The Aegis Trust runs a genocide prevention initiative that aims to promote a fundamental change in the response to genocidal situations, moving away from reactive measures to policies of prevention.

Refugees in Uganda are instructed to stay in the rural agricultural settlements set up for them by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Ugandan authorities. Yet a substantial number of refugees are urbanites with entrepreneurial skills and technical qualifications. An estimated 15 000 refugees live in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, but are unable to fully use their skills for the benefit of their families or the Ugandan economy.

This year is the 10th Anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda. An international campaign is underway to mobilise to mark this anniversary - "REMEMBERING RWANDA". As our contribution to this campaign, we will be featuring this special section called Remembering Rwanda. We also plan to publish a special issue on Rwanda in April 2004. Get involved! Organise an event in your institution, town, village or city. Send us information about what you are doing to commemorate the anniversary and to provide solidarity to the rebuilding of Rwanda.

Extensive drought in the northern Togdheer Region of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, where about 350,000 people live, has forced schools to close, water wells to dry up and the livestock population to decline significantly, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) said on Monday.

A US-based human rights group has claimed that 81 civilians in the war-affected Western Darfur region of Sudan were last week massacred by Arab militia groups aligned with the Sudanese government. The Centre for the Prevention of Genocide (CPG) said it had received confirmation that the massacres were perpetrated by the Janjawid militia, during an attack on the town of Shatatya and its surrounding villages on 10 February.

The Sudanese government expects to sign a peace agreement with rebels within a month, ending more than two decades of civil war that has ravaged the south of Africa's largest country, the foreign minister said on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail was speaking as the two sides opened talks in Kenya on how to share power in the oil-producing country and the status of three disputed areas claimed by both sides.

The government-controlled media's tendency to portray a picture of peace and tranquility in the country has resulted in these media ignoring the continued erosion of basic human rights by overzealous ZANU PF fanatics, security force members and the government through its promulgation of unconstitutional laws. According to the latest newsletter from the Zimbabwe Media Monitoring Project, the responsibility for exposing rights abuses has been completely left to the private media. "For instance, this week SW Radio Africa carried 17 stories, which reported 18 cases of rights abuses. Studio 7 had four stories highlighting two incidents of rights violations. ZBC had none. The trend was similar in the print media. While the private papers published 12 reports on human rights abuses, the government Press only carried a single story."

While many Angolan refugees in Namibia are said to be eager to return to their country of origin, some based outside the border town of Rundu are not entirely convinced that this would be in their best interests. They fled the civil war which ravaged Angola for 27 years and are now reluctant to swop a relatively stable life for the uncertainties of repatriation to Angola.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has moved to end the more than a year-long wait for travel documents by a refugee and his Namibian wife after the couple last week informed the Government Attorney that they intended to sue the Minister of Home Affairs, Jerry Ekandjo, and the Commissioner for Refugees, Elizabeth Negumbo, because of poor service, incompetence and what they termed "bureaucratic brutality".

Xenophobia and racism are based on the age-old desire of man to find a ready scapegoat and the dislike of anyone who does not readily conform, whether in behaviour, colour or religion. To perpetuate racism and xenophobia through media is not only antisocial and grossly irresponsible, it is well nigh criminal. The attitude of newspapers and broadcasters is a crucial element in race relations and opinion-forming on asylum seekers. This observation is not new and, sadly, neither are racist and xenophobic articles and reports new to newspapers.

The African National Congress, South African Communist Party and Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) could be in trouble for displaying racist placards at the court appearance of four men accused of feeding a former employee, Nelson Shisane, to lions. Outside the Phalaborwa magistrate's court in Limpopo province, they displayed printed posters proclaiming "Enough is enough - Kill the farmer, kill the boer"; "Tired with boers"; "Fed up with killer-boers"; and "Castrate boers". The South African Human Rights Commission last year declared the liberation slogan "Kill the boer, kill the farmer" to be hate speech.

Ten years after an orchestrated attempt to exterminate its Tutsi minority led to the deaths of up to a million people over the course of 100 days, the central African state of Rwanda still bears deep scars. The killings, organised by the Hutu government of the day, and carried out amid the total inaction of the international community, claimed up to 10 000 lives a day. The now ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which took power as a rebel group in July 1994, putting an end to the genocide, and its political partners have since placed much emphasis on national security, reconciliation and poverty reduction.

Thousands of Rwandans accused of participating in the country's 1994 genocide will be released from prison if they admit their guilt and ask for forgiveness before a deadline next month, the government said Monday. The tiny central African nation has been grappling with the question of justice since 1994, when Hutu extremists slaughtered 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates in around 100 days.

The effectiveness and efficiency of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights will depend on the appointment of highly qualified judges with a strong commitment to human rights, Amnesty International said in a document outlining a checklist of criteria to ensure the appointment of the best qualified candidates for judges. "The judges will be the most visible representatives of the Court. It is essential for the credibility and effective operation of the Court that judges of the highest calibre, with a fair representation of men and women from the main regions and legal systems of Africa, are elected," Amnesty International urged.

Along the Rwandan national highway there stands a tattered yellow sign caked in dirt and blackened by pollution. It reads “Muhazi Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration Camp, 300 Meters.” The narrow muddy road winds through plush green fields leading those willing to travel its path to a small patch of land lightly guarded by Kalashnikov - wielding Rwandan military personnel. Within the guarded perimeters of this small plot of land along the Rwandan-Congolese border, there lies a small makeshift camp with showers, dormitories, a kitchen, and a meeting hall. Black earth creeps onto everything, leaving dark smears on the walls of buildings and on clothing, even embedding itself in the cracks of calloused hands. It's mid August, around 3pm, already the sun's light is fading, and there is a chill in the air. The camp is the new home of the ex - Forces Armées Rwandaïses (FAR). These men and women were participants in the 1994 genocide. Forced out of the country and into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), they continued a life of ruthless violence. Many began military careers as children. Their stories are sometimes ones of unspeakable horror.

A negotiated settlement of the conflict in Darfur must be reached, says a briefing from the European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council, a privately-funded organisation that runs advocacy, education and media projects relating to Sudan. "International pressure must be brought to bear upon those external forces that have been fuelling the fighting. The humanitarian needs of those who have been displaced must be met until those affected are able to return to their homes. Khartoum must address the criminality and armed banditry that has undermined law and order in Darfur."

Individuals should not have to suffer all losses due to illness! Men, women and children are suffering with HIV/AIDS. We need to assure that these people are cared for, not discriminated against! We must provide funds for proper nutrition, housing and health care for these individuals to aid and contribute to their well-being. We need to get rid of the false perceptions and judgments. Like Doreen Millman said in Vancouver at the 1996 AIDS Conference in reference to how a 63 year old grandmother got AIDS. She said, "It just doesn’t matter!" Neither does an individual’s race, religion or sexual orientation matter! Don’t look for differences; look at how we can help one another.

I do not believe it is naive to think we can make the necessary changes, but rather it is naive to think that we can continue on our current course neglecting those who suffer from poverty, illness and disease. People are judging those who are sick, disabled and poor.

At the X1V International AIDS Conference 2002, Nelson Mandela said, “Stigma, discrimination and ostracism are the real killers.”

People living with illness are no different from anyone else, except for their disease. Prior to this, they were hard working people, contributing to society. Once sick, they are expected to do without and not have those things they had in their life before sickness! Why do we allow this?

Many people have nothing due to the lack of funding and the effort it has taken for them to survive through their illness. People should be entitled to the right to a quality standard of living, which promotes wellness and healing, not death and dying. There are people dying due to the stress on an already stressed and suppressed immune system. There is added stress due to a lack of funds available to support nutritional diet and good health. Proper nutrition is necessary for HIV infected individuals, as those who eat well feel better compared to those who consume a less than adequate diet. Malnutrition can compromise their ability to fight off infection. The stress that people are enduring while trying to maintain a home, food, and health is putting them at risk of continued health problems. This in turn means they are in greater need of medical attention! We should be making good nutrition a high priority in AIDS treatment!

My concern and disappointment is directed at the lack of consideration given to the present situation of poverty, poor nutrition, inadequate sanitation and housing for people living with HIV. These issues are of the utmost importance to individuals who are trying to maintain their health and living. The present situation is driving people below poverty, affecting their health and forcing them to live in standards no one would want to experience! People, who have worked and contributed to society, should not be subjected to living in inadequate conditions due to health and inability to work when diagnosed with a life threatening disease!

A call for action is necessary. The present situation dictates that these are vital necessities for people living with HIV/AIDS throughout the world! Since many people infected with HIV have neither the health nor energy to work towards creating awareness and change, it is my intention to speak through my experience for those whom I hope will benefit. Ignoring the importance of meeting these needs will bring an ever-increasing cost to our health care systems and us worldwide. A simple exercise in these directions and implementation would have an enormous impact on the fight against AIDS!

We are all here together, connected. Nothing is happening to just one of us, but affecting ALL of us! Illness and poverty can strike any one of us, at any time! What is happening affects us all. We can no longer look at others or view other places in the world where people are sick and dying and continue to neglect caring for them, without recognizing how it affects society. We have the means to provide all that is necessary, but we will have to work together to correct the global imbalance. The richer countries have a moral responsibility to help out poorer countries.

We have been warned by science that we are faced with an ever-increasing battle -- the battle against the bug! Every country is at risk of every disease. Here in North America, many people take for granted our quality of life, while others here and elsewhere in the world are faced with poverty, poor sewage and sanitation, famine, drought, environmental devastation and disease, along with millions of people dying. These are problems facing us all. These very same circumstances affect people in every part of the world. We cannot continue to allow millions to suffer and millions to die and expect we will not be affected.

We have to make the necessary changes and care for one another. If HIV and AIDS have not brought this realization, then surely West Nile, SARS, Mad Cow, Monkey Pox and Ebola are convincing enough! It is time to realize that it is only a matter of time before this major global epidemic will affect each and every one of us and that possibly, we will have to deal with some other new bug as well! This is happening already. Look at the impact of SARS and its effects on health care, travel, tourism, jobs, our economy and relationships with other countries. We would do well to pay attention and learn from the enormous poverty, illness and deaths worldwide caused by HIV/AIDS.

At the XIV International AIDS Conference in 2002, Nelson Mandela in his closing speech said, “AIDS is a war against humanity.”

There is no doubt this situation is going to have an enormous effect on all our lives. When will our eyes be opened to what is going on all around us?

At first glance, Dukwi looks like your usual African refugee camp, with children attending school, adults working in a weaving and tailoring project, neighbours chatting and babies playing happily in the mud. But probe deeper into Botswana’s only refugee camp and you’ll find that like no other place in the region, it captures the recent history of southern Africa in a nutshell. Dukwi refugee camp was once a place for exiles from countries like South Africa and Zimbabwe to meet and discuss strategies for a liberated southern Africa. The camp boasts former residents who are prominent leaders in the region today. Today, the camp is still home to some 3,500 people, the largest groups being 1,200 Namibians from the Caprivi Strip and 1,200 refugees from Angola. The rest come from elsewhere in Africa – Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, with a few cases from Kenya and Tanzania.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has backed the proposed refugee bill saying it could turn out as an international model of a good refugee law. Erika Feller, the agency's director for international protection, said the bill was a good innovation because it touched on almost all the important aspects of refugee protection. "It is very positive in the way it integrates gender and gender persecution as a ground for refugee status. This is something we have advocated for long. It is positive on family related issues. It's very positive on the right and responsibilities of refugees, it absolves and expands the definition of a refugee," she told The New Vision.

Internally displaced Eritreans continue to suffer the consequences of war and drought, resulting in inadequate fulfilment of basic needs such as food, water, health care, shelter and education, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported. OCHA said the country still had 58,953 internally displaced persons (IDPs), living in and outside camps and unable to return to their places of origin. "Although much has been accomplished to assist these IDPs, many basic needs are not yet fully met. A continuous effort is required to avoid a deterioration of the situation," it said.