KAMPALA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Ugandan army said Sunday that it has sent teams in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) to verify reports that the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), killed at least 321 civilians in late 2009.

"In our view, that is an exaggerated figure; we are, however, asking our forces, because they were not there, to do verification," Ugandan army spokesman Felix Kulayigye told Xinhua by telephone.

Human Rights Watch said Sunday in a report titled "Trail of Death: LRA Atrocities in Northeastern Congo" that the LRA had killed at least 321 civilians and abducted 250 others, including at least 80 children, during a previously unreported four-day rampage in the Makombo area of Haute Uele district in DR Congo.

The report said the killing spree occurred on Dec.14-17 last year.

Kulayigye said that it was illogical for a massacre of such a magnitude to have occurred in the sparsely populated area.

"Logically that is not possible, unless these people were living in a camp and the LRA found them in one place," he said."It is very difficult for a force under 100 to collect over 500 people in one place."

The report also revealed other atrocities by the LRA in DR Congo in 2009 and early 2010, saying that the rebel group remains a serious threat to civilians and is not a spent force, as the Ugandan and Congolese governments claimed.

It said a regional strategy was needed to end the rebel group's atrocities and apprehend its leaders, some of whom are wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in northern Uganda for almost two decades.

The LRA has waged one of the longest guerrilla wars in Africa since 1986, roaming between Uganda, Sudan, DR Congo and the Central African Republic. Its guerrilla-style warfare has left tens of thousands dead and 2 million homeless over years.

The three neighboring countries launched an anti-LRA operation last December, declaring they had wiped out 80 percent of the rebel group at the end of the crackdown in March.

Although the joint military action dismantled the LRA's main base in the Garamba national park, its remnants killed more than 900 civilians in retaliation afterwards, sparking an outcry from human rights activists

PRESS TV

A senior leader of a Sufi group in Somalia has vowed to rid the country of extremists with Wahhabi tendencies who are threatening to topple the country's administration.

"Together, we are going to eliminate radicals from the country. We will confront the al-Shabab directly not through the media," Reuters quoted Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama'a chairman Maalim Muhamud as saying on Sunday.

The al-Shabab — the military offshoot of the Council of Islamic Courts — are involved in fighting against the Somali government and African Union troops in the restive capital, Mogadishu.

The government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has recently brought Ahlu Sunnah on board ahead of an expected military push against the militants. The Sufi group controls large swathes of central Somalia.

Muhamud claimed that his group had the capacity with the government, to defeat the al-Shabab, who hold vast areas in the south of the country and the capital.

The Sufis have expressed serious concerns over the desecration of graves, the beheading of clerics, and bans on celebrating the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) imposed by extrimistss.

Wahhabism is a militantly puritan interpretation of Islam devised in the 18th Century in the Najd region of Arabia by Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab.

herald

Donors have come up with a new set of conditions for releasing funding for the constitution-making process.

The latest brick wall relates to payment of allowances to outreach team personnel, which donors now say they will not fund and yet this arguably constitutes the largest chunk of the budget and is the most crucial phase of the constitution-making process.

Sources in the Constitutional Parliamentary Select Committee said the United Nations Development Programme, which has pledged to source US$21 million for the process, now wanted Government to foot at least 30 percent of the budget, something Treasury says it cannot afford.

The Constitution Management Committee and UNDP officials will meet on Wednesday to try and breach the new impasse.

On Friday, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga declined to comment.

"It’s too early for me to respond on that. It won’t be proper for me to comment. It will only be proper for me to give a comprehensive comment on Wednesday," he said.

Efforts to get a comment from UN resident co-ordinator Ms Elizabeth Lwanga were fruitless as her phone was not reachable.

A source said: "UNDP are now saying Government should foot 30 percent of the total budget. On the other hand, Treasury has indicated it doesn’t have that kind of money.

"They are now saying they don’t want to fund allowances for the outreach teams and Select Committee meetings. They are also refusing to settle expenses incurred prior to the signing of the project document though they had agreed to fund everything.

"They are trying to fund the process selectively, especially in areas to do with media publicity and the Management Committee has rejected this."

Another Select Committee source said UNDP wanted the Select Committee secretariat to be relieved of its duties because it did not meet their "standards".

Only four senior secretariat staff have been paid their March salaries due to the funding stand-off, it was also revealed.

A memorandum from the human resources and administration officer to staff on March 26, 2010 reads: "Please be advised that there will be a delay in the processing of March salaries, to date we don’t have indication of the actual date when the salaries will be paid.

"However, it is hoped that we will be in a position to advice of salaries processing date by end of Wednesday March 31, 2010."

In January, UNDP allegedly refused to settle a US$930 000 bill incurred during a two-week workshop for legislators.

UNDP had asked hotels to accommodate delegates to the workshop, but reportedly declined to settle the bill after allegedly failing to directly influence the talking points.

The constitution-making process is behind schedule and an ambitious target to have a referendum in October is unlikely to be met.

Herald Reporter

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy will tomorrow visit the Chiadzwa diamond fields in Marange to get an appreciation of mining operations there.

The committee, chaired by Guruve South House of Assembly Member Cde Edward Chindori-Chininga (Zanu-PF), will also conduct public hearings with the Marange community to get people’s views on pending relocations to pave way for full-scale explorations.

Cde Chindori-Chininga on Friday said: "We will tour Canadile Miners sorting warehouse in Mutare before proceeding to Chiadzwa where we will tour the Canadile plant and that of Mbada."

"In Mutare we will also meet the Provincial Governor and Resident Minister Christopher Mushowe and those Government officials responsible for relocations."

Board members for Canadile Miners and Mbada Holdings last week explained their operations to the committee at Parliament Building.

The two companies said they were ready to sell diamonds as they had complied with the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme.

In a related matter, the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture will tour Arda Estates.

herald

King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo of the Abathembu in South Africa has said he wants to rule like President Mugabe, whom he considers a role model for Africa’s political leaders.

The South African traditional leader last week told a symposium at Walter Sisulu University that in his ideal state, homosexuality would be outlawed and the example of President Mugabe followed.

"I don’t mind to rule like (President) Mugabe and tell (President) Zuma to keep his South Africa and let me keep my Thembuland. No man will be allowed to sleep with another man in my state," he said.

There are ongoing talks on the creation of an independent Thembuland State though it is widely believed these will not result in King Dalindyembo’s desired secession from South Africa.

He said blacks would only enjoy "true liberation" when they become citizens of his envisaged Thembuland State.

King Dalindyebo said while he respected anti-apartheid icon ex-president Nelson Mandela, he felt South Africa’s first democratically elected leader had not done much by way of empowering ordinary people.

The discussion was on Mr Nkosi Phatekile Holomisa’s new book "According to Tradition" and was attended by about 500 South African traditional leaders, students and staff of the university.

"According to Tradition" talks about failed transformation in South Africa, especially in rural areas and the exclusion of traditional leaders in policy issues.

Mr Holomisa, an ANC Member of Parliament, said he wrote the book after his attempts to push government to include traditional leaders in influencing policies had failed.

"Whites are still think-tanks of the ANC (government). When they go to the ANC to give advice they are listened to. Why can’t black intellectuals, including traditional leaders, be allowed to be think tanks behind the ANC?" he asked.

WSU council chairperson Dr Somadoda Fikeni agreed that white intellectuals were still influential in South Africa. — The Dispatch.

herald

Stakeholders in Zimbabwe’s housing finance sector have formed a trust to mobilise funding for construction of houses for poor urbanites and rehabilitation of colonial style single sex hostels in Mbare and Makokoba.

The National Housing Development and Rehabilitation Trust brings together stakeholders in the finance, local authorities and engineering sectors to mobilise pro-poor housing.

Former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor and current Cabs Building Society chairman Dr Leonard Tsumba heads the trust.

Presenting a paper on Zimbabwe’s Urban Renewal project here last week, Dr Tsumba said the situation at the hostels was untenable.

In other countries, the programme is referred to as slum upgrading. Dr Tsumba said the hostels were built for single male labourers and were not gender sensitive. With the attainment of independence in 1980, Government repealed the anti-influx laws resulting in families of the occupants joining them thus overstretching the facilities.

"There is no pride living in these places," he said.

He said in Mbare and Makokoba, the trust would build two new blocks at a cost of US$10 million each while each hostel will cost about US$3 million to upgrade.

"We want to separate the children from their parents at bed time. We want them to sleep separately," Dr Tsumba said.

National Housing and Social Amenities Minister Fidelis Mhashu said official statistics indicated that two million people registered for accommodation. "We need assistance. as Government, we cannot go it alone. We need the participation of the private sector and international private developers," he said. He assured delegates that their money and investments would be safe in Zimbabwe.

However, Ms Sheila Magara, a national co-ordinator of the Zimbabwe Homeless Federation and a resident of the Mbare Hostels, expressed fears that some of her colleagues would lose their apartments. She said Zimbabwean cities were failing to integrate the poor, giving examples of silent evictions being effected by Harare City councillors.

Ms Patience Mudimu, the national projects co-ordinator with Dialogue on Shelter for the Homeless in Zimbabwe Trust, concurred adding that the existence of big housing waiting lists indicated that cities and towns were failing to include the poor. "If the house is not connected to sewer and water, a road, near a school or health facility, then there is no inclusion," she said.

INFORM

Somali pirates who captured a North Korean-flagged Libyan cargo ship have demanded a three-million-dollar ransom and threatened to kill its crew, maritime officials said on Sunday.

The 4,800-tonne vessel, owned by Libya's White Sea Shipping, was attacked in the northwestern Gulf of Aden, south of the Yemeni coast, in February.

"Captors of the MV Rim are demanding three million dollars of ransom to release the ship and its 10 Syrian crew," Andrew Mwangura, who works for a seamen's aid programme in Mombasa, Kenya, told AFP.

"They are threatening to kill the hostages."

The Rim was not registered with authorities monitoring the Indian Ocean area between Somalia and the Arabian peninsula, and nothing is known about its cargo or where it was headed when it was attacked.

After it was captured, pirates took the vessel to an area off the town of Laasgoray, on the border between Somalia's breakaway regions of Somaliland and Puntland.

Somali pirates have become a chronic hazard for shipping in the region. They hijack vessels exclusively for ransom payments, which are regularly made.

INFORM

Dutch marines on Sunday disarmed 12 suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia who had mistakenly attacked their warship thinking it was a merchant vessel, the Dutch defence ministry said.

The Dutch frigate Hr. Ms. Tromp, responding to a sighting from a German patrol plane, encountered the pirates' "mother boat" and two smaller motorised attack boats about 270 nautical miles off the Somali coast, said a statement.

"When the Tromp came within eight nautical miles of the pirates, two attack boats stormed the Tromp on the assumption that the frigate was a merchant vessel," said a ministry statement entitled: "Pirates miscalculate".

"When they realised they were trying to storm a war ship, they abandoned the attack and made haste trying to get away," throwing overboard a number of weapons and ladders normally used for boarding hijacked vessels.

Warning shots fired from the frigate forced the three pirate boats to come to a halt, and marines found a total of 12 people on board, the statement said.

"The marine frigate destroyed the two attack boats, and all the pirates were put on board the mother boat with sufficient food, water and fuel and sent back to Somalia."

The marines did not arrest the group because of a lack of physical evidence, ministry spokeswoman Marloes Visser told AFP.

"After they threw overboard the weapons and ladders, they could not be linked to a specific pirate attack."

The Tromp has found and disarmed 32 pirates in the past week. In total, it has disarmed 44 pirates while participating in a European Union anti-piracy mission in the lawless waters off the Horn of Africa nation.

Since mid-2009, Somali pirates have ventured from the now heavily-patrolled waters of the Gulf of Aden to launch the bulk of their attacks much further out in the Indian Ocean.

INFORM

Dutch warship disarms 12 more pirates near Somalia under catch-and-release policy

The Dutch navy says it has disarmed 12 more pirates off the coast of Somalia after luring them into a foolhardy attack on a warship.

The Netherlands' Defense Ministry says a German patrol plane detected the pirates' position and HNLMS Tromp was dispatched to the spot as part of an EU mission.

Two pirate skiffs sped toward it, apparently thinking the Tromp was a commercial vessel. When they realized it was well-armed they tried to flee, dumping their weapons and boarding ladders.

The warship stopped them by firing warning shots.

Sailors destroyed the two fast skiffs and released the pirates with enough food, water and gas to reach shore.

The Tromp has caught 32 pirates in the past week, according to the statement Sunday.

INFORM

Joseph Ebuya led a Kenyan cleansweep of the four titles on offer at the world cross country championships on Sunday.

The 22-year-old landed the men's title - the first for Kenya since Paul Tergat in 1999 - beating home Eritrea's Teklemariam Medhin while Moses Ndiema Kipsiro of Uganda took the bronze medal over the 12-kilometre course.

Ebuya, who was fourth in the 2008 edition, made up for the disappointing performance of 19-year-old Paul Tanui, his compatriot and pre-race favourite, who could only finish ninth.

Ethiopia's defending champion Gebregziabher Gebremariam was never in the hunt and walked away in tears after crossing the line in 10th spot.

Ebuya, whose family were so poor that they couldn't afford to send him to school, said that getting to Poland had been a battle in itself.

"I had to fight a war to even get into the Kenyan team," said Ebuya, who hails from the unfashionable - from an athletics point of view - region of Turkana.

"I was well prepared for this challenge in Poland because we trained as a team at the foot of Mount Kenya which is as chilly as it is here," added Ebuya, who took home a cheque for over 33,000 dollars.

Ebuya, who showed his potential for taking the title earlier this year when he beat Kenenisa Bekele in Edinburgh, said that he had not been too sure of winning when Mehdin was upsides him.

"I have never raced against Mehdin and so to me he was an unknown quantity," said Ebuya.

"However, once I got 10 metres clear of him I started praying and victory was delivered."

Earlier Emily Chebet won the women's title run over 8km, beating compatriot and 10,000 metres world champion Linet Chepkwemoi Masai while Meselech Melkamu of Ethiopia took bronze for a fifth time.

The major disappointment of the race was Ethiopia's three-time champion Tirunesh Dibaba, who could finish only fourth, 19sec behind Chebet.

Just like last year in Amman, Masai did all the hard work, setting the pace and burning off the main challengers before having to settle for silver again.

Caleb Ndiku and Mercy Cherono won the boys and girls titles, leading home a Kenyan 1-2-3 in their respective races.

INFORM

Sudan's chief peace negotiator said on Sunday that a main Darfur rebel group, Justice and Equality Movement, was "not serious" about reaching a final settlement with the government.

"We have committed to finalising an agreement between now and April 5," Amin Hassan Omar told reporters in Khartoum.

"But JEM is not serious about reaching a peace agreement," he said, accusing the group of violating the ceasefire and failing to free prisoners despite a pledge to do so.

JEM, one of two key Darfur rebel groups along with the Sudan Liberation Army faction of Abdelwahid Nur, signed a framework accord in February in Qatar that was hailed by the international community as a major step towards bringing peace to the western region of Sudan devastated by a seven-year war.

But talks between Khartoum and JEM have since run into trouble and a deadline set under the accord for completing the peace deal passed on March 15 without agreement.

Shortly afterwards, the Khartoum government signed a framework peace deal in Doha with the Liberation and Justice Movement, another rebel group that forms an alliance of splinter factions.

Senior Sudanese officials at the time urged JEM to engage in "serious and sincere" talks to reach a final agreement.

Omar on Sunday insisted the Sudanese authorities had not re-arrested 15 JEM rebels last week, as alleged by their lawyer, after releasing them following the wavering truce.

"JEM wants to control Darfur, as well as (the central region of) Kordofan and Khartoum," he said.

According to sources in Chad, JEM is prepared to tone down its demands in return for a delay to the national multi-party elections due to be held on April 11-13.

But Sudan has said there is no reason to postpone the presidential, legislative and local elections, despite calls from Western observers and opposition parties for a delay.

INFORM

Preventive use of a cheap, commonly-prescribed antibiotic dramatically reduced the death toll among African patients whose immune systems had been ravaged by the AIDS virus, says a paper appearing on Monday.

The drug, co-trimoxazole, marketed as Septrim, Bactrim and other brands, is widely used to combat pneumonia and ear and urinary tract infections and has also been found to have some antimalarial properties.

The investigation covered 3,179 people in Uganda and Zimbabwe who were started on a course of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and whose counts of CD4 immune cells were lower than 200 cells per microlitre.

Among those given co-trimoxazole alongside the anti-HIV drugs, the risk of dying during the first three months fell by 59 percent compared to those who were not on the antibiotic.

At the 72-week stage, the reduced risk of mortality still persisted, although it evened out to 35 percent overall.

In addition, co-trimoxazole cut frequency of malaria by 26 percent.

These benefits, together with the very low side effects, suggest doctors in Africa should also prescribe co-trimoxazole at the early stage of treatment for HIV, says the paper, published online by The Lancet.

"Co-trimoxazole prophylaxis (combined with anti-HIV treatment) is cost-effective and has a substantial public health effect," says the study.

"Our results reinforce WHO (World Health Organisation) guidelines and provide strong motivation for provision of co-trimoxazole prophylaxis for at least 72 weeks to all adults starting combination ART in Africa."

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) penetrates and destroys key cells in the immune system, paving the way to AIDS, when the body becomes vulnerable to a host of opportunistic diseases.

Sub-Saharan Africa had 22.4 million people living with HIV or AIDS, amounting to two-thirds of the world total of 33.4 million, according to estimates for the end of 2008 released by the UN agency UNAIDS last November.

INFORM

Health workers at the capital's two main hospitals ended their 10-day-old strike on Sunday after they decided to accept the Sierra Leone government's offer, which would double their salaries.

The government offered a 100 percent increase in their salaries effective from March 1 and the setting up of a health commission in April which will oversee all recruitment and promotions in the sector.

The decision to return to work came after a discussion with President Ernest Koroma which lasted three hours Saturday night to iron out differences, a governmental source told AFP.

Koroma had earlier claimed that the strike had led to "some deaths."

One striker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said further discussions of improved working conditions will continue with the government, but they have in the meantime decided to end the action and go back to work.

The strikers had earlier criticised a government statement issued on Saturday in which they were told to either return to work on Monday or be fired.

The World Health Organisation estimates that there is less than one physician per 10,000 inhabitants in the country, whose healthcare system was left in tatters after a decade-long civil war ended in 2001.

inform

Use of a cheap, commonly-prescribed antibiotic dramatically reduced the death toll among African patients whose immune systems had been ravaged by the AIDS virus, says a paper appearing on Monday.

The drug, co-trimoxazole, marketed as Septrim, Bactrim and other brands, is widely used to combat pneumonia and ear and urinary tract infections and has also been found to have some antimalarial properties.

The investigation covered 3,179 people in Uganda and Zimbabwe who were started on a course of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and whose counts of CD4 immune cells were lower than 200 cells per microlitre.

Among those given co-trimoxazole alongside the anti-HIV drugs, the risk of dying during the first three months fell by 59 percent compared to those who were not on the antibiotic.

At the 72-week stage, the reduced risk of mortality still persisted, although it evened out to 35 percent overall.

In addition, co-trimoxazole cut frequency of malaria by 26 percent.

These benefits, together with the very low side effects, suggest doctors in Africa should also prescribe co-trimoxazole at the early stage of treatment for HIV, says the paper, published online by The Lancet.

"Co-trimoxazole prophylaxis (combined with anti-HIV treatment) is cost-effective and has a substantial public health effect," says the study.

"Our results reinforce WHO (World Health Organisation) guidelines and provide strong motivation for provision of co-trimoxazole prophylaxis for at least 72 weeks to all adults starting combination ART in Africa."

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) penetrates and destroys key cells in the immune system, paving the way to AIDS, when the body becomes vulnerable to a host of opportunistic diseases.

Sub-Saharan Africa had 22.4 million people living with HIV or AIDS, amounting to two-thirds of the world total of 33.4 million, according to estimates for the end of 2008 released by the UN agency UNAIDS last November.

2010-03-28

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Economic crisis and climate change concerns could affect the fight against the AIDS virus and lead to a "universal nightmare", the head of the United Nations' agency for HIV/AIDS said on Sunday.

The global economic downturn has brought about greater inequality and could increase vulnerability and fuel the epidemic, said Michele Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS.

About 33.4 million people worldwide are infected with HIV and the AIDS virus. Since AIDS emerged in the 1980s, almost 60 million people have been infected and 25 million have died.

"This is no time to stop. If we stop helping those people, the majority of whom are coming from the poorest segment of society, what we will face is a universal nightmare," he said in an interview.

Sidibe was attending a meeting in Bangkok of parliamentarians from 150 countries to press for the lifting of travel restrictions on people infected with HIV, which he said were "outdated" and "obsolete".

He urged governments facing budgetary restraints not to reduce funding for HIV treatment and prevention.

Sidibe countered criticism that the focus on HIV/AIDS had led to a neglect of other fatal diseases, saying that the agency was working to integrate programmes for both HIV and tuberculosis, which is a common cause of death in HIV patients.

NEW POPULATIONS INFECTED

Since HIV was discovered, significant progress has been made. New infections have fallen 17 percent in the past eight years, over four million people now receive necessary treatment.

A recent report by the Global Fund, a multi-donor initiative fighting HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, said the elimination of mother-to-child transmission is within reach by 2015.

However, Sidibe said the virus was making inroads into new populations and areas. According to UNAIDS, for every two people put on treatment, five are newly infected.

He said Africa remains the worst affected but there is growing concern about other parts of the world, especially eastern Europe and central Asia.

Around 70 percent of new infections occurring in those regions were drug users with no access to services because they are considered criminals, Sidibe said.

In Africa, 40 percent of all new infections occur in people who are married or living in stable relationship.

Sidibe said all possible tools, from condoms to circumcision, needed to be used and support from big pharmaceutical companies was essential.

"We need to renegotiate how we can have pharmaceutical firms engaged in a process which can help us to have more sample drugs and better quality first-line treatment," he said.

20100328
AP

An independent Zimbabwe Sunday newspaper apologizes to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II for publishing a computer-doctored photograph showing the 83-year old monarch pregnant during news reports on ...



An independent Zimbabwe Sunday newspaper apologizes to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II for publishing a computer-doctored photograph showing the 83-year old monarch pregnant during news reports on a state visit earlier this month by the South African president.

The Standard says the photo was drawn in error from an Internet site satirizing South African President Jacob Zuma for his alleged promiscuity. The newspaper says the photo was printed with an article on Zuma's efforts to break a deadlock in the year-old Zimbabwe coalition on his trip to Britain, the former colonial power in Zimbabwe, headlined "Zuma UK trip successful."

The newspaper says while some readers found the photo amusing, it also caused offense and was seen as tasteless.

20100328
aljazeera



The Lord's Resistance Army killed about 300 people and kidnapped 250 more in a rampage in the Democratic Republic of Congo in December 2009, according to an international rights group and the UN.

The previously undocumented massacre, undertaken over four-days in the remote Makombo area of DRC's northeastern Haute Uele district, was highlighted in reports by Human Rights Watch and the UN on Sunday.

The killings of 321 civilians occurred between December 14 and 17, HRW said in a reportafter documenting the deaths in a visit to the region in February.

The Ugandan anti-government group were said to have abducted 80 children among the 250 people kidnapped.

"The Makombo massacre is one of the worst ever committed by the LRA in its bloody 23-year history, yet it has gone unreported for months," Anneke Van Woudenberg, HRW's senior Africa researcher, said.

"The four-day rampage demonstrates that the LRA remains a serious threat to civilians and is not a spent force, as the Ugandan and Congolese governments claim."

However, Obonyo Olweny, a former LRA spokesman, has told Al Jazeera that while the group is still active, it is not fighting civilians.

"I want to say categorically to the world that the LRA is not responsible for the killings going on in the [Democratic Republic of] Congo or the CAR [Central Africa Republic]," he said from Nairobi, Kenya, on Sunday.

"It is the UPD [the Ugandan armed forces] carrying out the killings - it is part of the government's propaganda."

'Really brutal'

The UN said that its investigation had shown that the LRA had killed at least 290 people, perhaps more than 300, during the rampage and following LRA threats of such massacres the year before.

"The men were tied by the chest by the same rope and killed with wood sticks on the back of the head and neck - it was really brutal and fast," Liliane Egounlety, who led the UN investigation, said.

"They also used machetes. Many witnesses found it too hard to talk about."

The UN said that at least 150 people had been abducted.

HRW's investigation found that the LRA had made some of the 80 abducted children murder other children.

The LRA has a reputation of forcing children into becoming soldiers.

HRW said that the attacks in at least 10 villages were well planned, targeting men first, but also killing women and children.

The group said that the youngest person to die was a three-year-old girl who was burned to death, while at least 13 gangs and 23 children were killed.

Their document said that some people were killed by having their heads smashed with axes and heavy wooden sticks.

Regional problem

The LRA was formed in northern Uganda in the late-1980s as an opposition group.

In 2005, they were forced out of the East African country to the DRC, Central African Republic and south Sudan, from where they continued to launch cross-border attacks.

LRA fighters killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 1,400 others - including 630 children and more than 400 women - in the DRC during a 10-month period in 2008 and 2009, the UN has said.

Van Woudenberg told Al Jazeera that the LRA had become a regional problem that needed action by the United Nations and African governments.

"What it does show is that it is high time for the Lord's Resistance Army leaders to be arrested, for them to be brought to justice and these kind of atrocities to end," she said.

"I think what is needed is some bold leadership, some really courageous steps taken by the governments of the region, by the United Nations peacekeeping forces to put together an regional strategy to end the terror of this group."

A much-criticised UN mission remains in the east of DRC but is under pressure to leave the country by next year, when presidential polls are due to be held.

Monuc, the peacekeeping force, has about 22,000 soldiers in the region to keep peace in the face of Rwandan Hutu fighters.

"The difficulty and the challenge for United Nations peacekeepers that are stationed in that region, the Ugandan army and the Congolese army is that these men move through the bush at night; in many instances they dressed in military fatigues," Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege said from Nigeria.

"Many of the villagers are unsuspecting to begin with ... initially these villagers were assisting the LRA fighters because they thought they were regular soldiers."

Major challenges

Alan Doss, the UN special representative to DRC and head of Monuc, says the sheer size of the territory the peacekeepers are supposed to cover is one of the major challenges facing the mission.

"We have no soldiers in that area. At that time [of the massacre], we had focused on the major population centres, which are quite a distance away," he told Al Jazeera on Sunday.

"They [the LRA fighters] are made up of small groups that move around.

"To deal with them effectively, we need to improve intelligence gathering, have additional air mobility [as there are no roads in many places], and be able to put special forces into these areas quickly to anticipate their moves and deal with them."

Al Jazeera is not responsible for the content of external websites

20100327
aljazeera



Travel restrictions applied by the West to Zimbabwean officials from the Zanu-PF, should be lifted, Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, has said.

The South African leader made his comments, which echo earlier calls, at the tail-end of a visit to Uganda.

Zuma is mediating in a dispute between Zanu-PF, the political party of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, and its rival, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), headed by Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's prime minister.

"What's happening is that one part of unity government, the MDC, can travel all they want, around the world and do what they want while the other part, the Zanu-PF, cannot," Zuma said on Friday.

"That's impeding the functioning of the unity government and so the international community that supported the power-sharing agreement must also lift the sanctions to allow the unity government to function to its full capacity."

Slow progress

Both the European Union and the US maintain a travel ban and asset freeze on Mugabe, his wife and inner circle in protest at disputed 2008 elections and alleged human rights abuses by his government.

A power-sharing agreement between Zanu-PF and MDC has failed to make major headway since it was installed two years ago.

Zuma, who has urged Western powers to lift sanction in the past, said that should sanctions be lifted "we can make faster progress".

Yoweri Museveni, the Ugandan president, endorsed Zuma's position in a joint statement.

Zimbabwe has been mired in a political and economic crisis for years, with much of its economic woes blamed on Mugabe's policies.

Zuma was in Uganda as part of a delegation of cabinet ministers and business men.

While there he and his host also discussed the situation in Democratic Republic of Congo.

In a statement they said they had agreed that while security there was improving, the United Nations' peacekeeping mission there, known as Monuc, was still needed to provide stability.

20100328
aljazeera



Libya and the EU have said that they have lifted mutual visa bans on each other's citizens, after a long-running dispute between the North African nation and Switzerland and tit-for-tat bans.

Libya said that it lifted a visa bar against the 25 European countries of the Schengen zone after the EU president Spain ended a blacklist banning 188 Libyans from entering the region.

"In the interests of strengthening its co-operation with the European Union, Libya lifts the restrictions it earlier imposed on the citizens of the Schengen zone," Libya's foreign ministry said in a statement published by JANA, the state news agency.

The EU earlier said in a statment distributed to media workers on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Sirte, Libya: "The names of Libyan citizens listed on the Schengen zone [blacklist] have been permanently removed.

"We regret and deplore the trouble and inconvenience caused to those Libyan citizens. We hope that this move will not be repeated in the future."

Economic ties

Libya said that the EU's ending of the blacklist was a defeat for Switzerland, which instigated the list.

However, Mussa Kussa, Libya's foreign minister, told the AFP news agency that the visa decision had not resolved the diplomatic crisis with Switzerland.

"We demand international arbitration and we will accept any outcome, positive or negative," he said.

The EU's announcement comes after diplomatic moves to end the standoff and ease pressure on economic ties between the European grouping and Libya, an oil exporter.

Switzerland had drawn up the blacklist, which included Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, and members of his family prompting Libya to stop issuing visas to citizens of the Schengen zone, of which Switzerland is a member.

The terms of the Schengen agreement state that any person blacklisted in a Schengen area nation must be refused entry in the other countries of the pact.

Therefore, the Libyans could not enter any of the Schengen zone nations, which includes 22 EU countries, as well as Switzerland, Iceland and Norway.

Ongoing dispute

Relations between Libya and Switzerland have been strained since July 2008 when Gaddafi's son Hannibal and his wife were arrested and briefly held in Geneva after two domestic workers complained he had mistreated them.

The row deepened when Libya swiftly detained and confiscated the passports of two Swiss businessmen, Rashid Hamdani and Max Goeldi.

Both men were convicted of overstaying their visas and of engaging in illegal business activities.

Hamdani's conviction was overturned in January, while Goeldi surrendered to authorities and is now serving a reduced jail term of four months.

In February, Gaddafi urged jihad against Switzerlandand put a trade embargo on the country this month.

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ALALAM

Sudan's ousted prime minister has accused the government of destroying the country and forcing the separation of the south as he took his campaign for re-election to one of his traditional heartlands.

Sadeq al-Mahdi, Sudan's last elected leader, is one of the main presidential candidates in elections, due to start on April 11.

He said that the country has been destroyed by the program of a minority.

He accused Bashir's backers of forcing their ideology on to Sudan's multicultural society. “(This) has been the main reason why the country has been polarised and broken up.”

Mahdi, the leader of the opposition Umma party, said Bashir's divisive rule had incited the revolt in western Darfur and strengthened an independence movement in the oil-producing south, where most follow Christianity and traditional beliefs.

Bashir's government signed a peace deal with southerners in 2005 that promised the elections and a referendum on whether the south should secede. Southerners are widely expected to choose independence in the ballot due in January 2011.

Umma's campaign has been overshadowed by that of Bashir's National Congress Party.