It was a nondescript sort of room, about 12ft by 9ft, and the windows at the top of one wall looked out onto flowerbeds, but the police paraphernalia lying around left Tom Spicer in no doubt as to why he had been brought there. Scattered about the floor and tables were pieces of leather, handcuffs and blindfolds.

The Refugee Eligibility Committee and the UN High Commissioner of Refugees are faced with over 1, 000 Rwandan refugees seeking political asylum in Uganda. The mainly Hutu ethnic Rwandans are currently camped in the southeastern districts of Kabale, Kanungu, and Kisoro.

Two army officers have been imprisoned in connection with the killing of some 173 people in Itaba, in the central province of Gitega, Net Press reported last Thursday.

The non-governmental organization Action by Churches Together (ACT) appealed on Thursday for US $1.6 million to provide emergency relief to at least 30,000 Liberians internally displaced persons, the organization reported.

The Ugandan army last week ordered civilians displaced by rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) attacks to return to government-protected camps.

A boycott by Mozambique's opposition Renamo party of planned celebrations last Friday to mark a decade of peace has been described as "regrettable" by ruling Frelimo.

The Swazi government could be facing a stark choice in coming weeks: it can either publish a democratic constitution or face international isolation. That was the message given to the UK-based Swaziland Solidarity Campaign (SSC) by officials within the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) this week.

Unarmed opposition and civil society groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) began informal talks last Friday with South African President Thabo Mbeki, aimed at finding common ground between them and the other belligerents in DRC's war.

Rightwingers behind a suspected plot to overthrow the government do not represent white opinion in South Africa, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said last Saturday.

The African National Congress and the New National Party announced moves to cement their co-operation pact on Saturday in apparent anticipation of them jointly taking control of a number of municipal councils.
Related Link:
ANC claims Cape Town
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The Sudanese government and southern rebels have agreed to a cessation of hostilities and the resumption of peace talks to end the country's 19-year civil war. This followed the suspension of talks after rebels took the key southern garrison town of Torit early in September.

Alladji Billaj thought he was safe when he fled his native country of Liberia for Côte d'Ivoire a few years ago. But his sense of security was shattered when he was recently forced out of his home in the Ivorian city of Abidjan.

Government must brace itself for more strikes if privatisation is not scrapped, Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha said on Wednesday. "If the government does not listen to us as workers and does not address our plight, we will go to the streets until it listens. We don't care how long it takes," he told protesters in Pretoria.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has taken the olive branch to the National Assembly in his determination to end a stand-off between the executive and legislature. But beyond the impeachment threat of the National Assembly are other roadblocks in his 2003 race, if the president plans to achieve his stated goal of winning another term.

The southwestern Somali town of Baidoa on Thursday fell to the rivals of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA) chairman, Col Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud, who has been in control of the town since July, a local business source told IRIN.

Nigerians marked their 42nd year of independence on Tuesday in a grim and fearful mood, as Africa's most populous nation stumbles on from one political crisis to the next. For thirty of its 42 years Nigeria was ruled by a series of brutal military dictators, each one vying to see who could plunder the greatest share of the nation's growing oil wealth. Hopes that civilian rule would bring better fortunes have proved to be short-lived.

The health situation facing internally displaced Liberians has deteriorated recently and mortality rates have risen above the emergency threshold, a new assessment reported on Tuesday.

Legislation is currently being drafted by the Ministry of Justice, Legal & Parliamentary Affairs that will affect the operations of non-profit organisations in Zimbabwe. It is vital to discuss the implications of this pending legislation and to offer strategies as to how to collectively deal with potential interference in operations, say NGOs.

Patson Muzuva sat by the mock ballot box on the second day of the Zimbabwe presidential election on 10 March. Dressed in mock army fatigue he looked very exhausted, and his voice was hoarse after spending two days and two nights dancing and singing protest songs as he and others guarded a huge mock ballot box just outside the Zimbabwe House in Central London. That morning he looked sad and reflective and seemed to realise that the election did not mean that political violence was over in Zimbabwe, - the threats, hiding and the fear for relatives and friends would still haunt him.

A new United Nations Development Programme governance practice team is helping to lay the groundwork for new local government institutions and promoting government accountability in Sierra Leone, according to a statement from the UNDP last Friday.