The Commission of the African Union is convening an AU-Civil Society forum on the margins of the AU Summit in Banjul, the Gambia. The meeting will provide a briefing on developments related to the AU-CSO agenda since the last Pre-Summit Forum in January 2005. It will also deliberate on the theme of the Summit itself i.e., Economic Integration, including the proposal for the Rationalization of Regional Economic Communities.

A top Chinese diplomat has vigorously defended his country's growing economic involvement in Africa, including close trade links with Zimbabwe and Sudan. The charge d'affaires at China's South Africa embassy said China was just protecting its own interests. Its policy of non-interference in the affairs of others has nothing to do with its need to import oil, he added. China's quiet pursuit of raw materials in Africa in return for cheap Chinese goods has caused considerable concern.

A Judicial probe into the mismanagement of grants to Uganda from the Geneva-based Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has recommended that former health ministers and other managers of the funds be investigated for possible criminal prosecution. Former health minister Jim Muhwezi and his two deputies, Mike Mukula and Alex Kamugisha, have all been implicated in the mismanagement of funds.

President Hosni Mubarak should immediately order an independent judicial investigation into last Thursday’s severe beatings by security agents of political activists Karim al-Sha`ir and Mohamed al-Sharqawi, Human Rights Watch says. Police also sexually assaulted al-Sharqawi, according to a written statement he smuggled out of prison.

After the Nigerian parliament threw out a bid to change the constitution and enable President Olusegun Obasanjo to stay in office for a third consecutive term, uncertainty is growing over who may succeed him in less than 12 months.

The chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission says he will bring corruption charges against 24 state governors when their terms end next year. The governors currently enjoy constitutional immunity from criminal prosecution.

Reporters Without Borders wrote to Salamata Sawadogo, the chairperson of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), voicing “extreme concern about free expression” in Gambia and suggesting the time has come for the commission to consider transferring its headquarters from Gambia “until the civil and political liberties of Gambians, including freedom of expression, are respected.”

The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, in collaboration with the Open Society Justice Initiative, AfriMAP, and Partnership Africa Canada, will be holding a civil society event entitled Strengthening Civil Society: Ensuring Compliance with African and International Standards on Human Rights and Good Governance, prior to the African Union Summit in Banjul, Gambia from June 26 – 28, 2006. Strengthening Civil Society will focus on civil society participation in monitoring compliance with African standards on human rights and good governance, in particular civil society participation in the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). Panelists from different countries that have undergone peer review will present their experiences, from both the official and civil society perspective. The workshop will also examine reports generated by AfriMAP, the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project, which has looked in-depth at the compliance of five African governments that have signed up for peer review with African and international standards in relation to the justice sector and rule of law, political participation and democracy, and effective delivery of public services. Finally, the workshop will discuss barriers to political participation in the form of discrimination in access to citizenship and documentation, bringing in case studies identified through a recent comparative study on discrimination and citizenship carried out by the Open Society Justice Initiative.

Statement by African Civil Society Colaition on AIDS

Three weeks after the African Union - the highest decision-making regional authority in Africa - endorsed a Common Position on HIV and AIDS, African delegates in New York are reneging on the strong commitments they made to providing access to services for HIV prevention, care and treatment to all those who need them in Africa.

They say free trade is the answer to world poverty, but all too often it benefits the richest and deprives the poorest. In this, the second of four Pambazuka News special issues during 2006 discussing issues of trade and justice, a series of articles examines the point where trade meets the rights of people and communities. If free trade is the answer, these articles seem to ask, why is health care a luxury for millions in Kenya? Why does the oil trade wreak havoc in the Niger Delta? How is it that informal traders have virtually no rights? Why are local communities excluded from development projects driven by multi-national companies? Why is it that cotton farmers in West Africa suffer because of a grossly unfair subsidy racket? The last article in this edition asks how trade and business can be conducted in a more humane way. Please send comments on these articles to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

FEATURED: Soren Ambrose makes a case for holding the International Monetary Fund (IMF) responsible for poor health care in Kenya
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- The crude oil trade in the Niger Delta remains anything but sweet for local communities, writes Nnimmo Bassey
- Winnie Mitullah asks when the rights of informal traders in African cities are going to be considered in trade policy
- We visit the Yala Swamp region of Kenya with Patrick Ochieng, who asks if Foreign Direct Investment is really the answer
- Question and Answers on genetically modified crops, access to food and land
- Cotton farmers in West Africa have yet to experience the concept of trade justice, writes Tope Akinwande
- Steve Ouma Akoth discusses corporate responsibility, arguing for a broader notion of the moral self
- Karoline Kemp looks at five examples where communities are claiming their rights in the face of unfair trade polices and practices
LETTERS: Readers respond to Tajudeen Abdul Raheem's article 'Slavery then and now', published last week
BLOGGING AFRICA: Sokari Ekine rounds up the week's debates in the blogosphere
BOOKS AND ARTS:
- Rene Loewenson reviews 'The African Aids Epidemic: A History' by John iliffe
- Shailja Patel discusses plagiarism and the African arts
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: News about events taking place at the June African Union meet in Banjul
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Concerns about Darfur; Violence continues in Mogadishu
HUMAN RIGHTS: Egyptian police accused of torture
WOMEN AND GENDER: Women's rights activists under siege in Zimbabwe
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Mogadishu fighting displaces Somalis to Yemen
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Obasanjo reshuffles cabinet
DEVELOPMENT: Film puts World Bank and IMF on trial
CORRUPTION: Apartheid corruption revealed in new report
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: New UNAIDS report shows slowdown, but increase in sub-Saharan Africa
RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA: Racism fears dog world cup
ENVIRONMENT: The danger of Abacha “coal pots” in Nigeria
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: Securing land rights in Africa
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Media crackdown in The Gambia
PLUS: Advocacy and Campaigns, e-Newsletters and Mailing Lists, Fundraising and Useful Resources, Courses, Seminars and Workshops, Jobs

Global trade policy agreements are often felt hardest far from the boardrooms where they are thrashed out. Often, they act to strip people of basic rights like water and electricity. Karoline Kemp looks at five examples where communities are claiming their rights.

South Africa: Soweto fights Eskom

Eskom, the country's electricity provider, has featured predominantly in recent South African news because of continuing power outages in various parts of the country. But these power outages have not affected many in the townships that house the majority of the nation's black population. Soweto, in Johannesburg, is the largest of these townships, and is home to several million working class people, most of whom struggle to make ends meet. Electricity is simply too expensive for many, and as a result, many make do with alternative forms of lighting, heating and cooking.

In 1996 the African National Congress (ANC), adopted neoliberal policies, turning their back on a proposed Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP), and opting instead for the GEAR program. The GEAR program, on the other hand, was developed by economists and World Bank officials, and, as a neo-liberal program, emphasized growth, adding that redistribution would come only after growth. Meant to drive this growth, it set targets to reduce inflation, boost the private sector, and liberalise formerly government run agencies, including Eskom. In order to attract investors, Eskom set about increasing profits, in order to offer a return on investment, which was done through a strict system of cost recovery.

In places like Soweto this meant that electricity cut offs were made as a means of recouping debt and making sure people paid for their electricity use. According to activist Trevor Ngwane, at one point, Eskom was cutting off over 20 000 homes per month, and over 70% of Soweto's population had increasing debts to the company. The Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, co founded by Ngwane, was formed to unite Soweto against electricity cutoffs, and claimed as its slogan: “Electricity is a right, not a privilege.” The group lobbies government and other policy groups and, significantly, reconnects those homes that have been cut off, providing residents with the electricity they need. Their work has spread beyond Soweto, and they are active all over South Africa, campaigning now not only for electricity, but also water. Their approach is one of participatory democracy, and they call for policies that respond to the needs of the people - that is, the poor, who make up the majority of South Africa - and demand for free services, including electricity, water, housing, health care and education, for all. The Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee sees themselves as a part of a larger anti-globalisation, anti-capitalist movement, and calls for people around the movement to join hands to fight against imperialism and anti-poor policies.

Source:

Article based on an interview between Trevor Ngwane and Walter Turner on KPFA's Africa Today. The transcript can be found at:

Ghana: The fight for water

World Water Day of 2005 saw Biwater, one of the multinational firms bidding for the privatization of Ghana's water sector, pull out, reported Ghana's Business News. Ghana's government has been fighting, with the support of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, for several years to privatize the nation's water in attempts to gain access to external assistance and loans. Ghana currently faces inadequate water provision, blamed on years of poor management, lack of investment and poor technical capacity. The government argues that the only way to improve the situation is to inject fresh income into Ghana Water, and that the only way to do this is to privatize. Critics and activist organisations, such as the National Coalition Against Privatisation of Water, have been active in opposing the initiatives, arguing that, contrary to government assurance of the schemes making water cheaper and more accessible, the plan will in fact only undermine access to safe water for all Ghanaians.

While Biwater withdrew it's application to partner with the government, numerous other multinational corporations are still seeking involvement in the project, and the government has gone ahead and secured a grant of $103 million from the World Bank, reports Irin News. According to Public Citizen, the mere prospect of the privatization of water has had the effect of doubling tariffs, in order to “condition” the water market for international competition. World Bank conditions also stipulate that no subsidies will be given to low income houses, and that water must be sold at full market rates.

Public Citizen brings to light some of the startling statistics: in a country where over half the population earns less than $1 a day, and 40% of people fall below the national poverty line, over 35% of Ghanaian's lack access to safe water, and almost 70% have no sanitation services. Water related illnesses are the cause of over 70% of diseases in Ghana. Studies in the early 2000s showed poor households spent between 18 and 25% of their income on water alone. In these conditions water vendors can charge up to 10 times more than the official water provider.

In light of these statistics, IMF and World Bank policies of “increased cost recovery” and “automatic tariff adjustment mechanisms” are considered by activists to deny basic human rights. With civil society locked out of any of the decision-making processes, many are concerned that Ghana's need for financial resources have inhibited any alternative water options, and go further to undermine access to one of the world's most basic rights.

Sources:

Ghana National Coalition Against the Privatisation of Water - Statement
http://www.isodec.org.gh/campaings/water/

Water Privatisation Suffers Setback - Biwater Pulls Out
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/cmep_Water/reports/ghana/

Ghana: Privatisation brings new investment to water company
http://dominionpaper.ca/environment/2004/05/27/like_water.html

Africa: Stop Economic Partnership Agreements!

Beyond what is required of African countries by the World Trade Organisation, Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) have been set up between the European Union (EU) and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP) in order to enable European market access to goods and services in Africa. These negotiations, which began in 2002, are meant to promote sustainable development and contribute to poverty eradication in the ACP countries through the liberalisation of trade and tariffs.

But critics, including those academics and activists who form the Global Call for Action to Stop EPAs campaign, argue that these “partnerships” are in fact unequal; the EU has overwhelming economic and political power, and as such, can impose their interests, agenda and stipulations on ACP countries, which, as a whole, are fragile, both politically and economically, and are dependent, to a large extent, on external funders. This vulnerability has the potential for poverty and debt to increase, and destabilize the economies of these nations.

Critics argue that these EPAs conspire to deindustrialise Africa, simply making them suppliers of raw materials and ensuring their markets are wholly dependent on Europe, which inhibits their already limited capacity, reports Third World Network Africa.

That EPA negotiations are taking place away from any public monitoring means that the large civil society base that has assembled around this issue has had little say in the discussion. Civil society organisations argue that EPAs will have negative effects, leading to deeper inequalities, greater unemployment, the loss of livelihoods, insecurity of food and other resources and will undermine social and human rights. They call for the EU and ACP negotiators to affirm the principles of non-reciprocity, protect ACP producers, reverse trade and investment liberalization, and perhaps most importantly, allow that alternatives be found for ACP countries to pursue their own development strategies that work best for them.

Sources:

Global Call for Action to Stop EPAs - Campaign Statement
http://twnafrica.org/atn/campaigns/day4.htm

Previous Pambazuka News articles on EPAs

PAMBAZUKA NEWS 216: Economic Partnership Agreements: territorial conquest
by economic means?

Economic Partnership Agreements and putting development first

Growing resistance to EPAs

Meeting Africa’s human development needs and the failure of EPAs

Predictions for the economic partnership agreements negotiations: EU=1, ACP=0

Cameroon: Logging industry destroying environment and livelihoods

Cameroon's logging industry is well known for its lax laws, unsustainability and environmental destruction. According to a Global Forest Watch report, at the end of the 1990s there were almost 500 logging companies registered with the government, most of which were foreign owned. The same report reveals that over 76% of the country's forests have been logged, or are allocated as concessions, and as one of the few sectors that has remained profitable in Cameroon, the logging industry has emerged as one that offers short-term profits to foreign multinationals who benefit from few government controlled mechanisms to protect the environment and social needs of the population.

Logging, both legal and illegal, has led to the decrease in forest cover by over 2 million hectares, and primary forest cover is quickly diminishing, argues the Global Forest Watch report. The Cameroonian forests are some of the most species rich in the entire Congo Basin, and some trees take over a hundred years to grow. In addition to huge environmental impacts, the social effects of logging have also been significant. Cameroon boasts a large indigenous population, most of whom are dependent on the forest for shelter, food and medicine. With ancestral and spiritual ties to the land they inhabit, most know no other way of life, and logging has disrupted not only their ability to maintain healthy, safe lifestyles, but also their right to the land. According to Friends of the Earth Cameroon, those who have protested the logging companies have been violently repressed, and with their rights barely recognised, most have no recourse or protection from the multinational corporations who are exploiting their land.

Sources:

The True Value of a Tree: Interview with Benoit Ndamea, Friends of the Earth Cameroon
http://www.foei.org/publications/link/95/e95benoit.html

Global Forest Watch: An Overview of Logging in Cameroon
http://www.globalforestwatch.org/common/cameroon/english/report.pdf

Logging Industry Threatens to Destroy Rich African Forests
http://www.trfic.msu.edu/news_info/news_archive/20000818loggingafrica.htm

Cameroon: Logging industry destroying environment and livelihoods

Cameroon's logging industry is well known for its lax laws, unsustainability and environmental destruction. According to a Global Forest Watch report, at the end of the 1990s there were almost 500 logging companies registered with the government, most of which were foreign owned. The same report reveals that over 76% of the country's forests have been logged, or are allocated as concessions, and as one of the few sectors that has remained profitable in Cameroon, the logging industry has emerged as one that offers short-term profits to foreign multinationals who benefit from few government controlled mechanisms to protect the environment and social needs of the population.

Logging, both legal and illegal, has led to the decrease in forest cover by over 2 million hectares, and primary forest cover is quickly diminishing, argues the Global Forest Watch report. The Cameroonian forests are some of the most species rich in the entire Congo Basin, and some trees take over a hundred years to grow. In addition to huge environmental impacts, the social effects of logging have also been significant. Cameroon boasts a large indigenous population, most of whom are dependent on the forest for shelter, food and medicine. With ancestral and spiritual ties to the land they inhabit, most know no other way of life, and logging has disrupted not only their ability to maintain healthy, safe lifestyles, but also their right to the land. According to Friends of the Earth Cameroon, those who have protested the logging companies have been violently repressed, and with their rights barely recognised, most have no recourse or protection from the multinational corporations who are exploiting their land.

Sources:

The True Value of a Tree: Interview with Benoit Ndamea, Friends of the Earth Cameroon
http://www.foei.org/publications/link/95/e95benoit.html

Global Forest Watch: An Overview of Logging in Cameroon
http://www.globalforestwatch.org/common/cameroon/english/report.pdf

Logging Industry Threatens to Destroy Rich African Forests
http://www.trfic.msu.edu/news_info/news_archive/20000818loggingafrica.htm

Kenya: Women workers turn to flower power

Kenya's flower market falls into numerous trade agreements, including the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the African, Caribbean and Pacific - European Union (ACP-EU) Trade Agreement and the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), all of which open the region up to trade and allow for preferential treatment, including duty and quota free benefits and regional free trade, according to the Export Processing Zones Authority of Kenya. In addition to these trade agreements, Kenya has received financial assistance from the World Bank and USAID to get their agricultural industries off the ground, reports the International Labour Rights Fund.

The agricultural sector fits into all of these trade agreements, and accounts for almost a quarter of Kenya's GDP. Almost 75% of the population relies on agriculture, whether it be directly or indirectly, and the flower industry employs at least 50 000 Kenyans directly and another 70 000 in related industries. According to the Export Processing Zones Authority of Kenya, cut flowers dominate the horticulture exports, and this crop has overtaken both coffee and tourism as a source of foreign exchange. The EU currently receives the largest portion (over a quarter) of their cut flowers from Kenya, but cut flowers from the country end up as far as Asia, Australia and the US.

While Kenya's government benefits economically from this industry, critics argue that people, and women especially, are suffering as a result of lax laws, environmental hazards, dangerous working conditions and harmful power dynamics. According to the report by the International Labour Rights Fund, over half of Kenyan flower workers are employed only as “casuals,” and as such, they do not receive benefits, cannot join unions and have no job security. Further, the Kenya Human Rights Commission reveals that workers are often forced to do unpaid overtime, working as long as 12 hours a day, with few breaks. Many employees have been exposed to dangerous toxins from the fertilisers and pesticides that are used on the crops, which often lead to skin irritations, problems with sight and many more unknown effects, according to an article entitled “Cut Flower Industry Accused of Human Rights Abuse”.

As a result of these extreme human rights violations, local groups are stepping up to let the industry know that the working conditions they are forced into are not acceptable. With the help of Women Working Worldwide, the Kenya Women Workers Organisation has highlighted the plight of flower workers. They undertake various projects, including initiatives that include non-violent campaigns for worker's rights, lobbying and advocacy, community development projects, capacity building and the encouragement of women's participation in decision-making processes. Through their work they raise awareness and offer support to women exploited in Kenya's flower industry.

Sources:

Kenya Women Workers Organisation
http://www.kewwo.org

Cut Flower Industry Accused of Human Rights Abuse
http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_882.html

Codes of Conduct in the Cut-Flower Industry
http://www.laborrights.org/projects/women/Flower_Paper_0903/flower_paper_countries.htm

Export Processing Zones Authority of Kenya

Trade justice or injustice has been on the international agenda like never before. Academics and activists are campaigning for just trade and even rich countries are giving the impression that they're willing to address injustices in the global system. Tope Akinwande looks at what the reality is for West African cotton farmers.

“While 70% of the population of Africa work in agriculture, only a few percent do so in rich countries. Yet rich countries support their agriculture to the tune of a staggering $279 billion a year. That's over ten times current aid to Africa. That's a sum comparable to the income of the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. Market barriers keep out developing countries that have a natural advantage in producing agricultural goods. Average tariff between rich countries are only 3%, but can rise to over 200% in the US for fruits and nuts, or to 300% in the EU for meat..." - Hilary Benn, UK Secretary of State for International Development, in “How Can we get trade justice", a speech delivered at the London School of Economics, 29 June 2005.

During the 2005 "Global Week for Action" organised to campaign against trade injustice, I saw a sculpture by Jens Galschiot, a controversial Danish Sculptor. Titled the "Survival of the Fattest", the bronze sculpture depicted a very skinny man - with protruding rib cages - carrying fat and well-fed Justitia, the western goddess of Justice, on his bent back. Justitia had a scale in her right hand and her long pole in her left hand on which it was inscribed: "I'm sitting on the back of a man - He is sinking under the burden - I would do anything to help him - Except stepping down from his back.”

Some people might genuinely wonder how there could be injustice in trade between two consenting people or sovereign countries who have goods to sell or exchange with one another. Since trade is not meant to be a "donor-recipient" relationship but one in which a country has something to sell to another to meet the needs of its populace, one could wonder why there would be injustice or why a country could not move onto another buyer if they do not get a good deal somewhere. If trade, - as it has been simply defined by the Cambridge International Dictionary - is “the activity of buying and selling, or exchanging, goods and/or services between people or countries", why should there be injustice?

One of the most contentious issues in international politics and trade in recent times has been the issue of trade (in) justice. Like never before, there have been systematic mobilisations for trade justice towards countries, particularly Africa. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), world leaders, academics and activists around the world are leading the campaign to ensure fair trade. In the UK, the Justice Movement, an umbrella campaign organisation of over 70 NGOs are campaigning and lobbying the UK government in various forms to ensure trade justice - not free trade - with compassionate rules to benefit poor people and the environment. [1]

In the face of these campaigns, richer countries have also given the impression of a willingness to redress the seeming "trade injustice" through different negotiations known as "Rounds" and named after the places where they have been initiated. Hence there have been Tokyo, Uruguay and Doha Rounds. Apart from these “Rounds”, rich countries are apparently doing everything humanly possible (international development aid, SAP turned PRSP, MDGs, AGOA…) to eradicate (the less pretentious ones use the word “alleviate”) poverty in poor countries like Mali and Burkina Faso.

However, the reality is something else. The reality of international trade - like any other form of activities with vested interests to protect - is that there have been some trading practices that are deemed unfair. The most prominent of these “sharp practices” is the provision of subsidies to western farmers by their governments. These subsidies encourage farmers to produce irrespective of the situation of the market and the "beauty" of it all is that they are sure of a minimal income.

There are different types of agricultural subsidies. While some are directly linked to the level of production others such as subsidies for water irrigation are indirectly linked. There are also subsidies such as export subsides which are used to promote exports of agricultural products. The surplus production is put on the world market which could force a decrease in price as there is high availability of a particular commodity. This process of flooding the market with excess production and inducing a price decrease is what has been happening for years in the international agricultural trade sector. Developed countries led by the European Union (EU) and US highly subsidise their agriculture allowing their farmers and related industries to sell their products at a lower rate than the cost of production. [3]

In 2001/02, the US, Chinese, Spanish and Greek governments subsidised their cotton producers to over $6 billion dollars. US farmers alone are said to receive almost $4 billion in subsidies. US and European subsidies to domestic producers continue to impose enormous costs on poor countries. The welfare costs of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have been well over the development aid given to all sub-Saharan Africa.

In "Cultivating Poverty: The Impact of US Cotton Subsidies in Africa", Oxfam argues that the rock-bottom cotton price can be blamed directly on enormous subsidies paid to US cotton farmers as they are first among equals in the harvesting of subsidies. These subsidies are destroying livelihoods in Africa and other developing countries with rural communities being the worst-hit. [4]

Killing Burkina Faso and Mali Softly

The cost of cotton production in west and central Africa is very low compared to other cotton-producing countries. African cotton farmers could compete with their counterparts from developed countries if they were not enjoying the massive subsidies of their governments. This has been succinctly expressed by a West African minister who said that his country was “happy to compete with US farmers but not with the US Treasury". [5] Sahel countries like Burkina Faso and Mali have a comparative "advantage" [6] in the production of cotton and the rapid increase in their productivity has shown that they could make considerable developmental gains over time.

In the 1990s, the World Bank encouraged Mali to cultivate cotton since that was its comparative advantage. The West African country threw all its energy and meagre resources into cotton production, rapidly becoming the second largest cotton producer in Africa ahead of Egypt. Despite this Malian "success story", it could not sell its production at good rates as American producers with lower comparative advantage enjoyed a record harvest.

The only plausible reason for this bumper harvest of cotton by American farmers was the subsidies they received. It is said that 25,000 American cotton producers received $USD13.9 billion between 1999 and 2005 which represents a subsidy rate of 89.5%. [7] Annually, this represents about $USD 3.2 billion of subsidies for American cotton producers, plus $USD1.6 billion in export aid. [8]

These subsidies had a disastrous effect on the Malian economy as its cotton farmers could not compete with their American counterparts. Indeed Mali lost the equivalent of 1.7% of GDP and 8% of export earnings. These losses are bigger than the $USD 37.7 million Mali received from USAID in 2001. It is on record that the Malian finance minister at the time made this disturbing statement: “The money that those countries put into agricultural subsidies is five times what they give as development assistance. And we've always said to rich countries, 'you are hypocrites'. You tell us to play the rules of open market at the same time you subsidise your farmers and kill our farmers.” [9]

Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world. Though it has significant reserves of gold, its almost non-existing industrial base has left its mining in the hands of dubious businessmen. Cotton is the mainstay for 90% of Burkinabes.

According to a study carried out by WHO in Burkina Faso, the expansion of cotton farming painted a positive future for development in the country. However, continuous subvention of western farmers has made it impossible for Burkinabe farmers to compete in the international market. Like many countries in the Sahel, Burkina Faso cannot prepare adequately for the food crises it experiences. It is perpetually locked in a vicious cycle of international aid.

This dire situation made President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, a rather shrewd talker and “great friend of the West” to cry out recently in frustration that: “Several central and west African countries are victims of injustice by the US and EU. These countries subsidise their agricultural producers, ignoring the rules of WTO. Such practices are undermining the fragile national economies of countries that depend on cotton.” [10]

This situation is not peculiar to these two countries. It is the same for many African countries whose economies are mainly agricultural-based.

When signing the US Farm Bill in May 2002, President George Bush made a very revealing statement about his choices concerning international agricultural trade: “I told the people, I said if you give me a chance to be President, we are not going to treat our agricultural industry as a secondary citizen when it comes to opening markets. And I mean that...The farm bill is important legislation...It will promote farmer independence, and preserve the farm way of life. It helps America's farmers and therefore it helps America.” [11]

How else would one want world leaders to show where their interest lies on the issue of trade (in) justice? This agricultural bill that sharply increased subsidies and protections for US producers, was passed while the “international community” was pushing for a Doha Round of trade talks that would deal with agriculture.

Since the "international community" led by the US is aware of the predicament of African countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali, why do they continue to subsidise their domestic farmers? Why can't the US stop subsidising its farmers and allow poor countries like Mali to earn decent income and stop “pan-handling” year-in-year-out for development aid? Why are the rich countries advocating free trade and open markets in developing countries while European and US subsidies to their farmers are destroying markets for vulnerable farmers in sub-Saharan Africa?

The answer easily lies in the "national interest" of western countries. Much as the notion of 'national interest' is a shifting one, it reveals the true behaviour of powerful world leaders. It also guards us against two popular misconceptions about the determination of a state's foreign policy - the motives of leaders and ideological preferences.

While political leaders will cast their policies in ideological terms (free trade, democracy, human rights, justice, etc.) they are inevitably confronted by what is desirable and what is possible. There is no room for moral or ethical concerns, prejudice, political philosophy or individual preference in the determination of foreign policy because actions are constrained by the interest of the state and its power to enforce it. The 'national interest' which ought to be the sole pursuit of political leadership, is always defined in terms of strategic and economic capability.

Conclusion

In international politics, no government worth its salt will toy with its national interest, whatever it happens to be at any given time. It is “sacrosanct” to the survival of the nation.

In light of this basic reality, The EU and US will continue to protect their farmers as long as it is politically expedient. This is not an issue of justice or injustice. It is simply the survival of their states (and the political ambitions of its leaders) that require protecting their 'national interests' of which subsidies to domestic farmers is part of. If that cannot be achieved, then these leaders could be considered incompetent or forced to leave.

The onus is for governments at the receiving ends of these “sharp” trade practices to raise their games and find a strong negotiation platform. It is not going to be easy as we have seen with Brazil and the WTO saga. It is either these countries and those who are campaigning along with them for fair trade to find a way of putting fat Justitia down for a serious negotiation or carry her on their bent backs for a long time to come. Nothing can be more certain that Justitia will not want to get off the back of the skinny man as long as it is possible. Who would except where compassion for others surpasses passion for self?

* Tope Akinwande is a Desk Officer at the West Africa Department of TEARFUND, a leading UK relief and development NGO working in partnership with Christian agencies and churches in over 70 countries to tackle the causes and effects of poverty.

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

References

1 See,

3. Nigel Grimwade, “International Trade Policy - A Contemporary Analysis”, Routledge, London, 1996

4 OXFAM, “Cultivating Poverty: The Impact of US Cotton Subsidies in Africa”. See http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/trade/downloads/bp30-cotton.pdf

5. See (2)

6. Comparative advantage is what a country can produce with less cost at less time and effort above other countries.

7. See http://www.lwf-humanrights.org/issues.php

8. Ibid

9. See 4

10. Ibid

11. See, http//www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/08/20020806-4.html-45

An environmentally sensitive wetland, a multi-national company and a local community that feels sidelined. Sound familiar? Patrick Ochieng introduces the Yala Swamp region in Kenya and asks if Foreign Direct Investment is really the answer to Africa's development problems.

Yala Swamp is a wetland bounded to the north by Nzoia River and the south by Yala River. The swampland covers an area of about 17,500 ha in Siaya, Bondo and Busia districts that are home to nearly 1.2 million people. The area is Kenya's largest wetland, and is regarded as a very delicate ecosystem and habitat to some rare flora and fauna, including endangered fish species. The swamp has served the adjacent communities as a source of fish, water, agricultural land, pastures, wild animals, plants for constructing houses, source of wood fuel and medicinal plants.

Dominion Farms Ltd, an affiliate of the USA-based Dominion Group, based in Oklahoma, USA moved into the swamp through an arrangement with the Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA). Dominion Group controls investments across the globe. The company operates luxury corporate hotels, is involved in modification of corporate aircrafts, ownership and operation of corporate aircraft, construction of houses and offices to be leased by the US government, manufacture of athletic dress and socks, correctional services and other businesses spanning several countries.

The initial proposal was that Dominion would engage in rice production, in part of the swamp covering about 2,300 ha. This land portion had been reclaimed before 1970, and previously used by LBDA for agricultural activity. Dominion embarked on large-scale agricultural activities in the swamp following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Councils of Siaya and Bondo in May 2003.

Although rice for which the lease was executed has not been planted, the firm has engaged in activities beyond agriculture, which include construction of irrigation dykes and weirs, water drilling, construction of an airstrip and road construction. Dominion has further proposed to undertake a number of new development projects within the Yala Swamp. For this purpose it is proposing that part of 9,200 ha will be reclaimed from swamp area to meet the needs of new projects. This would leave only 6,000 ha (35%) of current wetland to act as buffer zone.

The proposed project is extensive and specifically seeks to: Implement a highly mechanized irrigation and dry farming project; Construct fishponds for aquaculture; Construct a fish processing plant to process about 20 tons of fish per day, mainly for export; and Construct a rice mill, feed mill, ginnery, fuel storage, dispensing station, turbine for electricity production, barrier dyke, weir and reservoir.

The proposed projects fall under those that must undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) under Kenyan law. The EIA report submitted by Dominion consultants has concluded that:

- The project will bring into productive use a high potential resource that has been underutilized and which has cost the government and the people of Kenya huge amounts of money with little appreciable returns;
- The proposed project will create employment both directly and indirectly to thousands of people through primary and secondary activities;
- The project will make a positive impact to increased incomes and access to basis needs;
- The project will act as growth pole around which other commercial activities will gravitate;
- The local communities support the proposed project, which they perceive as a boost to the development of the region;
- The local communities are enthusiastic about the project.

But the EIA did not deal with the impact of the project on the soils, water quality, vegetation and wildlife. It did not deal conclusively with environmental, ecological, socio-economic and management issues related to the situation of the swamp. The impacts of the project on water, vegetation, habitat and human activity were also not addressed. The community feels that they have not been properly consulted, and while communities were requested to form groups so that individuals did not dominate the process, this has not happened.

The consultants who carried out the EIA were employees of LBDA and thus were compromised by issues of conflict of interest. The sticky issue of compensation for families displaced by the project has refused to go away. Existing fish processing plants and a fishmeal plant in the area are operating below their capacity, raising the question of why it is necessary to build further plants.

The EIA report has aimed to justify the project on the basis of its economic importance, components, design, choice of location, implementation strategy and mitigation measures put in place. The report has, however, recognized that the proposed projects pose a number of negative impacts at various stages of implementation. This list is long, some of them with very serious consequences. They include: Flooding and altered water flow patterns; Contamination of soil and water by oil leakages and spillage; Pollution of River Yala by solid and liquid wastes from project activities; Possibility of respiratory ailments due to inhalation of dust and fumes from construction equipment; Loss of grazing land for the local community; Incidences of water-borne and vector-borne diseases; Displacement of local communities; Displacement of fauna and loss of flora; Reduced production of subsistence crops leading to food deficits in the region; and the introduction of foreign crops and genetically modified crops that may introduce new pests into the area.

At a meeting convened on November 8, 2005, we asked members of the affected communities to identify the problems the project posed for them. Problems faced by the communities included denial of access to water and land; denial of fishing rights; blocking of direct routes between communities for purposes of trading, wage reductions and threats of flooding due to dyke construction.

The community members felt that the project should be halted so that proper consultation could take place to iron out issues that were not attended to. These would include the issuance of title deeds to people whose land had been surveyed, construction on land that was earmarked only and open discussions with the local administration, the firm, the LBDA and the community. Despite these concerns the members of parliament from the region have turned a deaf ear to the people's pleas.

There is therefore urgent need to undertake and examine, from accounts, opinions and experiences of the different stakeholders, the socio-economic dimensions of proposed activities. Such an independent study would inform the advocacy processes being carried out by Friends of Yala Swamp, a group of CSOs who have come together to oppose the Dominion project by providing the factual data that can help raise the stakes in negotiations with the company, and also to sharpen awareness and inform Kenya's future engagements with foreign direct investments. The study would actually contribute to research that will facilitate a planned court injunction to stop Dominion activities until the issues raised are addressed.

The Yala Swamp issue is about broader concerns related to government economic policy. Successive governments in Kenya have always expressed commitment to eradicate poverty in all its forms. The latest anti-poverty rhetoric is NARC's framework “economic recovery for wealth creation and employment,” whose central feature is anchored on the belief that foreign exchange and foreign direct investment is the solution to Kenya's development woes. Therefore, as a country we have set out to woo foreign investors. This, notwithstanding the fact that private operators and mega projects owe no accountability to the public and concern themselves principally with cost recovery and profit before anything else.

These export-led growth strategies subordinate human needs and human rights to corporate greed and corporate profit. Big business can never be part of a progressive and sustainable earth. Despotism and corruption has been at the core of Kenya's engagement with foreign investors. Compromised political elites who are often tempted to act as stewards of imperialist interests have continued to give away mineral exploration rights, fisheries, forests and forest products, biological resources and coastal biodiversity to multinationals. The Dominion Group ventures fall into this category and there are doubts as to the extent its activities will enhance food security, increase crop and fish production for domestic consumption and reduce poverty.

Organized resistance to these government policies is mounting as has been seen in the case of Canadian company Tiomin's bid to mine titanium in the coast of Kenya that has not proceeded for over 10 years now; the boycott of Delmonte products that saw reforms to working practices in the firm's pineapple fields in Kenya; the advocacy against flower farms in Naivasha on unethical work practices and use of dangerous chemicals by human rights organizations in Kenya and now the Dominion advocacy that so far is grossly underestimated but which in the fullness of time will prove extremely potent and fierce.

* Patrick Ochieng is the founder and Executive Director of Ujamaa Center, a Center founded in 2001 as a direct response to the continuing exploitation and exclusion of coastal peoples of Kenya that spans over 40 years. Ujamaa is a key member of the Friends of Yala Swamp, a loose coalition of social justice institutions, advocates, and members of the affected communities who have come together to resist the injustices visited on this ecosystem and its people.

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

Negotiations about international trade tend to have relevance for large firms or formal enterprises. But, asks Winnie Mitullah, what about the rights of the large number of workers in African cities involved in informal trade?

When one hears the word trade what comes to mind is the large-scale formal traders, and international trade organizations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and regional organizations such as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). While such traders and institutions are important, street vendors and informal trade, which provides employment and incomes to a significant percentage of people in Africa, in particular within the urban areas, hardly comes to mind.

Street and informal traders fall within the informal economy sector. The sector comprises one half to three quarters of non-agricultural employment in developing countries. Specifically, these figures amount to 48% of non agricultural employment in Africa, 51% in Latin America, 65% in Asia, and 72% in Sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa. Employment in this sector operates without contracts, worker benefits or social protection, and most employees and individuals have no rights to organize and be represented.

The theme of the UN-HABITAT Global Campaign on good urban governance is the 'Inclusive City'. The campaign advances the position that an inclusive approach must be used for balancing, reconciling and trading off competing interests and priorities. In most cities the interests of micro and small enterprises such as street and informal traders are competing with those of medium and large-scale enterprises, with the former being disadvantaged. All types of enterprises in urban areas, whether micro, small, medium or large, should have the right not only to the Central Business District (CBD) but to all urban goods and services. The global campaign has noted that the notion of inclusion has different resonances in each region with exclusion of specific groups being most significant in some regions and exclusion of the poor majority more important in others. The campaign urges actors to discuss the question of 'who' in a particular city is excluded from 'what' and 'how'. This article demonstrates how street and informal traders are not integrated in urban planning and development.

Concepts such as participation, empowerment, and social inclusion have become buzzwords, and yet to the poor who are engaged in informal economic activities the concepts do not make much sense. In the usage of these concepts, emphasis is often placed on participatory development, and participatory political processes, rather than participatory market processes. Further, the proponents of democratic practices tend to focus on political democracy to the neglect of economic democracy, while the proponents of empowerment and voice tend to focus on individuals rather than collectivities. Street and informal traders are still to fully adopt joint action in dealing with urban authorities.

The human rights organizations responsible for the clamour for rights are still to adequately specify what they mean by economic rights or adequately strategise about how to claim or enforce worker rights. Even the micro financial institutions, whose clients work mainly within the informal economy, have focused on financial services to the neglect of other business services and of how the wider policy and regulatory environment affects their clients. Most vendors rely on money-lenders or informal sources of credit in order to buy their merchandise. As a result, they pay exorbitant interest rates, and their businesses rarely grow beyond subsistence levels.

The Bellagio International Declaration of Street Vendors of November 1995 urged governments to develop national policies for hawkers and vendors by making them a part of the broader structural policies aimed at improving their standards of living by giving them legal status, issuing licenses and providing appropriate hawking zones in urban areas. The declaration further called on governments to integrate vendors into urban development plans. Since then, a number of global, regional and local associations have been established to protect the rights of street and informal traders. The global networks include the Women in Informal Employment Globalising and Organising (WIEGO) with a secretariat at the Harvard University, MA USA and StreetNet International with headquarters in Durban, South Africa. StreetNet has regional and local networks which have begun engaging urban authorities in policy dialogues, including issues relating to the right to trade in urban space.

Location of Trade

Street vending and informal trade is rampant in most developing country cities, and is a source of employment and income to a large percentage of urban households. The trade takes place at strategic points with heavy human traffic - along main roads, streets, parks, pavements, within shopping centers, and at prominent corners of streets and roads where traders are visible to pedestrians and motorists. The traders use different structures, including mats, gunny bags, tables, racks, wheel barrows, handcarts, and bicycle seats to display their goods. Some traders simply carry their commodities on their hands, heads and shoulders, while others hang their commodities on walls, trees and fences. An advanced but insignificant group of the traders construct temporary shades with stands for displaying their goods.

Challenges of Trade

The greatest challenge facing street and informal traders is with regards to site of operation and right to trading space. Most of the spaces traders occupy are considered illegal since the spaces have not been set aside for trade. In cases where they are allowed to operate, the spaces are considered temporary and eviction occurs at the will of urban authorities. There are various conflicts relating to their sites of operation. A major conflict often arises when the vendors are required to move in order to give way for planned development. This brings them into direct confrontation with urban authorities and land developers. Most of the spaces the traders occupy have no tenure, and are not allocated and sanctioned by urban authorities. At the same time, the traders are also in conflict with formal shop owners and landlords who contend that the traders infringe on their businesses and/or premises.

The spaces occupied by traders are open and expose traders to harsh environmental conditions. Most commodities of trade such as fruits, vegetables and clothes are affected by the harsh environmental conditions, consequently resulting in loss of earnings to the traders. Overall, street vendors and informal traders have been noted to be perhaps the most regulated and least protected. They trade illegally due to lack of recognition and licenses. The traders are known to identify trading sites on their own, leaving the urban authorities with few options, which include eviction, tolerating traders or charging a daily fee without providing any legal protection.

In cases of eviction, the traders are often provided with an option outside the (CBD) where there are hardly any customers. This option is based on an exclusion framework which reserves the CBD to large scale traders and businesses which urban authorities argue pay taxes as opposed to the street vendors and informal traders. This argument is false, and research has shown that when both daily fees and bribes to urban authorities are taken into consideration, the urban authorities collect more from traders than required. Research has further shown that daily fee charges are more expensive than lump sum payment for a license. However, the street and informal traders make minimal profit and are not able to make lump sum payments.

Lack of a street trading licenses exposes traders to harassment and punitive measures, including confiscation of goods. During harassment, traders lose their commodities, with some closing their businesses after losing their capital goods. Research from a number of African cities reveals that having a license does not guarantee safety and recognition by urban authorities. In most cases, vendors are not issued with any identification showing that they have a legitimate right to sell their goods in urban streets. This exposes them to harassment, including confiscation of goods, assault and demands for bribes.

Until the dawn of governance reform programmes in Africa, licenses were largely commodities of trade peddled by either urban authority officials or those who had access to the urban authorities. This outcome is attributed to planning laws, which do not take into account the existence of street vendors and informal traders. In most cases, such planning laws locate the traders on the peripheral areas of the city where there is no business, without any consultation. The experience across Africa shows that traders never stick to such areas. They drift back to the centre, resulting in punitive measures from the city authorities. Most of the policies and regulations being enforced on street and market traders owe their origin to colonial policies, which were retrogressive with regards to small scale local enterprises. Street and informal traders require laws that recognize their economic activities as an important component of the urban economy, and ensure their right to trading space.

Apart from the right to trading space, street and informal traders are also disadvantaged in the area of security, transport and municipal services. A secure working environment is a pre-requisite for any type of business. Security is a major concern for many people engaged in economic activities on streets. Municipal authorities have been the major source of insecurity for these traders. The authorities harass, beat and confiscate goods of street vendors without any warning. This does not only threaten the security of vendors but also their customers. A study of cities in South Africa has noted that an insecure environment results in loss of customers, frightens tourists, cripples business, reduces incomes, and generally interferes with trading.

The insecurity in the streets is sometimes used as an excuse for evicting street traders. In many cities in Africa, trading spaces of street and informal traders are viewed by urban authorities as dens for thugs and robbers. In 2001 Kampala Municipal Authority used an increase in city theft and insecurity as grounds for evicting vendors from streets. While it may be true that criminals mingle with traders, an assumption that street vendors and informal traders are criminals is part of a scheme by urban elites to exclude street and informal traders from the development benefits of cities. A rights perspective requires urban authorities to identify and deal with culprits as opposed to condemning a whole sector of an urban economy.

Most vendors find it difficult to transport their commodities from their homes and markets to their trading sites. This is because most transport systems do not service the areas where vendors live, and in cases where they do, the vendors can hardly afford the service. In some cases, there are restrictions on what an individual can take on the bus, mini-bus or train. This forces vendors to carry their goods on their backs or to hire handcarts or human carriers to transport their goods. This is complicated further by lack of storage facilities, which makes the traders carry back to their homes unsold commodities.

Other services such as water and sanitation are also not available to vendors and consumers. Apart from a few cities in South Africa, street and informal traders operate without access to water and sanitation. A few of them rely on services from the neighbouring formal markets, hotels and bars; while the majority of vendors rely on unsafe water sources, unsanitary methods of refuse disposal and use of open spaces as sanitary facilities. Others obtain services from their homes or nearby residential areas. Cleansing services provided by urban authorities are inadequate and do not cover trading areas of street and informal traders, nor do the urban authorities facilitate the provision of services by traders and other stakeholders. In cases where traders are organized, they clean their sites of operation or hire people to collect and dispose garbage.

The poor, in particular street and informal traders, are disadvantaged in trade at global, regional and local levels. Under pressure from rich countries, the barriers to international trade in goods and financial services and investment flows have been lowered to the advantage of capital over labour and of large firms over small and micro firms. The negative trade and policy processes largely disadvantage the wage workers and own account producers in the informal economy, and yet they are the majority poor who are the focus of current policies and development processes. The neglect of the micro and small traders has to be reversed if African countries are to change existing poverty trends.

* Dr. Winnie Mitullah is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Nairobi.

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

The Niger Delta has been described as "exploited, misused, abused, polluted, underdeveloped, and almost completely dead; like a cherry fruit sucked and discarded". [1] Nnimmo Bassey looks at the crude oil trade in the Niger Delta and finds it's anything but sweet for local communities.

The Niger Delta of Nigeria has been in the news so repeatedly that the issues merit little introduction. In one sense the issues are a mesh of politics, trade and resource exploitation. All these work to gravely undermine the rights of people in terms of the exploitation of their natural environment.

The Niger Delta is the treasure base of Nigeria, since successive governments have decided to ignore other sustainable income sources that had sustained the nation before the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in the country. Today, by official count, oil contributes about 95% of the country's foreign exchange earnings from a production of 2.2 million barrels of crude per day. An additional chunk is extracted illegally into private and corporate pockets through crude oil bunkering. These all lead to the milking of the Niger Delta to the point of near death. The area suffers a dearth of social amenities, high unemployment, environmental degradation, and other social malaise.

Oil corporations such as Shell and Chevron, who are major players in the Niger Delta, have admitted to contributing to corruption and violence/civil unrest in the Niger Delta. In Shell's Peace and Security report (published in 2003) as well as Chevron's double page ads in Nigerian newspapers in May 2005, the corporations admit that by their actions they have contributed to the state of conflict, corruption and distortion in both the Niger Delta environment and by extension the Nigerian state.

According to the Shell report: "Annual casualties from fighting already place the Niger Delta in the 'high intensity conflict' category (over 1,000 fatalities a year), alongside more known cases such as Chechnya and Colombia. The criminalisation and political economy of conflicts in the region mean that the basis for escalated, protracted and entrenched violence is rapidly being established. This not only threatens SCIN's (Shell Companies in Nigeria) future ability to operate, but also Nigerian national security." [2]

Trade has remained the major precursor of destruction in the Niger Delta. We can go right back to trade practices where highly valuable goods were exchanged for bottles of whisky, beads and mirrors, or to the days during which the Niger Delta lost human resources through the slave trade. Before the advent of the crude oil trade in the Niger Delta, we have it on record that on 22 February 1895 the trading city, Brass, located here, was attacked and levelled by British naval forces at the behest of the Royal Niger Company to ensure that the company had a monopoly over the palm oil trade for which the town was famous. Over 2,000 persons, mostly women and children, lost their lives in that attack.

In modern day times, it has been said that since Shell arrived in the Niger Delta it has been a tale of desolation. Much of the activities in the Niger Delta with regard to crude oil and its exploitation are shrouded in rights abuses, as the world came to learn from the struggles of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni people and the subsequent hanging of Saro-Wiwa.

There is an unending story of horrors coming out of the Niger Delta. Oil spills and pipeline fires are regular features and official estimates are that there are at least 300 incidents each year. Clean up exercises are spade and shovel events. They are often capped off by the setting of remaining crude oil on fire. This way forests and even rivers have been set ablaze. These crude oil spills poison the land, pollute water bodies and expose the people to untold hardship. Consider also the response to communities attempting to protect their rights:

- In 1990, the Umuechem community was visited by contingents of Nigerian police. Eighty community members were murdered in the unprovoked attack. Houses in the community were either burnt down or looted. The people of Umuechem were engaged in peaceful protests at the gates of the Shell's flow station located in their community. [3]

- On November 10, 1995, the Nigerian military regime of General Sani Abacha murdered Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta after a kangaroo tribunal set up by the regime convicted them for trumped up charges of murder. The world responded with outrage. This followed the commencement of peaceful protests in1993 by the Ogoni against the destruction of their natural environment and livelihoods.

- For the people of Ilaje community, Ondo State of Nigeria, May 28, 1998 is a day they cannot forget in a hurry. Ilaje youths had occupied Chevron's oil platform in order to induce Chevron to have a dialogue with them. The Nigerian military and police swooped down in helicopters on the protesting youths. Reports have it that the attackers landed shooting, Rambo style, killing two youths on the spot. [4] A lawsuit is currently being heard on this in San Francisco, USA.

- On November 20, 1999, barely six months into his first term as civilian president of Nigeria, President Obasanjo ordered soldiers into Odi, a town in the Niger Delta. By the time they left, the destruction of Odi was complete and 2,483 people had been slain. The dead included women, children and the aged and infirm. [5]

- About 50 members of Odioma community in Bayelsa State of Nigeria were reported massacred on Saturday, February 19, 2005 during a military raid by a Joint Task Force of the Nigerian Army and Navy. [6] The soldiers also destroyed the whole community with houses bombed and burnt in a manner reminiscent of the Odi Massacre of 1999. Again, those killed were mostly women, children and the elderly. Odioma Community, located in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, is one of the many oil-bearing communities in the Niger Delta and had been in conflict with neighbouring Bassambri community over the ownership of a fishing settlement, where Shell has some oil wells. Shell planned to build an oil flow station at Obioku and had actually mobilized its contractors to the site since January 20, 2005. Work on the project was stopped by protesting youths from Odioma community because of the lack of an Environmental Impact Assessment.

Apart from vigorous protests by communities, the struggle for human rights gained momentum on 14 November 2005 when a high court sitting in Benin City ruled that the practice of flaring gas associated with crude oil extraction was an infringement of the fundamental human rights of the people living in communities where such flaring existed. The judge subsequently ordered that the top guns of Shell and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) should appear before him to show a clear step by step plan for stopping gas flaring a year from that date. This and other gas flare cases have been filed by communities with the collaboration of Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth Nigeria) as well as the Climate Justice Programme.

Gas flaring has been going on in the Niger Delta for close to 50 years and has been estimated to constitute a waste of $2.5 billion annually. Besides being an economic waste, the flares release a cocktail of toxic and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and greatly endanger the lives of people. Health problems associated with gas flares include respiratory diseases, cancer, acute nonlymphocytic leukemia and a variety of other blood-related disorders. The environmental problems, including acid rain and damage to water bodies and farms, are no less horrendous.

The government and Chevron (project executors) of the West African Gas Pipeline project (WAGP), which is planned to harvest and pipe liquefied natural gas from new gas fields in Escravos in the Niger Delta of Nigeria to industrial complexes in Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana, have been presenting it as an answer to the gas flaring problem. They also present the WAGP as a clean development mechanism project in order to claim carbon credits.

The truth however is that the project has nothing to do with ending or reducing gas flaring in the Niger Delta as a huge proportion of the gas it would convey would be harvested from purely gas fields as opposed to being associated gas. Communities affected by this project have sent a petition to the Inspection Panel of the World Bank claiming that many rules of the bank have been flouted in the project and that their rights are not respected. Indeed, the local communities in the firing lines of this project have rejected the scheme and insist that decisions have been made without first conducting the needed environmental, social and other impact assessments. The WAGP is emblematic of the rape of the Niger Delta by TNCs and collaborating governments. Projects and trade decisions are made without regard to the rights of the people.

But as the oil wells begin to run dry, the competition is getting more acute. The Chinese are making bold grabs for the oil fields of the Niger Delta. The USA sees the region as being of critical strategic interest. The World Bank and the Paris Club eye the petrodollars coming into the region as theirs for the taking. All these combine to make the future of the region more precarious. With growing resistance in the region it is anyone's guess how things will play out.

While the trade booms, having rights respected will remain illusive. The realisation of this appears to form the bedrock of the local people insisting that there should be community control over community resources. They reckon that this way they would be able to decide if they want any mineral to be exploited in their environment or not. Where the people decide to have their resources exploited they would be able to insist on certain rules that would ensure that their rights are respected and that benefits from such exploitation accrues to them.

It is conceivable that the refusal of the state to accept this proposition is the trigger to the present conflagration in the Niger Delta. Another growing demand among environmentalists such as those in the Oilwatch International network is that there should be a moratorium on new oil explorations, for say ten years. The intervening time would be used to make an audit of the pollution and abuses that have accumulated over the years, commence clean up and remediation actions and decide how the vulnerable communities would fare in a post petroleum economy when they would be left with nothing but a polluted environment.

* Nnimmo Bassey is Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action and Friends of the Earth Africa campaign co-ordinator.

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

References

[1] Quoted in Terisa E. Turner and Leigh S. Brownhill, “Why women are at war with Chevron” Nigerian Subsistence Struggles Against the International Oil Industry, New York: International Oil Working Group, 2003. Accessed at http://www.uoguelph.ca/~terisatu/un.htm on 29 May 2006.

[2] Peace and Security in the Niger Delta: Conflict Expert Group Baseline Report, SPDC, December 2003

[3] See The Shell Report by Environmental Rights Action (ERA) at www.eraction.org/modules/publications/docs/shellreport.pdf

[4] ERA The Wicked Activities of Chevron in Ilaje Land, Environmental Testimonies # 3 published in Environmental Testimonies, ERA, Benin City Nigeria, 1999. See Also Environmental Testimonies #5 in same publication.

[5] See ERA: A Blanket of Silence. The publication catalogues names of victims.

[6] See Nigerian Soldiers Destroy Odioma Community, 50 local people killed.

The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, in collaboration with the Open Society Justice Initiative, AfriMAP, and Partnership Africa Canada, will be holding a civil society event entitled Strengthening Civil Society: Ensuring Compliance with African and International Standards on Human Rights and Good Governance, prior to the African Union Summit in Banjul, Gambia from June 26 – 28, 2006.

"In South Africa the issue of grand corruption under apartheid has been the source of comparatively little public debate," says a new report, 'Apartheid Grand Corruption: Assessing the scale of crimes of profit in South Africa from 1976 to 1994', which attempts to document and describe instances of corruption that took place during apartheid and in particular, during the period 1976–1994. "Since the advent of democratic rule scant attention has been paid to the possibility that leading apartheid-era functionaries (in government and business) may have used the cover of authoritarian rule to illegally acquire vast sums of wealth in defiance even of the legal 'norms' of that time," the report says.

The African Civil Society Governance and Aids Initiative briefing contains information on the Jacob Zuma rape trial verdict, the bi-annual International Microbicides Conference, and the global campaign to part-finance the Global Fund. It also includes information about research in Tanzania dealing with governance and quality in Tanzanian education and voices of AIDS news sources and how they differ in what they say in Uganda. Visit the Justice Africa website to read the full briefing.

South African Diaspora (http://www.southafricandiaspora.org/archives/2006/05/30/take-take-take/) raises some interesting points about Africans leaving to work abroad in the West. He goes into considerable detail about skilled and unskilled labour and the cost for Africa to educate it’s skilled workforce who then leave.

“So taking this from America’s point of view, they can basically pick and chose who they want from Africa’s talent pool, not have to pay a cent for their education and training, and have no trouble getting them to immigrate. What a great system. Africa, why are you so poor and stupid?”

He asks what would happen if all the educated Africans came home to work? For example many Indians who left to study IT in the US are now returning home. He makes one challenging suggestion of the US:

“I would like to see America paying $1 million for every immigrant that they take. Or even better, if for every skilled worker that they took, they took 20 unskilled workers. Or maybe a moratorium on permanent immigrations, only 5 years maximum allowed – go overseas, work a bit, get cash and experience, bring it home and make it better…”

African Gadget (http://www.afrigadget.com) is a new group blog created with the aim of showcasing African alternative technologies and ways of utilising every day objects to solving local problems. One of the first pieces on show is:

“Handcrafted, locally made bikes using wood and rubber for the tires. Yes, they do have brakes, which are much needed in the mountainous areas of Uganda, Zaire/Congo, and Western Kenya.”

African Gadget is looking for more people in Africa to join their team. “No matter where you are located, you’ll see (and hopefully take pictures of) some interesting gadgets or mechanical wizardry. Even if you don’t have your own blog, or have never done anything like this before, you can easily get started here."

AfriGadget will cover these categories: Gadgets (of course), How-to’s, Books, Energy, Communication, Transportation, Water, Wood and Metal projects that are different from the norm.

Sub-ZeroBlue (http://www.subzeroblue.com/archives/2006/05/homosexuality_in_the.html) discusses homosexuality in the Arab world by commenting on it’s existence and asking what should be done.

“First of all, let's start with the general fact: Homosexuality exists. It has existed for ages and ages, and will continue to exist for ages to come…The Arab and Muslim world is no exception. Homosexuality exists in our societies and is a lot more widespread than we think it is…We and our governments choose to ignore that fact, we choose not to face it, and just act as if it’s not there, even though we know we’re lying to ourselves; it’s because we simply don’t know how to handle it.”

He goes on to say that on the basis of basic human anatomy homosexuality cannot be regarded as natural but since it exists, the Arab world needs to find a way to deal with it. He asks:

“So, is the Arab world’s policy of just ignoring the existence of homosexuality, and leaving it for the Arab society to deal with, as something that is both illegal by law and forbidden by religion, the best solution we have?”

The Arabist (http://arabist.net/archives/2006/05/28/a-letter-from-sharqawi) publishes a letter from Mohamed el-Sharqawi, a protestor who was detained by the police whilst protesting in support of the pro-reform judges. Sharqawi was sexually assaulted during his detention:

“Activist Mohammed el-Sharqawi, 24, was sodomized ‘using a rolled up piece of cardboard for nearly 15 minutes,’ his lawyer Gamal Eid told The Associated Press. ‘Almost all of el-Sharkawi’s body is bruised, swollen, or cut,’ Eid said. ‘I haven’t seen such brutality and sadism since 1995,’ he added, referring to a period when the state mounted a crackdown on Islamic militants.”

In this post, Sharqawi describes his ordeal from being kidnapped, beaten and assaulted over an 8 hour period by Egyptian security forces:

“I went through many moments of fear and horror in my life, but nothing was like those I went through after I left the Press Syndicate on 25 May, 2006, around 6pm. I got into one of my colleagues’ car, to take a ride to the train station, so as to catch the train to Alexandria. I wanted to see my family, after a period by no means short - 30 days -behind bars in Tora Prison.”

Diary of a Mad Kenyan Woman (http://madkenyanwoman.blogspot.com/2006/05/nambrangelina-africa-in-hock…) comments on the Brad Pitt/Angelina Joli saga in which they have gone to have their baby in Namibia. The government is providing them with protection from paparazzi during their stay and the couple have donated $175,000. The couple have a joint worth of literally millions of dollars. The child will have Namibian citizenship. MKW comments:

“However, we Africans have now reached new depths of depravity and shame. Or perhaps that should be heights, since it is somehow rather ineffable that an entire country can be turned into a private maternity ward. An. Entire. Sovereign. Country. Namibia has granted Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt the rights of ownership (or lease?) over its borders and its airspace, so that this couple, who are accomplished enough to have arranged their genetics so as to have the requisite good looks—if one likes that sort of thing—to subsequently make unthinkable amounts of money for occasionally pretending to be someone else on film, can determine who enters or flies over Namibia. I repeat. Namibia, THE COUNTRY.”

MKW (as are many other African bloggers) is disgusted with this arrangement or rather agreement by the Namibian government. MKW concludes that it would be best to stop pretending and just bring back colonialism:

“This time, we have ourselves agreed to slavery and to colonialism. This time, we have invited and reveled in them. This time, we have no excuse. I have never been so ashamed to be an African.”

Acoustic Motorbike (http://ggernst.blogeasy.com/article.view.run?articleID=316558) reviews a new book, an Anthology on lesbian writings from South Africa – Sometimes X Sometimes Y.

“It is a beautiful, moving anthology of personal stories of South African lesbians. There is poetry, stories, letters and autobiography. The anthology deals with issues of coming out, family and peer acceptance and rejection, love and loss, abuse and death.”

Black Looks (http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/05/blocking_blogs_monitoring_mobiles_-_…) comments on the new trend emerging in African countries with governments increasingly attacking internet sites, blocking blogs and arresting bloggers and journalists. The Ethiopian government continues to block Ethiopian blogs in Ethiopia. The government is still denying responsibility but who else could be doing it. Apart from the blocking of blogs in Ethiopia, arrest of bloggers in Tunisia and Egypt, the Gambian government has hacked into the site of exiled journalist, Pa Nderry Mbai, who runs the Freedom Newspaper. His own content was removed and replaced by a false statement plus the publication of the names and emails of all registered users of the site all of whom were later ordered to report to the police station to be detained.

In addition the South African and Zimbabwean government are planning to enact legislation that will require mobile phone users to produce employment records and addresses. Providers will be forced to disclose and monitor usage.

"…from a user perspective the Bill has implications for both privacy and access or use of mobile phones. As always it is the poor that will mostly be affected by this legislation. If you don’t have an address, do not work in the formal economy or are an illegal immigrant then under the Bills regulations you will no longer be able to use a mobile phone. The second hand sale of SIM cards which again is used by mostly poor and rural people will be criminalised as failure to report the sale or exchange will result in a prison sentence of up to 12 months.”

Afrikan Eye (http://afrikaneye.blogspot.com/2006/05/slavery-and-colonisation.html) has an excellent essay on Slavery & Colonisation in Africa. She beings by saying:

“This blog is by an Afrikan for Afrikans...and those who are interested in the continent. May we have the courage to engage in our healing...I mean REALLY do the work required for us to heal...and of course a critical step in that process is learning how we were wounded...so here we go...this is PART of the story.”

She discusses the slave trade, resistance amongst captured slaves, colonisation and its impact on political and cultural underdevelopment, and Britain’s Gulag in Kenya. The piece is quite detailed and includes photos and graphics.

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks,

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The United Nations refugee agency has halted the repatriation of Sudanese refugees from Moyo District in northern Uganda over safety reasons. This move follows reports that Liri, Nyepo and Limolo payams (sub-counties) in the refugees' Kajo Keji home land are riddled with explosives.