Twenty-one members of a new commission began its work on Tuesday (November 15) to identify all Burundi political prisoners being held throughout the country. The commission will "determine who are political prisoners and provide a complete list", the nation's first vice-president, Martin Nduwimana, said during the commission's launch. The commissioners, who are mostly magistrates and lawyers, are to work in four subcommissions to cover the four provinces of Bujumbura, Ngozi, Bururi and Gitega regions, which each host the nation's main prisons.

Source: Alertnet

Africa won its first female president on Tuesday when counting ended in Liberia’s historic presidential poll, with former World Bank economist Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf garnering 59.4 percent against former soccer star George Weah. "Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has received 4778,526 votes corresponding to 59.4 percent and George Weah has received 327,046 votes corresponding to 40.6 percent,” said the head of the election commission, Frances Johnson-Morris.

Chadian authorities on Tuesday (November 15) insisted they had the situation under control a day after attacks on military camps in and outside the capital, N'djamena, that left at least two of the gunmen dead and 15 under arrest. "The city is calm. People have returned to work as normal," Communications Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor told IRIN from the capital. In the early hours of Monday, a score of armed men in civilian dress attacked an army training centre about 25 kilometres south of N'djamena, while a dozen assailants staged an attack against the National Guard and Nomad Camp in the capital, the government announced Monday evening.

The first armoured personnel carriers (APCs) intended to enhance the peacekeeping capabilities of the African Union (AU) forces are expected to arrive in the western Sudanese region of Darfur on Friday, according to an AU official. Noureddine Mezni, spokesman of the AU in Khartoum, said on Tuesday that the Sudanese authorities had authorised the deployment of 105 APCs donated by the government of Canada. "The first three or four APCs will arrive in El Fasher [the capital of North Darfur] on 18 November with a direct flight from Dakar [the capital of Senegal]," Mezni said, adding that it would take a month for all of the APCs to arrive in Darfur.

Senegal has arrested the former Chadian dictator, Hissène Habré, on an international arrest warrant from Belgium for atrocities committed during his eight-year rule. The Senegalese government must now fulfill its international legal obligations to extradite Habré to face trial in Belgium, Human Rights Watch said. Habré was arrested, taken to jail, then brought before a prosecutor to be questioned and then transferred to the penitentiary wing of a hospital in the Senegalese capital Dakar, where he has lived in exile since 1990. On September 19, a Belgian judge issued an international arrest warrant for Habré under Belgium's "universal jurisdiction" law, which allowed prosecution of the worst atrocities no matter where they were committed.

Unscrupulous individuals are using elaborate internet scams to prey on vulnerable people by offering them resettlement in exchange for money, the UN refugee agency has warned.There is always a risk of fraud in migration programmes. Governments have long recognized that people wanting to migrate will resort to exploiting vulnerabilities in admission procedures and systems. At the same time, desperate refugees can fall victim to fraudulent schemes offering them a quick-fix solution to their plight.UNHCR has been combatting these and other forms of fraud for some time.

Since the end of October, riots across France have made headlines worldwide. This article provides some context for the current debate on the French integration model. In general, applications from African countries have been decreasing.The rising number of asylum applications has challenged the adequacy of French asylum policies. France does not provide for systematic refugee resettlement, nor does it yet accept the "safe third country" concept whereby an asylum seeker coming from outside the EU but through a "safe" country may be, under certain conditions, returned to this "safe" country. In addition, asylum seekers have limited access to social welfare benefits and are not allowed to work.

Over 60 non-governmental organizations gathered on September 25-26 for the North South Civil Society Conference on Refugee Warehousing. Organized by a range of refugee and faith-based groups, the conference drew civil society actors from over 15 countries to learn from one another and to collaborate on strategies to help refugees gain their basic rights. This report outlines the next steps and recommendations and covers the following areas:General comments and principal goals; Advocacy strategies and methods; and additional areas for advocacy.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has not contacted more than 100 Zanzibaris who fled to Mombasa to escape violence in their country. The members of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) arrived in Mombasa two weeks ago from Zanzibar. The Zanzibaris fled to escape arrests on allegations that they stirred unrest during elections in their country.The refugees used dhows, anchoring at Shimoni port, 75 kilometres from Mombasa.

Fifty international aid agencies have called on the United Nations Security Council to act to protect the civilians in northern Uganda from rebel attacks. They say the violence by the Lord's Resistance Army fighters is claiming 1,000 lives every week. Their call comes as a high-level UN Security Council delegation is due to begin talks with the government.

In response to growing alarm over Swaziland's HIV infection rate, a draft law proposing the death penalty for child rape and the intentional transmission of the virus was released this week. "Any person who is convicted of rape under this bill is liable to the death penalty if the victim is below the age of 14 years, or to the death penalty if HIV and AIDS are an aggravating factor, or to the death penalty where such person has parental power over the child," reads the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill of 2005.

Omjameal Marshue Mohammed was 18 when she was convicted of selling marijuana and sentenced to 20 years in Omdurman Prison, Sudan's largest women's prison located near the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. Released recently after a judge reduced her sentence by a half because she was a young first offender, Mohammed, explained that selling marijuana was one of the few options she had to support her two children.

"The Barclays Miles Ahead neo-colonial safari through Africa will be celebrating its triumph on Thursday (10th of Nov.) at the Convention Centre in Cape Town (6pm at the CTICC). Barclays executives have been travelling through East Africa in white 4x4s on a publicity tour designed to detract from the Bank's deep involvement in Apartheid, financing the Arms Deal, and other such acts of corporate robbery. This is a shady parody of the Cape to Cairo imperial designs of Cecil John Rhodes, and Jubilee South Africa and allies will be at the Convention Centre to give the Bank the welcome it deserves."

The International Confederation of Trade Unions received further disturbing news November 9 concerning the fate of nearly 200 trade unionists arrested by the Mugabe regime for protesting against poverty. Leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) were amongst 118 people arrested in the capital Harare. The ICFTU has received reports that Wellington Chibebe, ZCTU General Secretary, has been tortured whilst in detention. Fifty other trade unoinists were arrested around the rest of the country. All the prisoners have been transferred to Chitunwiza, twenty-five kilometers outside of Harare.

The Southern African Counter-Trafficking Assistance Programme (SACTAP) of the International Organization For Migration has launched a set of radio public service announcements to raise awareness about human trafficking in Mozambique. Mozambique was identified in the IOM's 2003 report Seduction, Sale and Slavery: Trafficking in Women and Children for Sexual Exploitation in Southern Africa, as one of the key source countries for women and children trafficked to South Africa.

Radio for Peacebuilding, Africa (RFPA) has produced a new guidebook "Radio Talkshows for Peacebuilding". This guidebook is designed to help radio talkshows take a role in peacebuilding. It outlines reliable techniques which can help journalists and presenters deal with conflict effectively. Developed in April 2005 at a workshop in Burundi bringing together 21 radio talkshow presenters and producers from eleven sub-Saharan African countries, this guidebook is addressed to talkshows presenters and producers as well as to everyone involved in producing such programmes. The guide "Radio Talkshows for Peacebuilding" is currently accessible on the website (www.radiopeaceafrica.org) in the manuals section and on CD-Rom, available on request; [email protected]. Please send an email with your name, the name of your radio station, and your full postal address.

About 500 Ethiopians staged a noisy but peaceful demonstration Tuesday in front of the US State Department, demanding that Washington step up its efforts to end post-election violence in the African state. Chanting "USA, shame on you" and brandishing placards wth slogans such as "Where Do You Stand?" the crowd called for pressure on Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to halt bloodshed that has claimed dozens of lives.

Three militias in eastern Congo are plotting a joint attack on Burundi and Rwanda, Burundi's army said on Monday as it prepared to welcome U.N. Security Council officials touring Africa's troubled Great Lakes region. Major Adolphe Manirakiza said the plans were revealed by a fighter from Rwanda's ethnic Hutu rebels, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), who was captured on Sunday on Burundi's border with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The United States Deputy Secretary of State, Robert Zoellick, has urged the divided leadership of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) to overcome their differences and present a united front at the upcoming peace negotiations. "One of the most important assets for the SLM is the support of countries around the world. But to maintain that support, they have to respect the ceasefire. They can't follow a path of violence, and they have to come up with a common negotiating position," Zoellick told reporters in Nairobi on Tuesday, after a failed attempt to bring the rebel leaders together.

Revelations that French forces killed a local man, and that generals then protected the killers, have cast new doubts over the French 'peacekeeping' role in the Côte d'Ivoire. The French government confirmed Wednesday that French officers had been found guilty of killing Firmin Mahé. Two generals, Henri Poncet and Renaud de Malaussène face accusations of falsifying reports to conceal the crime.