relevant details to the government agent through the `grama niladhari’ [local area officer], and the divisional secretary or government agent. We then process the applications and verify their authenticity. I have approved over 6,500 applications received so far and am waiting for security clearance.
 
Once clearance is given we hope to send around 6,500 families to stay with their friends and relatives, some in Jaffna and Vavuniya in the north, and Batticaloa in the east. I expect the approval soon.
 
We have had a few applications to accommodate IDPs from friends and relatives in Colombo as well. We ensure that all the necessary facilities are available for the IDPs prior to permitting them to be resettled. The rest have to remain till the demining is completed.
 
Camp facilities
 
Q: There have been reports that basic facilities inside the camps are still lacking. What steps are being taken to overcome this situation?
 
A: Originally we provided all basic facilities for around 275,000 people. All along we have been doing our best to upgrade these facilities with the resources we had. [However,] now that the population is decreasing the same facilities there are for a much lesser number of people. Therefore, in my view, the present facilities should suffice.
 
Demining, infrastructure improvements
 
Q: The government says that demining is being carried out. Could you say where this exercise is being done and could you give a time frame for its completion? How habitable would these areas be?
 
A: The Sri Lanka army and other agencies are engaged in this process. Their capacities have been improved as well. Machinery was also brought in from China for demining. Many areas in the north have been mined. Financial assistance for demining is given to agencies according to the resettlement plan.
 
Meanwhile, we are also getting roads constructed, tanks for irrigation renovated and clearing highlands and paddy lands that had belonged to the IDPs. The government allocated Rs.1,750 million [US$15.28 million] for the Vavuniya District to build and develop roads, infrastructure, renovate big, medium and small tanks, schools, hospitals, places of all religious worship, rural electrification amongst many other areas, to facilitate the resettlement of IDPs in Vavuniya. The objective of the 180 days programme is to have all the necessary facilities ready and available for the IDPs by end December 2009. Around 70 percent of the work in the district has been completed.  
 
Some IDPs have been displaced for over 20 years, especially from the Mannar and Vavuniya districts. Their lands have been overgrown and now look like jungles. In Vavuniya, around 4,000 acres [1,619 hectares] of paddy land will be cultivated from lands that belong to the IDPs and had been abandoned for a very long time.
 
Assistance
 
Q: What sort of assistance are other agencies giving at this point in time?
 
A: Local and international NGOs, UN agencies and local authorities are working towards supplying water, sanitation, medical health, food, education and community capacity-building.
 
I have visited camps for displaced people in other parts of the world. In two such camps affected by earthquakes the victims were provided with only accommodation, and they had to fend for themselves, otherwise. In one place the people had to walk two miles [3.2km] for water. There were no education or medical facilities provided. But in Sri Lanka, displaced children have sat national examinations.
 
I must add that WFP provides rice, sugar, dhal, oil, and in some instances, canned fish too.
 
In addition, with the coordinated efforts of the government and NGOs, complementary food items worth Rs.5,000 [US$43] are provided to a family of five, every month.
 
We also have special feeding programmes supported by WFP and Médicins Sans Frontières for malnourished, pregnant and lactating mothers, infants and the elderly. UNICEF provides a midday meal for schoolchildren in Grade 9 and under.  
 
Health
 
We have a special hospital to keep patients with communicable diseases. There are dedicated areas for the elderly and mothers after childbirth. Those who have grave injuries - for example a spinal injury - are given special treatment that includes daily physiotherapy at the Pampaimadu Hospital in Vavuniya.
 
Q: When do you believe all the IDPs will ultimately be able to return to their homes?
 
A: I am unable to give a specific date but the government has strengthened all necessary facilities to expedite the process of resettlement. What is important is the demining process which is not that simple.
 
Every precaution is being taken to ensure that the mined areas are totally cleared so as to make it absolutely safe. We cannot take any chances on that. Therefore, I have to repeat that it is not possible to give a specific date or time frame. But I would like to add that hopefully, it will be soon.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86983NAIROBI Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - When the working members of a household die from HIV-related illnesses in northern Tanzania, older dependants have to work longer hours to cope financially, according to recently published World Bank study.NAIROBI Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - When the working members of a household die from HIV-related illnesses in northern Tanzania, older dependants have to work longer hours to cope financially, according to recently published World Bank study.

"Adult death is associated with increased farm hours ... Older women who suffer the loss of a co-resident member among their baseline household are working five hours more each week," the study found.

More than 1,000 men and women older than 50 were surveyed over a 13-year period between 1991 and 2004 in the Kagera region. http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/2009/09/02/000158349_20090902155306/Rendered/PDF/WPS5037.pdf.

Older adults who had relied on remittances and other in-kind support from their adult children were left with the burden of caring not only for themselves but also their orphaned grandchildren.

"Grandparents who should be in retirement are forced to start working and parenting again, often when they are not in the best physical condition," said Wamuyu Manyara, portfolio manager at the Africa Regional Development Centre of HelpAge International http://www.helpage.org. "An older woman with thinning bones should really not be forced to return to the field and farm."

The study noted that the shocks caused by the death of adult children were primarily felt by older people living with the children when they died. Women had less secure access to land and assets than men, but shouldered most of the labour after their children died, and also felt the shocks more than men. Owning more assets, such as land and animals, could act as a buffer.

"Policies which help ensure complete markets for livestock and other forms of assets, provide asset accumulation, and preserve women's rights to property may help mitigate the long-run negative impact of prime-age [15-50 years] deaths," the report said.

Little support

The elderly were often marginalised by state welfare programmes. "Older people are not organised enough to advocate for their needs, and they wind up being grouped in government departments with either children or people with disabilities - both these groups have powerful lobbies that drown out the needs of older people," said HelpAge's Manyara.

"In Kenya we are currently in the process of identifying community spokespeople to give them a public voice, but because many of them can't speak English or are illiterate, they are not always willing to take on the challenge."

Several African governments were doing more to include older people in social welfare programmes, particularly older carers. "There is now an appreciation of the magnitude of the problem, and there are some programmes catering for older people's economic needs," Manyara noted.

"Old-age pensions and child-care grants provided to older South Africans, and cash transfer programmes for older Kenyans, are practical examples of the types of programmes that need to be rolled out across the region ... [but the need] is still much higher than the numbers being catered for."

Research by the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, in five African countries found that between 40 percent and 60 percent of all orphans in Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe were being cared for by grandparents, particularly grandmothers.

Need for targeted programming

"Some of these older people can still work - they have energy and should be supported in their work with income-generating projects," Manyara suggested. "The conditions for accessing microfinance are usually so rigid that older people do not qualify; something should be done to encourage older people still able to work to access these funds."

Kavutha Mutuvi, HelpAge International's regional advocacy coordinator, said older people needed secure incomes. "There should be social pensions ... especially for those who are caring for households in their old age," she said.

Yet the bureaucratic hurdles in accessing support were considerable. "When a grandmother wants to claim a foster care grant, she may be asked for death certificates for her children or birth certificates of the grandchildren," Mutuvi pointed out.

"She may not have or have access to this documentation, but the fact that she is their grandmother can easily be verified by consulting community leaders - there should be a way to do away with much of the red tape they go through to claim support."

Older people also needed psychosocial assistance when their children died and they were left to raise the grandchildren. "We have tried to form support groups, which are more successful among women than men, but when it comes to helping grandparents with parenting skills, there is a definite need ... because they do come to us with questions when kids, for instance, want to know about sexuality," Mutuvi said.

The role of older people should be acknowledged when drawing up national home-based care policies and programmes, she said, by providing meaningful support such as physical help from community workers.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86984HARARE Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - An acute shortage of labourers on Zimbabwe's newly resettled farms, combined with the farmers' inability to raise loans from financial institutions to purchase agricultural inputs, and money owed to them by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), do not bode well for food security.HARARE Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - An acute shortage of labourers on Zimbabwe's newly resettled farms, combined with the farmers' inability to raise loans from financial institutions to purchase agricultural inputs, and money owed to them by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), do not bode well for food insecurity.

"The majority of our members have indicated that their farming activities have been severely affected by the shortage of manpower to use on the farms. We are poorly prepared, and our hands as farmers are tied because we don't have the money to keep the farm workers," said Denford Chimbwanda, president of the Grain and Cereal Producers Association (GCPA).

Chimbwanda told IRIN that although banks have finally agreed to provide loans, with the government's offer letters on the land as collateral, the slow pace of approving loans was not taking into account the window period of the main planting season.

Offer letters, or 99-year leases, have been issued to farmers settled on land redistributed from white-owned commercial farms to landless blacks in President Robert Mugabe's fast-track land reform programme, which began in 2000. Banks have only recently started accepting the offer letters as collateral for loans.

Renson Gasela, an agricultural analyst and the secretary for agriculture in the breakaway faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Arthur Mutambara, told IRIN that many farmers who had sold their previous harvest to the GMB - the sole grain purchaser in Zimbabwe - were still awaiting payment, further turning the screws on their cash flow.

"Farm workers are deciding that enough is enough. I am aware that some farmers have managed to keep some of their workers, on the promise that once they get paid by the GMB they will settle the wage arrears, but these promises have gone for too long, forcing them [workers] to look for other sources of income," he said.

In some cases wages had not been paid for three months, "and this has led to frustration among the employees, who, together with their families, need to subsist on a daily basis," Gasela said.

In the first quarter of 2009 nearly seven million Zimbabweans depended on food aid, but a relatively successful harvest of 1.14 million metric tons of maize, the staple food, in June 2009 - a two-fold increase on the previous year - brought optimism that the country was turning the corner on its food insecurity.

"Moving across the country, you cannot believe that we are already in the main farming season. Only a privileged few have managed to till their land, using tractors and the diesel that they managed to buy, but the story is different with the majority of farmers," Gasela said.

"It is easy to notice the absence of farm workers, who, in the past, would be seen busy in the fields at this time of the year. Instead, they can be found by the roadside selling firewood, or fish from nearby dams," he commented.

Tapiwa Zivira, spokesperson for the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union (GAPWUZ), told IRIN that labourers were "fleeing" farms because wages were not being paid.

"Farming should be for those who are prepared to meet the costs that go with agriculture. It is disturbing that the wages we are asking them to pay our members are way below the poverty datum line, but the farm owners still insist that they are too much," Zivira said.

Farm workers are paid a maximum of US$30 a month, when they are paid, and the GAPWUZ bid for a minimum monthly wage of US$50 has so far fallen on deaf ears.

Low wages, non-payment of wages, and poor living and working conditions were accelerating the flight of farm labourers. Zivira said children were being employed in their place "because they [farmers] know that these minors lack the capacity to demand what is due to them".

Another round of "farm invasions" by high-ranking officials in Mugabe's ZANU-PF party - after the formation of the unity government in February 2009 - meant ongoing instability on farms. More than 3,000 families had been forced to migrate from farms whose ownership had changed since February, with some finding refuge by the roadside, Zivira said.

Ennia Samson, 40, a widow of Malawian origin, moved to a business centre in the Murombedzi district of Mashonaland West Province, about 65km northwest of the capital, Harare, because ownership of the farm she was raised on changed hands in March.

"When the new farmer arrived he encouraged us to stay, saying he would look after us well, but by the time I left in September only a few workers had been given a maximum of US$15," Samson told IRIN.

Other women and girls had left the farm and were now domestic workers or had gone into commercial sex work. Samson had cleaned shops at the business centre and managed to raise the capital to start a small second-hand clothes business

She now lived in a makeshift shelter with her two school-going children. "Even though we are living as squatters, life is much better here than on the farm, where we were almost starving," Samson said.

fm/go/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86989JERUSALEM Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid groups and several members of parliament (MPs) are outraged by what seems to be the toughening of Israeli policy towards asylum-seekers illegally entering the country.JERUSALEM Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid groups and several members of parliament (MPs) are outraged by what seems to be the toughening of Israeli policy towards asylum-seekers illegally entering the country.

An “infiltration” law, the first draft of which has passed through parliament, is up for approval in the coming weeks despite efforts by NGOs to stop it. If approved, the law will regard anyone illegally entering the country as a criminal, and will allow a sentence of up to seven years for any asylum-seeker from an “enemy” country.

"Enemy" countries are Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Libya. However, very few if any asylum-seekers try to enter Israel from all but the first three of these countries. Almost all enter via Egypt.

The law would also incriminate NGOs and volunteers assisting such people and would allow for the detention of illegal minors.

Oded Diner of Amnesty International has urged immediate action to stop approval of the law but was dismayed when MPs Danny Danon (Likud party), Dov Khanin (Hadash) and Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) had their proposal to exclude the detention of illegal minors and children rejected on 3 November by parliament’s legislation committee.

Amnesty International has called on parliament [http://www.amnesty.org.il/blog/?page_id=1305] to “reject the draft law and to ensure that any immigration or national security provisions that are introduced into law fully respect Israel’s international human rights obligations by ensuring that individuals within their jurisdiction are protected, regardless of their immigration status, and that individuals are not returned to a state where they could be at risk of serious human rights violations”.

Exasperated aid workers told IRIN they were fed up and uncertain of their future. One, who did not want to be named, said she worked with asylum-seekers near the Egypt border and that she would be forced to become a criminal if the law is passed.

Work camps planned

The Israeli army’s Radio Galgalatz on 4 November said the Ministry of Finance had come up with a plan to “deter illegal infiltrators from coming to Israel”.

Under the plan, basic accommodation would be provided for asylum-seekers in camps in Israel’s southern Negev desert and the Arava region. They would be given food, shelter and basic medical care in return for unpaid work, mainly in agriculture.

Asylum-seekers would be forced to stay in the camps until their status is determined, though it is unclear what would happen to those not granted refugee status. Israel does not allow Southern Sudanese and Eritreans (the bulk of asylum-seekers) access to refugee status determination.

“This will deter those so-called asylum-seekers from coming here,” a member of the Israeli government told IRIN on condition of anonymity. “They are not refugees, they are simply migrant workers using the refugee story to get work, medical care and free education for their children in Israel. We believe that over 80 percent are not refugees.”

There are some 7,500 Eritrean and 6,000 Sudanese asylum-seekers in Israel, according to the Refugee Rights Forum [http://www.hotline.org.il/english/refugees_rights_forum.htm], an umbrella group representing eight human rights organizations in Israel. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) puts the total figure of asylum-seekers at around 18,000.

However, Israel’s immigration authority says there are over 24,000, mainly from Sudan and Eritrea, have “infiltrated” Israel over the past five years. Only about 450 from Darfur have received legal residency in Israel as a “humanitarian gesture”.

According to sources in the Israeli army, 400-600 African asylum-seekers illegally enter Israel every month. While many are able to find work in Israel, some rely on aid from NGOs. About 2,000 are detained at any given time in various detention facilities.

"The migrant workers and refugees will bring diseases and other problems to Israel, including AIDS, tuberculosis and drug abuse," Eli Yishay, Israel's interior minister, said in an interview on 2 November on Israel's Channel 2 TV.

For and against the plan

While many in the government are in favour of the deterrence plan, some MPs are horrified. Khanin told IRIN: "The war waged by Israel against the refugees is rolling the state of Israel down the morality slope. This agenda is anti-humanitarian and anti-Judaism. It has no place in a state that was erected by refugees."

Other MPs told IRIN they found the plan so offensive they would not credit it with a response.

NGOs working with refugees in Israel have also expressed their concerns. "These work camps will not deter people escaping horrors from coming here," said one aid worker who did not want to be named. "It will only take away the meagre living they were able to make up until now and provide, in fact, slaves in work camps."

When asked about the plan, the spokesperson’s office at the Ministry of Finance refused to discuss the draft law in detail.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86964HARARE Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Intervention by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to resolve a dispute between Zimbabwe's unity government partners has highlighted the redundancy of an oversight body specifically established to smooth the road of political reconciliation.HARARE Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Intervention by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to resolve a dispute between Zimbabwe's unity government partners has highlighted the redundancy of an oversight body specifically established to smooth the road of political reconciliation.

The Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) was constituted on 30 January 2009 by the SADC Facilitation Team to ensure that the signatories abided by the terms of Zimbabwe's Global Political Agreement (GPA), signed on 15 September 2008.

According to article 22 of the GPA - which paved the way for the formation of the unity government in February 2009 - JOMIC would "ensure full and proper implementation of the letter and spirit of this agreement ... [and] receive reports and complaints in respect of any issue related to the implementation, enforcement and execution of this agreement."

JOMIC has been plagued by funding shortages and "does not have legal or statutory powers to enforce the implementation of the GPA. That therefore means it has limitations in terms of ensuring the full and proper implementation of the political agreement, and that forces everybody to work on consensus," Elton Mangoma, economic planning minister and co-chair of JOMIC, told IRIN.

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister and leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, "disengaged" from the unity government on 16 October in protest over President Robert Mugabe's alleged refusal to abide by the terms of the GPA.

This, the most serious breakdown in the unity government so far, has been patched up after the SADC Troika on Defence, Security and Politics met in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, where all parties in the unity government were given a 30-day deadline to resolve outstanding issues.

Mangoma said one of JOMIC's mandates was "to serve as a catalyst in creating and promoting an atmosphere of mutual trust and understanding between the political parties, and to promote continuing dialogue ... If everything was working according to plan, then the recent meeting in Maputo would not have taken place." The secretariat now had "reasonable" resources and could not be dismissed as "toothless".

"We cannot change the mandate of the JOMIC without amending the GPA. For JOMIC to function smoothly, all outstanding issues to the Global Political Agreement and the SADC communiqué of January 2009 have to be implemented in order to give the country a fresh start," Mangoma noted.

Among the outstanding issues was a transparent land audit to identify multiple farm ownership, halted by fresh farm invasions; the swearing-in of provincial governors, most of whom are MDC representatives, stalled by Mugabe since elections in 2008; media reforms; and the furore over deputy minister of agriculture designate, Roy Bennett.

Bennett, a former white commercial farmer who lost his farm in 2003 during Mugabe's fast-track land reform programme, is currently on trial for weapons possession and intent to commit terrorism and banditry. Bennett's defence team has dismissed the charges as based on a confession extracted under torture.

The MDC has also listed as a stumbling block Mugabe's unilateral appointment of the reserve bank governor and the attorney-general, contrary to the terms of the GPA.

In turn, Mugabe's ZANU-PF contends that the MDC has not done enough to persuade the US and European Union to lift sanctions against hundreds of senior ZANU-PF officials, as well as Mugabe and his family, and that the MDC has failed to stop radio stations funded by foreign governments from broadcasting into Zimbabwe.

Ben Freeth, a Zimbabwean commercial farmer, told IRIN: "As far as we are concerned, JOMIC does not exist. They have not done anything to stop the fresh farm invasions taking place." His farm was taken over by a senior ZANU-PF government official.

"The SADC Tribunal has ruled that some aspects of the land redistribution were illegal, and the government of Zimbabwe has been in contempt of that ruling since June, but JOMIC has not said or done anything about it."

According to JOMIC communications manager Joram Nyathi, "It [JOMIC] cannot force parties to perform any specific provision. JOMIC can only persuade the parties to be faithful to the letter and spirit of the GPA. Where the parties hit a deadlock, JOMIC's role is to try and break it or propose alternatives."

In a recent newspaper column he wrote: "More importantly, because of its role as a 'permanent' negotiating forum of the parties to the GPA, JOMIC cannot afford the luxury of standing on hilltops to attack or condemn its constituent partners for the infringements of the GPA."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86965NAIROBI Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Kenyan officials are protesting as 'unfair' a recommendation by the technical review panel of the Global Fund to reject the country's bid for Round Nine funding.NAIROBI Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Kenyan officials are protesting as 'unfair' a recommendation by the technical review panel (TRP) of the Global Fund http://www.theglobalfund.org to reject the country's bid for Round Nine funding.

James Ole Kiyapi, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Medical Services and chair of Kenya's country coordinating mechanism http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/ccm/?lang=en, who is responsible for submitting grant proposals to the Fund, said the main reason for the TRP's recommendation was that Kenya's two ministries of health had failed to properly coordinate the management of resources.

In 2008 Kenya split its health ministry 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 - at one point both ministries appointed someone as head of the National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections Control Programme, a major HIV/AIDS body.

The final decision on the recommendations of the TRP lies with the Global Fund Board http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/board/?lang=en, which is meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

A high-powered delegation has been sent to appeal the decision. "We hope our side of the story will be heard," said Ole Kiyapi. The country is requesting US$270 million from the Fund.

Kenya's 2008 proposals http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/fundingdecisions/notapproved for funding for HIV, TB and malaria were also rejected; in 2003 the Global Fund delayed the disbursement of funds over concerns about corruption in the National AIDS Control Council.

Analysts say a recent row http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86496 among HIV/AIDS NGOs over funding could also have played a part in the TRP's decision.

"We as a country have done a shoddy job of managing previous funds. Let this be a wake-up call, and let us learn from our mistakes and tackle the problems that have put us here in the first place," said James Kamau, head of the Kenya Treatment Access Movement, a national advocacy group.

Aidspan, an independent watchdog of the Global Fund, http://www.aidspan.org/index.php?page=gfgrants&menu=globalfundgrants&country=96, gives Kenya a 'D' in terms of grant performance, noting that on average Kenya grants are almost nine months behind schedule.

"If the bid is rejected outright people will die, because the government itself contributes nothing to HIV treatment in this country," Kamau said, adding that the government should start funding its own HIV programmes rather than relying so heavily on donors in order to avoid such uncertainty in the future.

The Global Fund, Kenya's biggest HIV/AIDS donor, has contributed over US$87 million to prevention, treatment and care programmes; more than 200,000 Kenyans are receiving antiretroviral medication.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86969NAIROBI Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Heavy rain, lack of medical services, few latrines and reduced aid have worsened the plight of the growing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) camping on the outskirts of Mogadishu, sources said.NAIROBI Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Heavy rain, lack of medical services, few latrines and reduced aid have worsened the plight of the growing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) camping on the outskirts of Mogadishu, sources said.

"We have two clinics in the area covering over 30 camps, with an average population of 550 families (3,300 people) per camp," Hussein Ali Mohamed, a doctor with the UK-based charity Islamic Relief, said.

"I am seeing more and more cases of malnutrition and water-related diseases," he added. "There are not enough latrines and those that there are, are being used by three or four times the number of people they were designed for in 2007."

"You have people weakened by lack of food and poor health with minimum shelter," Mohammed told IRIN on 9 November, adding that the main problems were respiratory tract infections and diseases related to malnutrition.

"Yesterday [8 November], a two-year-old boy weighing 3.5kg was brought to the clinic… Normally he should have weighed over 10kg. Unfortunately, that is becoming more frequent than in the past."

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates there are some 900,000 IDPs in the Mogadishu-Afgoye corridor. Virtually all of them are in camps of one sort or another.

Asli Aden, a 30-year-old mother of four, has been an IDP in the Arbiska area, 20km south of Mogadishu, since 2007. While visiting the clinic with her sick child, she told IRIN that life in the camps was becoming even more difficult.

Food aid cut

In 2007 when she first came to the camps, her family used to get 100kg of sorghum, 10kg of beans, 10kg of porridge and 3ltr of cooking oil each month from aid agencies.
"First they reduced it [sorghum or maize] to 75kgs per month, and about four months ago they cut all food aid by half so that we now get 37kg of maize or sorghum, 5kg of beans, 5kg of porridge and 1.5ltr of cooking oil," she said. "Now, we don’t get oil or beans. I don’t know what we will do but it is getting harder and harder to feed the children."

The plastic sheeting covering her makeshift home also had so many holes in it that it no long provided shelter from the rain. "Some nights, when it rains, we have to move to the corrugated-iron sheet latrines for shelter," she explained.
Aid agencies in Somalia have recently said they needed more money but some donors are holding back, concerned at where resources might end up in areas too dangerous for international staff.

Many IDPs also used to go to Mogadishu to look for work and return to the camps with some earnings to supplement aid handouts. "Now because of the deteriorating security conditions many are afraid to go," Jowahir Ilmi, head of local NGO Somali Women’s Concern, said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86941NAKAI PLATEAU Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - Over 6,000 people have been resettled to make way for a controversial dam in central Laos: The Nam Theun 2 Dam, the country’s single largest infrastructure project, will produce electricity for Thailand, and domestically.NAKAI PLATEAU Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - Over 6,000 people have been resettled to make way for a controversial dam in central Laos: The Nam Theun 2 Dam, the country's single largest infrastructure project, will produce electricity for Thailand, and domestically.
Resettlement consultations with villagers in the densely forested Nakai Plateau, where the dam is located, took over 10 years. The Aheu, a minority ethnic group, were reluctant to move because of their spiritual connection to the land but started to do so from April 2008. By the end of 2008 they had been resettled in a number of different villages around the reservoir. One village accommodates 14 extended families in wooden stilt houses with electricity and clean water, which they did not have previously.

Among the last to move was Grandmother Khamsone, 85, the matriarch of the Aheu in Nakai.

"When the water rose high in the reservoir, I was scared because water was everywhere. I had seen a dam on TV which broke and the water came out. Also there were warning signs everywhere telling us to be aware of water rising suddenly, so I was worried the water would suddenly rise higher. That's why I moved here.

"My old house had bamboo on the floors and walls, and the roof was made of leaves. I still miss the old house, but I couldn't do anything because of the flood. It's more comfortable here than the old house. We are happy, but the only thing is the spirits, who don't want to be here.

"The spirits are from the forest. Four shamans spoke to the spirits and asked them to come here, but they don't like this area. They aren't used to staying here. I really want to ask the spirits why they don't want to come here, but I can't see them or talk to them. If I could see them, I would urge them to come here with me. If I could make the spirits happy, I could stay here longer.

"I need to go back to the old house to see the spirits. I should raise them once a year to keep them happy. If I don't, they might come and kill me. I have to take a boat [to the old house], but I'm scared of getting into a boat in the water and drowning. I had an accident - I fell down the stairs going to collect a rice donation from the NTPC [Nam Theun Power Company]. Now I can't move my hands and legs very well.

"It's good to have electricity, but if you don't give me money, I can't pay the bill, so please get rid of it. I will light a fire instead. I used all my money to buy a TV and a CD player for my children and I don't have any more. I don't want to trouble my children to pay the electricity bill, because if they earn money, they want to spend it on something else."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86907DAKAR Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - Even when Guinea is not facing political crisis and reeling from a massacre, daily life is gruelling for many and instability is never far away. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in a September 2009 report says Guinea is “volatile” due to a combination of sharp economic decline; widespread and chronic poverty; limited access to basic services like health, water and sanitation; and persistent political instability.DAKAR Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - Even when Guinea is not facing political crisis and reeling from a massacre, daily life is gruelling for many and instability is never far away.

In this country that holds 30 percent of the world’s reserves of bauxite, the primary ore in aluminium, most people live hand-to-mouth; only about 19 percent of the population has access to proper sanitation facilities; malnutrition is widespread.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in a September 2009 report says Guinea is “volatile” due to a combination of sharp economic decline; widespread and chronic poverty; limited access to basic services like health, water and sanitation; and persistent political instability.

Some facts about Guinea:

-At the peak of regional conflicts in the 1990s Guinea housed some 800,000 refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia; today some 25,000 refugees remain in Guinea, including from Côte d’Ivoire

-Guinea has borders with Côte d’Ivoire (instability and political impasse since a 2002 rebellion), Guinea-Bissau (narcotics-trafficking hub struggling to emerge from a history of coups, counter-coups, civil war and political assassinations), Liberia (civil war 1989-2003), Mali, Senegal (attacks by armed groups on civilians and sporadic fighting in southern Casamance region) and Sierra Leone (civil war 1991-2002)

-Since independence in 1958 Guinea has not had a peaceful transition of power

-Population: 9.8 million; average population growth rate 2.6 percent from 1990 to 2007

-70 percent of population living under the poverty threshold of US$1.25 per day, as of 2005

-Chronic malnutrition has increased by 50 percent in the past five years

-Polio-free from 2004 to 2008, Guinea recorded at least 16 cases of polio in 2009

-Known as “the water tower of West Africa”, Guinea is the source of the 4,180-kilometre Niger River and a number of other major rivers

-Nearly half the population has no access to safe drinking water

-Cholera, yellow fever and seasonal flooding regularly spark humanitarian emergencies, straining already limited national capacity to cope

-In the UN Human Development Index Guinea ranks 170 of 182 countries

-150 in 1,000 children are likely to die before fifth birthday

-93 in 1,000 infants are likely to die before age one

-980 women die annually from pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 births

-An estimated 1.6 percent of the population infected with HIV

-0.1 physicians per 1,000 people as of 2004

-Illiteracy rate (age 15 and above) 70.5 percent

-Life expectancy 55 years

Sources: UN Children’s Fund, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, World Bank, UN Human Development Index 2009 report

np/cihttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86924MAPUTO Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Helena Numaio was 12 years old in 1990 when she lost both her legs and a finger in a landmine explosion while collecting firewood in the Moamba district of Maputo Province, Mozambique. MAPUTO Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Helena Numaio was 12 years old in 1990 when she lost both her legs and a finger in a landmine explosion while collecting firewood in the Moamba district of Maputo Province, Mozambique.

The landmine put an end to her education. Nearly 20 years later Numaio has fled an abusive marriage and now is solely responsible for bringing up her three children aged five, eight and 10. She sells food and second-hand clothes on the streets of the capital, Maputo, to make a living.

Mozambique's only local NGO dedicated to assisting victims of landmines and unexploded ordnance, RAVIM, gave her a wheelchair in 2007 and she went back to school, but had to withdraw after two years. The fees were US$4 a year, but an extra levy of $2 a month to pay for the after-hours security guard at the local school meant she would have to choose between providing for her children and improving her education.

"Before getting the wheelchair I was dependent on others to take me anywhere," Numaio told IRIN. The wheelchair enabled her to set up a small business, but the city's broken roads and sidewalks were unforgiving, and the wheelchair that had given her a new lease on life now stands immobile.

Emmanuel Mounier, seconded to RAVIM from Handicap International (HI), which works with landmine victims, told IRIN the harsh environment shortened the lifespan of crutches, wheelchairs and other aids used by the disabled, but spare parts were hard to come by and there were few specialized workshops, so repairs were expensive.

No assistance for victims

Landmines are the third leading cause of amputations in Mozambique, after diabetes and road accidents, and the threat they still pose - more than 17 years after peace came to the country following four decades of independence and civil wars - is deemed big enough for HI to spend 40 percent of its annual country budget on mine clearance.

Both conflicts saw the extensive use of landmines and HI believes that the handful of recorded victims killed or maimed each year grossly underestimates the ongoing impact of these hidden weapons.

Yann Faivre, HI's programme director in Mozambique, told IRIN that "the number of mine accidents each year are given as a minimum by the authorities, but we just don't know the number of accidents."

There are no benefits for the survivors of landmine blasts, or those who died, or their next of kin, so there is no incentive to report incidents of landmine accidents to the authorities, Faivre said.

In one of the world's poorest nations, assistance for the disabled is often far down the list of priorities. There are government-run orthopaedic centres in the 10 provincial capitals, except Manica Province, where it is situated in Chimoio, but all share a common bond of "essential equipment not working or not being replaced," Faivre said.

"For example, in Inhambane [in central Mozambique, currently the most mined province] the [orthopaedic] centre is not open. In Beira [Mozambique's second city] the oven to make prosthetics is broken and has not been replaced," he said. "The situation [at orthopaedic centres in Mozambique] is not at the level of the minimum standard."

The majority of Mozambique's 20 million people live in rural areas, and the poor reputation of the orthopaedic centres means that "most people needing assistance don't bother to go [to the provincial capital] as they see it as a wasted and expensive journey," Faivre said.

The plight of landmine victims and the lack of assistance in many of the world's mine affected territories will be a major focus of the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World, or the second five-year Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty, which begins on 29 November 2009 in the Colombian port city of Cartagena.

HI, which works with all disabilities, said it supported the Cartagena summit's aims of providing greater assistance to mine victims, as it might also lead to improved resources for all the disabled in impoverished countries. "No one is going to ask someone without a leg, who goes to an orthopaedic centre, how they lost it. Improved facilities will be made available for all the disabled," Faivre said.

Self help

Luis Silvestre Wamusse, national coordinator and a co-founder of RAVIM, which was established in 2005, told IRIN: "If you compare someone who was born disabled, they had no choice but to adjust to their situation. It is more difficult for someone who lived a first life as a normal person and then, from one day to another, suddenly sees their dreams broken. They have to first accept their new condition and then start their second life."

In 1984 Wamusse was a 22-year-old student in Tete Province in northwestern Mozambique, when he lost a leg and two fingers to a landmine while looking for firewood. His family brought him back to Maputo for rehabilitation. Manuel Amisse, co-founder and programme director of RAVIM, was a 26-year-old government soldier when he stepped on a mine on 11 August 1982 while on patrol in Tete.

After being evacuated by donkey cart, Amisse was eventually treated by a "not very skilled intern" in Songo, a town east of the Cahora Bassa dam, and underwent two more amputation procedures to produce a "proper stump".

"The main priorities for victims are psychological rehabilitation, the healing of the wound, and getting a prosthesis - but that first need is already not covered," Wamusse said.

In March 2007 an armoury exploded in the city of Maputo, spewing rockets, ammunition and other ordnance into the surrounding suburbs, killing more than 100 people and injuring hundreds more. RAVIM provided counselling to people who had lost limbs or sustained other injuries.

"People did not believe that we [Wamusse and Amisse] were also victims and had had limbs amputated, so we had to take off our prosthetics in the hospital and show them that we have adapted to live a normal life ... I told them, 'You lost your leg, you did not lose your life, so please do not lose your will to live'," Wamusse said.

Tales of a child soldier

Paulino Alfredo Sambo was a 15-year-old rebel soldier when he was caught in an ambush by government soldiers near Vilanculos in Inhambane Province in 1991, a year before the civil war ended. The impact of a rocket propelled grenade severed one leg below the knee and left his remaining foot in tatters. It was amputated by a nurse in a primary health care facility soon after.

After a stint in rehabilitation and attending a government re-skilling programme for former soldiers, where he trained as a metal worker, seven years after the ambush, HI provided him with prosthetics.

"After the incident I excluded myself from society - I was ashamed of my condition - but I have accepted that I will not have legs for the rest of my life," Sambo told IRIN.

He lives with his wife, Nilsa, and three children aged two, three and four in Matola City, about 20km from Maputo. He has a lathe in the front garden and from the proceeds of his work is gradually building a family home.

The stigma associated with landmine victims and the disabled in general nearly thwarted their marriage. "Neighbours [of his prospective wife's parents] spoke against me. They told Nilsa and her parents that I would not be able to support her. I told Nilsa, 'You have the choice - I will never change."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86892JUBA Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Sudan has started registering voters for presidential, legislative and regional elections, but officials in the south and international observers say the process has begun on a flawed note.JUBA Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Sudan has started registering voters for presidential, legislative and regional elections, but officials in the south and international observers say the process has begun on a flawed note.

"This process could easily be referred to as ‘dead on arrival’," Anne Itto, secretary-general for the south of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), said on 3 November.

The National Election Commission (NEC) deputy head Abdalla Ahmed, however, told the Sudan Tribune on 2 November that the NEC had mobilized concerned authorities to ensure the success of the exercise.

The month-long process began on 1 November. It is a key step towards the April 2010 polls that are seen as a landmark of the 2005 peace agreement that ended two decades of civil war between north and south.

An estimated two million people died in that war, which ended with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

"In the context of Southern Sudan, where you don’t have [telephone] networks, where you don’t have roads, where you don’t have public transport, it is very unrealistic to expect registration to be completed by 30 November," Itto told reporters in the Southern capital, Juba.

Should the NEC fail to take immediate and drastic action, warned the SPLM, fewer than 10 percent of eligible voters in the south would be able to register and vote.

"If things go the way they are going now, I believe less than 10 percent of the total population will be registered," Itto said.

The NEC has set up some 15,000 registration centres to cater for an estimated 20 million Sudanese voters.

Concerns

Observers, however, said the centres had been slow to open even in state capitals, and reports indicated that access for rural populations was poor.

Awareness that registration had begun or even knowledge of the need to register was low, while state election committees had complained of delays in operational funding.

Those concerns were echoed by the US-based Carter Center, whose international observers are monitoring the electoral process, which said more must be done countrywide to ensure registration.

On 2 November, the centre "expressed concerns about the obstacles facing election observers, including delays in finalizing their accreditation procedures and delays in election preparations, as well as continued reports of harassment of political party and civil society activity".

Citing Darfur, it warned of the difficulty of running election activities in the troubled region: "The continuing state of emergency means that a free and open electoral process remains difficult to contemplate."

Insecurity worries

Separately, the Washington-based Enough Project warned that poor preparations would impact on future key events, including the referendum on the south’s potential full independence slated for January 2011.

"The deck is stacked against a free and fair election in five months," wrote Sudan-based researcher Maggie Fick in a 5 November report. "There are worrying signs that it could be a trigger for further insecurity."

The process, she added, could, however, provide key lessons for the actual elections. The voter registration process “could also serve as a trial run in which some of the issues that could negatively impact [on] the polling period could be resolved", she added. "Alternately, the registration process could expose a reality that... has been felt on the ground for some time: these elections could destabilize already insecure areas as the all-important 2011 referendum draws nearer."

Awareness problems

In capitals like Juba, awareness is poor, despite efforts by the authorities to advertise the process through street marches, poster campaigns and radio broadcasts.

"I registered on the first day, but I know many people who are not aware," Opio Moses Korduk, a local resident, told IRIN.

Others however, said that as southerners, their concern was the 2011 referendum and not the election.

"The north cheated us when they ran the census results," said James Deng, a student at Juba University, referring to the contested national census results released earlier this year.

"So why should we think the election will be any different? I am waiting for the referendum because independence is the only future for the south," he added.

Rising tensions

Meanwhile, talks continued between north and south following meetings with the US Special Envoy Scott Gration to tackle sticking points of the CPA.

"It is a difficult and lengthy process, but failure is not an option," Gration warned in Khartoum on 2 November.

Tensions have risen between north and south, especially following comments by Southern President Salva Kiir that voting for unity in 2011 would make southerners "second-class" citizens in Sudan.

The two sides are still divided by ideological, religious and ethnic differences over which the civil war was fought.

"It is why it is critical that we ensure that the process is fair and credible and that the will of the people, as expressed through the national elections and the referendum, is respected peacefully," added Gration.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86894JOHANNESBURG Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's rough diamond trade has escaped a six-month suspension by the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) - an international initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds - after its own investigating team recommended earlier in 2009 that the country be temporarily barred from importing and exporting the gems.JOHANNESBURG Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's rough diamond trade has escaped a six-month suspension by the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) - an international initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds - after its own investigating team recommended earlier in 2009 that the country be temporarily barred from importing and exporting the gems.

No consensus on Zimbabwe's suspension could be reached at the annual plenary, said Annie Dunnebacke, of Global Witness - a UK-based NGO that seeks to prevent the use of natural resources to fuel conflict, and a prime mover in setting up the KPCS - who described the meeting in the Namibian coastal town of Swakopmund, as "the most disorganized plenary session ever held."

The KPCS, established in 2002, brings together governments, the diamond industry and concerned NGOs to police the trade in conflict diamonds, also known as blood diamonds. The organization has 49 members representing 75 countries, and covers about 99.8 percent of the global production of rough diamonds.

The credibility of the KPCS has been on a knife edge since the decision not to take action against Zimbabwe. According to one delegate, who declined to be identified, Zimbabwe's escape from suspension was ensured by its neighbours, but would not divulge which countries in the region objected to punitive measures against the offender.

Southern Africa's economies are already seeing the effects of the global recession in depressed diamond sales, and any return to international boycotts against diamonds originating in Africa would further impact these fragile economies.

"We [civil society] are very disappointed" with the outcome, Dunnebacke told IRIN. Instead of suspension, an action plan to ensure Zimbabwe's compliance with the KPCS was called for, with the dispatch of an official to monitor the country's adherence.

In July an 11-person KPCS review team, led by Kpandel Fiya, Liberia's deputy minister of mines, visited the Chiadzwa diamond area in Marange district, Manicaland Province, bordering Mozambique in eastern Zimbabwe, and documented a litany of human rights abuses.

Yet the action plan did not address human rights abuses or the militarization of the Marange alluvial diamond fields. "The implementation of the action plan depends on Zimbabwe showing commitment and sincerity," she pointed out.

The KPSC had been "undermined by this decision ... the KP [Kimberley Process] has to look at itself ... it is too important to fail, and that is why we have not walked away from it yet ... are we endorsing a system that we cannot believe in anymore?"

Ian Smillie, of Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), one of the architects of the certification scheme, has walked away. He resigned as civil society representative to the KPCS in June 2009, saying: "When regulators fail to regulate, the systems they were designed to protect collapse ... I feel that I can no longer in good faith contribute to a pretence that failure is success, or to the kind of debates we have been reduced to."

In the KPCS review team's report, addressed to Obert Mpofu, Zimbabwe's minister of mining, Fiya said: "Sir, I was in Liberia throughout the 15 years of civil war, and I have experienced too much senseless violence in my lifetime, especially connected with diamonds. In speaking with some of these people [in Zimbabwe], minister, I had to leave the room. This has to be acknowledged, and it has to stop."

A report in June 2009 by the international watchdog, Human Rights Watch, accused Zimbabwean security forces of killing more than 200 miners in 2008 - an allegation denied by President Robert Mugabe's government - and recommended that Zimbabwe be suspended from the KPCS.

A 2009 report by PAC - Zimbabwe, Diamonds and the Wrong Side of History - said, "Zimbabwean diamonds are produced from mines that benefit political and military gangsters, and they are smuggled out of the country by the bucket load."

Another KPCS review team is expected to visit the country within the next six months.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86903BUJUMBURA Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Civilians across Burundi have handed in thousands of guns, grenades and rounds of ammunition during a 10-day voluntary disarmament campaign.BUJUMBURA Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Civilians across Burundi have handed in thousands of guns, grenades and rounds of ammunition during a 10-day voluntary disarmament campaign.

The deputy head of the national disarmament commission, Leopold Banzubaze, said the campaign had netted 2,482 rifles, 10,429 grenades, 218 bombs, 28 mines and 788,908 bullets. In return, the state handed out goods such as construction materials, furniture, bicycles, farming tools, mobile phones and soap.

Speaking shortly before the campaign’s conclusion, the commission’s head, Gen. Zénon Ndabaneze, said: “If we add the arms collected in the previous disarmament campaigns and the police house-to-house searches, we can say we have so far collected 80,000 arms. Nearly 80 percent of weapons in circulation have been collected.”

Under a decree issued by President Pierre Nkurunziza in August 2009, an amnesty was granted to anyone who surrendered their weapons before the end of October. From now on, possession of arms can lead to hefty fines and jail terms of up to 10 years.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86868HARARE Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's threat to appoint interim ministers to plug the gap left by the "disengagement" of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) from the unity government could lead to a review of donor funding, a highly placed official from a major donor country told IRIN.HARARE Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's threat to appoint interim ministers to plug the gap left by the "disengagement" of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) from the unity government could lead to a review of donor funding, a highly placed official from a major donor country told IRIN.

"We are still monitoring developments. No decision has been made to appoint acting ministers, but that would certainly send a wrong message, and could get donors who want the situation in Zimbabwe to improve to review their financial commitments to the inclusive government," said the official, who declined to be identified.

The Global Political Agreement (GPA), signed in September 2008, paved the way for the formation of the unity government in February 2009. "When the Global Political Agreement was signed ... we said at the time that we would be looking out to see if the GPA was fully implemented," the official noted.

Morgan Tsvangirai, Prime Minister and MDC leader, withdrew from attending cabinet meetings on 16 October 2009 over Mugabe's procrastination in swearing in provincial governors, while alleging that MDC members and officials faced constant harassment.

The MDC also believes that the continued stay in office of the attorney general and the Reserve Bank Governor - self-admitted allies of Mugabe - is in contravention of the GPA.

After the MDC's disengagement, information minister Webster Shamu said "His Excellency [Mugabe] may have to consider appointing ministers in an acting capacity to key ministries, for the sake of a successful agricultural season and general economic turnaround."

The passage of the unity government has been far from smooth, but the MDC's disengagement represents the most serious breakdown in relations between the partners in the fledgling unity government and its attempt to haul Zimbabwe out of the economic abyss in which nearly 7 million people relied on donor food aid in the first quarter of 2009.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) organ on politics, defence and security will meet on 5 November in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, to discuss developments in Zimbabwe.

The organ's troika of members is comprised of Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, Zambian President Rupiah Banda, and sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, King Mswati III. SADC chairman Joseph Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has already visited Zimbabwe to try to resolve the impasse.

Zimbabwe's finance portfolio has also been the object of an ongoing turf war between the MDC and Mugabe's ZANU-PF party. "Firstly, appointing acting ministers would be illegal and unconstitutional; doing so would be killing the GPA," Finance Minister Tendai Biti told IRIN.

"It would amount to a violation of the Global Political Agreement, which created the transitional inclusive government. It has to be understood that the MDC has only disengaged from ZANU-PF, and not government work. We are all going to our offices to work," he said.

Government work continues  

"Nothing has changed in terms of how we do business; we are coming up with frameworks of introducing good governance and accountability to avoid abuse of funds. The money is stored in a multi-donor basket fund, and there has to be consultation and agreement on how it is spent."

Prof Arthur Mutambara, Deputy Prime Minister and leader of a breakaway MDC faction, told IRIN that Tsvangirai's decision to boycott cabinet could prove counterproductive.

"If decisions are made in cabinet, even if others have boycotted the meeting, they will be binding," he said. "So, what we have been doing is to fight against bad decisions, while acting as the peace-builder between Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe."

dd/go/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86882DAKAR Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Donors have promised US$40 billion in aid to agriculture in developing countries since the Rome “food summit” in 2008, but in some countries the bulk of this aid is uncoordinated, shortsighted and does not support government priorities, says NGO Oxfam. DAKAR Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Donors have promised US$40 billion in aid to agriculture in developing countries since the Rome “food summit” in 2008, but in some countries the bulk of this aid is uncoordinated, shortsighted and does not support government priorities, says NGO Oxfam.

“Technical and financial partners are supporting different projects that are totally disconnected from one another and from the agriculture policy framework set up by the government,” Jean-Denis Crola, author of the report ‘Aid to Agriculture: from promises to reality on the ground’, told IRIN.

“And many of the new interventions do not represent new money, but are financial re-allocations from other sectors,” he said.

Rather than working through governments, most donors and technical partners in the three West African countries Oxfam studied – Burkina Faso, Ghana and Niger – channel agriculture financing through UN agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) or the World Food Programme (WFP), and other international institutions; they also implement projects themselves through consultants, said Oxfam.

Impact

In 2007 in Burkina Faso 27 development donors supported 131 separate agriculture projects, most of which bypassed government structures, Crola told IRIN; in 2008 this had been cut to 80, but this number still overwhelms government administration, he pointed out.

Lack of coordination also weakens governments’ administrative capacity as finance ministries are forced to employ dozens of staff whose sole job is to track and report on a multitude of projects, said Oxfam.

With most projects lasting three to five years, donor timeframes can also stymie long-term planning in government.

But most importantly such policies leave people hungry, as investment in agriculture remains low, Crola said.

In Burkina Faso while the government had stressed the need to streamline agricultural financing through a few grain, produce and livestock cooperatives, the four major agriculture donors – World Bank, Germany, Denmark and Canada – chose to support 30 different networks among them, without sufficient coordination in selecting, Crola said.

As a result some sectors such as sesame, soya, and cowpeas were over-supported while staple foods as rice and maize were under-funded, he said.

“A process”

Emmanuel Nikiema, the World Bank’s programme director in Burkina Faso, told IRIN while there have been problems coordinating in the past, “harmonizing our aid with government policies is now the order of the day for all of the major donors in the country.”

Coordination is a process, and while donors could improve their performance, the government must also fulfill its role by showing strong leadership on agricultural policy, he said.

“We [financial and technical partners] are there to support not to replace the government, and it is up to the government to be at the forefront of the strategy,” he told IRIN.

G8 leaders reiterated the need to coordinate funding when they pledged $20 billion at the September 2009 summit, to help developing countries out of the food security crisis and to support long-term agricultural development.

In September 2008 at a forum on aid effectiveness in Ghana, donors reiterated their commitment to improving the predictability and coordination of aid efforts.

Leadership

Oxfam agrees stronger government leadership is needed. Governments must develop policies, demonstrate better leadership on agriculture and work with the commercial sector to develop stronger regional policies if they are to develop a stronger voice with external donors, says the report.

Many West African governments abandoned agriculture, sidelining it in their national budgets, partly as a result of the Washington Consensus donor strategy.
Between 1995 and 2007 agriculture accounted for less than 5 percent of total official development aid committed to West African states, while about 80 percent of West Africa’s inhabitants depend on agriculture to survive.

Niger and Burkina Faso still have no agricultural policy; their commitments to the sector are spread across several different ministries according to Oxfam’s report.

Opportunity

Donors are improving their coordination and performance in other sectors including health and education, with pooled funds increasingly the norm, said Crola, adding that there is no reason they cannot veer in this direction for agricultural funding.

“The opportunity to change is now while international interest in food security and agricultural development is still a reality,” he told IRIN.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86883