This report from the International Crisis Group, analyses the frozen border conflict between two states who fought a major war in 1998-2000 and recommends an approach to overcome the stalemate. Following Ethiopia’s refusal to accept virtual demarcation of the border by the now defunct Ethiopia-Eritrea Boundary Commission (EEBC), Asmara unilaterally implemented it and forced out the UN peacekeeping mission (UNMEE), significantly raising the stakes and shattering the status quo.

The Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) expressed their deep concern over the confrontation between the armed forces of Eritrea and Djibouti that began on June 10. The PSC urged the two countries to commence dialogue to resolve the dispute and to withdraw all forces, that have been positioned since February 4, from the border. The PSC also thanked Djibouti for their cooperation with the AU mission and requested that Eritrea do so. Further, an AU team led by former Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah will be sent to Zimbabwe to observe the presidential run-off election due to be held June 27. The AU expressed concern over violence and intimidation during the electoral preparations and called for effective measures to address the situation. In addition, prominent African leaders, including former heads of state, business leaders, academics and leading campaigners, have also called for an end to violence and intimidation in Zimbabwe. They stressed the need for every citizen to be able freely express their political choice in a peaceful and transparent manner. Still in peace related news, the AU has been called to intervene in Darfur by sending between 5000 to 10000 troops instead of the 3000 present there in order to stop an apparent genocide.

The People’s Republic of China, one of Africa’s newer investors, has reiterated its stance that it has no intention of colonizing or exploiting Africa as is being speculated by western countries. According to Ms. Wang Ke, Counsellor of the African Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China considers ‘African countries as friends and wants to build partnership based on trust, sincerity, equality, mutual support and common development’. Despite China’s energy-reliant and booming economy, the country holds under two percent of Africa’s oil. Also in economic news, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) seeks to create a pan-African board to attract more investors in Africa but its main peers, the Nigeria Stock Exchange and Nairobi Stock Exchange have responded unenthusiastically calling the decision politically unsound.

In development news, African environmental ministers called on the AU to adopt a common position on climate change at its 13th summit in 2009, ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit in December that year. The ministers agreed that a common strategy on climate change will help persuade developed countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by between 25 to 40 percent by 2020. One of the consequences of climate change is the current food crisis in the world. In East Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have announced budgetary measures to alleviate some of the burden of soaring food prices on their respective populations.

African experts on slavery are meeting in Banjul, Gambia in an effort to create a common position on slavery. During the transatlantic slave trade, more than 13 million Africans were captured and enslaved and four million other killed in the transit. Also in human rights related news, a draft proposal for the merger of the African Human Rights Court and the African Court of Justice will be presented during the AU Summit in Egypt.

Finally, while welcoming partnership with Europe, Libyan president Col. Muammar Gaddafi has opposed plans for a Mediterranean Union saying that it would harm efforts towards Arab and African unity.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/383/48864market.jpgEric Holt-Gimenez looks at the FAO Food Security Summit in contrast to the parallel “Terra Preta” meeting organized by social movements, Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and civil society organizations to discuss issues of food sovereignty.
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The FAO’s recent Food Security Summit held in Rome 1-4 June called for more free trade, more Green Revolutions, more direct food aid and more investment in agriculture to stem the growing global food crisis. The issue of agrofuels—the original reason for holding the conference in the first place—was effectively taken off the agenda by the United States. did world leaders address the root causes of the food crisis.

In a parallel meeting called “Terra Preta” organized by social movements, Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and civil society organizations, and supported by the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty, a “People’s State of Emergency” was called for. In a statement on the World Food Emergency called “No More Failures-as-Usual!” activists demanded governments accept responsibility in creating the food crisis:

“Historic, systemic failures of governments and international institutions are responsible. National governments that will meet at the FAO Food Crisis Summit in Rome must begin by accepting their responsibility for today’s food emergency… The emergency today has its roots in the food crisis of the 1970s when some opportunistic OECD governments, pursuing neoliberal policies, dismantled the international institutional architecture for food and agriculture. This food crisis is the result of the long standing refusal of governments and intergovernmental organizations to respect, protect and fulfill the right to food, and of the total impunity for the systematic violations of this right among others. They adopted short-term political strategies that engineered the neglect of food and agriculture and set the stage for the current food emergency.”

THE AGRA MEMORANDUM

The Terra Preta statement identifies the Green Revolution as one of the causes of the current crisis, and condemns the call for a “new” Green Revolution in Africa:

“We reject the Green Revolution models. Technocratic techno-fixes are no answer to sustainable food production and rural development. Industrialised agriculture and fisheries are not sustainable.”

Drawing from the here

These statements fly in the face of the “Memorandum of Understanding” signed by UN agencies and AGRA that claim the new Green Revolution will “significantly boost food production in Africa’s “breadbasket regions.” The strategy of the new AGRA-UN memorandum is to increase yields in Africa’s most productive regions to offset low yields in other areas. While this may appear on the surface as a new idea, it is actually quite old (like most of the ideas floated at the Food Summit). In fact, the original Green Revolution’s strategy was to seek impressive gains in production by concentrating their efforts on regions that were already high-producing, like India’s Punjab. This not only led to a displacement of poor farmers by rich farmers, it caused severe environmental problems.

Today, the Punjab has the world’s highest [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/381/48822egyptfree.jpg“When the Egyptian people speak out against poverty and an inert government, human rights abuses follow.” Mustafa Adam-Noble looks at the various ways that suppression in Egypt is growing.
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Ever since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981, Egypt has been governed under Emergency Law: 27 years worth of “emergencies” constitutionally designated for use only when facing a direct threat, such as a military invasion or a natural disaster. The law, which is supposed to be used in exceptional circumstances, has become the permanent method of governance in Egypt. Interestingly, President Hosni Mubarak has been the country’s ruler for all those 27 years.

Having survived several assassination attempts, it is perhaps no surprise that Mubarak has been reluctant to govern with normal laws. However, hundreds of thousands have been imprisoned during his rule, with 18,000 still held. The regime’s style of law enforcement constitutes jailing large groups of “suspects” in the hope that someone amongst the prisoners will be culpable. Under the rule of Emergency Law, anyone can be arrested without charge or evidence against them.

Alexander Weissink, a Radio Netherlands journalist with a specialty in Egyptian affairs, interviewed Mahmoud Qutri, an ex-Egyptian police colonel and author of books on Egyptian constabulary abuses. Qutri stated: “The police has tried for 27 years to work with a carte blanche. Outside of the state of emergency they would suddenly find themselves obliged to do real investigative work to find evidence, instead of rounding up suspects and use violence to force confessions out of them...That is about the last thing they want.”

A recent survey has found that Egypt’s government workforce of 6 million spends an average of just 27 minutes a day working. In addition to a malign vacuum of legal procedure, the absence of a government work ethic further sidelines the course of justice throughout the country’s population of 75 million.

Since the assassination of Sadat by al-Gama’a al-Islamya (the Islamic Group), the government has locked up 50,000 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood despite the lack of direct links between the Brotherhood and al-Gama’a. The Muslim Brotherhood has a far less violent ideology, and Al-Gama’a was in fact formed after the Brotherhood “renounced violence” in the 1970s. Al-Gama’a was behind the 1997 Luxor attacks in Egypt that killed 62 civilians, most of whom were tourists.

The crackdown on the two Islamic groups by President Mubarak has been brutal and far-reaching. Amid the unjust sweeping arrests, some attacks were probably prevented. However, the lack of accurate, evidence-based police action caused the imprisonment of thousands of people; the majority of whom were innocent and some of whom were tortured.

Human rights organisations continue to condemn the abuse and suppression of the Egyptian people.

During his 2005 electoral campaign, President Mubarak promised to stop the imprisonment of members of the press. In 2007, he jailed eleven journalists for “insulting” him and his party.

Also in 2005, Mubarak vowed to finally end the state of emergency. On 26th May 2008, he issued a verdict extending Emergency Law for yet another 2 years.

During the same elections, police blocked voters from casting their ballots for the Muslim Brotherhood - the only feasible opposition to the current regime. With poignant determination, some voters were forced to enter a polling station through its back window using a ladder, in defiance of police station closures.

Prime minister Ahmed Nazif summarised the superficial self-promotion of debunked government policy, stating: “The storm of terrorism blows strong around us and our enemies lie in wait.” Such poetic rhetoric of fear has become the justification for a farcical legal system and endemic human rights abuses.

Recently, on the 9th of June, eight thousand Egyptians protested against the government’s decision to end flour rations. Eighty-seven have been arrested so far.

Many similar protests occurred in 2007 and 2008, centring around the massive and rapid rise in the cost of living in Egypt (a 50% increase according to the latest count, with inflation at 20%). Further, millions of Egyptian workers do not have job contracts or social insurance; meaning that they have no rights to minimum wage, holidays, or compensation for job injuries.

Forty percent of people live on less than $2 a day and doubling food prices have left almost half of the population undernourished. This is taking place while the Egyptian government receives nearly $2 billion in aid from the US; the highest recipient of its kind after Iraq and Israel. Egypt has also gained another $2 billion this year in revenues from the Suez Canal, one of the world’s busiest trade routes.

When the Egyptian people speak out against poverty and an inert government, human rights abuses follow.

The government has openly declared its intention to suppress free speech when it issued warnings that any other demonstrators will lose their jobs. More gravely, the threat of imprisonment and serious maltreatment is ever-present.

Mubarak and his government are also considering blocking Facebook after 80,000 young Egyptians were mobilised in April 2008, protesting rising food prices. A blogger and activist who helped organise the protest was recently released after being jailed and allegedly tortured.

Even amongst the seriously ill, the brutality of the regime is acutely demonstrated. Sufferers of HIV were arrested and chained to their hospital beds for months before an international outcry in February 2008 pressured the Ministry of Health to have them unchained.

In a display of hypocrisy, a gay man was arrested because of his sexual orientation in May 2001 and was subsequently raped by one of these guards. He was arrested along with 51 others before being set free following pressure from both the US and the EU. Two years later, the courts put the men on trial again and, this time, were able to pass down prison sentences.

The authorities have forcefully used their power over the legal system to fulfil their aims in other instances. According to Radio Netherlands, in February 2007 forty members of the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested on suspicion of terrorism. Civil courts repeatedly dismissed their case because of a lack of evidence. Mubarak intervened and transferred them to a military tribunal where they were condemned to serve sentences ranging from two to ten years.

In an interview with the Inter Press Service, Ayman Aqeel, head of the Cairo-based Maat Centre for Constitutional and Legal Rights, said: "Egypt doesn't need an emergency law or new anti-terror legislation," he said. "Proposed anti-terrorism laws will only represent another means of restricting our freedoms. Normal laws, and the penalties they carry, should be enough to deal with any crime."

Mubarak and his government must take a step back and look at the landscape that they both have created in Egyptian society.

Continued violations of basic human rights that attempt to break the spirit of the Egyptian people in order to fulfill a political agenda are shameful crimes.

Much needs to change before Egypt can progress beyond its current flailing state. The government must find a way to use incentives in their bureaucracy to both protect the public and prosecute real perpetrators. This can eventually help develop the country under normal laws and do away with the “state of emergency”.

The suppression of freedom of speech and the systematic abuse of prisoners throws the country into a vicious cycle that diminishes tolerance and progressive attitudes.

With economic realities worsening and the ability to survive becoming more difficult, Egyptians will continue to protest and it will become harder and harder for Mubarak to silence the masses.

?*Mustafa Adam-Noble is a political commentator.

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

Foreign nationals displaced by xenophobic violence and sheltering in a temporary camp near Cape Town, South Africa, have threatened mass suicide to draw attention to their plight. Soetwater camp, 30 km south of Cape Town, has become home to over 4,000 foreign nationals displaced by the violence that has driven tens of thousands from their homes and left over 60 dead.

An estimated 100 people were killed and thousands fled their homes in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, over the weekend following renewed fighting between Ethiopian troops and insurgents, local sources told IRIN. Another 200 people were reportedly wounded in the clashes, which started on
19 April, hospital sources said.

Many Sudanese refugees are pushed into considering voluntary repatriation if only because surviving in Egypt is tough. Mideng Mebai, waiting at the Waqf Culture Centre for Sudanese refugees in Ain Shams, is one of them. According to the Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA), an NGO promoting the legal protection of asylum seekers and refugees, Egypt hosts the fifth-largest urban refugee population in the world, mainly concentrated in Cairo and Alexandria.

United Nations new report has revealed shocking children rights violations perpetrated by Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and insurgents. A report shows that children rights violations ranges from murder and rape to their recruitment as child soldiers and also denial of humanitarian access to those in need.

The international community has condemned the military aggression and use of arms in this week's border clashes between Eritrea and Djibouti, which killed nine Djiboutian soldiers and wounded over 60 in three days. Increasingly isolated Eritrea is blamed for the aggression. The United States' State Department this night condemned the violence, saying the hostilities represent an additional threat to peace and security in the already unstable Horn of Africa.

Rival Sudanese leaders have signed a "road map" to defuse a conflict over oil-rich Abyei region, agreeing for the first time to international arbitration to draw borders. Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, and Salva Kiir, the country's first vice-president, leaders respectively of north and south Sudan, signed the agreement on Sunday. The new plan includes setting up an interim administration for the region and the return of people displaced by the conflict.

Rebel fighters in Chad say they have launched a new offensive in the east of the country and called on European powers to press Idriss Deby, the president, for a political settlement. The fighters intend to march on the capital Ndjamena, Abderaman Koulamallah, a spokesman for the National Alliance, said on Thursday.

At least 21 of the 62 people who died in the recent xenophobic violence were South African citizens, government communications head Themba Maseko said on Thursday.
The inter-ministerial task team had reported to Cabinet at its meeting on Wednesday, and indicated that 62 people lost their lives during the senseless violence, he told a media briefing at Parliament.

Organisations have called upon the African Union (AU) to revise and swiftly adopt its draft Convention for the Prevention of Internal Displacement and the Protection of and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons in Africa.

Considering the multiplication of assassinations, arbitrary arrests and detentions of political opponents as the run-off of presidential elections in Zimbabwe draws near, as well as threats, intimidations, and numerous hindrances to the human rights defenders’ work, the ACHPR condemned the human rights violations perpetrated in this country, urged the authorities to ensure the free access for candidates to the media.

A month ago, 47-year-old Catarina Manungo was the owner of a two-bedroom house in Boksburg, where she lived with her four children and a grand-daughter. A few short weeks later, Manungo and her two youngest children find themselves living in a tent in the Maputo neighbourhood of Matola Garre.

Relative stability in the border province of South Kivu is encouraging Congolese refugees to return home, but some face problems once they get back – especially over land. Land is at the heart of many disputes and confrontation between returnees and those who never fled, as well as between returnees, be they refugees or internally displaced people.

Displaced HIV-positive children who start antiretroviral therapy can do as well as children who start anti-HIV drugs in politically stable settings, according to a small study conducted in northern Uganda and published in the May 31st edition of AIDS. But the investigators note that maintaining good outcomes in their population is likely to be challenging, particularly because of population movement.

About 1,400 displaced people are living in the village of Kamba Kota in the north of the Central African Republic in terrible health and security conditions after fleeing attacks by armed bandits on their villages, according to a report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The Burundi government and the rebel Palipehutu-FNL on Wednesday committed themselves to lasting peace through the Magaliesberg Communique, on the Burundi Peace Process. The Group of Special Envoys on Burundi, with Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula heading the facilitation team, welcomed the commitment of both parties to build confidence and move the peace process forward.

Government is considering declaring a national day of healing to enable the nation to pay its respects to all those who lost their lives during the recent attacks on people from other countries. The day will not be a public holiday, but a normal working day.