The London-based NGO African Rights has accused the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) of harbouring Colonel Tharcisse Renzaho, accused of involvement in organising the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The chief administrator of the US Agency for International Development, Andrew Natsios, has criticised the Sudanese government for using relief aid as a tool in the country's civil war.

Embargoed diamonds worth over $1 million are smuggled out of Angola every day, according to a report on Security Council sanctions against the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola.

An organisation campaigning to protect the forest homeland of a Kenyan indigenous group has said their lives are in danger following their refusal to withdraw a pending court case.

President Moi has formally announced his retirement at the end of his current term.

Does the UK National Asylum Support Services' (NASS)dispersal system provide a safe haven for refugees subjected to racial violence? And is racial harassment an issue that will be considered by the Home Office's review into the dispersal system?

Human Rights Watch today issued a background paper on legal issues arising from the September 11 attacks, the war in Afghanistan and related anti-terrorism efforts. The paper discusses in everyday language some of the complex legal questions that states involved in the campaign against terrorism must address.

Despite all the conversations and all the essays, it is still impossible to know the real, or the lasting, meaning of September 11. One possible positive outcome would be a puncturing of the myth of U.S. "exceptional-ism,"...but September 11 could become the start of another cold war, at least in how values and facts are distorted.

Violence on Zimbabwe's mainly white-owned farms is dramatically worse since President Mugabe signed the Abuja Agreement, according to a survey of commercial farmers.

The government delegation of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Friday walked out of talks here about the future of the war-ravaged republic, complaining that the meeting was nothing but a "masquerade".

Zimbabwe is set to bounce back into the international limelight, albeit for the wrong reasons, when the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), the internal disciplinary body of the Commonwealth, pays a visit to the country this week to assess the current political situation.

Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane is consulting with governments in Southern Africa, organised labour and non-governmental organisations about declaring a state of emergency over the HIV/AIDS pandemic, SAPA reported.

Contrary to widespread fears of violence and chaos, Gambia's crucial presidential poll proceeded and ended peacefully on Thursday. Reliable sources on the ground told allAfrica.com that the voter turn-out was surprisingly good, there were no major incidents and polling stations across the country closed at 1600hrs GMT.

The European Union’s response to irregular migration is wanting. EU states have alternately regularised the status of unwanted guests, clamped down on those who bring them to Europe or signed agreements with countries of origin to facilitate deportation. Governments are loath to admit their borders are porous or to face up to the real costs of prevention and deterrence. What impels people to undertake desperate journeys? What should Europe do when they arrive?

In the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide international consensus emerged that aid cannot substitute for political action during conflict. There was, it was argued, a need for greater coherence of humanitarian and conflict reduction objectives. Is this ‘new humanitarianism’ working? Can the tension between conflict management and humanitarian principles of impartiality and neutrality be resolved? Are political criteria shaping aid allocation decisions?

What is peace building? Can NGOs make a difference against the array of forces driving complex political emergencies? A detailed study of the impact of NGO activities in Liberia from the University of Manchester examines the role of aid workers in bringing peace.

The Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA)will be holding a 5 week training workshop from 4 February 2002 to 8 March 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. This workshop will cover diverse aspects of conflict transformation and peace building, and is aimed at capacity building for people working in conflict transformation, development, human rights and related fields on the African continent. For more information on the Coalition for Peace in Africa, membership of the Coalition and the Continental Course please contact

Michael E. Muragu, COPA Interim Coordinator, P.O. Box 13265, 00100, Nairobi GPO, Kenya, Tel: 254-2-577558, Fax: 254-2-577557 E-mail: [email protected]

or Genni Blunden, Transformation Education Africa, P.O. Box 16754, Lyttelton, 0140 South Africa, Tel & Fax: + 27 12 664 8380, E-mail: [email protected]

The Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA)will be holding a 5 week training workshop from 4 February 2002 to 8 March 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. This workshop will cover diverse aspects of conflict transformation and peace building, and is aimed at capacity building for people working in conflict transformation, development, human rights and related fields on the African continent.

The purpose of this course is to assist those working in these fields to:

Identify the origins and causes of new and ongoing conflicts in various parts of Africa and to look specifically at the current conflicts and its impact on the continent and Internationally.
Examine the causes of these conflicts in order to understand more clearly the dynamics of the various factors and forces, and the relationship between peace and development.
Support and strengthen skills for facilitating dialogue, including communication and facilitation skills, negotiation, mediation and arbitration.
Explore ways of providing support between practitioners and policy makers active in the field of Conflict Transformation.
Address the need to train other people working for development, human rights and reconciliation in methods of transforming and preventing violence.
Explore further strategies for violence reduction and peace-building.
For more information on the Coalition for Peace in Africa, membership of the Coalition and the Continental Course please contact

Michael E. Muragu, COPA Interim Coordinator, P.O. Box 13265, 00100, Nairobi GPO, Kenya, Tel: 254-2-577558, Fax: 254-2-577557 E-mail: [email protected]

or Genni Blunden, Transformation Education Africa, P.O. Box 16754, Lyttelton, 0140 South Africa, Tel & Fax: + 27 12 664 8380, E-mail: [email protected]

A devastating report on the impact of AIDS in South Africa has finally been published this week, despite concerted efforts by the South African government to suppress and discredit it. The report, produced by the Medical Research Council of South Africa, makes for alarming reading. It demonstrates that 40% of all deaths in the 15-49 age group in South Africa are now AIDS related, and it predicts that, if left unchecked, the total number of AIDS related deaths in South Africa will rise to between 5-7 million by 2010. By the end of this decade, the authors argue, average life expectancy will drop in South Africa from 54 to 41, and about 780,000 people will be dying each year from Aids, the highest number in any country in the world.

The authors of the report include researchers from the University of Cape Town and The London School of Tropical Hygiene. It has been subject to rigorous review, including approval by Peter Goldblatt, the chief medical statistician for England and Wales. The authors argue it represents the most comprehensive investigation to date of the effects of AIDS in South Africa, and its findings have been widely accepted by a range of organisations, including unions, churches, and even some politicians within the ANC.

Yet, the government itself has persistently tried to prevent its publication, and now seeks to undermine the report’s credibility. While Thabo Mbeki’s views - that AIDS is only responsible for a fraction of deaths, and may not even be related to HIV - are well known, the health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, and Essop Pahad have now weighed into the debate. In an attempt to discredit and deride the report, they have described it as a "massive propaganda tool" in the hands of those who argue for wide distribution of anti-retroviral drugs, and have condemned a "sense of hysteria" over the question of deaths from Aids.

If the findings of the report are shocking, the reaction of the South African government is even more so. In the words of anti-apartheid activist and former human rights commissioner, Rhoda Kadalie, who, writing in a Johannesburg newspaper, called on Dr Tshabalala-Msimang to resign: "We have a genocide on our hands and you and your cohorts have been unwilling to listen to the experts…If the president is making it impossible to do your work effectively, why not resign with dignity in defiance of someone who is taking the country down with him?"

As the recent United Nations Development Report on HIV/AIDS and poverty makes clear, if the devastation of AIDS in developing countries, and sub-Saharan Africa in particular is to be tackled, governments will need to implement a range of far reaching measures, that include adequate treatment as well as an adequate infrastructure to support people through the appalling toll that AIDS will wreak. COSATU, the Treatment Action Campaign and the Catholic Church have also called for such measures in South Africa. It is a matter of urgency that the South African government now takes its head out of the sand and acknowledges the real threat of AIDS before the horrific scenario predicted the MRC’s report becomes a reality.

Rhoda Kadalie’s words raise a critical question: Can a legal case be made to lay a charge of genocide against those individuals responsible? Article 6 of the Rome Statute of The International Criminal Court, for example, states: “For the purpose of this Statute, "genocide" means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part […] .” Are there other instruments that would allow an appropriate case to be made that the failure to act on HIV/AIDS amounts to an act of genocide? Should not efforts be made to test whether a formal charge of genocide can be made? Would not such an attempt act as a stimulus – perhaps the most effective of all – to get appropriate action taken by the authorities not only in South Africa, but also in other African states?

Aids will kill 700,000 South Africans a year

The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Adult Mortality in South Africa, Medical Research Council Report

UNDP Report: HIV/AIDS: Implications for Poverty Reduction

COSATU: Joint statement on AIDS

In a new report issued today, ahead of a United Nations Security Council debate on Liberia this month, Amnesty International describes the continued brutal repression and use of torture, including rape, being carried out by Liberian security forces.