I am angry. I am pissed off. I have been trying to write about this Zuma debacle for months, but have been plagued by unease and self-censorship, and I have remained silent, while seething inside. The polarization into two camps of the country, into those who claim to be speaking on K’s behalf, and those who have out and out turned their backs on her has me bothered. I am angry and irritated with K herself and those surrounding her. I am angry with the men and women hurling stones and burning effigies, but all of this not new, because for ages I have been seething inside. Today, nudged by Judge Willem Van der Merwe, my anger can no longer be contained, it has become resolute, and I’m spilling it on this page.

But I have to start by being nice, so here is my attempt at being just that. Van der Merwe’s finding that the state failed to prove its case, and that the accused should be acquitted is correct. His decision on that score cannot be faulted, though many feminists may disagree. I believe that, legally, the State failed to discharge the onus of proof. But whether the decision could have been different, save for the misogynist reasoning, the question should be asked, but that’s another issue. I suspect the answer would still be a resounding no. We would still have landed with the same decision - this acquittal.

I’m not one who succumbs to misogynist notions about what women should wear, how they should talk, in order to avoid being raped. But I did have issues with the complainant and the state’s paltry efforts in dealing with this case. Such lackluster efforts intensify my anger. I am angry because for too long we have been subjected to misogynist reasoning, shrouded in the notion of the neutrality, objectivity and impartiality of judges, a notion which obscures the fact that judges make political decisions and these decisions are informed by their political and social contexts. We need to acknowledge this fact.

The law does not have one single meaning, and it often differs and is in the habit of being contradictory, depending on who is applying it and to whom they are applying it. Today the chilling effect of Van der Merwe’s words has left me reeling. Most judges believe that they need to uphold the distinction between law and politics, identify objective criteria and thereby create a factual distance between their own personal views, opinions and political philosophy. Professor Griffith, in his work on the ‘Politics of the Judiciary’, points out that the notion of impartiality has been regarded as an absence of personal bias or prejudice and the exclusion of “irrelevant” considerations such as a judge’s political views. Accordingly, when a judge acts like a ‘political, economic, and social eunuch’ with no interest in the world outside the courtroom, he/she is deemed to have delivered a fair and impartial judgment. Thus, Van der Merwe’s argument is that he has been fair and impartial by removing himself from the outside world. He makes the point strongly at the outset, as though this vindicates him, and that by behaving like a socio-political eunuch, he suddenly becomes impartial. But we know that this is not what has happened here.

We know that there are no determinate legal outcomes based on neutral, general principles and often judges rely on subjective factors in order to find solutions. We also know that different judges selectively rely on different factors – in this case the use of underwear and kanga’s. This has been the case with Van der Merwe. When faced with the choice of either starting from a premise of a women’s right to be free from violence, or from some apparently neutral legal basis, such as ‘judicial discretion’ or ‘reasonableness’ he chooses the latter, failing at every step of the way to acknowledge constitutional rights to dignity and freedom.

It is imperative that as women fighting the scourge of violence, we should be at the forefront of broadcasting the correct message. It is important that we interrogate our blind faith in justice and the law. It is also necessary that we start accepting that judges can never be neutral in relation to their society. Neutrality, as here espoused, is risky, since it blinds judges to their own involvement in recreating and perpetuating stereotypes. Judges, we must insist, should bring their own and women’s experiences into their courtroom, in order to fill legal gaps. Concerning gender based violence we should be adamant that judges strive more for socially responsive attitudes (in order to bring the law in line with women’s needs), above their quest for neutrality. The lawyer in me needed to say that. Now, having said it, I need to add that I no longer have faith in the evolution of our criminal justice system.

In this light, how do we take what the Court has said and move forward as a nation of women who are being raped, daily, in our homes, in the streets, in courts and in the media? Well, we can’t take it forward I am afraid. I feel the need to tell women to, ‘stop, don’t come forward, please don’t!’ If you have a sexual history, if you have ever been abused. Stop, go to counseling, heal yourself, and don’t subject yourself to the court process. Don’t subject yourself to being a victim.

I am certain the overwhelming silence that is left hanging in the aftermath of this Zuma debacle resonates within all of us. We have been silenced. How does one get beyond the allegation that walking around in a kanga with no underwear on and sending SMS messages ending in ‘love, hugs and kisses’ are an invitation to sex? How do we get beyond that? I don’t know if I know how. How do I start taking responsibility for myself and stop being a victim? I am tired of being a victim. Do we need to be more radical and renounce all forms of flirtation? I am sexual? I love sex? I am one of those who flirt unashamedly with men, sometimes? Do I then loose my right to change my mind and say no? I have a sexual history? I have slept with men I hardly knew? I have picked men up in bars and taken them home? I have worn practically nothing on those occasions? I have sent provocative SMS’s? What does that make me? Someone who will never be able to place myself in a witness box. Right now I don’t feel the urge to speak out in a court of law. I can’t. Yet, I want to add my voice in the name of the movement for other women to speak out? No. I need to be consistent, so I feel tempted to say – let the deathly silence hanging over us hang as ominously as it now does, while we regroup and rethink and formulate new strategies on Speaking Out. I feel we can no longer continue putting women through horrendous processes that re-victimize them. Let’s be silent.

May this silence be akin to the quiet before the storm. And that when we break it, nothing but thunderbolts of new voices should leave our mouths.

* Nikki Naylor is human rights lawyer and social justice activist having worked in the Violence Against Women Project at the Women's Legal Centre in Cape Town, South Africa for the last 5 years. She has litigated violence against women cases at a Constitutional and Supreme Court of Appeal level in the country and has published widely in the area of rape, violence against women and sexual harassment.

* Please send comments to

On Monday I came back from a very long and tiring journey, to be greeted by a vexing headline at Cape Town International: ‘Zuma Rape Verdict Today’, it read. I sighed, because a part of me already knew what the verdict was going to be. I was certain a not guilty verdict would be returned. Not because I had any evidence that Zuma did not do ‘it’, but because of the way the trial had unfolded, from the search for a ‘qualified judge’, to the unbridled scrutiny of Ms K’s ‘sexual history’. But for me the official verdict was never going to be important. What was of importance to me throughout this trial was the workings of the South African justice system. The outcome of this case in my eyes, and many others, is clear - our justice system has been found guilty. It has been found guilty of being hostile to women, Black women in particular; it is guilty of its refusal to protect us.

From the outset, this system did not protect ‘K’. Instead, from day one, it allowed speculation over who she is. It allowed disgusting demonstrations, reminiscent of the days of witch-burning in Europe and North America in days gone by, by Zuma supporters to continue outside the court. It allowed for the unabated and invasive interrogation of her ‘sexual history,’ as it slowly stripped her of her dignity. What’s more, Judge Van Der Merwe’s 174-page judgment did nothing to restore that dignity. In fact, it served only to further humiliate her.

But what can one expect from a system based on Roman-Dutch law, which by its very nature is not sympathetic to Black women. A system constructed within a framework of white supremacy, and male dominance. One in which the Black woman is at the bottom of the human hierarchy. A system that is blind to the inequalities in our society. One that claims to treat everyone as ‘equal before the law’, all the while denying us our realities, and by extension our humanity. One that reifies colonial constructions of Black women as sexual objects, and overly sexualized beings. One that sprang from the same mindset that prompted Cuvier to dissect Sara Bartmann and place her brutalized genitals and brain on display. This, it must show, is a system whose effects are not going to be wiped out overnight, simply because we have signed a new constitution, or because we had Madiba, or because we live in a new South Africa.

All of this angers me, but not half as much as the pretense that the judiciary is independent and that the law is somehow above politics. It angers me also that the judiciary has a propensity to turn a blind eye to the fact that both in making laws and in their administration, issues of culture, historical experience, political ideologies, values and group interests are very much at play, and that imbricated within these processes are power and authority.

Justice is also not blind, neither are those who administer it. They see, or more aptly do not see, things in particular ways, influenced by their socialization, prescribed as it is by race, class, gender, sexuality, and values. Van Der Merwe, a white male, sitting in judgment in a case, which essentially revolved around the credibility of a Black woman, clearly showed in his six and a half hour judgment that he, like the rest of us, has gaps in his understanding.

“… pressure on a court in a matter like the present is big enough…It is not acceptable that a court be bombarded with political, personal or group agendas and comments. As one contributor to a daily newspaper very correctly put the matter…‘The trial is more about sexual politics and gender relations than it is about rape.’ Wise words but what a pity it had to be said.” (p. 3)

What a pity indeed! It would seem that rape and gender relations, within a patriarchal society, following on the judges reasoning, bear no relation to each other: one is about power relations within a system of male dominance, while the other is about?

K’s sexual orientation, her ‘disappeared hymen ring’, and mental health were at the centre of his treatise. Am I the only one finding this offensive? Am I the only who thinks that there is something seriously wrong with a judiciary that can have a white man so strip a Black woman of her dignity, in a sanctified, socially sanctioned manner? Am I the only one who feels that we are in desperate need of a different justice system? One infused with dignity that comes with respecting people’s humanity, especially that of Black women. One that will ensure that both those who have been wronged or who felt that they have been wronged and those who have done wrong, or have been accused of having done wrong, can find peace and healing?

In the not guilty pronouncement, Zuma has had his dignity restored. K’s kanga will be returned, but the question still remains, who will restore K’s dignity to her?

* Vanessa Ludwig is an African womanist who believes in Justice for Africa, and in particular for African women.

* Please send comments to

My attempt to construct a response to the epic that has become the Zuma trial was interrupted by a phone call. One that I found extremely irritating yet useful in its insistence that I contextualise one of the things I consider problematic in the discourse on gender based violence. Part of my irritation stems from the fact that at the time of the call I was trying to write a difficult piece on the intersect between race, gender, class and why the division of the women’s movement between madams and maids makes it difficult for black women to enter this discourse without first making apologies for the other sector they represent – their ‘womanness’ or their blackness.

The caller wanted to voice his disappointment with a comment I made on a TV programme where I said “…that the Zuma judgment is a set back for women’s rights.” He charged that such a statement meant that women’s rights would have been realised had Zuma been found guilty. And that it suggested that every person accused of rape had to be found guilty, regardless of the evidence before the court.

I could not help but notice how unfortunate this deduction was. It helped that the caller was a lawyer, and I was able to remind him of the distinction between a verdict and a judgment. My caller’s disappointment stemmed also from my perceived failure to endorse or reject the verdict. Why was it my duty to refocus attention on the law, in the three minutes I had? Why did my dissatisfaction with the judgment have to necessarily draw an adverse inference for potential rapists? This distraction is quintessential of the sidetracking that forces black women to engage on fringe issues, whilst attempts are made to silence our voices. I mentioned the treatment meted to K in support of my dissatisfaction. I told him that I did not understand why I needed a password to enter a discussion on gender-based violence, as protection from having to respond to things that I did not say, because not saying them meant I was saying something about Zuma.

The password is often a demand for qualifiers that have become a pre-requisite for debate on gender-based violence. So one needs to say ‘not all men are rapists, and that in the past some people have been falsely accused.’ Had I said that, I would have unlocked my audience. Fact - sexual violence disproportionately affects more women than men, but it does not follow that men do not count amongst survivors of sexual violence. Women lay rape charges, but it does not follow that all of these charges are true. There’s a distinction that I feel needs to be drawn, (one which we are all too eager to draw in other spheres of life), and that is that the norm in rape cases is that most of the complaints are not false, and the fact that some women lie is an exception. Therefore the eagerness to entrench an exception as a norm in rape cases - that women lie about rape - is at the heart of the demand for the concession that this judgment is indeed the correct one.

I have difficulties with Judge Van der Merwe’s judgment, when he finds that an extract from a draft autobiography, regarding K’s ‘experience with a penis’ when she was five, is relevant in determining her sexual history. In this instance there was no accused person, nor a charge of rape. This ‘experience with a penis’, which exists in the autobiography, is made relevant because in it she called it a rape. Acceptance of that evidence, that relates to how a person chooses to name an invasion of her person by a penis at that age, in a private document, not prepared for court, is what I call a set back for women’s rights. Accepting evidence from a gang, who claim to have had consensual sex with a thirteen year old, as relevant in determining whether she had a history of making false rape accusations, constitutes a set back for women’s rights. Disputes about whether there was vaginal penetration or ‘a series of thrusts between the thighs’, an experience that a thirteen year old should rightfully call rape, constitutes a set back for women’s rights.

So, although I think the verdict of an acquittal is a correct one, in law at least, because the state failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, my immediate reaction to the judgment is a NO! and not a statement that extols Van der Merwe’s virtues and legal acumen in acquitting Zuma in a manner that is so inimical to K’s dignity in any civilised society - let alone in a country that lists human dignity, achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms as its foundational values.

* Sibongile Ndashe is a woman who works with the law but believes in justice

* Please send comments to

Former South African deputy president Jacob Zuma walked away from rape charges in a Johannesburg High Court this week, following a trial that has revealed deep rifts over the race for leadership in the county, but also exposed entrenched attitudes on issues of gender and HIV/AIDS. Judge Willem van der Merwe accepted Zuma's version that his accuser, a 31-year-old family friend who is HIV-positive, had participated in consensual sex. Zuma, whose supporters say charges against him are a plot to thwart his political career, now faces further charges on July 31 – this time on corruption. Should he clear these charges, his road towards presidential power could be unchecked. Pambazuka News has received a number of articles in response to the verdict, which we are reproducing in the entries below. The first article consists of a question and answer email exchange between Pambazuka News and Delphine Serumaga, executive director of People Opposing Women’s Abuse (POWA). In the following four articles, four South African women respond to the not guilty verdict. Sibongile Ndashe, Vanessa Ludwig, Nikki Naylor and Lindiwe Nkutha all express anger and disappointment over what the trial meant for South African women and victims of gender based violence. Next week in Pambazuka News, we will feature a series of articles on the theme ‘The fight for rights: Stories of sexual oppression’.

Pambazuka News: What is your assessment of the verdict in the trial of Jacob Zuma?

Delphine Serumaga: We feel that the verdict reflects the problems and constraints generally experienced by survivors of sexual violence. There is only a 7% rape conviction rate, and many of the reasons for this low rate were evident in this case. Some of the challenges include the legislative and policy framework, which still reflect institutionalized gender oppression. Also, the current definition of rape places a high burden of proof on the complainant/rape survivor. There is also still some application of cautionary rules in rape cases. The law becomes a tool for relentless cross-examination and secondary victimisation by defence attorneys. The Judge in this case seemingly subscribed to the defence's case and reasoning and characterisation of the complainant as being mad and incapable of telling the difference between consensual sex and rape. Women are routinely characterised as being mentally unstable, loose or of questionable morality during the course of rape trials. This reflects the patriarchal context within which courts operate. The stereotypes and misconceptions we heard inside the court were a reflection of the myths and misconceptions heard outside the court.

Pambazuka News: The judge said this would not have an impact on reporting of rape because the case was unique. What, in your opinion, does this judgment mean for women who have been raped and want to go through the legal system?

Delphine Serumaga: Prior to this judgment the conviction rate was low. Reasons for this include women's fears of experiencing secondary victimisation - particularly during cross-examination, low confidence in securing a conviction and the state's inability to protect women from violence and intimidation by the accused. There is no doubt this judgment will reinforce women's fears and low confidence levels in the criminal justice system, particularly if she has been raped before. This occurs even though statistics reflect that a) more women are raped by someone they know (acquaintance rape) than by someone they don't know (stranger rape) and b) multiple experiences of rape are extremely common.

Pambazuka News: The decision by the judge to allow questions about Kwezi's past sexual history resulted in some controversy, and in his verdict the judge spent some time justifying his permission for this. In general, feminist groups oppose the admittance of past sexual history in rape cases. What implications does the way the judge dealt with this have for future cases, if any?

Delphine Serumaga: There is a chance that this will be referred to in future cases. The new Sexual Offences Bill does propose tighter requirements and a set of criteria to be met before this evidence can be deemed admissible. The Bill, if passed as is, will still not be sufficient in protecting women from having their sexual history dragged into court. Once passed, gender activists will need to scrutinise the application of the new section.

Pambazuka News: The judge reserved some tough words for the media and the role of other special interest pressure groups, especially questioning the role of various women's organisations in their application to be friends of the court. In particular, he said "pressure groups should not jump to conclusions before hearing all the evidence". Is he correct? Why?

Delphine Serumaga: I think the Judge on more than one occasion used his position on the bench to make moral and other pronouncements. He did speak at length about pressure groups who he said were in breach of the sub-judice rule and who lodged the amicus brief. As gender violence organisations it is our key mandate to lobby for changes to unjust laws and practices, and to inform the public of the problems confronting survivors who engage the courts for justice. As made evident by the judgment, we were not jumping to conclusions. The very essence of the amicus brief was to provide expert evidence and to explain multiple experiences of rape (which he interpreted as being unlikely and therefore probably made up by the complainant).

Pambazuka News: What has the case shown about the rights of the rape survivor and her position in the legal system?

Delphine Serumaga: Overall rape laws and court processes surrounding rape cases continue to disadvantage rape survivors. Some of the aspects of this have been explained above, but additionally, the absence of legal representation for the complainant makes her vulnerable, as the prosecutor cannot be said to represent the complainant, but is there on the State's behalf.

Pambazuka News: Quite aside from the verdict and whether one holds the opinion that this was a good or a bad verdict, the trial has shown that in an environment where there is an entrenched protection for women, some very ugly attitudes have nevertheless been expressed. How has the trial reflected prevailing views in South Africa about women's sexual roles and rights?

Delphine Serumaga: This case has revealed commonly held myths and misconceptions about rape survivors that are still being held by many sections within society. This refers not only to those beliefs about women and rape, but also about HIV and AIDS. Myths and misconceptions about rape seek to maintain the current gender imbalance and reinforce male privilege and power. They further place the responsibility for the violence on the survivor (i.e. victim-blaming), effectively releasing the perpetrator from responsibility for his/her actions.

Pambazuka News: In some senses, women's rights and concepts of culture appear to have been diametrically opposed. Why have the two been so at odds in this context and how can the tension be resolved?

Delphine Serumaga: Culture is dynamic and subject to the interpretations of those with power. In South Africa we are the sum of many cultures but subject to only one Constitution. This Constitution was developed by all the people and was not imported or imposed. Much of the cultural norms about women's dress and so on are in fact imported notions of gender. Progressive interpretations of culture need to be promoted but those that run counter to this must be discarded.

* Interview conducted by email. Please send comments to

Links:

- Trial judgment
http://www.constitutionalcourt.org.za/site/lawclerks/zumajudgment.pdf

As internet usage in Africa grows, governments are beginning to wake up to the power of the online medium to communicate, influence and organize. Already numerous examples of internet censorship in the form of arrests and website blocking can be found. This is likely to grow, says Patrick Burnett.

News last week was that Internet giant Yahoo! had been fingered in the November 2003 imprisonment of Chinese cyber-dissident Jiang Lijun, who was sentenced to four years for pro-democracy postings on the internet. The company found itself in the hot seat after Reporters Without Borders published documents it said proved that Yahoo! provided information that led to the jailing. Lijun, 40, was sentenced for “subversion”, accused of seeking to use “violent means” to impose democracy. It is the third time that Yahoo! has been implicated in collaborating with the Chinese authorities in tracking down those who use the internet to express divergent opinions, says the press freedom group.

Not that Yahoo! is alone. Microsoft and Google have also been accused of assisting the Chinese government to enforce their censorship laws. An enormous internet market of 111 million users combined with an official intolerance for opposing views has led the Chinese to develop sophisticated web monitoring and censoring systems. Web sites and blogs are frequently blocked and internet searchers disrupted.

Compared to China, Africa has a tiny internet market of only 23 million users, or 2-3 percent of the total population. As a result it has been easy for governments to ignore the threat that the internet poses to them in terms of its organizing potential and its ability to act as a vehicle for diverse thoughts and opinions. The reality is that this is changing. Regimes are likely to make greater use of internet censorship techniques and crack down on those who use the internet to express contrary views. Africa already has a poor record of press freedom and locking up of journalists. This record is likely to be duplicated in cyber-space.

It’s no coincidence that Zimbabwe, which relies heavily on China for financial and technical support, has drafted the Interception of Communications Bill 2006, which seeks to empower the authorities to intercept telephone, e-mail and cell phone messages. When the Bill comes into force the government will establish a telecommunications agency called the Monitoring and Interception of Communications Centre to monitor mail, according to the Zimbabwe Independent (http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/legisl/060324zimind.asp?sector=LEG…). The Bill will compel operators to install software and hardware to enable them to intercept and store information as directed by the state. The service providers will also be asked to link their message monitoring equipment to the government agency. Failure to comply will result in a fine or imprisonment.

While the Zimbabwean government has thus clearly recognised that control of information extends to email and have plans to govern this area, examples of direct internet censorship are already easy to find. In February, the Ugandan government deployed filtering techniques against a Ugandan news radio station's website. This was the first known case of internet censorship in Uganda and came at a time when public debate was crucial - just before presidential and parliamentary elections on 23 February. The blocking was done by local Internet Service Providers, who effectively barred the site’s internet identity number, known as an IP address. This method of censorship meant that 700 other sites hosted by the same server were also blocked, according to tests by Nart Villeneuve, head of research at Toronto University. (http://ice.citizenlab.org/index.php?s=Uganda)

In Ethiopia, where up to 70 journalists are believed to be detained, Ethiopian security forces on January 27 detained Frezer Negash, a correspondent for the US-based Web site Ethiopian Review. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported at the time that Ethiopian officials had cracked down on Negash over her online writings, which were unfavourable to the government. Negash was freed from custody on March 10 after a court ordered her release on bail. (http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/africa/ethiopia30jan06na.html)

But the most sophisticated examples of internet censorship have emerged from North Africa. The extent of the problem was starkly demonstrated by the actions of the Tunisian government during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in November 2005, when it was made clear that any opinions outside what the Tunisian government deemed acceptable were not to be tolerated. Online writers have been imprisoned and websites are routinely blocked. According to a Human Rights Watch report, tests conducted in 2005 found that Tunisia censors hundreds of websites. In addition, Human Rights Watch reported that internet users believed the government monitored email and internet traffic. Stiff laws were used to detain online writers for expressing their opinions. In neighbouring Libya, the government has blocked critical web sites based outside the country and hacked a website critical of the government, Human Rights Watch says. Egypt, reports Human Rights Watch, had detained people for their activities online and used the internet to monitor and entrap homosexuals. (http://hrw.org/reports/2005/mena1105/2.htm#_Toc119125694)

These examples show that some African governments, caught between a rock and a hard place as liberalization of telecommunications opens up the internet market to more users but at the same time reluctant to let go of state controlled information channels, are beginning to wake up to the threat the internet presents to maintaining the status quo. Crucially, governments are not seeking to shut down the internet entirely and in many cases have facilitated its growth, but what they are seeking to do is to control the flow of information, in much the same way as traditional media channels have been controlled. This presents dangers in that it fosters an environment of self-censorship where citizens of a country do not feel free to express their opinions online. Internet Service Providers, fearful that they will face the wrath of the law, would rather remove content that may be remotely offensive, thus abrogating censorship to the private sector. This in itself can be profoundly unscientific. As the Ugandan example demonstrates, by taking down a single internet site, 700 additional sites were inadvertently blocked.

If the above examples and trends are anything to go by, as the internet spreads and new forms of expression such as blogging become more popular, internet censorship is going to increase as governments realize the power of the online medium. Control is likely to involve governments blocking websites they deem undesirable, the arrest and persecution of those who use the internet to express critical views and the introduction of laws that allow government to control the internet, given that in many African countries laws governing traditional media and forms of expression may not extend to the internet. Internet censorship is likely to take place with greater vigour in countries that already have poor freedom of expression records. Unless a government has an entrenched respect for human rights that extends to all areas of society, repression is likely to replicate itself in the virtual environment of the internet.

Lastly, an enormous barrier to the benefits of the internet in Africa lies in the fact that so few people have access – and that this is not going to change in the near future, even though growth rates between 2000-2005 were over 400 percent. In this sense, it is the structural inequities of the global economic order that censor tens of millions of people. As a 2003 Privacy International (http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-103801 ) report noted:

“Thus, the solution to African Internet censorship lies as much in finding global solutions to these problems, as it is about reinforcing national and regional respect for freedom of expression on the medium of the Internet.”

* Patrick Burnett is online news editor, Pambazuka News

* Please send comments to

One of Africa’s utmost press freedom heroes, Cameroonian journalist Pius Njawe has faced relentless harassment by the authorities throughout his career. In the past thirty years he has been arrested 126 times and served prison time on three different occasions. Despite ongoing adversities, Njawe continues to publish his newspaper Le Messager. In 1993, he was awarded the WAN Golden Pen of Freedom in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the independent press in his country. Pius wrote this article for the World Association of Newspapers on the occassion of World Press Freedom Day on May 3.

I have been a journalist since the age of 15. I started as an errand boy at a newspaper called Semences africaines, in the city of Yaoundé, Cameroon. Over the past 34 years, I have been arrested 126 times while carrying out my profession as a journalist. Physical and mental torture, death threats, the ransacking of my newsroom, etc., has often been my daily lot in a situation where repression and corruption, even within the press, have become the norm. Woe betide the slightest dissenting voice in this context, for it attracts all kinds of wrath, even from so-called colleagues…

My longest detention lasted ten months. I was arrested on 24 December 1997 for daring to wonder about the President's health after he had experienced heart problems whilst watching the Cameroonian football cup final. On 13 January 1998 I was sentenced to 24 months in prison. Four months later, the sentence was reduced to 12 months under pressure from national and international public opinion. But that was not enough to remove the pressure, and after ten months, the President resigned himself to pardoning me, a pardon I had never asked for.

I have never felt like a prisoner when I have been behind bars. You can be in prison without being a prisoner; the real prisoners are those who imprison journalists whose only crime is to inform or to express an opinion. On the other hand, being deprived of your family, your colleagues and the people you love is a real ordeal; and the tears you cry say less about being behind bars than about the pain and suffering your absence causes on all sides. I used to shed my tears in the arms of Jane - my late wife - and my children, when I saw the suffering they had to endure to come and see me in prison, as if my absence from them was not enough for my persecutors. I could not stop myself from crying when Jane gave birth to a still-born child on 9 January 1998, four days before my trial, following beatings she received the previous day when she brought me food, by prison guards who did not even have pity on her late pregnancy.

While my many detentions have largely contributed to confirming my convictions about certain democratic and human values, my long stay in prison above all stimulated my sense of solidarity with others, particularly the poor and the outcast. It strengthened my determination to use journalism as a weapon against all kinds of abuse. For there is no better weapon than words for restoring peace and justice among people, although it depends how those words are used.

To have the privilege of writing taken away from you overnight feels like being victim of a crime. The prison governor called me into his office one day to warn me that as a prisoner I did not have the right to write, and that my persistence would land me in solitary confinement. I immediately started to think about what my long days would be like in a cell I was sharing with more than 150 fellow detainees, almost all of them crooks, if I could not write. So I decided to defy the governor's ban by stepping up my bi-weekly column, "Le Bloc-notes du bagnard" (The Convict's Notebook), in my newspaper Le Messager. The chain of people I was bribing - including prison guards - to get my column out, was long; I have always wondered how I would have survived in that prison without writing.

During a lecture I once gave to students from a well-known university in New York, the director of the school of journalism made the following remark: "Mr. Njawe, my students and I appreciated your brilliant exposé of the situation regarding press freedom in Cameroon and in Africa in general. But I cannot help wondering one thing: either you invented all these stories to impress us, which I could understand, or everything you have told us is true and I am dying to ask you why you continue to work in the profession in the suicidal situation you describe?"

It is indeed difficult to understand why people persist in a profession that causes them so much misery and suffering. As regards my own case, I invariably reply to everyone who wonders this, that I entered journalism the way you enter a religion; journalism is my religion. I believe in it, and a thousand trials, a thousand arrests, a thousand imprisonments and as many death threats will never make me change job. On the contrary, the harder it is, the more you have to believe in it and cling to it.

Even in the depths of a prison cell you can feel good about being a journalist. How many times have I not rubbed my hands in my cell, my fingers itching to once again hold a pen between them, when thinking back over my career? How many times have I smiled when recalling an editorial or an article that helped foil the most atrocious plans against Cameroon and its people? If only for consolation, one sometimes ends up saying: "They're right to take it out on me like this, after all, I haven’t spared them in my articles…". Provided, of course, that you adhere to the best practices of journalism - that you scrupulously respect the canons that make our profession so great.

Respecting ethical standards is of fundamental importance for anyone wishing to be a journalist. It protects you against all kinds of people who would like to teach you a lesson. When you are facing a judge who is being manipulated, it is your irreproachable professional defense that makes that judge examine his or her own conscience. It is what wins your colleagues over to your cause when you are in difficulty. Doing your job properly therefore seems to be the best advice anyone can give a journalist operating in a context of constant harassment. And doing your job properly also, and above all, means avoiding "gumbo journalism", a practice becoming increasingly widespread in our profession, where people write what they are paid to write instead of giving real information and the truth. While journalists have the right to earn a decent living, even in emerging nations, honest journalists never need pockets in their shrouds…

Journalists perform a social function, which gives them not immunity, but the right to look critically at the way a nation is being run. While playing this crucial role, it is important for them to be protected by the law, but also by the whole of society for which they work. Mobilization is therefore essential every time a journalist is thrown into prison, or threatened with arrest or death. Because every time a journalist is silenced, society loses one of its watchdogs.

* This article was made available by the World Association of Newspapers to mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3. Visit for more information.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

The first elections in 40 years are now scheduled to take place in the DRC on July 30, it was announced this week. Joseph Kabila, former taxi driver and president since the 2001 assassination of his father Laurent Kabila, will be one of 33 presidential hopefuls, while 9,587 candidates will stand for 500 seats in the senate and national assembly. Hopes are that elections will end years of war which some predictions say have claimed 3.9 million lives. Pambazuka News questioned Ernest Wamba dia Wambia on what to expect from the elections.

Pambazuka News: The date for DRC elections – June 18 – was postponed and the latest date put forward has been the end of July. Given the current circumstances in which the DRC finds itself, are elections likely to take place at all?

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba: The latest date for DRC elections has been set at July 30. It is most probably going to be changed again. Most of the political actors are unhappy about how the elections calendar is being fixed, without prior political consensus from all actors. Voices are being heard saying that elections are not likely to take place as planned. Others think that by June 30 - when the Transition was set to end, troubles are likely. Tshisekedi’s UDPS (Pambazuka News note : Étienne Tshisekedi was a former Prime Minister, UDPS stands for Union for Democracy and Social Progress) and others are now saying that only a mini intercongolese dialogue can save the situation. The dialogue should recreate a consensus for the way elections are going to be organized past June 30.

Pambazuka News : It is hoped that when elections do take place, they will provide a fresh start to the DRC. The fact that there will be 33 presidential candidates and nearly 10,000 applications for the parliamentary elections does at first sight appear to be a positive democratic development. But to what extent will the polls be democratic and to what extent is there a danger that elections could result in further disruption related to disputes over the results?

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : At no time since independence have Congolese agreed on fundamentals of national ideals or interests (and their articulation to world powers and neighbouring countries’interests) without external arbitration. While no sum-up of the 1960s UN Congolese mission has been really done, the country is again under another UN Congolese mission. The ICD Accord (Pambazuka News note : ICD stands for Inter-Congolese Dialogue, which followed the Lusaka Accord in 1999 that officially ended armed conflict) made the CIAT (Pambazuka News : The French acronym for the International Committee to Accompany the Transition) the last resort in the conduct of the Transition.

The Congolese do not really own the very elctoral process itself - not just because the international community finances most of it, but even the fact that the whole conception of what democracy we must have seems to be outside influenced (thus, the tendencies of carving the laws with certain people in mind). By the way, people went to vote, in the referendum, for a Constitution they had not seen. And since there were four different constitutional texts the day before the referendum, those who had seen one did not know which one they were approving.

There is a general will and enthusiasm, among people, to go to elections to settle the legitimacy crisis. But, increasingly, it appears that free and fair elections, the way things are being conducted, are out of the question. Those who feel to gain argue that it does not matter the quality of elections ; with time in the future, things will improve. Right now, what counts is to start. The manipulatory character of Congolese politics based on the conception of winning against rather than with makes it difficult to have agreements over the need to set up a positive political atmosphere, acceptable to all, conducive to an acceptable and thus credible electoral process. Certainly, results are going to be disputed. The institution for settleting the conflits, the Supreme Court of Justice, has already been discredited in many actors’ views. The great number of candidates is mostly due to the fact that politics is seen, and has been functioning, as the only way to have access to some income.

Pambazuka News : The involvement of foreign powers – both regional and international – is well documented in fuelling the conflict in the DRC. How will these interests effect the elections?

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : The most important thing is that for the first time, there seems to be a consensus in the international community to have elections, even if only symbolically. Their countries’ respective people whose money is used to finance the elections in the DRC may ask for explanation if there is nothing to show. There is a sense, hence the precipitous character of the electoral process, that there are particular puppets some powers would like to see win in the elections ; people who may guarantee their interests to the extent of not needing instability to secure them. Those powers, it is hoped, will discipline their allies that are Congolese neighbours.

Pambazuka News : The tremendous potential of the DRC is often cited. Yet the country faces enormous problems: Its infrastructure has been destroyed, there is still widespread fighting etc etc. Does anyone have a viable recovery plan on the table or will it just be business as usual following the elections?

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : Some of us are actually raising that same issue. The transitionary government has not even had an awareness of the fact that the country is in a castrophic situation and has thus failed to proclaim it to the world and provoke a general solidarity to focus on trying to get the country out of that situation and actually come up with a plan for doing it. Few candidates seem to be aware of this need, let alone to think of the essential tasks to pursue after the elections.

I did want to stand for the presidential elections to make sure this issue is made part of the electoral campaign discussions. As I opposed paying the so-called caution of $50,000 (such a high price or tax to pay to exercise one’s right to be candidate - This favors of course looters-past, present and puppets), my candidacy was not retained, one of among 40. We (in a group) are still agitating for that position; we are about to release a public statement.

Pambazuka News : What should be the top five priorities of any newly-elected government?

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : I believe that the general framework should include two essential global tasks: proclaim the fact that the country is in a catastrophic situation and work out a plan to get out of the situation, on the basis of people’s involvement; start to build a State, from below, different from the one, now decomposed, built from a colonial model.

The top priorities should include: radical improvement of fiscal structures (it is easy to spend money, but tough to raise it, especially when the country is like now), address fast the rehabilitation of economic-related infrastructures with an aim to integrate parts of the country; stop all the leaks, especially the looting structures (mines, oil, wood, etc.), rebuild basic state apparatuses, with people involvement (reduce government and administration sizes); a lot of work for people mobilization linked to job creation - where feasible without forcing, people must be displaced from overcrowded cities to the country side where the agriculture policy and local State structures being built may be tested. It is hoped that the solidarity demand may mean a temporary stop on the debt payment.

Pambazuka News : Marie-Madeleine Kalala, DRC Minister for Human Rights, in briefing the UN Human Rights Committee in March 2006, declared that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission had been established, as well as a national human rights monitoring institute. This was in order to identify people responsible for human rights violations. How important are these processes to healing the DRC?

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : The existence of institutions is often seen here as its only value. Not only are they ill manned, with incompetent people or people who hardly know what reconciliation implies or people who happen to be puppets of forces that are scared of real reconciliation. Nothing very serious has taken place to actually say that there has been attempts at reconciling Congolese. No ceremony, even at the presidential level, even just symbolically has taken place.

To be effective, like a palaver, reconciliation must involve first the leaders themselves who are willing to accept their own misgivings and are willing to pardon others and be tolerant to hear all kind of grievances voiced, etc. Reconciliation cannot be done privately. The whole healing process is still to be started and done. In fact, most Congolese are counting on the performance of the International Criminal Court to get the criminals judged. It is not easy to identify people responsible for human rights violations, when those are in power.

I do know some human rights advocates who have been threatened because of their work of identifying certain human rights violators, one or two had to leave the country. If archives can be safely organized to be used when some of those people are out of power, that may be a good thing to do; but, that does not deal really with the healing part yet.

Pambazuka News: Lastly, the situation of the DRC can be seen as unique, given the complicated nature of the country in the first place, as well as the role of international and regional actors. Yet, the solution seems to be: Have an election and everything will be okay. Has the complicated nature of the country been adequately considered?

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : It is true the international community pushes the thesis : have an election and everything will be okay. This seems to be the only way of justifying neocolonialism these days. Most of the recommendations are thus not specific, only things done elsewhere taken to be master keys used everywhere, including the so-called post-conflict economic measures.

When you have a leadership of a complicated country that knows close to nothing of the country’s history and the advisors are only interested in self-enrichment, not much can be expected. The present ones are in fact hostile to any Congolese intellectual who may make the difference. Universities are left to rot. The foreign partisan advisers don’t pay attention to the complicated character of the country either, not even the long term interest of the country. The consequence is a country in a catastrophic situation. There has to be a real break, from the leadership perspective, from the past.

There has to emerge really committed intellectuals, patriotic enough, willing to really come up with a vision to grasp fully the problems of the country and clearly specify its short and long term interest and the latter relation to foreign powers and countries’ interests. A real plan is necessary to prioritize the elements of a government programme. We need a think tank devoted to that task of mapping what must be known and done to make the country occupy its real place in Africa and the world. I would enjoy being involved in this work.

* Professor Ernest Wamba dia Wamba is a historian who has taught at a number of universities including Harvard University and the University of Dar-es-Salaam

* Interview conducted by email. Please send comments to

As the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire drags on and each successive peace process ends in disappointment after disappointment, many have reached the conclusion that the situation of “neither war nor peace” prevails because it suits those who are benefiting. Yveline Dévérin makes a case for this argument, identifying the trends in the war economy of the country and the forces behind the profiteering.

The Ivorian crisis has now lasted for over three and a half years, from September 2002 to March 2006. The country is split into two zones – the governmental zone in the south, and the ‘ex-rebel’ zone in the north – separated by a ‘security zone’ which is patrolled by the United Nations Mission for Côte d’Ivoire (ONUCI) and the UN-mandated French army operation ‘Licorne’. Despite repeated attempts at mediation, the crisis persists.

For mediation to be effective, there must be the political will to make it work on both sides. In the Côte d’Ivoire, this is effectively stage-managed. Officially and publicly, political will conforms to political correctness: it would be unimaginable for the protagonists to state otherwise. Who could dare to claim they rejected peace and were content with being at war – with a situation of limbo, of ‘neither peace nor war’? There is therefore considerable dissonance between official political will and vested interests; between staged political correctness, and the economic and social interests that both sides of the conflict are actually pursuing.

The mediation process can only fulfil its mandate so long as the protagonists agree in principle about the final goal – peace, and are only divided as to the means of how to achieve it. However, the unpleasant evidence resulting from close observation of the facts indicates that in Côte d’Ivoire, it is otherwise the case: everyone is in agreement with the status quo. The situation has even been blessed locally as ‘neither peace nor war’ – which is a perfect expression of the reality. The hard truth is that the current situation suits all those who have the power to make it stop. From whatever angle you look at it, no one is interested in unblocking it.

After three years of the crisis, the overwhelming impression is, firstly, that there is extremely weak motivation on either side to achieve peace. On one side, as on the other, there is an endless offloading of responsibilities for the conflict on to others. The crisis is always ‘someone else’s fault’, that someone being – depending on the argument – France, Burkina Faso, Mali, or the whole World (an international conspiracy), or the ‘presidential entourage’. United in mutual, beautiful irresponsibility, the different sides also feign unanimous agreement that resolution of the conflict rests with the mediator. We are thus witnessing total abdication of all responsibilities by the powers that be: for each side, the conflict is the fault of another, and there must be a third-party resolution – to which each side is accordingly indifferent.

Both sides would like to see the conflict resolved to their own advantage. Delays are furthermore in the interests of both sides, as each is gradually becoming deserving of the label people in Ivorian circles are slowly daring to truthfully name: war profiteers. Not only from an economic viewpoint but also from social and political perspectives, the crisis is lining the pockets of the perpetrators.

The Economic Profiteers: ‘We’re still building, even at night’

The economic profiteers are the most visible; their spoils being all the more manifest for being ostentatious, whilst conversely, the ‘ordinary’ people are being driven to stagnation, depression and economic insecurity.

Government zone

In the government zone, right from the onset of the crisis, there has been a proliferation of luxury cars and elaborate buildings, without there even first being denunciation of the profits of those close to power. Bank accounts abroad, luxury vehicles, generous expense allowances, apartments in France, investments in cyber-cafés and petrol stations – which have multiplied in Abidjan since the crisis began – are some of the many signs of personal wealth, all the more visible, since their beneficiaries often had no assets before the crisis. The people of Abidjan, on their own initiative, have moreover coined relevant terms for this group of people who are popularly referred to as ‘patriots of the stomach’. And beyond the rhetoric of patriotism, there is a clear understanding, as in all such similar situations, that this is a classic case of a war economy, operating on the basis of various underhand deals. This flourishing war economy is epitomised by the anguished cry of one man in Abidjan: ‘We’re building in Abidjan at the moment; it’s not a crisis for everyone. We’re still building, even at night.’

Northern zone

In the northern zone, the phenomenon is less perceptible owing to the problems of access to and distribution of information. But we do know for example, that following the death of the war leader ‘Kass’ (Bamba Kassoum), during the conflicts in Bouaké in June 2004, his cyber-café was pillaged, confirming that he did at least own a cyber-café – which was not the situation in 2002! Other testimonies from the northern zone indicate that petrol stations are springing up all over the area.

Korhogo, a onetime sleepy northern town has undergone important urban change, and there has been an upsurge in activity linked to the war. Unlike Bouaké, Korhogo was not a battle zone, and was therefore not destroyed in 2002. It is far enough to the north to not be in the frontline, were conflict to resume, and it is in a prime location for trafficking between Burkina Faso and Mali.

Even though the ‘ordinary’ people are suffering from the war, they are at least finding some compensation in the new parallel economy: taxes are lower than in the southern zone, and thus, for example, there are reports that it is possible to buy motor-vehicles ‘tax-free’, imported from Burkina Faso. This gives many habitants who are have stayed in the zone access to materials to which they previously had none. By the end of 2005 some were beginning to recognise a conflict between on the one hand wanting to see the situation normalise, and on the other, fearing loss of the ‘collateral’ advantages, which, at the end of the day, are not negligible to the ordinary people.

Finally, it seems certain that the most financially influential people have invested heavily in Burkina Faso, particularly in Ouagadougou.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) has concluded meanwhile that, ‘it is clear the current situation in the west is serving the economic interests of politicians and pro-government military chiefs’, who are omnipresent in the region. One journalist expressed it thus: ‘Even the soldiers in the zones under government control are able to buy motorbikes in Bouaké.’ (L’intelligent d’Abidjan 10/3/2005).

The role of the cocoa industry

On a completely different level, the cocoa industry has supplied billions of CFA francs to the various presidential regimes. An expert report (AMIRI, Sid, GOURDON Alain, 2005) underlines that the Fund for the Regulation of Cocoa (FRC), the institution responsible for ‘the financial regulation and management of the industry’s funds’, is being used by those in power to finance the purchase of arms. The report also mentions that ‘a loan of some 10 billion CFA francs’, stipulated for ‘the war effort’ was completed in October 2003.

The boundaries between the war effort and personal enrichment have not been established very clearly. The Dakar-based Journal de l’Economie reported in November 2004 that more than 200 billion CFA francs spent every year are simply accounted for by the State under the heading ‘exceptional right to withdrawal’ (Le Journal de l’Economie, Dakar 16 November 2004). The Ivorian press meanwhile, regularly denounces irregular transactions. Funds are thus being used with complete impunity. Stakeholders in the cocoa industry are meanwhile immune from any public control procedures, and treat the monies allocated to them by the State as bribes. In September 2005, a joint IMF and World Bank investigation concluded that out of the 400 billion CFA francs allocated to the cocoa planters between 2002 and 2004, only 130 billion had been spent to the benefit of the industry. Meantime, between 1997 and 2003, the foreign multinationals (American, Dutch etc.) have seen their market share grow from 10% to 30%; the big concerns having never been so powerful or so profitable as since the war began in Côte d’Ivoire.

The Social Profiteers: To be counted amongst ‘those to be reckoned with’

Beyond the economic gains, the war – or rather the situation of ‘neither peace nor war’ – has proved for some to be a genuine social accelerator, which, moreover, is perceived as being provisional: it will only last as long as the current situation obtains. There are numerous people, in the north as well as the south, who, from being ‘nobodies’, have become important overnight, individuals to be reckoned with at a national level, whose names are suddenly cropping up everywhere.

In the southern zone, young people, who are frustrated and who are blaming society for their marginalisation ,constitute an important component of the ‘patriotic entourage’. Now suddenly, they are becoming significant, are patronising the ‘great and the good’, and are conversing with major Statesmen, at the very least indirectly, whenever there are significant developments. They occupy TV screens, even the RTI (Radio, Television Ivorienne) network itself. They are dominating the press and deciding what information is distributed, even what is published. Thus in November 2004, just before the hostilities which led to the bombardment of the French military base in Bouaké resumed, the ‘patriots’ first made the distribution of opposition newspapers very difficult through effecting commando operations to destroy opposition newspapers at newsstands. Then on the 3 November, the night before the first bombardments in the north, they finally destroyed the newspapers’ headquarters, thus demonstrating their extreme closeness of coordination with the powers that be.

In the northern zone, it is equally apparent that a band of young people has joined the rebellion, though here the phenomenon is on a smaller scale. To avoid making them visible at national, indeed at international levels, the rebellion has lent them importance at a local level. It is also worth reflecting on a particular grouping, called the ‘Dozos’, referring to the members of a brotherhood of traditional huntsmen from the north, who were, before the war, relegated to private security functions for the entire national territory. Overnight, they have resumed their primary function of local public security, and are officially recognised by the new authorities.

The assimilation of the rebellion forces into the military world is straightforward, particularly as many of the soldiers already belong, by personal name, to the brotherhood of the Dozos. What is new however is that the Dozos are being identified as a group, and discussed the world over, a phenomenon that is not insignificant, even if it entails no immediate direct material advantage.

Finally, the local chiefs of the two zones are gaining international recognition. Guilllaume Soro was until recently only a student, and his sole position of responsibility had been as head of the Ivorian student union, 1995-1998, ‘FESCI’ (The federation of students and school pupils in Côte d’Ivoire, a union created in 1990 as part of the development of a multi-party system). Now he is seeing his name published in all the world’s media, and he is summoned to speak with the elites. Soro does not simply talk on the phone to the heads of political parties, but also to heads of State. Furthermore, on the 29 December 2005, he became ‘Minister of State’, a position regarded to be number two in the government, and some are even now calling him the ‘vice-Prime-minister’. This is an honour he owes entirely to the situation of ‘neither war nor peace’, which has made him a major negotiator in the peace process.

On the same side, there is Charles Blé Goudé, who was also a student and the successor to Guillaume Soro, as head of the student union from 1998-2000. He is known as the ‘general’, the ‘youth general’, and the ‘street general’ (the ‘general of the public street’ as he detractors refer to him). He is leader of the young patriots, an inescapable personality. Charles Blé Goudé was the founder of the ‘Coordination of young patriots’ (‘COJEP’). He is regularly interviewed on international channels, and his face is known all over the world. He has debated face to face with Emmanuel Beth, the leader of the French ‘Licorne’ operation in Abidjan in 2003.

Eugène Djué, president of the ‘Patriotic Union for the total Liberation of Côte d’Ivoire’ (‘UPLTCI’) is less renowned internationally but it is nevertheless in charge of an entire section of the ‘patriotic galaxy’. The battles for influence between the different groups play themselves out as the fame of some casts a shadow over others. This is sharpened, as the stakes are often financial (there are incessant and unverifiable rumours of ‘suitcases’ being distributed by the President to some, and not others).

The war is therefore no longer merely about gains in personal wealth but also about demonstrating advancement in the social hierarchy. The same kinds of phenomena can be observed in the patriotic sphere, particularly in the west, where there has been an emergence of local war chiefs who are becoming all-powerful. This level of recognition cannot be dreamed of in peace times, even for those on the ‘winning’ side.

The Political Profiteers

Beyond the direct material and social interests, the situation of ‘neither peace nor war’ is equally beneficial from a political point of view. First of all, it provides a space for the surfacing of personal ambition: the most visible case is that of Guillaume Kigbafori Soro. Even though the name of the ‘MPCI’ has been communicated in the press since the 20 September 2002, this mysterious movement, outwardly very organised, with surprisingly well coordinated actions and equipment, remained faceless until the press conference of the 14 October (almost a month after the onset of the rebellion), when Guillaume Soro was presented as its Secretary General. Until then, he had appeared to be the likely ‘straw man’, standing in for a discreet silent partner. Little by little, he gained in statue, was recognised as a spokesperson, and invited by various media from Marcoussis, through Pretoria to Accra, Tana (Togo) and Abuja as a representative of the rebellion. He communicates with heads of States and international organisations. Gradually, he became a leading authority until when on the 28 December 2005 he became the number two in the Government of the Côte d’Ivoire.

On the presidential side, the President of the National Assembly, Mamadou Koulibaly, the President of the FPI (the ‘Ivorian Popular Front’ – President Gbagbo’s party), Pascal Affi N’Guessam, the President of the Ivorian Popular Front group at the National Assembly and Simone Gbagbo (wife of the President, Laurent Gbagobo) are all becoming important personalities in their party, thanks to the positions or actions they have taken in the debates about the conduct of the peace process. But here again, if peace comes, their positions will simply reveal themselves to be nothing more than internal rivalries.

In summary, the situation of ‘neither peace nor war’ is a kind of insurance for the protagonists on both sides: they do not have to be accountable, neither within their own camps, nor at national or international levels. As terrible as it may seem, the situation serves as a kind of guarantor for impunity. There will only be time to reckon up the balance sheet once peace has returned.

A cogent example is found in a report by Amnesty International, which amongst other things uncovered in February 2003 the execution of policemen in Bouaké during the first few days of the rebellion. The report is entitled ‘Côte d’Ivoire: A Succession of Unpunished Crimes. From the Massacre of the Police Officers in Bouaké, to the Mass Graves of Daloa, Monoko-Zohi and Man’. Its overriding concern is with the danger of impunity. The objective of the report is to demonstrate the danger of impunity through illustrating how the massacres of Yopogougon, executed by the police offices in the pay of the Ivorian Popular Front when Laurent Gbagbo seized power on the 26 October 2000, are at the root of the chain of violence, because of the impunity that surrounds them.

Amnesty International is congratulating itself because the international community has alluded to the possibilities of bringing the assumed instigators of the human rights violations committed by all the parties in the conflict to justice. It should however be clarified that even if the Côte d’Ivoire had signed the statutes of the International Criminal Court (ICC), it has not yet ratified it. Therefore, the ICC has no authority to pass judgement on these acts, unless the Security Council can get hold of the dossier under the terms of article 13(b) of the Statute of Rome relating to the creation of the ICC (Amnesty International, 2003). In the circumstances, it is thus understandable that the protagonists are in no hurry to see the situation normalised, which could permit the Côte d’Ivoire to ratify the Statutes of the ICC.

In any case, until October 2006 elections (postponed from October 2005) President Gbagbo is playing for time: he must hang on until that date because he is hoping to stay in power beyond the 30 October, the fateful date that would marks the end of his fifteen year reign.

Thus officially, in a very politically correct manner, he appears to be doing everything necessary for elections to take place on the 30 October. But in fact, everything is being done to prevent the elections being organised. External observers sometimes even have the impression that the protagonists may even be united in this perspective: no one seems to want elections, even if everyone is busy loudly proclaiming that they do. The ‘ex-rebels’ and the political parties with whom they are associated are not assured of winning them, and not only for reasons to do with the serious concerns about the conduct of the elections. Nor it is certain, by any means, that they would retain their unity if they did win, given that their unity is essentially based on opposition to Laurent Gbagbo. As for the President himself, we can quite understand why he is dragging his feet. Oumar Bongo (President of Gabon) in an interview with Jeune Afrique l’Intelligent in March 2005, first stated his ignorance about what can happen when the President’s mandate expires and then added: ‘Elections are needed so that there is a successor to Gbagbo.’ But that’s exactly the problem: Luarent Gbagbo does not want a successor!

We finally arrive at a paradoxical observation: each time the peace approaches, it is the work of the armed forces! We should not forget that the armed forces, though on different sides, are comrades in training, and live common everyday lives. They are not necessarily interested in seeing the war prolonged, if only because the controlled zones in peace time (which are not in competition with the rural militia and their holds on important traffic routes) may bring them more spoils than the hypothetical spoils of war; and because traffic passing through army check points is reduced because of the war. On several occasions, militia from the two camps have come to an agreement that points a way through to the end of the war. But each time, very quickly, the politicians have acted so that the tension is restored.

This was notably the case in July 2003 when the joint declaration of FANCI and FNCI seemed to be real ‘peace strike’ against the civil society perpetrators of the war. President’s Gbagbo’s repost was clear: ‘Just because the soldiers have ended the war does not mean the war is over. I will make a statement to the nation the day I consider the moment has come when a page has definitely been turned.’ (Agence France Presse, 10 July 2003) From August, the situation became tense again. On the 13 August, a report by the Secretary General of the UN expressed concern about ‘confirmed information’ about the rearmament of the national armed forces (FANCI) in the Côte d’Ivoire and about ‘suspicions’ of the rebels’ rearmament. The entire Ivorian press was making noises about the resumption of the fighting (APF 23 August). Then there were attempted air strikes over Abidjan (L’Inter, 25 August 2003).

This same scenario has developed, each time the armed forces attempted peace. It is caricatured in the situation which preceded the bombardment of the northern zone in November 2004. Following the Accra III agreements, the FANCI and the FNCI met three times (on the 16 August in Raviat, the 30 August in Bouaké and the 6 October in Yamoussoukro) to organise disarmament and billeting which were meant to take effect from the 15 October. But on the 4 November, the President’s planes began the bombardments of the northern zone! On the occasion of the first meeting, General Doué, who is the State’s Chief of the Army, a loyalist, had issued a caution. ‘General Doué blames the confrontations between FANCI and the “New Forces” on the politicians’ was the headline of the daily, Soir Info in the edition of the 17 August 2004, which reported the words of the General: ‘Fundamentally, we are victims of a process with which we are not associated. The politicians take no responsibility for what happens. But when it’s a question of making peace, they turn on us’.

The situation is therefore durably stuck. The protagonists all have the opportunity of working to unblock it but have no interest in doing so. For not only is the crisis simply lucrative, it is also validating, and therefore it goes on. And so long as it lasts, the mediators will come together around the table at the head of the country.

Conclusion: ‘We’ve had enough. Even the Bétés have had enough”

The ‘Ivorian crisis’ seems pointlessly destined to persist for some considerable time to come. Observers (GRIP – Groupe pour la Recherche et d’Intervention sur la Paix, International Crisis Group, and others) are unrelenting in their warnings about the unceasing threats that the conflict may resume. Only the ordinary population has an interest in returning to peace, but this group has no power to move things in that direction. In truth, the longer the problem persists, the more serious it will become. Because it is not enough for the crisis to simply come to an end. It would be pure self-delusion to imagine that one wave of the magic wand, and elections, however just and transparent, will bring about a durable peace. Because peace cannot simply be decreed, it must be lived.

The limits of this situation of perennial conflict lie within the limits of what the ordinary people are prepared to put up with. Sick of being pushed about since 2002 from city to city for meetings with the elites, and through endless 'agreements', ordinary Ivorians from both the north and the south are now protesting with the throbbing refrain: 'We have had enough'. Today, in 2006, the pitch has been raised yet another level: 'Even the Bétés have had enough' (President Gbagbo belongs to the Bété ethnic group). However the increasing internal rivalries on all sides and the vested interests of all parties leave little reason to hope for a rapid resolution of the crisis.

Little by little, the thinking is developing that this situation of ‘neither peace nor war’ is actually benefiting those who have the power to make it stop. ‘That’s to say, we are not yet out of the woods’, was the bitter conclusion of the Dernières Nouvelles d’Abidjan 25/7/2005. ‘The events and the succession of declarations this weekend alone indicate and demonstrate that the country is not yet out of the woods. And should we even dare to think, that worse still, the worst of all, may yet still be to come.’ (Le Nouveau Réveil 23/8/2005) ‘We are not yet out of the woods’ has become the new popular refrain.

* Yveline Dévérin is Lecturer in Geography, University of Toulouse-le-Mirail, France

* This article was translated from the original French version by Stephanie Kitchen. It was first published in the French edition of Pambazuka News No 5, Please send comments to [email protected]

Bibliography

References have been made to the West African press, particularly the Ivorian press; also to dispatches from the following agencies: Reuters, Associated Press and the Agence France Presse. The dates of the references are given within the text. Additionally, the following works and reports are cited:

AMIRI Sid, GOURDON Alain (2005): Etude diagnostic des organisations et des procédures de la filière café-cacoa de Côte d’Ivoire (‘Diagnostic study of the organisations and procedures of the coffee-cocoa industry in Côte d’Ivoire’), Cabinet ECO, Brussels, Cabinet BAA, Barcelona Report for the consideration of the Côte d’Ivoire Government on European Union financing.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL (2003): Côte d’Ivoire: Une suite de crimes impunis. Du massacre des gendarmes à Bouaké aux charniers de Daloua, de Monoko-Zohi et de Man (‘Côte d’Ivoire: a succession of unpunished crimes. From the massacre of the police officers at Boauké to the mass graves of Daloua, Monoko-Zohi and Man’), 27 July 2003

AMPROU Jacky (2005): Crise ivorienne et flux régionaux de transport (‘Côte d’Ivoire and regional variations in transport’), Rapport thématique Jumbo, September 2005. Agence Française de Développement, p.18

BOUQUET Christian (2005): Géopolitique de la Côte d’Ivoire. Le désespoir de Kourouma (‘Côte d’Ivoire geopolitics. Kourouma’s despair’) Armand Colin, p.315

DEVERIN Yveline (2005): La crise ivorienne (‘The Ivorian crisis’) in VOLVEY Anne (ed), DEVERIN Yveline, HOUSSAY-HOLZSCHUCH Myriam, RODARY Estienne, SURUN Isabelle, BENNAFLA Karine L’Afrique, coll. Clefs-concours, Atlande, p.288

GRAMIZZI Claudio (2004): La paix s’éloigne de Côte d’Ivoire (‘The distant peace of the Côte d’Ivoire’), Note d’analyse, Groupe de recherche et d’information sur la paix et la sécurité [GRIP], 10 November 2004, http://www/grip.org/bdg/g4554.html

HOFNUNG Thomas (2005): Le crise on Côte d’Ivoire. Dix clés pour comprendre (‘Ten keys to understanding the Ivorian crisis’) Ed. La découverte, p.140

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP (2005): Côte d’Ivoire: The Worst May Be Yet to Come. Africa Report No. 90 –24 March 2005

MELLET Sabine (2004): Cocoa: An Opaque Sector in African Geopolitics, No. 17
http://www.african-geopolitics.org/

SORO Guillaume (2005): Pourquoi je suis devenu un rebelled. La Côte d’Ivoire au bord du gouffre (‘Why I became a rebel. The Côte d’Ivoire at the edge of the abyss’) Hachette, p.174

In the countdown to the World Social Forum due to be held in Nairobi in January 2007, Mouhamadou Tidiane Kasse analyses the trajectory of the social forum movement in Africa and warns that a lot of work remains to be done if the transformative potential of the movement is to be optimised. “By taking the torch from Bamako in January, the Kenyan social movement and the secretariat of the WSF find themselves faced with a lot of work, at the level of the structuring of the social movement in Africa, to raise awareness and popular mobilisation within the country itself, and to consolidate the dynamic of regional solidarity,” he writes.

When Africans first participated in the World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre, they were only about thirty people, drowned by tens of thousands of others. At the meeting in Mumbai in 2004, their delegation was bigger, but they still comprised no more than 500 people in a sea of anti-globalisation protesters which exceeded 100,000. Their lack of presence was almost laughable.

Africa’s voice was nonetheless heard at the International Council of the WSF, when it was raised to lay claim to the big-tent anti-globalisation event for Africa. Despite the scepticism of some people, even amongst the African delegates themselves, that Africa could welcome such a popular mobilisation on the continent, and could host an event of freedom where so many freedoms are abused, the request was granted. Holding the WSF in Africa will become a reality in 2007, and it will fall on Kenya to host it. But behind the enthusiasm, the challenges facing the Africans are numerous.

When the Indian Social Forum took place in Mumbai, the aim was to de-localise an event associated with Porto Alegre, and to enhance its popular dimensions, thematic richness and excellent organisation. Moreover, on the Asian continent, there were particular concerns at stake within the framework of structural global inequalities. In Asia, the imbalances are not only vertical between the South and North. They are also horizontal and endogenous, and cut across the societies of the Southern countries: the issue of the Indian caste system characterised the Mumbai forum.

The successes of India strengthened Africa’s wish to host the big anti-globalisation event. This was despite some doubts about the suitability of its political environment to host the iconoclastic and critical debates, about the continent’s capacity to host and organise an event for tens of thousands of people, and to ensure real, mass mobilisation.

Until the polycentric World Social Forum in Bamako in January 2006, meetings of African social movements had never been anything but quasi-confidential conclaves. The African Social Forum in Lusaka in December 2004 failed to attract more than 1000 people to the Mulungushi International Conference Center, which resounded with a despairing emptiness. Barely 50 people participated in the march on the streets of Lusaka, and in any case, a ban on demonstrations would have aborted the skeleton procession, which only made it as far as 500 metres from conference centre.

The first west-African social forum in Conakry in November 2004, which attracted about 2000 people, gave a glimpse of the kind of local mobilisation that is possible. But the ensuing events have not exceeded this level of participation, and the popular voice remains restrained. That the events have no roots in the majority populations is evident. Nowhere, with the exception of the last WSF in Bamako, which claimed some 30,000 participants, has the event been strongly linked to the local agenda. It is as if there is a disjuncture between the ferment of opposition and the daily lives of ordinary people.

The African social movements still lack visibility even though the pertinence of the ideas and causes they embrace are in keeping with the urgent matters confronting Africa in the construction of a better world. There have been delays in implementing mechanisms which would allow this dynamic to reach through to the roots of society, and create a genuinely popular movement. From one meeting to another, the debates struggle to escape from the circles of those in the know. Panel discussions are essentially bringing together the same people, going over the same old ideas, and struggling to find an anchorage in people’s realities. The structure of the organisation probably also needs to be challenged, and their chief instigators could do with being reconsidered.

Getting it off the ground

Said Saadi, a member of the Moroccan social forum, stated at the African social forum in Lusaka: “After three meetings, we are at a turning point. The forum must be strengthened by opening it up to all the other groups, which are fighting on the ground. What about the trade unions for example?...We must avoid looking like a group of NGOs, which are keen on travelling but do little real work at grassroots level. The forum must position itself to redress the balance, and outline an opposition agenda with a precise timeframe.” In the same tempo, Abdourame Ousmane from Niger remarked: “It is time to develop alternatives that take account of the aspirations of the populations at the bottom of society, that will be legitimised by nature of their democratic anchorage.”

The social forum evidently remains a space where participation is not predetermined. It is not about groupings that anyone is looking to engineer, rather is organised in such a way that ideas ferment reciprocally and experiences inspire change elsewhere. But certain tendencies are favoured. There will not be real change unless there are veritable actors at the centre of the processes. Whatever the merits of the unions and the rural movements, there is a virtual absence of organised social movements in Africa at present. The themes discussed in the panels and workshops are omnipresent, discussions about the future – ‘a different world is possible’ ¬– are shaped from the perspectives of ordinary people, and yet their own dynamic does not let itself be felt.

The question of the unions in Africa in relation to globalisation was usefully analysed at the Conakry meeting in 2004 in terms of the necessity for their re-orientation. First of all, solidarity is an imperative. When the multinationals set out to blackmail the workers, there is no better defence than union solidarity. How can this be achieved? There must be a fusion of the groups of affiliated unions at both national and global levels. In this respect, the Anglophone countries are further on. COSATU in South Africa is a good example. The second stage involves the promotion of international norms: International agreements, treaties, UN institutions, the World Bank and the IMF must integrate union liberties that symbolise the social dimension of development politics.

The final stage of mobilising the unions in the struggle for ‘another world is possible’ involves the ‘enlargement of the mandate of the union movement’. This change must take effect in several stages. It requires the mobilisation of supporters, sourcing of funding, the democratisation of the union movement, and the construction of partnerships with governments and multinationals. But the union representation in Conakry was not sufficiently consistent to institute a real debate on this ‘road map’.

For the five years that the African social movement has been aligned with the anti-globalisation movement, it has still not identified the motor to get itself off the ground. The key actors for change and the path of ‘liberation’ has been identified, but the forces yet to be unleashed remain marginal to the event.

Can the ‘Women’s Court’ for example, launched in Lusaka in 2004, and again in Bamako in 2006, push for the mobilisation to change the situation of women, moving beyond the mere habitual condemnations of violence and the denial of all sorts of rights, which through being churned out again and again, risk becoming clichés? Will the ‘youth forum’ be a space for the raising of awareness where the identity of the future can be constructed around values which break with the discredited politics of the day? The discourse often betrays a willingness, but the means of bringing about change are neither clearly identified nor widely-embraced.

Paving the way for the younger generation

At the centre of the youth element of the African Social Forum in Conakry, the Ivorian Ouattara Diakala expressed the problem thus: “Young people are out of touch…with the objectives of the WSF. The struggle against neo-liberalism for example - what does that mean to them? What are the ins and outs of it? When someone does not understand a given situation, it is difficult for them to engage. We are going to have a find mechanisms for supporting mass youth participation in these discussions, to generate more activities in which young people can get involved locally.”

At the 2006 forum in Bamako, the rallying cry to pave the way for the young people was around Thomas Sankara, a symbol of protest, defined as an anti-globalisation pacesetter – in word and in deed – ahead of his time. But a representative from an NGO in Burkina Faso remained unconvinced about the impact of this strategy: “Sankara lived what he lived, but the important thing is what he did. He had a strong instinct of what had to be done, and this is what young people today must imitate. Today’s youth strikes me as being more ideological than pragmatic. They need to flesh out their talk with work.”

The secretariat of the WSF is conscious of the importance of the Nairobi forum for the structuring of the movement in Africa. The choice of Kenya from amongst several other candidatures, more-or-less the officially advanced countries such as Morocco, was decided on the basis of criteria drawn up and approved at the World Social Forum held in March 2005. These imply, that at the level of the host country, there is the opportunity for the freedom of expression of opinions, including through public marches and demonstrations, publications, radio and TV broadcasts, and contact between the local populations and the organisers from abroad; and for the possibility of ‘mass social mobilisation’. To ensure the forum achieves an impact, the application must issue from the mainstream social movements of the candidate country, and the sub-region. At the same time, the social movement of the candidate country must prove a certain level of organisation and dynamism, as well as the capacity to mobilise the population around national, continental and international issues.

By taking the torch from Bamako in January, the Kenyan social movement and the secretariat of the WSF find themselves faced with a lot of work, at the level of the structuring of the social movement in Africa, to raise awareness and popular mobilisation within the country itself, and to consolidate the dynamic of regional solidarity.

From Bamako to Nairobi, one trend is to favour ‘linkages’, to give a reality, indeed an identity, to the African social movement. The aim is to construct a continental solidarity which goes beyond the linguistic divisions and sub-regional groupings which have thus far marked the evolution of the WSF through its polemics and internal conflicts.

Bamako also identified a trajectory: “Beyond all political, cultural, economic, and social resistance at the basis of anti-globalisation, one of the challenges in Nairobi will be to resume the process of establishing a Charter of unity, for the people and future of Africa, the foundations of which were laid sixteen years ago in Arusha. Between now and then, there must be a process of consultation throughout society and within social movements, so as to achieve a meeting of ideas, consensus, and an affirmative assembly in Nairobi in 2007.”

* Mouhamadou Tidiane Kasse is Coordinator of Flamme d’Afrique, a daily newspaper published by IPAO and ENDA on occasions of meetings of social movements.

* This article was translated from French by Stephanie Kitchen. It was originally published in the French version of Pambazuka News, Please send comments to [email protected]

The 23rd International Gay & Lesbian Association (ILGA) meeting was concluded in Geneva on Monday 4th April after a week of discussions and workshops around lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues (LGBT). Africa was represented by LGBT activists from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Tunisia and Senegal.

The two issues that most concerned the Africa group were the homosexuality trial in Cameroon and the proposed same sex marriage law in Nigeria.

Among other issues tackled were: the case of Ugandan LGBT activist, Victor Julie Mukasa. An outline of her case and her proposed course of action was presented in a plenary session alongside with a description of The All Africa Rights Initiative (AARI) and The Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL).

On the arrest and detention of 35 men on homosexuality charges in Cameroon (11 are still in prison), Alice Nkom, the lawyer for the defendants, was present and was able to provide us with details on the background to the case and the present situation. The trial is due to start on the 21st of this month. The prisoners have been refused bail and are housed in overcrowded cells with the most violent criminals, where they are sure to be sexually assaulted. Nkom reported that there was one positive element in that the President of Cameroon, Paul Biya, has asked that people put their religious and personal beliefs aside and judge the matter on the basis of human rights. She is approaching the case from the point of view that like the Jim Crow laws of southern US which led to the Civil Rights movement and the apartheid laws of South Africa, the law being applied in the Republic of Cameroon is a violation of human rights.
Just last week, 11 female students were dismissed from their college "after confessing" to the Disciplinary Council of the school of belonging to a network of lesbians.

In the case of Nigeria, the proposed legislation which will ban any advocacy around LGBT issues – the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, 2006 - has already been presented to the House of Representatives. President Obasanjo is calling for the bill to be fast tracked.

President Obasanjo urges the National Assembly to give expeditious consideration and passage to the bill. “This is because the problem has become topical and embarrassing in recent times.”The House Leader added that "the problem of homosexuality has become very disturbing in view of the increasing number of gays and lesbians in the country".

Nigerian delegates said the bill would create a climate of fear amongst the community at large and would impact on HIV counseling and testing; drive the issue of sexual identity underground; and further reduce the number of reported rape cases both for men and women. Women and girls would be even more reluctant to report rape for fear of being labelled lesbian and therefore the bill would put women at even more risk of being raped. As advocacy and support by any organisation around sexual identity will become illegal, organisations such as Alliance Rights Nigeria and SPIN will be at risk of being criminalised.

The Nigerian contingent met with a lawyer from the Nigerian Human Rights Commission (HRC) to discuss possible strategies. It was decided that the first step would be to present a document outlining the issue of LGBT in Nigeria in relation to the proposed legislation to the HRC. Another possible course of action was to take the matter to the constitutional court. The lawyer pointed out that the process would take anything from 5-10 years with no guarantee of a positive outcome. There were three considerations:

1) Innovation (no legal precedent);

2) Hostile judges and a hostile system leading to an unfavourable judgement;

3) Social perception leads to legal change and in this case the overwhelming social perception is that homosexuals are social misfits and or mental cases.

In the North, gay men are seen as being paedophiles and or pimps whilst ironically in the south many lesbians are quite open about their sexuality.

Two Africans - one transgender and one lesbian - were chosen as ILGA representatives for the continent.

On Friday night we learned that the proposed bill had been presented to the House. The following day two meetings were held to discuss how to respond. It was decided that Human Rights Watch would take the lead by contacting various international organisations and possibly the UK government to take the matter up with the Nigerian Government and President.

It was also decided to contact Bishop Desmond Tutu and possibily Nelson Mandela in the hope that they could speak directly with the President and other members of government and the Senate.

Also on Monday 4th April, representatives from some African LGBT groups accompanied by ILGA officials presented a letter protesting the current anti gay bill in Nigeria to the Nigerian Embassy in Geneva.

African organisations that participated in the conference were:

Freedom and Roam Uganda
Alliance Rights Nigeria
SPIN
Changing Attitude
The Rainbow Project
Engender
GALZ
FEW
ARC En Ciel D'Afrique

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks,

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Charles Taylor, the President of Liberia between 1997 and 2003, is in jail, awaiting trial on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict in Sierra Leone. A decision to move his trial, taking place through the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), to The Hague in the Netherlands, because of fears over whether he can be kept securely in Sierra Leone has not been finalized because there is no agreement over which country will hold him once he is convicted.

Taylor’s incarceration follows three years of obscurity. The former warlord was being held in Nigeria under an asylum deal, but this changed dramatically on March 28, when the Nigerian government announced Taylor’s disappearance from his residence in Calabar, Nigeria. On March 29, however, Taylor was arrested in Gamboru, along Nigeria's northeastern border with Cameroon. He was subsequently transferred to Liberia and handed over to the UN in Sierra Leone. On March 30, the Special Court requested permission for the International Criminal Court in The Hague to carry out the trial.

Having presided over a brutal civil war that cost the lives of up to 200,000 people and displaced an estimated one million, Taylor’s reign of terror over West Africa has not been forgotten, and he maintains a grip on the region, leading to fears that if his trial is not handled carefully it could lead to further conflict. Pambazuka News readers were quick to comment on the arrest of Charles Taylor. We have reproduced these commentaries below in summary form, with the full commentaries available through the website link provided. Send your comments on Charles Taylor to

1. Bringing African dictators and warlords to justice

Ndung’u Wainaina notes that bringing Charles Taylor and other dictators to justice, other than its importance in establishing the rule of law and deterring future human rights violations, gives victims an opportunity to know the truth about the past and seek reparations for these violations.

2. The many lives of Charles Taylor

Kintu Nyago points out that it was largely US pressure that led to Taylor’s arrest. This, he argues, has enormous implications for Africa and its emerging governance institutions such as the African Union.

3. The Trial of Charles Taylor and the Fate of Africa

Stan Chu Ilo says that the fate and future of Africa will be determined by the extent that leaders are held accountable for their actions by Africans and the international community.

4. Charles Taylor, The Escape Artist

Prof. Vivian Seton says that every morning, Taylor should take care of the crippled by bathing them, feeding them, combing their hair and taking care of their personal hygiene as this is the only way he will experience what it is like to be maimed and crippled.

Fifty-four women from 21 African countries, meeting in Johannesburg to discuss women's rights and HIV/AIDS, have issued a statement expressing concern about the Jacob Zuma rape trial. Zuma, the former deputy president of South Africa, has been charged with rape following allegations by a 31-year-old HIV-positive woman. The trial has been characterized by ugly scenes outside the court building, with Khwezi, as the complainant has been nicknamed by her supporters, being abused and insulted by supporters of Zuma.

We, 54 women from 21 African countries representing 41 national, regional and international women's organizations in Africa; comprising of HIV and AIDS organizations, feminist associations and human rights institutions, meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa between April 6 and 7, 2006 to formulate advocacy positions on women's rights in the context of HIV and AIDS are outraged at the direction that the rape trial of the deputy President of the African National Congress, ANC, Jacob Zuma is taking. We find the conduct of the defence lawyers, the media, the courts and the police dishonorable.

1. We have been and continue to be affected by the twin epidemics of Violence Against Women and HIV and AIDS in various ways. Many of us are living with HIV, provide care and support to members of our families and communities who are infected with HIV and living with AIDS. We have either as young girls, or in our adult life, survived violent crimes committed against us by men in powerful positions within our families and in our communities. Some of us remember those women who have been senselessly murdered through acts of violence committed at home, at work and at school. We know that women are often raped by men who are known to them.

2. We take this opportunity to publicly state that we stand in solidarity with Khwezi. We applaud her brave stance in reporting her experience to the police and in standing before the courts to name her violation. Khwezi has shown respect for the mechanisms that exist in South Africa to report and resolve crimes. Confronting powerful men in powerful positions is a difficult and courageous task. We wish her, all of South Africa and the world to know that she has our love and our support.

3. We are outraged by the horrific and unethical victimization Khwezi has received in and through the mainstream broadcast and print media. She has been vilified by a form of reporting that is biased and blatantly sexist. We are noting those sectors of the media that continue to serve as judge and jury through the lens of the mass media, conferring guilt on Khwezi through inappropriate coverage of her HIV status, her dress, and her sexual past based on violations committed during her childhood.

4. We are angered by the inaction of the police, who, rather than provide a safe environment for Khwezi, have left thousands of Zuma's supporters to burn underwear and images of Khwezi outside the courts in ghastly acts of hatred and intimidation. We believe that the Commissioner of Police has continued to permit what amounts to public violence to unfold in the vicinity of the courts. Where he could have ensured a peaceful atmosphere prevailed, he has let Khwezi suffer dramatically brutal acts of bullying in her journey to and from the courts.

5. We are offended by the manner in which Jacob Zuma has manipulated traditional Zulu practice and custom. We are also outraged by Zuma's admitted attempts to abuse Zulu culture by seeking to buy off Khwezi and her mother with a few fattened cows. It makes women seem like a bag of meat that can be humped and the issue settled by trading a few cattle as marriage negotiation. This tactic of invoking customary options is a manipulative affront to a continent that daily struggles with notions of barbarism and primitivism in a global world that is built on racist and unequal frames and that believes that Africans cannot respect human rights.

6. Given the irresponsible and inaccurate remarks made by Jacob Zuma with respect to risk of HIV transmission and the infamous shower, we call for the dismantling of the South African National Aids Council (SANAC) as it is evidently a vehicle of misinformation and miseducation that permits the abuse of political power rather than meeting its statutory mandate with respect to HIV prevention, treatment and care.

7. Opening up the sexual violations Khewzi experienced as a five year old or thirteen year old child to the scrutiny of the courts is improper. These are incidents that happened when she was a minor who needed protection. It is unfair to present them as part of the present case history.

8. South Africa prides itself as a democracy whose Constitution promotes and protects women's human rights and freedoms from sexual violations. It prides itself on promoting and protecting the rights of women and people living with HIV and AIDS. South Africa claims to have a sophisticated judiciary that is free of political and other powerful influence. We want these bold claims to hold true.

Given South Africa's pivotal role in regional and international politics, how the Zuma Rape Case is treated by the media, the courts, the police, the ruling African National Congress, the Office of the President, by Parliament, by the Human Rights Commission, by the Gender Equality Commission, by every single arm of government, will send strong signals about the Human Rights of Women in Africa in the 21st century. A century where South Africa and the other 52 nations of the African continent have adopted the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa and the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa under the auspices of the African Union. And also where the SADC region has a Gender and Development Declaration and its Addendum on Violence against Women that has been signed by all its members including South Africa.

The women of the African continent deserve better than this. Women's rights are human rights and should not be violated under any circumstances; religious, political or cultural. Will South Africa walk its talk by upholding its Constitution and its Commitments at regional and international levels on women's rights?

Signed: Ama Kpetigo, Women in Law & Development (WILDAF), Amie Bojang-Sissoho, GAMCOTRAP, Amie Joof-cole, FAMEDEV,Beatrice Were, Uganda, Bernice Heloo, SWAA International, Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, AWDF, Buyiswa Mhambi, Empinsweni Aids Centre, Caroline Sande, Kenya, Dawn Cavanagh, Gender AIDS Forum, Diakhoumba Gassama, Dorothy Namutamba, ICW, Ednah Bhala, Ellen Chitiyo, The Women's Trust, Ennie Chipembere, South Africa, Everjoice Win, South Africa, Faith Kasiva, COVAW – Kenya, Faiza Mohamed, Somalia, Flora Cole, WOLDDOF –GHANA, Funmi Doherty, SWAA – Nigeria, Gcebile Ndlovu, ICW, Harriet Akullu, Uganda, Helene Yinda, Switzerland, Isabella Matambanadzo, OSISA, Isatta Wuire, SWAA - Sierre Leone, Izeduwa Derex-Briggs, Nigeria, Jane Quaye, FIDA – Ghana, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, Women's Aids Collective (WACOL), Ludfine Anyango, Kenya, Marion Stevens, South Africa, Mary Sandasi, WASN, Mary Wandia, Kenya, Matrine Chuulu, WLSA, Neelanjana Mukhia, South Africa, Sandasi Daughters, Zimbabwe, Olasunbo Odebode, Prudence Mabele, Positive Women's Network, Rouzeh Eghtessadi, Sarah Mukasa, Akina mama Wa Afrika, Shamillah Wilson, AWID, Sindi Blose, Siphiwe Hlophe, SWAPOL, Sisonke Msimang, OSISA, Tabitha Mageto, Africa, Taziona Sitamulaho, South Africa, Theo Sowa, Therese Niyondiko, Thoko Matshe, Vera Doku, AWDF, Oti Anukpe Ovrawah, National Human Rights Commission - Abuja

* Please send comments to

World Health Day 2006 on April 7 addressed the drain of health workers to developed countries, a problem which has had a significant impact on health systems in Africa. Research conducted by the Regional Network on Equity in Health in Southern Africa (EQUINET) argues that the debate over the health worker drain needs to be deepened to address the “significant and dramatically rising flows of resources out of Africa northwards, draining the continent of the important resources needed to address its own development, including in health.”

At this year's World Health Day the WHO will be launching its annual report which focuses on human resources for health. In Africa, as we have raised in previous editorials in this newsletter (the newsletter of Equinet, the Regional Network on Equity in Health in Southern Africa, available at we are experiencing a 'global conveyor belt' of health workers flowing from rural, primary health care level in the public sector to urban, private care; from poor to rich areas and countries in the region and from the continent, with its high health needs and under-resourced health services to developed, high income countries such as USA, Canada, UK and Australia. The loss of public investment and social resources in this outflow is significant and outweighs any returns in remittances or aid for education.

However health workers will certainly continue to go to where they can work in adequately resourced health services, in decent jobs and where they can secure their own family needs. This draws attention to the much wider question of how in Africa we secure the resources to retain and value our health workers, and more widely to meet our population health needs. The latest EQUINET discussion paper, written by Patrick Bond and produced jointly by EQUINET with the Centre for Economic Justice in southern Africa points to a South-North drain of African wealth that undermines the resources for health and development, and that increases our dependency on the global North, and our loss of health workers.

The 2005 Commission for Africa report leaves the impression of a continent receiving a vast inflow of aid, with rising foreign investment, sustainable debt payments and adequate remittances from the African diaspora to fund development. Our discussion paper tells a different story: of significant and dramatically rising flows of resources out of Africa northwards, draining the continent of the important resources needed to address its own development, including in health. The paper synthesizes data about the outflow of Africa's wealth, to reveal factors behind the continent's ongoing underdevelopment, as the basis for proposing policy measures to reverse these flows.

The statistics speak loudly of a continent being progressively dispossessed of its wealth, and thus the resources it needs to improve health and human development:

* A debt crisis with repayments in the 1980s and 1990s that were 4.2 times the original 1980 debt levels, and annual debt repayments equivalent to three times the inflow in loans and, in most African countries, far exceeding export earnings, leaving a net flow deficit of by 2000 of $6.2 billion.

* Unequal exchange in trade and trade liberalisation policies that have lowered rather than increased Africa's industrial potential and exacted an estimated toll in sub-Saharan Africa of $272 billion over the past 20 years.

* Flows of private African finance that have shifted from a net inflow during the 1970s, to gradual outflows during the 1980s, to substantial outflows during the 1990s.

* Falling foreign direct investment (FDI) from roughly one third of FDI to third world countries in the 1970s to less than 5% by the 1990s, and a shift to highly risky speculative investment in stock and currency markets - with erratic and overall negative effects on African currencies and economies.

Africa is commonly and mistakenly represented as the (unworthy) recipient of a vast aid inflow. Aid flows in fact dropped 40% during the 1990s, and the phantom aid that flows back to the source countries in technical and administrative costs was estimated in one study to be $42 billion of the 2003 total official aid of $69 billion, leaving just $27 billion in 'real' aid to poor people.

There is also a perverse subsidy in the extent to which industrialised countries exploit the global stock of non renewable natural resources. This takes place through the extraction of minerals and natural resources from Africa by Northern investors with little investment in return and few royalties provided. It also takes place through use of global goods like the earth's clean air. Forests in the South absorbing carbon from the atmosphere are estimated for example to provide Northern polluters an annual subsidy of $75 billion. A method for measuring resource depletion used by the World Bank suggests that a country's potential GDP falls by 9% for every percentage point increase in a country's dependency on resource extraction. This implies, for example, that Gabon's people lost $2,241 each in 2000, based on oil company extraction of oil resources.

These outflows deplete the resources available for productive and human development. They are felt most heavily by women and poor communities, and undermine progress towards the achievement of human security for the majority of African people.

They imply that the first step to effect genuine growth and to deliver welfare and basic infrastructure is for African societies and policymakers to identify and prevent the vast and ongoing outflows of the continent's existing and potential wealth.

Current global reform agendas do not address these outflows. While they point to debt and unfair trade, they do not seek to reverse the outflow of African wealth.

Campaigns to reverse resource flows and challenge perverse subsidies are emerging from grassroots struggles and progressive social movements, such as those in Africa that are resisting privatisation and commodification of basic services, pressuring for rights to generic anti-retroviral medicines and resisting encroachments on human development through trade and macroeconomic policies that intensify inequities.

These grassroots struggles can be consolidated by national governments and regional co-operation to improve disclosure of financial flows and apply policies within Africa to prevent the outflows and encourage the 'stay' of domestic investment resources. The paper points to some options - systemic default on debt repayments, strategies to enforce domestic reinvestment of pension, insurance and other institutional funds; national-scale regulation of financial transfers from offshore tax havens; clearer identification and renegotiation of tied or phantom aid; and improved calculation and negotiation around of the costs of FDI (not simply the benefits), including natural resource depletion, transfer pricing and profit/dividend outflows.

EQUINET welcomes the focus on this year's World Health Day on one area through which Africa is bleeding - its loss of human resources. We would however urge that to deal with this effectively in the continent, and address the inequity globally in the resources needed for health and human development goals, we need to deepen the debate. In 1998 EQUINET highlighted that a critical dimension of equity is the power and ability people have to make choices over health inputs and their capacity to use these choices towards health. For Africa this must surely include bringing control over the resources for health and development back within the continent.

* This article first appeared in the the April 2007 newsletter of the Regional Network on Equity in Health in Southern Africa (EQUINET), available at www.equinetafrica.org The new EQUINET can be found at http://www.equinetafrica.org/bibl/equinetpub.php
Please send feedback or queries on the issues raised in this briefing to [email][email protected] . EQUINET work on economic policy and health is available at the EQUINET website at www.equinetafrica.org

Although the agreement that ended 21 years of civil war in Sudan goes by the title of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), Roselynn Musa points out that in order for something to be comprehensive it must be all-inclusive. Yet, when it comes to the inclusion of women, this is not the case, with the agreement being full of gaps on women’s representation. Sustainable peace, she warns, will be achieved only if women and men are considered.

Africa has witnessed and continues to witness armed conflicts, especially ethnic conflict. According to UN statistics more than thirty wars have occurred in Africa since 1970. While these wars have had a devastating impact on the African population, both soldiers and civilians, African women in particular have been more affected than any other group. It is now common knowledge to all and sundry that women are usually the most affected in any war situation and the last consulted on subsequent peace negotiations. Apart from loosing their lives, women’s rights have been greatly abused during and after the wars. The case is not different in Sudan where women were not consulted or included in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and mention of women was minimal and vague.

Inclusion of Sudanese women is imperative because women’s rights are human rights and women have borne the burden of war and paid their dues for the cost of peace. Moreover peace, democracy and justice are fundamental concerns that need to be addressed by all Sudanese and not just a section of them. Women and children suffer more deeply and intensely the physical and emotional pains of conflict than their male counterparts because women are both primary and secondary targets of conflict. Women suffer deeply and often in silence.

The issues are that despite existing commitments like the UN Resolution 1325, Beijing+10, Nairobi+ 20, Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, IGAD Gender Policy, Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality, National Constitutions etc African women and girls continue to experience gross forms of abuse and remain at the margins of peace negotiations and post- conflict planning.

The Peace Protocols signed in January 2005 represent a qualitative transformation in Sudan’s modern history. It is a political agreement that brought the war to a close and established a new political context that embraces many issues that were neglected or side lined in previous peace agreements. The agreements include protocols on state and religion, self-determination, power sharing, security, a ceasefire agreement and a separate set of modalities.

The CPA represents a political and social instrument that aims to reform the conditions in Sudan through shaping new understandings and establishing grounds for the flourishing of new social power. It is supposed to constitute a Comprehensive Peace Agreement, yet one would expect that for something to be comprehensive it must be all- inclusive. Nevertheless the CPA is evidently full of gaps on women’s representation and the position of women in it is ambiguous.

South Sudan is a state emerging from a civil war that lasted over 21 years. The current healing and rehabilitation processes focus on the soldiers and men to the exclusion of women and children. In the few occasions where women are involved they hardly do more than act as gender advisers in peace operations. They need to do more than that by participating throughout and in all positions.

The CPA states inter alia that:

- The state shall guarantee equal rights of men and women to the full enjoyment of all civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights;
- The state shall promote women’s rights through affirmative action;
- The state shall combat harmful customs and tradition, which undermine the dignity and status of women;
- The state shall provide maternity and child care and medical care for pregnant women.

But in conducting a gender analysis of the CPA it is important to note the following points:

- Gender and women was mentioned in the six protocols only a few times;
- While gender policy and women empowerment are mentioned in the competency of each level of government , there are no targets, indicators and time lines for their achievement;
- The formula agreed for regional and political representation was not extended to women;
- Ethnic and religious chauvinism that has excluded or marginalised the vast majority of its citizens were listed as some of the roots causes of the crisis, yet this definition has not taken into account the marginalisation of Sudanese women and the fact that it could lead to conflict;
- The Machakos protocol mentions a framework for governance through which power and wealth shall be equitably shared, and human rights guaranteed but there is no mention of women in the criteria of sharing power and wealth of the nation;
- The fact that women bore the brunt of war for twenty-one years was not considered as a criteria for equitable sharing and allocation of wealth;
- Women are subjected to cultural and traditional attitudes leading to lack of participation in decision- making;
- Many women are not aware of their rights;
- Women’s participation in government in many cases are through tokenism by governments that are headed by men.

Resolution 1325 recognises that if societies are governed in a way which marginalises the views and experiences of women and girls, this carries a cost. The role of women is crucial in preserving social order, and as peace educators, both in their families and in their societies, thereby playing an important role in fostering a culture of peace in strife-torn communities and societies.

If women are to play an equal part in maintaining peace, they must be empowered politically and economically, and represented adequately at all levels of decision making both at the pre-conflict stage and during hostilities, as well as at the point of peace keeping, peace building, reconciliation and reconstruction. I have witnessed an occasion in which a minister in the government of Sudan was challenged on why Sudanese women were side-lined in the peace discussions and agreements. He rationalized the position of the government, stating an instance when women were asked to send their representatives to a forum and they did not come up with one. If that was the case then it is not surprising because it is not enough to ask women to participate in peace discussions and negotiations. As a pre-requisite, Sudanese women need to have their capacities built towards that direction so that they can function well as peace negotiators. That is to say that Sudanese women are not just agitating for numerical increase to their participation alone, but to be in a position to make qualitative contributions that will make a difference. They should not just be there to complete the number required. Obviously that was the point they tried to make when they declined to send women to the forum.

In order for the CPA to adequately consider the unique contribution that women can make towards peace, the following recommendations are important:

- Women should be encouraged to play active roles in dialogue and arbitration among warring sides. They generally have special gifts for these and are able to sacrifice personal ego for the greater good of the community. They are excellent in maintaining peace and promoting harmony. Their insights easily provide a way forward for communities that are not able to reconcile their personal and communal conflicts. Given the role women play in society and the fact that they are more intent on reaching a compromise for the sake of the greater good of the community, there ought to be an insistence that women participate in all peace initiatives with at least 30% participation.

It is not enough to pass laws on the minimum number of women to be included in peace negotiations, it is also important to allow them to choose who among them will best represent their interests and articulate their views. Women know one another more and since they interact with each other more than they interact with men, especially in the more reserved areas and cultures. By letting women choose among them who will be their representatives, they will be more confident in the negotiation process as well as the negotiator and they will be more willing to make their views known. This will ensure that their input is made in the peace initiatives and will avert a situation where issues that affect them in times of conflict are wholly ignored.

- The Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has been hailed as one of the most comprehensive instruments on the rights of women. It has however not been ratified in many countries and even where this has been done, implementation is wanting. CEDAW needs to be ratified and implemented in all countries so that women’s rights are respected and promoted even in times of conflict. This will provide a legal framework within which women’s rights will thrive, and when these rights are violated, women will be able to assert them.

- It is necessary also to ensure that women are included at all levels if decision making fora and in all issues that affect society. Women are usually excluded from these fora on the premise that decision-making is a male preserve and this in turn translates into a situation where women are left out of the very processes that dictate their lives.

- Women’s concerns should be incorporated in the peace negotiations. It is not enough that women be given the opportunity to speak at the peace making fora, the concerns raised should be taken into account whenever arriving at a decision. Measures should be put in place to ensure that women’s concerns are not ignored once they have been brought to the attention of the peace negotiators.

- Complete political, social and economic equality of all sexes should be spelt out in all peace agreements. This will serve to ensure that equality is maintained alongside peace. These initiatives should further be incorporated in the constitution to give them legal backing.

- Sudanese women should be more aggressive in demanding their rights because no one will drop it on their laps. They should rise up to the challenge of rising up to their rights without fear of giving in to intimidation.

- The educated Sudanese women should work with and carry along women in the grassroots. This will enable them to speak with one voice. This will also dispel animosity or mistrust that may come about if one group feel sidelined or ignored by the other due to parallel activities undertaken by both sets of women. When these sets of women work together in harmony, they will complement each other and implement activities that serve both their interests and by extension, the society at large.

- There is need to revisit the common agenda developed for Sudanese women to identify areas of priority and adopt areas of intervention. This is because society is dynamic and regular reviews should be made to ensure that the agenda remains to their needs and concerns.

- Civil society organisations, international organisations and political parties should coordinate their efforts and pool their resources towards achieving their common goals. This will create a situation where focussed activities are implemented and greater resources are availed to implement then. This in turn will be of great benefit to Sudanese women.

- The manifestoes of political parties should be engendered to encourage Sudanese women to join the political fray. Sudanese women will be more interested in politics if the environment is not hostile to their gender. It is also essential that political party members undergo capacity building sessions focussing on gender issues and concepts. This will enable them to dispel misconceptions they may have about women in politics.

- Working with the media can create significant opportunities for Sudanese women and girls, especially those living in the rural areas. Articles in newspapers and publications of general interest will sensitise the society on gender issues and those involved in gender advocacy initiatives need to work with the media.

- Gender stereotypes are often ingrained in members of the society at an early age and these stereotypical ideas later manifest themselves in discrimination against women. These notions lead women to believe that they are well suited for certain roles and should shun others. As such, gender sensitisation and civic education should be included in educational curriculum to reverse this trend.

It goes even without mentioning that Sudanese women have made some gains in recent times in the campaign for the agitation for their rights. They should be proud of their accomplishments and celebrate the gains they have made, no matter how small, rather than down-play their successes.

Conclusion

Both war and peace are gendered experiences and women and men are bound to have different priorities and expectations in a peace process. Sustainable peace will therefore be achieved only if women and men are considered. It is pertinent to bear in mind that the building and construction of especially Southern Sudan requires the participation, effort and contribution of everyone from all levels to focus collectively to build the war-torn country regardless of political, ethnic, gender, religious and other differences, where everyone will live with dignity, respect and equal opportunity. Women need to be encouraged to play active roles in dialogue and arbitration among the warring sides.

It is commendable that Sudanese women have now realised the fact that they will not be helped unless they start by helping themselves. It is worth mentioning that towards this direction they have been holding consultative meetings, prominent among which was the Donors’ Conference for Sudan, which took place from April 11 to 12, 2005 in Oslo, Norway. In a statement at the end of the conference the women’s group reiterated its principle of equal representation for women and men, pegging the minimum at thirty percent. The group, in addition to other pressing demands, also asked for urgent programmes for addressing negative custom and religious practices which continue to foster women’s marginalisation in all spheres of life.

Women’s immense contribution towards development is unquestionable and their participation in peace building and peace keeping is therefore crucial for the prevention of conflict and the sustainability of peace initiatives. Women as well as men have much to offer in terms of skills on the negotiating table and a lot to gain when peace is gained, therefore integrating a gender perspective into peace building in reconstruction is an essential step in the process of ensuring democratic decision making at all levels of society. Decision makers who invoke and manipulate gender to justify armed conflict and similarly exclude women from conflict resolution are gambling with the safety and security of women, men and children throughout Africa and this must be challenged with renewed energy.

* Roselynn Musa works for The African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) in Kenya and has been involved with the Solidarity on African Women’s Rights, a coalition of women’s organizations working to ratify and domesticate the Protocol on African Women’s Rights.

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In the 1980s, HIV/AIDS was a “distant” disease represented by statistical data. Now, it is the “undisputed equalizer”, infiltrating all aspects of life. Jennifer Chiriga looks at the reasons for its spread, provides some pointers on fighting it and argues for the urgent need to defend and justify the public sector and public ownership of resources when it comes to health care.

In the mid 80s when I was a student at the university, HIV/AIDS was nothing more than statistical data, which had nothing to do with me. Then I heard that one of our lecturers was HIV positive. The disease and the people afflicted with it ceased to be a distant phenomenon and it stared me right in the face when the lecturer came into the lecture theatre looking weak, thin, and shockingly unfamiliar. Over the years since then, I have watched friends and family infected and affected by this disease. It is about human beings - not only facts and figures, and it is an undisputed equalizer. Rich or poor, illiterate or educated, the impact is the same.

The aggressiveness with which AIDS has insinuated itself into our lives leaves one no choice but to reflect on the colossal cost and burden of HIV/AIDS on the individual, the family and governments. HIV/AIDS is no longer just an issue for health authorities as it affects all aspects of life and has a devastating impact on all population groups and sectors of the national economy. What is even more worrisome is the regional dynamic where HIV/AIDS does not just affect individual countries in the region but whole regions.

I personally agree with the view that the problem of HIV/AIDS in the region is not just a health issue but has fundamentally become a development issue, mainly because the disease exacerbates existing problems such as poverty, food insecurity, shortage of skilled manpower and strained and dysfunctional social and economic institutions. The fact that most economies in the region are weak and largely dependent on donor funding further aggravates the situation.

A number of policy challenges present themselves, especially in the current scenario of political and economic disintegration. The frighteningly high levels of inflation and unemployment, erratic or stagnant economic performance and declining currency values all symbolize the economic crisis which is affecting people’s capacity to look after themselves and their health. For examples 80% of Zimbabweans are living in poverty and are unable to cope. Poverty is therefore worsening an already bad situation.

Within the health sector, increases in health fees as part of the effort to recover costs and improve efficiency in service delivery, has pushed the cost of health services beyond the reach of most vulnerable households, and health insurance costs continue to escalate inexorably. The informal sector and the notion of home-based care have absorbed the shocks of the epidemic. This has allowed the government and the private sector to sit back and pretend that the situation is under control. In essence, governments have abdicated (whether voluntarily or involuntarily) their responsibility to be in the forefront of service delivery. The private sector needs to work in tandem with government to create a vision beyond the profit margin, and to start getting involved in community service in a meaningful way.

At the broad policy level, it would appear the early post-independence experience of African countries has unfortunately been ignored. In most African countries there were state-led models of development and it is clearly established that there were major strides in this time – educational development and reduction of illiteracy through public-led education drives, huge improvement in health indicators, child mortality etc, and housing and transport was provided by the state. After governments in the region adopted cost recovery under IMF and World Bank austerity programmes, this led to increasing social inequalities (e.g. private hospitals and private schools becoming accessible to only the few who can afford them). Given the pre-dominance of AIDS, the health sector is one of the main areas through which there is an urgent need to defend and justify the public sector and public ownership of resources.

There are a number of important interventions (but by no means exhaustive) that policy makers need to reflect on:

1. There is need for a number of interventions to establish the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS crisis as well as investigating why despite many attempts to contain the scourge, the disease has gathered momentum in SADC to a level of being one of the biggest challenges to policy making and intervention. Why is there a higher rate of infection in Botswana than in Nigeria or Angola? What have Ugandans done to gain prominence as having achieved a measure of success in containing the virus?

2. Assessment of drug utilisation, availability, and cost are critical factors for policy formulation. So is assessment of impact of AIDS on food security and agricultural production. We must know the impact on the youth – the most productive sector, as well as the impact on women and children who bear the burden of home-based care.

3. The private sector has the capacity to make inroads through a number of interventions, e.g. provision of medicines, support of home-based care, instituting feeding schemes for the vulnerable e.g. young children at risk of malnutrition. Banks and private industry are making super-profits at the moment but are not ploughing any of those profits back into the communities that need propping up. There are many companies that one can think of – that would be the basis for a meaningful intervention.

4. In all this there is also a role for civic society. The Church, religious groups and other social movements can and should lead a campaign for behavioral change, and open dialogue at family and community level about the disease.

5. People providing home-based care, are doing so largely without proper training or equipment and so are at risk of infection or re-infection. People providing home-based care must be provided with knowledge and the necessary protective measures. Poverty reduction is also a pre-requisite for home-based care initiatives because we do know that a good diet is vital for boosting the immune system.

6. Is there anything being done to deal with the trauma and psychological impact on people, particularly children, of watching their parents dying slowly? People providing care also need care. Children are assuming adult roles and nothing is being done about the psychological effect.

7. What is the role of indigenous knowledge systems in traditional medicine? A lot of Africa’s people believe in traditional methods of treating illnesses. Governments should therefore support joint initiatives by traditional practitioners and scientists in an attempt to merge the traditional and conventional systems. This is already happening in some countries in the region, e.g. Zimbabwe, where there is collaborative research and development of medicines.

8. It is critical to empower young people with knowledge and awareness of HIV prevention. An informed youth will be able to negotiate a safe sex life to ensure good health.

9. Culturally relevant prevention information can be disseminated through the media, faith-based organizations, community groups, schools, and the workplace. To be effective, information must be packaged in an accessible manner, for example, showing sensitivity to rural folk’s taboo approach to sex, and finding the acceptable means to put the message across.

Over 40 million people were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2001, and more than 20 million have died since the virus was discovered in the 1980s. If these statistics do not make policy actors sit up and do something, HIV/AIDS will continue to decimate the world’s productive population.

* Jennifer Chiriga is Unit Coordinator at the Globalisation and Alternatives Unit at the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC), Cape Town

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Recently, newly elected Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf became only the fourth African head of state and the eighth woman to address the United States Congress. Sirleaf asked members of Congress to think about what the returns on their investment would be when young men could trade their guns for jobs, when people could feed themselves again and when young women could become scientists and doctors. Emira Woods and Lisa VeneKlasen assess the contribution of women to politics in Africa.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf addressed a joint session of the US Congress recently. This historic honor, bestowed sparingly on international dignitaries, is a fitting tribute for Africa's first democratically elected female president. But Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is not an anomaly. The African political landscape is being reshaped by women, generating hope for the future of the continent and raising the bar for democracy worldwide.

Few in the US congress would have guessed that the country that leads the world in political gender balance is Rwanda, where women make up half of the members of parliament, a development that started in the mid-1990s. South Africa and Mozambique, also high on the list, are both countries with women composing more than 30 percent of their parliaments. This stands in stark contrast to the United States, where women make up only 15 percent of Congress.

African countries also have higher percentages of women in cabinet-level positions. In South Africa, 13 out of 28 are women, and in Rwanda there are nine women to 22 men. In the United States, there are only three women in President George W. Bush's 20-person cabinet.

One big factor in the rise of women's political power in Africa is affirmative action. Governments have set concrete targets for women's participation in political bodies. The newly formed Pan African Parliament has also implemented affirmative-action measures to ensure a minimum of 30 percent representation by women, all of whom have been elected to office in their countries.

But African women's rising power is measured not just in numbers. In Liberia, the same women who bore the brunt of the country's more than two decades of war are the ones leading the struggle for peace and carving out a new economic and political path.

It was the Liberian women who crossed class, ethnic and political lines to organize and sustain marches for peace and change over the past two years. Market sellers, students, farmers, professionals - women from all walks of life - marched daily in drenching rain and searing sun, often with their children on their backs, to demand the exit of their former leader, war criminal Charles Taylor, indicted by a special court in Sierra Leone, and to insist on an end to civil strife. Their efforts ushered in a period of peace that has now lasted more than 2 and a half years and opened the door to democracy.

After the election last November, when supporters of presidential candidate George Weah disputed the results and marched in the streets - again raising the specter of instability - it was women and leading religious leaders who engaged them in a dialogue and insisted on reconciliation and peace.

Of course, the real test for Africa's emerging female leaders is yet to come. Will they be able to translate leadership positions into a fresh agenda for peace, sustainable development and democracy in the region?

In the case of Liberia, the challenges are daunting. A fresh agenda would mean mending the social fabric torn apart by 25 years of crisis and chaos in which 250,000 people were killed. A Harvard-educated economist, Johnson-Sirleaf, who was sworn into office in January, should manage well a truth-and-reconciliation process that brings healing to a wounded society and holds key people responsible. A fresh agenda would also transform an economy that has relied on illicit activity for 14 years - trade in diamonds used to finance wars; stolen timber; "raped rubber"; and the flow of illegal arms - into an economy that brings productive activity for the now 85 percent unemployed.

The critical role of women in that society must be recognized by giving them equal inheritance and land rights to allow them to fully and wisely use resources for their families and communities.

The US Congress and the Bush administration should help give Liberia a chance at a fresh start by agreeing to cancel the country's external debts, accumulated under past dictatorships. Those debts, the equivalent of about 680 percent of the country's gross domestic product, undermine the capacity of the new government to tackle the problems of rising HIV/AIDS infection rates and a lack of functioning schools, electricity and other infrastructure. Thirty percent of that debt is owed to the United States, which should not only forgive its share but also encourage other nations to forgive theirs.

The US government should also use its leverage to ensure that US corporations operating in the country act responsibly, paying proper fees, taxes and wages, respecting labor rights and protecting the environment. For example, Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. is now taking advantage of deals made with a former caretaker Liberian government as well as the desperation of many poor Liberians to profit from operations that employ child labor, destroy the environment and violate other international standards.

There is much at stake for Liberia and the rest of Africa. But it's also a time to celebrate and support the region's newly emerging female leaders with a fresh agenda.

* Emira Woods, originally from Liberia, is co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, based in Washington, D.C. Lisa VeneKlasen is director of Just Associates (JASS)

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Makhan Singh is considered the father of the trade union movement in Kenya. In 1935, he formed the Labour Trade Union of Kenya, and in 1949, the East African Trade Union Congress. In this article, a foreword to ‘Unquiet: The Life and Times of Makhan Singh’ by Zarina Patel, Steve Ouma and Makau Mutua remember Singh and what his life means for present-day political life in Kenya.

Makhan Singh is among a select pantheon of Indian settlers who not only made Africa home but also became leading anti-colonial freedom fighters. But what distinguished Singh from many legendary leaders – including even the great Mahatma Gandhi – was the conscious multiracialism of his politics. He refused to accept a trade union movement segregated by race and poisoned by the colonial apartheid that classified black Africans and Asians in a humiliating hierarchy. He demonstrated for the first time in colonized Kenya that Asians and black Africans were bound in the same fate and that their liberation was inextricably linked. In this powerful example, he properly argued that both colonialism and imperialism were the enemies of the people. That is why Singh’s enduring legacy to Kenya must continue to be the basis for construction of a society free of exploitation and racial animus.

Singh’s political work in the trade union movement was a response to the repressive colonial state generally, and the labor law regime in particulars. Under the colonial state – and its post-colonial successor – Kenya was imprisoned in labor laws that were designed to cheapen and exploit so-calledthe labour from the natives labor. This was the trend worldwide in the relationship between labor and capital. No wonder workers have been at the forefront of the human rights struggle over the centuries. This epic biography of Singh demonstrates how the struggle for the rights of workers was planted in Kenya. In it, Zarina Patel, an indefatigable Kenyan freedom fighter herself, has comprehensively analyzed how Singh created the building blocks and pillars of the trade union movement in Kenya.At the

The life of Makhan Singh is an object lesson on how class formation developed in Kenya. It is a powerful example of worker s solidarity based on both racial and class-consciousness. Even though Asians were economically stratified, the colonial state still considered them a single class. ButR realizing that the trade union by 1937 was still an exclusive Asian affair, Singh went set out to involve African workers in the labor movement. The African workers had organized isolated strikes in the past but Singh managed to convince them that a united non-racial approach was essential if the workers were to succeed in their demands. The cClass-consciousness was crucial in galvanizing and consolidating the struggle by labor against capital. In fact, Singh made trade unions very so formidable that the colonial administration devised ways to undermine and curtail their influence and powerregulating . For example, Ordinance No. 35 of 1939 required that all crafts organizations apply for registration that could be denied unless their dealings were considered “legitimate” by the state. Cancellation of registration under the ordinance was not subject to judicial review or appeal in a court of law.

Singh led workers to assert their right to strike, a key achievement in the struggle for labor and human rightsthe . By organizing and mobilizing workers to strike, Singh not only ensured the implementation of a cardinal right but also legitimized the right of workers to withdraw their labor as a of bargaining tooling. This effort contributed to ensuring full and universal respect for trade union rights in their broadest sense. This struggle and legacy reaffirmed that strike action s areis the most important and fundamental tool that the workers have against capital. Even so, the rigid control of trade unions that was maintained by the colonial colonial government persists to this dayuntil the end. Industrial confrontation arose not merely from traditional trade union activities, but also from the movement’s political role in the struggle for freedom from colonial domination, particularly after individual political leaders had been arrested and detained. This notwithstanding, the movement was able to grow both in numerical strength and power. That is how workers became the lone African voice in the colonial wilderness, challenging white supremacy, demanding independence, and defending the interests of the workers.

The legacy of Makhan Singh points to the centrality of trade unions as one of the major epicenters of democracy. Singh sought thatwanted workers to get organized on theirboth practical and strategic issues. The practical issues varied from housing, wages, working conditions, health, and and safety, among others. HoweverStrategically, he was conscious of the fact that political andcolonialism and crude capitalism were the key foundations for the privation of workers. imperialism That is why in 1950, Singh proposed a resolution urging complete independence and sovereignty of the East African territories as the only viable solution to suffering of the people. a legacy In tThis biography challenges, the trade unions in Kenya today. It should receive the challenge the awakening that forreminds workers that they must control and be central to the trade union movement if it is to succeed.organizing Indeed one of the major challenges toproblems in the trade Union union movement today is the chasm between the leadership of the trade union movement and the workers. Most unions are lead by individuals and oligarchicy groups whom which do not share the interests or the vision of the workers. This augurs very poorly for the future of democracy in Kenya. constitutions Kenyan workers must overthrow bumbling, corrupt, and compromised leaders if the legacy of Singh is to be kept alive.

Finally, we would like to congratulate Zarina Patel for her illuminating work on this towering Kenyan patriot. We know that writing a good book is a daunting task. But we believe that Patel has risen to this enormous challenge and written an account for the ages. This wonderful account also reminds us why it is critically important for Asians and Africans to tell their own stories. This is a book that every Kenyan – and particularly those still in school – must read.

* Steve Ouma is Deputy Executive Director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission; Makau Mutua is Chair of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.

* This article is the foreword to ‘Unquiet: The Life and Times of Makhan Singh’, by Zarina Patel, Nairobi: Awaaz, 2006. For further details, contact Awaaz Magazine, P O Box 32843 00600, Nairobi, Tel: 0722 344900, 0733 741085, Alternative email: zand.graphics (at) gmail.com

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Homophobia recently topped the news agenda when Cameroonian newspapers published a list of prominent people and accused them of homosexuality, sparking debate across Africa. Many African leaders are on record for their condemnation of homosexuality, but Jacob Rukweza, an activist with Zimbabwe’s Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) argues that politicians must make space for homosexuals within the law. To not do so denies a fundamental aspect of their society and reflects poorly on their ability to lead as representatives of their nations.

Among the many myths created about Africa, the belief that homosexuality is absent in Africa or incidental is one of the oldest and most enduring. African leaders, historians, anthropologists, clergyman, authors, and contemporary Africans alike have denied or overlooked the existence of homosexuality or same-sex relationships and persistently claimed that such patterns were introduced by Europeans.

Southern African leaders have been accused of blaming the alien culture of homosexuality for their countries problems. In February 1999, on the sidelines of the World Council of Churches 8th Assembly, Keith Goddard, Director of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) which has a membership of nearly 500, most of whom are black Zimbabweans – told a press conference in Harare that Zimbabwe was “one of the most vocally homophobic countries in the world. President Robert Mugabe is world famous for his verbal gay bashing.”

President Mugabe hit the headlines in 1995 when he denounced gays and lesbians as “sexual perverts” who are “lower than dogs and pigs”. Rejecting calls for gay human rights, Mugabe said, “we don’t believe they have rights at all”. Mugabe charged that homosexuality was unnatural and unAfrican, saying that it was an alien culture only practised by a “few whites” in his country. He repeated similar sentiments on the 25th of February this year whilst addressing supporters in Mutare, to the east of the country, during official celebrations of his 82nd birthday.

Mugabe’s attitude and mentality towards homosexuality represents a dominant perception among African leaders. In January 2003, Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda, was quoted by The New Vision, calling on the Ugandan police to arrest all homosexuals or anyone indulging in unnatural sexual practices. He also denounced homosexuality as unAfrican. Sam Nujoma, while still President of Namibia in 2003, also told a press conference of international journalists that homosexuality was a “borrowed sub culture, alien to Africa and Africans”.

Whilst some leaders in West Africa have not been vocal about gay rights, their attitudes are represented eloquently by the anti-gay laws informing the judicial systems of their countries. Under Sharia law in Nigeria and most of North Africa, homosexuality is a criminal offence punishable by hanging. Laws across Africa do not recognise homosexuality as a way of life: it is generally perceived as unnatural and therefore criminal. Those who practise homosexuality are automatically turned into lawbreakers, social rejects and threats to society. It is impossible to separate the laws from the political leadership which sponsors such law.

But research and reports by progressive contemporary historians, anthropologists and sexologists around the issues surrounding sexuality and gender in traditional African societies tell a different story. Stephen Murray and Will Roscoe’s book Boy Wives and Female Husbands (1998) explores African homosexuality and documents same-sex relationships in some fifty societies in every region of the continent. Essays by scholars from a variety of disciplines explore institutionalized marriages between women, same-sex relations between men and boys in colonial work settings, mixed gender roles in East and West Africa. The book covers recent developments in South Africa, where gays and lesbians successfully made that nation the first in the world to constitutionally ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and assists in revealing the denials of African homosexuality for what they are – prejudice and wilful ignorance.

Obviously homosexuality can hardly be referred to as a new phenomenon in African society. It is not. Cursory interviews of homosexuals have proved that to a great extent their behaviour is neither borrowed nor influenced by foreign culture.

Jasper, a 23-year-old Zimbabwean who works as a hairdresser in Harare, discovered his homosexuality at the age of 12 while still in school in rural Wedza, where he grew up with his parents. He says he considers himself a woman trapped in a man’s body, something he did not choose for himself. He says his behaviour is not influenced by any western culture since he discovered his sexuality at a very tender age, in a rural setting, well before interacting with anything he could call western.

Paul, 33, who works in Bulawayo as a teacher, says he has married twice and has a six-year-old daughter. Each of his wives left after finding out that their marriage was just a front. Paul says he was forced to marry by his parents. He goes to church every Sunday “to pray for his sin” but is unable to abandon his lifestyle. Paul says he was “born gay” and feels “insulted by people who think this is a prank”.

Sarah, 28, a journalist by profession, says she is a lesbian and there is little she can do to change that. She says she is not attracted to men and will not get married to a man because she has always been attracted to other women. She says she has a female partner and the two are in love, although both their parents are encouraging them to settle down with male partners. She says she discovered her sexuality ten years ago when she was in college. “At first I was confused. I didn’t understand what it was. I tried to date boys but it didn’t work out. I just couldn’t stand it.” Sarah says her behaviour and feelings come naturally to her.

What African societies have done with some degree of success, however, is to make sure that homosexuality as an aspect of life or topic of family discourse remains firmly taboo.

For a typical African family unit, gays, lesbians and bisexuals do not exist. Even in a family where a member is clearly gay, parents and other family members generally never attempt to consider or accept this reality. At best, families that have noticed homosexual tendencies in one of their own have either panicked or berated such behaviour as mischief while dismissing it as inconsequential.

Open and meaningful family engagement on such issues of sexuality is virtually non-existent and discourse is usually limited to admonitions and reprimands. Small wonder then why vernacular languages have extremely limited vocabulary when it comes to the subject of homosexuality.

For various reasons, a siege mentality was deliberately grafted onto the psychology of the African family system over a period of time. This mentality has persistently and consistently refused to open up to the glaring realities of divergent sexualities and natural but differing sexual preferences inherent in human beings.

Unfortunately this mentality ¬– domineering and stubborn – informs even the highest structures of governance in Africa and shapes government policies, legislation and national character. As a result, because this point of view does not recognise homosexuality as a way of life, government policies and laws accordingly refuse to acknowledge homosexuality as a way of life. This is why in most of Africa, excluding South Africa and in some of the countries that were not colonised by the British, homosexuality is classified under various forms of legislation as a criminal and punishable offence.

The 'ostrich mentality' as adopted by many African governments has clearly failed to take nations into the future, which is where everyone belongs. The tendency of dipping your head in the sand when faced with complex problems is both naïve and retrogressive. When you decide finally to pull your head out of the sand, the problem will still be there – perhaps now more complex but still looking you in the face.

Moreover, laws that fail to acknowledge the realities of the constituency they purport to serve reflect badly on those whose responsibility it is to legislate and execute good law. It is a major weakness on the part of society when its laws ignore fundamental aspects of the lives of its people on the basis of perceived complexities of such aspects. The law in its stride should, at any given time, be able to deal conclusively with all aspects of its constituency. Failure to live up to this expectation can only mean that those tasked with making laws on behalf of society are incompetent and incapable of reading or interpreting society's fundamentals.

What must be clear here is that, when the law fails to acknowledge the realities of a society it is supposed to serve, the law in question is bad and must be corrected. Parliaments the world over are sponsored to make and amend laws. Parliamentarians are elected to make laws that serve the interests of all society and to amend laws that infringe on the rights and interests of any member of society. There is no better way for African MPs to earn their allowances than to represent the people's interests in parliament and make laws that, in the first instance, recognise the existence of all people.

Laws, anywhere in the world, are made to serve and protect society and its people, and not the other way round. And in serving or protecting people, the law is expected to be fair and just in the eyes of all people. In other words, the law is expected to be fair and just in the eyes of men, women, children, teachers, lawyers, doctors, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists, blacks, and whites alike – indeed all people.

The fact that laws in Africa do not recognise the existence of homosexuality as a way of life will not make gays and lesbians disappear from among us. Their existence is as real as the colour of our skin. It will be impossible to ignore the existence of homosexuals in our midst without attempting to ignore the very existence of humanity.

However, deliberate calls by African leaders to have homosexuals in their countries arrested is a tacit, albeit unintended, acknowledgement that homosexuals exist in Africa. We are indeed witnessing a paradigm shift by African leaders: a reluctant transition from denial to acknowledgement. The Nigerian Bill to ‘Make Provisions for the Prohibition of Relationships Between Persons of the Same Sex, Celebration of Marriage by Them, and for Other Matters Connected Therewith’ is obviously reactionary and draconian but it does presume the existence of homosexuals in society. And even Mugabe in his recent speech in Mutare finally, though reservedly, admitted to the existence of black homosexuals in Zimbabwe although he said, in Shona: “they are few”. We can only hope that such acknowledgements may, in time, translate into the tolerance and appreciation of natural sexual and gender differences.

* Jacob Rukweza is an activist who has written this article on behalf of GALZ – Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, an organisation founded in 1989 to facilitate communication within the gay community.

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Across Europe, African football players face weekly abuse from fans chanting racial insults. In Russia, racial attitudes have extended beyond the football pitch to include violent attacks against Africans, some of which have resulted in death. With International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/racial/) marked this week, Pambazuka News interviewed Nassor Said Ali, co founder and leader of the St. Petersburg African Union, which has been working to support the victims of race-based violence in Russia.

Pambazuka News: Who are the African people that live in Russia? What are the attitudes towards African people in Russia and why do these attitudes exist?

Nassor Said Ali: Most of the African population currently living in Russia is comprised of students. There are also a number of graduates who, for one reason or another have been unable to leave and fall into the trap of the Russian legal system where they face restrictions on their residential status and the inability to gain work permits. In addition, there is a small population of illegal immigrants, as well as legitimate residents. There are also children from mixed Afro-Russian families – in many cases, these children face discrimination and some are deserted in state orphanages.

African people in Russia are increasingly finding themselves living in fear of being the object of increasing racial attacks. Africans believe that these attacks are part and parcel of a prejudice towards them due to a lack of information about Africa and any culture alien to Russia. Aliou Tunkara, head of the St. Petersburg African Union, an organisation dedicated to helping Africans in Russia, argues that "Russian racism comes out of the social misconception that we are people from another planet abusing the generosity of the Russian people by turning into criminals and drug dealers."

Pambazuka News: What is St Petersburg African Union doing to combat racism and support those who are affected by it?

Nassor Said Ali: The African Union has embarked on an awareness raising campaign. After a round table session on interethnic and interracial relations, attended by St. Petersburg's city administration, migration and political authorities, as well as a number of local NGO's, specific mutual terms were reached with local law enforcement authorities. The outcome included the decision to conduct lectures and discussions concerning Africa as a continent with cultural, geographical, economic and historical diversity to be held with police academies and schools. This was done with the hope of fighting racism and xenophobia. The African Union has also been active in raising awareness of these issues in more public ways – street demonstrations and numerous media interventions.

Pambazuka News: Are local authorities active in supporting anti-racist views, or do they in fact actually contribute to the views that many people hold?

Nassor Said Ali: While the African Union has been able to collaborate with government and police departments, they have also encountered problems at this level. A sociological survey among Africans in the city found that authorities have been indifferent to racist attitudes, or are even permissive in some cases.

Indeed, some police officials have been dismissive of the cases in which African people have been attacked or killed, arguing that the victims have been connected to the "lowest of the locals," or blaming the attacks not on racism, but simply on the public drunkenness of hooligans out looking for a good time or someone to rob. There have also been allegations that the attacked Africans have been misrepresenting Russian society, and that ethnic minorities have exaggerated "the scale of race-related crimes to divert attention away from their own wrong doings," according to the head of the St. Petersburg police press office.

Pambazuka News: Are these isolated incidents, or are nationalist and racist sentiments on the rise?

Nassor Said Ali: While some officials would like to blame these incidents on drunkenness or low-level crime, it appears that racist and xenophobic crimes are in fact increasing. Extremist organisations, such as the Freedom Party, have claimed responsibility for some of these murders, asserting that their "byely patruli" (white patrol) operates in the city centre to "cleanse the city of unwanted elements where the police had failed." It is not only Africans that are targeted – a Vietnamese student was killed recently, and the local Jewish community has reported a rise in acts of vandalism. Further, human rights organisations are worried about a recent tendency among nationalist movements in assuming a major role in the opposition forces of the country, in an environment where the ruling democratic forces are losing ground.

Pambazuka News: Does the media report accurately on these incidents (ie. are the African students blamed for instigating the violence)?

Nassor Said Ali: A recent front page story from the local weekly, Novy Petersburg, branded the anti-racist campaign undertaken by the African Union as a "promotion of African culture of cannibalism, drugs and the dissemination of infectious diseases among the children." The implications of this are obviously widespread, and when the African Union entered into classes as a part of their awareness campaign they were met with both students and teachers echoing these sentiments. Further, the head of the St. Petersburg police press department admitted to lying about the extent and causes of attacks on Africans, claiming that he didn't want the media to pick up on the issue. That the media is therefore unable to report accurately is alarming. News outlets have also been accused of reporting on the incidents, but not addressing the responses of authorities, law enforcement agencies and public.

* Interview conducted by email and compiled from previous articles. Please send comments to

Two million civilians have been driven from their homes by 20 years of armed conflict between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government in Northern Uganda. Human Rights Focus (HURIFO) and WITNESS have co-produced "Between Two Fires: Torture and Displacement in Northern Uganda" to address the issue of torture committed against the IDP communities of Northern Uganda. The video advocates for official acknowledgement of these abuses, redress for torture victims, and strengthened national mechanisms against the use of torture. In this interview with Pambazuka News, James Otto, director of Human Rights Focus (HURIFO) and Hakima Abbas, Program Coordinator for Africa and Middle East, answer questions about the video and the situation in Northern Uganda. The video is part of a wider advocacy project. Anyone interested in participating can sign a Witness Rights Alert by visiting

Pambazuka News: What is the goal of HURIFO and WITNESS in producing "Between Two Fires: Torture and Displacement in Northern Uganda"? How can the film contribute to strengthening human rights mechanisms?

Human Rights Focus (HURIFO) and WITNESS produced "Between Two Fires" to tell the, as yet untold, story of torture survivors in Northern Uganda. The goals of the film are to engage the government of Uganda and the international community to create change for the displaced communities of the North. The video advocates for official acknowledgement of these abuses, redress for victims of torture and the strengthening of national mechanisms to end the use of torture. The film can contribute to ending these abuses by telling the personal stories of survivors and bringing their voices to the attention of decision makers globally.

All the footage was filmed by human rights defenders from HURIFO who were trained in the use of video advocacy and technical aspects of filmmaking by WITNESS. The video was launched at an event on March 8th – International Women's Day – at United Nations headquarters. The event was attended by civil society organizations and international decision makers, including representation by the Ugandan mission to the United Nations. In addition, to reaching such audiences, it is hoped that the video will also create change by galvanizing debate and mobilizing global communities to take concrete action on the issue. Notably, citizens from around the world can take action through the on-line call to action, Rights Alert, featured at www.witness.org We urge all Pambazuka News readers to Act Now to end these abuses.

Pambazuka News: What are the voices featured in the film - the survivors of these rights abuses - saying?

The survivors of torture are sharing their experiences of torture and other ill treatment. They share their sense of being trapped between the abuses committed by the rebels, their "children in the bush", and the army that has been deployed ostensibly for their protection. A common thread of abuse throughout "Between Two Fires" is the use of sexual violence perpetrated upon men and women alike. The survivors themselves appeal to the national government to create mechanisms for accountability for victims so as to end the impunity which reigns in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. These survivors have found the fortitude to empower themselves; seeking redress within the system and calling on other victims to also speak out about abuses.

Pambazuka News: The film seeks to address national mechanisms against human rights abuses. Which mechanisms are not in place that should be?

Within Ugandan national statutes, torture is not defined or criminalized. This must be a priority moving forward. In addition, access to justice and redress is practically non-existent for IDPs in Northern Uganda. There is currently no presiding high court judge in the region. While the National Human Rights Commission has the potential of being a powerful entity for the promotion and protection of human rights in Uganda, it does not have the human or financial resources to deal with the number of cases in the North. Currently the Commission faces a backlog of some 2-3 years of cases. So, what we are seeking is that the government and the international community prioritize the rebuilding of national justice mechanisms in Northern Uganda and strengthen national legislation to end the use of torture throughout the country.

Pambazuka News: What are the survivors of this conflict calling for in terms of redress?

The survivors are calling for some form of reparation, in the form of compensation but also in the form of official acknowledgment of these abuses. After twenty years of conflict, having been removed from their land and being the victims of human rights violations, the displaced communities find themselves longing for peace and to return to their homes. Immediately after the recent presidential elections that re-instated President Museveni to power, the Ugandan government announced that the IDP community will be resettled within the current year. This brings a sense of relief to the community. But obviously, this is not where the story will end. Once the communities are resettled and given the socio-economic tools to rebuild their lives, they will also have to deal with the psychological trauma of their experiences. Compensation and acknowledgement leading to prosecution of perpetrators will restore some of the trust between the community and the government.

Pambazuka News: What are the implications of the official acknowledgement of this abuse?

The government and military have pursued a policy of denial of abuses. This denial has eroded the trust between the community and the government, as was apparent in the 'protest vote' results of February 23. Yet, official acknowledgement is a form of redress, a small step toward restoring dignity and a sense of empowerment for survivors of abuses. We witnessed in Rwanda the power of this acknowledgment, and of apology, in the post-genocide reconciliation effort. In Uganda, with acknowledgement we hope action will also come. As the government ends the silence around these abuses, they will be compelled to act to strengthen national mechanisms to end these abuses, thus preventing future violations.

Pambazuka News: The International Criminal Court has recently set out a warrant for the arrest of top leaders of the LRA . What are the implications of this?

In the wake of issuance of arrest warrants for top LRA leaders, the violence against civilians increased. Notably, the LRA targeted foreigners present in the North which resulted in the withdrawal of certain humanitarian agencies from the region. Obviously this has devastating effects on a population that is reliant on aid. Many thus implore the timing of the ICC arrest warrants, while acknowledging the importance of the Court in the global context. What we are seeking in the advocacy around "Between Two Fires" is in conformity with the complementarity principle of the ICC. So that, while the ICC will investigate and prosecute perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the highest level, we are seeking the strengthening of national mechanisms to tackle the abuses in Northern Uganda. Indeed, we believe that the ICC will not be successful in restoring a sense of justice and reconciliation in Northern Uganda unless there is also a parallel strengthening of national mechanisms to end the abuses committed against IDPs.

Pambazuka News: The rights abuses in Northern Uganda are atrocious. Over a million and a half people are displaced and living in camps where the UPDF are in fact raping and killing these IDPs. Over thirty thousand children are at risk of being kidnapped by the LRA for recruitment as soldiers, and are thus commuting nightly to safe haven, where they face less risk of being kidnapped. What is being done to protect the citizens of Northern Uganda, and who is responsible for their safety?

As in any State, the government is and should be, responsible for ensuring the safety of civilians. In this instance, the government has pursued a military tactic to end the rebellion by the Lord's Resistance Army, yet has not succeeded in ensuring the safety of the nearly two million Internally Displaced Persons in the North. The Acholi population was moved into camps ostensibly to ensure their protection from LRA attack. Yet, the camps themselves became easy target for attack by the LRA – attacks that include widespread rape, murder, maiming and the abduction of some forty thousand children forcibly recruited into LRA ranks. In addition to the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the LRA, the civilian population has been subjected to violations of human rights committed by the UPDF themselves. Protection remains an important issue that needs to be addressed in the North.

Pambazuka News: Uganda recently saw the re-election of President Yoweri Museveni after he changed the constitution to allow a third presidential term. What do these elections mean for the conflict in Northern Uganda? Is the government of Museveni part and parcel of the problem? What needs to happen in order for this situation to change, at a governmental level?

The outcome of the recently concluded Presidential and Parliamentary elections sent a strong message to which the President must respond positively. North and North East of the River Nile, nearly all opposition politicians were voted in as members of parliament to the 8th Parliament and President Museveni was given only 13% of the votes in his seemingly limitless term as the country's President. The protest vote, which was premised on the plight of the IDP's quest for peace and a return to their homes, has had a politically devastating effect. To provide hope and perhaps the first step in the march towards nation building, President Museveni needs to abandon the winner takes all practice characteristic of these elections.

Beyond the elections, the situation in the North persists and must be addressed by both the Ugandan government and the international community. In our advocacy around "Between Two Fires" we urge specific changes in policy and practice at the national level and in the international arena where we feel there is some leverage on the human rights landscape of Uganda. The personal stories of survivors of torture will be disseminated widely and heard for the first time directly from the source through this film. We hope that this voice will catalyze the international community and the government to make the necessary changes, which are small steps foward to the peace and respect for human rights so yearned for in the North.

* HURIFO's website is www.humanrightsuganda.org Copies of "Between Two Fires" can be ordered from [email][email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected]