The second item is about Gambia....

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 16:47:21 +0000
From: Charlotte Utting <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [WASAN] FW: AF Digest 10/10-#2



----------
From: [log in to unmask]
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 12:59:52 EDT
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: AF Digest 10/10-#2

UN's Annan asked to plan for peacekeepers in Sudan

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 10 (Reuters) -  The U.N. Security Council asked
Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday to plan a peacekeeping mission in
Sudan if combatants sign a comprehensive agreement ending 20 years of civil
war.

In a British-drafted statement, the council, at a public meeting, asked
Annan to "initiate preparatory work" on how the United Nations could support
implementation of a peace pact.

U.N. officials anticipated that plans might call for several thousand troops
and several hundred military observers.

The Sudanese government and the southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation
Movement resumed talks in Kenya on Tuesday aimed at ending Africa's longest
civil war, which has cost the lives of some 2 million people.

On Sept. 25, they reached a key agreement on how to deploy their armed
forces during a six-year transitional period.

In broad terms, the civil war pits rebels from the mostly animist and
Christian south against the Islamist government in the north. The conflict
is complicated by other issues including oil, race and ethnicity.

The United States is also considering removing Sudan from its list of "state
sponsors of terrorism" if the government reaches a peace agreement with
southern rebels.

The United States, Britain and Norway form a "troika" of advisers on Sudan.

In July 2002, the government and the rebels reached a deal known as the
Machakos Protocol, under which the government accepted that inhabitants of
the south could vote for self-determination after six years.

"The Security Council looks forward to the successful conclusion of a
comprehensive peace agreement, based on the Machakos Protocol," the
council's statement said.

France earlier in the week had hesitated because it first wanted to see a
U.N. peacekeeping operation in the West African nation of Ivory Coast, where
French soldiers are helping to quell violence, diplomats said.

The United Nations has fielded troops in nearby Sierra Leone and Liberia,
but has left Ivory Coast, part of the same conflict, to the French.



10/10/03 12:14 ET
-------------------
Suspected penis snatcher beaten to death in Gambia


BANJUL, Oct 9 (Reuters) - A 28-year-old man accused of stealing a man's
penis through sorcery was beaten to death in the West African country of
Gambia on Thursday, police said.

A police spokesman told Reuters that Baba Jallow was lynched by about 10
people in the town of Serekunda, some 15 km (nine miles) from the capital
Banjul.

Reports of penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, with purported
victims claiming that alleged sorcerers simply touched them to make their
genitals shrink or disappear in order to extort cash in the promise of a
cure.

The police spokesman said many men in Serekunda were now afraid to shake
hands, and he urged people not to believe reports of "vanishing" genitals.
Belief in sorcery is widespread in West Africa.

Seven alleged penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs in Ghana in
1997.



10/09/03 14:56 ET
---------------------
Campaign Launched to Regulate Arms Trade

By THOMAS WAGNER
.c The Associated Press

LONDON (AP) - For farmers in Uganda, AK-47 assault rifles are used instead
of spears. In Somalia, weapons are so common that some children are named
``Uzi'' or ``AK.'' In countries such as Iraq, there is more than one gun per
person.

These findings were included in a report released Thursday by Amnesty
International, Oxfam and another group as they launched a campaign in more
than 50 countries aimed at controlling what they call a dangerously
unregulated global arms trade that routinely allows weapons to reach
repressive governments, human rights abusers and criminals.

The report said the possession of increasingly lethal weapons is becoming an
integral part of daily life in many parts of the world. It also said that
the U.S.-led war on terror, launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in
the United States, has ``fueled weapons proliferation rather than focusing
political will on controlling arms.''

Increasing numbers of arms are being exported, especially by the United
States and Britain, to newfound allies such as Pakistan, Indonesia and the
Philippines, regardless of concerns about human rights abuses and widespread
poverty there, the report said.

``Governments preoccupied with a search for nuclear, biological and chemical
weapons in their fight against terrorism have essentially ignored the real
weapons of mass destruction: small arms,'' said Rebecca Peters, director of
the International Action Network on Small Arms group, which joined Amnesty
and Oxfam in the initiative.

The ``Control Arms'' campaign - launched by the three groups at news
conferences around the world Thursday - focuses on promoting a new
international treaty covering arms transfers, as well as a number of
regional and local measures designed to limit arms proliferation and misuse.

The groups began a petition drive aimed at gathering 1 million signatures
supporting their draft international Arms Trade Treaty, which they hope to
have adopted by the United Nations and its member countries by 2006.

As part of that campaign, the groups displayed 300 model gravestones in
Trafalgar Square in central London, each containing the slogan ``one person
every minute killed by arms.''

The report said more than 630 million small arms are in circulation around
the world, more than one for every 10 people, and that someone is killed
through armed violence every minute, or more than half a million people a
year.

The report said existing national arms export controls are riddled with
loopholes. The result is the easy availability of arms, which increases the
incidence of armed violence, acts as a trigger for conflicts, and prolongs
wars once they break out. Increasingly, civilians are being targeted in such
attacks, the groups said.

Such conflicts and armed crime also often prevent international relief aid
from reaching those who desperately need it, said the report.

``The arms trade is out of control,'' said Barbara Stocking, the director of
Oxfam. ``It is a global problem with horrific local consequences, and it is
poor people who suffer most.''

She said an international arms trade treaty is needed to stop the flow of
arms to abusers and to help make the world safer. The groups also urged
governments to control national arms exports, brokers and dealers.

The draft Arms Trade Treaty was developed by the three groups and other
human rights and arms control organizations working with international legal
experts, the report said. The central aim is to provide a set of common
minimum standards for the control of arms transfers, based firmly on a
state's existing responsibilities under international law.

The groups urged Britain - which they called the world's second largest arms
exporter after the United States - to lead the way in supporting the
proposed treaty.

British Foreign Officer Minister Mike O'Brien said Britain has been at the
forefront of international arms control efforts and has a tough export
control system itself. But he praised the report about the misuse of small
arms and light weapons around the world, and he said such an international
treaty would be a worthwhile goal.

On the Net:

www.controlarms.org

www.amnesty.org

www.iansa.org

www.oxfam.org.uk



10/09/03 14:33 EDT
---------------------
Ethiopia, Eritrea border demarcation to go ahead


ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) - The demarcation of the disputed border
between Ethiopia and Eritrea will go ahead this month as scheduled despite
growing disagreements over the frontier, a U.N. official said Thursday.

"Mid-October is the date on which demarcation of the Ethiopia-Eritrea border
will start unless the boundary commission says otherwise," said Gaile
Sainte, spokeswoman for the United Nations mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a border war between 1998 and 2000 in which some
70,000 people were killed before the two neighbors signed the Algiers
Agreement to end the conflict.

Ethiopia has repeatedly challenged a decision by the independent
Ethiopia-Eritrea Boundary Commission to award the politically sensitive
village of Badme to Eritrea, leading to delays in demarcating the disputed
frontier.

Last month, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi wrote to the U.N. Security
Council asking it to establish an alternative mechanism to demarcate the
contested parts of the boundary.

The suggestion drew angry reaction from Eritrea, which called for the
international community to impose sanctions on Ethiopia.

The U.N. rejected Meles' request and asked Ethiopia to cooperate with the
boundary commission.

10/09/03 13:55 ET
---------------------
INTERVIEW-Commonwealth chief sees consensus on Zimbabwe

By Daniel Wallis

DAR ES SALAAM, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The secretary-general of the Commonwealth
said on Thursday he believed there would be an emerging view on how to
tackle Zimbabwe's suspension from the organisation at a December summit in
Nigeria.

The 54-nation Commonwealth of mostly former British colonies suspended
Zimbabwe for a year from March 2002 after the re-election of President
Robert Mugabe in a poll critics said was rigged.

The suspension was extended to December after no progress was reported on
alleged human rights violations.

Looking ahead to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in
Abuja, the organisation's secretary-general Don McKinnon told Reuters he
believed a consensus would emerge.

"I believe that when we go to CHOGM there will be an emerging view of how
this can go forward," he said in an interview in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

"But don't expect a magic bullet at CHOGM, it is a question of taking
forward positive engagement."

The Commonwealth's extension of the suspension drew strong criticism from
Zimbabwe's neighbour South Africa, which argued Mugabe had done enough to be
re-admitted to the organisation.

Zimbabwe is gripped by its worst crisis since independence from Britain in
1980, with record unemployment and inflation, and shortages of fuel and
foreign currency.

Dozens of people were arrested in the capital Harare and two other cities on
Wednesday after they tried to march in protest against soaring prices,
despite tough new security laws.

Zimbabwe's 79-year-old president has blamed the crisis on opponents of his
land redistribution policy, which he says is meant to correct a colonial
injustice that left most of the country's best farm land in the hands of
minority whites.

New Zealander McKinnon said there was no question of Zimbabwe taking part in
the summit.

"Because they are suspended, as is Pakistan, they just don't get considered.
President (Olusegun) Obasanjo's role is to invite people on behalf of the
whole Commonwealth, which means he can only invite people who are current
members."

Pakistan was suspended after a military coup brought President Pervez
Musharraf to power in 1999.

Although attempts by the Commonwealth to call for political dialogue,
national reconciliation and what it calls genuine land reform have failed so
far in Zimbabwe, McKinnon said he still hoped to bring the country back into
the organisation.

"We are obviously wanting to engage and wanting to progress the engagement
to a point where people feel comfortable about Zimbabwe coming back into the
Commonwealth."



10/09/03 13:43 ET
-----------------------
S.Africa parks get biggest land boost in 70 years


JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa said on Thursday it had
added thousands of acres of new land to its national parks, the biggest
single addition to the network in 70 years as its ecotourism industry booms.

The 299,000 acres of new land, much of it purchased from farmers, will be
added to seven of the country's 21 national parks, Environment Minister
Valli Moosa told a news briefing.

Moosa said South Africa now reaps more economic benefit from ecotourism than
agriculture -- a huge plus in a country which suffers from a jobless rate
over 30 percent and abject poverty.

"Ecotourism has ... proved to offer greater economic returns, employing
about 30 percent more employees than pastoral agriculture and twice the
average salary...Tourism remains (South Africa's) fastest-growing industry,
contributing about 11 percent of GDP," he said.

Land is an emotive issue in South Africa, where the black majority was long
restricted to marginal areas, leaving most of the best farming areas in the
hands of the white minority. As a result, South African policy-makers say
conservation areas must pay for themselves, especially in the face of a
rapidly growing population that is mostly poor.

Moosa said South Africa was aiming to increase the proportion of protected
land to eight percent from 5.44 percent by 2010. About 6.6 million hectares
of land is currently under government protection, half of that in the
national parks.

If privately-owned preserves are included, about 10 percent of South
Africa's land surface is currently protected. The government is also aiming
to expand its marine-protected network to 30 percent of the coastline from
17 percent.

10/09/03 10:49 ET
--------------------
U.N. body urges Africa don't miss out on GMOs


ADDIS ABABA, Oct 9 (Reuters) - A U.N. regional organisation urged African
states on Thursday not to miss the opportunities offered by genetically
modified organisms (GMO) to increase food production and end the hunger
affecting millions on the continent.

"The biggest risk for Africa would be to do nothing and let the
biotechnology revolution bypass the continent," said a paper by the Addis
Ababa-based Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) presented at a conference
on sustainable development.

"Africa, which depends heavily on agriculture, stands to benefit from
technologies that can increase the production of food, enhance its
nutritional quality and minimise the exploitation of forests and marginal
lands," it said.

Some southern African countries showed reluctance to accept GM foods last
year despite suffering food shortages, citing safety concerns.

The ECA paper also warned that the use of GMOs could have harmful effects
unless precautions were taken in its application.

Many African and European countries are wary of GM foods, saying they
suspect they are unsafe and the planting of GM grains will harm the
environment. Industry says GM foods make for cheaper and greener farming.

The paper noted other regions were seizing the opportunity presented by the
new technology.

"China, India and Indonesia are already planting millions of acres of
genetically modified cotton," the paper said. "Other Asian countries,
including Japan, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia are earmarking
significant resources for private and government-sponsored research on
biotech crops."

It suggested among other things the establishment of an African-focused
biotechology research programme, a regulatory institution for risk
assessment and increased investment in modern biotechnology research.

10/09/03 06:44 ET
---------------------
Ethiopia distributes malaria drugs to stop epidemic


ADDIS ABABA, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Ethiopia began distributing anti-malaria
drugs on Wednesday to three regions threatened by a massive epidemic,
officials said.

Malaria, a major killer in Ethiopia, is prevalent in 75 percent of the
country and around five million cases are reported annually, according to
the Health Ministry.

But heavy rains on top of severe drought has increased the risk of a
devastating epidemic this year because malnutrition has left millions even
more vulnerable to the disease than usual.

"This year we face the risk of a massive malaria epidemic, which could
severely hit women and children already vulnerable after the drought and the
resulting humanitarian crisis," the UNICEF representative in Ethiopia Bjorn
Ljungqvist said.

The three regions are Southern Nations and Nationalities and Peoples
(SNNPR), Oromia and Amhara, in the south, centre and north of the country
respectively.

Ethiopia is suffering its worst drought in two decades and the country
estimates that 13.2 million people of the 67 million population are at risk
of starvation.

Heavy rains increase the risk of malaria because mosquitoes breed in
stagnant water.

The government, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF and the World Health
Organisation (WHO) plan to start an emergency malaria taskforce to address
the threat of an impending epidemic, UNICEF said.

An outbreak in the north of the country killed over 4,000 people during the
summer. A local official said last month that many had died because of a
lack of anti-malaria medicine.



10/08/03 13:28 ET
---------------------
Mediators try to repair troubled Somalia talks


NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) - Mediators trying to restore government to chaotic
Somalia sought Wednesday to end a boycott of peace talks by a group of
faction leaders protesting alleged interference by powerful neighbor
Ethiopia.

"All efforts will be deployed to persuade those leaders who are away to
return to the conference," said a statement by the chief mediator, veteran
Kenyan diplomat Bethuel Kiplagat.

"Efforts are being made to bring Somalis together to resolve what
differences still divide them," Winston Tubman, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan's special representative for Somalia, told Reuters.

On Sept. 30, two of Mogadishu's toughest warlords led 12 southern Somali
political groups in quitting the yearlong peace talks in Kenya and set up a
so-called Somali Salvation National Alliance in order to organize a rival
peace conference.

Some members of the group are uneasy at what they see as Ethiopian attempts
to dominate the talks and any government it produces for Somalia, which has
been without central authority for 12 years.

Somalia has been torn by war since the overthrow of military ruler Mohammed
Siad Barre in 1991 and since then conflict and famine have killed hundreds
of thousands of people.

Ethiopia, the dominant power in the Horn of Africa and Somalia's traditional
foe, denies interfering but says it has a key interest in ensuring an end to
Somali militia mayhem.



10/08/03 09:37 ET
--------------------------
FEATURE-Specter of Somalia haunts U.N. role in Iraq

By William Maclean

MOGADISHU, Somalia (Reuters) - Charred engine parts overgrown by cactus are
all that remain today of two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters downed by Somali
gunmen a decade ago. Looters were quick to turn the aluminum chassis into
household utensils.

Lying by a wall in a Mogadishu street, the wreckage is ignored by
pedestrians too preoccupied surviving Somalia's continuing anarchy to care
about its momentous origin in a failed U.S.-backed U.N. effort to rebuild
their country.

Ten years on, does similar insignificance await the U.S. attempt to enlist
the United Nations in reconstructing Iraq?

Somalia provides cautionary lessons for the world body, still smarting over
U.S. attempts to cast it as the scapegoat for a disastrous foray into the
African country in the 1990s.

"The (Somalia) mission was doomed because the United States essentially set
the U.N. up for failure," wrote U.S. analysts Walter Clarke and Jeffrey
Herbst in a study of the mission.

"The U.S. leadership simply ducked the problems that logically flowed from
the decision to intervene and then get out of Somalia as quickly as
possible. The U.N. then was left to confront the problems raised by the
American intervention and inevitably found the going to be quite rough."

Now the United States plans to ask the world body to mandate a U.S.-led
multinational force to help rebuild Iraq amid growing guerrilla opposition
to the U.S. military presence there.

But potential contributors such as India and Pakistan have insisted on a
strong U.N. mandate before they send troops to joint U.S., British and other
soldiers in Iraq.

"THEY KILLED US"

Their caution stems from memories of mostly failed U.N. peace operations in
the 1990s and in particular the UNOSOM II intervention in Somalia, which
remains mired in controversy because of the U.S. military's prominent role.

"We fed them. They grew strong. They killed us," one U.S. soldier bitterly
observed to reporters as the mission ended.

In reality most killing was done by U.S. and U.N. forces.

U.S. forces gunned down thousands of civilians including women and children
in a failed hunt for a renegade clan leader, and then were withdrawn by an
alarmed U.S. administration after one particularly tough battle horrified
U.S. public opinion.

A generation of U.N. officials still winces at subsequent U.S. efforts to
pin the blame for Somalia on the world body, pointing out that in fact
American forces battling militiamen were at all times under direct U.S.
military command.

"Much, though not all, of that went wrong in Somalia during UNOSOM II was as
a result of decisions made by U.S. commanders," wrote author William
Shawcross in a study of U.N. peacekeeping.

"Giving the U.N. mission a political mandate without control over the
military forces on the ground is where it went wrong in Somalia," said Tim
Ripley of the Centre for Defence and International Security Studies at
Britain's Lancaster University.

Iraq is not Somalia. Iraq's big oil reserves and geographic position give it
a strategic importance that impoverished Somalia can never match and any
U.S. leader weighing involvement must take account of correspondingly bigger
risks and rewards.

In Iraq, religious confession guides some political loyalties. In Somalia,
it has no such role. Clan loyalty is important in both countries but in
Somalia it is fundamental to social identity.

The importance of clans and warlords' ability to manipulate them were not
fully apparent to outsiders when in December 1992 the United Nations
authorized the United States to deploy tens of thousands of troops to
prevent mass starvation.

In this phase, U.N. and American interests appeared to coincide and perhaps
100,000 people were saved from starvation by humanitarian workers protected
by a powerful U.S.-led force of troops from a handful of mostly rich
nations.

In May 1993 UNOSOM II took over -- most of the troops from developed
countries went home and were replaced by often ill-prepared soldiers from 31
mostly poor countries.

Some U.S. troops stayed on but quickly found themselves locked into fighting
with local warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed.

On June 5, 1993, 23 Pakistani soldiers were killed in fighting with Aideed's
forces. From that moment, the imperative was to find Aideed, and for the
first time since the Korean war, Shawcross says, U.N. forces were ordered to
conduct military operations against an enemy identified by the Security
Council.

In July U.S. forces attacked a private home hoping to find Aideed and
instead killed dozens of men, women and children.

On Oct. 3 two Black Hawks were shot down and 18 U.S. special forces killed
in a battle that ended any U.S. appetite for further involvement. Television
images of U.S. corpses being dragged through the streets horrified the
American public.

U.S. forces were gone six months later. UNOSOM left in 1995.

10/10/03 08:00 ET
------------------------
This posting is provided without permission of the copyright owner for
purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship, and research under the "Fair
Use" provisions of U.S.Government copyright laws and it may not be
distributed further without permission of the copyright owner.  The sender
does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the message, which is the
sole responsibility of the copyright .





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/DKgolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Next WASAN meeting is Wednesday, September 24, 2003. Location: Safeco Jackson Street Center, E Main St, between 23 & 24th, Suite 200.
7:00 pm Business meeting.
7:30 pm African film, followed by a discussion.
(Everyone is welcome).

We usually meet the fourth Wednesday of the month. For a calendar of local Africa events see http://www.ibike.org/africamatters/calendar.htm .  To post a message: [log in to unmask]  To subscribe send a message to [log in to unmask]  To unsubscribe send a message to [log in to unmask] . All past postings are archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wa-afr-network

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~