After an extremely slow start, United Nations agencies and aid organizations have improved their response to the roughly 210,000 refugees from Darfur living in Chad. Refugees have been relocated from the border and are now living in camps where their basic needs are being met, although water and firewood will always be issues. Many refugee children are in school, and more schools are under construction. Refugees say that with the exception of threats from surrounding host communities, they generally feel safe in the camps.

The Government has spent the equivalent of US $16 million in the fight corruption, the Justice and Constitutional Affairs ministry has said. In a status report released to donor agencies, the ministry cited prosecution of 14 former heads of parastatals as one of the milestones realised in the war against corruption. "Cases being prosecuted included those of directors of Euro Bank, NHIF, NSSF, Postal Corporation of Kenya, Kenya Post Office Savings Bank, and the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya," the statement said.

The website www.RSDWatch.org, an independent source of information about the way the UN refugee agency decides refugee cases, includes updates on the following:
- High Commissioner tells Europe that the dozens of states where UNHCR performs refugee status determination should not be considered first countries of asylum.
- UNHCR presses safeguards established in human rights, administrative law, and past UNHCR statements.
- On several fronts, UNHCR offices fail to live up to the standards that it is promoting to others.
- To Council of Europe, UNHCR emphasizes giving clear reasons for rejection, limiting the use of secret evidence, providing an independent appeal, and recognizing the right to counsel — all of which are often compromised in UNHCR’s own RSD procedures.

The first trials before the gacaca courts of justice finally opened in Rwanda on 10 March. More than three years after their official launch, the courts, made up of locally-elected judges from a district or hill, read out their first verdicts against people suspected of participating in the genocide. The most notable fact was the summoning of several hundred local administrative leaders before the courts, reports the International Justice Tribune, a newsletter on international criminal justice.

They came to Liberia at a time when hundreds of thousands of people were fleeing. Some were here even before the civil war started in 1989, and stayed throughout the 14-year conflict. Today, amid the mass return to Liberia, these refugees are ready to stand and be counted. In addition to Sierra Leoneans, Monrovia also hosts a mix of nationalities – Algerians, Congolese, Ghanaians, Ivorians, Nigerians, Rwandans, Somalis, Sudanese, Togolese and Ugandans. The UN refugee agency is currently registering refugees around the Liberian capital.

While many Arab states, like Egypt, are indeed “pigmentocracies,” many of Egypt’s political elites are descendants of the Turkic Mamluk slave dynasty. Does their slave descent, which many black nationalists deem crucial to African identity, render them bonafide Africans, free of racial guilt? In addition, despite the North African regimes’ insistence on the primacy of Arab identity, the northern tier of the African continent is home to an extraordinary ethnic, linguistic and phenotypical diversity, and one cannot treat North Africa as geographically distinct and detached from a racially unified, indigenous “Black Africa.” The challenge in examining Sudan’s long-running civil war is to understand how, unlike other African civil wars, the conflict came to be “racialized” and not “ethnicized.”

New prospects for a lasting peace in Sudan after two decades of civil war have been overshadowed by the continuing crisis in Darfur. Sudan has been home to the world's worst displacement crisis. The challenges of return in southern Sudan are overwhelming, but have so far received little international attention and support. Two decades of fighting laid waste to huge swathes of Africa's biggest country. IDPs who already tried to return to their areas of origin faced continued attacks and the meagre resources and services available forced many to return to the displaced camps where they lived.

The “News For Peace” publication in Rwanda is a result of a partnership between the National University of Rwanda, University For Peace and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Christopher Liundi, former head of UNESCO ’s Kigali Office was the original initiator of the “News For Peace” concept.

The “News For Peace” publication envisages a platform of identifying the positive grassroots initiatives that are improving peoples’ lives, developments within the lowest echelons of the rural setup and initiatives that are supporting the process of peace and reconciliation.

Within the Rwandan community, activities like cultural art and crafts, forms of agriculture and grassroots environmental protection activities, fisheries and initiatives providing support to the needy like street children, the sick and the homeless are going on unnoticed.

The paper consists of articles collected by the students of the School of Journalism and Communication. The same students plan the lay-out and design of the publication with support from The University For Peace.

“News For Peace” requests support in any form and opens its hands to public and private advertisers, individual or communal well-wishers, international organisations and institutions. Your support is needed to make this ambitious project a reality.

We extend sincere appreciation to the rector of the National University of Rwanda, and the Management of the School of Journalism and Communication for their outright support in the production process.

“News For Peace” extends emotional and unending thanks to the University for Peace for all that they have done to make this long-over-due initiative a reality.

Contact Fred Mwasa ([email protected]) for more information.

As it approaches the end of its second year, the Congo's transition risks breaking apart on the unreconciled ambitions of the former civil war belligerents, says the International Crisis Group in a new report. "Inability to resolve political differences in Kinshasa have been mirrored by new military tensions that the parties, as well as Rwanda, have stirred up in the Kivus, the birthplace of both wars that ravaged the country in the past decade. June 2005 national elections are imperilled, and 1,000 are dying daily in the ongoing political and humanitarian crisis."

The government of Côte d'Ivoire has recruited hundreds of recently demobilized combatants in Liberia, including scores of children under 18, to fight alongside Ivorian government forces, Human Rights Watch says. Last week, witnesses interviewed in Liberia by Human Rights Watch said that Ivorian army officers and Liberian ex- commanders have intensified their recruitment efforts this month. Meanwhile, the Ivorian government plans to begin peace talks with the northern-based rebels in Pretoria on Sunday.

A great number of returnees from the Democratic Republic of Congo are reportedly stranded in Gangura Payam in Yambio county (southern Sudan) due to lack of basic needs. The administrator of Gangura Payam, Mr Clement Gini Mia Mangi, told Sudan Radio Service that returnees are desperately in need of shelter, clothing, food and clean drinking water. Mr Gini Mia Mangi said with the signing of peace agreement in Sudan, refugees are coming home in big numbers despite delays of the repatriation programme.

South Africa deports between 600 and 6 000 Zimbabweans every week from a repatriation centre aptly called Lindela - which means "wait here" in Zulu and Xhosa - a sprawling compound of dormitories and other buildings tucked behind high walls in a field outside Krugersdorp. And President Mbeki's government openly admits that it is fighting a losing battle against the influx of Zimbabweans fleeing poverty and repression in their homeland, with many deportees returning to South Africa within weeks.

Tens of thousands of Ivorians fled for Liberia when civil war erupted at home in September 2002. Many subsequently returned to Côte d'Ivoire, where a ceasefire agreement signed in May 2003 held until violence broke out again in November last year. Many of the Ivorians remaining in this part of Liberia work in the fields of local farmers, produce charcoal or do odd jobs for a living. They live peacefully among the local population, who benefit from the health post in Pleebo camp and who share natural resources like water and firewood with the refugees.

The thousands of refugees expelled from Tanzania in 2002 are still stranded in southern Africa, afraid to return home to Rwanda and Burundi. The tripartite agreements signed with Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda to repatriate the refugees to Rwanda and Burundi, instead ended with refugees fleeing East Africa altogether, their desperation shown by the fact that hundreds walked as far as Malawi, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Pointing to upcoming elections and subsequent national stability as the key issues facing the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended extending the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission there for another year and has called for troop deployment in two more provinces. The UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC) is playing a central role in supporting the country's Transitional Government through the electoral process and in ensuring stable governance thereafter, he says in his 17th report to the UN Security Council on the DRC, covering major developments there since the end of December.

The Ethiopian military has committed widespread murder, rape and torture against the Anuak population in the remote southwestern region of Gambella since December 2003, Human Rights Watch said in a 64-page report released entitled "Targeting the Anuak: Human Rights Violations and Crimes against Humanity in Ethiopia's Gambella Region." Human Rights Watch said that the abuses detailed in the report could amount to crimes against humanity. Following the December 2003 massacre of some 400 Anuak civilians in a Gambella town by mobs and soldiers, the military launched a series of attacks on Anuak villages that destroyed well over 1000 homes and left several dozen villagers dead. In numerous smaller incidents, soldiers have severely beaten and sometimes killed Anuak men they encounter along roads or in sweeps of Anuak villages. These abuses have forced several thousand Anuak civilians to flee their homes for camps across the Sudanese border, while others have sought refuge with friends or family in the relative safety of Gambella's larger towns.

United Nations (UN) and French peacekeeping mandates expire on April 4 and the international community must make decisive moves in renegotiating its mandate in order to prevent an explosion in violence, says the International Crisis Group in a new report, available in French.

A worsening of the situation in the country would be a tragedy for the entire region, says the ICG, with the potential of a wider regional conflict involving Guinea, Mali, and Burkina Faso. The greatest damage could be done to Liberia's fragile peace process, says the ICG.

In order to give a peacekeeping mission that is accepted by all parties a chance to succeed, the French government should begin negotiations with the UN about a gradual drawdown of its contingent, and a parallel substantial strengthening of the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI). The new UN troop deployment must include a robust rapid reaction unit, well-equipped, with helicopters in particular, as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan requested on 9 December 2004. South Africa should play a crucial role in strengthening UNOCI, adding to its political commitment in the name of the African Union (AU), a strong military engagement. In the absence of this suggested recomposition of peacekeeping troops, it is imperative that the French government maintain its military presence in support of UNOCI."

In its recommendations to the African Union (AU), the ICG says that over the next 18 months, a referendum should be held on determining the criteria for eligibility to run for the presidency. In this period there should also be presidential elections, legislative elections and a comprehensive Disarmament, Demobilisation and Repatriation (DDR) process.

* Compiled from the report by Pambazuka News.

Authorities in Niger have arrested three leaders of a group that has been protesting about a tax on basic foods stuffs on the grounds that they were plotting against the state, a government spokesman said on Friday. Spokesman Ben Omar told IRIN that the three men were picked up after going on private radio and television channels and urging Muslin and Christian leaders to hold prayers on Friday and over the Easter weekend to save the country from misery.

Summer Short Courses for 2005 include:
- International Refugee and Human Rights Law
- Meeting the Psychosocial Needs of Refugees
- Researching Popular Memory and Reconstructions of Identity: The Palestinian and Sahrawi Cases.

New competitive fellowship opportunities are available for qualified applicants to The graduate Diploma in Forced Migration and Refugee Studies.  The FMRS Diploma is designed to meet the needs of individuals whose professional, research or academic interests focus on issues of forced migration, refugee studies or population and migration generally.