A U.N. court trying the masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide jailed a former military chaplain for 25 years on Friday for sexual assault and killing ethnic Tutsis who sought sanctuary at a seminary. Emmanuel Rukundo is one of two clergymen the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) indicted for their role in the 100-day slaughter in which troops and Hutu militia butchered 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.

The World Bank will give a $100 million emergency grant to help cash-strapped Democratic Republic of Congo pay essential bills and teachers' salaries, the Bank said on Friday. The World Bank proposed the emergency funds earlier this month after the country's mining sector was hit by the financial crisis and foreign reserves dwindled to just $36 million, down from more than $225 million last April.

The National Executive of the MDC will meet Friday afternoon to discuss ongoing violations of the unity deal, that brought their party and ZANU PF into the shaky coalition government. On Tuesday Mugabe unilaterally announced the appointment of ministerial permanent secretaries without consulting the MDC. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his Deputy Arthur Mutambara then convened a press conference Wednesday to declare the appointments null and void.

A $5.3m United States Agency for International Development funded project in sub-Saharan Africa is seeking to further raise cassava production on farmers' field by 30 per cent in seven African countries. The project with the theme: “Unleashing the Power of Cassava in response to the food price crisis (UPoCA),” aims to maximize the utilization of cassava to address food price crisis in Nigeria, DR Congo, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Tanzania.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative in Sudan has called on all parties to immediately cease the fighting which erupted today in the southern town of Malakal, stressing the need to ensure the safety and security of civilians in the area.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has dispatched a senior United Nations political aide to Madagascar, following a request from the Government for a more active role by the world body in dealing with the political tensions in the Indian Ocean island nation.nAssistant Secretary-General Haile Menkerios, who had been sent to Madagascar in early February to assess the situation, was travelling with Mr. Ban in Africa when he was asked to return to the country to continue the UN’s good offices work there.

Corruption is an endemic cancer that has devastated African societies and impoverished millions. According to the Africa Union (AU) around $148 billion are stolen from the continent by its leaders and civil servants every year. The 2006 Forbes’ list of most corrupt nations had 9 out of the first 16 countries coming from Africa.

The government should address the failings in the 2008 parliamentary elections and ensure that the resounding victory of the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) does not translate into further restrictions of civil and political freedoms, Human Rights Watch has said. In a 45-page report, "Democracy or Monopoly? Angola's Reluctant Return to Elections," Human Rights Watch documents how the MPLA-dominated National Electoral Commission (CNE) failed to perform as an independent oversight body in those elections.

French authorities have frozen Gabon President Omar Bongo's bank accounts. The move comes after a Bordeaux court ordered President Bongo to return a payment made to him to release a jailed French businessman, Rene Cardona. The BBC's Charles Mayard in Paris says it is the first time French authorities have frozen the accounts of an acting head of state.

Ex-Malawian President Bakili Muluzi has appeared in court accused of stealing $11m (£7.7m) in donor money. Mr Muluzi was charged on 80 counts of allegedly siphoning aid cash into his private account. The 66-year-old was arrested earlier after turning himself in to the Anti-Corruption Bureau in Blantyre.

A UN report has urged developing countries to move away from selling their natural resources and concentrate instead on manufacturing. The report, titled ``Industrial Development Report 2009'', was launched by the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) Tuesday. It stated that ``selling raw materials leads to insecurity and does little to ease poverty for the `bottom billion - those living on less than US$ 1 a day''.

The trial of WOZA leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu on charges of disturbing the peace is set to resume today in Bulawayo Magistrate’s Court. In the meantime, five WOZA activists have spent the night in custody in Harare Central Police Station. More information on both these stories will be made available soon.

Africa may be bracing for a commodities bust, but the still-rich investors of the Persian Gulf are doubling down here. Through the worst of the global financial crisis in recent months, Gulf investors have committed to pouring billions of dollars into sub-Saharan Africa. The timing comes just as recessions in much of the developed world, and sharply slowing growth almost everywhere else, threaten most other cross-border investment flows.

Five members, four women and one man, will spend the night in Harare Central
Police Station tonight following their arrest this morning whilst trying to hand
in a petition to the Minister of Education. Lawyers from Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights have not been allowed access to their clients so the details of
what they will be charged with are not known. Food has been allowed in to the
group this evening (Feb 25).

We would like to inform you about the decision taken by the EC-UN Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JM&DI) to extend by two weeks its call for proposals’ deadline. This Call for Proposals was launched at the Migration for Development Fair the 3rd of December 2008. It targets civil society organizations and local authorities. The new deadline is now March 27 2009, 12:00 Brussels time.

Sokwanele's ZIG Watch project has been documenting violations of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed between Zimbabwe's three main political parties. Through this article, Sokwanele aims to familiarise our readership with sub-clause 18.5(j), one of ten sub-clauses falling under Article XVIII of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed on September 15th 2008. Article XVIII of the GPA sets out to ensure the security of all Zimbabweans and to prevent future political violence.

cc The Chair of the Panel of Eminent African Personalities, His Excellency Kofi Annan, today [24 February] warned that further delays in establishing a tribunal to try those accused of post-election violence committed in Kenya in 2008 could have grave consequences for the country’s reform agenda, upon which Kenya’s stability and prosperity depend.

cc President Marc Ravalomanana and beleaguered mayor of Antananarivo Andry Rajoelina – the two protagonists in the Malagasy crisis – have finally met. Thus the crisis that escalated into violence and which has left hundreds dead since 26 January seems to be headed for a negotiated settlement. But for Malagasy writer Jean-Luc Raharimanana, the blood that has been shed must not be washed away by yet another period of political games and treachery. The ‘Great Island’ must move away from the political vagaries that have plagued it since independence, the author writes.

cc The July 2008 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Zimbabwe African Nationalist Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) offered the first glimmer of hope in resolving the longstanding crisis in Zimbabwe. With the signing of the MoU, the parties began to negotiate a settlement to the crisis under the mediation of Thabo Mbeki, the then South African president. However, it is still unlikely that the current negotiations will lead to a political transition in Zimbabwe. The current regime will remain in power and block meaningful efforts at accountability for past violations. Though a political transition remains highly unlikely any time soon, it is important to consider the form that transitional justice could take in Zimbabwe if ZANU-PF were to lose political power. This essay discusses what shape transitional justice could take if some form of transition were to occur, while recognising the immense challenges to this becoming a reality.

LIMITATIONS OF NEGOTIATED TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE

cc and is reproduced here with permission.
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http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/421/54418_Monica_Nyeko_tmb.jpg… her approach to writing and her family’s response to her success, Shailja Patel interviews the 2007 Monica Arac de Nyeko.

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