OUAGADOUGOU, 2 September 2009 (IRIN) - Flooding has affected an estimated 150,000 people in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, claimed at least five lives and partially shut down the country’s main hospital, according to government and hospital officials.

Dozens of patients were evacuated from the Yalgado Ouédraogo hospital’s paediatric, infectious disease, respiratory and kidney disease departments. Emergency care services have been relocated to other health centres.

“We were surprised as everyone else [by the storm],” said Lansandé Bagagné, a doctor at the hospital. “We will try to see now what to do to save all [the equipment] that can be saved and we will see for the rest. We have evacuated patients from wards that were flooded.” Hospital staff are researching which other health centres have surgical capacities to take on more patients, the doctor added.

Some patients’ families are not waiting for further evacuation orders. “We are taking him [father] home to wait to see what will happen,” said Adama Coulibaly who told IRIN her father was a renal patient. “We do not know if the building will hold up to protect the patients here. The situation can only get worse,” she said.

Doctors are also agreeing to discharge patients early, the hospital’s communication officer, Sanou Souro, told IRIN. “We have to make do until the situation improves.” She said hospital officials’ priority is to first disinfect the hospital, and then they will finalize the count of patient evacuees.

Scattered

Schools and churches at 193 sites across Ouagadougou are sheltering 110,000 flood victims, based on a preliminary government count. The actual number of people needing shelter may be 20,000 more because of those who have “refused” to join public shelters, according to the Prime Minister Tertius Zongo. An additional estimated 20,000 have relocated to live with family and neighbours.

“Houses continue to crumble,” said the Minister of Social Welfare, Pascaline Tamini, at noon on national radio. “Measures [we have] taken are [creating] shelter, doing everything necessary to ensure that a level of sanitation, health services and food are in place by this evening.”

In a visit to Yalgado Ouédraogo hospital on 1 September, the prime minister said the country had not seen a storm of similar magnitude since 1919. The country’s head of meteorological services, Didier Ouédraogo, told IRIN that though weather service staff knew of the storm’s approach, “the quantity and intensity was not foreseen.”

The country has on average 1,200mm of rainfall annually. Within only hours on 1 September, the city was deluged with 300mm, said Ouédraogo.

President Blaise Compaoré has mentioned the possibility of launching an international appeal for disaster relief upon his return to Ouagadougou on the afternoon of 2 September, saying the country faced “an exceptional situation.”

irinnews

02 Sep 2009
Libya has celebrated the anniversary of a coup that brought Colonel Moamar Gadhafi to power 40 years ago in the North African country.

Gadhafi kicked off the celebrations early Tuesday with a feast at a former US air base that was later turned into a Libyan military camp.

A parade was held on Tuesday afternoon while a large-scale celebration took place in a Tripoli stadium in the evening after the end of the Ramadan fast.

Libya invited many heads of state, but most of them sent lower-level representatives or stayed away in a sign of the still touchy relationship many Western countries have with Libya and concern over how to treat the Mediterranean country following the Lockerbie bomber's release.

Scottish officials released the bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, on August 20, saying that doctors had determined that he had terminal prostate cancer and had only three months to live.

Megrahi is the only man convicted of the 1988 plane bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 259 people aboard the aircraft and 11 people on the ground.

presstv

02 Sep 2009
The British prime minister is faced with mounting pressure after new details were revealed on the discussions about the release of the sole man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.

Gordon Brown and his Foreign Secretary David Miliband have been drawn into furor after the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was sentenced to life in prison by a Scottish court for his role in the bombing of a PanAm flight over Lockerbie in Scotland in which 270 people were killed.

On Tuesday, the British and Scottish governments released a series of documents in which former Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell confirmed he told Libya's Europe minister in a February meeting that Brown did not want the Lockerbie bomber to die in a Scottish prison.

The message had come amid warnings from Tripoli that allowing Megrahi to die in prison would amount to a 'death sentence'.

Later Rammell told the BBC he had conveyed Brown's feelings to the Libyans: "I did say that. But we need to put it in context. I was making it emphatically clear that this was a decision for Scottish ministers."

Scotland released terminally-ill Megrahi on August 20, sparing him the remaining 19 years of his 27-year sentence.

presstv

30 Aug 2009

The first minister of Scotland says the release of the Lockerbie bomber was not in line with UK trade interests with Libya, as the plot thickens with the publication of leaked papers.

Ministerial letters leaked to the Sunday Times daily showed UK ministers had negotiated with the oil-rich country and agreed to include him in a prisoner transfer deal in 2007 because it was "in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom."

Correspondence between British Justice Minister Jack Straw and his Scottish counterpart Kenny MacAskill, dated 19 December 2007, clearly indicates a change of stance over Megrahi's fate, allegedly in the middle of a stalled oil deal.

The negotiations were over a lucrative oil exploration contract for BP worth billions of pounds and the difficulties were quickly resolved afterwards.

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond reiterated Sunday that the decision to free the bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, was on compassionate grounds permitted under Scottish law.

He told the BBC that Nelson Mandela, “not just as the towering figure of humanitarian concern… in the last generation but as somebody who brokered the agreement that led to the Lockerbie trial in the first place,” had lent his voice to the "international support" for the move.

MacAskill released terminally-ill Megrahi on August 20, sparing him the remaining 19 years of his 27-year sentence.

The 57-year-old Libyan is the sole man convicted for the 1988 bombing atrocity abroad the PanAm 103 that killed 270 people.

While Scotland mulled over whether to consider a prison transfer or release Megrahi, London repeatedly said the decision rested with Scotland, but suspicions about the motivations behind the move have not been satisfied.

UK opposition parties want an inquiry into the matter as well as detailed notes on any trade or other deals made with the Libyan government prior to Megrahi's release.

Last week, Cabinet papers showed that three ministers had paid visits to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in the months leading up to Megrahi's release.

Straw has so far maintained that the negotiations were not over an oil deal, but sought to improve relations with the country after Tripoli agreed to give up its "weapons of mass destruction."

presstv

30 Aug 2009
As the release of the sole man convicted of the Lockerbie plane bombing stirs up controversy, leaked governmental letters reveal that the bomber was set free over lucrative Libyan oil contracts.

The Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, suffering from terminal prostate cancer, was allowed to return to Libya from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds earlier in August.

He was initially imprisoned in 2001 after having been found guilty of the 1988 bombing of PanAm Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people.

Amid growing anger over the issue, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill assured those concerned that the decision to release the prisoner, which under the Scottish law is up to the Justice Ministry, was solely his and not based on "political, diplomatic or economic considerations."

Meanwhile, according to a report published by Times Online, leaked ministerial letters reveal that the British government decided that it was "in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom" to release the Libyan convict.

Letters sent in 2007 by Jack Straw -- the justice secretary -- to MacAskill -- his Scottish counterpart -- makes it clear that the key decision to release al-Megrahi was, in fact, made in London for Britain's national interests.

According to the report, the issue of the release of al-Megrahi was mentioned in ministerial correspondence as discussions over a multi-billion-pound oil exploration deal between energy giant BP and Libya had reached a stalemate.

The exploration deal for oil and gas, potentially worth up to 15 billion pounds, was announced in May 2007. Six months later, the agreement was still waiting to be ratified.

The issue, however, was resolved soon after Straw wrote to MacAskill on December 19, 2007 allowing the prisoner transfer.

"The wider negotiations with the Libyans are reaching a critical stage and, in view of the overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom, I have agreed that in this instance the [prisoner transfer agreement] should be in the standard form and not mention any individual," he wrote in a letter leaked by a Whitehall source.

Within six weeks of the government withdrawal, the BP deal was ratified by Libya.

Saif Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, has also confirmed the report, saying that the release of al-Megrahi was linked with the BP oil contract.

"At all times we talked about the [prisoner transfer agreement], it was obvious we were talking about him. We all knew that was what we were talking about.

"People should not get angry because we were talking about commerce or oil. We signed an oil deal at the same time. The commerce and oil deals were all with the [prisoner transfer agreement]."

presstv

JOHANNESBURG, 2 September 2009 (IRIN) - South Africa's government has acquired thousands of farms to redress racially skewed land ownership, but more than half have failed, or are failing, Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti told parliament on 1 September.

The government intends redistributing 30 percent of agricultural land (24.6 million hectares) to black South Africans by 2014, but by June 2009 only 6.7 percent (5.5 million hectares) had been parcelled out and many recipient farmers were struggling to survive.

In a written reply to a question in parliament, Nkwinti said 2,864 farms had been acquired, "29 percent of the 1,250 LRAD [Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development] projects reviewed have failed, and a further 22 percent are declining."

Of the 1,250 failed LRAD farms, 362 were unproductive and an additional 275 were on the verge of being unsustainable "if no agricultural support is received". The land reform programme so far had cost about US$800 million, Nkwinti said.

Karen Kleinbooi, of the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape, told IRIN: "The biggest problem [with land redistribution] is there is no real vision as to what it is they [the government] want to achieve with land reform."

Under apartheid 87 percent of farmland was owned by the minority white population, leaving the black majority with 13 percent; reversing this situation has been a political imperative since the African National Congress (ANC) government came to power in 1994.

During President Thabo Mbeki's tenure, from 1999 to 2008, the 30 percent benchmark for land redistribution became a holy grail, resulting in often bitter spats between predominantly white commercial farmer organizations and the government over the slow pace of land redistribution.

The arbitrary 30 percent target

Analysts say the 30 percent target has hobbled rather than enhanced agrarian reform, as achieving it has overshadowed other considerations necessary to creating sustainable rural livelihoods.
''She was not suggesting there were no people wanting land, but rather that beneficiaries had become necessities for transferring hectares, rather than hectares being sourced to serve the needs of beneficiaries''

The 30 percent target is not rooted in some sense of post-apartheid justice; it originated in a 1992 meeting of local and international experts convened by the World Bank on behalf of the ANC.

"Two members of this team focused on financial issues, including the cost implications of a future programme of redistributive land reform," Michael Aliber, a PLAAS senior researcher, noted in the organization's quarterly bulletin in June 2008.

"For good measure, they considered three scenarios: a 10 percent, a 30 percent, and a 50 percent - these were good round figures that captured the boundaries of what was thinkable at the time," he said.

The 50 percent option was dismissed as "out of sight", the 10 percent was seen as "politically unacceptable", and the "30 percent option was a reasonable compromise. That's it," Aliber said.

He recounted a discussion with an "overworked" provincial official tasked with land redistribution, who complained about how difficult it was to find beneficiaries.

"She was not suggesting there were no people wanting land, but rather that beneficiaries had become necessities for transferring hectares, rather than hectares being sourced to serve the needs of beneficiaries."

Kleinbooi said the failure of redistributed farms fitted "squarely" into Mbeki's era, but there were indications of "a shift away from chasing targets ... and a shift towards more efficient land reform" by the new administration of President Jacob Zuma.

Policy decisions reached at the ANC congress in 2007, when Mbeki was deposed as the party's leader and replaced by Zuma, placed a "new focus on agrarian reform, including the restructuring of value chains, [that] is appropriate and much needed, given the complete neglect of these aspects in the past," Ben Cousins, director of PLAAS, said in the organisation's June 2009 quarterly review.

irinnews

02 Sep 2009
Nigerian police reportedly claim that a gunman from the country's hotly-pursued militant sect has confessed to receiving training in Afghanistan.

The man, named Abdulrasheed Abubakar, was arrested in the northern city of Yola on Sunday during a police crackdown on the country's notorious Boko Haram gunmen, the local newspaper Next reported.

On Wednesday, the police said the 23-year-old had "confessed" that he had been paid USD 5,000 to do the training and promised USD 30,000 on his return, BBC reported.

The police has not clarified who has provided the funds to the man and whether his confession was volunteered.

"The bomb maker was trained outside the country and he is understood to possess extensive knowledge of how to handle, produce and detonate bombs of the most lethal magnitudes," the daily had quoted Altine Daniel, Police Public Relations Officer as saying.

Boko Haram, the man's alleged militant handlers, have been implicated in last July's violence in northern Nigeria which left around 700 killed.

The Boko Haram was shaped in 2002 in the northeastern state capital of Maiduguri. The group's continuous attacks against the police have made it the focus of Abuja's anti-terror efforts.

presstv

02 Sep 2009

The International Criminal Court has reportedly put off the trial of two Congolese militiamen charged with using child soldiers, murder, rape, and sexual slavery.

"The chamber found that compelling reasons require that the date of September 24 initially set for the commencement of the trial be put back," the court said in a statement.

The ICC also said the trials of two accused Congolese warlords, Germain Katanga, 31, and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, 38, will now start in The Hague on November 24 instead of September 24 as originally scheduled.

The defendants are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is said that the militia leaders directed a joint attack in February 2003 on the village of Bogoro in the mineral-rich northeastern Congolese district of Ituri.

There is evidence that more than 200 children, women, old people, and civilian men were killed and that women were detained in camps and repeatedly raped.

The ICC has also issued arrest warrants for two other war crimes suspects in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In addition, there are two other suspects -- ex-militia chief Thomas Lubanga, who is currently on trial in The Hague, and another warlord, Bosco Ntaganda, who is still at large.

presstv

ADDIS ABABA, 1 September 2009 (IRIN) - Ethiopian health authorities have dedicated three hospitals in Addis Ababa to patients suffering from acute watery diarrhoea (AWD), according to a health official.

Thousands of people have been infected and 34 killed by the outbreak, says the Health Ministry. Ahmed Imano, head of public relations in the ministry, said there were fears it could escalate with the rains.

"If the people do not take extra care, the number of patients will increase and the outbreak will escalate," Ahmed told IRIN on 1 September. "The public should treat water before use."

The hospitals - Zweditu, Ras Desta and Yekatit - have set up tents to accommodate patients. So far, about 5,700 cases have been reported across the country, including 4,200 in the capital, over the past two weeks.

Some 27 died in 31 woredas (districts) outside Addis Ababa. "The fatality rate in Addis Ababa is 0.2 percent," Ahmed added.

He blamed the outbreak on poor sanitation and hygiene, as well as contaminated water. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diarrhoea is spread through contaminated food or drinking water or from person-to-person.

AWD is one of the three clinical types of diarrhoea, which can be caused by a variety of bacterial, viral and parasitic organisms.

"There are a number of diseases that causes diarrhoea; we [have] not identified which specific type of disease caused AWD," Ahmed said. "We are still studying that. Now our main focus is saving lives."

In a bid to contain the situation, residents of Addis Ababa have been advised to take precautionary measures such as frequent hand-washing, avoiding raw food and ensuring that drinking water is boiled, filtered and cooled before consumption, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"The number of hospitalized patients has dropped to 140," Ahmed said. "In the first week around 500 patients came to hospital."

Diarrhoeal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five years old, killing 1.5 million every year, according to WHO.

irinnews

JOHANNESBURG , 1 September 2009 (IRIN) - A new species of mosquito has been discovered by South African researchers, adding to the pantheon of some 140 species of Anopheles mosquitoes in Africa, of which seven are known to be malaria vectors.

"A lot of Africa['s mosquitoes are] not investigated - the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] is a huge blank in the map. Who knows what is happening in the remote regions of the Rift Valley?" said Prof Maureen Coetzee, of the University of the Witwatersrand's School of Pathology in Johannesburg, South Africa, who discovered the new species.

Coetzee is one of the authors of the report: A New Species Concealed by Anopheles funestus Giles, a Major Malaria Vector in Africa. "Understanding the vectors is absolutely key; if we don't do anything about mosquitoes, we will never do anything about malaria," she told IRIN.

The previously unknown species - provisionally named Anopheles funestus-like - was discovered during field studies by researchers from the university and South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases in and around rural villages in northern Malawi near the town of Karonga, on the western shore of Lake Malawi.

The new species is related to the major African malarial vector, Anopheles funestus, but the "jury is still out on ... whether it carries [the] malaria [parasite]," Coetzee said.

The Anopheles funestus Giles group of mosquitoes has nine known African species, and "although the members of the Anopheles funestus group may be similar in morphology [its form and structure], their efficiencies as malaria vectors vary greatly," the report said.

Anopheles funestus s.s. is recognized as one of the primary causes of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa because it is anthropophilic, meaning that it prefers to feed on humans rather than other animals, and endophilic, meaning it associates with humans and their domestic environment.

While "anopheles rivulum has only once been implicated in malaria transmission in Tanzania, it generally elects to blood-feed on domestic animals rather than humans," the report said.

The new species were "common inside houses [which] makes them potential [malaria] vectors", the researchers found, "although none of the 61 specimens examined for malaria parasite infection during this study were positive for Plasmodium Falciparum, [the parasite that causes malaria in humans]."

Coetzee said it was important to ascertain whether Anopheles funestus-like was a malaria vector or not, but this could only be determined after further research.

If it did not carry malaria it would be unnecessary to spend money on disease containments like spraying; if it did, strategies should be developed to limit its impact.

We don't know as much as we thought we did

"Using the unique mosquito breeding facilities at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases [in Johannesburg], we were able to carry out a range of experiments to show that the mosquitoes from Malawi were not the same as Anopheles funestus, and that we were dealing with a species new to science," Coetzee said in a statement on 1 September announcing the breakthrough.

''Here we are in 2009, discovering a new species [of mosquito] - it really is quite remarkable. The more we look, the more we will find; we might think that we know an awful lot [about mosquitoes and malaria], but there is a lot to learn''
"The results have implications for malaria-vector control, particularly any attempt to use genetically modified mosquitoes. They also demonstrate how little we know about the malaria mosquito vectors in Africa despite over 100 years of research into this important disease."

Nobel Prize winner Sir Ronald Ross, working in Secunderabad, near Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh State, India, scientifically proved in 1897 that mosquitoes carried the parasite that caused malaria.

Coetzee remarked, "Here we are in 2009, discovering a new species [of mosquito] - it really is quite remarkable. The more we look, the more we will find; we might think that we know an awful lot [about mosquitoes and malaria], but there is a lot to learn."

The incidence of drug-resistant malaria in Cambodia was "causing worldwide panic", she said, but there were differences between Asian and African mosquitoes - "African vectors are very good [at transmitting malaria]."

According to the World Malaria report for 2008 by the UN World Health Organization, half the world's population is at risk, and an estimated 247 million cases led to nearly one million deaths in 2006. Pregnant women and children in sub-Saharan Africa are especially threatened.

irinnews

01 Sep 2009

The president of the African Union (AU) holds Israel responsible for all the woes facing Africa, calling on member-states to cut diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv.

Israel is "behind all of Africa's conflicts," Muammar Gaddafi said on Monday and demanded the closure of all Israeli embassies across Africa.

The Libyan leader, who holds the rotating AU presidency described Israel as a "gang" which uses the "protection of minorities as an excuse to launch conflicts."

Gaddafi made the remarks at a meeting of 30 African leaders, who had convened in Tripoli for a one-day summit on the continent's trouble spots, including Sudan's Darfur and Somalia.

Israel has acknowledged operating what it called a forward policy in Africa between the 1960s and 1980s, intervening in wars from Ethiopia to Uganda and Sudan, he stressed.

"As African brothers, we must find solutions to stop the superpowers who are pillaging our continent," the president of the AU added.

The one-day meeting ended without any agreement on concrete steps. The leaders merely adopted a 'Tripoli Declaration' and a plan of action 'to find urgent solutions to crises and conflicts' in Africa.

That plan urges member-states who have pledged to contribute troops to reinforce the AU peacekeeping force in Somalia (AMISOM) to honor their promises "rapidly".

prsstv

BAMAKO, 1 September 2009 (IRIN) - Legislators in Mali will have to try harder to win support for the next draft of their new family code after the president sent it back to parliament on 27 August for re-drafting.

The current draft code recognizes only secular marriages, increases the legal marrying age to 18, gives girls inheritance rights, and makes women equal with their husbands at home, according to lawmakers who said they had not done enough to get backing for controversial parts of the family code.

“We demonstrated intellectual laziness in adopting the last code so quickly. This time, the assembly will start from zero,” parliamentarian Mountaga Tall told IRIN. He said legislators will hear the arguments of the nation’s highest Islamic body on 10 controversial points which have sparked demonstrations and threats of civil disobedience and violence.

President Amadou Toumani Touré sent the code back to the assembly, recognizing the government’s more than two-decade struggle to pursue “the dual objective of promoting a wave of modernization while preserving the foundations of our society”.

Since the adoption of the country’s first family code in 1962, the president said repeated failures to update and enforce it “proves that societal change is not ordered by decree”. Touré said the “door of debate is still open”.

The secretary of Mali’s highest ruling Islamic council, Mohamed Kimbiri, told IRIN that despite consulting the council about the code, lawmakers had not heeded Islamic leaders’ input on contentious points.

Following the president’s recent move, the Islamic council called off planned demonstrations against the code “until further notice”.

Opposition to the code

The head of a national non-profit group of Muslim women in Mali, Hadja Safiatou Dembélé, told IRIN that while she recognized the code was intended to benefit women, she had not supported it. “We say we agree with revolution and equality, but not an equality which shatters family harmony and puts us on a par with our spouses.” She said Muslim women want a code that respects societal and religious values.

Secondary school professor Bintou Camara told IRIN women cannot have equal standing with men. “There cannot be two bosses in the same family. It is the man who is always in control. I want to leave the term ‘obedience’ in place.” She said the legal marrying age of 18 is too old. “At 12 years old already, many girls are mature and know much about life at that age.” She told IRIN 15 is a good legal age for marriage.

Oumar Coulibaly, a baker working 400km south of the capital Bamako in Koutiala, told IRIN he did not understand why the code was being reconsidered. “We already have our daily problems with the rising cost of living. Why do they want to foist on us a code the origins of which I do not know?”

The president’s head of communications, Kader Maïga, told IRIN the president did not sign the code - which included more than 1,100 articles, about 10 of which are contested - out of respect for public opinion. “We are in a democracy. Why impose something that does not have unanimous support?”

The 13-year history of the most recent attempt to adjust the 1962 family law included regional meetings, and multiple readings and revisions, which resulted in parliament approving the family code, according to President Touré.

Round two

Maïga told IRIN lawmakers would “listen to all sectors of society” while reconsidering the articles which sparked the most heated dissent, and address this criticism in the revised code. “We will then ask all parties to go to their bases of support to explain the code,” he told IRIN.

Municipal adviser Walett Rachette in the country’s northern region of Timbuktu told IRIN the controversy surrounding the code’s passage mirrored past attempts to enforce the family code. “We should not wake old demons here.” She told IRIN lawmakers could only avoid a backlash by working with leaders to redraft the code.

Oumar Touré, a lawmaker who had voted for the code, said he felt dejected at having to contend again with the first bill to have been sent back for redrafting since multi-party democracy was founded in Mali in 1992. “Our constituents did not take the time to try to understand the code, which explains the toxic reaction we witnessed… The lawmakers who adopted the code are for the most part of the Muslim faith… I do not think they would engage in an act that went against their own religion,” he told IRIN.

irinnews

31 Aug 2009
Three different candidates have claimed victory in Gabon's presidential election to choose a successor for Africa's longest-ruling head of state.

The claims on Monday from the main contenders in the race came ahead of the announcement of preliminary election results, amid huge voter turnout on Sunday.

Omar Bongo, one of the wealthiest men in the world, died in June, after more than four decades at the helm of the oil-rich country.

His son, former Defense Minister Ali Bongo, is seeking to fill his father's shoes and has promised to improve on what he describes as the 'prosperity' that the father brought to the former French colony.

He has the support of the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), which immediately pronounced him as the new leader of the oil-rich country.

“Information received from different constituencies in Gabon and abroad put me largely as a winner. I'm waiting for the competent authorities to announce the results officially," Bongo claimed at a press conference on Monday.

However, opposition leader Pierre Mamboundou and the ex-interior minister Andre Mba Obame also insisted on having won the most votes as ballots closed Sunday night.

During the campaign, Bongo's rivals promised to uproot what they called widespread corruption and discrimination in Gabon.

Mamboundou, said his victory would mark a "new era," and has already started outlining his government's economic plan.

Obame said he has won in four of the country's nine provinces.

presstv

HARARE, 31 August 2009 (IRIN) - "Quiet diplomacy", the mantra used by former South African president Thabo Mbeki in his dealings with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, appears to have fallen by the wayside and been replaced with a more no-nonsense approach.

The two-day visit on 27 and 28 August by South African President Jacob Zuma to the country's troubled northern neighbour was characterized by a marked difference in style. Mbeki, appointed as mediator by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to resolve Zimbabwe's economic and political crisis, was seen by analysts as indulging Mugabe; Zuma was more direct.

After opening Zimbabwe's 99th agricultural show in the capital, Harare, Zuma dismissed statements ahead of his visit by Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba, that his presence was only ceremonial. Mbeki was not part of the visit.

"I visited Zimbabwe in my capacity as President of South Africa, as well as in my capacity as Chairperson of the Southern African Development Community, both of which are guarantors of the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

The agreement was signed in September 2008 by Mugabe's ZANU-PF, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and now Prime Minister, and Arthur Mutambara, leader of an MDC faction, which facilitated the formation of a unity government in February 2009.

"I decided to use the opportunity of opening the Harare Agricultural Show to meet the esteemed leaders of political parties to ascertain progress with regards to the implementation of the Global Political Agreement," Zuma said. He held closed-door discussions with Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

The progress of the unity government has been tortured. ZANU-PF has stalled on implementing some aspects of the GPA, among them the appointment without consultation of the reserve bank governor and the attorney general, and Mugabe's refusal to swear in provincial governors, or a white former commercial farmer, Roy Bennett, as deputy minister of agriculture.

"For this [economic recovery] to happen, it is absolutely necessary that the Global Political Agreement be fully implemented without delay," Zuma said.

''For this [economic recovery] to happen, it is absolutely necessary that the Global Political Agreement be fully implemented without delay''
ZANU-PF has complained that the MDC has not done enough to convince Western countries to lift sanctions imposed mainly against the ZANU-PF elite. The US and Britain, the former colonial power, have said sanctions would be lifted once there was respect for human rights and democracy.

"We are aware that some economic development partners and donor countries have put some benchmarks to be met before they can extend assistance, and currently only offer humanitarian assistance," Zuma said in his speech at the agricultural show.

"The achievement of an effective recovery is also dependent on the removal of sanctions and other measures that hold back economic development."

A senior ZANU-PF official, who declined to be identified, told IRIN: "We are a party with a long history of negotiating and we have certainly worn down the MDC - of course, we cannot negotiate ourselves out of power."

However, a senior MDC official, who declined to be identified, told IRIN: "Zuma did get some concessions from Mugabe that certain provisions of the coalition deal would have been implemented by the time the [SADC] summit is held. Very soon there will be some developments."

''The region's leaders [at the SADC summit] need to press Zimbabwe openly and publicly for human rights reforms to prevent the country from backsliding into state-sponsored violence and chaos''

SADC summit

A two-day SADC summit begins on 7 September in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. "This will provide an opportunity to review progress in the implementation of the agreement, and for the countries of Southern Africa to reaffirm their commitment to assisting Zimbabwe," Zuma said.

"At the same time, we have called on all parties inZimbabwe to work together to remove any remaining obstacles to the implementation of the agreement. The parties are agreed on the need to speed up implementation and to find lasting solutions to the current points of disagreements. The important factor is that there was commitment among all parties, which make the movement forward possible," he pointed out.

Human Rights Watch, a global watchdog, noted in a report released on 31 August, False Dawn: The Zimbabwe Power-Sharing Government's Failure to Deliver Human Rights Improvements, "There is mounting evidence that the new government is failing or unwilling to end serious human rights violations, restore the rule of law, institute fundamental rights reforms, and chart a new political direction for the country."

The report also noted that "ZANU-PF retains control of all senior ministries, including the Ministries of Defence, Justice, State Security, and Foreign Affairs; and it co-chairs Home Affairs. The party therefore wields significantly more power than the MDC in the government, and is unwilling to institute human rights and governance reforms."

Georgette Gagnon, Africa director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement: "The region's leaders [at the SADC summit] need to press Zimbabwe openly and publicly for human rights reforms to prevent the country from backsliding into state-sponsored violence and chaos."

irinnews

JOHANNESBURG, 31 August 2009 (IRIN) - As much as 10 percent of South Africa's doctors might have left the country in 2008 to work in developed countries, said local media reports.

However, Bertha Peters-Scheepers, spokesperson for the Health Professionals Council of SA (HPCSA), a statutory body established in terms of the 1974 Health Professions Act to protect consumers of health care services, said using the organization's certificate of good standing to determine the level emigration by doctors was not necessarily an accurate measure.

Local media reports have used the certificate "as a reflection of doctors leaving the country", Peters-Scheepers told IRIN, but the certificate was also requested by local employers to establish whether applicants for jobs were qualified or had malpractice judgments against them.

World Health Organization guidelines frown upon developed countries recruiting doctors from developing countries, but adverts in local medical journals offering doctors work in developed countries are commonplace.

A report by The Times, a South African daily newspaper, notes that in the "July [2009] edition of The South African Medical Journal there were 10 job advertisements for doctors — nine of them for positions in Australia, the UK or Canada."

According to the HPCSA, South Africa has about 35,000 registered doctors; 3,550 applied for certificates of good standing in 2008.

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WASHINGTON, 31 August 2009 (IRIN) - Special interest groups in Zimbabwe are launching a concerted push to ensure their rights are enshrined in the new constitution.

The Global Political Agreement signed in September 2008 between Zimbabwe's various political rivals, which gave rise to the unity government in February 2009, includes writing a new constitution, expected to be introduced in 2010.

The current constitution was adopted at independence from Britain in 1980 after the Lancaster House negotiations led to Ian Smith's white minority government being replaced by a democratic dispensation.

"We are looking forward to a constitution that reflects and respects the rights of all citizens as inalienable, including those of gays, lesbians and transgenders," Fadzai Muparutsa, programme manager for Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), told IRIN.

Homosexuality is outlawed in Zimbabwe - although there are no specific laws prohibiting lesbian relationships - but President Robert Mugabe's nearly three decades of rule have been increasingly hostile towards the gay community, and he has denounced gays as "Un-African" and "worse than pigs and dogs".

"Specific mention of sexual orientation should be made in the new constitution and homosexuality should be decriminalized. We have made this clear to the parliamentary committee in charge of the whole process; South Africa did it, and so can we," Muparutsa said.

South Africa, Zimbabwe's southern neighbour, became the first country in the world to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation in its 1994 constitution, after the demise of apartheid, and the first African country to legalize same-sex marriages in 2004.

''We want a constitution that expressly enshrines our social, political and economic rights and freedoms''
Disabled

People living with disabilities are also campaigning for their rights to be recognized and a special sub-committee on disability has been working with the parliamentary select committee responsible for drafting the new constitution.

Farai Mungoni, advocacy officer of the National Association of Societies for the Care of the Handicapped, dismissed the present constitution as "disability insensitive."

"Disability is only mentioned in passing in Section 23 of the current constitution, which says no one should be discriminated against because they are disabled, but that's not enough. We want a constitution that expressly enshrines our social, political and economic rights and freedoms," he told IRIN.

"Voting rights for the visually impaired, especially, are being violated. Blind people are assisted by police officers when voting, which virtually robs them of their right to a secret vote - these people should be assisted by trusted associates of their choice. Government should also introduce ballot papers that are in Braille," Mungoni said.

Disagreements

However, the introduction of a new constitution is far from assured, as Mugabe's ZANU-PF and the main opposition party, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, are locked in arguments about the provisions.

"Lack of funds is another serious problem threatening the process," co-chairman of the parliamentary select committee, Paul Mangwana, told IRIN. "We need about US$9 million to fund the process, but government is literally bankrupt."

A number of civic groups are also insisting that parliament hand over leadership of the process to civil society, and have threatened to mobilize the public to reject the draft in the required referendum.

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30 Aug 2009
Gabonese electors have gone to the polls to elect a successor to deceased President Omar Bongo, Africa's longest serving ruler, who died in June.

Polling stations opened two hours behind schedule on Sunday, in several districts of the capital, Libreville, due to the shortage of staff and material.

The late president's son, former defense minister Ali Ben Bongo, who was chosen as the candidate of the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), is seeking to replace his father at the helm of power.

The 50-year-old is considered the top contender, with 18 other candidates running in the presidential race, including former government ministers Andre Mba Obame and Casimir Oye Mba.

Obame has won the backing of five candidates out of the original 23 contenders who pulled out of the race on Friday.

While the opposition has vowed to fight what they deem as widespread corruption and discrimination in Gabon, Bongo has promised to stay true to his father's policies and boosting what he called the country's prosperity during his father's four-decade-long rule.

Omar Bongo was one of the world's wealthiest heads of state.

The oil-rich country is also the world's third biggest provider of manganese metal and the continent's second biggest wood exporter, but the majority of its population of 1.5 million live below the poverty line.

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South Africa is terminating the services of thousands of soldiers whose protests over a pay rise turned violent last week and resulted in clashes with the police.

A court has ruled the protests as illegal and dismissal letters are being sent to the soldiers, the ministry of defense said on Monday.

The soldiers' union was demanding a pay rise of 30 percent.

"There are about 1,500 to 2,000 people that we are interested in. So the letters have started going to them," SAPA news agency quoted a union adviser as saying, Reuters reported.

About 460 soldiers have already received dismissal letters, said the adviser who was not named.

However, South African National Defense Union's legal adviser Michael Thekiso said that the soldiers "have 10 days to motivate to the minister on why they should not be dismissed. It is only final after 10 days."

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MERU, 31 August 2009 (IRIN) - An ancient myth from Meru, eastern Kenya, tells of a war during which all the healthy men in the village were deployed to fight an enemy tribe, only to return and find the women had been impregnated by the men left behind, who had been deemed incapable of defending the village.

From that day on, the legend continues, Meru women have had their clitorises removed to curb their sexual appetites and ensure their marital fidelity.

The practice of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), once the foundation of womanhood among the Meru, is slowly dying out as people become more aware of the physical risks involved and its reinforcement of women’s inferior position in society. There is still some resistance, however, with many believing abandoning FGM/C will undermine Meru values still considered intrinsic to young girls becoming women in the community.

“Female circumcision rites had a dual role; the cut, yes, but there was also the period of seclusion following the cut, during which girls were schooled in the ways of women in Meru society – how they should behave in polite society, how they should interact with men and how to be a respectable member of society,” said Gilbert Musai, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Meru, which, with the Catholic Relief Services NGO, runs an alternative rite-of-passage (ARP) that teaches local girls both new and old-school values as a replacement for FGM/C. “We are trying to find a way to link the old system to the new system.”

Old and new practices

More than 2,000 girls have been through the ARP in several Meru locations since 2007, and according to officials of the diocese, the increase in class sizes and requests for more sessions is proof that they are having the desired impact. The course lasts one week and culminates in a colourful graduation ceremony attended by parents and local leaders.

“Key to our success is the fact that we don’t put down local traditions; we don’t go around bad-mouthing Meru culture, and apart from the cut – and in order to remain friendly with cultural leaders we call it the cut and not mutilation – we teach values that these girls would ordinarily learn in preparation for womanhood, coupled with modern advice,” said Joseph M’eruaki, the diocese’s social development director.

FGM/C has been illegal since 2001 under the Children’s Act, and as a result, the counselling portion of the rite has been lost – circumcisers perform their duties under the cover of darkness, never spending enough time with the girls to impart traditional values. The ARP fulfils that role.

“Meru culture is very rich and varied, and we teach the girls that even with education, which they should pursue earnestly, they must continue to respect their own culture and be assertive in a respectful way,” said Rael Mugambi, a facilitator at the Chiakariga Girls’ High School, which recently hosted an ARP.

Lessons include self-awareness, Meru cultural values, relationships and marriage, as well as substance abuse and HIV/AIDS.

The classrooms are named after prominent Kenyan women – doctors, lawyers and legislators – to encourage the girls’ aspirations. Samantha, 16, one of the girls attending the course, says she wants to be a vascular surgeon and hopes one day to become as well-respected as the women whose names grace the classrooms.

Mixed support

But while Samantha’s parents support her education and her choice not to be circumcised, not all the girls enjoy the same backing. Doris, 21, did not tell her parents she would be attending an ARP but only a diocese seminar.

“My older sisters are all circumcised and so far, I have refused to give in to the pressure to be cut,” she told IRIN/PlusNews. “My parents believe that they will get more goats [bride price] for me if I am circumcised; I think that’s why they are insisting on it.”

In the meantime, her parents have refused to pay for any further education or to support Doris in her quest to open a dress-making business.

The women who carry out the procedure are equally resistant to change - not only are they losing their position as valued and respected members of society, they are also losing income.

“These women get goats, local brew and cash in exchange for their services – one girl’s circumcision can bring as much as 5,000 shillings [about US$70], so you can understand their resistance,” M’eruaki said.

''My parents believe that they will get more goats for me if I am circumcised; I think that's why they are insisting on it''
The diocese has tried to start a dialogue with the circumcisers, said M’eruaki, convincing some to join local micro-finance schemes to find alternative income. However, the illegal nature of the practice means they are very hard to reach.

“Things happen slowly – when we started there was a lot of resistance, but today we find the very people opposing us come to ask us to hold more ARPs,” he added. “Slowly but surely, we will achieve the change that is needed.”

The diocese aims to start the ARPs in all its parishes in Meru, eventually letting each parish run its own every year; one parish is already running the programme independently of diocesan support.

More than half of all Meru women undergo FGM/C and while an impact assessment has yet to be done on the diocese’s ARP, separate alternative rites have registered some success. In 2005, the Family Planning Association of Kenya, through Ntanira na Kithomo, or “initiate me through education”, contributed to a 13 percent decline in the prevalence of FGM/C in Meru North District.

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MERU, 31 August 2009 (IRIN) - Faith Mukwanyaga, 48, a married mother-of-four in Meru, eastern Kenya, remembers the pain of the female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) she underwent as though it were yesterday. Today, Mukwanyaga is a facilitator for an alternative rite-of-passage organized by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Meru with the support of the Catholic Relief Services NGO, using her own experience as a warning to young girls about the dangers of the practice.

"Circumcision was something I looked forward to, knowing it would mean I had become a woman at last. I knew that women who were not circumcised never got married and never earned the respect of the community - I saw them discriminated against by their peers, and I didn't want to be like them.

"One day when I was nine years old, my family prepared a large amount of traditional brew and lots of women came to my house to cook a feast. I knew my circumcision was soon because my female relatives had been preparing me for the pain of the cut by pinching me in the days before. I and several other girls were then stripped naked and wrapped in blankets before being washed; the ladies sang for us as the circumciser cut the girls one by one - she used the same tool.

"The pain was indescribable - my whole body hurt, I almost fainted. I bled so much that I had to have special herbs put on the wound to stop the bleeding. I then spent several days alone at home healing. One lady was assigned to me to wash me and feed me and ensure I healed properly. During the healing period, I was taught other things; I was prepared for sex and marriage.

"When I got married, I found it difficult to enjoy sex; although I had a healthy sex drive, my husband found it very difficult to please me sexually, and I have always felt that something was missing from my sex life.

"Giving birth was terrible. Each time I gave birth, the scarring from my circumcision meant I had severe vaginal tearing and bleeding, and I had to stay in the hospital for about a week after birth, when other women went home the same day they delivered. Giving birth was like being circumcised all over again.

"I would never allow my girls to go through circumcision - the physical effects alone are a terrible and painful burden, but even the counselling I received after the cut [only] prepared me for marriage. My peers who were never circumcised all went on to complete school and have successful careers, but I had been told the most important thing in life is to be married and respected in the community; many of these women never married, but because of their careers they are respected.

"Today I tell young girls about my own experience so that they can aspire to greater things than just marriage; they should seek education, not the pain and suffering of female circumcision."

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