Some 5,000 people have sought refuge in Gereida town over the past week, following violent clashes in the conflict-torn western Sudanese state of South Darfur that had already displaced 15,000, the international NGO Oxfam reported. "We are now estimating that between 18,000 and 20,000 IDPs [internally displaced persons] have newly arrived in Gereida, although the number hasn't been officially confirmed yet," Nicki Bennett, spokeswoman for Oxfam in Sudan, said on Wednesday.

"We appeal to governments, Civil Society and the general public in the Southern African region where the death penalty is still retained to engage in informed dialogue on the need to abolish the death penalty." Follow the link for the statement made by organisations which participated in the Southern Africa Regional Death Penalty Workshop held in Gaborone, Botswana on 16 November 2005, under the auspices of the Southern African Legal Assistance Network (SALAN).

Eleven years after South Africa’s miraculous transition from apartheid, the spectre of race has reared itself in the judiciary, the very institution that is tasked with upholding the rule of law. Both black and white judges are now accusing each other of racism in their rulings, reports the New African.

Ugandan Interior Minister Ruhakana Rugunda has welcomed a call for peace talks by the deputy commander of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army. He said that if the overture was serious it was a welcome development. The government will seize any opportunity to bring the suffering of people in northern Uganda to an end," he told the BBC. The LRA has fought for 19 years. Peace talks were attempted a year ago, but broke down. "The government is waiting and the government will be ready to meet a delegation of the Lords Resistance Army anytime. So the government is ready," he said.

John 'Briggs' Bomba, International Socialist Organisation (ISO), Zimbabwe:

"I was among 120 people who were arrested on the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) led Action Against Poverty demonstration on Tuesday 8 November. Hundreds of people had protested against spiralling levels of poverty. Those arrested included township women with babies on their back (the youngest being only six weeks old), the disabled on crutches, HIV positive people demanding access to antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), workers demanding a living wage, unemployed youth and other activists. We spent a nightmarish four days and three nights behind bars in conditions not fit for wild dogs, for raising banners demanding food and water."

For John’s full account, follow the link.

The Freedom of Expression Institute is disturbed at the growing number of violations of the right to protest by local authorities and the police. Mounting evidence suggests that more local governments are abusing their power to authorise or disallow gatherings to stifle dissent against their own performance. If this trend continues, then freedom of expression stands to be eroded at a time when it is needed most, namely in the run up to the local government elections. Given that a number of these violations involve local governments suppressing expressions of discontent around the state of service delivery, the freeness and fairness of local government elections may be adversely affected. This is because views expressed in these protests, that are crucial for communities to evaluate the performance of existing local governments, will be prevented from coming to light.

The Institute for Media, Peace and Security of the University for Peace is organizing three two-day Seminars in Geneva, Switzerland with top media experts on the following topics:
- Media, Conflict Prevention & Peacebuilding - January 24-25, 2006
- Media Challenges in UN Peacekeeping - March 7-8, 2006
- Media and Genocide: Rwanda & Bosnia - April 5-6, 2006.

This report aims to answer the following question: do ICTs have a special role in promoting peace? The examples of ICT use in warfare are well-known: propaganda, intelligence, communications and ICT-enabled weapons systems. But can ICTs be used in other ways, by other actors, to diffuse a situation leading to conflict, help end a conflict, or allow the stabilisation of a postconflict situation?

Ethiopia and Eritrea traded blame for the rising tensions along their shared border on Friday, but vowed not to ignite another war, the United Nations said on Saturday. Military commanders from the two countries met in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, at UN-hosted talks amid growing concern that their border stalemate could lead to renewed conflict. The closed-door talks were held two days after the UN Security Council threatened to impose sanctions against the two countries if they continued to engage in activities that aggravated the border standoff.

UNHCR Country Representative Alphafonso Malanda said that 1.5 million dollars would be spent to resettle internally displaced Nigerians and the reparation of Nigerians that sought refuge in Cameroun owing to conflicts. He said that the National Commission for Refugees had funded the reconstruction of destroyed structures and facilities of the affected communities so that the displaced Nigerians could return to their original abode.

Sudan continues to provide arms and logistical support to Chadian rebels, despite several appeals by the Chadian government, President Idriss Deby said on Monday. “We have proof. The Sudanese government has armed [rebels], put vehicles at their disposal, given them logistics and communications materials,” Deby told Radio France Internationale. “The Sudanese government is complicit.”

The continuing genocide in Darfur in western Sudan has spurred several states to pass Sudan divestment legislation, which bars state pension funds from investing in companies doing business in the Sudan. In response, KLD Research and Analytics Inc. in Boston has launched the Sudan Compliance Service. Companies on the list include: Alcatel, a Paris-based telecommunications firm, Total SA, a Courbevoie, France-based oil company, and Siemens AG, a Munich, Germany-based technology company.

Abidjan, the economic capital of the world’s top cocoa producer, has grown by some 933,000 war-displaced to an estimated population of four million, according to a new survey financed by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Drawing on local custom, at least half of those uprooted found temporary or long-term shelter with relatives, the study found. Especially during the early chaotic months of the war, some people managed to absorb more than twenty relatives in their home.

Envoys from more than 180 nations on Monday held crucial talks in Montreal on the UN Kyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse gases, amid warnings from scientists and environmentalists that climate change could have profound consequences. Experts pointed out that developing countries like China and India will now have to contribute to anti-pollution controls. Further, the present commitment period does not include the planet's worst polluter, the United States, which walked away from the protocol in 2001 because of the high cost of meeting its Kyoto targets.

Messina's Ivorian defender Marc Zoro was reduced to tears on Sunday, after being subjected to racial abuse by the visiting fans of Inter Milan, in the Italian Serie A. The 21-year-old was targetted when he went to collect the ball near the away supporters' section and after a chorus of monkey chants he decided he would take no more part in the game. Inter's Brazilian striker Adriano went over to console Zoro before he broke down in tears.

British-based charity Survivors Fund (SURF), which represents and supports survivors of the Rwandan genocide, called on the international community to do more to prevent the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war to mark today’s UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Amnesty International announced (November 28) today that it is sending a delegate to observe the trial this week of seven human rights defenders from Western Sahara who the organization believes may be prisoners of conscience. They are standing trial together with seven other accused who are being prosecuted for participating in demonstrations against Moroccan rule.

Parliamentarians from the African, Caribbean and Pacific nations and the European Union on Saturday saw chilling footage of the devastation caused in Zimbabwe by the brutal clearances of poor urban districts started in May this year. The meeting in Edinburgh was organised by two human rights groups, Zimbabwe Watch and the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, to draw attention of parliamentarians attending the ACP / EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly to the crisis in Zimbabwe. The Joint Parliamentary Assembly is meeting in Edinburgh November 21 to 24.

This New Tactics for Human Rights training programme talks about building local and long-term capacity building within communities to address massive human rights atrocities. The Center for Victims of Torture has instituted an intensive training and supervision model for refugees to develop local capacity for providing understanding and skills for mental health support to rebuild communities after massive human rights atrocities. CVT has instituted the training model in refugee camps in Guinea and Sierra Leone for refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Namibia has asked South Africa to send forensic experts to help investigate at least five mass graves discovered in the north of the country. The graves, near a South African army base, are thought to date from South African occupation of Namibia. Before independence in 1990 South African was engaged in conflict with Namibian Swapo liberation fighters in northern Namibia and in Angola. Police say clothes found at the site resemble those worn by Swapo fighters.