An ambitious project to clear deadly land mines from a wildlife sanctuary in southern Africa is being launched in a bid to give thousands of elephants and local villagers new hope. The announcement was made during the Nairobi Summit for a Mine-Free World taking place at the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The $1 million project initially aims to clear mines, sown during the Angolan civil war, to help restore an ancient elephant migration route linking Botswana with Zambia and Angola.

Zimbabweans in the Diaspora who try to evade customs duty by not declaring exact contents of parcels and letters mailed to relatives and friends risk losing their valued goods, Bekhitemba Ncomanzi, the manager for Harare central sorting office, has said. Ncomanzi said the practice had resulted in valuable goods being lost or customers approaching ZIMPOST to claim goods that were never posted in the first place.

While the US government is stepping up pressure on states to sign bilateral agreements guaranteeing American citizens freedom from prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC), the conflict that divides the US from most of its Western partners has found a new forum for debate, according to a report by the International Justice Tribune, available in full on their website. While renewing the UN mandate in Burundi, the Security Council also acknowledged a UN report on the Gatumba massacre in which at least 152 Congolese Banyamulenge refugees were murdered in their transit camp at Gatumba, Burundi on August 13. In its resolution of 1 December, the Security Council "reiterated its strong condemnation of the Gatumba massacre". The US ambassador made it clear that he "supports the resolution based on the understanding that it in no way directs, encourages, or authorizes [the UN mission] to cooperate with or support the ICC".

The recent announcement by Ethiopia that it would accept "in principle" a ruling to end a simmering border dispute with Eritrea was broadly welcomed, but the complex issue of when and how the two countries can enter into dialogue to try and normalise relations still remains. Ethiopia had refused, until now, to respect an April 2002 ruling by the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, part of the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague. UN special envoy to the Horn of Africa, Lloyd Axworthy believes the international community should work to build on the momentum generated by the new pledge by Ethiopia.

The summit on a mine-free world ended in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Friday with delegates adopting a declaration renewing their commitment to rid the world of the weapons and endorsing a comprehensive five-year plan aimed at expediting the clearance and destruction of landmines.

Rwandan troops have invaded the Democratic Republic of Congo twice in the last decade. Press reports indicate that Rwanda troops have again crossed into Congo. Violence and instability in Congo have claimed the lives of three million people in the last five years and the dispatch of United Nations peacekeepers to eastern Congo has not brought stability to the region. Veteran Rwanda expert Alison Des Forges, a senior advisor to Human Rights Watch's Africa division and recipient of a 1999 MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, discusses current events in Rwanda and the Congo in a Q-and-A available on the website of Human Rights Watch. For further background on the situation in the Great Lakes, read the article 'Great Lakes: Yet another powderkeg?' available at: http://www.afrika.no/Detailed/6822.html and 'African Union may help disarm militias', available at http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44573

A report on the future of the United Nations, ordered last year by Secretary-General Kofi Annan , accurately diagnoses the sorry state of the UN Commission on Human Rights but proposes an inadequate cure, Human Rights Watch said. Among its key findings, the report highlights that the Commission suffers a serious problem of credibility that casts doubts on the overall reputation of the United Nations. The report, entitled "A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility" and prepared by an panel of eminent persons, notes that the Commission's most serious problem is that so many of its 53 member states are themselves responsible for serious human rights violations.

The Ugandan army announced on Wednesday it had deployed troops along the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) following reports of renewed activity by Ugandan insurgent groups based in eastern Congo. "We have made [a] precautionary deployment," Maj Shaban Bantariza, the army spokesman, told IRIN on Wednesday, "especially in areas we think are possible crossing points for some negative elements."

The resettlement of four million internally displaced peoples (IDPs) and refugees into southern Sudan faces a bleak future as disagreements over land emerge days to eventual peace signing. Now organisations working in the region are urging resolution and the immediate address of serious lack of social amenities to lure potential returnees back home.

The troubles in the Ivory Coast cast a long shadow over the 10th Summit of French-speaking countries (La Francophonie), which took place last week in the city of Ouagadougou, the capital of neighboring Burkina Faso. The summit leaders signed a resolution demanding that all sides in the conflict adhere to the terms of the French-brokered peace accord reached in January 2003 and that "the Ivorian authorities put an end to the incitements to hatred and violence circulated by certain media and to assure the protection of the foreign communities living in the country." Many observers now fear that the crisis has startling similarities to the events of Rwanda ten years ago, argues this commentary from the World Press Review.

Civil rights activists have joined a chorus of disapproval over a decision by the English cricket team to go ahead with a controversial tour to Zimbabwe which began at the weekend. Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the National Constitutional Commission, told IRIN on Tuesday that the visit was a "victory" for President Robert Mugabe's government, and would "embolden" the government to "continue with repressive policies" against its perceived opponents.

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has expressed concern that several countries that harshly crack down on use of the Internet are members of the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG), which met in Geneva from 23 to 25 November 2004, in the run-up to the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis. The organisation also noted that from 22 to 23 November, another repressive country, Syria, hosted a WSIS preparatory meeting organised to set up a "partnership to build an information society for the Arab world."

Applications are invited from persons living and working in Rwanda to participate in a distance learning course on ‘The role of the media in the genocide in Rwanda’.

The 1994 genocide in Rwanda provides a telling case study of two quite separate roles for media in a conflict situation. The genocide was among the most appalling catastrophes of the 20th century, and media played a significant part both internally and internationally. Prior to the genocide, radio stations and newspapers were carefully used by the conspirators to dehumanise the potential victims, Rwanda's Tutsi minority. During the genocide, radio was used by the Hutu extremist conspirators to mobilise the Hutu majority, to coordinate the killings and to ensure that the plans for extermination were faithfully executed.

While a series of terrible massacres of Tutsi were carried out and as the signs of ever-increasing violence grew, Rwanda was totally ignored by the international media. When the genocide came, the erratic media coverage largely conveyed the false notion of two ‘tribes’ of African ‘savages’ mindlessly slaughtering each other as they had done from time immemorial. As a result, there was little public pressure in the West for governments to intervene.

In this distance learning course you will study these two facets of the media role in the genocide in detail. You will see how easily the concept of free speech and free press in a local situation can be perverted for foul ends. We will ask how this dilemma could be resolved. We will explore the problem of inadequate or even distorted international coverage of crises and conflicts in areas poorly understood by Western journalists. We will consider whether this unfortunate situation can be improved in the future.

The course, developed by Fahamu for UPEACE, will be taught by Gerald Caplan, a Canadian-based public policy analyst and international coordinator of the "Remembering Rwanda" Project. He is also a public affairs commentator and author of "Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide," the report of the International Panel of Eminent Personalities To Investigate the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, appointed by the Organization of African Unity (OAU). He is presently co-editing a book on the Rwandan genocide ten years later.

The course has been developed for journalists and other professionals in the field of media, students of journalism, NGO staff and policy makers, and will lead to a certificate from the University for Peace.

This course is designed to take 10 weeks using an interactive CDROM containing all materials required for the course. You will be guided in your work by a course tutor via email. You will also have an opportunity to discuss your work with fellow students via email.

The course will include a workshop in which all students, as well as the tutor come together for several days of intensive work. There will be a final short period in which students will work independently and submit a final assignment. The topic for this assignment will be determined at the workshop.

Applications are invited from suitable candidates in Rwanda to attend the first course. The distance learning course will begin on 10 January, with a workshop to be held in Butare, Rwanda, on 15-17 March.

Please note that this is a pilot run of the course and that is why it is limited to Rwandan participants. Following the first pilot, the course will be fine-tuned and will be made available at a later date for broader participation from elsewhere in Africa.

Eligibility
Applicants must:
- Have good command of written and spoken English
- Have access to a computer with a CDROM drive (PC or Mac) for at least seven hours a week
- Have an email address (access to the WWW would be an advantage)
- Be living and working in Rwanda

Application process
Applicants should submit a letter, in English, of at least 500 words explaining why this course is important in their work, and motivating why they should be selected. They should submit a summary CV of no more than one page, and provide evidence from their employer/institution that they have access to a suitable computer. Applications should be sent by email only to Fahamu to: [email protected]. Applications should be received by 10 December 2004.

Fees
There are 15 places available. Since it is a pilot course, fees, and costs of attending the workshop in Butare will exceptionally be met by the University for Peace.

Incidents occurring in Zimbabwe in the month of September continue to reflect a lack of political tolerance, according to a political violence report from the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. The report said political victimization was relatively high around the opposition MDC's 5th year anniversary celebrations on 11 and 12 September 2004. The month of September also saw a rise in the number of displacements. The cases of displacements recorded in September were the highest since the beginning of the year and are attributed to farm evictions.

When the KANU government was voted out in December 2002 after almost 40 years in power, around 350,000 remaining internally displaced people (IDPs) regained hopes of returning to the land they had been forced to flee during the 1990s. However, the new government has not lived up to expectations that it would resolve the causes of displacement and resettle or compensate the IDPs.

This paper takes a sustainable livelihoods approach to understanding the relationship between migration and poverty, and it explores the effects of poverty on people's decision and ability to migrate. The paper argues that poverty and vulnerability have two conflicting effects on migration: by providing incentives to migrate, either as a strategy for livelihood diversification or out of destitution; but also by reducing the ability to migrate because the transfer costs involved, in terms of financial, human, physical and social capital, are too high.

As Somalia’s new government prepares to return and restore order after years of state collapse, the country’s 400,000 internally displaced people remain in a highly precarious situation, according to a new report by the Global IDP Project. Most of the displaced, some 250,000, live in the capital, Mogadishu, the most dangerous place in the country.

A New York court has thrown out legal cases against more than 30 companies, accused of having illegally aided the apartheid-era South African Government. The class-action lawsuits targeted firms including computer giant IBM and banking giant Citigroup. According to the plaintiffs, groups and individuals who suffered under apartheid, the companies supplied oil, money and technology to South Africa.

The Democratic Republic of Congo says it is sending thousands of troops to the border with Rwanda in response to heightened tension in the region. A spokesman for President Joseph Kabila says more than 6,000 troops will be deployed within the next two weeks. It follows unconfirmed reports that Rwandan troops crossed into DR Congo. Rwanda has repeated warnings that it is prepared to take military action against Rwandan Hutu rebels based across the border.

He was 8 years old. Just beginning the adventures of his life and enjoying what life offers such as playing ball with his mates. But one day, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels came and abducted him. He became a child soldier. One morning when duty called he responded and went to battle. And the young soldier now promoted to a sergeant, was thrown down by an enormous explosion that shook the ground beneath him. This is one of the stories from a new book by the Association of Volunteers in International Service (AVSI), “Restoring Survivors’ Hope” that unveils the dramatic life of mine survivors in northern Uganda, who have suffered the trauma of mines and war.