Burundi has called on the UN Security Council to act with delay to stop the spread of war in the country and beyond its borders. In a statement issued this week, the country's permanent representative to the UN, Marc Nteturuye, welcomed the Security Council mission to the Great Lakes region last month, noting that it was able to obtain first-hand information regarding the "transfer of the war in Congo to Burundi".

UNHCR says the best solution for refugees is to see them return to their home countries and restart their lives, "but this [repatriation] cannot take place if the conditions in their home countries are uncertain and insecure", UNHCR's external relations officer in Dar es Salaam, Ivana Unluova stated on Tuesday. "In the case of Burundi, we continue receiving refugees from the country who give accounts of fighting, attacks and insecurity," she told IRIN.

There was "relative calm mixed with latent tension" in Ndjamena and other towns in Chad on Friday following unrest related to the contested re-election of President Idriss Deby, according to a resident of the Chadian capital.

Central African Republic (CAR) dissident leader Andre Kolingba told mutinous soldiers on Thursday to lay down their arms after Libya and Congolese rebels came to the aid of President Ange-Felix Patasse. "I have agreed to stop the hostilities from this evening," Kolingba, who is Patasse's immediate predecessor, told Radio France Internationale. "I ask the mutinous soldiers to return to their respective residences."

Recent peace overtures by Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi have been matched on the battlefield by heightened military action across the country in recent months. Reports of UNITA and Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) attacks, retaliations and offensives have been constant and regular.

Amnesty International is concerned about the abduction of 60 children and two adults by UNITA and fear for their safety; unlawful killing. It calls for the immediate release of the children and the two adults abducted by UNITA; to publicize the plight of children as victims of armed conflict in Angola.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said today it will cut its staff and aid programs because donors are not providing the money they promised. High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers said the organization has planned cuts to save $95 million this year. The agency said it expects to save from a long-planned winding down of operations in the Balkans and East Timor. Other programs that aid refugees once they have returned home may also be cut, the agency said.

The line between affirmative action and racism is a narrow one, which has arguably been crossed by the Road Accident Fund's new policy to promote black professionals. As we show in this newspaper, the rule is quite simple: no whites can be used in the legal defence of the fund, unless formal permission is obtained.

The recent racial out-bursts by MMD national secretary Michael Sata are beneath the spirit of one Zambia one nation, Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) chairman, Simon Zukas, has observed.

The educational fact sheets "The European Convention on Human Rights - Starting Points for teachers" are now available in both English and French on the Council of Europe website:

There has been a wave of international optimism about the prospects for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). On his first visit to Africa, United States Secretary of State Colin Powell declared himself "cautiously optimistic" about Congo's future. After an eight-nation African tour, the 12-strong United Nations team was also in a buoyant mood. In Uganda, the last stop on their 10 day trip last week, the UN envoys heaped praise on the country's president, Yoweri Museveni, for promising to pull most of his troops out of Congo within the next few weeks.

Delegates attending a conference in Namibia on establishing a permanent war-crimes court told IRIN on Tuesday that regional support for the initiative was growing. "Southern African nations were a driving force toward getting the International Criminal Court (ICC) treaty on paper," said Joanne Lee, one of the conference organisers. The ICC would, once created, be able to prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

The South African government should not have handed a Tanzanian citizen, Khalfan Mohamed, to the United States for trial without assurances from the US that he would not be executed if found guilty. The May 28 ruling by the South African Constitutional Court was welcomed by the country's human rights lawyers and activists who objected to Mohamed's deportation to the US when he was originally arrested.

The rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) has issued an "ultimatum" to the Kinshasa government, warning that it will resume the war unless President Joseph Kabila "stops transferring the war to the east". According to an RCD statement, received by IRIN on Wednesday, the movement's secretary-general Ruberwa Azarias issued the warning at a press conference in Goma on Tuesday.

In a country that is as short of cash as it is of enemies, plans to buy £4bn worth of defence equipment raised eyebrows from day one. Yesterday, the South African public's bemusement was prolonged a further two weeks when a hearing into corruption allegations surrounding the arms deal was adjourned until 11 June.

Discussions on the rights of children, specially child soliders in the Democratic Republic of Congo have shown that if the government had paid more attention to education, re-intergration of these children into society would have been possible.

The major rebel group in eastern Congo continues to recruit children to wage war against the Congolese government, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released today. The report, "Reluctant Recruits: Children and Adults Forcibly Recruited for Military Service in North Kivu," details recruitment efforts since late 2000 by the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Goma (RCD-Goma) and the Rwandan army troops who support it. RCD-Goma has repeatedly pledged to demobilize its child soldiers, but has not fulfilled these promises, the report says.

The Guardian's revelation that the Zimbabwean armed forces have warned South Africa's government of a potential coup against Robert Mugabe prompted questions of President Thabo Mbeki in parliament in Cape Town yesterday. Mr Mbeki skirted the direct issue raised by high-level sources in Pretoria, who told the Guardian that the Zimbabwean army had made secret approaches to Pretoria to express fears that widespread food shortages within months could prompt riots and other unrest, and a military coup.

Libyan soldiers arrived at Mpoko International Airport in the Central African Republic (CAR) capital Bangui Wednesday morning on two Russian cargo planes, offloading equipment and light armoured vehicles to reinforce troops loyal to President Ange-Felix Patasse in their effort to quash a coup, sources in the city told IRIN on Thursday.

As the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Amnesty Committee was dissolved Thursday, by proclamation of South African President Thabo Mbeki, and the final TRC report is being prepared, AllAfrica's Charles Cobb asked John Allen, former Secretary of Communications for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and long-time Press Secretary to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to reflect on the Commission's work.