This chapter in the UNECA's "Economic report on Africa 2005" examines the prominent features of the poverty challenge in Africa. It outlines the analytical links between growth, employment and poverty to show that employment is a major route out of poverty. The paper also identifies the employment gaps of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) and provides recommendations for strengthening the employment intensity of the growth process and for mainstreaming employment policies in poverty reduction strategies.

Sir Edward Clay, the outspoken former British envoy to Kenya, let rip at the World Bank for lending $120 million (£68 million) to President Kibaki's Government when it was embroiled in a massive corruption scandal. In a letter to Paul Wolfowitz, the President of the World Bank, Sir Edward accused the organisation of "toadying to a thoroughly corrupt administration" and said that last week's loan made a mockery of efforts to stamp out high-level looting.

South African prosecutors won a court order on Tuesday to seize 34 million rand in assets of a former aide to ex-Deputy President Jacob Zuma following a corruption scandal that has rocked the government. Durban High Court Judge Hilary Squires also ordered Schabir Shaik to pay some of the prosecution's legal costs in the case, which saw him convicted of a "generally corrupt" relationship with Zuma last year, lawyers said, reports Reuters.

The African Union and European Union Troikas have reaffirmed what they have termed their shared responsibility for fighting corruption for the benefit of the African continent. And the executive council of the African Union has resolved to press on Zimbabwe to embrace internal dialogue as a key to resolving the country's domestic situation. The commitments were contained in a communiqué on the Africa-European Union dialogue presented to the African Union ordinary executive council meeting held in January.

“Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s courageous commitment to attack corruption brings the possibility of stability and prosperity to Liberia,” said Huguette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International. “Her first months in office are crucial. Rapid and visible progress in delivering on the anti-corruption agenda will assure the people of Liberia that their future holds greater hope and opportunity. This is essential to build new trust between the people and the government, and will help put the country on a sustainable path.”

South African National Civic Organisation's (Sanco's) bombshell proposal to amend SA's constitution confirms an ongoing discussion in political and business circles about whether President Thabo Mbeki should seek a third term in office. Sanco argues the two terms a president can serve denies SA the opportunity to sustain development programmes. It also says the constitutional term limit is a "foreign" concept imposed on SA and the rest of Africa. It argues for the retention of the country's "best minds" and says the constitutional term limit would "force a young president to retire".
Related Link:
* Municipal elections won't appease furious South Africans
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-02/02bond.cfm

In a repeat of a crisis a decade ago, donors now fear that the IMF is blocking aid increases to Mozambique, reports the Mozambique Political Process Bulletin. With public pressure in several European countries for increased aid, and with problems in Ethiopia and Uganda tainting these former donor darlings, donors are anxious to pump more money into Mozambique - especially as budget support. But the IMF says no - it will not allow Mozambique to accept more budget support. Instead, it wants donors to fund more projects outside the state budget - which goes directly against the policy of many donors.

More than 550 refugees who fled Liberia’s brutal civil war arrived home over the past week – the largest batch since the UN refugee agency began its repatriation programme in 2004, and less than two weeks since Liberia’s newly elected president urged her countrymen to return. This latest convoy from Sierra Leone boosted the number of refugees brought home by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its partners since October 2004 to 6,559.

In Burundi, when the political situation improved, "with the successful democratic elections" that culminated in the August presidential poll, returnees increased; reaching 44,385 from July to October 2005, with a 16,000 peak in August alone. However, a drop occurred from November to December, with only 6,611 returnees in the two months. This, UNHCR said, was mainly due to the activities of the rebel Forces nationales de liberation (FNL). Poor socioeconomic conditions, particularly food shortages in some regions, also contributed to the decline.

Fahamu recently established a website associated with Pambazuka News to enable civil society organisations to monitor and respond to events during the African Union summit in Khartoum (see http://www.pambazuka.org/aumonitor/). The site has information about the high profile meetings on the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and the mobilisations against the threat of Sudan taking up the position as head of the AU. A successful civil society mobilisation was organised through this initiative. The following are a selection of the responses received from activists:

Congrats to the team that worked tirelessly to see this through [this]. You have saved Africa from another embarrassment. We must use these little successes to derive new energies for larger battles ahead.
Achim Chiaji

I must say I'm very inspired by your coverage of the AU summit and for keeping us informed as a civil society.
Mary Nzioka

Congratulations to you all for the good work and the succes in Sudan. However we need to keep mobilized for the AU to be managed by heads of States who observe the principles of the AU constitution. We also need to help solve the conflicts of power that at times oppose the chair of the commission of the AU and the president of the AU. I hope we will have opportunities to discuss this and the strategies to adress it.
Gabriel Baglo

This is great news! I guess we need to learn to be vigilant from now on - and to anticipate the things that we want to avoid well before they happen, so we can act accordingly. You have done well in providing leadership here. Now can we turn to the East African leaders and get to understand what they were on about - and let them know that we just do not approve? Let us ponder this as we heave a sigh of relief.
Ezra Mbogori

Thank you so much for all the work and the updates. This is very pleasing news. I think we can as civics push even for more and better changes. It is possible.
Bertha Chiroro

Thank you so much for the good news. As civil society its an achievement but we need to keep on fighting to achieve other goals as well.
Brenda Mukutu

Pambazuka News, the newsletter and website with a focus on social justice issues in Africa, recently nominated by PoliticsOnline and the 6th Worldwide Forum on Electronic Democracy as one of the top ten websites internationally “who are changing the world of internet and politics”, is to begin publishing of a French language version of it highly popular electronic newsletter on January 31, 2006.

“The newsletter has succeeded in creating a pan-African community, uniting people working in human rights, conflict prevention, health, social welfare, environment and social justice right across the region,” said Kenyan Director of Fahamu and Editor of Pambazuka News, Firoze Manji. “But there is a significant and unfortunate gap between those working in English-speaking and French-speaking countries, and we intend to bridge that gap through producing a French language version of Pambazuka News. ... But publishing in these languages is only the first step,” he said. “In the longer term we want to publish an Arabic edition, and then look at other African languages such as Kiswahili.”

Existing Pambazuka News subscribers are asked to:

- Inform Pambazuka News if they, as existing subscribers, would also
like to receive the French version of the newsletter by sending an email
to [email protected] with ‘subscribe French edition’ in the subject line and their full name in the body of the email.

- Inform French colleagues, networks, family and friends that they can subscribe to the upcoming French version of the newsletter by sending an email to [email protected] with ‘subscribe French edition’ in the subject line.

Watch out for more information in subsequent editions!

Click on the link to read the full press release.

Organisers hailed the first phase of the World Social Forum (WSF), which ended on Monday in the Malian capital of Bamako, as having created an "Afrocentric" focus that was missing in previous forums. Quoted by IPS, coordinator Mamadou Goita said: "This is the first time we have had a majority of Africans attending a WSF. Usually there have been less than 100 African NGOs (non-governmental organisations) at any of the other WSFs. It was too expensive for most Africans to travel to Porto Alegre or Mumbai." But after nearly six years, where has the WSF come to? Pambazuka News provides questions and answers about the movement that seeks to challenge corporate globalisation.

1. The WSF has been around since 2001. Where is it now and what happened this year?

The World Social Forum changed its format this year. Instead of one centralized meeting (which until now have been held alternatively in Mumbai, India and Porto Alegre, Brazil), several polycentric events took place. Caracas, Venezuela; Bamako, Mali and Karachi, Pakistan will all host the WSF in January, 2006.

This has been an important progression in the history of the forum, as it serves to expand access to the forum by making it easier for activists and civil society players to participate. The forum thus claims to "offer to progressive forces in Africa a very first opportunity, following to the huge range of popular resistances during the nineties, to significantly set their fights and their alternatives in a global seeking of the construction of a fair world with more solidarity and respectful of People's sovereignty."

The goal of the WSF is not to produce agreements on specific policy positions but to offer a space for dialogue and engagement, with resources to strategise, network and plan joint ventures for the future. It has been successful in creating a loose network of forces around the world who advocate for social, political and economic justice. It has often been called an "anti-globalisation" movement, but is in fact one of the most globalised movements in the history of social justice.

The movement has been criticised, however, as simply a popularized gathering of wealthy NGOs and funders. Past forums have also been dominated by certain interests, leading to debates about whether the WSF represents revolutionaries or reformists. The WSF is anti-globalisation, anti-war, etc. This has also been criticised, leaving many people to question the process of the WSF which is characterised by endless debate and pose questions such as: What is the WSF for? What solutions does the WSF offer? How can the movement move forward, rather than simply critiquing social, political and economic problems as they exist? Further criticisms of the forum focus on the lack of structure or organisational support – whether it be the complicated and often non-functioning website, poor planning at the actual event or the need for more support for participants.

2. There seems to be a lot of criticism over its form, structure and decision making. What does this involve?

The WSF is popularly characterized by a reputation of embodying a complex and confusing decision making process. In order to preserve the plural and open consensus style that is the mandate of the forum, the goal of creating a bottom-up, grassroots event is often planned in an extremely heavy handed, top down manner. Some critics argue that the WSF is not transparent or accountable, let alone democratic and that their Charter of Principles, size, lack of resources and goals of planning massive events make organizing unmanageable. The numerous organisations and individuals involved also offer competing views and ideas, adding to the layers of difficulty in planning such an event.

3. What were the focus areas in Bamako this year?

Each year the WSF appoints thematic areas. This year, in Bamako, 10 were chosen. Topics included war and militarisation, security and peace; globalised neoliberalism; aggression against peasantry; the alliance between patriarchal and neo-liberal systems; culture, media and communication; destruction of ecosystems, biological diversity and resources control; international order and the role of the UN; international trade, debt and economic and social policies; social fights, human rights, social organisations and political rights; alternatives. The areas to be discussed are meant to be kept quite loose, and can be kept extremely localised or made to be more general depending on the needs of the participants.

4. What does the WSF mean for Africa?

Africa will commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in 2007 and the 50th anniversary of the independence of Ghana. It's also a year in which the World Social Forum will be hosed in Nairobi, Kenya, so the Bamako forum offers the potential for the WSF to entrench itself in Africa ahead of 2007. Malian author and social activist Dr Aminata Dramane Traoré has pointed out that the polycentric organisation of the forum is the first step in the process of rooting the WSF in Africa and mobilizing those people on the continent who have been hardest hit by globalization (http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/wsf2006/viewstory.asp?idnews=442) In the same interview, she went on to say: "Holding the WSF in Africa will increase African awareness as far as the link between poverty and globalisation is concerned. Also, Africans will feel more connected to the process than if it were being held elsewhere." The Bamako Forum has also provided the space for groups from around Africa to articulate their concerns, with the Ogoni people from Nigeria and the Yaaku community in Kenya reported to have made their case in Bamako (http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/wsf2006/viewstory.asp?idnews=476), and sessions dedicating to discussing the issue of land bringing together groups from around the continent (http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?2,40,5,925).

5. What global solutions is the WSF generating?

The WSF attracts thousands of people from across the world who work in many different areas and have diverse outlooks, not only about the problems that the world faces, but also in their beliefs about how these problems should be tackled. This has made the articulation of united policy positions difficult and therefore led to frustration in some quarters that while there is a great deal of marching, singing and slogan shouting, nothing much seems to come out of the effort (http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-world/wsf_3211.jsp). Certainly, after six years of existence, its possible to detect a degree of cynicism from veteran WSF travelers that they've heard the same speeches a number of times before. Moreover, while the forums have provided an area for meeting and debate, there's no discernable change to a world where neo-liberalism runs riot and poverty deepens by the day. Before this year's forum there were calls from the likes of Civicus Secretary General Kumi Naidoo for "different civil society actors to find common ground, engage in joint strategising, and plan joint activities for the future" (http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/wsf2006/viewstory.asp?idnews=462). But, says founders of the forum, this is not what the forum was intended for in the first place. "The primary purpose of the forum is to create a space for free dialogue between social movements, and that its openness should not be compromised by confining participants to any narrow statement of intent," says Chico Whitaker in an article on www.opendemocracy.net

6. Who Funds the WSF?

It's very difficult to determine who pays for the WSF: The website cites no sponsors, and it is hard to find any organisations or funding bodies highlighting their role as sponsors. The WSF charter is silent regarding what kinds of international sources of funding may be tapped. The registration fees are minimal. All organisations participating in the WSF are asked to contribute towards a translation solidarity fund, which is intended to help cover the WSF's translation budget.

There is some mention of a funding policy for the WSF held in India, such as the limit of Rs. 25 lakhs limit per donor being raised to Rs. 50 lakhs for WSF 2004. The WSF India website also mentions plans to approach state, local administration, authorities and public bodies to providing facilities free or at subsidised rates and to hold cultural events "with discretion" to raise funds. According to the WSF Charter as adopted in India, the WSF can seek funds from Indian industry and commerce.

Although it appears from the WSF India website that some foreign funding would be raised and managed, Kukke and Shah (http://www.samarmagazine.org/archive/article.php?id=148) claim that a decision was taken not to accept foreign funds, and that all funding needs would be "addressed by the local organisations that had come together to host the event”.

7. Are grassroots organisations represented?

The question of grassroots representation is quite closely tied with those around funding. Organisations working on the ground are usually far more cash-strapped than those that network, train, research or sponsor them, and the former usually (hopefully) spend their money largely on meeting the direct needs of their beneficiaries. Several private foundations did manage to sponsor representatives of grassroots women's organisations to attend the events in Bamako, enabling many to make voices heard that are frequently absent in international 'jamborees'.

Sending representatives to WSF meetings is thus only possible with sponsorship, and again, it is difficult to find information about where to go about applying for travel and accommodation grants. This, together with the fact that air travel within Africa is often prohibitively expensive, leaves grassroots organisations based in the country where the WSF is held. However, the relationships between Northern NGOs and African movements are seldom balanced. According to Njoke Njehu: "Governments tend to listen first to the IFI's and to international NGO's before they listen to their own civil society." (http://www.nigd.org/docs/WSFICHolland2005PolycentricWSF2006)

* Compiled by Karoline Kemp and Patrick Burnett, Fahamu and Joy Olivier, Fahamu volunteer

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Further Links

World Social Forum
www.worldsocialforum.org, www.wsf2006.org
Mali Social Forum
www.fsmmali.org
Indymedia
http://sa.indymedia.org/features/wsfmali2006/
IPS Coverage: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31822
Trade Coverage
http://www.icftu.org
Centre for Civil Society
http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs
WSF Youth Conference
http://www.fsmmali.org/jeunes/radio

Ben Terrall examines Haiti’s coup regime, human rights abuses, the sham of planned elections and the complicity of Washington on a military and diplomatic level. It’s a situation that has important implications for the African diaspora. As Fr.Jean-Juste, Haitian activist for justice and human rights, is quoted as saying: “It is time for peace, justice, and greater love, particularly among us, various branches of the African Diaspora in America. Can the day come when all of us African descendants in the Americas join together for mutual concerns, unity, and greater solidarity among us in this native continent of ours? Then can we come together in even stronger solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Africa, our grandmother continent?”

In a June 2005 Jamaica Observer column about the significance of the Haitian revolution, John Maxwell wrote, “the slaves of Saint Dominique, the world’s richest colony, rose up, abolished slavery and chased the slavemasters away.” Maxwell, one of the more astute journalists covering US foreign policy, added, “Unfortunately for them, they did not chase all of the slavemasters away, and out of the spawn of those arose in Haiti a small group of rich, light-skinned people – the elites, whose interests have fitted perfectly into the interests of the racists in the United States. Between them, last year, on the second centenary of the abolition of slavery and the Independence of Haiti, those interests engineered the re-inslavement of Haiti, kidnapping and expelling the president and installing in his place a gang of murderous thugs, killers, rapists and con-men.”

Vehement opponents of Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s Lavalas party, the Bush Administration helped orchestrate the February 2004 coup which ousted the democratically-elected government of Haiti. Among other pro-poor social programs, the Aristide/Lavalas government’s doubling of the minimum wage was anathema to Washington’s “free trade” corporate agenda.

Maxwell argues, “the now rampant neo-facist apologists for so-called neo-liberalism are in direct line of moral descent from those who petitioned Pope Nicholas V in 1454 to sanction the slave trade between Portugal and Africa…in the new world created by the neo-liberal counter-revolution, the rights of workers and the poor are being taken away, they are getting poorer and the richer are getting richer and less accountable. In Africa, that means that hundreds of children die every day from starvation or gastroenteritis because their governments cannot afford to train or pay doctors or to provide clean drinking water.”

The dividing lines resulting from such blatant economic warfare on the world’s poor have created solidarity among the poorest countries such that the African Union and the CARICOM countries have refused to buckle under Bush Administration pressure to recognize the current coup regime in Haiti.

To its everlasting discredit, in 2004 the UN sent troops to Haiti when a U.S. marine occupation became politically untenable. In effect, this international presence, consisting of soldiers from more than twenty countries, comprises an occupation force that legitimizes the current coup regime and controls dissidents unwilling to accept the new status quo. And, as a Chilean officer told me in Cap Hatien in December 2004, the troops are “trained as soldiers, so it is very hard for us to not react in a military fashion.”

A Haitian activist I spoke to who identifies himself as a member of Lavalas told me that one useful thing the UN has done in Haiti is to bring in health care. Unfortunately, he noted sardonically, the treatment only comes after UN troops shoot civilians.

In too many cases, those civilians do not survive. In September, I spoke to witnesses to an unprovoked attack on the poor neighborhood of Bel Air in which Brazilian troops killed several unarmed residents on June 29, including a man in a wheelchair who had the top of his head blown off. Neighbours present at the scene told me the young man was confident he would be safe in front of his residence during the raid, since he was clearly handicapped and unarmed.

On July 6, UN forces perpetrated a well-documented massacre of women, men and children in the Cite Soleil section of Port-au-Prince, killing at least 23 people. During a July 8 interview with U.S. human rights activist Seth Donnelly, UN commanders Lt. General Augusto Heleno Ribiero Pereira and Colonel Jacques Morneau claimed that they were unaware of any civilian casualties and characterized the operation as a success. Colonel Morneau suggested that bodies viewed by investigators could have been killed by “gangs” and blamed on MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission In Haiti) forces. The commanders stated that MINUSTAH did use a helicopter during this operation for logistical coordination, but that soldiers in the helicopter did not shoot into the community.

Among the Haitians I spoke to in September was a seven-months pregnant woman who was shot while standing outside her Cite Soleil residence by UN troops during the July 6 raid. Despite the heroic efforts of Doctors Without Borders, she later lost her baby.

On the morning of July 6, the woman saw flashes of light coming from a helicopter directly overhead before she felt a stinging in her stomach and realized she’d been shot. Photographs taken by investigators show bullet holes in ceilings of tin shacks, suggesting that they were fired on from above.

A nonviolent Haitian activist I interviewed explained, “I see this situation as very close to what happened in Rwanda, there is a legitimacy of hatred, we hear in the media that everything that goes wrong is the fault of one party… they describe all Lavalas as enemies of the country. The rich keep calling on the UN to crack down harder, calling all people in the popular neighborhoods ‘bandits’. After the July 6 UN massacre in Cite Soleil, the rich said ‘good job’. When 10,20, or 30 people are killed in popular neighborhoods, the wealthy applaud. They pretend that all people in those neighborhoods are ‘bandits’. It’s clear that people in those neighborhoods are pro-Lavalas, but not all are armed. People in those neighborhoods start to feel that people outside are enemies. A real process of reconciliation would have to involve all, with no exclusion, and would have to look seriously at what the needs are in poor neighborhoods.”

Unfortunately the current government seems only interested in dealing with the poorest neighborhoods with military force. Given its cuts to social programs put in place by President Aristide’s Lavalas administration, and the extreme increases in prices of rice and other staples, the dire situation now faced by the poor majority is unlikely to improve in the foreseeable future.

While political prisoners jailed for their association with Lavalas continued to rot in jail, former anti-Lavalas death squad leader Jodel Chamblain was released in 2005, after a retrial Amnesty International called "an insult to justice." I interviewed prisoners in Haiti’s jails in December 2004 and July and September, 2005. Numerous incarcerated individuals told me they were arrested for openly supporting Aristide.

In the southwestern town of Aquin, Luc Jean Lamour described his situation to me from the cell he has little hope of leaving under the current government. On November 9, 2004, police conducting a sweep arrested Lamour. He was charged with arson, but at his first hearing witnesses didn’t accuse him of that. Since a police officer testified he didn’t see Lamour at the site of the alleged fire, his lawyer argued for release. But in a second hearing Lamour’s lawyer was away in Port au Prince, and Lamour was convicted and given a life sentence. Lamour pointed out that the case against him didn’t focus on arson, but instead stressed his political background as a Lavalas activist. Lamour asked, “The witnesses didn’t say anything directly against me. There was no evidence at all, why was I convicted for life?” The young man is in a cell with 8 other prisoners, most of whom sleep on sheets on the ground. As with many other prisoners I spoke to, he complained that their drinking water is terrible and that even shower water is not clean, as the cistern holding it is not cleaned or ventilated.

Amnesty International has named Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste, a veteran campaigner for justice and human rights in the US and Haiti, a “prisoner of conscience” and called for his unconditional release. The nonviolent activist priest, who has been held on trumped-up charges for five months, was recently diagnosed with a form of leukemia that progresses slowly but can develop into a more virulent strain of cancer.

Sasha Kramer of the Haiti Action Committee visited Fr. Jean-Juste in December. Kramer said, “The Haitian government claims their doctors have found nothing wrong with Jean-Juste, but the coup regime has absolutely no credibility. The Bush Administration could easily pressure the Latortue government, which it helped put in place, to release Jean-Juste.” Kramer noted that in 2005 a US court called conditions in a Haitian prison “reminiscent of a slave ship”.

On December 16, Congresswoman Maxine Waters and 41 other members of the US House of Representatives wrote President Bush calling for Fr.Jean-Juste’s release. The priest responded to the Waters and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus by writing, “Your call for my immediate release brings me the holiday season's hope. It is time for peace, justice, and greater love, particularly among us, various branches of the African Diaspora in America. Can the day come when all of us African descendants in the Americas join together for mutual concerns, unity, and greater solidarity among us in
this native continent of ours? Then can we come together in even stronger solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Africa, our grandmother continent?
These are my wishes for this holidays season.”

When I interviewed Father Jean-Juste in Port-au-Prince’s main penitentiary in July 2004, he commented on elections the US, France and Canada is financing in Haiti: “We hope they will accept the conditions offered by Fanmi Lavalas, and include everyone in the exile community, Haitian Americans, the diaspora in general, and as many Haitians as possible within and outside Haiti. Let’s recognize Aristide as our elected President and work on a return program to facilitate passage of power, free all political prisoners, respect human rights of everyone in this country.”

In a July 2004 press statement, The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti commented, “Fr. Jean-Juste’s arrest is well timed to silence the Interim Haitian Government’s (IGH) most prominent opponent in the lead up to the elections. Fr. Jean-Juste has insisted that there can be no fair campaigning or voting while hundreds of political prisoners fill the jails and police regularly open fire on legal anti-government demonstrations. Most Haitians agree with him: less than two weeks before the end of the registration process on August 9, less than 15% of eligible voters have even registered. Many of those who have registered stated that they did so because registration is required for the national identity card and that they have no intention to vote.”

In mid-November, presidential elections, which had already been postponed five times, were set for January 8. In a November press statement, Rep. Maxine Waters observed, "The Provisional Electoral Council … has yet to hire hundreds of regional election supervisors, provide identification cards to three million registered voters, identify polling locations, or begin recruiting 40,000 poll workers to conduct the elections. One cannot help but wonder how many of these technical problems are the result of simple incompetence and how many are part of a deliberate effort to disenfranchise thousands of Haitians, especially those most likely to vote for Lavalas, the only political party with widespread support among the poor. Cite Soleil, a Lavalas stronghold with an impoverished population of 300,000, had no registration sites at all until after the September 30 registration deadline had passed."

At press time, in early January, the elections have been delayed yet again.

In a memorandum signed by a group of Lavalas leaders including Mario Dupuy, Angelo Bell and Maryse Narcisse, the party asked its supporters to abstain from participation in the next elections so as not to run the risk of being assassinated. Meanwhile, candidates openly running for President include Guy Philippe, a leader of paramilitaries who drove the Aristide government from office and, according to the DEA and US Embassy, closely linked to Haiti's booming drug trans shipment trade; and Franck Romain, a veteran of the notoriously bloodthirsty regimes of "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

In a brief stopover in Port-au-Prince on September 27, Condoleeza Rice staged a photo-op at a voter registration center which National Public Radio described as "carefully scripted". Rice intoned, "throughout history people have fought for the right to vote, some have indeed died for the right to vote. There is no more powerful weapon in the hands of a citizen...and so to the people of Haiti I urge you to use that powerful weapon, the vote, in the days ahead."

The irony of Rice, a key backer of the coup government that replaced a democracy with a death-squad kleptocracy, lecturing Haitians on the importance of the ballot box is stunning.

As Waters points out, “No matter what the date of the elections, the people of Haiti cannot be expected to take them seriously as long as voters are afraid to go to the polls and viable candidates are kept off the ballots and in the prisons. The repeated election delays and continuing technical problems of the Provisional Electoral Council are only the most recent evidence that the interim government of Haiti is incapable of organizing free and fair elections.”

Juan Gabriel Valdès, head of UN operations in Haiti, announced on August 9 that the UN forces are determined to stand in the way of all who seek to exclude Haitians from the electoral process. But UN officials have done little to pressure the illegal coup regime (which by its presence the UN occupation legitimizes) to release political prisoners or to stop its attacks on civilians.

Instead, as a March 2005 report from Harvard Law School noted: “MINUSTAH has provided cover for abuses committed by the HNP (Haitian Police) during operations in poor, historically tense Port-au-Prince neighborhoods such as Bel-Air, La Saline, and lower Delmas. Rather than advising and instructing the police in best practices, and monitoring their missteps, MINUSTAH has been the midwife of their abuses. In essence, MINUSTAH has provided to the HNP the very implements of repression.”

When Aristide was president and his besieged administration struggled to support the interests of the country’s poor majority, the Bush Administration did everything it could to undermine the Lavalas agenda (for a detailed overview of that history see the Haiti Action Committee pamphlet “The US War Against Haiti: Hidden From the Headlines” at Today, as the coup regime imprisons and slaughters pro-democracy activists, it continues to receive military, diplomatic and political support from Washington.

A July 23 AP report quoted coup regime Prime Minister Gerard Latortue as saying, “I know that the only topic on which this government will be judged is its capacity to organize fair and representative elections.”

But as President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the National Representative of Fanmi Lavalas, recently asked, “In 1994, who could have expected free, fair and democratic elections in South Africa with Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Oliver Tambo and other leaders and members of the African National Congress in jail, exile or in hiding?”

* Ben Terrall is an activist and works with the Haiti Relief Fund, which is an extremely low-overhead operation that gets money to people in desperate need and can be accessed at www.haitiaction.net

* Please send comments to [email protected]

* Half-Hour for Haiti: Enough is Enough, Release Fr. Gerry Now

Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste, the Haitian priest and political prisoner who is suffering from potentially fatal leukemia, remains in jail. However, various efforts are underway in the struggle to release him. For more information visit the website of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti at www.ijdh.org

Two cases are taking place:

1) Last week the Institute for Justice & Democracy (IJDH) and the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) filed a Petition with the Inter-American Commission On Human Rights (http://www.ijdh.org/articles/article_iachr_jimmy_charles.htm) against the Interim Haitian Government and Brazil on behalf of Jimmy Charles, a grassroots activist arrested by UN Peacekeepers and executed in Haitian National Police custody on January 13, 2005.

2) On January 19, lawyers throughout the US filed motions to stop all deportations to Haiti (http://www.ijdh.org/articles/article_Haitian_Deportations.htm) , because of the country's disastrous human rights situation.

There has been a lot of activity on Fr. Gerry's case in the last week. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, (R-FL) wrote to Secretary of State Rice (http://www.ijdh.org/Ros-Lehtinen%20Letter%20Jean-Juste.pdf) asking her to intervene to obtain Fr. Jean-Juste's release. Human Rights First called on Haiti's Minister of Justice (http://www.humanrightsfirst.info/pdf/06123-hrd-jean-juste-ltr.pdf) to do the same thing. Prof. Bill Quigley, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and others visited Fr. Jean-Juste in Haiti, and issued an Action Alert (http://www.ijdh.org/articles/article_recent_news_1-24-06.htm) .

The judge who had been holding Fr. Gerry since July 21, issued two documents called "ordonnances" on Thursday, January 19. The ordonnances confirmed that there was no basis for the allegations that had been made publicly against Fr. Gerry: that he was involved in the July 2005 kidnapping and murder of Jacques Roche, the killing of two police officers in the fall of 2004, or a plot against the state. Judge Paul dismissed all those charges.

But Judge Paul added two new charges: illegal weapons possession and association de malfaiteurs (criminal conspiracy). These charges are equally without legal or factual foundation. They are based on Fr. Gerry's employment as a chaplain at the National Palace under Haiti's ousted constitutional government. His position entitled him to five security guards, who were issued a total of three pistols and two shotguns by the government. The ordonnance charges Fr. Gerry with illegal arms possession, even though there is no evidence that the security guards lack a valid license, that their employment has been terminated, that the National Palace authorities have asked for the guns back or that the guns were involved in any illegal activity.

If the ordonnance stands, Fr. Gerry would have to go to trial before a single judge. He would not have a jury. He could be convicted if the government proves that either a) he did not return the five weapons, or b) that he refused to name his five security guards, both of which he concedes. As the ordonnance is written, the prosecutor would not need to prove that the guns are illegal or that anyone engaged in or planned any illegal activity.

Conviction on the conspiracy charge could mean a sentence of forced labor for 3-15 years, and would cost Fr. Gerry many civil and political rights, including the right to run for almost any elected office. Conviction could also prevent Fr. Gerry from being admitted to the U.S. for cancer treatment.

The IGH has refused to release Fr. Gerry for leukemia treatment, insisting that he must accept its deal of a trial on the defective ordonnance with the hope of a pardon. Accepting this deal would require Fr. Gerry to trust the IGH, which has pursued him for 15 months on charges it now admits were baseless, to fulfill its promise of a pardon.

Help save Fr. Gerry's Life: Two weeks we sent an appeal asking people to write to Thomas Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. Subsequently Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Patrick Duddy traveled to Haiti and helped arrange the independent medical examination that confirmed the leukemia diagnosis. Please contact Mr. Shannon again, thank him for his past efforts but urge him to take the steps necessary for Fr. Gerry's release. A sample letter is below, feel free to modify it. Sec. Shannon's telephone number is: 1-202-647-5780, his fax is 1-202-647-0791. You can try emailing to [email][email protected], but we have not been able to confirm that address.

Via Facsimile No. 1-202-647-0791

Thomas A. Shannon

Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs

U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street NW Washington, DC 20520

Re: Haitian Political Prisoner Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste

Dear Assistant Secretary Shannon:

Thank you for your efforts on behalf of Haitian political prisoner Fr. Jean-Juste. The State Department's intervention was vital in assuring the January 10 independent medical evaluation that confirmed the leukemia diagnosis. On January 19, the Interim Haitian Government (IGH) released judicial orders confirming that the stated justifications for Father Jean-Juste's eight months of detention- accusations of the murder of two police officers and journalist Jacques Roche and a plot against state security, were baseless. In fact, the Commissaire du gouvernement,or public prosecutor, concluded in one order that "the investigation does not reveal the participation of Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste in any criminal enterprise" (emphasis supplied).

Unfortunately, those developments have not led to any leukemia treatment. The Commissaire du gouvernement,has refused to exercise his authority to provisionally release Fr. Jean-Juste for medical treatment. This authority is based on his responsibility to assure the health of prisoners, is independent of the case's procedural status, and is routinely exercised in Haiti. Fr. Jean-Juste, who wants to clear his name in a fair trial and has appeared at court or the police station every time he has been summoned, has promised to return from abroad if he is provisionally released.

The government is now insisting that Fr. Jean-Juste stand trial on two new charges, illegal weapons possession and association de malfaiteurs (criminal conspiracy), before he receives treatment. These charges are without legal or factual foundation, and neither alleges any underlying criminal acts. Fr. Gerry's lawyer has appealed the charges because they are legally defective and expose his client to a great injustice with severe consequences. Conviction could expose Fr. Gerry to fifteen years hard labor, permanent loss of civil rights, including the right to hold elective office, and potential exclusion from the U.S. and its cancer treatment facilities.

The IGH and U.S. Embassy staff implored Fr. Jean-Juste's attorney not to file an appeal, and the IGH is pressuring him to withdraw it. The IGH and the U.S. Embassy official stated that it would be quicker for Fr. Jean-Juste to go to trial, and proposed that the Haitian government could pardon Fr. Jean-Juste if he was convicted.

There is no justification for forcing a defendant to stand trial on a defective but serious accusation as a precondition of receiving treatment for a deadly disease. The IGH should process Fr. Jean-Juste's case promptly, with full respect for his procedural rights. In the meantime, it should release him immediately for treatment.

The new charges and the pressure to drop the appeal are the latest in a 15-month long persistent persecution of Fr. Jean-Juste. In all that time the IGH has yet to present evidence of a single illegal act. It is now time for the United States to take action commensurate to that persecution. I urge you to immediately revoke all U.S. entry visas for IGH officials involved in the persecution, including Commissaire du gouvernement Erman Alce, Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, and Minister of Justice Henri D'Orleans. I also urge you to immediately suspend disbursement of all financial and other assistance to the IGH, until Fr. Jean-Juste is released for life-saving treatment.

This past week’s African Union (AU) Summit in Khartoum, Sudan, saw high drama as the country’s President, Omar El-Bashir was nominated for Presidency of the pan-African body. This sparked controversy and divisions on the African continent, threatening to tear the AU apart, but diplomacy and mature government won the day, with Congo-Brazzaville assuming the chair as a compromise candidate. Civil society organisations (CSOs) were instrumental in lobbying against the nomination of Sudan, which was surrounded by questions of human rights abuses. Human rights groups argued that choosing Bashir was unacceptable in light of the current situation in Darfur.

Bashir, a general who seized power in a coup, has been accused of leading a government that carries out attacks in Darfur and supports and arms the militia groups that terrorize the region. An international criminal court is carrying out an investigation into governmental officials and their involvement in the Darfur crisis. CSOs believe that by appointing Bashir, Africa’s credibility and that of the AU would be threatened. The ability to negotiate an end to the Darfur and other conflicts would also be hampered. “The Darfur peace process will be jeopardized if African leaders elect a President for the African Union (AU) who is a party to the conflict,” Alioune Tine, Secretary General of the Senegalese non-governmental organisation (NGO) RADDHO and member of the Darfur Consortium, a coalition of over forty African based NGOs, said in Khartoum as the AU summit got underway. “It creates a clear conflict of interest.”

Sudan’s officials argued that they had been working hard to bring peace to the region, and that they had made progress on a number of fronts. Lam Akol, Sudan’s Foreign Minister, asked: “Which country in Africa does not have internal problems?” Information Minister Zahawi Ibrahim Malik, when asked if the country pulled out of the AU race because of the allegations of human rights abuses, reported that: “Some quarters hostile to Sudan prevented it from getting the chairmanship.”

But in large part due to a flurry of emails between civil society organisations from around the African continent, who were united in protesting against Sudan’s nomination, civil society organisations and human rights groups were successful in their campaign to prevent Sudan gaining the chairmanship. African leaders and CSOs alike feared that the debate might create a distraction as they attempted to solve problems faced by the continent. The issue also threatened to divide governments. African governments were split over their support of Sudan. North Africa and East Africa initially backed Sudan's candidacy. West and central Africa refused to support Sudan, although Chad was the only country to openly condemn their bid. Southern Africa was split with president Levi Mwanawasa of Zambia and Festus Mogae of Botswana said to be supporting West and Central African positions.

The decision to hold the AU Summit in Sudan was not seen without contention, and the fears of CSOs were realised when both local and foreign activists and EU, UN and government officials were detained, harassed and arrested at an open civil society forum. Laptops and documents were retained. Forum members met to promote support for and engagement with the key objectives and institutions of the African Union. “This was a serious interference with the rights of freedom of expression and information and a severe violation of the Sudan Interim Constitution,” said Salih Mahmoud, a member of the National Assembly (the Interim Parliament) who was among those detained.

Leaders reached a compromise by agreeing that the Republic of Congo would take over the African Union Presidency. Officials said that Sudan would then take over in 2007. "It's not a question of what Congo Brazzaville brings to the table, the important thing is what it doesn't bring; human rights violations, genocide allegations and obstruction of AU peacemaking, all the things that Sudan represents," said Peter Kagwanja, analyst at the International Crisis Group. "It's an indication that the AU system is working, that the system is conscious of if its vision." However, Congo’s history is not without turbulence and violence. Despite the introduction of multiparty politics in the 1990s, the President of Congo, Sassou-Nguesso, himself seized power in a 1997 coup. However, the country’s record is still deemed better than that of Sudan.

Still, the power of governmental diplomacy and civil society lobbying came at a crucial time in the history of the AU. The Pan African Movement issued a statement saying: “It will send a clear message to other leaders that Africa has moved away from the dubious principle of non interference in internal affairs of member states’ to non indifference to the sufferings of Africans wherever they may be.” After the demise of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 2002, the AU is trying to distance itself from that body, which was accused of being a toothless dictator’s club. The decision to withhold Sudan from leading the new organisation is thus an important step in building up its credibility.

* Karoline Kemp is a Commonwealth of Learning Young Professional Intern, currently working for Fahamu.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

* For more information, visit http://www.pambazuka.org/aumonitor/

"We the representatives of more than 50 human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations meeting in Nairobi, Kenya from January 13th to 14th, 2006 representing African Civil Society are honored to present our compliments to your high Offices.

We wish to express our deep concern with respect to the ongoing plans by the African heads of state and government to confer the AU Presidency for the year 2006-2007 on Sudan; and in particular to President Omar El-Bashir. We seriously believe that such an action will deeply undermine and erode the credibility of the AU and at the same time compromise the authority of its institutions.

The human rights and humanitarian situation in Sudan’s Darfur region continues to be one of the worst in the world. The Government of Sudan is one of the parties considered responsible for this situation, where an estimated 300,000 people have been killed and two million others mainly women and children deliberately uprooted from their homes since February 2003. This has largely been attributed to the activities of the Government of Sudan and her allied Janjaweed militia. "

* Click on the link to read the full statement and a list of signatories.

"The Open Society Justice Initiative has condemned the arrest of human rights and pro-democracy activists in Khartoum on Sunday, January 22, 2006. Approximately 30 activists, including eight foreign nationals, were arrested by Sudanese security forces and interrogated for several hours before being released. The activists were participating in a civil society consultation on the crisis in Darfur organized in conjunction with the Sixth African Union Summit of Heads of State and Government, taking place in Khartoum this week." Please click on the link to read the rest of this statement, as well as other statements about the harassment of civil society activists.

"We receive with profound shock the news that the East African group of Ministers, meeting on the margins of the 6th Ordinary Session of the African Union Summit, are supporting the Sudanese bid for Presidency of the African Union. Such an action will deeply undermine and erode the credibility of the AU and at the same time compromise the authority of its institutions. Despite the assurances by the Sudanese Vice-President in the opening Session of Executive Council Meeting this morning, the human rights and humanitarian situation in Sudan’s Darfur region continues to be one of the worst in the world."

“The Darfur peace process will be jeopardized if African leaders elect a President for the African Union (AU) who is a party to the conflict,” Alioune Tine, Secretary General of the Senegalese non-governmental organisaiton (NGO) RADDHO and member of the Darfur Consortium, a coalition of over forty African based NGOs, said today in Khartoum as the AU summit got underway. “It creates a clear conflict of interest”. Speaking today in Khartoum Mr Tine urged: “In a continent riven by conflict we need an AU President who can play an incontestably legitimate leadership role in dealing with the challenges of war in Africa. The people of Darfur in particular need an AU President capable of taking a strong and independent stand on behalf of peace.” Click on the link for the rest of this press release and further statements from civil society.

The South African Institute Of International Affairs, in the latest edition of their publication e-africa, profiles the state of microcredit. "2005 has been declared the 'Year of Microcredit' by the UN, thus acknowledging the journey of microcredit from an obscure experiment in the mid-1970s to the status of a worldwide movement. The movement has captivated not just the entire development aid industry, but journalists, editorial writers, policy makers and much of the general public in both the North and the South. Microcredit is what you might guess - credit in tiny amounts. The term, and the practice, came into being when a few aid agencies began offering loans of as little as $10 or $20 to poor people with no collateral in the developing countries."

Education and Culture are high on the agenda for the African Heads of State participating in the 6th African Union Summit in Khartoum, Sudan (23-24 January). The summit will also be the occasion for UNESCO’s Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura, and the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, Alpha Oumar Konaré, to sign a cooperation agreement between the two organizations.