Regulators and industry players in the ICT sector have identified the development of sound Information and Communication Technology (ICT) regulation as key to Africa's development agenda and said that ICT development should be regarded as catalysts for overall development. Arising from a two-day forum on telecommunications/ICT Regulation in Africa (FTRA-2007), which opened Tuesday in Nairobi, Kenya, participants agreed that ICT stands the chance of leapfrogging the continent on its developmental strategies.

The United Nations has called for policies to protect African nations from unregulated imports of electronic wastes (e-waste) that release heavy metals and chemicals. This call comes after the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced that over 50 million metric tonnes of electronic e-waste are produced globally, much of which finds its way to the African continent as charitable donations.

Ethiopia has charged 55 opposition members with trying to launch a rebellion, a government prosecutor told said on Wednesday. More than one hundred opposition figures are already on trial, accused of plotting a coup after disputed 2005 elections.

Ethiopia said on Thursday it had detained 50 government and company officials for graft in one of the East African nation's largest crackdowns. Ethiopia has a relatively clean image by the continent's standards, managing to avoid the sort of major public corruption scandals plaguing neighbour Kenya, for example

Briefing the Security Council, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has called for the arrest of the two suspects wanted to stand trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s conflict-wracked Darfur region.

A new study by the United Nations labour agency finds that more than one in five workers around the world – over 600 million people – are working “excessively” long hours. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 22 per cent of the global workforce are still working more than 48 hours a week, “often merely to make ends meet.”

At a conference of religious leaders in the troubled eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a United Nations humanitarian official has said dialogue among parties is a cornerstone for the protection of civilians caught in the conflict.

Comoros has delayed an election due on Sunday on the mutinous island of Anjouan for one week after police there shot three civilians during political unrest, national radio said late on Thursday. The coup-prone Indian Ocean archipelago was due to elect local presidents for its three main islands. The authorities said polls would go ahead as planned this weekend on Grande Comore and Moheli, but Anjouan's would be postponed to June 17.

South African Cobus de Swardt, 44, Director of Global Programmes at Transparency International (TI), the global coalition against corruption, has been appointed Managing Director of TI’s Berlin-based Secretariat. De Swardt has served as Global Programmes Director since May 2004, leading the work on TI's global priorities, and heads the International Group of four regional departments. Since 30 April 2007, he has also served as Acting Managing Director.

Since 1963, corruption has begat corruption in the successive governments of Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki, as a silent majority watched hoping against hope that they would not be affected. Pastor Martin Niemöller described this phenomenon - the assumption of the ostrich position by collectively burying our heads in the sand as the fruit of inaction ripens.

The United Nations and the African Union were close to a deal on Wednesday on fielding 23,000 peacekeepers in Sudan's violent Darfur region, but full deployment is not expected until next year at the earliest. The so-called "hybrid" U.N.-A.U. force is the culmination of two earlier stages allowing the United Nations to bolster 7,000 beleaguered African Union troops.

A vital bridge linking Sierra Leone with Liberia - both recovering from civil wars - has officially re-opened. Relations between the countries have been strained as Liberia's ex-President Charles Taylor was accused of fuelling Sierra Leone's brutal conflict. It is hoped the Mano River bridge will increase trade and unite families living on the two sides of the border.

A London high court has frozen the assets of Zambia's former president Frederick Chiluba after he was convicted last month of stealing $46-million in state funds, according to court documents obtained by AFP on Tuesday. The Zambian government obtained an injunction to freeze Chiluba's assets in London in order to prevent the ailing Chiluba and 18 of his cohorts from disposing of their properties, according to the court order.

Various civil society groups in Nigeria have raised the need to look critically at available infrastructure in the African continent before a consensus is reached on the formation of an African Union Government or a United States of Africa.
This was raised at a recent one-day round table organized by ActionAid, Nigeria in Abuja.

A proposed amendment to Algeria’s electoral law, expected this June, will set limits on the existence of non-representative or small parties, with the official intention of preventing the fragmentation of Algerian politics. The amendment is also expected to place stricter conditions on prospective candidates.

FEATURE: Mammo Muchie writes on the imprisonment of the 2005 election winners, and of democracy itself, in Ethiopia
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Priscilla Nyokabi assesses the Kenyan freedom of information bill
- Ochieng Khairallah on the criminalisation of the poor in Kenya
- Everlyne Nairesiae of GROOTS reflects on the use of mobile phones for social justice
LETTERS:
- Samson Eyassu responds to Mandisi Majavu's article on the Wretched of the Earth
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD:
BLOGGING AFRICA: Reviews West African blogs
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: Ethiopian forum calls for unity; the challenges facing a United States of Africa

WOMEN AND GENDER: Egyptian women strike for better pay
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Satellite cameras monitor Darfur villages
HUMAN RIGHTS: Amnesty International releases 2007 report
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: Violence against Chad’s unions escalates
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: 90,000 return to Mogadishu
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Algerian reshuffle divides politicians
CORRUPTION: African appointed to head TI
DEVELOPMENT: G8: Declare vulture fund profiteering
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Swazi campaign supports HIV+ truckers
EDUCATION: Concerns over Tanzania’s school dropout rate
ENVIRONMENT: Technology to save Malawi’s rainforests
LAND & LAND RIGHTS: Emirates’ royals threaten Tanzania’s indigenous people
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Plans for Africa media freedom debate
NEWS FROM THE DIASPORA: Europe looks to encourage Diaspora investment
ADVOCACY AND CAMPAIGNS: Cuba Cycle Challenge
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: IT a catalyst for African development
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops, Jobs, and Books and Publications

*Pambazuka News now has a Del.icio.us page, where you can view the various websites that we visit to keep our fingers on the pulse of Africa! Visit

President Bouteflika's decision to reappoint nearly the entire previous government has come as a great disappointment to some Algerians who had been hoping for a change. Although most citizens were firm in their opposition to the decision, Algerian politicians were divided, Magharebia news reports.

Two years on, the winners of the 2005 Ethiopian elections remain in prison. Mammo Muchie challenges the international community to stop using double standards, and demands that it privileges and prioritises values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law over narrow national interests.

'All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field.' - Albert Einstein

It is exactly two years since Ethiopia experienced one of the most open elections in its history. All of us who expected that finally our country would make it by seeing lawful, legitimate, citizen-anchored, citizen-choosing and citizen-voting change from one set of parties and persons to another, found ourselves in the unhappy situation where the usual mindset of those in power refused to concede to the citizenry.

Today, those who were elected are still in prison. Far from democracy fully blossoming in the veins, arteries and soul of this ancient nation, democracy itself is in prison. How else can we describe the difficulties of those who have done nothing but run for election in the drive to express their highest form of citizenship, other than to say we are bewildered. Continuing to imprison them is to continue to imprison democracy itself.

The space once open in Ethiopia in the pre-election phase undoubtedly created opportunities for some 25,000,000 Ethiopians to manifest a will to self-govern. One can understand that the fight, the debate, the commotion and excitement was unusually electrifying and vibrant. There is no doubt, also, that given the context of a free election, any reaction could spill into overreaction.

But nothing can justify the regime’s action to convert a vibrant political process, where the stakes were so high, into the overreaction and subsequent, if not wilful, killings by the security services into a legal wrangle against the popularly elected citizens, such as the engineer Hailu Shawl, Weizero Birtukan, Dr Berhanu, and all the others who are still unjustly in jail.

Changing the political process into a criminal legal process is hypocritical and unfair. The regime cannot prove that those in jail have any criminal intention. They never had. They never will. They had the noble intention of seeing their nation achieve what it has never achieved in its long history: to enter into an era of rule of law, where those in power submit to law, respect democratic freedoms, human rights and democratic political systems of governance.

Victims of double standards

A year ago in May 2006, there was a self-initiated momentum of world wide protest. Unity of the opposition, despite many attempts to disrupt it, was at the highest it had perhaps ever been. After May 2006, opposition groups started disagreeing, and the momentum slowed.

Now there is a need for the opposition to unite and agree in ensuring that those in jail are released long before the Ethiopian millennium. It will be a shame on all of us, above all on the Meles regime, to enter the next 1000 years with democrats in jail.

There are those who say that calling for the prisoners to be released is not the same thing as calling for the release of democracy - symbolically jailed along with their imprisonment. But there is no doubt it is the same thing. If there is anything that opposition forces unite on, it must be on the release of the prisoners, in order to release the incarcerated democracy of our country. It will be shameful for all of us not to recognise this dialectic, and call for the unconditional earliest possible release of those citizens, freely voted and chosen by Ethiopians who manifested a will to govern themselves through legitimate representatives.

It is also shameful for the drivers of world politics, who claim to stand for the values of freedom, human rights, the rule of law and democracy, to fete those who continue to jail a group of people whose record speaks a million for standing for the same values. Prof. Mesfin has stood for educating citizens, through ERCHO and other press outlets, for a very long time. There is absolutely no justification to put a man of his distinction in jail. For the world to remain silent and look the other way when such injustice is visited on an elderly man is indeed a failure of will, and a triumph of narrow interest.

Ever since the US policy thinkers have used the cold war paradigm to frame that country’s national security strategy by differentiating enemies and friends with the language of 'those who are not with us are against us', it has been possible for opportunist politicians to lure the US into serving its current strategic concerns.

On 20 September 2001, President Bush addressed the joint session of congress and the American people outlining the defining doctrine of the post-9/11 world: 'Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, you are with the terrorists' (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html). The problem with this formulation is that whoever claims to fight terrorism, whether that regime upholds democracy, human rights and rule of law or not, is open to be feted by the Bush administration. The doctrine, just as in the cold war days, opens up the opportunity for those who run into domestic trouble to entice the US government to back their misdeeds and look the other way.

The US government also opens itself to the legitimate charge that it is following a double standard. One of its standards is to uphold values of freedom and democracy; and the other standards are to pursue its interests. For the US government, especially the Bush administration, fusing the two and finding sustainable allies based on principles and values, have since become a huge problem. Ethiopia’s search for a democratic history has been influenced by the American administration's contradictory posture, inherent in the tension of the current post-9/11 doctrines. Our own election has suffered and our prisoners are still in jail for two main reasons: internal opposition division and not being able to unite around a minimum programme; and the international community' double standard.

A renewed call

Always in the middle of crisis lies opportunity. We call for the opposition to unite and redouble its efforts to get the prisoners released without delay.

Ethiopia has in front of it a millennium coming. It will be a shame to enter the millennium divided: the church is divided; the political parties are divided; communities are ethnically divided. There is alarming talk of a growing religious divide. Ethiopia may not avoid these divisive fissures, but it can not afford them. It is a challenge to all of us in Ethiopia and the region, from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, to make sure that we promote rule of law, democracy and human rights; and institutionalise democratic governance as a sure remedy to deal with the myriad conflicts and create a community of security and development, not only in Ethiopia but in the entire Horn of Africa region.

We call on the international community to stop using double standards, and demand that it privileges and prioritises values of democracy, human rights and rule of law over narrow national interests and narrow global projections, and to distinguish enemies from friends. We call on it to use every possible influence and the Ethiopian millennium to get the imprisoned democrats released and demand that they express outrage against the criminalisation of those who have been duly and freely elected as part of consistently upholding of the values they claim to hold dear.

If the unity of Ethiopians for democracy, human rights and rule of law, and the international community's respect of these same values over any narrow national and foreign policy concerns and interests, evade us, then Einstein is right: 'Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.'

The Network of Ethiopian Scholars (NES) challenges us all to show the limitless capacity for human stupidity is not infinite. Act and unite to release the prisoners now!

* Mammo Muchie is a member of the Scandinavian chapter of the Network of Ethiopian Scholars.

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

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/307/blogs_01_koranteng.gif publishes his letter to the UK Daily Telegraph complaining about plagiarism from excellent blog post 'Bags and Stamps'. Bags and Stamps is not about the plastic shopping mall type of bag but the ubiquitous 'plaid' plastic bags that can be seen from London to Joburg and from New York to Manila. Telegraph writer, Liz Hunt obviously came across his post and chose to blatantly steal Koranteng’s words and those of another blogger and blog comments. He provides a comparison table between his post and the Telegraph piece – incidentally she didn’t even bother to match the correct spelling and missed the nuances left by various comments.

'Do note that the author completely misses Georgia's nuance by transposing Trinidad to Guyana. The point is that the naming is done by the natives - looking down onto the teeming masses of refugee or downtrodden immigrant Others. Thus Nigerians named the bags Ghana must go, Germans named it Tuekenoffer, and so forth. Thus this is not a simple copying and pasting, there was reordering and some conscious editing done in the article and perhaps the immigrants coalesced into one indistinguishable mass. This is of a piece with the general disdain for said immigrants that the rest of the author's commentary indicates. We can also skip over how Boston becomes America in the coining of "Chinatown tote". The rest of the article I'll suggest is equally enlightening.'

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/307/blogs_02_dibussi.gifDibussi’s Den on 'Europe’s Shame' as African immigrants are left in the sea for three days and nights holding on to a tuna fishing net. The captain of the tug towing the net refused to allow them on board his ship. One of the comments left on the post expresses the disinterest of African leaders in the constant outward flow of the continent’s skills, knowledge and workforce.

'I saw this dramatic rescue on TV and melted at the desperation of fellow Africans.This is so sad. I continue to be amazed at the nonchalance of our African rulers. They have no shame and seem not to be bound by any impulse of collective responsibility to do something about the continuous haemorrhaging of the continent’s very best. Soon, Africa is going to skip a whole generation as the gap widens with the young all fleeing the sinking ship.'

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/307/blogs_03_ekosso.gifRosemary Ekosso describes the last weeks of former World Bank head, Paul Wolfowitz as being like an animal holding on to grass to 'avoid being washed away by water'.

'We all saw how Mr. Paul Wolfowitz, (now, thankfully, former) head of the World Bank, held grass for weeks after it was brought to public notice that he was embroiled in a sordid scandal involving a female companion. Well, Mr. Wolfowitz was swept away by the flood of public opinion. And now the US government is offering to replace him with someone who is, as evidenced by the article below, even worse, especially for the Third World.'

Any relief at Wolfowitz departure is offset by the possibility of an even worse replacement, Robert Zoellick of WTO fame. Jubilee Research describes him as 'the tireless champion of free trade, but Robert Zoellick the promoter of American interests by any means and at any cost – especially to developing countries'.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/307/blogs_04_chipla.gifChippla's Weblog posts an interesting piece on the recent Kenya Airways crash in Cameroons. A reader of his blog, Bert, speculates that the Captain was under pressure from his superiors to get the plane back to Nairobi as soon as possible. Whether the newly qualified 1st officer disagreed with the Captains decision to fly may never been known but even if he did, what chance did he have of questioning the authority of the Captain and the higher echelons of KA? A similar situation happened in 1977.

'Bert also made mention of the worst aviation disaster in history—the 1977 Tenerife disaster between two Boeing 747s belonging to KLM and Pan Am—and how the unchallenged faulty decision of the KLM flight captain resulted in the death of almost 600 people. Voice transcript of this incident (as made available on Wikipedia) shows how foggy weather and the misinterpretation of communication with the control tower led the seasoned KLM flight captain to initiate take off despite questions from his flight engineer.'

Chippla’s point is that we live in a 'world where authority is recognised' but how do we challenge that authority in cases like these crashes? Should we have any influence as passengers/consumers on the Captains or any authorities decisions?

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/307/blogs_05_david.gifDavid Ajao’s Blog is excited by the entry into the African blogosphere of Black South African blogger - Israel Mlambo. The fact that such an entry is worthy of it’s own post and celebration says it all.

'it is with pleasure that I introduce to you, a black South African blogger, Israel Mlambo. He blogs at http://izzonline.blogspot.com * You should read another of his blog post 'The SA blogosphere is ‘entirely’ white' to understand why I emphasised the word “black”.' – More on Israel in the Southern African review.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/307/blogs_06_wordsbody.gifWordsbody celebrates this year’s Orange Prize to be announced on the 6th June. Here she goes back to 2004 when Andrea Levy won the prize for a novel 'Small Island' and Nigeria's Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie had been shortlisted for her debut novel, Purple Hibiscus. This year Adichie is once again a nominee for her latest novel Half of a Yellow Sun. Excellent write up and I look forward to this year's edition.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/307/blogs_07_blacklooks.gifBlack Looks listens to a speech by Nigeria’s former finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala – part of the TED Africa hooray taking place this week in Arusha, Tanzania. A gathering of technologists, entertainers and designers (TED!) from across Africa and beyond with the hope of creating a 'A Different Africa'. No AIDS, poverty, shackdwellers, conflict, human rights violations or limits on press freedom, here. The focus is on business and 'doing it for ourselves'. BL comments

'One thing I do agree with is “We have to do it for ourselves”. The Abahlali baseMjondolo shack dwellers have shown us and proved that a social movement can engage in real participatory democracy and stand up to oppression, elitism, BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) for the few, racism and economic apartheid. People get very excited when talking about this “other Africa” - the one of growth in telecoms and of course huge profits, most of which are made from the poor subsidising the rich (cheaper tariffs and better deals for contract versus “pay as you go”). Privatisation policies which include privatisation of basic needs such as water, and electricity and again the poor subsidising the rich who pay less for their electricity than the poor and commercial enterprises being subsidised by consumers. And the big wow - Nigeria now has a shopping mall where businesses are turning over 4 times more than projected. Hows that for progress? Especially when it runs on its own private set of generators and God knows where it gets its water from? And even more exciting is the new “mining code” legislation which would be a great leap forward except it has somehow now reached the oil industry. But with all these great leaps forward where is the money going - not into social programmes, not in constructing an electric power system and running water.'

The Institute for Democratic Governance is the secretariat of the Ghana CSO coalition – AU Summit July 2007.

To facilitate coordination, collaboration and networking among CSOs that wish to organise or participate in pre-summit activities in Accra, Ghana, the secretariat is creating a database on CSO/NGO pre-summit activities in the months of June and early July 2007.

The database will be accessible to all the registered CSOs and will enable visiting CSO actors to also interact with the secretariat. Registered CSOs will also be updated periodically on pre-summit activities and events in Ghana.

If you with to participate in this exercise, please download the form at and return it to au at ideg.org.