The humanitarian crisis in Darfur, western Sudan, will worsen dramatically unless the security situation there improves immediately and relief workers can reach needy people in the region more easily, the United Nations has warned. UN World Food Programme Executive Director James Morris, who led a high-level UN team to assess the situation in Darfur, said displaced families were living in difficult and unacceptable conditions and continued to fear for their lives.

One of Nigeria's opposition leaders is being investigated over possible links to recent "security breaches," the State Security Services say. Buba Galadima was arrested last Thursday but the SSS have not previously said why he was detained. He is a leader of Nigerians United for Democracy, which organised a protest rally on Monday against last year's elections, which the opposition claims were rigged.

The haggling between the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress over KwaZulu-Natal cabinet posts has ended, with Premier S'bu Ndebele set to announce his full cabinet - which will include three IFP ministers - in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday. After two weeks of intense talks, the parties announced that an agreement had been reached on the formation of a "broad-based" provincial government. "The IFP has accepted three provincial cabinet positions, as initially offered by the ANC. The ANC also gave the IFP the position of deputy Speaker of the legislature," ANC provincial secretary Sipho Gcabashe said.

Instead of instituting an Africa Commission to investigate Africa's problems, the United Kingdom government could aim towards achieving the 35 year-old 0.7 per cent aid target by 2008, commit to cancelling the UK's share of the remaining poor country multilateral debt owed to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and call for the IMF and World Bank to stop imposing unsuccessful, undemocratic and unfair economic policy conditions on African countries. According to the World Development Movement, these are just three of 15 steps the UK government could take instead of the Africa Commission, launched by Tony Blair in February to produce a report with recommendations on how to make the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) work in Africa. "In light of existing analysis on the problems facing Africa, the range of previous political declarations from African Governments themselves, the range of existing - and still unfulfilled - promises of industrialised countries, and the way the UK and EU have ignored African governments in the WTO, WDM is deeply sceptical over the need for, and usefulness of, the Commission for Africa," said the organisation.

Trade unions last week threatened to punish the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) government during the October general elections, for failing to address their grievances. The Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) made the warning at the Labour Day celebrations at Selebe-Phikwe town hall. Chairman of the Botswana Mining Workers Union in Phikwe Golekanye Mogende said their cries to the government for improved working conditions in both civil and private sectors would definitely be felt in October.

‘Give ZANU-PF credit, it has ridden the crisis, seen off the opposition and now all it has to do is manage the crisis and aim for re-election and then change the constitution’ – Zimbabwean human rights lawyer, early 2004.

How are we to reconcile Zimbabwe’s seemingly inevitable slide towards being a ‘failed state’ and the continued confidence within ZANU-PF that they can handle the crisis and stay in power until after parliamentary elections due in 2005? More pertinently, what is the popular response to the multilayered crisis of the Zimbabwean state?

Since the government’s defeat in the February 2000 constitutional referendum, ZANU-PF has largely succeeded in reimposing its control through a ‘holistic strategy of repression’. A peace activist described the strategy as a sort of ‘scorched earth policy in terms of social formations … while it wants to hold elections so as to appear democratic it wants to prevent thought, communication, information, and analysis.’

Broadly speaking the strategy entails a continuation of the militarisation/securitisation of the country, under which these sectors are immune from the law and occupy increasingly prominent positions in intelligence, provincial administration, electoral administration and the like. Secondly, it includes the use of presidential powers – supposedly introduced as part of attempts to clamp down on corruption – allowing police to hold opponents of the regime in prison for up to a month without legal process on charges of ‘subversion’. Thirdly, the regime continues its sustained attack on any foci of independence or opposition.

This strategy has the following elements:

· A state-driven violent land occupation process without resolving contradictions in the rural economy.
· The use of the police and security apparatus against opponents, including the use of sexual violence as retribution.
· The use of terror and judicial intimidation as well as ideological demonisation of the opposition to shut down space for independent voices.
· The ‘restructuring’ of the judiciary towards complete compliance.
· Legal and extra-legal harassment of the independent media, notably through the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act which shut down the Daily News.
· Destabilisation of trades unions, NGOs and other civic bodies. The draft legislation already exists for NGOs to be the next target.
· Widespread torture and intimidation. The opposition has been softened up by four years of sustained repression and abuse. There has been a crackdown on the human rights sector, although brutal intimidation has often been replaced by more subtle forms.
· The co-option or denigration of religious leadership.
· The reorganisation of ZANU-PF structures to ensure a strategy of coercive mobilisation.
· Use of violence as an election strategy with the bodies responsible for electoral administration firmly under government control including use of military personnel.
· The use of the land reform process, the indigenisation strategy, the stripping of state assets and the politically partisan use of government-controlled food as a ‘primitive accumulation’ tool to create a new economic bloc based on party affiliation and loyalty (although its sustainability is open to question).
· An authoritarian economic nationalist (‘anti-imperialist’) rhetoric that has resonance in the region and continent, bringing together race, land and historical injustice in order to demonise the internal opposition and legitimise and maintain ZANU-PF’s rule through repression.

ZANU-PF rides out the crisis?

Since the decision in December 2003 by Harare to react to continued suspension by withdrawing from the Commonwealth, events have seemed to turn ZANU-PF’s way. There have been victories in by-elections marked by the usual violence and intimidation, including retaking the urban constituency of Zengeza in late March 2004.

The Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono responded to recent dramatic collapses in the banking sector linked to endemic corruption by changing the foreign exchange system leading to an initial decline in inflation. This was combined with a drive against corruption. A prominent ZANU-PF MP and proponent/symbol of black economic empowerment, Philip Chiyangwa, was briefly (and illegally) detained over charges of corruption. Indeed the anti-corruption drive in April 2004 claimed the arrest of the recently appointed finance minister but political lightweight Chris Kuruneri on charges of corruption in terms of illegally dealing in foreign currency.

Does this mean that after years of presiding over gross corruption, systemic human rights abuses, and spectacular economic and political decline, the Mugabe government is about to reform (as in the February Cabinet ‘reshuffle’), re-enter the ‘civilised world’ (as a victory for the ‘quiet diplomacy’ of the Mbeki government) and aim for clean parliamentary elections in 2005?

Certainly Thabo Mbeki has given June 2004 as a ‘final deadline’ for serious negotiations to be underway and (hopefully for him) lead to a government of national unity under a reformed ZANU-PF, but not necessarily under Robert Mugabe. Few in the region and even fewer in Zimbabwe find this believable: so many promises, so many broken – and so many basically untrue claims from Mbeki that genuine talks are about to start.

Perhaps a greater indication of South Africa’s stance was its backing at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva on 15 April 2004, just before South Africa’s own elections, for a successfully carried African/Asian/Russian ‘no action’ resolution on the human rights situation in Zimbabwe – for the second year running.

Brian Kagoro, coordinator of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, said: ‘It is disheartening … that ... the human rights of the people of Zimbabwe have been reduced to the flexing of muscles between the global South and the global North.’ As long as Mbeki still (in public at least) accepts the Mugabe rhetoric that the crisis is not about ‘governance’ and human rights but about resolving the triangle of race, land and colonial dispossession, serious pressure or ending of South African financial support seems unlikely.

The arrest of Chiyangwa is supposedly linked to the three factions fighting within ZANU-PF over the succession to Mugabe – John Nkomo, party boss, Emmerson Mnangagwa, and Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi. Mugabe is thought to have removed his support for Mnangagwa after the latter was named in a recent UN report as heavily involved in the illegal diamond trade from the Democratic Republic of Congo. However both Mnangagwa and Sekeramayi are long term Mugabe allies and were involved in the massacres in Matabeleland in the 1980s. Conversely the Nkomo group are his key allies inside Matabeleland.

This is all part of what appears to be conflict between continuing the ‘succession debate’ on behalf of Mnangagwa and having no succession debate, meaning Mugabe stays in power. The easiest strategy is for Mugabe to put the succession on hold and proclaim he is staying out his period of office until 2008. This does little, however, to resolve internal and external questions of the legitimacy and sustainability of the regime or Mbeki’s diplomatic strategy.

ZANU-PF is likely to continue a strategic mix of coercion, bribery and electoral manipulation for the forthcoming 2005 parliamentary elections. According to the Justice in Agriculture Group there is likely to be a ‘ring around the cities’ with land being granted to pro-ZANU-PF settlers in peri-urban areas plus some redrawing of urban constituencies to draw in rural dwellers under the party’s control. The Harare government thus hopes to get a ‘free and fair’ verdict which would take the heat off, challenge the international community to lose interest and then be in a strong position to have the upper hand in post-election negotiations with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

In terms of negotiations after elections some elements of the MDC, weakened and weary of constant repression, infighting and lack of direction, may well be tempted to join a ‘government of national unity’. Civil society would of course reject such a course given their demand for broad-based negotiations rather than elite deals but their capacity to push this demand is very limited at present.

Another element of the ZANU-PF strategy is the continued use of food as a political weapon in a situation where an estimated five million Zimbabweans will be reliant on food aid. The Famine Early Warning System estimates that Zimbabwe’s 2004 season is likely to see a harvest of between 800,000 and 900,000 tonnes, 33 to 38 per cent below its cereal requirements. The government however has stockpiled 240,000 tonnes of maize, has supposedly bought 70,000 tonnes from South Africa and according to diplomatic sources has additional stocks that it has seized. Although the World Food Programme and international NGOs report little overt political interference, the grain at the government’s direct disposal provides it with a powerful weapon at election time.

Nor have the Zimbabwean churches in what is a very religious society managed to present a united voice in response to the crisis (or crises). It seemed in mid 2003 that there had been a recovery of the prophetic voice when the leader of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches publicly apologised to Zimbabweans for not bearing witness to the crisis, but this has now been downplayed by the churches seeking to push a negotiations and peace building strategy. The church leaders’ dialogue process with ZANU-PF and MDC appears on and off – possibly depending on how much pressure ZANU-PF feels itself under electorally, regionally and internationally (seemingly little at present).

Even if ZANU-PF has the upper hand it has substantial problems. According to the IMF in April 2004, ‘Zimbabwe’s economy has experienced a sharp deterioration in the last five years. Real GDP has declined by about 30% and is still contracting. Inflation doubled in each of the last three years to reach 600% at the end of 2003… Unemployment is high and rising, poverty has doubled since 1995, school enrolment declined to 65% in 2003, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic [affecting 25% of the sexually active population] remains largely unchecked.’

After a staff visit in March 2004, the IMF called for tripartite talks between government, business and the unions. This was in response to Kuruneri’s attempt to reach accommodation with the IMF by making some small repayments to service debt. The IMF had suspended technical assistance in 2002 and in late 2003 initiated Zimbabwe’s compulsory withdrawal due to Harare’s lack of cooperation and unwillingness or inability to repay the US$273 million owed (53 per cent of its quota). Nor did Zimbabwe pay US$110 million owed to the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) – the first and only country ever to have protracted overdue obligations to the PRGF.

It is unlikely that the dual interest rate regime, or the continuing fast track resettlement with its lack of recognition of property rights for either commercial farmers or the new settlers, will appeal to the IMF any more than Zimbabwe’s chronic inability to pay its debts.

Nor is Gono’s financial strategy guaranteed success economically or politically. Politically, big questions arise immediately – did the Cabinet understand the strategy and will Gono have the heavyweight political backing to carry it through? As Lovemore Madhuku asked, what happens when key ZANU-PF ‘untouchables’, such as those given licences to import oil without open tendering or favoured by other forms of party/state patronage, become dragged into the war against corruption?

There is little strategy either to address what a local activist in the Catholic church described as the country’s simultaneous deprofessionalisation (driving professionals overseas and destroying the sector’s autonomy) and decapitalisation. Fifteen to 20 per cent of the population (ie 2–3 million) is living outside the country, mostly as economic refugees, and 500,000, largely farmworkers, are internally displaced.

Even with all of its strategies for staying in power, most delivery systems have collapsed in Zimbabwe making it hard to sustain patronage systems, especially in the rural areas where ZANU-PF needs to maintain its iron grip. And whilst the factions inside ZANU-PF may have been temporarily silenced over the succession, the struggle remains ready to erupt again within the context of fighting over the Gono recovery strategy. Although renewed targeted sanctions against the elite are unlikely to have much material impact, the elite resents them, and they suggest not just (some) international disapproval, but also unwillingness to invest or lend money (not that Zimbabwe has much to offer at present).

There remains the possibility that Mbeki, freshly mandated from the April 2004 elections in South Africa and ready to concentrate on outside matters (although it would seem that peacekeeping in Burundi is of higher importance), will actually put more weight behind his June 2004 deadline. Few Zimbabweans I spoke to would, however, welcome a government of national unity, given that it would be a rerun of the Unity Accord of 1987 when ZANU-PF forced PF-ZAPU into the shotgun marriage of a de facto one-party state.

Without substantial constitutional and electoral changes, any such government of national unity would be suicidal for the MDC. Whilst opposition forces including the MDC have weakened under sustained assault inside the country they appear to have some hope that they are regrouping internationally and in the region. The MDC are currently examining whether or not they should contest the next elections given the manifest impossibility of them being free and fair.

What can outsiders do? What does the future hold?

Many of Zimbabwe’s problems are of long term duration. The inheritance of violent colonial dispossession and dehumanisation with the response of (in Brian Kagoro’s words) a ‘violent and hegemonic struggle for decolonisation … culminated in a largely symbolic independence devoid of material gain for the majority black population.’ This meant an authoritarian elite unable/ unwilling to transform the repressive state colonial structures into democratic institutions, and the emergence of neo-patrimonialism and clientilist structures along with long lasting cultures of intolerance and impunity.

What development there was in the 1980s was concerned with state-building rather than nation-building, within the context initially of apartheid destabilisation, followed by structural adjustment. Once the post-apartheid, post Cold War moments arrived the implications of this history in terms of repression, corruption and abuse became clearer (except of course for kneejerk ‘anti-imperialists’).

So where do progressives go from here? There is still a massive ideological battle to be won between the prescriptions of what Patrick Bond has called ‘exhausted nationalism’ and global neo-liberalism, in line with many of the directions pointed to in the various world and regional social fora. Equally Bond points to an existing tradition inside Zimbabwe itself with work on alternate policies having in the past been pursued by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), the coalitions on debt, the United Nations Development Programme, and not least the National Working People’s Convention of 1999.

This may help to counter the pessimism of a Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR) partner who saw at present ‘a dearth of “thinking”, a sort of anti-intellectualism in nearly every quarter … and essentially … a kind of absence of politics in the real sense, of positions and ideological clarity and coherence, of strategic thinking and organising.’ He added that it is ‘very significant that there is a very deep malaise and unhappiness among a large proportion of traditional leaders and spirit mediums, about the disregard for tradition and cultural wholeness.’

Certainly Zimbabweans, while happy to observe stayaways, have not shown great keenness to face the overwhelming firepower of the state on the streets. The sheer struggle for survival and the fact that remittances from abroad are helping keep them alive (and as Gono is aware, the economy as well) cannot be discounted in terms of seeming passivity in the face of desperate circumstances.

There is little leadership either from the MDC – which in any case has done well just to survive itself – from the trade unions or indeed the churches. Although there have been calls, notably by Morgan Tsvangirai, for a much greater coherence amongst opposition forces, notably the ZCTU, the National Constitutional Assembly and the MDC, the sector has great difficulty in doing this. It also has difficulty agreeing on tactics, including on mass action and what its aims are – overthrow Mugabe, force ZANU-PF to the negotiating table, etc. One thing that is unlikely to occur is any kind of armed response.

Outside Zimbabwe there have been a number of initiatives regionally and North-South in bringing together activists and academics in understanding the nature of the crisis. A particularly resonant one was the bringing together of the Zimbabwean and South African diasporas in London. There could be much greater North-South solidarity in a number of fora – NGO, academic, church and use of links with southern African organisations. Outside organisations need to provide support for those in Zimbabwe and the region who are providing information about the human rights and general situation inside Zimbabwe, and those under threat standing up to repression.

There is continuing need for pressure on the ANC government including from within the region. Pressure also needs to be directed at the other elements in the tripartite alliance such as the trade unions and the Communist Party, given Pretoria’s assurances to the outside world that Mugabe would step down and serious negotiations would commence. What is it about a transition to democracy inside Zimbabwe that worries them more than the ‘chaos that they know’? The International Crisis Group believes that the focus should be on promoting a free and fair election for March 2005 rather than pursuing the chimera of inter-party talks.

There should also be pressure for the long-delayed African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights report on Zimbabwe to be released as called for by Zimbabwean, regional and human rights organisations.

* Send comments on this editorial - and other events in Africa - to

* Steve Kibble is the Africa/Yemen Advocacy Coordinator for the Catholic Institute for International Relations

* This article is a shortened version of a paper to be published in the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) No. 100, of June 2004. Our thanks to the editors of ROAPE.

* NOTE FOR EDITORS: Please note that this editorial was commissioned from the author for Pambazuka News. While we are pleased that several print publications have used our editorials, we ask editors to note that if they use this article, they do so on the understanding that they are expected to provide the following credit: "This article first appeared in Pambazuka News, an electronic newsletter for social justice in Africa, Editors are also encouraged to make a donation.

The Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, a new tri-annual refereed journal providing a forum for the sharing of critical thinking and constructive action on issues at the intersections of conflict, development, and peace, is calling for papers for its first issue. This Volume II No. 2 is focused on evaluation and impact assessment that fall in the peacebuilding and development nexus.

A Mauritanian court will rule next month in a case involving controversial business dealings by the son of France's late president Francois Mitterrand, Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, a lawyer for the prosecution said Monday. Mitterrand, who is already under investigation for alleged corruption, money-laundering and illegal arms sales to Africa, particularly Angola, is accused of having cut former business partner Olivier Collonge out of profits in Iwik, a Mauritanian-based fisheries firm they owned jointly.

The Government is moving to stem the leakage of confidential documents as continuing press revelations exposing the level of corruption become embarrassing. The Office of the President has written to all Permanent Secretaries warning against the leakage of classified information to the press and other unauthorised persons or institutions.

Uganda can save $700m annually if 10% of the value of Government procurement contracts was not lost to corruption, the World Bank has said. Rogati Kayani, the World Bank's East Africa procurement coordinator, said Uganda loses millions of dollars every year due to substandard procurement practices, which include false declaration, undervaluing of supplies, and outright corruption.

Kenyan authorities are taking the first steps towards freezing property and other assets in the UK, Switzerland and other countries in a $1bn-plus corruption probe involving former senior government figures. Investigations under way since June last year have uncovered a link with the $3bn (?2.5bn, £1.7bn) alleged to have been channelled abroad by the former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha, and his family during the 1990s. Officials conducting the Kenyan investigation in conjunction with Kroll, the international risk consultancy, said they had identified a "key Geneva-based individual" who was central to money-laundering operations in both cases. Switzerland has promised co-operation in freezing assets.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to carry out a comprehensive investigation into the alleged fuel import racket that cost the corporation huge sums of money in foreign exchange. The president also directed the corporation to recover from oil trading companies and their collaborators in the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC, the total sum of $143 million. The NNPC, which received the report of the committee set up to investigate the rising cost of demurrage paid by the NNPC on its imported fuel cargoes and the mounting debts owed the corporation by major oil marketers, had already sacked seven senior officials mostly from the PPMC.

Against the backdrop of the recent anti-Obasanjo demonstrations in Abuja and Lagos, Independent Advocacy Project (IAP), the good governance group, has called on the federal government and the police to exercise restraint in dealing with the situation. While noting that freedom of assembly is a fundamental right of all Nigerians, IAP however urged organisers of the rally to use only lawful means in protesting against the Obasanjo-led administration.

I can but thank all at Pambazuka to give us this forum so we can come out of our “village mentality” and exchange views on questions not only related to us, Africans, but also of universal concern. Though I believe that the issue here concerns also Africans.

Dear Nicole,
(In response to Nicole Venter, Letters, Pambazuka News 154)

Genocide is a human atrocity that affects us all and if we want to ‘conquer ignorance within our communities’ as you rightly say, we need to open up to the rest of the world and know what’s there, on the other side of the fence. Believing that our troubles, efforts, failures and conquests are unique to us, is not the answer.

You are right when you say that we need to pull down the barriers and the walls that politicians have built “to protect us”. We need to move away from the “village mentality” and look over the fence.

Love alone cannot change the world, neither can it erase from our memories all our failures. I strongly believe that tendencies that reject or simply have no faith in political action, are most likely to fail. In addition they leave the door wide open to those who resort to violence.

The concrete example of this tendency is found today in the American decision to launch the war on Iraq. Violence dominates the lives of Palestinians and Israelis alike, because political action has been rejected and both are left with no option but resort to violence. Closer to us, in our very own continent, from Algeria to Zimbabwe, governments have opted for the same, and Sudan is one of them.

You have not offended me by using the example of the young Israeli girl, and neither would I have found comfort by reading the story of the Arab village, in the context of the Palestinian issue. The tragedy that is unfolding everyday on our television screens, in Palestine, affects us all, whatever our skin colour or creed. No, I am not offended, but I believe that the policies of the Israeli government and the actions of its armed forces are an insult to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and that they would be offended. Recrimination comes in a variety of forms.

Like yourself and many others, my participation in Pambazuka is to find solutions, yet as a political activist and as a journalist I cannot ignore the historical facts of yesterdays and the realities of today and at the same time avoid recrimination. If we stop accusing, we stop revealing and if we stop revealing, we give way to ignorance, more violence and more discrimination. After all it was thanks to his “J’accuse” that Emile Zola (1898) revealed to the world the concealed discrimination against Jews.

Dear Eva,
(From Nicole Venter)

Your letter is insightful and I still feel that we are in fact agreed. Again, I have at no time defended the violent actions of the Israeli government. This point has been made. I do fail to see the relationship between current Israeli political action and holocaust victim's personal viewpoints and would not dare to conjecture what their opinions on the matter might be.

I respect what you have said - only, am still wanting of a concrete and practical solution. As a political analyst I appreciate your opinion on this, if you might share that with me. What can each one of us - living in freedom - do to change the lives of those who do not?

I agree that love is "not enough", but still feel that it must be the basis for any action. Sometimes love has to make a hard call - I am not critical of revealing the ugly truth. Again, this point has been made. I do not expect anyone to ignore history and have not intimated such at all - quite the contrary, as I said originally: to encourage awareness.

What I am suggesting is that we seek a new way forward, given the facts of history, that we seek to discover fresh approaches and not repeat the patterns that have brought us here. Village mentality - again, I agree - we need to gain a full perspective, to mature out of tribalism and it's associated ignorant ideologies.

My question remains simple - how can the ordinary man then triumph over being a "pawn in the game." I disagree with you on one point only - that where political action fails, violence is a necessary resort. South Africa has it's full share of violence, undeniably - but it was freed by forgiveness. And it will continue to progress only through mutual respect, sharing of resources and knowledge and sustainable invention, through the creation of stable & equitable economic paradigms and the growing realisations of common ground. In essence, the products of love for each other, the continuous encouragement of non-violence and it's self-evident rewards.

Recriminations and accusations within their extensive histories have not yet proved themselves to bring peace or prosperity in any form. I look forward to your further advice and comment.

I was disturbed by Gerald Caplan's facile and superficial accusations against "the Roman Catholic Church" in his article about Rwanda's genocide (Pambazuka News 150). Who is this "Roman Catholic Church" of which he speaks? Many, many official church people were killed in those days as were many lay members. The Roman Catholic Church suffered terribly along with everyone else.

Caplan accuses the Pope of not having apologized for the role of the Church in the genocide. It is hard to understand why a journalist of such reputation ignores the statements that the Pope has made wherein he acknowledges the role that some members of the Church played. In the Church there were both perpetrators and victims.

But the "Church" which encompasses all of the people of God cannot be accused. Many in the Church risked or gave their lives to save members of another ethnic group. There were heroes just as there were villains. We are all guilty of that crime. We are all responsible for its healing. Caplan's article hardly takes us in that direction.

GERALD CAPLAN RESPONDS: Strangely enough, my criticism of the RC Church as an institution is hardly controversial at all. I'd say that most survivors I've met, even those that continue calling themselves Catholics, agree; that in the many presentations at which I've named the Church as one of the great betrayers of Rwanda over the past century, including at a major conference in Kigali in April, no one, Rwandan or otherwise, has ever challenged me; and that almost all students of the genocide concur about the perverse role of the Church. It's true that many Catholics were killed during the genocide, including priests and nuns, and that many played a heroic role in trying to save or protect Tutsi threatened by the genocidaires. But against that are the large number of documented cases of priests and nuns who actively cooperated with the genocidaires.

This of course can be interpreted as individual actions. But the collective responsibility of the Church goes well beyond the despicable actions of certain of its members. It was Catholic missionaries who created the false stereotypes of Hutu and Tutsi in the first place, which led to the unbridgeable chasm between them. It was the Church, through its control of the education system, that brainwashed all Rwandans into believing their destructive ideology. It was the Church that made Rwandans believe that ethnic identity was paramount. It was the Church that effectively co-ruled colonial Rwandan with the Belgians. It was the Church that gave moral legitimation to the Hutu dictators who ruled the country after independence. It was the Archbishop of Kigali to whom Mme. Agathe, wife of President Habyarimana and head of the conspiratorial Akazu, personally confessed. It was the same Archbishop who agreed to join the executive committee of the ruling party for many years, even though that party was based explicitly on Hutu supremacy and anti-Tutsi discrimination. It was the Church at both the highest and the parish level that failed to protest in the years prior to the genocide as anti-Tutsi propaganda washed over the country and massacres of Tutsi accelerated.

All this was bad enough. Then came the genocide. Throughout the 100 days, the Church as an institution failed utterly ever to condemn the genocide, indeed ever to acknowledge that there WAS a genocide happening before its very eyes, not to say with its cooperation. Never did it demand that the genocidaires halt their targeted killings. Nor, after it was over, did the leaders of the Church in Rwanda ever acknowledge their corporate responsibility or apologize for their complicity and/or passivity. As for the Vatican, while it has acknowledged that certain bad apples existed, it too has consistently denied any institutional responsibility. Indeed, it has actively hidden priests suspected of aiding the genocidaires. And to this day it uses language that subtly questions whether there ever was a genocide. In his message on the 10th anniversary of the genocide, the Pope said that in 1994, "serious fighting broke out between Hutu and Tutsi". That's a quite remarkable way to describe an elaborate conspiracy by Hutu extremists to annihilate all of Rwanda's Tutsi civilians. But this way, the Pope need make no apologies for his Church's role, and indeed he has never done so.
It took the Church 2000 years to apologize for its central role in creating and promoting anti-Semitism during its first 2 millennia. Maybe Rwandans just need to learn more patience.

Many thanks for the informative, thoughtful articles in your publication. The challenge for our generation is: How do we begin to get policy makers, leaders and development actors in Africa together to begin to use this kind of information and analysis to plan Africa's future? I say this with all seriousness, as a leader/legislator myself. I want us to begin to apply what we know into development planning, step by step, deliberately, slowly but surely. We know the why. Lets think about the how, in concrete terms.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Uganda has congratulated the Ministry of Health for announcing a new initiative to further improve the health status of Ugandan children and women. “Child Days,” which the Ministry will formally inaugurate 3 May with the support of UNICEF, WHO and other partners, focuses on accelerating routine health service activities using outreach systems in place at the district level, and to do so twice a year. Activities throughout May, in all of Uganda’s 56 districts, will include provision of Vitamin A supplementation to children aged 6 months to 5 years; routine and catch-up measles immunizations for children under age 1; de-worming programmes for children aged 1 to 5 years; and vaccinations against maternal and neonatal tetanus for pregnant women.

The international aid community is placing a growing emphasis on developing local capacity as the key to alleviating poverty and hunger in the developing world. Although ensuring the effectiveness of a capacity-building effort requires appropriate use of evaluation, few organizations have implemented a system for monitoring or evaluating the changes taking place during organisational development.

The United Nations Security Council this week condemned the recruitment of child soldiers and called on Secretary-General Kofi Annan to create a monitoring mechanism, preferably within three months, "to provide timely, objective, accurate and reliable information on the recruitment and use of child soldiers in violation of applicable international law." The 15-member Council, by a unanimous vote, said it would take appropriate action to curb linkages between armed conflict, its prolongation and the smuggling of natural and other resources, trafficking in small arms and light weapons and cross-border abduction, all of which intensify the negative impact of war on children.

The head of the United Nations refugees agency (UNHCR) in Liberia, Moses Okello, has urged more than 300,000 Liberian refugees scattered across West Africa not to return home, but wait for a UN-organised repatriation exercise scheduled to begin in October. Okello told reporters last Thursday that most of the 50,000 refugees who have spontaneously returned to Liberia from both Guinea and Sierra Leone since the signing of an August peace deal have ended up in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.