8.REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION

ETHIOPIA: ERITREAN REFUGEES TO BE MOVED FROM BORDER AREA
Thousands of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia are to be moved away from
the border area which separates the two countries, the UN told IRIN on
Thursday. The move follows increasing calls that the refugees, who fled
Eritrea during the bitter two-year border war, should be moved from the
Wa'ala Nihibi camp - some 20 km from the existing border - for their
"protection and emotional safety".
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=14466

ETHIOPIA: MAJOR RESETTLEMENT PROGRAMME UNDERWAY IN NORTH
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33302
A major resettlement programme for thousands of people is underway in
northern Ethiopia, despite a warning that facilities like water and
health supplies are not in place. Some 75,000 people are expected to be
moved from central Tigray to western areas of the region within the
next five months. Several thousand started moving in late February. The
aim of the move is to tackle widespread environmental degradation by
helping families move to more fertile lands.

KENYA: THE FORGOTTEN REFUGEES
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/04/05/1049459859544.html
If we are all starting to feel impatient about the war in Iraq after
two weeks, then try to imagine how the 83,000 refugees at the Kakuma
camp in north-west Kenya are feeling. Driven from Sudan, Somalia and
half-a-dozen other countries by war and famine, some have been waiting
for more than 10 years in this arid, remote region. The refugees at
Kakuma depend on the UN High Commission for Refugees for housing,
sanitation and schooling, and on the World Food Program for food. But
the cash-strapped UNHCR is struggling to provide a basic level of
services in the camp and the WFP is so short of food that it has cut
the daily ration to 75 per cent of the minimum calorie requirement.

LIBERIA: HUMANITARIAN AGENCIES ACCESS REFUGEE, IDP CAMPS
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33364
Humanitarian agencies have been allowed access to refugee and IDP camps
close to the Liberian capital, Monrovia, the United Nations Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its weekly
situation report of 1-7 April.

LIBERIA: UNHCR OPERATIONS SEVERELY HAMPERED
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33298
A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva
last Friday said the agency's operations for refugees from Cote
d'Ivoire in Liberia were now severely hampered by an upsurge of recent
fighting in eastern border regions.

SIERRA LEONE: RETURNEES HAVE ACUTE HUMANITARIAN NEEDS
http://www.db.idpproject.org/Sites/idpSurvey.nsf/wViewSingleEnv/
Sierra+LeoneProfile+Summary
Some 220,000 internally displaced Sierra Leoneans were resettled in
their areas of origin by the end of 2002, according to UN figures,
officially ending the situation of internal displacement in the country
and further consolidating its recovery after more than a decade of
devastating civil war. But many IDPs returned to areas with no basic
infrastructure or social services in place, creating acute humanitarian
needs and causing some to drift back to urban areas. Resettlement
assistance was only provided for registered IDPs, not for the many
thousands who were either unregistered, or who did not wish to be
resettled for various reasons. Homelessness in the urban districts of
Freetown has become a serious problem. This is according to the latest
update for the country by the Global IDP Project.

SOUTH AFRICA: NEW IMMIGRATION LAWS ENACTED
http://allafrica.com/stories/200304080482.html
South Africa's new Immigration Act has left too much discretion to
police and immigration officials, and criminalised ordinary job seekers
from neighbouring countries, the NGO Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR)
said on Tuesday. After several delays, amendments and last minute court
challenges, the legislation replacing the Aliens Control Act was
finally enacted on Monday evening.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: EFFECTIVE WAYS TO TACKLE TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN
http://www.malawihere.com/viewnews.asp?id=1828&recnum=5&catid=14
The effective way to tackle the growing menace of human trafficking in
Southern Africa is for governments to seize the assets of criminal
organisations involved in the practice, suggests an expert. "Targeting
the proceeds of crime is a very effective way of tacking syndicates,"
says Charles Goredema, a senior Researcher at the Johannesburg-based
Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

TANZANIA: PREVENTING HIV/AIDS TRANSMISSION FROM MOTHERS TO BABIES IN
REFUGEE CAMPS
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33337
In a small, poorly lit classroom in Mtendeli refugee camp, western
Tanzania, 20 Burundian and Tanzanian clinicians, midwives and HIV
counsellors were on the final day of a three-day training course. They
had been discussing HIV/AIDS and antenatal care, practising their
counselling skills and learning about the pharmacology of
anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs.
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9.RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA

NAMIBIA: WHITE APOLOGY TO 'REVIVE RECONCILIATION'
http://allafrica.com/stories/200304080145.html
Some members of Namibia's white population have begun a drive to
improve race relations in the country and will start with a public
apology for apartheid crimes. This emerged after representatives of the
churches, trade unions, business and a "reconciliation broker" briefed
President Sam Nujoma on the campaign.
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10.ENVIRONMENT

AFRICA: CRITICAL DECLINE IN GREAT APES
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=394737
More than half of Africa's chimpanzees and gorillas have disappeared in
the past 20 years, a steep decline that has alarmed scientists. One of
the most detailed surveys of the primates in their heartland of western
equatorial Africa has documented the crash.

AFRICA: MAKING A KILLING OR MAKING A LIVING
http://www.traffic.org/livelihoods/
This document discusses the importance of wildlife trade for many rural
livelihoods and the impact that wildlife trade regulations has on them.
The paper begins by outlining trade in wildlife which can occur both
nationally and internationally and takes many forms. It can generally
be said, however, that the trade remains largely undocumented and under
researched but that it is estimated to have a value of US$160 billion
and to flow, in the main, from developing to developed countries.

AFRICA: PLANET OF THE FAKES
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,861483,00.html
There are two planet earths. One of them is the complex, morally
challenging world in which we live, threatened by ecological collapse.
The other is the one we see on the wildlife programmes. Except for a
few shots of animals doing amusing things in people's gardens, and,
occasionally, an indigenous person, stripped of his T-shirt, wildlife
programmes present the natural world as a pristine wilderness,
unaffected by humanity, says this commentary from the Guardian UK.

BOTSWANA: PROJECT AIMS TO REDUCE DEGRADATION OF LAND
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33277
Productive land in Botswana is shrinking daily, but a new project aims
to arrest the degradation of rangelands and address the deep poverty
facing communities that depend on them. Botswana is one of three
African countries that will benefit from a US $13.4 million five-year
programme aimed at helping rural communities restore local plant life,
improve depleted soil and create new job opportunities. Kenya and Mali
are the other two countries to benefit.

LESOTHO: ACCUSATIONS OVER HIGHLANDS WATER PROJECT
http://allafrica.com/stories/200304070107.html
The Transformation Resource Centre (TRC), a non-governmental
organisation (NGO) monitoring the environmental and social aspects of
the massive Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), came under heavy
fire from the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) recently
during a formal inquiry into the complaints leveled against the Project
by the resettled and affected communities. The LHDA officials at the
inquiry threw verbal missiles at the TRC accusing it of creating
deliberate confusion and misunderstanding about the LHWP's compensation
policy in the minds of the communities affected by the project, which
sells water to South Africa.

UGANDA: POACHERS SHOOT DOWN SEVEN UGANDAN ELEPHANTS
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2003/2003-04-04-03.asp
Seven elephants have been killed by ivory poachers in Queen Elizabeth
National Park, the Uganda Wildlife Authority reports. The six adult
elephants and one calf were taken in the first poaching incident in
three years, wildlife officials said.
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11.MEDIA

AFRICA: INTERNET, MEDIA, AND FREEDOM OF EXPERESSION
Call For Applicants: Natali Prize For Journalism
www.ifj.org/hrights/lorenzo/inpr.html
The International Federation of Journalists recently announced that it
is accepting applications for the 2003 Natali Prize for Journalism. The
prize will be awarded in five regions: Europe; Africa; the Arab World,
Iran and Israel; Asia and the Pacific; and Latin America and the
Caribbean. The Natali Prize for Journalism rewards print and online
journalists for outstanding reporting on human rights issues,
especially within the context of the development process.  The
prestigious award carries a 10,000 Euro prize for each region's
winner.  The deadline for applications is May 31, 2003.

AFRICA: PRESS RESPONSE TO THE WAR IN IRAQ
http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/1022.cfm
"We have just seen on television images of the brutal way in which the
United states and Britain are murdering Iraqis....It must be said that
this war, of which no sensitive or sane person can be proud, is a
barbaric war," said an editorial in the Lusaka Post in March. Visit
this web page to read about how newspapers around the African continent
responded to the invasion of Iraq.

KENYA: NEW PRESIDENT SET TO FILE CHARGES AGAINST TWO LEADING NEWSPAPERS
Kenyan president Emilio Mwai Kibaki, who was elected in December 2002,
has instructed his lawyers to file contempt-of-court charges against
two private dailies. The charges stem from stories that appeared in the
March 31 editions of the independent East African Standard and the
Kenya Times about a court case filed against President Kibaki by the
local gas station chain Nyota Services Ltd. The company's owner alleges
that Kibaki and other senior members of the ruling National Rainbow
Coalition bought gas for their cars on credit and now owe the company a
total of 10 million Kenyan shillings.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=14427

LIBERIA: FOUR JOURNALISTS MISSING FOR PAST TWO WEEKS
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has called on the Liberian authorities
to search for four journalists who have been missing for more than two
weeks in the country's eastern and central regions, where government
forces are battling rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation
and Development (LURD) movement. The missing journalists are Grody
Dorbor, editor of "The Inquirer" newspaper, Oscar Dolo, Nyahn Flomo and
William Quiwea, all local correspondents for the radio station Talking
Drum Studio-Liberia.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=14423

NIGERIA: MEDIA URGED TO FORCE POLITICIANS TO DISCLOSE DONATIONS
The media in Nigeria should do more to exert pressure on politicians
and political parties to always publicise donations they receive. This
was the assertion of Abiodun Uwadia, a retired colonel and member of
the President Olusegun Obasanjo re-election campaign, in Ilorin. Uwadia
described money as an intrinsic part of democracy both in the developed
and developing countries, but explained that the alarm being raised in
Nigeria about the negative influence of money in the nation's politics
arose from the "unnecessary" secrecy in which politicians chose to
shroud such political contributions.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=14373

NIGERIA: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY URGED TO PASS INFORMATION BILL
The National Assembly has been urged to pass the freedom of Information
Bill before the end of its tenure. The call was made by the executive
secretary of the Human Rights Commission, Bukhari Bello, at a
roundtable in Abuja on the Bill which is pending before the National
Assembly. The Human Rights Commission has been paying advocacy visits
to a number of government organisations to drum up support for the
quick passage of the Bill.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=14376

SWAZILAND: NEW ATTEMPT TO MUZZLE THE NEWS MEDIA
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33381
Swazi Minister of Information Abednego Ntshangase this week announced a
new censorship policy for the state-owned electronic media, raising
concerns about the validity of a bill of rights promised in an upcoming
palace-written constitution.

TANZANIA: JOURNALIST REFUTES GOVERNMENT CHARGES OVER ILLEGAL CITIZENSHIP
http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=1125
The Editor of weekly "Dira" newspaper in the semi-autonomous state of
Zanzibar Ali Nabwa has vehemently refuted government charges that he is
not a citizen of Tanzania and that he has been living illegally in the
country since 1993.

TUNISIA: JAILED E-ZINE ACTIVIST HONOURED
PEN American Centre has named Zouhair Yahyaoui, a Tunisian Internet
activist whose popular electronic magazine earned him a 2-year prison
term, as a recipient of its 2003 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write
Awards. The awards, which honor international literary figures who have
been persecuted or imprisoned for exercising or defending the right to
freedom of expression, will be presented at PEN's Annual Gala on April
22, 2003 at the Pierre Hotel in New York City.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=14374

ZIMBABWE: REPORTING THE ELECTIONS - FREE AND FAIR?
Both the public and private media agreed that violence in the recent
Highfield and Kuwadzana by-elections was a cause for major concern in
the electoral process, but they differed on who the perpetrators were,
says the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe in its weekly update. The
public media accused the MDC of fanning violence and used isolated
incidents that broke out during the previous week¹s stay-away as
examples. Conversely, the private Press observed that violence against
ordinary civilians and those perceived to be opposition party
supporters by ZANU PF activists and security agents would render the
elections not free or fair.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=14375
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12.DEVELOPMENT

AFRICA/GLOBAL: MASS MOBILIZATION AGAINST THE WORLD BANK AND IMF
http://www.choike.org/cgi-bin/choike/links/
page.cgi?p=ver_informe&id=1096
Following the Monterrey conference on Financing for Development, a
number of official discussions are underway about changing the
governance regime of international institutions. Civil society
organisations and others have long pointed out that the World Bank and
IMF - whose 2003 Spring meetings are taking place in Washington DC on
12-13 April- wield enormous power over developing country governments,
yet have severe shortcomings in their legitimacy and effectiveness.

AFRICA: EFFECTS OF FINANCIAL GLOBALIZATION ON DEVELOPING COUNTRIES -
SOME EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=1122
This document reviews recent empirical evidence on the impact of
financial globalisation for developing countries. The paper attempts to
address three issues. Does financial globalisation promote economic
growth in developing economies? What is its effect on macroeconomic
volatility in these countries? What factors can help to harness the
benefits of financial globalisation.

AFRICA: FRUSTRATION AT LIMITED GOVERNANCE DISCUSSIONS
http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/topic/governance/g3314ifigov.html
In mid February high-level meetings were held in Washington DC to
examine proposals to reform the governance of the World Bank and IMF.
The next major discussions will be at the Bank/Fund Spring Meetings in
Washington on 12-13 April. Some limited capacity-building measures for
Southern Executive Directors may be announced, but there has been no
progress on more significant reforms. A serious effort to improve
Southern country voice at the institutions would require going far
beyond capacity-building to change the composition, voting shares and
transparency of the Bank/Fund Boards.

AFRICA: SENDING KIDS BACK TO SCHOOL/FIGHTING AIDS
http://www.jubileeusa.org/
jubilee.cgi?path=learn_more&page=SuccessStories.html
Tanzania is one of six countries to complete a debt relief program.
According to the World Bank, Tanzania received $3 billion in debt
relief. Tanzania has used the savings to increase education spending
and eliminate school fees for elementary school education. Almost
overnight, an estimated 1.6 million kids returned to school. Tanzania
is one of four African countries who have benefitted.

SIERRA LEONE: SIERRA LEONEANS EXCHANGE SMALL ARMS FOR DEVELOPMENT
SUPPORT
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
The disarmament and peace process in Sierra Leone is getting new
impetus from a pilot programme in four chiefdoms that encourages
communities to turn in small arms in return for support for local
development projects. The initiative will also strengthen national
weapons control measures. It builds on progress in disarmament since
the 1999 Lome peace accords and the Abuja ceasefire agreement the
following year that ended a devastating civil war.

SOUTH AFRICA: BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIODIVERSITY - KEY POLICY ISSUES FOR
SOUTH AFRICA
http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=1124
This article takes a step back from the policy issues surrounding
biotechnology and its role in development to present a broad discussion
of the biotechnology sector and its implications. The paper argues that
if biotechnology is to develop usefully, the risks involved with it
should be prevented.

THE HIPC INITIATIVE: EXPERIENCES OF IMPLEMENTATION IN AFRICA
http://www.afrodad.org/HTML/HIPC%20-
%20Experiences%20of%20implementation%20in%20Africa.htm
With the very high expectations of meeting the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) by 2015, one of the creditor-designed debt relief
initiatives, The Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative,
launched in 1996 by the IMF and World Bank, has failed to achieve the
promised objective of a ³robust exit from the burden of unsustainable
debts² for developing countries. As a potential source of development
finance, the debt relief through HIPC is not sufficient to guarantee
poverty reduction in these countries let alone meet some of the goals
of the MDGs. An analysis of key debt indicators shows that external
debt and debt-servicing problems and poverty have become most severe
and persistent in the heavily indebted poor countries, the so-called
HIPCs, says Afrodad, a research, lobby and advocacy organisation, in a
recent report.
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13.INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY

AFRICA: INTERNET IS NO REAL THREAT TO TRADITIONAL MEDIA
http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=1134
The Internet is not likely to replace traditional media in the
foreseeable future, according to SA's media owners. However, they say
the Internet and digital devices can offer significant value in adding
to the Œout of home' delivery of content. This emerged at an
International Communications Forum conference hosted by Telkom in Cape
Town.

AFRICA: THE REALITY OF E-COMMERCE WITH DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=1133
Business-to-business e-commerce applications are being promoted as
tools that will enable producer firms in developing countries to reduce
their costs substantially, thereby easing their access to global
markets. Internet-based business-to-business e-commerce, the argument
goes, should help producers in developing countries obtain better
information on global markets and give them direct access to new
customers.

DJIBOUTI¹S PRESIDENT ENDORSES NATIONAL DIGITAL STRATEGY
President Ismaïl Omar Guellah of Djibouti is supporting a national
strategy to move the country, strategically located on the Horn of
Africa at the mouth of the Red Sea, into the digital age by 2010 to
promote development and reduce poverty.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=14440

GENETICS TO UNLOCK SECRETS OF AFRICA'S PAST
http://www.scidev.net/
frame3.asp?id=0304200314051037&authors=Michael%20Cherry&posted=3%20Apr%2
02003&c=1&r=1&t=NB
Geneticists and archaeologists could soon be working together to
investigate the genetic diversity of our human ancestors in Africa, a
meeting on the 'Human Genome and Africa' was told last month. In
Europe, Neanderthal DNA has already been sequenced successfully. But
ancient DNA has not yet been extracted from African hominid fossils,
partly because very little organic material is preserved in African
fossils more than 10,000 years old, as preservation requires cool, dry
conditions.

GLOBAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY REPORT 2002-2003 - READINESS FOR THE
NETWORKED WORLD
http://annualmeeting.weforum.org/content/index.html
The Global Information Technology Report is the most comprehensive
assessment of networked readiness and its effects on economic growth
and productivity. As the world experiences an economic slowdown, the
report highlights that the use and application of information and
communication technologies remain among the most powerful engines of
growth.

NON-PROFIT ICT ERIDING LAUNCHES IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
In early April a group of highly skilled international ICT-consultants
called eRiders will start their journey to various countries inside
Southern Africa. Over the next four months, the eRiders will be
addressing the technology needs of over thirty non-profit organisations
in the SADC region.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=14468

THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET IN KENYA
http://www.eastandard.net/financialstandard/news/news04032003007.htm
It is nearly eight years since the Internet was first introduced in
Kenya. Though the technology is changing the way consumers and
businesses communicate, the number of dial-up subscribers is yet to hit
50,000. So if the technology is that revolutionary, what has prevented
the Internet from getting a mass market acceptance?

THE SECOND SUPERPOWER REARS ITS BEAUTIFUL HEAD
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/jmoore/secondsuperpower.html
The Internet and other interactive media continue to penetrate more and
more deeply all world society, and provide a means for instantaneous
personal dialogue and communication across the globe. The collective
power of texting, blogging, instant messaging, and email across
millions of actors cannot be overestimated. Like a mind constituted of
millions of inter-networked neurons, the social movement is capable of
astonishingly rapid and sometimes subtle community consciousness and
action. Read about the emerging second super power of online activists.

ZIMBABWE: BRIDGES.ORG SERIES ON ICT-ENABLED DEVELOPMENT: THE KUBATANA
PROJECT
http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=1131
The Kubatana Project manages Kubatana.net, a website portal that
provides Zimbabwean Civil Society organisations with an online presence
and a platform to voice their concerns about human rights abuses in
their country.
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