As peace talks resume, the Khartoum government is violating the cessation of hostilities agreement it signed 15 October 2002 with the SPLA rebels and reaffirmed on 4 February 2003. Government forces and government-sponsored militias are attacking the Western Upper Nile oilfields in an effort to dislodge the SPLA and expand oil development. The primary victims are civilians. The fighting does not immediately threaten the peace talks. The International Crisis Group says if this grave breach is not challenged by the international community, however, it will set a precedent that the parties have no reason to take other parts of the peace process seriously, including any final agreement and accompanying international guarantees.

Somalia's peace talks are in danger of collapsing and need stronger leadership from mediators, the international community and Somali factions themselves. A serious problem is that faction leaders and civil society representatives are self-appointed, with real risk that the negotiation will produce another "government in exile" unable to provide a working administration inside the country that represents popular will, says the International Crisis Group.

The United States and the European Union have a special responsibility to pull the United Nations Commission on Human Rights back from the brink of disaster, Human Rights Watch says. The annual meeting of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights is due to begin on Monday, March 17. Several of the world's worst rights violators are now among its 53 members, Human Rights Watch said.
Related Link:
* Protests mar human rights forum
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2855737.stm

This paper examines the welfare outcomes of migrants and non-migrants in Ghana in the years 1991/2 and 1998/9 using nationally representative survey data. The results reveal that migration is a common feature of household behaviour in Ghana in both years, with over 50% of individuals migrating at some point within their lives.

Uganda has warned Rwanda against fighting a "proxy war" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This follows a Rwandan threat to send its troops back into DR Congo unless Uganda also withdrew.

Just 16 years old, Francine Afsa has lived more than a quarter of her life in this refugee camp in western Tanzania. She has been here with her parents, nine brothers and two sisters since 1999, having already spent a short time in Tanzania as a refugee in 1996 when a Tutsi-led rebellion broke out in her homeland, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, formerly Zaire). She regards her future in the camp bleakly: "It will get worse and worse. There is no hope for my life. I'm like someone who's in jail."

Amnesty International is urging all candidates in Nigeria's upcoming presidential, federal and state elections to commit themselves publicly to place the prevention of human rights abuses during elections at the heart of their electoral campaigns.

The leaders of five Portuguese-speaking nations are to hold talks on Friday on elections in Guinea-Bissau, amid international concerns over the fairness of the polls. The meeting has been called in Luanda by Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who is head of Palop, the five-nation Portuguese-language community.

The convoy of Gani Fawehinmi, a candidate in next month's presidential election, has been attacked as he returned home after a campaign. He said that the gang of four machete-wielding men asked for him by name but he was in a different car to the one attacked. Mr Fawehinmi, a human-rights-lawyer-turned-politician, is one of 19 challengers to President Olusegun Obasanjo in next month's election but correspondents say he is unlikely to win.

Survival has recently been labelled a 'terrorist' organisation by a senior figure in Debswana, De Beers's Botswana subsidiary. In a BBC interview Dr Akolang Tombale, who is both permanent secretary in Botswana's Ministry of Mineral Resources and Water Affairs, and deputy Chairman of Debswana, accused Survival of being a 'terrorist organisation', and of doctoring the government's own mineral concession maps.

About 100 people from the Anti-War Coalition (AWC) gathered outside Denel in Kempton Park on Friday to demonstrate against the state-owned arms company's supply of military equipment worth millions of rands to Britain and the United States, which could be used in the war against Iraq.

An attempt to hold peace talks between the presidential peace team and rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has failed. This is the second time peace talks have failed to take place recently. This has led to question marks over the future of efforts to end the 17-year war.

Central African Republic rebel leader General Francois Bozize has suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament after his forces captured the capital, Bangui. The rebels, who are estimated to number about 1,000, apparently met little resistance from government forces when they marched into the capital on Saturday.

The Anti-War Coalition has called for the “broadest possible democratically minded forces to register strong protests against the likely slaughter of innocent men, women and children in Iraq”.

All parties involved in the renewed combat in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo must prevent killings and other abuses of civilians by their troops, Human Rights Watch says. “Many military operations in this area have turned into slaughter of civilians or other kinds of abuses, like rape, torture and pillage,” says Alison Des Forges, senior adviser to the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch.

Ari Ben-Menashe, the key State witness in the MDC treason trial, allegedly blew the US$97 600 (Z$5 368 000) paid by the MDC to his company to hold in trust. Defence lawyer Advocate George Bizos said Ben-Menashe was, therefore, not a credible witness.

It is evident that a strong case can be made that militia in Zimbabwe are a significant threat to peace and security and furthermore that a strong prima facie case can be made for the militia's deployment being state-condoned and state-controlled, according to a new report, 'The role of militia groups in maintaining ZanuPF's political power'.

An assessment conducted by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the government of Uganda has revealed that over 31 percent of children, under five years of age, are suffering from acute malnutrition in Anaka camp for displaced people, located in Gulu district, northern Uganda.

Khosa Xaba joined the African National Congress (ANC) women's league as a student to fight against apartheid. But her fight for racial and social justice did not stop with the dismantling of the racial system which denied Blacks their human rights. The next fight on her agenda was the discrimination met by black women in accessing reproductive health services. "When apartheid was dismantled, we used the opportunity to bring to the public that black women were unable to access the services," says Xaba who worked with the Women's Health Project in South Africa.

Over a four-week period that began on 18 February, every Nigerian aged 18 years and above is required to register for a national identity card. According to officials of the Department of National Civic Registration, which is in charge of the programme, at least 60 million Nigerians are estimated to be eligible for registration. The main objective of issuing identity cards to Nigerians, according to the government, is to create a national database of information, that will aid effective government.