We strongly support the right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination. We are shocked to learn that the United States circulated a draft resolution to members of the United Nations Security Council supporting a "framework agreement" that legitimizes Morocco's occupation and annexation of Western Sahara. The U.S. should strongly support the legal right of self-determination for non-self-governing territories and use its prestige and influence to support the holding of a referendum in Western Sahara. The U.S. should make clear to the government of Morocco our support for the referendum and our opposition to its continued obstruction of the settlement process.

Zimbabwe is now a country of islands. In some courtrooms, in some businesses, on farms, in some churches, even in the quiet corners of some barracks, decent people do what they can to resist the regime.

The Zimbabwean government has warned it will crack down on non-governmental organisations, churches and opposition officials involved in "subversive" activities, the Sunday News reported. Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo told the state-run newspaper that the government was aware of "churches, NGOs and human rights groups that are actively involved in undermining the nation's internal security". Foreigners "masterminding such acts" will be deported, Nkomo told the paper.

Pretoria and Harare seemed to be on a collision course last night after the Zimbabwean government unilaterally postponed unity talks between the ruling Zanu PF party and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party has canceled negotiations with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), mediated by Nigeria and South Africa. But the MDC has been told by South African and Nigerian diplomats that the dialogue will resume Monday, as planned. Zanu-PF said last week it was postponing talks with the MDC until the outcome of the opposition's challenge to the High Court, alleging widescale vote-rigging in the presidential elections.

Angola's peace process has entered a critical phase. While the government anounced on Thursday with some satisfaction that close to 42,000 UNITA troops had been quartered - corresponding to about 78 percent of the former rebel group's military force - the international community warned that all was not well. Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Representative in Angola, Eric de Mul, told IRIN in an interview that although there was real concern over conditions in the quartering areas, the government was yet to meet with the international community to draw up a plan that would enable them to provide assistance.

Nearly one year after its imposition in the wake of
a failed coup that shook Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic
(CAR), a nationwide curfew was lifted on Thursday.

"This administration announced the president's decision to formally notify the United Nations that the United States will not become a party to International Criminal Court treaty. The U.S. declaration, which was delivered to the secretary general this morning, effectively reverses the previous U.S. government decision to become a signatory. The ICC's entry into force on July 1st means that our men and women in uniform-as well as current and future U.S. officials-could be at risk of prosecution by the ICC. We want to make clear that the United States rejects the purported jurisdictional claims of the ICC-and the United States will regard as illegitimate any attempt by the court, or state parties to the treaty, to assert the ICC's jurisdiction over American citizens."

The UN refugee agency has promised a policy of "zero tolerance" to eradicate the problem of aid workers sexually abusing refugees.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, said new measures included an increase in the number of female aid workers, and a ban on sex between employees and young refugees.

Floods and landslides triggered by weeks of heavy rains across Kenya have killed at least 20 people and affected over 120,000, many of whom have been forced to flee their homes. One of the worst-hit areas was Migori District, southwestern Kenya, where some 13,000 people had been displaced due to swelling of the nearby Migori and Kuja rivers, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Wednesday. "If it continues raining we could see another 20,000 people forced to leave their homes in Migori," sources said.

Eight years after the Rwandan genocide of
1994, there are approximately 25,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees living in camps
in Ngara District, western Tanzania. Both the Rwandan and the Tanzanian
governments are keen to see the repatriation of all of these refugees. At
the same time, however, the case of each individual Rwandan refugee case is
currently assessed by the Tanzanian authorities, which give refugee status
to over 99 percent of them.

Bosaso, the commercial capital of the self-declared
autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, was reported to be calm
and returning to normal last Thursday, a day after it had fallen without a fight to forces of Col Abdullahi Yusuf, a local journalist told IRIN.

The campaign against graft received a boost when a source book was launched on corruption prevention in the Public Service. The book is to be used in the Public Service Integrity Programme. The ceremony was led by the Head of the public service, Dr Sally Kosgei, at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies, Nairobi.

In an effort to end, once and for all, the 15-year conflict in northern Uganda, in March the Government of Uganda launched “Operation Iron Fist”, a determined military campaign to root out Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) by taking the war into southern Sudan, the LRA’s military and logistical base. In this report, African Rights urges the Ugandan government to consider the plight of captive combatants in the LRA, as well as the effects of conflict on local populations before pursuing a single-minded strategy of conflict.

The United Nations is to end the refugee status of hundreds of thousands of Eritreans who have fled decades of fighting in their country, the UN said on Wednesday. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said they were no longer at risk from war – which has blighted the country for more than 30 years.

The government of Cote d'Ivoire and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees will begin on Saturday their latest census of the country's refugee population. Apart from UNHCR, various UN agencies- UNICEF, WFP, WHO- and the National Statistics Institute are participating in the project, it was announced on Friday.

President Bakili Muluzi has maintained an official
silence over a controversial campaign to change the constitution to allow
him to run for a third term in 2004, but opposition leaders are demanding
that he make his position known.

An ambitious project is underway in Zambia to integrate refugees into their host community while helping the local region to develop, UNHCR said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Nigerian police force is to create hundreds of new mobile squadrons as part of its efforts to effectively combat crime, religious and political upheavals in the country, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Haz Lwendi, said on Tuesday.

Despite President Robert Mugabe's election
victory, political violence continues in Zimbabwe with four deaths recorded
in April, according to local human rights groups. The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (Human Rights Forum) has claimed in its
latest report that there appears to be no end to politically motivated
violence and harassment.