Local and municipal elections in Benin passed off without evidence of fraud but with some functional problems, the head of a regional observer team said on Wednesday. Moussa Tapsoba, leader of the monitors from the Economic Community of West African States, singled out in particular the lack of ballot papers and other materials.

The International Journal of Transitional Justice (IJTJ) is pleased to announce the introduction of a Journal Fellows Programme aimed at increasing the publication and dissemination of pieces from south-based transitional justice practitioners and scholars. The Programme will provide the opportunity for five applicants to develop their writing, analytical and comparative content skills through a short training workshop followed by a one year e-mentorship by leading scholars and practitioners in the field globally as well as the IJTJ Editorial team.

Two oil exploration companies recently said the discovery of an estimated three billion barrels of oil is set to propel the country into the league of the big African oil producers when production starts in 2010. Some 18.2 percent of Ghana’s 22 million people are deemed “extremely poor” by the UN as they live on less than a dollar a day, struggling to access basic social services like health, water and education.

After living in Ethiopia for 14 years, Reak Chuol recently returned to his native Southern Sudan, keen to take part in a population census whose findings could influence the status of the region. “I am not sure why, for two days now, my family have waited for the enumerators to count us but we have not seen them,” he said in Malakal, Upper Nile State. “If they were short of people to employ, they should have recruited more.”

John Holmes, the UN's top humanitarian official, has called on all parties in the Somali conflict to protect civilians amid an increasing trend of indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force against the general population in contravention of international humanitarian law. “Combatants appear to have little regard for the safety of civilians in Mogadishu, where residents have been traumatised by years of violence,” he said in a statement issued on 24 April.

After years of delays the Mali national cotton company, Malian Company for Textile Development (CMDT), is on the verge of privatisation with bids for tender just sent out, but the World Bank which backs the privatisation is worried none of the right conditions are in place to make it work.

Heads of state and governments of the 14-member Southern African Development Community [SADC] have resolved their commitment to eradicate poverty "in all its manifestations and dimensions." The SADC leaders outlined their commitment in the Mauritius Declaration adopted in Port-Louis at the end of the regional summit on poverty and development.

Kenya's rival leaders have embarked on a joint tour of the areas of the country worst affected by violence which followed their battle over disputed elections.
Mwai Kibaki, the president, and Raila Odinga, Kenya’s prime minister, urged ethnic reconciliation as they visited areas in the Rift Valley on Thursday.

Armed riot police raided the headquarters of Zimbabwe's main opposition party on Friday and detained scores of people in the biggest crackdown on the MDC since elections last month, officials said. The Movement for Democratic Change says it defeated President Robert Mugabe in the March 29 elections as well as ending his party's 28-year hold on parliament.

Europe is negotiating new trade deals with African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries. A true partnership in trade could radically transform the lives of one-third of all people living in poverty, providing farmers and small businesses with sustainable incomes and workers with decent jobs. But Europe is choosing power politics over partnership. Through analysis of the goods, services, investment, and intellectual property chapters of texts concluded last year, this paper draws attention to aspects of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that put future economic development at risk and puts forward positive policy prescriptions.

Ivory Coast's political parties signed an agreement on Thursday to shun violence, promote fair voting and respect the outcome of a presidential election scheduled for November 30 in the West African nation. Witnessed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the signing of the good conduct code was the latest step towards a national poll that is aimed at unifying the world's top cocoa producer after a 2002-2003 civil war that split the nation.

Malawi's opposition party on Thursday endorsed the country's ex-leader Bakili Muluzi as its candidate for next year's presidential election. He won a landslide victory in a United Democratic Front (UDF) convention over the country's Vice President Cassim Chilumpha. The results were read out on Muluzi's Joy radio. Muluzi is likely to face incumbent President Bingu wa Mutharika, whose economic reforms have won praise from Western donors.

African National Congress (ANC) leader, Jacob Zuma has continued his calls for the immediate release of Zimbabwe's presidential results, saying the delays were now unacceptable. This position is far from president Thabo Mbeki's who keeps lenient regarding the crisis.

For centuries, Western governments and business interests have viewed the African continent as a source of natural resources ripe for extraction. While states and other dominant actors in the global North have made linking the exploitation of the region’s unmatched natural wealth to human development a public relations standard practice, the economic benefits of mining and other resource industries still flow overwhelmingly away from the African people. This study looks at oil in the Niger Delta.

The Reporting Skills and Professional Writing Handbook (2nd Edition) is a self-study programme based on the best of 10 years' experience working with INGOs, NGOs, GOs and IOs over hundreds of training courses. It's available on CDROM
for convenient desktop study, and, for larger organisations, the Trainer Edition is supported by a complete Training Pack.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have today (April 24) issued a joint statement in support of the strong voice of fellow bishops in Zimbabwe. They have called for greater efforts on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe who are "left even more vulnerable to conflist heaped upon poverty amd the threat of national disintergration. It is therefore crucial that the international community act to bring a mediated settlement to this political crisis so that the social and economic and spiritual crisis of the country can be addressed."

Development dialogue: Education in the New South Africa The DBSA Advisory Unit and Knowledge Facilitation Centre invites you to a viewing and discussion session on the movie ‘Testing Hope: Grade 12 in the New South Africa’, a documentary film by Molly Blank. When: Wednesday, 21 May Time: 10:00 – 13:00, followed by lunch Where: DBSA Auditorium 1258 Lever Road, Midrand RSVP: to [email][email protected] or 011-3133615, by May 15.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/365/47646slum.jpg Abahlali baseMjondolo, the South African shackdwellers' movement reminds us in this statement and call to action that the structures of apartheid are still thriving in South Africa.

On Sunday it will be Freedom Day again. Once again we will be asked to go into stadiums to be told that we are free. Once again we will not be going to the stadiums. We will, for the third time, be mourning UnFreedom Day. Since the last UnFreedom Day we have been beaten, shot at and arrested on false charges by the police; evicted by the land invasions unit; disconnected from electricity by Municipal Security; forcibly removed to rural human dumping grounds by the Municipalities; banned from marching by the eThekwini City Manager; slandered by all those who want followers not comrades; intimidated by all kinds of people who demand the silence of the poor; threatened by new anti-poor laws; burnt in the fires; sick in the dirt and raped in the dark nights looking for a safe place to go the toilet.

We have also opened an office with a library, launched many new branches, opened new crèches, successfully taken Ricky Govender and the eThekwini Municipality to court to stop evictions, taken the province to court to overturn the Slums Act, marched on Glen Nayager and Obed Mlaba, defended all of our members arrested for standing strong in the politics of the poor, organised in support of people struggling elsewhere, received powerful solidarity from other movements and some churches and thought and discussed how to make our own homemade politics, our living politics, into paths out of unfreedom.

It is clear that no one should tell someone else that they are free. Each person must decide for themselves if their life is free. Each community must decide on this matter for themselves. In each community women and men, the young and the old, the people born there and the people born in other places must decide on this matter for themselves.

In our movement we have often said that we are not free because we are forced to live without toilets, electricity, lighting, refuse removal, enough water or proper policing and, therefore, with fires, sickness, violence and rape. We have often said that we are not free because our children are chased out of good schools and because we are being chased out of good areas and therefore away from education, work, clinics, sports fields and libraries. We have often said that we are not free because the politics of the poor is treated like a criminal offence by the Municipalities while real criminals are treated like business partners. We have often said that we are not free because the councillors are treated like the people's masters instead of their servants. We have often said that we are not free because even many of the people who say that they are for the struggles of the poor refuse to accept that we can think for ourselves.

We have often asked that our settlements be humanized, not destroyed. We have often asked that city planning be democratized. We have often asked for an end to wasting money on stadiums and themeparks and casinos while people don't have houses. We have often asked that democracy be a bottom up rather than a top down system. We have often asked the Municipalities and the police to obey the law. We have often asked for solidarity in action with our struggles. We have often offered and asked for solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe and Haiti and Turkey and in all the places where the poor are under attack.

But freedom is more than all of this. Freedom is a way of living not a list of demands to be met. Delivering houses will do away with the lack of houses but it won't make us free on its own. Freedom is a way of living where everyone is important and where everyone's experience and intelligence counts. Every Abahlali baseMjondolo branch and every settlement affiliated to Abahlali baseMjondolo in Durban, Pinetown, Pietermartrizburg and Tongaat has had a meeting to discuss the ways in which they are not free and has written a letter to the whole movement explaining why they are not free. Many new and important issues have been raised. These letters are being collected into a pamphlet that will be distributed and discussed at UnFreedom Day. We invite everyone who wants to think about Freedom and UnFreedom in our country to attend our event.

We welcome the participation of Christian Aid from Wales who have come to learn about our struggle

We welcome the participation of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, our comrades in struggle who are driving all the way from Cape Town to be with us.

We welcome the participation of Bishop Reuben Phillip and the other clergy who have bravely stood with us in difficult times.

At this time we express our solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe suffering terrible oppression in their own country and terrible xenophobia in South Africa. We also express our solidarity with the people battling eviction in Joe Slovo and Delft in Cape Town and the whole Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign as well as the Landless Peoples' Movement and all organisations, big and small, standing up for the right to the city, the humanisation of the rural areas and for justice for the poor across the country. We also express our solidarity with the 1 500 people left homeless in the Jadhu Place settlement on Sunday morning after another of the fires that terrorize our people. We condemn the attempts of the City & the Province to misuse this fire, as the flood in the Ash Road settlement in Pietermaritzburg was recently misused, to advance their shack 'elimination' agenda. We will resist this. We will resist all attempts to turn settled communities into transit camps.

We salute the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union and Bishop Reuben Philip for their active solidarity with the Zimbabwean people. We call on others to follow their example. We call on all clergy to stand with the poor. We call on the South African Municipal Workers' Union to refuse to carry out any instructions to evict the poor from the cities. We call on the Police and Prison's Civil Rights Union to refuse to carry out any orders to assault and arrest the poor for exercising their democratic rights to protest. Solidarity in action is our only hope.

No Land! No House! No Vote! Land & Housing in the Cities! Bottom Up Democracy not Top Down Rule by Councilors!

The rally - Time: 9:00 a.m., Sunday 27 April 2008
Venue: Community Hall, Kennedy Road Shack Settlement, Clare Estate, Durban

*For information or comment please contact: Mr Mnikelo Ndabankulu, Abahlali baseMjondolo Spokesperson, 0797450653 or Ms Zodwa Nsibande, Abahlali baseMjondolo Organiser, 0828302707. You can also visit

**Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/365/47645cross.jpgAs the shepherds of the people, we, Church leaders of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ), the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC) and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), express our deep concern over the deteriorating political, security, economic and human rights situation in Zimbabwe following the March 29, 2008 national elections.

Before the elections, we issued statements urging Zimbabweans to conduct themselves peacefully and with tolerance towards those who held different views and political affiliation from one’s own. After the elections, we issued statements commending Zimbabweans for the generally peaceful and politically mature manner in which they conducted themselves before, during and soon after the elections.

Reports that are coming through to us from our Churches and members throughout the country indicate that the peaceful environment has, regrettably, changed:

Given the political uncertainty, anxiety and frustration created by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC’s) failure to release the results of the presidential poll 4 weeks after polling day:

- Organized violence perpetrated against individuals, families and communities who are accused of campaigning or voting for the 'wrong' political party in the March 29, 2008 elections has been unleashed throughout the country, particularly in the countryside and in some high density urban areas.

People are being abducted, tortured, humiliated by being asked to repeat slogans of the political party they are alleged not to support, ordered to attend mass meetings where they are told they voted for the 'wrong' candidate and should never repeat it in the run-off election for President, and, in some cases, people are murdered.

- The deterioration in the humanitarian situation is plummeting at a frightful pace. The cost of living has gone beyond the reach of the majority of our people. There is widespread famine in most parts of the countryside on account of poor harvests and delays in the process of importing maize from neighbouring countries.

The shops are empty and basic foodstuffs are unavailable. Victims of organized torture who are ferried to hospital find little solace as the hospitals have no drugs or medicines to treat them.

As the shepherds of the people, we appeal:

- To the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) to work towards arresting the deteriorating political and security situation in Zimbabwe.

We warn the world that if nothing is done to help the people of Zimbabwe from their predicament, we shall soon be witnessing genocide similar to that experienced in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and other hot spots in Africa and elsewhere.

- For the immediate end to political intimidation and retribution arising from how people are perceived to have voted in the March 29, 2008 elections and arising from the desire to influence how people will vote in the anticipated run-off in the presidential poll.

Youth militia and war veteran/military base camps that have been set up in different parts of the country should be closed as a step towards restoring the peace and freedom of people’s movement that was witnessed before and during the March 29, 2008 elections.

- To ZEC to release the true results of the presidential poll of March 29, 2008 without further delay. The unprecedented delay in the publication of these results has caused anxiety, frustration, depression, suspicion and in some cases illness among people of Zimbabwe both at home and abroad.

A pall of despondency hangs over the nation which finds itself in a crisis of expectations and governance. The nation is in a crisis, in limbo and no real business is taking place anywhere as the nation waits.

- To, finally, the people of Zimbabwe themselves. You played your part when you turned out to vote on 29 March 2008. We, again, commend you for exercising your democratic right peacefully. At this difficult time in our nation, we urge you to maintain and protect your dignity and your vote.

We urge you to refuse to be used for a political party or other people’s selfish end especially where it concerns violence against other people, including those who hold different views from your own. It was the Lord Jesus who said, 'Whatever you do to one of these little ones, you do it unto me' (Matthew 25:45).

We call on all Zimbabweans and on all friends of Zimbabwe to continue to pray for our beautiful nation. As the shepherds of God’s flock, we shall continue to speak on behalf of Zimbabwe’s suffering masses and we pray that God’s will be done.

We remain God’s humble servants:

The Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ)
The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC)
The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC)

*Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/365/47644muga.jpgThe Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations, supports the efforts of its colleagues in the Lwas Society of East Africa when it hosted an emergency consultation on ‘Africa Taking the Initiative on the Zimbabwe Election Crisis’ held in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania on 21st April.  The meeting brought together the finest African minds from over 100 civic and legal organisations from all over the continent. 
 
After lengthy discussions on the Zimbabwean situation it was concluded that, in spite of what President Mbeki and Minister Sgaoyoyo Magongo might find politically or personally expedient, it is most definitely a crisis.  In fact it is multiple crises of democracy, security, the rule of law, constitutionalism, independence, freedom of speech, safety of people, the role of the police and military and the death free and fair elections.  It calls Mugabe’s post election actions simply and clearly a military lead de facto coup d’etat.   

Three weeks delay in counting only the presidential vote is a crisis of due process.

Calling for a recount before the result of the count is announced is a crisis of free and fair election law.

Assaulting citizens and killing them on the basis of their vote is a crisis that goes to the heart of democracy – the secrecy of the vote.
Ordering a shipment of arms 2 days after the election in times of peace when no external aggression is present is a crisis of internal repression and of international law. 

We concur with the East African Law Society when we say that the Mbeki lead process has contributed to the greatest failure of all – the will of the majority of the long suffering people of Zimbabwe has been systematically and structurally stolen. 
 
We call on the AU to replace the SADC / Mbeki driven mediation process with one of the calibre that was appointed to address the recent problems in Kenya. 
We also call on the AU and its Commission on Human and People’s Rights to appoint special rapporteurs to investigate the horrific allegations that are coming from many independent and respected sources of planned and programmed human rights abuses. 

We also call on SADC, AU and the world to turn their backs on the so called Mugabe Government and not to recognise its legitimacy.  We call on a complete embargo on any form of weapons shipments to be imported to the country and we support the moral courage of the African Trade Unions in preventing the Chinese shipment from landing in Durban and Maputo. 
 
We finally call on our King Mswati III as he meets President Thabo Mbeki to use their collective influence to ensure that the legitimate will of the people of Zimbabwe to elect a government of their choice is restored and respected and reflects the true results of the 29 March elections. 

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org