Members of the 'Tia Rwabe Zi' peace initiative in Kenya. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

By Miriam Gathigah
NAIROBI, Jan 10 2013 (IPS)

With less than two months before Kenyans head to the polls for what is shaping up to be the most competitive and polarised general election in the country’s history, many fear that this East African country of over 40 million has not seen the last of electoral violence.

This is in spite of the fact that two top politicians – Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto – still await their fate at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crimes against humanity committed during and after the 2007-2008 election.

Post-election violence, alleged to have been instigated and encouraged by these two politicians, left over a thousand people dead, over 3,000 injured and hundreds of thousands displaced.

“Still, unscrupulous politicians continue to spread their tentacles through Kenya’s sprawling slums. Here (in the slums), for a dollar or two, even less, people will threaten, maim or even kill those expressing opposing political positions,” Peter Muga, a political analyst in Nairobi, told IPS.

Unemployment and poverty have left millions of voters in various slums vulnerable to the lure of politicians who have no qualms about taking extreme measures to silence their opponents.

“But since these politicians don’t have the guts to face their opponents at the ballot, they pay youth in the slums to do their dirty work,” Muga added.

Campaign says “no”

In an effort to avoid the disastrous impacts of election-related bribery and violence that fuelled the 2007-2008 crisis, residents of the notorious Mathare slum – the second largest in Nairobi and home to some 500,000 people – have begun a movement dubbed ‘Tia Rwabe Zi’ (Say No to Ksh 200).

“Politicians give us ksh 200 (about two dollars) to fight those who do not support them,” Julia Njoki, a founding member of Tia Rwabe Zi, told IPS.

“Often, contending candidates are from different tribes. This animosity quickly becomes tribal. As we speak, Mathare has already been zoned, there are some tribes that cannot live or vie for political positions in certain areas,” she added.

According to Njoki, this movement was born out of the death and destruction witnessed during the 2007-2008 post-election crisis, the brunt of which was borne by urban slum dwellers.

“In this movement we are saying no to voter bribery. Most of us are youth, both male and female, and women. We have also been reaching out to others in various slums such as Kibera,” she said, referring to the massive Nairobi slum, one of the largest informal settlements in Africa.

Poverty feeds political affiliation

But the campaign has taken on a gargantuan task and will not have an easy victory.

Even memories of the bloody chapter of 2007-2008 will not deter desperate and impoverished Kenyan citizens from doing what they can to ease the burden of their abject living conditions.

When residents of the expansive Kibera slum invented the ‘flying toilets’, many Kenyans with decent homes and proper toilets found humour in it.

But for the slum dwellers themselves, being forced to defecate in plastic bags and send the contents flying through the air for lack of proper sanitation and waste disposal is no laughing matter.

Neither is having to urinate in plastic containers.

While various stakeholders have responded to the plight of slum dwellers and constructed toilets, not much has changed.

When night falls, communal toilets become a no-go zone due to a lack of security. As a result, many residents wake up to find faecal matter in plastic bags on their doorsteps, left behind by neighbours under the cover of darkness.

“People still use flying toilets because using communal toilets are not free. The money goes into maintenance,” Veronica Wamaitha, a resident of Kibera, told IPS.

On a good day, people living in the slum earn about two to three dollars, but often go an entire week without earning a single coin.

“Yet people have to eat,” Rob Wangai, a resident of the Mathare slums, told IPS. “Nothing is for free in the slums. We have even resorted to using illegally connected electricity; as a result, rarely does a week go by without a fire breaking out somewhere.”

Against this backdrop of people living neck deep in squalid conditions, politicians have found answers to their problems.

“Kenya’s population is largely divided into two, those living under the poverty line and the middle class. The middle class are fairly educated and they understand the concept of self dependency – not so with the poor,” Ken Ochiel, a political analyst in Nairobi, told IPS.

He said that those living in poverty still believe that political leaders hold the key to a better future.

“This is the disease that is eating away at our society. Leaders who have more money and can bribe voters are easily elected. But in truth, they don’t improve the living standards of the poor who vote for them in droves,” explained Vesca Kangongo, who is running for the seat of governor in the Rift Valley Region.

Her views are echoed by the only female candidate for the presidency, Hon Martha Karua, who said, “My brothers who are aspiring for top leadership have a lot of money, some of which was stolen from public coffers. I am urging Kenyans to vote for issue-based leaders who can improve the standard of living in this country.”

Karua has also claimed that politicians are behind the recent waves of violence and murder in the Mathare slums, which stir memories of the 2007-2008 crisis in which Mathare, Kibera and many other major urban slums were transformed into dens of death and destruction as tribes rose against each other.

“In every general election, politicians send their foot soldiers to the slums, since the middle class will not accept two dollars to intimidate, threaten and even to kill,” according to Muga, while the poor are much more susceptible to bribery.

Ochiel agreed. “Politicians know that the middle class are more difficult to lure with promises, compared to people who have to (manage) with one meal per day. Slums are also inhabited by a largely homogenous group that is easy to access.”

Still, the Tia Rwabe Zi campaigners are determined to make a difference this year.

The group holds regular meetings and speaks strongly against violence and idleness “We encourage each other to take odd jobs and even notify each other whenever there is a job opening. People must keep busy to stay out of trouble,” Njoki explained.

While acknowledging that expecting people to turn down bribes in the face of poverty and hunger is a tough call – and that change will not come overnight – she stressed that members of the campaign are convinced that their efforts are a step in the right direction.

(END)

Demonstrations in Tahrir Square are now against rising prices. Credit: Khaled Moussa al-Omrani/IPS

By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
CAIRO, May 18 2012 (IPS)

More than 15 months after Egypt’s Tahrir Square uprising and four months after free parliamentary polls, many Egyptians say that daily living conditions are worse now than they were in the Mubarak era.

“Conditions for the average Egyptian have become worse – economically, socially and in terms of security – than they were before the revolution,” Egyptian analyst Ammar Ali Hassan tells IPS.

Since the popular uprising early last year which saw the Mubarak regime replaced with a ruling military council, Egyptians have complained of steadily rising prices for a number of strategic commodities. These include basic foodstuffs – sugar, rice, cooking oil – and vital fuels, such as butane, diesel and gasoline.

“Over the course of the last year, prices at the market have skyrocketed inexcusably. One kilogram of tomatoes just jumped from one to five pounds overnight (one Egyptian pound is 16 U.S. cents),” says Tarek Moussa, a 34-year-old employee at a local trading company. “My monthly salary is now barely enough to keep food on the table for my wife and two children.”

The steadily rising cost of living has been accompanied by supply shortages, especially of fuels used for transport and cooking.

In Cairo, recent months have seen long lines at gas stations – frequently stretching around the block – due to weeks-long gasoline shortages. There have also been frequent reports of fights breaking out over butane gas cylinders, used for cooking by most Egyptian households, which are also in increasingly short supply.

“My transportation costs have jumped sharply because bus and microbus drivers have all doubled their prices due to the chronic shortage of gasoline,” says Moussa. “Given my low salary, it’s become more cost- effective to simply not go to work.”

Along with these deepening economic grievances, many Egyptians also complain of an ongoing post- revolution security vacuum and its effects on domestic security.

At the height of last year’s uprising, the Mubarak regime withdrew Egypt’s police forces nationwide, leaving domestic policing responsibilities in the hands of the military – which has done little to stop the resultant upsurge in crime. Police forces have yet to be redeployed at pre-revolution levels.

In the streets of the capital, muggings – an infrequent occurrence during the Mubarak era – have now become commonplace. Automobile theft appears to have become one of the country’s few growth industries.

The lack of domestic security, in tandem with ongoing regional turmoil, has also taken its toll on Egypt’s once thriving tourism sector, which has traditionally represented a leading employer and primary source of foreign currency. According to Egypt’s tourism ministry, annual tourism revenue fell from some 12.5 billion dollars in 2010 to some 8.8 billion dollars in 2011.

On Apr. 20, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators from across the political spectrum converged on Cairo’s Tahrir Square to voice longstanding grievances, chief among them the worsening standard of living.

Hassan, however, is quick to stress that Egypt’s deepening economic and security woes should not be blamed on last year’s uprising.

“The revolution, which liberated Egyptian political life after more than 30 years of autocracy, should not be blamed for deteriorating conditions,” he says. “The current deterioration is a direct result of the military council’s failure to properly administer Egypt’s ongoing transition to democracy.

“Had the ruling military establishment adopted a few simple measures, living conditions would be better today. It should have worked harder to ensure domestic security, prevent market monopolies, stimulate the economy and recover public funds pilfered by the former regime.”

Hassan does not rule out the possibility that the negligence is intentional. “These conspicuous failures might reflect the military’s lack of political and administrative experience, or hasty decision-making. Or they could be premeditated with the aim of discrediting the revolution and its ideals.”

The ruling military council has repeatedly vowed to hand over executive authority to Egypt’s next head of state after presidential elections are held later this month.

Voicing a common opinion, Magdi Sherif, head of the centrist Guardians of the Revolution Party, attributes Egypt’s worsening living conditions to the fact that “most, if not all, of Egypt’s key economic activity remains in the hands of former regime elements.”

Sherif attributes the ongoing security vacuum to a “fifth column of Mubarak regime holdovers who remain in charge of the interior ministry, which has actively worked – and continues to work – to promote instability and discredit the revolution.”

Both men, however, also place blame – albeit to a lesser extent – on Egypt’s post-revolution political powers. These include Islamist parties, which together now hold more than three-quarters of the seats in parliament, along with their liberal and leftist counterparts.

“Egypt’s economic situation wouldn’t be so bad if the Islamist parties used their newfound power in parliament to press for outstanding revolutionary demands, like passing antitrust legislation and raising the minimum wage,” says Hassan. “Instead, they’re using their parliamentary clout to jockey for power with the ruling military council.”

Sherif, for his part, is quick to point out that post-revolution Egypt is in its “political adolescence”.

“And this adolescence extends to all political factions: the Islamists, the liberals, the revolutionaries,” Sherif tells IPS. “This is a primary reason for the current political deadlock – most political forces are putting their own narrow interests above those of the nation.”

Meanwhile, candidates in Egypt’s upcoming presidential election, slated for May 23/24, have lined up to promise would-be voters an improved domestic security environment, better living conditions and rapid economic development.

“Central planks of my electoral programme include re-establishing security, raising pensions and the minimum wage, stimulating the economy with large development projects and improving public health and education services,” Amr Moussa, former Arab League chief and presidential frontrunner, tells IPS.

“Candidates are promising to solve all the country’s problems,” says Sherif. “But Egypt’s next president better deliver or he could have a second revolution on his hands.” (END)

Election posters in Cairo. Credit: Cam McGrath/IPS

By Cam McGrath
CAIRO, May 15 2012 (IPS)

One is a conservative Islamist attempting to reinvent himself as a pragmatic liberal, the other is a secular statesman trying to distance himself from the authoritarian regime he once served. Both aspire to be Egypt’s first civilian president.

Thirteen candidates are competing to fill the vacancy left by former president Hosni Mubarak following his ouster in a popular uprising 15 months ago. With polling just weeks away, two unlikely front-runners have emerged: Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a former leader of the previously-banned Muslim Brotherhood, and Amr Moussa, a career diplomat who rose to prominence as Mubarak’s foreign minister.

The historic election is scheduled for May 23-24, with a run-off to be held in June if no candidate receives a majority of the votes cast. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which has ruled Egypt since Mubarak’s ouster, has promised to hand over power to a new president by Jul. 1.

A poll by local think tank Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies shows Moussa in the lead with 39 percent of participants’ votes, and Aboul Fotouh in second place with 24.5 percent. Other polls show the two candidates running neck and neck, with many Egyptians still undecided on how they will vote.

“The backgrounds of each of the (two leading) candidates will influence this election,” says political analyst Moustafa Kamel El-Sayed. “Both have pasts that worry voters.”

Moussa, who served as Mubarak’s foreign minister from 1991 to 2001, has faced intense scrutiny over his ties to the former regime since he declared his intention to run for president more than a year ago. Critics have labelled him “feloul”, a pejorative term for remnants of Mubarak’s authoritarian regime.

The 75-year-old statesman has tried to play down his role in Mubarak’s corrupt and often brutal administration, painting himself as an outsider and dissident voice. Yet it was his decade as the regime’s most senior emissary that made him a household name.

As foreign minister, Moussa’s eloquent and edgy speeches criticising Israel earned him immense popularity with the Egyptian street and were the inspiration for the 2001 Arabic pop hit, “I Hate Israel (and I Love Amr Moussa).” It is widely accepted that Mubarak’s insecurity over Moussa’s rising celebrity status was behind his decision to shuffle him to the largely decorative Arab League that same year.

Critics say Moussa’s decade at the helm of the Arab League revealed his political character. They charge that his rousing speeches, particularly his anti-Israeli rhetoric, were geared purely for public consumption, and rarely accompanied by policy or action.

“Moussa is a populist,” says leftist activist Mohamed Fathy, who has yet to decide on a candidate. “His image as (an Arab) nationalist who hates Israel resonates with many Egyptians, but it’s hard to know where he really stands on the issues or how he would rule.

“His links to the old regime and the (deference he has shown to) the SCAF are worrying to say the least,” he adds.

Moussa’s opponents have challenged his record during the uprising that toppled Mubarak, claiming he never publicly criticised the dictator until his ouster was imminent. He further alienated revolutionaries by labelling youth protesting the abuses of the ruling military council as “thugs and anarchists.”

Even his iconic hatred of Israel has been called into question as leaked documents show he once supported plans to sell gas to the Israeli government. Moussa claims he approved the unpopular deal only because it would help the besieged Palestinians obtain their energy requirements.

The former diplomat has campaigned vigorously across Egypt, selling himself as the only candidate with the political experience to lead Egypt from day one as president. Many Egyptians see him as the only secular contender with enough constituent support to win – which would keep the Islamists, who already control parliament, from taking the presidency as well.

“I don’t think people believe Moussa stood against Mubarak or will be any different,” says Yasser El- Sharkawy, a waiter at a Cairo café. “I think most of his support comes from people who fear an Islamist president more than (an authoritarian one).”

Moussa’s chief rival in the race, Aboul Fotouh, was a founding member of Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, a once- militant Islamist group still regarded by the U.S. government as a terrorist organisation. The 60-year-old physician later joined the Muslim Brotherhood and was a member of its influential Guidance Bureau for over two decades.

Those close to Aboul Fotouh claim his hard-line views have softened over the years, which led to a falling out with the Brotherhood’s hawkish leadership. He has, for instance, stated that women and Coptic Christians should have the right to run for president – a position that put him at odds with his more conservative peers.

Aboul Fotouh was ejected from the Muslim Brotherhood in July 2011 after declaring his intention to run for president despite the group’s pledge that it would not field a candidate.

Fortune has shaped his political trajectory. In less than a year the former radical has engineered a stunning political transformation, casting himself as a “liberal” Islamist and inspiring an unlikely mix of followers: secular-minded youth, leftist thinkers, disillusioned Muslim Brotherhood members and hardcore fundamentalists.

His support has swelled with the endorsement of an influential Salafi (ultra-conservative Islamist) group following the disqualification of their hard-line candidate.

Moussa mocked his rival’s apparent contradiction during a televised presidential debate last Thursday.

“He is a Salafi with Salafis, and a liberal with liberals,” he said.

Political analyst El-Sayed says attempts to portray Aboul Fotouh as a liberal are “absurd”. His disagreements with the Muslim Brotherhood’s leadership were primarily over his calls to reform the 84- year-old movement’s autocratic internal governance, not over progressive views on religion and society.

“Aboul Fotouh’s views, particularly on the application of Sharia (Islamic law), show he is still very much a conservative Islamist,” El-Sayed told IPS.

Yet many of Aboul Fotouh’s supporters remain convinced that he is the genuine item: a pious, reform- minded presidential contender who respects women, religious freedom, and democracy. And unlike Moussa, his revolutionary credentials and opposition to the former regime are incontrovertible.

“If an official from the old regime is elected president the revolution has failed,” says El-Sharkawy.

(END)

When the verdict against Liberia’s former President Charles Taylor for war crimes in Sierra Leone is handed down on Thursday, it will be of no help to the many former combatants of the country’s brutal civil war who have not been reintegrated into society. Instead, they will continue to pose a threat to Sierra Leone’s future stability.

Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier and UNICEF Advocate for Children Affected by War worries about the country’s former child soldiers. Credit: Mustapha Dumbuya

Taylor is being tried by the Special Court for Sierra Leone at The Hague. He is charged with crimes against humanity, mass killings, sexual violence and the use of child soldiers through his support of the rebel Revolutionary United Front in exchange for “blood diamonds”. Taylor is alleged to have masterminded the use of drug-fuelled child soldiers in combat.

Ishmael Beah is one of those former child soldiers. He was forced to join Sierra Leone’s 1991-2002 civil war at the age of 13, when he was recruited into the government army. While he has been able to turn his life around and was appointed the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) first Advocate for Children Affected by War in 2007, Beah worries about the country’s former child soldiers who are now unemployed.

“If Taylor is found guilty, it will be a great victory, not only for Sierra Leone, but for the whole of West Africa,” says Beah, who fought in the army for three years before being rescued by UNICEF.

“But if he is acquitted, it will be a big blow to everyone in Sierra Leone and the rest of West Africa.”

Beah says that with Sierra Leone’s elections approaching in November, the youth should be employed in order to avoid them being used by political parties to disrupt the electoral process.

“One of my greatest fears in Sierra Leone now is, if you have a large number of disgruntled and idle young people who have nothing to do with themselves, you have the possibility of sparking anything,” says Beah.

In September 2011, political violence in the southern city of Bo left one dead and 23 injured. The government’s Kevin Lewis Commission of Inquiry into the incident found that political parties were using ex-combatants as unofficial bodyguards. Political violence later erupted across the country in January after a by-election.

Unemployed youth are easy targets for recruitment, says Beah.

“The guy hasn’t had anything to eat for today, so he is not thinking long term, he’s thinking short term, about what he can eat now,” says Beah.

“I used to be in that position. You can’t expect anybody with short-term thinking to think for the future if you can’t provide them with the opportunity to have one.”

The U.N. estimates that 10,000 child soldiers were used in Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war. During it rebels cut off the arms of those who had voted in the country’s elections, and left more than 50,000 people dead.

The U.N.-brokered Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) process was meant to disarm and provide training to former fighters, and support them to rejoin their communities. Ex-combatants received vocational training in areas such as mechanics, driving and carpentry.

According to a 2005 U.N. report titled Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration and Stability in Africa, about 71,000 ex-combatants were disarmed and demobilised.

But many former fighters say that the programme did not work.

Tamba Fasuluku was known as “Rainu” when he was the commander of a rebel faction called the West Side Boys.

Fasuluku says that he was fortunate to be reintegrated into society and now works as a pastor. But he says that many of the young boys his forces conscripted have not been so lucky.

“It pains me now to see these young boys languishing on the streets without jobs,” says Fasuluku. “They have also become easy targets for greedy politicians who use these boys to cause trouble in society.”

He agrees that most of the political violence in Sierra Leone is perpetrated by ex-combatants. He says it is because they were given access to arms and exposed to violence at a tender age during the war. He adds that it is also because their families and society are yet to welcome them back as members of the community.

“If the government and other stakeholders do not come together to take these boys off the streets, they will continue to go astray, and that’s dangerous for peace,” says Fasuluku.

Dr. Alfred Jarret, the head of sociology and social work at Freetown’s Fourah Bay College, calls the DDR programme an “abysmal failure”.

Bobson Yappo Sesay, a former child soldier, agrees: “I was disarmed and never got any benefit from the DDR programme.”

“I can’t go home again,” Sesay says, explaining that he now lives as an unemployed youth in the capital, Freetown.

Jarret says ex-combatants were not well trained and because of Sierra Leone’s high unemployment rate many were unable to find work. According to the Ministry of Labour, the national youth unemployment rate was about 46 percent in 2008. The professor also says that former fighters face discrimination from potential employers and society at large.

Until the government revisits its policy on ex-combatants and tries to engage them, it will pose a serious threat to the country’s security, says Jarret.

The government itself says it offers no support to former fighters. Ibrahim Satie Kamara is the spokesperson for the National Commission for Social Action, the government agency responsible for the reparation programme for victims of the conflict.

Kamara says that the government’s reparations programmes cater for victims, such as amputees, the severely war-wounded, and children affected by the war.

Ex-combatants, including former child soldiers, fell under the DDR process. There is no government reparation programme for them, he says.

Kamara adds that war victims are discontent with the amount of support being given to former fighters, who are often viewed as perpetrators who unleashed suffering on the people.

Beah says the former DDR programme worked well for some but others missed out or needed more help. And now there is nothing left to help them.

“You can’t just take the guns from them and then teach them how to fix a car and expect them to do miracles with their lives when they don’t have the resources.”

It was the middle of the day when Tabisou, 72, suddenly saw people from her town of Amderamboukane in Mali fleeing for their lives. Her family had no time to pack their things; the fighting had already begun.

Several of the children in Abala camp are visibly malnourished, and NGO workers are concerned about potential epidemics. Credit: William Lloyd-George/IPS

“Everything I have worked for over my whole life was lost. Just like that,” says the elderly woman who comes from a family of farmers as she sits in a United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) tent at the Abala refugee camp, 85 kilometres from the Mali-Niger border. “We had to leave all our animals and food.”

Tabisou is one of nearly 270,000 refugees who have had to flee their homes since January, when conflict erupted in northern Mali. That had begun after hundreds of Tuareg mercenaries, formerly hired by slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to fight alongside him, returned to Mali after he was toppled, with heavy weapons, to restart their own five-decade-old rebellion.

The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) claims to fight against the marginalisation and oppression of the Tuareg people in northern Mali. The Tuareg are a Berber people of the desert and traditionally are nomadic and have long complained that the Malian government has marginalised them.

Tabisou does not care much for the MNLA’s grievances. “I am an old lady, and have many grandchildren,” she says pointing to the gaunt and dirtied children’s faces gathered around her in the tent. “The rebels do not care about us, they treated us very badly.”

Tabisou claims the rebels came into her home, waved guns in her face, and asked all the children to line up outside. “I thought they were going to kill us, luckily two of the rebels told the others to calm down.”

According to UNHCR representative Mariata Sandouno most of the refugees have fled due to fear of the various armed groups.

“Most of them said that they fled out of fear, also due to ongoing looting by bandits, and the withdrawal of the national army has made them feel insecure,” explains Sandouno. The army withdrew from Amderamboukane in January when the rebels seized control of the town of 3,000 people.

“Also some refugees said it was a very confusing scenario as they were not able to distinguish which of the groups armed men belonged to.”

The refugees come from the Haussa, Tuareg and Songhai ethnic groups. According to Ibrahim Ag Abdil, a 30 year-old pastoralist, few of the people in the camp support the MNLA’s cause. The MNLA is an umbrella term given to groups of armed Tuaregs who have come together with the declared goal of administrating an independent state, Azawad.

“Mali is already a very poor country, we have to rely on the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe for aid,” he explains. “The MNLA are just making more divisions. How can we survive as two countries, when we are barely surviving as one?”

Ag Abdil says the MNLA stole all the motorbikes belonging to civilians in his town of Amderamboukane. After the MNLA left, he says, bandits entered the city and looted all the shops and homes.

“We don’t know if there is even anything left,” he tells IPS. “The MNLA are not protecting civilians’ possessions, they are just attacking towns, leaving them, and then the place is empty for bandits to come and steal.”

Next to him, Ajawa, 72, nods his head. “They say they fight for all the Tuaregs but in fact they only fight for a few, many Tuaregs don’t support them,” he says. “Now we’re stuck in this camp. It is painful to see my people begging for handouts, and our children not able to go to school.”

When the MNLA arrived in Amderamboukane, the citizens fled the eastern Malian town and walked two months to find refuge in Niger. When these refugees first arrived, they stayed in a makeshift camp at Sinegodar, 10 km from the border.

“We were always worrying about warmth at night, and food during the day,” says Salima, 19. Several of the children in Abala camp are visibly malnourished, and NGO workers are concerned about potential epidemics.

There are currently 6,286 refugees at Abala camp out of an estimated 26,500 who have fled to Niger. The rest are in Burkino Faso and Mauritania, while there are over 80,000 internally displaced inside Mali. UNHCR will soon open more refugee camps in Mangaize and Ayorou, both towns in Niger.

According to Antonio Jose Canhandula, head of UNHCR’s emergency team, the biggest concern for the agency at the moment is that the refugees are entering a food crisis in Niger.

“These refugees are coming into a food crisis in Niger, which will aggravate the situation here,” says Canhandula. “They are nomadic people, coming with cattle and other animals, so we are trying to adapt to their needs and minimise the burden on the host community, who are already facing a famine and water shortage.”

UNHCR reports that there are currently 300 urban refugees in Niamey. Most of the refugees coming through Niamey are government members who have travelled from Gao in Mali. They are seeking assistance to return to Bamako, Mali’s capital, and reunite with their families, collect salaries or just show they have not abandoned their jobs since the Mar. 22 coup that overthrew the government. There are also reports of military staff fleeing to Niamey in order to return to Bamako.

It would be too simplistic to think that Malawi’s problems have ended with the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika. But it is an opportunity for newly appointed President Joyce Banda, who is also leader of the opposition People’s Party, to step up and offer a new and more responsive style of leadership.

Malawi’s Army Commander General Henry Odillo hands over the presidential sword to President Joyce Banda at her swearing in ceremony. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

Mutharika, who assumed leadership in 2004 and was serving his second term of office, suffered a heart attack on Apr. 5 at his palace in Lilongwe. According to reports he was rushed to the country’s main referral medical facility, Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe. He was later airlifted to South Africa, the government said. Throughout Apr. 6 there had been unconfirmed rumours that he had died. But state radio only confirmed the following day that the 78-year-old president had died and declared 10 days of mourning.

Malawians danced in the streets and in marketplaces as a sense of jubilation swept across the country when the Office of the President and Cabinet finally confirmed the death. Hours later, Banda was sworn into office. She is southern Africa’s first female head of state and will fill the post until the country’s general elections in 2014.

She has dedicated much of her life to the economic empowerment of women and women’s rights. Banda, the daughter of a policeman, told IPS in an interview in December 2011 that women were significantly under represented in areas of economic decision making and the key to addressing the situation was to put more of the country’s money in the hands of its mothers.

Nelia Kagwa, the chairperson of the Women Traders Association in Lilongwe, told IPS that she hoped Banda would mend the country’s failing economy.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world as 74 percent of the population here lives on less than 1.25 dollars a day, and nearly one in 10 children die before their fifth birthday. The rising cost of basic commodities has added to these woes and the country is also experiencing shortages of necessities such as sugar and bread. The items have become even more difficult to afford since the government introduced a value-added tax of up to 16.5 percent on products such as bread, meat, milk and dairy in June 2011.

“Maize prices have almost doubled in the past year and many families can no longer afford a basic meal,” Kagwa said.

“She won a prestigious award on ending hunger in her community. She could end hunger for many Malawians if she is given chance.”

Banda was awarded the joint Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger in 1997, together with Mozambique’s former President Joaquim Chissano.

James Kaliwo, a street vendor in Lilongwe, told IPS that “a new dawn has risen over Malawi” following Mutharika’s death.

“Things have been getting worse economically and socially. God has answered our prayers. Mutharika caused problems for all of us by failing to improve the economy,” said Kaliwo.

Prominent local political analyst Boniface Dulani told IPS that while it would be too simplistic to assume that Malawi’s problems have ended with Mutharika’s death, there is no doubt that it offers the country an opportunity for a fresh start.

Dulani told IPS that Banda should make the most of her appointment until the country’s general elections in 2014.

“Whilst previously Banda would have had to count on the sympathy vote of Malawians, she could earn the confidence of voters by demonstrating that she has the ability to take Malawi in a new and truly progressive direction. She could seize the opportunity and win over the trust of Malawians who have grown increasingly suspect of those in the corridors of power,” said Dulani.

He said that it is not certain whether ruling party legislators would try to frustrate her agenda as they hold a commanding parliamentary majority.

However, many are hopeful that the country’s economic woes will ease. Dulani said that with the appointment of a new administration, donor support to Malawi would resume.

“Most of Malawi’s recent challenges, including those rooted in a myopic foreign exchange policy and the loss of donor support because of poor governance, can be easily and quickly reversed,” said Dulani.

Malawi’s donor relations suffered greatly following accusations that the southern African country has failed to respect the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and the right to freedom of the press. Donors had refused to release up to 400 million dollars and the United States suspended a 350 million dollar grant.

The country’s failing economy, and the fuel and foreign exchange shortages, saw unprecedented nationwide protests against Mutharika from Jul. 20 to 21, 2011. Twenty-one people were killed by the police and 275 were arrested. Banda was a vocal supporter of the protests.

Dorothy Ngoma, a prominent civil society leader who was among those leading the protests against Mutharika, said she has faith that Banda will rescue the country from its economic crisis.

“She is very capable. She is so reliable. I am so sure we will see change in this country very soon,” Ngoma told IPS.

Civil society leaders and some government officials also expressed their joy and support for Banda, who is also leader of the opposition People’s Party, as she addressed supporters and the media outside her home in Lilongwe hours before her inauguration.

“Malawi should adhere to the Constitution of the Republic in moving forward,” she said. At her swearing in ceremony she added: “this is no time for revenge; we need to move forward as country.”

Almost all the country’s cabinet ministers attended the signing in ceremony. One noticable exception was Peter Mutharika, the late president’s brother.

The two-day delay in the announcement of the presdient’s passing led to concerns that there would be a power struggle between Banda and the ruling party. Malawi’s Deputy Minister of Transport Catherine Gotani-Hara told IPS that Mutharika’s allies wanted his younger brother, Peter, to assume office.

It is an issue that Banda and Mutharika clashed on in the past. Mutharika expelled Banda, a former ally, from his Democratic People’s Party for insubordination when she refused to endorse Peter Mutharika as the ruling party’s candidate for the 2014 presidential elections.

Mutharika then excluded Banda from working as a part of his government. She launched the opposition People’s Party in September 2011 but remained vice president, as it is an elected and constitutional office.

By IPS Correspondents and - -
DAKAR, Mar 28 2012 (IPS)

Analysts say that Senegal’s outgoing President Abdoulaye Wade was made to pay for his failure to respond to popular demands, particularly arising from the high cost of basic commodities, a lengthy strike by teachers, and high youth unemployment, by losing his bid for a third term of office.

Fifty-one-year old Macky Sall defeated Wade, winning an emphatic 65.8 percent of votes in a decisive second-round poll.

The provisional results were published in the capital, Dakar, on Tuesday by the national election commission. As the preliminary results began to come out, the 86-year-old Wade telephoned Sall on Sunday to congratulate him.

Among the reasons for Wade’s defeat was the support his rival received from the other 12 candidates who failed in the first round of elections on Feb. 26, as well as from a broad coalition of political parties and civil society associations, notably including a group founded by young rappers called Y’En a Marre, meaning “enough is enough”.

Speaking on national television on Monday, Moustapha Guirassy, a spokesperson for the outgoing administration, said Sall’s victory can be explained by the failure to find solutions to these problems.

“There is certainly a popular desire for change, but social demands are an issue to which we could have tried to find answers,” he said.

Zahra Iyane Thiam, a member of Sall’s campaign team, credited the victory to the efforts of the candidate’s own camp as well as to a wider base of support.

“Although it was our candidate who led the final charge, this was a shared victory, because all the candidates (beaten in the first round), and the popular forces worked together to beat a system which, in our view, is at the root of the difficulties that we’re facing,” she said in an interview with IPS.

Some Senegalese also feared the Wade administration’s tinkering with the constitution for what they saw as merely political reasons, as well as suspecting that the president wanted to impose his son, Karim Wade, as his eventual successor.

The validity of Wade’s bid for a third term as president was challenged from the outset by his opponents. When the Constitutional Council ruled that he could stand, the decision was greeted by huge anti-Wade demonstrations just before and during the campaign for the first round of elections.

Several people were killed in the capital and other large cities in clashes between security forces and demonstrators.

Between the first and second rounds of voting, Wade launched a charm offensive directed at religious leaders, in hopes that they would encourage voters to back him. But this was not enough to help him retain power after 12 years as president – not even combined with massive spending and a raft of campaign promises.

During his time in office, Wade fell out with several of his closest associates, including former prime minister Idrissa Seck, who took 7.86 percent of the vote in the first round.

The man who took over from Seck as Wade’s prime minister was none other than Macky Sall – who at various times also served as president of the National Assembly and as Wade’s number two in the governing Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS).

In 2008, Sall clashed with Wade when, as parliamentary president, he summoned Wade’s son to appear before a parliamentary hearing on the preparations to host a summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Dakar. (Karim Wade was head of the OIC’s national agency in Senegal.)

PDS legislators then voted to shorten the term served by president of the National Assembly from five years to one, though this term would be renewable.

Seeing the change as aimed at humiliating him, Sall tendered his resignation not only from his post in the National Assembly, but from all positions he held in the PDS. He set up his own political party, the Alliance for the Republic (APR), and began travelling across the country and forging ties with the Senegalese diaspora to build support.

When campaigning for the presidential elections began on Feb. 5, Sall ignored the call from the broad social movement demonstrating against Wade’s candidacy in Dakar, instead launching his campaign in the countryside.

The unjust treatment received by Sall from his fellow party members in the PDS in 2008 elicited a wave of sympathy, partly explaining his meteoric rise, one of Sall’s political advisors told IPS.

“The difference between us and the other candidates,” said Abdourahmane Ndiaye, “is in the methodical approach, the strategy. Our party was fortunate to have come into existence with a large store of sympathy generated by the martyrdom that we suffered in the National Assembly. And the strategy was to transform that feeling into votes.”

On the party’s promise to lower the cost of basic goods, Ndiaye said: “The first step that we’ll take – before even thinking about the economic decision – will be a political decision. A government can make any product free of charge…”

Ndiaye said that to reduce the prices of essential items, the president-elect would trim public expenditure, looking especially hard at the country’s multitude of agencies and embassies.

As for the composition of the new government, Ndiaye said, “In the run-off, all the coalitions which supported the 12 opposition candidates joined us. This gives us an obligation to work together in governance…We cannot have transparency if we are on our own. It is working with others that will push us to be transparent.”

Appearing on television on election day, Amsatou Sow Sidibé, a law professor at Dakar’s Cheikh Anta Diop University and a presidential candidate defeated in the first round, said: “We will work together. The responsibility is heavy and everyone must help. This is a participatory approach to success.”

Wade’s defeat comes after a coup d’état took place in Mali, another West African country, last Thursday.

Excerpt:

By Louise Redvers and - -
LUANDA, Mar 13 2012 (IPS)

Rights groups and activists are warning of a rapidly deteriorating political climate in Angola following a police raid on a private newspaper and a violent crackdown on anti-government protests.

An anti-government demonstration photo. Credit: Louise Redvers

The effective shut-down of the paper and the questioning of its editor, William Tonet, whose mobile phone battery was also confiscated, comes just 48 hours after attempts by Angolan youths to stage demonstrations in the capital Luanda and southern coastal city of Benguela.

The marches had been convened to protest about irregularities in the electoral process including the appointment of a member of the ruling party to run the National Electoral Commission.

Although only a few dozen people gathered in each city, neither protest was allowed to go ahead.

In Benguela heavily armed police broke up the crowds making several arrests, while in Luanda, where in the days running up to the events there had been reports of house raids, threats against the organisers, an unidentified armed gang launched a violent street attack on the organisers leaving several people seriously injured.

Lisa Rimli, from New York-based lobby group Human Rights Watch, said: “We are especially concerned about what is happening in Angola because this is an election year when people should be allowed to express themselves freely.

“That people are not being allowed to stage public demonstrations, which is their right under the constitution, and that private newspapers are being targeted like this, it is very worrying,” she added.

Rimli said she was most concerned about the type of violence being pursued against the protestors.

“What we saw at the weekend was a step up from previous marches, the attackers were armed and they were aiming for people’s heads,” she said. Adding: “It is very lucky no-one was killed.”

Angola’s Policia Nacional or national police has denounced the violence, blaming the clashes on rival gangs and “hooligans”, and a spokesman pledged a full investigation into what happened.

A leaflet has started circulating in Luanda, claiming to be from a separate youth vigilante group, which says it carried out the attack to stop the protests out of “respect for the elections” and to preserve the peace.

But Luaty Beirão, a popular Angolan rapper who helped organise the march in Luanda, and who was himself struck on the head, said he and his friends had been deliberately targeted by a well-trained undercover security operation.

He told IPS: “As soon as we arrived at the arranged meeting place, we could see a group beating up random people and then they came towards us and tried to encourage us to fight back.

“When we refused to be provoked, they changed their tune and said if we went away and cancelled the demonstration, they would leave us alone.

“We refused again and then they just went for us. I just remember being hit on the head and falling to the ground and then hearing shot after shot being fired into the air.”

Beirão, 30, who needed stitches for his head wound, added: “The police were nowhere to be seen and you could tell just by the way those guys surrounded us, they knew what they were doing, they weren’t just ordinary thugs.”

A few kilometres away, 57-year-old Filomeno Vieira Lopes, the Secretary General of the small opposition party Bloco Democratico who was on his way to join the protest, was also attacked and had to be taken to hospital with a wounds to his head and arm.

Sizaltina Cutaia, from the Angolan office of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, said: “Considering that 2012 is an election year these events are indeed very concerning.

“It indicates to us the low status of political participation in Angola, where freedom of assembly and manifestation are systematically denied to citizens. It is a real threat to democracy.”

Until recently, political protests were rare in Angola where few have dared to criticise the authorities for fear of losing their job or the little stability they had found since the end of the country’s three-decade civil war in 2002.

But in response to what is seen as the government’s failure to share out a peace dividend to the majority, despite the country’s enormous oil wealth, and the weakness of the parliamentary opposition, since March last year youth movements have been taking to the streets.

As well as complaining about inequality and poor public services, the youth have been calling for Angola’s president of 32 years, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, to step down.

Beirão, whose stage names are Brigadeiro Mata Frakus and Ikonoklasta, said: “For us the big issue is Dos Santos, he must go. We want him to step down, 32 years is too long for one man to rule a country.

“The youth is fed up with what is happening here. People can pretend everything is alright but it is not, our country is not being run properly, there is no investment in health or education and many people are suffering.”

Angola is one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies whose GDP is forecast to swell by 12 percent this year.

Half the population, however, remains in poverty with no access to drinking water and the country has one of the highest child mortality rates in the world with one in five youngsters dying before their fifth birthday.

Hitting out at middle class silence and people’s general reluctance to confront government which controls the media and most private enterprise, Beirao, whose late father was a dedicated member of the ruling party, said: “People know things aren’t right, but they are too scared for their own jobs and families to stand up to what is happening.

“But for me, those who remain silent are merely being complicit and contributing to the injustices taking place here.”

Clearly sensitive to the growing tide of anti-government sentiment so close to the elections Dos Santos and his party, the Movement for Popular Liberation of Angola have been trying to turn on the charm offensive.

Dos Santos, for many years a recluse, has been making more regular public appearances, even switching his stiff suit for more casual shirts and caps.

In a string of recent speeches he had denied he is a dictator and has urged Angolans to be patient and recognise what his government has done for the country since the end of the war.

Last week the 69-year-old, whose own family is accused of mass acts of corruption, lashed out at what he called “dishonest propaganda” said people with foreign influences were trying to destabilise the country for their own ends.

Angolan journalist and anti-graft campaigner Rafael Marques, who has a website dedicated to outing corrupt government officials, said Dos Santos was clearly struggling to deal with the new generation who unlike their parents were not shaped by the fear of war or fooled by Soviet-style propaganda.

“Dos Santos is looking weaker by the day,” Marques said. “The fact that he is resorting to violence to suppress his own people shows he is losing his control.”

Beirão said he and fellow members of the protest movement Central 7311 (named after their first demonstration last year) had extensive film and photographic footage of the recent violence and planned to use social media to spread it to as many people as possible in order to raise awareness of their struggle.

Excerpt:

There are two women among the 14 candidates contesting the first round of Senegalese presidential elections that will be held on Feb. 26. But according to several analysts, this overwhelmingly Muslim West African country is not ready to be governed by a woman.

One of the female candidates is Amsatou Sow Sidibé, a law professor at Dakar’s Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), leader of the civil society group Convergence of Stakeholders for the Defense of Republican Values. The other is independent candidate and fashion designer Diouma Diakhaté Dieng.

Sow Sidibé, 59, already has a modest track record in politics, while Diakhaté Dieng entered the race at the last moment, her candidacy catching many observers by surprise.

One of the female candidates is Amsatou Sow Sidibé, a law professor at Dakar's Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), leader of the civil society group Convergence of Stakeholders for the Defense of Republican Values. Courtesy of Trust Africa

Even if some think that courage and gender go well together and could help the two candidates, others feel that Senegal’s electorate is not yet ready to entrust a woman with the reins of power.

The two candidates are well aware of the status of women in the country and the way they are perceived by men, and this is why they are seeking to break the taboo by winning on Feb. 26.

Sow Sidibé says that she has spent decades fighting to promot women’s rights and leadership, because there can be no democracy without the participation of half of the population: 52 percent of Senegal’s population is female, according to 2011 statistics.

On the question of education, she believes it necessary to “allow all young Senegalese to acquire skills that will enable them hold down a decent job, and to enter professional life early”, and this can be accomplished through a policy of education for all.

Sow Sidibé promises to fight against the high cost of living and to address health issues. “We intend to index pensions to the cost of living, to improve health care for soldiers with disabilities… or even to build social housing,” she told IPS.

“Impunity must end and corruption must be resisted. So much money comes into this country and I promise, if I come to power, to manage it as a good mother,” she said. According to her, “poverty concerns 80 percent of the population, and its eradication will happen through voluntary strategies which will target vulnerable people”.

According to Sow Sidibé, Senegal suffers from many problems and it is time to put the country’s destiny in a woman’s hands for equitable management of goods and resources. She adds that it’s necessary to give a chance to women and children to definitively resolve the conflict in the southern region of Casamance.

Diakhaté Dieng, the second candidate, 65, believes that the unemployed and women have not been accounted for in government’s policy and that it’s necessary to help unemployed youth between the ages of 18 and 30 to get practical training.

She says that the difficulties facing the country are enormous, underlining the importance of confronting problems of youth unemployment, without ignoring the need for a definitive resolution of the Casamance conflict.

“Once in power, we must enhance the image of education for all. Schools will be restructured and rebuilt, teachers’ salaries will be revised upwards,” she said. “Nor will the energy crisis will not be ignored,  where we now have to count on private donors in order to assure customers and avoid power cuts that we have been living with for more than five years.”

Voters’ opinions of these women are divided. “We are very attached to our traditions. We may talk about equality, but leadership is not part of women’s role,” said Alioune Samb, a literature student at UCAD.

In contrast, his colleague, Issa Gning, says that is an unfair stigmatisation, because according to him, women know the needs of the people better – and act as mothers would. “I would not hesitate to vote for a woman,” he told IPS.

Astou Dieng, a Dakar-based sociologist, also thinks that Senegalese voters are not ready to see a woman in the country’s highest office, because tradition is a weight on their thinking that must not  be forgotten.

“Here in Senegal, there are still problems of caste. People still think of women as sub-human. Sure, there has been change, but this is only in Dakar; in the interior, women are still marginalised,” she told IPS, expressing her belief that the candidacy of the singer Youssou N’Dour was rejected simply because he is a griot – a member of an inferior social class.

For Idrissa Seck, presidential candidate, to have women candidates proves that the country aspires to real change. “I wish good luck to everyone. Presently, we hope for just one thing, the departure of Abdoulaye Wade. If this comes to happen thanks to the women, that’s fine,” he told IPS.

Talla Sylla, a member of the opposition coaltion “Benno Siguil Sénégal”, has asked people to vote for the women candidates.

“Women have played and continue to play an important role in our society. The two candidates should be supported. It’s true that here tradition is still alive, but with women ministers, legislators, and others, people are begining to be aware,” he said.

(END/IPS/12)

When Cameroon’s President Paul Biya announced that the 50th anniversary of the reunification of French and British Cameroon will take place later this year, it resurrected bitter feelings among Anglophone Cameroonians who say they do not feel like equal partners with their Francophone counterparts.

The reunification monument in Yaounde. Anglophone Cameroonians say they do not feel like equal partners with their Francophone counterparts. Credit: Ngala Killian Chimtom

Jannette Ngum, a primary school teacher from the English-speaking Northwest Province, said she would love to never have anything more to do with Francophones in Cameroon. In this West African nation, Anglophones make up a minority, about 20 percent of the country’s 20 million people, and most live in the country’s two English-speaking regions, Southwest and Northwest Provinces.

Ngum’s frustration comes after the shabby treatment she received at the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reform when she went to Yaoundé to follow up on her job application to the public service.

“When I spoke in English the lady frowned and said ‘Je ne connais pas votre patois –la’, which literary translates into ‘I don’t understand that dialect of yours.’’’

“Instead of serving me, she continued playing cards on her computer. But when a colleague of mine came in and spoke in French, he got what he wanted in seconds. Yet the constitution clearly states that English and French are the official languages in Cameroon, and therefore equal in status,” she told IPS.

But Ngum’s experience is a common one among Anglophone Cameroonians. Michael Ndobegang, a history lecturer in the University of Yaoundé, said that Anglophones in Cameroon feel “reduced from partners of equal status to a subjugated people.”

According to Ndobegang, Anglophones have been systematically removed from the centres of power, with unwritten laws making it impossible for them to hold certain key government positions. Since independence, no Anglophone has ever been a Minister of Defense, Finance, Education or even Foreign Affairs.

“Anglophones have been appointed mainly into subordinate positions to assist Francophones, even where the latter have been less qualified or incompetent. This is the dilemma of the Anglophone in Cameroon”, Ndobegang told IPS.

In June 1990, J.N.Foncha, the main architect of the federal state, resigned from government saying that “the constitutional provisions which protected the Anglophone minority have been suppressed, their voice drowned…”

Economically, Anglophones also feel exploited. “Cameroon’s oil comes from the Southwest Provincce. How come the road network in the region has been abandoned?” Fru Ndi, the Anglophone opposition leader of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), asked during a rally in Buea, in the run-up to the October 2011 presidential election in Cameroon.

He also blasted successive Francophone administrations for killing the vibrant economy of the British Cameroons. “Small- and medium-sized enterprises in the region, such as the West Cameroon Development Agency, Power CAM, and the West Cameroon Marketing Board have been destroyed,” he told his supporters during the rally.

Ndi, initially opposed to the idea of secession from Francophone Cameroon, seems to have changed his mind. “If the SDF is again denied victory during this year’s parliamentary elections, then I will be left with no other option than to join the SCNC,” Ndi told members of the SDF’s National Executive Committee on Jan. 19. The SCNC or Southern Cameroons National Council is a secessionist movement.

Anglophones are also at odds with what they perceive as discriminatory practices when it comes to recruitment into the civil service.

The historians, Nantang Jua and Piet Konnings, said that in “February 2003, it was announced that there were only 57 Anglophone youths among the more than 5,000 new recruits into police academies. The next month, records show that there were only 12 Anglophones among the 172 recruits into the customs department.”

Years later, not much has changed. Statistics from the Ministry of Public Service and Administration Reform indicate that of the 25,000 young certificate holders recruited into the public service last year, less than 2,000 were Anglophones.

This, the authors say, has created an Anglophone consciousness of “the feeling of being re-colonised and marginalised in all spheres of public life and thus being second-class citizens in their own country.” Government though denies the fact that there is an Anglophone problem in Cameroon. Instead, its strategy has been to use state violence against secessionist groups. And some of the Anglophone elite have been co-opted into government to down play the existence of a problem.

But Cameroon’s scholar and political scientist, Emmanuel Tatah Mentan, has described such elite as “impostors, unrecognised leaders and emissaries of “La Republique du Cameroun.”

Meanwhile, the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Cameroon’s reunification will take place in Buea, the capital of the southwest region.

“It is just natural; it is true to the history of this country,” says Mbella Moki Charles, the Mayor of Buea, of the celebration that will be hosted by his town. But the national communication secretary for the SCNC has said that Biya will be attending the celebrations in Buea as a foreign head of state. “We have been inviting other heads of state and Biya, the president of La Republique du Cameroun, is also invited,” he told IPS.

Political Punch, a regional newsletter with SCNC sympathies, has called for the president to apologise to Southern Cameroonians before going to Buea.

“For the past 20 years, over 700 Southern Cameroonians have been arrested, dragged to court and charged for secession for simply honoring the date of Oct. 1 as a historic and most important date in this country,” the publication said, revealing that over 100 lives have been lost in the process.

Under a new gender quota law introduced in Mauritius, at least one-third of the candidates in local elections must be women. But the adoption of a national quota is not yet on the horizon, even though just 18 percent of legislators are women and there are only two female cabinet ministers.

Women participating in a WIP political training session. Credit: Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

The next local elections are due by April in the five towns and 108 villages in this Indian Ocean island nation of 1.3 million people, located 2,400 km off the southeast coast of Africa.

Town and village councillors are elected every five years. They mainly look after the smooth running of their areas as far as services like garbage collection and road infrastructure are concerned. They are also tasked with taking care of the environment and organising cultural, leisure and sports activities for the local population.

Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam said the introduction of a quota was a legitimate right for women and a big step towards equality between men and women. “We must ensure that the number of women candidates rises considerably,” he said in his televised New Year address.

Three foreign constitutional experts – Professors Guy Carcassonne of the Sorbonne in France, Vernon Bogdanoret of Oxford University in the UK, and Pere Vilanova of the University of Barcelona in Spain – have submitted a report on these issues to Ramgoolam.

During debates in parliament in December, the prime minister was asked by the opposition about extending the gender quota to the national level.

“Let us wait for the report by Prof Carcassone and study the whole system before taking a decision,” he replied, giving the impression that he is not in a hurry to change the system. The next national elections are not due until 2015.

Mauritius is currently engaged in a process of reforming its British-style electoral system, in force on the island since its independence in 1968. The “first past the post” proportional representation, best-loser system for the participation of minorities and women is being scrutinised.

Presently, only 6.4 percent of all village and town councillors are women. And in parliament, only 18.6 percent (13 out of 70 members) are women, since the 2010 elections. Furthermore, there are only two women cabinet ministers out of a total of 25.

One of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the world’s governments in 2000, with a 2015 deadline, is to promote gender equality and empower women. And one of the specific targets under the goal is to increase the proportion of seats held by women in national parliament.

Another international commitment along these lines is the South African Development Community (SADC) Gender Protocol, which calls for 50/50 representation of women in all areas of decision-making by 2015. But the Mauritian government has not yet signed the Protocol.

Women celebrate the new quota

Women’s organisations welcomed the new quota law, which will allow for a substantial increase in the number of women in local politics. Up to now, parties have generally filed few women as candidates in elections.

Ameenah Sorefan, a member of Women in Networking (WIN), the leading women’s network in Mauritius, says it will be difficult to reach 50/50 representation as prescribed by the SADC.

But, she told IPS, “We feel more women will now take part in local elections and be elected. We are ready to start our campaign to get more of them in local government for the next elections. I am sure the population wants to see more women in politics.”

Many women are taking political training courses by Women in Politics (WIP), another NGO working to promote equality between women and men, encourage the emergence of women leaders in all spheres of society, and increase the number of women in politics.

Bernadette Jhowry, a social worker who was among the first 215 women to go through the training, is ambitious and eager to run for local office.

“Nobody has so far recognised my capacity. Men always ask us to organise public meetings and bring the people, but they never see my potential as a candidate,” she says.

But “we cannot move forward without (women),” Jhowry told IPS.

Another trainee, Mirella Arjoon, always thought that politics was men’s territory, and that women’s place was at home. “The world is changing, so we should also change. But we should first learn the political job correctly,” she says.

About 1,300 women are expected to take part in the upcoming local elections in towns and villages. According to Nushrat Gunnoo, a member of WIP, a good number of women have been trained in politics.

“Parties can no longer say there are not enough women candidates. They have always used the services of a pool of women as activists. It’s time for them to take from there,” she said.

Not everyone supports the new law

But not everybody is happy about the quota for women.

Haniff Peerun, chairman of the Mauritius Labour Congress, the largest trade-union movement in the island, begs to disagree.

“Do women need a locomotive to carry them to the top? I don’t think so. They can make it on their own,” he told IPS, arguing that even women in his organisation are against such a move.

Peerun believes women are competent and can win elections on their own: “Why can’t they create a political party for women only? Why should they include some men in their party as suggested by the new legislation?”

He is convinced that the quota system shows that men still consider women to be weak. Lawyer Vishwanee Boodhonee, a candidate in the 2010 general elections, agrees.

“This is contrary to the concept of equal opportunity. Where is the need for enacting an Equal Opportunity Act if there is to be a quota for women? How can we then speak of gender equality?” she asks.

Rajiv Kumar Bundhun, a village councillor from Amaury in northern Mauritius, welcomes more women in local government but is sceptic about their performance “in this tough world of politics.”

“Many men run away from the field once they are elected and are unable to satisfy the needs of the population and sort out their daily problems in towns and villages. How can women perform under insults from the people when things do not work properly in their area? How many of their husbands will accept their wives getting insulted because of politics?” he asks.

Bundhun adds that it is more challenging for women to balance their professional lives, political commitments and family obligations.

Kashmira Banee from Rezistans ek Alternativ, a political movement, agrees. She says this is so because women work irregular hours, mostly in the manufacturing sector, while those who are in the public service are barred from active politics.

However, Banee welcomed the quota, because it creates more space for women to enter politics and allows them to express their ideas and contribute to social and political life on the island. “But a quota is not the end if the woman politician is unable to defend women’s rights and also to contribute towards the building of a better society,” she adds.

Mauritian women have won a first battle in securing a quota that can help increase their numbers in politics. But the most important is yet to come: more seats in parliament, where ministers, prime ministers and opposition leaders are forged.

Excerpt:

Fears of violent demonstrations against the provisional results of the presidential elections – released on Dec. 9 by the electoral commission – have given way to terror in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has crackled with the sound of gunshots and the firing of tear gas canisters since Friday afternoon.

DRC held presidential and legislative elections on Nov. 28. Provisional results for the presidential poll were expected on Dec. 6, but only released three days later, after two postponements by the electoral commission.

The incumbent president, Joseph Kabila, was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) with 48.95 percent of votes, against 32.33 percent for his leading adversary, Etienne Tshisekedi.

Since Dec. 5, psychosis has reigned in the capital. Schools have been closed for more than a week and economic activity has been totally paralysed. In Kinshasa, stores and markets have been closed for several days and people have begun to run out of food.

On Saturday, government spokesperson Lambert Mende Omalanga appeared on RTNC, the national broadcaster, calling for calm and warning that anyone caught taking part in violent acts would be brought to justice.

But shots continued to be heard all over the city, notably in the posh Kinshasa neighbourhood of Macampagne, in the Ngaliema commune, and in Masina, a densely-populated area won by Tshisekedi. Across the city, nothing moved, as residents remained indoors.

Tshisekedi has rejected the results announced by CENI. But he has also refused to turn challenge them in the Supreme Court, instead declaring himself president, winning – by his own reckoning – 72 percent of the vote.

Another candidate, Vital Kamerhe, is also contesting the results; he alleges that electoral officials stuffed the ballot boxes with votes for Kabila even before polling started. “CENI must restore the victory stolen from Tshisekedi by Kabila,” he said.

“The fear of catastrophe is growing,” said Thiery Tomatala, a civil servant and resident of Kintambo, a crowded Kinshasa neighbourhood. “And we will not get a full account of the actions taken by the police and the army against demonstrators and Tshisekedi supporters.”

Tomatala says two Chinese-owned shops in the area were looted by armed men in civilian clothes, one in Kintambo on Friday evening, and another on Saturday morning in the Bandamungwa neighbourhood.

There have been other incidents. “On Saturday morning, around 8.30 am (7.30 am UTC), a jeep full of heavily armed policemen stopped outside my depot, looted it and relieved me of some two million Congolese francs (around 2,200 dollars),” said Yvonne Kinja, a bread wholesaler on Avenue de Libération, in Bandalungwa.

“No traffic is being allowed on Avenue Libération, the street on which the Kinshasa Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre (CPRK), the Colonel Kokolo military camp, the Ministry of the Interior, Security and Decentralisation, as well as the Palais de la Nation, the president’s office – it’s been entirely taken over by the army and heavily armed police,” said Addée Ngudi, who lives along the avenue.

A police colonel speaking on condition of anonymity told IPS, “The police have the obligation to protect strategic locations in the country, including the CPRK, the military base and the president’s office.”

“It’s necessary at all costs to avoid crowds around the CPRK,” Dido Kitungwa, director general of the prison, told IPS over the phone, without offering further detail.

The CPRK holds two classes of prisoners, according to a May 2011 study carried out by the University of Kinshasa, “soldiers and members of the security forces, sentenced by military courts between 1997 – when the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFLD) of Laurent Désiré Kabila seized power – and 2001, when he was assassinated.”

Former president Laurent Désiré Kabila was the father of the incumbent, Joseph. The senior officer who spoke to IPS said police were simply trying to disperse crowds, and people should remain calm and go about their usual business.

“But how can we go about our business when for the past six days, the police themselves have been building up psychosis and fear in the population?” said Guy Mamboleo, a Tshisekedi supporter and resident of Bandalungwa, not far from the CPRK. “A heavy military and police presence, and the firing of tear gas and live ammunition… it is not reassuring,” he told IPS.

Checking voter registration cards. Credit: Julien Harneis/CC BY-SA 2.0

By Badylon Kawanda Bakiman and - -
KIKWIT, Dec 2 2011 (IPS)

While the Congolese are awaiting the official results of the late November presidential elections, three of the eleven candidates have already called for them to be annulled.

Checking voter registration cards. Credit: Julien Harneis/CC BY-SA 2.0

The people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ended up voting over the course of three days, from Nov. 28 to 30, to elect a new head of state and members of parliament, after the elections were extended due to irregularities and several serious incidents that delayed or prevented people from voting.

At the polling station “Collège Saint Boniface” in Masina on the outskirts of Kinshasa, the capital, dozens of voters waited Nov. 30 for hours starting at 7:00 am at the local court. Voting did not start until 11:00 am, following the late arrival of materials, including the ballots.

“I fulfilled my civic duty around 1:00 pm in the presence of national and international observers, as well as witnesses from political parties. Many people gave up trying to vote,” Junior Mvula, a student at the University of Kinshasa, told IPS.

At Kazambangwangwa, a town about 110 km from Kikwit in Bandundu province in the southwest of the country, the people voted Nov. 29. “The materials arrived Nov. 28 around 7:00 pm. Many voters from surrounding villages had already returned home on Monday night because they were too tired to vote,” said Justin Kabasa, a trainer working for the Congolese Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI).

Françoise Kapita, an angry resident of Kikwit, did not vote on Nov. 28. “I travelled to all polling stations in the centre of the city but I couldn’t find my name on any electoral list. Yet I remember having been enrolled in the station of Wayi-Wayi,” she told IPS waving her voter’s card in her hand.

Many voters around the country experienced the same situation. However, the CENI had previously issued a statement that allowed all voters holding an official voter registration card to vote in the polling station where they were enrolled, even if their names were not on the electoral lists.

At Muvuma, a town not far from Kikwit, the local police arrested a nurse called Yvone Mbani on Nov. 28. She has been charged with organised electoral fraud.

“The woman held fake voting booths, ballot boxes and administrative papers; she does work for CENI. These materials were intended to be used at a polling station near Imbongo,” said Patrick Tshefu, a prosecutor in Kikwit where Mbani is being held while the investigation is underway.

“At Bakole in Kananga (in the centre of the country), people are very angry and they burned three polling stations and election materials,” reported Julienne Elameji, a religious worker based in the province of Western Kasai.

“Tempers were rising because the chairman of the polling station in Bakole told voters that only three out of six polling stations were operational because the other three had no equipment,” Elameji told IPS.

“Other official CENI materials, including ballots, were burned on Nov. 28 by the population at Lwandanda, a village 25 km south of Kananga. The people were upset because of the delays,” said Michel Tshiyoyo, a journalist working for a private radio and television company in Kananga.

In Lubumbashi, in Katanga province in the southeast, people witnessed an armed attack.

“In the primary school of Ndjandja, in the town of Kampemba, unidentified armed men entered the polling stations, took the election materials and fired at police on Monday (Nov. 28). Three police officers and a female voter were killed,” said Sylvie Manda Kabongo, a local radio reporter. “People think that the attackers were former Katangan soldiers.”

Some political parties, especially opposition candidate Etienne Tshisekedi’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), denounced several attempts at fraud in polling stations, including the one in Kananga where witnesses reported having seen ballots filled out before the start of the elections.

CENI chairman Daniel Ngoy Mulunda said: “We have been operational at 99.2 percent; in 63,380 polling stations we only had 485 problems. Every time we noticed a problem, we organised a new session for the voters. This situation will however not affect the final results.”

Not everybody agrees. “The vote was held in a hurry. It would have been better if CENI had postponed the elections; the problems would not have happened,” said Floribert Kiama, deputy director of the Mwinda Cultural Centre, a nongovernmental organisation based in Kikwit.

After all these incidents and irregularities, Justine Kakes, the chairwoman of “Dynamique de la jeunesse féminine congolaise”, a national organisation that brings together Congolese girls and young women, is asking herself: “Will the candidates now easily accept the official results?”

Excerpt:

By Louise Redvers and - -
LUANDA, Nov 15 2011 (IPS)

Adolfo Andre knows what he wants for his country and says he will fight on until he gets it.

Several dozen protestors square off with police in a demonstration in the capital Luanda. Credit: Louise Redvers/IPS

“When I see my brothers and sisters living in these terrible conditions when the country is so rich yet people are dying of hunger and from not having clean water or medicines, I have to fight for this because I am Angolan.”

The 32-year-old, who was born two weeks before Angola’s President Jose Eduardo dos Santos took office in 1979, is part of a new youth protest movement which emerged in the country at the start of this year.

Partly inspired by the Arab Spring, partly by their own experiences of living abroad, but mostly by what they say is utter frustration about the huge inequalities that divide Angola, the group has no fixed political affiliations and no formal leadership.

Starting off with just a dozen people, their support base has grown rapidly, thanks to social networking sites like Facebook, and in October they mobilised some 700 people to walk down a main street in Luanda carrying placards saying “Down with the dictator” and “32 years is too long”.

Although still small in size, the protests are largely unprecedented in a country where the government controls the media (both state and private) and uses a sophisticated patronage network to ensure critical voices stay muted.

“There are many people in Angola who know things are not right but who rely on the government and the ruling party for their jobs and livelihoods,” Andre, who lived for 15 years as a refugee in South Africa, explained.

“These people are too scared to stand up and challenge what is going on because of what they might lose.

“But the millions of Angolans who have no food, no homes, no jobs and no hope, these are the people we are trying to mobilise, and we believe things are changing, people are starting to question,” he added.

In the past few months there have been a number of protests staged not just in the capital Luanda, but also in other towns and cities, as well as a rush of rare industrial action, at both private and state- owned companies.

Pedro Seabra, a researcher at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations and Security in Lisbon said: “Angola is still a very long way off from any sort of Arab Spring but these protests are very new for Angola and very significant. Things are definitely staring to change.”

While the oil-rich country has enjoyed stellar growth since the end of its three-decade civil war in 2002, and is forecast to see a GDP hike of 12 percent in 2012, only a few of its people have shared in the peace dividend.

According to the United Nation’s recently-released 2011 Human Development Index, Angola ranks 148 out of 187 countries and more than half of the population lives below the poverty line without access to basic services.

Following the death of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi who spent 42 years in power, Dos Santos now uncomfortably vies with Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang for the unenviable title of longest-serving president in Africa. After decades of unquestioned rule, the 69-year-old is rapidly becoming a hated figure.

“Every member of the Dos Santos clan is rich and his daughters are some of the richest women in Africa,” said Makuta Nkondo, a member of parliament for the main opposition party UNITA (Union for Total Independence of Angola).

“On top of that all the members of the government are rich, and this wealth is scandalous when the people of Angola don’t have water, electricity, health services or decent education.”

But standing up to the Angolan authorities comes with a cost.

Andre, who has experiences in construction and banking and speaks fluent English, said he has been unable to find work since moving back to Angola in January and many of those who have taken part in the demonstrations have also lost their jobs.

“It has made my life a bit difficult and it’s put me in danger,” he said. “The security services follow us all the time, wherever we go they know where we are. There’s nowhere to hide from them, they are everywhere, always listening and watching.”

In September Andre was among several dozen protestors who were arrested for taking part in a demonstration in the capital Luanda. He spent over six weeks in jail before his sentence (for public order offences) was mysteriously overturned by the Supreme Court.

Days earlier he claims the group were approached by a top general and offered cars and money to call off their action.

“When we refused the gifts,” he told IPS, “The guy said ‘you’ll see how the fire burns’, and a few days later at the protest we were arrested and badly beaten by the police.

“My family are worried for me, of course, I have a young son and my girlfriend is currently pregnant, so it is a concern but I am also not scared of these people.”

However after an initially heavy-handed response to the protests, the government has changed tack, condemning the youth as insubordinate and accusing them of wanting to re-start the civil war.

Meanwhile for every anti-government protest that is organised, the ruling MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) stages several of its own events, bussing people into city centres, giving them t-shirts, putting on concerts and calling for the country to work together to preserve peace rather than sow division.

And not only is the state media propaganda machine working overtime, highlighting every government project and success and pledging to improve energy and water supplies, Dos Santos, in his annual State of the Nation address in October, took pains to deny he was a dictator.

“There is no dictatorship here whatsoever,” Dos Santos said. “On the contrary, in the country there is a new democracy which is lively, dynamic and participatory and which is being consolidated every day.”

According to Elias Isaac, the director of the Angola office of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, the protests were getting to the authorities.

“You can see that they are feeling the pressure, otherwise they wouldn’t be reacting like this,” he said.

But MPLA spokesman Rui Falcao Pinto de Andrade denied the government was nervous or that Angola was on the verge of an “Arab Spring”.

“We have nothing to do with North Africa,” he said. “We have come out of a long war and what we need is stability to be able to develop.

“It is easy to be in opposition and criticise everything, to see things that are not there, but we the MPLA are working hard for a new era of development and peace.”

Angola is due to hold elections in 2012, although Dos Santos has not yet confirmed whether he will stand again. Under a new constitution ratified in February 2010, the head of state is chosen from the top of the list of the party that wins the most votes. In 2008, the first election to be held in Angola for 16 years, the MPLA won an 82 percent majority.

The next protest action is scheduled for December.

Excerpt:

By Robyn Leslie
FUBE, DR Congo, Oct 13 2011

It is a hot and humid morning in the village of Fube in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Dust and smoke from morning fires and low-lying clouds mingle to give the horizon a distinctively fuzzy look.

Kyomdwa Ntombo is building a new life in Fube. Credit: Robyn Leslie/IPS

“This is what the name ‘Fube’ means,” Kyomdwa Ntombo says. “It comes from an old French word that means ‘blurred’.”

A unique experiment, Fube is a newly constructed village that was designed and built by refugees who began returning to the DRC after the first democratic elections in 2006 – a follow-on to the cessation of hostilities in 2003.

The DRC was the scene of what has been called Africa’s World War. Neighbouring countries, rebel groups and government forces fought ferociously in a conflict that saw the death of approximately five million people between 1998 and 2003.

This violence resulted in large-scale movements of refugees out of the Central African nation. After fleeing from Katanga, the DRC’s most southerly province, over 50,000 refugees found themselves depending completely on non-governmental organisations in camps in Zambia.

Dressed in a vibrant yellow chitenge, the traditional brightly coloured material wraps worn by women in the DRC, Ntombo sits on a makeshift bench in a clearing. Surrounded by tall trees and the still- smoking stumps of vegetation that has been burned, she explains her flight into Zambia.

Ntombo fled her home in the late 1990s with her two small children. Her husband was away at the time and they had no way of telling him where they had gone. She and her children ended up in a Zambian refugee camp called Mporokoso by its inhabitants, due to its close proximity to the town of the same name.

Ntombo was not alone. In 2004, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) figures stated that 66,000 Congolese refugees were being hosted in camps in Zambia.

But it was not home. And finally after 10 years Ntombo and approximately 45,000 refugees began returning to the DRC after the war ended and the new government came to power in 2006. (The country will go to the polls in November for its second general election.)

The international community saw this as a sign that peace had returned to large parts of the country, but this gave hope to more than just international observers. Informally, many repatriated refugees say that the 2006 election meant that continuing rebel “authority” in rural areas could be realistically challenged.

In 2007, conditions in Katanga Province were deemed safe and the UNHCR initiated a voluntary repatriation process for Congolese refugees living in Zambia. It is these repatriation experiences that the small crowd now gathered in Fube village’s clearing want to share.

Some stories are uplifting, like that of Frederick Luimbo, a businessman who runs a small pharmacy in Fub’s trading square. “Home is home. I thought I could bring my skills back home. I wanted to come home.”

Tundwa Kapangu sits quietly reeling off the list of items that were distributed by NGOs. “I received food rations, a kitchen kit, a bicycle, metal sheets for building a roof, a mat and blankets.”

Others remember assistance with farming implements and six month’s free medical care, or school fees for their children. Augustin Lukena Kisuku is the president of the committee that administers Fube, and he explains that assistance received depended on the time you chose to return.

“If you came in 2007, you got no school fee support, but medical assistance. In 2008, bicycles and iron sheets for house roofs were added.”

Others share more sober tales. A young man in his late twenties, Moto Kabobo, is articulate and chooses to relate his story in English, which he learnt while living in Mporokoso camp in Zambia. Smiling ruefully, he explains why he felt reluctant to come home.

“I left DRC in 1998 when I was very young, about 11 years of age, because of the war. I am now afraid that if I go back to my village, they will accuse me of witchcraft because of all the U.N. assistance I have received, while they suffered in DRC during the war and have received nothing. They will say I have used majini – bad spirits – to become rich.”

In this Central African nation people here are accused of witchcraft when they seem to have accrued wealth and status. People say they have used majini – bad spirits in Swahili – to attract success and affluence.

That was why he chose to repatriate to Fube, a purpose-built community of returnees who all, for one reason or another, could not return to their homes and villages.

“Here at least we all have the same assistance as refugees, so there is no jealousy.” But his tone is not hopeful as he starts to explain his fears. “My whole life has been conducted in Zambia. DRC is not a free country. It is a war country – in all the years, there has been war.”

Many of the refugees who shared their stories of repatriation echo the same sentiment: fears about returning to homes where relatives have over-run their plots and houses, or fear of renewed instability. Honore Kalombe Matete explains many people’s feelings. “I chose to come to Fube because when war comes again I can easily make the border.”

Kabwe Makoba is a soft-spoken man who spent nine years in Kawambwa refugee camp in Zambia before repatriating to Fube in 2009. But his story is a strange one.

“Mine was a sudden repatriation,” he says with a big smile. “One day when I returned from my day of business, I saw my name had been placed on the list to be repatriated. I believe a UNHCR field officer or Zambian official put my name there without asking or telling me.”

Father Cyprien Nkoma, a DRC citizen and Catholic priest, relates how repatriation was used as a form of punishment for offences like breaking the rules of your gate pass (allowing refugees limited movement in the local area) or causing trouble in the communities. Starting a fight could land you on the repatriation list – “just another way to ‘squeeze’ people to go home.”

The UNHCR, in conjunction with the Zambian and DRC governments, used two methods to repatriate refugees. Most of the repatriated refugees were transported by car to the Zambian shore of Lake Tanganyika.

From there they took a ship across the lake to Moba Port in the DRC, where they were then transported by truck to various destinations in Katanga Province. In 2008, returns to Moba Port via a two-day overland trip from Zambia began.

Despite these tensions, many remain positive about the impact the returnees have had on the communities in Katanga Province. Passing through the villages that are now home to repatriated refugees, it is clear that years in Zambia have brought another level of development to their homes in the DRC.

Many huts now have solar panels charging up batteries, alongside clucking chickens and curious goats. District officials have reported an increase in what they termed a “sense of civic duty”, describing the upward surge of birth, marriage and death registrations from returnees.

Ntombo still doesn’t know where her husband is, and after fifteen years, has resigned herself to taking care of her family without him. But the hope that pervades these communities is brought to life as she wanders round a nearly completed school building that she will lead as head mistress in 2012. “What is good, is to work for your life,” she says. “And I am free now because I am home.”

*Robyn Leslie currently works as the regional advocacy and communications officer for the Jesuit Refugee Service, Southern Africa.

Excerpt:

By Robbie Corey-Boulet and Stephen Binda
MONROVIA, Oct 11 2011 (IPS)

Liberians cast their ballots Tuesday in an election that has so far been described as orderly and peaceful, though concerns persist that a disputed result could anger voters and fuel minor unrest.

Supporters from President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's Unity Party during the last campaign rally on Sunday. Credit: Robbie Corey-Boulet/IPS

Her top rival that year, former international football star George Weah of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), claimed the election was stolen – despite affirmation of the results from a range of international observers – and refused to admit defeat.

This year, Weah is running for vice president under CDC presidential candidate and former diplomat Winston Tubman, but the allegations of fraud have not gone away. The CDC campaign theme song, “It will not hold,” condemns “the rigging of the election” and accuses President Johnson-Sirleaf’s Unity Party of “depending on cheating.”

At the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) polling station in downtown Monrovia on Tuesday, Emmanuel Kollimealyne, an officer with the Community Watch Forum of Liberia, said he had visited four polling stations in the morning and had found the process to be peaceful.

“I think I’m confident now that since the conduct of the campaign was very peaceful, the elections will be peaceful,” he said. “In Liberia we are more mature now.”

But he said there were still doubts that the CDC would be able to accept defeat. “I think it comes from 2005,” he said. “Also, this year they are pre-empting that they will be cheated. They are starting to (sound) the alarm earlier.”

The first voter in line at the YMCA, having arrived at 5am, was Teddy Tubman, the 25-year-old nephew of Winston Tubman.

“I want this election to be peaceful, free and fair,” Teddy Tubman said. “There should be no cheating.”

Asked how he thought the CDC would respond to a loss, he said: “Well, in 2005 the opposition decided to accept the election result because of peace, because of the people. We don’t want this election to repeat what happened in 2005. Any case of cheating might erupt in violence.”

The campaign period came to a close on Sunday, with the parties holding competing rallies in two stadiums in Monrovia. Though large groups of supporters of the CDC and Johnson-Sirleaf’s Unity Party occasionally encountered each other in the streets, the marching and slogan-shouting generally remained good-natured.

Political observers are expecting a close race that could head to a runoff in early November. The National Elections Commission has said results will be announced by Oct. 26, though preliminary results are expected sooner.

CDC Chairman Geraldine Doe-Sheriff has said the party would release its own results, a possibility that has sparked alarm among election monitors. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria’s former head of state and head of the Carter Center’s 55-person international election observation mission in Liberia, said such a move would be illegal.

“It is not right. The only person to announce the result is the chairman of the National Electoral Commission,” Gowon said. “If they do it, it is against the law and I hope there is a process whereby such a thing can be dealt with. But it will not be accepted as the result.”

Gowon also said the election was going “exceptionally well” despite light rainfall around midday. “People have turned out in great numbers and enthusiastically,” he said. “It has been going well so far and we hope that it will continue to go well in all places.”

Winston Tubman cast his ballot at around 10:30am at a high school in central Monrovia. “Liberians are peaceful people who are seizing the ballot boxes to do what is necessary so that we can get back on a normal path,” he told reporters.

Asked whether he would win, he responded, “Sure, and in the first round.”

But Mother Ainoson, a 56-year-old supporter of Johnson-Sirleaf, said she believed the incumbent would prevail, and that any allegations of fraud that might ensue would be unfounded.

“If you look at the whole aspect, people have security at all of the polling stations, so who will bypass that and cheat?” she said. “So I want to say that everything will be fair.”

Excerpt:

By Robbie Corey-Boulet
GRAND GEDEH COUNTY, Liberia, Oct 10 2011 (IPS)

As Liberia gears up for Tuesday’s presidential and legislative elections, officials stationed near the border with Ivory Coast have expressed concern that insufficient border security – a problem highlighted by two recent cross-border attacks – could fuel electoral violence.

Bleblocoula Sylvain (foreground) lost eight members of his family during a March raid in Diboke, Ivory Coast. Credit: Robbie Corey-Boulet/IPS

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, 72, of the Unity Party, who jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, is seeking a second term of office. The incumbent president is running against 15 presidential candidates, including one from the Congress for Democratic Change, which initially earned more votes than her in 2005 (she later won in a runoff).

There is no credible polling in the West African nation, but observers expect the race will be close, potentially resulting in a runoff in early November.

The campaign period has been marked with divisive rhetoric and talk of vote stealing that some observers have warned could spill over into violence depending on the result.

Last year’s disputed election in Ivory Coast sparked a conflict between forces loyal to ousted President Laurent Gbagbo and his successor, Alassane Ouattara, that claimed an estimated 3,000 lives and sent a flood of refugees into Liberia. Liberian mercenaries were also recruited into the fighting, and there are reports that Ivorian Gbagbo supporters have resettled on the Liberian side of the border.

Corinne Dufka, a senior West Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), said that while she believed Liberians were committed to maintaining peace, it was important to remember the extent to which past conflicts “have reverberated across each country’s porous borders, causing significant flows of arms, combatants and refugees, and untold human suffering.”

Thomas Kahn, an immigration official stationed at the Behai border crossing in Grand Gedeh County, in eastern Liberia, recommended that the government double the present number of security forces in order to prevent the cross-border trafficking of small arms. He also noted that during the election some security forces would be called away from the border to man polling stations elsewhere in the county.

“Over the past months there has been a problem in Ivory Coast, so we need more manpower at the border now,” Kahn said. “It is a security risk.”

Jerry Zeah, the town chief of Behai, also said he believed there was insufficient security in the area to ensure the safety of residents.

Last month, HRW documented an attack allegedly perpetrated by Gbagbo supporters based in Liberia that killed 23 people in two villages located 25 kilometres south of the Ivory Coast town of Tai. The attack was similar to a cross-border raid carried out in July that killed at least eight people in Ivory Coast.

According to HRW, the attacks are believed to have been launched by youth from Ivory Coast “who served as pro-Gbagbo militiamen during the country’s six-month post-election conflict” and are now based in Liberia. The victims, meanwhile, “tended to support” Ouattara.

Women and children were among the victims in both attacks.

In a statement detailing the July attack, HRW said: “One witness described attackers sticking a gun barrel in the mouth of a man whom they’d trapped; they then shot him. A Burkinabé man living in the area was found with his throat slit.”

“These armed groups appear determined to wreak havoc on a population that has already suffered greatly from Côte d’Ivoire’s deadly post-election crisis,” said Daniel Bekele, HRW’s Africa director. “United Nations peacekeeping missions in Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia need to assist state authorities in preventing more bloodshed.”

Despite this call from HRW, Napoleon Viban, the acting head of the Liberia peacekeeping mission in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh’s capital, said it was up to Ivory Coast authorities to investigate the attacks – even though the perpetrators are believed to be in Liberia.

Beyond the logistical challenges of an investigation by Ivory Coast authorities, HRW said there was a chance the Ivorian armed forces would commit rights abuses during the course of an investigation, noting that torture and extrajudicial killings were “common during the conflict.”

Several residents of Tai, the Ivory Coast town located near the site of the attacks, said that after the Jul. 18 attack, Ouattara forces “detained a local pro-Gbagbo village leader and fired between his legs during questioning.”

“Côte d’Ivoire’s armed forces must ensure that those who commit attacks, whatever their political affiliation, face their victims before a court of law, and not be subject to the summary executions that too often marked the Ivorian crisis,” Bekele said.

Concerns about the tactics of Ouattara’s forces resonate with Bleblocoula Sylvain, a 28-year-old Ivory Coast refugee who now lives in the Grand Gedeh town of Tuzon. Sylvain lost eight members of his family during a March raid in Diboke. He said he had no intention of returning to Ivory Coast under Ouattara.

“People loyal to him still hold arms,” Sylvain said. “He’s the one to rule the country, but he killed a lot of people. I don’t ever think this government will maintain peace.”

HRW said the border “is notoriously difficult to monitor, because of its length and the thick vegetation that marks the region.” The statement noted that both the U.N. and the Ivory Coast government had agreed to send more forces to the area following the Sep. 15 attack.

Viban noted that the mission was “part of the joint border patrol.” He also said that while the primary goal of the mission was to bolster the capacity of Liberian security forces, the mission “will always intervene in line with its mandate.”

He said that while he believed the situation at the border remained “calm,” even in light of the recent attacks, in the event of electoral violence the U.N. in Liberia will “work with the government to quickly come in when human lives are at stake.”  

Excerpt:

By Robbie Corey-Boulet
MONROVIA , Oct 9 2011 (IPS)

As the Norwegian Nobel Committee named Liberian President Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf a joint winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, opposition party supporters were flooding the streets of Monrovia to demand that she be voted out of office in the upcoming election.

Opposition party supporters demanded that Nobel Peach Prize winner Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf be out of office. Credit: Robbie Corey-Boulet/IPS

The Nobel committee announced that the prize would be divided into three equal parts. Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist who organised a women’s movement calling for an end to civil war in the West African nation, was also named a winner, as was Tawakkul Karman, a Yemeni journalist and activist who has played a prominent role in that country’s Arab Spring protests.

But in Monrovia, the focus Friday was squarely on Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female head of state who is running for a second term in a vote scheduled for Oct. 11. The prize was awarded on the same day that supporters of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), the leading opposition party, marched in support of political change.

In a statement, the Nobel committee said Johnson-Sirleaf had “contributed to securing peace in Liberia, to promoting economic and social development, and to strengthening the position of women.”

On the contrary, the CDC has consistently accused Johnson-Sirleaf of bringing war to the country, citing her early financial support of former President Charles Taylor, now on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity at The Hague.

Taylor launched a coup in 1989 that plunged Liberia into 14 years of civil conflict that claimed more than 250,000 lives. In 2009, Liberia’s South Africa-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission report included Johnson-Sirleaf on a list of 49 politicians who should be barred from politics for 30 years owing to their ties to warring factions. Johnson-Sirleaf issued an apology to the nation shortly thereafter, saying she only supported Taylor in the hope that he would overthrow dictator Samuel Doe.

In an interview late last month, however, CDC presidential candidate Winston Tubman highlighted the president’s ties to Taylor, saying: “The government that we are seeking to replace is a government that oppressed the people. It is a government that brought war.”

Johnson-Sirleaf, a Harvard-educated economist who has previously worked for the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank, has been accused by her opponents of courting international favour at the expense of voters back home.

Speaking to IPS by phone on Friday, Tubman said the prize was further evidence that the views of the international community did not match those of Liberians.

“If the international community feels that she deserves such a prize, they should watch out for today’s march, because the CDC is prepared to vote her out of power peacefully,” he said.

TQ Harris, a former independent presidential candidate, struck a similar note in an SMS text message sent to supporters and journalists. “This explains why Liberians have yet to get a war crimes court… the international community has an agenda that is not in line with ours,” he said.

Thousands of CDC supporters turned out for Friday’s rally marking the end of the party’s campaign, dancing and drinking in the streets, shouting slogans and brandishing banners. While waiting inside Antoinette Tubman Stadium for the arrival of Tubman and his running mate, international football star George Weah, 36-year-old voter David Mzor described why he thought the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Johnson-Sirleaf was inappropriate.

“I don’t think President Sirleaf deserves it because she has not been able to reconcile the Liberian people. She’s not a reconciler,” he said. “She helped to put our future way back. That was not the right way to remove (dictator Samuel) Doe. There were other alternatives.”

Thomas Queayahn, 19, who was also among the CDC supporters in the stadium, agreed. “She was a fighter before she was a leader,” he said of the president. “She brought war to the country.”

The president’s many supporters take the opposite view, praising her for restoring peace and stability against significant obstacles.

As he watched the CDC marchers go by Friday from his stall on Benson Street, petty trader Prince Worzie hailed the president as a peacemaker. “She has brought peace to Liberia,” he said, adding that he also commended her efforts to promote women within her government. “That alone justifies that indeed she should deserve the award.”

John Ballout, a senator with Johnson-Sirleaf’s ruling Unity Party and a member of her campaign team, said the attempt to paint her as an instigator of the war was a political tactic on the part of opposition leaders “who want to shift the discussion.”

“Yes, she has been very supportive of all of the struggles to resist dictatorship in this country,” he said. “It’s not that she’s been supporting conflict or war – she’s been supporting resistance.”

*With additional reporting by Stephen Binda and Saye Messah

Excerpt:

By Eprahim Nsingo and Lwanga Mwilu
LUSAKA, Sep 23 2011 (IPS)

The election of Michael Chilufya Sata as Zambia’s new president shows that Zambians are more interested in issues of accountability and transparency than mere service delivery, say analysts.

Zambians went to the polls on Sep. 20 and elected a new president. Credit: Ephraim Nsingo/IPS

Sata’s victory brings an end to the 20-year rule of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), where he was formerly a national secretary before breaking away. This was Sata’s fourth attempt at the presidency.

Reuben Lifuka, president of Transparency International Zambia, an international civil society movement with an exclusive focus on corruption, told IPS that Sata’s and the Patriotic Front’s (PF) victory showed political players that they should not be complacent.

“This election has changed the political landscape,” said Lifuka.

He said that when the MMD first came to power in the 1990s their focus had been on service delivery.

“Now people are not just interested in roads, boreholes, schools, and other social services. They are more interested in other aspects of governance. The new yardstick is not about how many boreholes the new government will construct, but how the whole governance process is carried out. People are more interested in issues of accountability and transparency.”

Sata, 74, was declared winner of the country’s Sep. 20 general elections with 43 percent of the vote in the early hours of Friday morning after he beat nine other presidential candidates. Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) Justice Irene Mambilima announced the results though votes from seven remaining constituencies had yet to be counted. Sata garnered 1,150,045 votes.

His closest rival, President Rupiah Banda Banda of the MMD, took 36.1 percent of the total votes. Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development came third with 18.5 percent.

The other seven candidates shared the remainder.

Sata was quoted in Zambia’s The Post newspaper as saying that Mambilima woke him up early Friday with news of his victory.

“This is the beginning of the long journey and where we are going, it is not easy. It has not been easy because this result should have been declared two days earlier,” he told the newspaper. The PF claimed that the results had not been announced sooner because the MMD had tried to change them, a charge Banda denied.

Making his maiden speech as president on Friday afternoon at his inauguration, Sata promised to create jobs and transform government within 90 days – a pledge he made during his campaign.

The leader of the PF also indirectly dispelled widespread concerns that he would pounce on Chinese investors, saying he would work to attract foreign investment, but stressed that investors “need to adhere to the labour laws” of Zambia. He has criticised Chinese investment in Zambia in the past.

In a show of reconciliation Sata arrived at his inauguration with Banda; the two have had a hostile relationship in the past.

Sata’s victory was celebrated across the country. Jubilant Zambians took to the streets singing, dancing, chanting slogans, honking car horns, blowing vuvuzelas (a plastic horn) and flashing the PF party symbol of a raised fist.

“This is good news, we knew this time we were going to (win). Last time they cheated us and only beat us by 35,000 votes, but this time we did not give them a chance,” said Christine Chisulo, who was part of a group of young people who took to the streets in Lusaka’s Woodlands suburb to celebrate Sata’s victory.

Reacting to the PF’s victory, losing presidential candidate Ng’andu Magande said the only other times he had seen such scenes of joy over a political victory were when this Southern African country gained independence from Britain in 1964 and in 1991 when Zambia became a multi-party democracy.

“The removal of a government through the ballot sends an important message that (political) office belongs to the citizens and those leaders who do not do what is expected of them will be removed,” he said.

Banda conceded electoral defeat on Friday in a farewell address to the nation.

“The election campaign of 2011 is over. The people of Zambia have spoken and we must all listen,” said Banda.

He called for maturity, composure and compassion, and urged the victors to celebrate with a magnanimous heart.

“Enjoy the hour but remember that a term of government is for (five) years. Remember that the next election will judge you also. Treat those who you have vanquished with the respect and humility that you would expect in your own hour of defeat,” he said.

Banda said his party would accept the results as they would not “deny Zambians”. He said his party never rigged elections, never cheated and never knowingly abused state funds.

The outgoing president, who was in a sombre mood, wondered where his party had gone wrong.

“We must all face the reality that sometimes it is time for change,” he said.

Banda said he has “no ill feeling in my heart, there is no malice in my words”, saying he believed Zambia was still “in good hands”.

“But now it is time for me to step aside. Now is the time for a new leader. My time is done. It is time for me to say good bye,” he said.

McDonald Lewanika, director of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, part of Zimbabwean civil society representatives observing the election, told IPS that while the ECZ could be commended for the transparency of the elections, they could have avoided the violence caused by voting delays.

“There were a number of issues which raised concern, especially issues of logistics, which resulted in unwarranted delays in some areas, and this is what led to the violence.”

On Thursday there were protests on the outskirts of Lusaka’s central business district and there was a heavy police presence in most parts of the Lusaka city centre.

There were also massive protests in the Copperbelt cities of Ndola and Kitwe on Thursday morning. In Kitwe, the Nakadoli Market, which provides employment for hundreds of locals, was razed to the ground by a suspicious fire. Police reportedly used water canons and teargas to break up protests. Some banks suspended business because of the violence.

In a notice to customers, mobile service provider Airtel Zambia announced that the company had closed its stores in the Copperbelt province.

Many businesses had closed and ordered their employees to stay at home until the situation normalised.

Excerpt:

By Lwanga Mwilu and Eprahim Nsingo
LUSAKA, Sep 20 2011 (IPS)

Only two incidents of violence, triggered by the late start of voting and the suspicion of electoral fraud, were reported as Zambians went to the polls to elect a new president and government on Tuesday.

Zambians went to the polls to elect a new president and government on Tuesday. Credit: Lwanga Mwilu/IPS

The nationwide violence expected and feared by many did not occur as citizens spent Monday stocking up on basic commodities.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has dismissed reports of electoral fraud and extended voting hours at all polling stations affected by the late commencement.

In a live broadcast on local radio Q-FM, ECZ public relations manager Chris Akufuna announced that all voting will be extended at these polling stations.

Some polling stations did not open at 6am as planned as voting materials had not been delivered. In Kanyama and Lilanda East in Lusaka the late commencement of voting triggered violence. When ballot papers were finally delivered, some irate voters tore them and set them alight claiming that they were pre-marked in favour of a particular candidate.

The situation in both areas degenerated when some citizens became riotous. At the Lilanda Basic School polling station in Lilanda compound, vehicles were stoned and one was set ablaze.

At Nakatindi polling station in Kanyama compound, voting had not started by midday and infuriated citizens ran riot as they suspected the ballots were pre-marked and they vandalised the voting area. Akufuna described the violence as unfortunate and denied suggestions that it was due to a lack of preparedness on the commission’s part.

“The ECZ was very prepared for these elections and the situation of the late delivery of materials in Lusaka is just disappointing … Our instructions were that all materials be in polling stations yesterday. As a commission, we will ultimately take responsibility for these disruptions but we tried our best to ensure the best scenario,” he said.

A number of reports of pre-marked ballots have emerged in different parts of the country but Akufuna dismissed all these allegations of electoral fraud.

“That is just a report. It does not arise because all ballot papers were physically inspected and none were pre-marked. These reports are probably emanating from people who wish us ill. Yes we have had challenges and we are dealing with them but fraud is not one of them,” Akufuna said.

As the clock ticked towards the opening of polling stations for Zambia’s tripartite elections, the fears of Zambians became evident on Monday.

Scores of people rushed to supermarkets to buy basic commodities, fearing that the situation could deteriorate after the elections.

“I am just trying to be on the safe side, people are circulating all sorts of rumours about what may happen after the election. I have bought enough food for my family for the next few weeks, just in case we experience what happened in Zimbabwe (after the 2008 elections), where they stayed for more than a month waiting for results, and during that time there was a lot of violence.

“Schools have not closed, but I will not take my children to school until after we are sure the situation has calmed down,” said Kaywala Chibwe, one of the many shoppers who filled up their trolleys at a Lusaka supermarket.

Some supermarkets even struggled to supply enough trolleys for their customers.

Meanwhile, the country’s only female presidential candidate, Edith Nawakwi of the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD), called for peace ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

“We need peace, we need stability and we need our people to start thinking about creating wealth at household level,” said Nawakwi.

“Zambia is the heart of central Africa. Anything that goes wrong here during or after the elections will affect our brothers and sisters in the region. Zambians must understand that in the region, everybody is busy with a development agenda; no one in Southern Africa wants to start dealing with a horde of refugees that arise out of post-election conflict.” She said she hoped her participation in the elections was a uniting factor for Zambians. “I pray that my fellow Zambian women will realise that women have a much larger role to play in this election and that role is to keep peace in the homes, in the streets, we must pray and urge our members, our children not to involve themselves in violence,” Nawakwi said.

“I am appealing that…after the elections, people must conduct themselves in a manner that will ensure that there is peace and stability for all citizens,” said presidential candidate Dr. Fred Mtesa of the Zambians for Empowerment and Development.

United party for National Development presidential candidate Hakainde Hichilema said: “We have done enough work and the rest is for the people for Zambia to decide what they want, what sort of life they want. We have given the message.”

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
LUSAKA, Sep 19 2011 (IPS)

As Zambians go to the polls on Tuesday to elect a new government and president they do so amid fears of election violence.

Edith Nawakwi, the only woman presidential candidate, attended the electoral commission's meeting of presidential candidates. Credit: Ephraim Nsingo/IPS

President Rupiah Banda has said that he and his ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) will accept the results.

“I can only speak for myself and my party when I say that we will abide by the results,” said Banda in a national address on Sunday. “I hope that all the other parties contesting the elections will also pledge to abide by the final results. My main concern in the remaining time is that all candidates, all parties and all supporters conduct themselves within the laws of our land.”

Banda added that he hoped the rumours of post election violence were merely that, but he warned that police would exert the full force of the law on those who perpetrated violence or intimidation.

“I have this message for you: I have ordered the police to arrest and prosecute all those who offend. Expect no mercy, expect no favour, and expect only the full force of the law to come down on you.”

On Monday, hours before the 6,456 polling stations across the Southern African country were set to open, the ECZ held a meeting with the presidential candidates to remind them of the rules of the elections.

ECZ spokesperson Cris Akufuna called for peace during and after the elections, adding that the commission hoped to announce the results within 48 hours.

Akufuna added that there was no room to manipulate the election results. He said the ECZ had “put in place a transparent system where there will not be any space or chance for anyone to manipulate.”

He explained that after the votes were counted, polling agents from the various political parties would be able to sign off the results.

“Having signed off the results, the results will be pasted on the notice board outside the polling station and each one of the monitors present will be given a copy of the results.

“Having done that, one of the polling agents will accompany the presiding officer and security officer to the collation centre to deliver the results sheet,” said Akufuna.

But in a move viewed as confrontational, the opposition Patriotic Front (PF) has encouraged its supporters to stay at polling stations after casting their votes.

PF leader Michael Sata, who is widely viewed as the biggest challenger to Rupiah Banda for the presidency, urged his supporters to stay at polling stations after voting. “We still maintain that our people should
remain at polling stations after voting,”
Sata said.

Addressing a rally in Lusaka, Sata said this was to help guard against possible rigging. He even encouraged his supporters to sleep at polling stations, where necessary.

Despite being out of active politics for a while now, former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda has been very vocal ahead of the elections.

He has been campaigning for political parties and their supporters to uphold peace before, during and after the elections. Kaunda, who became Zambia’s first president in 1964, currently features in a number of radio, television and print adverts by the ECZ.

One advert reads: “Campaign peacefully, do not intimidate. Allow voters to vote for the candidates of their choice on Sep. 20, play your part to ensure that this year’s elections are peaceful.”

Zambian police have even gone so far as to temporarily ban the sale of axes, hoes, machetes, catapults and other small weapons that could be used to perpetrate violence. The police have also banned the sale of alcohol by street vendors, especially a highly-toxic drink popularly known as Tujilijili.

Tujilijili is brandy and gin, sold in 30ml and 60ml sachets, which has an alcohol content of 45 percent. It is manufactured illegally in Lusaka, and is normally sold on streets and in public places like markets and bus ranks for as little as 20 cents.

On Friday the Inspector General of Police, Francis Kabonde, ordered all Tujilijili traders to stop selling the alcoholic drink.

Kabonde said: “The Zambian police will be out on the street to make sure that all those that might break the law are arrested regardless of who they may be.”

The national brewery, Zambia Breweries, has also done its bit to curb election violence and announced it was restricting the sale of its alcoholic beverages on election day and the days that follow in order to minimise consumption. The company did not explain how this restriction would be implemented.

But most people have bought beer in large quantities ahead of Tuesday’s elections.

Churches and faith-based organisations have also called for peace during this year’s elections.

The Reformed Church in Zambia’s Reverend Madalitso Banda warned against “false prophets” who may want to bring confusion.

Even international observers monitoring the elections have called for peace. The chairperson of the Commonwealth Observer Group and former Nigerian president, Yakubu Gowon, urged parties “to ensure that their followers do not engage in violence before, during and after elections.”

The European Union Election Observer Mission in Zambia also reported that the its Chief Observer Maria Muñiz De Urquiza, a Member of the European Parliament (Spain), would hold a series of discussions with stakeholders in the run up to the polls.

The African Union, Southern Africa Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa have also dispatched their observer missions.

Excerpt:

When Zambians go the polls on Sep. 20 they will have the most effective team of observers monitoring the electoral process – themselves. Citizens, through social media, will be able to report offences and irregularities during and before the general elections.

A poster asking people to vote for Edith Nawakwi, the only woman presidential candidate. Credit: Ephraim Nsingo/IPS

An initiative called Bantu Watch was launched on Saturday by civil society to ensure that the Southern African nation has a higher level of citizen participation in monitoring the elections.

It is a simple system. People can text anonymous reports to a local number, 3018, using their mobile phones or they can log onto the website to report incidents online.

Formal election observers based in the areas where the reports originate will first verify electoral irregularities that require action from either electoral staff or police.

As voters go to the polls next week to elect a president, parliament and local government representatives, there have been fears of election violence. Opposition parties have accused President Rupiah Banda’s ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) of intimidating those who oppose the president and the party.

Civil society and politicians have hailed the initiative and see it as a means of quickly addressing any incidents.

“It is a great electoral malpractice preventive mechanism as people can report, in real time, offences such as intimidation, hate speech, vote buying, polling clerk bias, voting misinformation and so on. Action can be taken right away,” Lee Habasonda, executive director of the Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD), told IPS. The project is run by Zambia’s civil society and social media representatives under SACCORD.

Even those running for office have welcomed the initiative. The presidential candidate for the opposition National Restoration Party, Elias Chipimo Jr., said any initiative that could help reduce election violence should be embraced.

“There is too much pre-election violence and intimidation and any effort to prevent this will not be wasted. One of our members is currently nursing a wound after being assaulted by a ruling party cadre and there are eyewitness accounts which can confirm this. So my party fully welcomes this initiative,” he said.

And voters are welcoming it too.

Reports are already flowing in to the Bantu Watch website from across the country. The unverified reports describe incidents of bribery, electoral fraud, and violation of the electoral code of conduct, among others.

One report from someone identified only as “MSimushi” from Senanga in western Zambia says: “Agents of ruling MMD party in Senanga are busy trying 2 bribe appointed poll staff with cash in return 4 favour @ vote count.”

Another says: “#Zambiaelections: Vehicle allegedly used in (the United Party for National Development) UPND campaigns identified as judiciary property.”

“We expect a great response to Bantu Watch because this is a simple enough thing to do, and it does not require complicated technical expertise. All a person needs is access to either a mobile phone or the internet, which are platforms many people already use every day.”

Habasonda said trained monitors in the country’s nine provinces would verify the citizen reports before forwarding them to the relevant authorities for action.

“We have trained system administrators to receive and verify reports, they will act like gatekeepers. Depending on how successful this is, the initiative will be institutionalised and become part of every election,” he said.

The opposition Patriotic Front’s Secretary General Wynter Kabimba was hopeful that Bantu Watch would allow electoral offences to be reported while something can still be done about them.

Kabimba, whose party has petitioned election results before, said many reports of irregularities had not been investigated further in the past and some only managed to reach the relevant authorities after they had already been overtaken by events. He said in some cases the people who the complaints were about had already taken office and intimidated the complainants. “This initiative is therefore a very welcome thing, as it will finally give people a chance to report cases while something can still be done about them,” he said.

Kabimba, however, urged the project administrators to be aware that sometimes people’s perceptions of an incident differed from what really happened and they tended to be alarmist.

The spokesperson for the ruling MMD, Dora Siliya, agreed.

“Zambians should continue to have faith in the Electoral Commission and trust them to do a competent job of delivering free and fair elections. Yes it is important to have such initiatives that allow citizens to monitor and report, but we also know that sometimes people do things out of malice and some of these reports may be motivated by this,” she said.

Media academic Dr. Elijah Mwewa Mutambanshiku Bwalya of the University of Zambia’s Department of Mass Communication said: “Ordinary voices have been missing from the public media, which have been monopolised by the ruling party. So this initiative is a great way of finally allowing citizens a voice in the electoral process.”

He added that he was concerned that those in rural areas would not be able to use Bantu Watch as many did not have mobile phones, let alone an internet connection.

The data compiled will become part of a report with recommendations for improving the electoral process.

By IPS Correspondents
ABIDJAN, Jul 15 2011 (IPS)

Government and civil society in Côte d’Ivoire are divided over the scope of the investigations to be undertaken by the International Criminal Court into atrocities and serious violations of human rights committed during the post- electoral crisis.

Temporary refuge in Duékoué: Civilians displaced by fighting in western Côte d'Ivoire in April 2011. Credit: Basile Zoma/UN Photo

“The present crisis didn’t begin with the 2010 presidential election; it has its roots in September 2002, the date of the failed coup attempt which evolved into an armed rebellion,” René Legré Hokou told IPS.

According to Hokou, who is the interim president of the Abidjan-based Ivorian League for Human Rights, it is essential that those responsible for serious crimes committed since 2002 to be identified, put on trial, and punished.

“If we limit the scope of the inquiry,” he said, “we abandon all those who died during this period.”

He believes that after long years of crisis, the country cannot move towards true and lasting reconciliation if it adopts a limited and selected vision of the suffering the population has lived through.

Patrick N’gouan, president of the Convention de la société civile ivoirienne, a grouping of non- governmental organisations, agrees that the ICC must contribute to reconciliation in Côte d’Ivoire. “It must avoid justice that is oriented towards [just] one side. If not, it’s a situation that will create the seeds of another crisis like that of 2002.”

But the Ivorian government doesn’t share these views.

“I don’t thing that today we are going to have trials for incidents dating back several years. We need to concentrate on recent events and those which are still current,” said Bruno Koné, government spokesperson.

“If one wants to go back into the past to assign responsibility, then one has to go back to the very first events. And that is a difficult commitment to make,” he added.

However Koné clarified that people who had suffered violent crimes or loss of property could make use of the country’s domestic justice system. “As long as the statute of limitations has not lapsed, the national justice system can address them. So previous incidents will be properly looked into.”

Abidjan lawyer Abraham Gadji finds this inconsistent. “This means that international law will be authorised to pursue people for crimes commited in the course of the recent crisis. And for the incidents occurring nearly a decade ago, one will have recourse to the national courts. This has the appearance of a restrictive and unfair justice.”

He believes that ensuring justice for all crimes committed between 2002 to 2010 requires choosing either the ICC or Côte d’Ivoire’s own courts to try them all. “These are crimes against humanity and those responsible must be identified. Some elements are already in place for these cases,”he told IPS.

Gadji mentioned, among others, massacres in the villages of Guitrozon and Petit Duékoué in 2005; the killing of as many as 150 people during an opposition march in March 2004; the unresolved murders of the former president Robert Guéï and Interior Minister Boga Doudou – both killed during the failed coup in 2002 – as well as massacres – and the 57 bodies found in a mass grave in Yopougon (north-east of Abidjan) in 2000.

“We have find the right time and take up our responsbilities. The ICC doesn’t control us and we can create our own tribunal and impose our wishes on it,” said Louis André Dacoury-Tabley, former minister and a member of the former rebellion, on the United Nations radio station on Jul. 10.

But at least one group representing victims of violence linked to the failed coup in 2002 rejects the idea of a national tribunal.

“In recommending that the ICC investigation covers only the period from November 2010 to now, there is an intent to deliver only a partial justice,” said Kalilou Kamara, a member of the Collective of Victims of September 19, 2002, based in Abidjan.

Excerpt:

From across the border, they anxiously watch the drama unfold. As their home land of South Sudan prepares itself to split from the Islamic north, fighting continues across the disputed oil-rich areas. During the decades of civil war, almost 400,000 refugees dreamt of the day independence would come. But now it is finally there, many are not ready to go home.

Brothers James and Peter Mabior lost each other during the war, reunited in Nairobi and went back to South Sudan together to vote for independence. Credit: Danielle Batist/SNS

Jacob Meltong was a teenager when he entered Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwest Kenya in 2005. The journey from Aweil in the South Sudanese state of Northern Bahr el Ghazal was long and dangerous.

Although the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between North and South Sudan had been signed just months earlier, tensions were still high and many of the roads were scattered with landmines. After days on the road, Jacob had arrived in a foreign country where his parents hoped he would escape the aftermath of the war and get an education. He was hungry, tired, and alone.

He joined almost 50,000 other refugees, many of whom had fled the brutal South Sudanese civil war over the years. Since its establishment in 1992, the camp has expanded to serve refugees from other neighbouring countries like Somalia and Ethiopia.

Although the Meltong family had suffered during the war, fleeing abroad for them was not an option. Only after the signing of the CPA did Jacob’s father consider it safe enough for his son to make the journey south. The parents stayed behind to look after the younger children and elderly relatives.

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM)’s 2011 report ‘Migration in Sudan’ between 1.2 and 1.7 million Sudanese fled abroad during the decades of war. Despite the large number of returns following the signing of the peace agreement, 390,000 Sudanese refugees are still living in camps or urban settings in neighbouring countries, in particular Egypt, Chad, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Life in the camp was tough for Jacob. He struggled for a year -without any opportunities for schooling or work- before he decided to make the jump and try his luck in Nairobi. He managed to trace down an uncle, who let him stay and helped him to scrape together some money for school fees. Like many South Sudanese, Jacob only started his education as an adult. He is currently in fourth form and is awaiting the results of his final exams.

Together with over 15,000 fellow South Sudanese in Kenya, Jacob made his way to the official Out of Country Voting Centre in January. Crossing the box for separation on the ballot paper was a moment he will never forget. “All these years we have been waiting for this. My family back home and everybody here is waiting for the 9th of July, it is all that is on our minds.”

Lost

For James Mabior, 24, Kenya was a safe haven during the last leg of the civil war that ruined his childhood. When fighting became too intense, the family split up and went different ways for safety. James fled across the border to Kakuma. He had told his younger brother Peter to try and flee to the camp as well, but he did not arrive.

James had no way of contacting his brother and thought he might not have survived. Worried, he travelled to Nairobi, where a large community of South Sudanese from his home town had settled in the slums. No one had seen his brother and James received no news in the months following his arrival.

That is – until last year, when a new arrival from Kakuma bumped into James on the street. “He said to me: ‘Hey, are you James? Your brother is looking for you, he is in Kakuma.’ I could not believe it. I didn’t think I would see him again.” Weeks later, the brothers were reunited in Nairobi. They managed to get through to their mother on the phone. She was so overwhelmed that she could not speak.

In early January, James and Peter packed their few belongings and made the journey back home. Peter was amazed at what he saw. When he left South Sudan as a child, the war dominated everything. “There was no tarmac, no food, no buildings. Now, we could see people building. The referendum was very well organised, everything seemed so stable and peaceful. It was amazing to see that together with my brother.”

After meeting their family, James and Peter made their way to the polling station to vote. James’ eyes light up when he recalls the moment: “It was the best day in my life. Next to my people, I felt very strong. We all want independence. We said it to each other as we stood in line: our children will not suffer like we did.”

However hopeful they felt the day they voted, the Mabior brothers soon realised their chances in Kenya are better than in South Sudan. James is currently enrolled in college and Peter is finishing form 3. Their parents have urged them to stay in Kenya until they get their qualifications. It broke Peter’s heart to leave his country for the second time, but deep down he knew his family was right.

“My plan is to get teaching qualifications here and then go back. I want to help to build South Sudan. I know some people don’t want to leave their new lives, but I think that is wrong. All of us who left, whether they are in the U.S., Uganda or Kenya, should come back. Our country needs us.”

Violence

The anxiety to return felt by many exiled South Sudanese is not helped by the recent violence in the country. The peaceful referendum leading up to independence was no predictor for the conflict that has started again in the past weeks.

According to the United Nations, more than 360,000 people have been displaced in Sudan over the past six months, and more than half were displaced in the past month alone. The heaviest fighting has been concentrated in the three oil-rich border areas that have been disputed ever since the signing of the north/south peace agreement in 2005: Abyei, Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan.

Across the border states, the northern government has deployed its SAF armed forces. Abyei was a key battleground during the civil war and both sides see it as a symbolic emblem. Most of its citizens want to be part of the south, but they were excluded from voting in the January referendum.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir recently threatened to block a pipeline that exports oil from the south to the harbour in the north. The soon to-be autonomous south relies on oil for 99 per cent of its revenues but is dependent on a pipeline in the north for export.

Khartoum demands that the south continues to share revenues or pays a transit fee on every barrel they export. South Sudan currently splits oil revenues equally with the north – despite producing 80 per cent of output. Abyei is the source of 75 per cent of the country’s 500,000 barrels a day oil production.

Aid workers in Southern Kordofan in the meantime report ethnically targeted attacks, which are largely directed at the African peoples of the Nuba Mountains. Eyewitnesses from local churches and charity groups report intensifying violence and warn of a “new Darfur,” when more than 200,000 people in western Sudan were systematically killed by Khartoum’s forces and at least two million made homeless. As many as 75,000 people have fled the fighting in Southern Kordofan. The U.N. reports that “the security situation continues to deteriorate”.

The violence broke out in early June when the government started to disarm rebels. Although the province will remain part of the north, it is home to many pro-south communities, especially in the Nuba Mountains, some of whom fought with SPLA rebels during the war.

Now they find themselves on the wrong side of the border from former comrades, and have resisted surrendering weapons to the northern forces they see as hostile. Khartoum has said it will not tolerate the existence of two armies within its borders. Nuba activists emphasise this is not a north-south conflict but a battle to protect basic rights and their way of life.

Khartoum banks on the fact that the south is reluctant to challenge the north’s mightier army and risk a war that could threaten independence. This strategy has angered the international community, who are soon to decide on the north’s 38 billion dollars in debt relief.

U.N. peacekeepers in Sudan have been criticised for a lack of response to the recent violence. International aid organisations struggle to get access to the conflict zones. US President Barack Obama urged an immediate ceasefire, but so far, the fighting continues across the border areas.

Back in Nairobi, Jacob Meltong believes that independence will eventually bring longed-for change and development to the country. At the same time he acknowledges there is an enormous job to be done. “People want no more war. What we need are opportunities for work and for schooling.”

He well knows that these opportunities currently are far greater in Kenya and Uganda, where some of his siblings have been stranded, than back in South Sudan. Depending on funding possibilities, he says he might try to get into a college in Nairobi. But -like the Mabior brothers- he says South Sudan will be his end station either way: “I will go back. Home is home.”

* Published under an agreement with Street News Service.

A new constitution, voters’ roll and electoral law, among other things, have to be in place before elections in Zimbabwe can be held but observers doubt if this can be implemented.

The special Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit held from Jun. 10 to 12 in Johannesburg concluded that an agreement signed by the country’s three political parties, which agreed to a number of democratic measures among them the drafting of a new constitution for the country, democratising laws and reconstituting the country’s electoral body needed to be implemented. So far only the electoral body partially set up.

The Global Political Agreement (GPA) was signed by the country’s three political parties, Zanu PF, the Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T), and the Movement for Democratic Change- Mutambara (MDC-M) in 2008. President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF has refused to implement some of the GPA reforms until sanctions imposed on its officials by European and western countries are lifted.

But SADC insists that these reforms need to be implemented by August and that there should be “a conducive environment to holding of elections that will be free and fair under conditions of a level political field.”

The SADC summit comes on the back of serious moves by Mugabe to push for early elections despite objections from his political partners in the coalition government. Many feel that if Mugabe succeeds and holds early elections they will be held in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

Civic groups are also opposed to a hasty election and want it deferred until all the necessary political reforms are fulfilled. Even South African mediators have publicly stated that it will be impossible to hold elections this year.

But some observers have questioned whether SADC has the willpower to decisively deal with the long- drawn political crisis in Zimbabwe.

“SADC has persistently been reluctant to resolve the critical issues resulting from Mugabe and Zanu PF’s reluctance to share power equally with the MDC and there is nothing on the ground to indicate that this will change,” University of Zimbabwe political analyst John Makumbe told IPS.

A report released in April by Zimbabwe’s conflict mechanism body, the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) accuses all the country’s political parties of having a hand in inter- party violence incidents in the country.

The regional appointed facilitator, South African President Jacob Zuma, expressed concern on the continuing violence in Zimbabwe. In his report to the SADC Organ Troika meeting held in Livingstone, Zambia in March, he warned that if not dealt with, the continuing violence had the potential to plunge the region into a crisis similar to the political uprisings in North Africa and the Arab world.

However, SADC, in a significant move proposed to follow through its directives with the appointment of its own representatives to monitor violence in Zimbabwe. The three representatives will work closely with the JOMIC.

The JOMIC functions have been heavily affected by lack of funds but will now receive financial support from SADC. This will allow it to carry out independent investigations into reports of violence in the country as opposed to receiving reports from political parties.

Reacting to the outcome of the summit, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC), a Zimbabwe pressure group working to promote democracy, told IPS that while it welcomes the summit decisions it remains doubtful whether they will be implemented.

“While they have said the right things, the challenge remains that of implementation. The communiqué did not address time-lines in concrete terms. It did not address measures to be taken by SADC in the event of non-compliance,” Dewa Mavhinga CiZC regional coordinator said.

“The team to work with JOMIC is a significant development, depending on their specific terms of reference. We would have wanted a clear indication that progress should be reviewed at the August Summit in Angola. From this communiqué it is inconceivable that elections will be held in 2011.”

Amnesty International Zimbabwe researcher, Simeon Mawanza said SADC must ensure that the agreed reforms are allowed time to take root.

“To hold an election 2011, as Zanu PF is arguing, will be intimidating (to) people. We need to allow the reforms that will be agreed on in the roadmap to take effect to cool down tensions in the country and to assure the people, particularly those in the rural areas, that they will not be exposed to the high levels of violence that they were exposed to in 2008,” said Mawanza.

By IPS Correspondents
ABIDJAN, Jun 9 2011 (IPS)

In a shelter covered by a tattered blue tarpaulin, Ibrahim Traoré sits beside his militia commander to hear complaints from residents of the Abidjan neighbourhood of Abobo-Avocatier.

“We get between 10 and 15 complaints a day,” Traoré told IPS, “from people who have been attacked in their homes or in the street by armed men. The problem is that wearing combat fatigues and carrying a weapon has become commonplace, so it’s difficult to distinguish between a thug and one of our own. So we are accused every time there is an incident.”

Traoré is a member of the Republican Forces – a coalition of armed groups known by its French acronym, FRCI – which backed Alassane Ouattara in his struggle for power against former president Laurent Gbagbo following disputed elections in November 2010. The FRCI swept south through the country in late March and April to seize Abidjan, the economic capital; since then, elements of the FRCI have been visible patrolling many neighbourhoods.

At the end of May, Joseph Akichi, a retired teacher in Abobo, was visited twice by armed men in uniform. “The first time, they took my savings of 300,000 francs CFA (around 600 dollars). The second time, they took everything, even the furniture,” he told IPS.

“With the police station being closed, I came here each time to explain my problems, but I’ve got nothing to show for it,” said Akichi, still fearful at the prospect that his assailants will return.

In Marcory, in the southern part of the city, Fabrice Mensah, who runs a business selling auto parts, the victim of a hold-up on May 26, during which armed men took away three of his company’s vehicles. The uniformed bandits returned two days later, and this time made off with eight million FCFA – 40,000 dollars – intended to pay his 15 employees.

“I opened my shop again three weeks after the post-election crisis was resolved. There were encouraging signs, so I wasn’t expecting to suffer a blow like this so quickly,” Mensah said. Following his misfortune, the 35-year-old says, he and other businesses in the area have decided to close again, temporarily laying off their employees while they wait for an improvement in the security situation.

Traoré condemns the attacks. “There are many fighters who are still out of control,” he says, “and the climate of insecurity that they create could get worse if the process of bringing them into barracks and disarming them continues to lag.”

He told IPS that he and his fellow FRCI fighters are waiting to be integrated into the new army. “They’ll have to offer a payout to combatants before they’ll give up their weapons and military equipment.”

The Ivorian president, Alassane Ouattara, formed his first government – comprising 36 members – on Jun. 1. One of its principal tasks, he said, is to improve security in the country over the next few weeks and to restore confidence among business owners, which suffered greatly during the crisis. The Business Confederation of Côte d’Ivoire estimated losses to the private sector during the post-election crisis at around two billion dollars.

But nearly two months after Gbagbo’s surrender on Apr. 11, restoring security remains a challenge, even in the medium term, say observers.

“We have entered the most delicate phase after the crisis, because many indviduals – combatants as well as prisoners freed during the conflict – have light arms or heavy weapons and are using them against the population,” said Armand Obou Kessié, a former police officer, now an expert in security in private practice.

The country has still not returned to stability; in many cities, including Abidjan, police stations are still occupied by elements of the FRCI, he told IPS.

“Where the FRCI combatants have allowed the return of security agents to their offices, they refuse to allow them to go out into the field (alongside the millitia) on patrol. Yet, without training in security and maintaining public order, the fighters are not suited to this task and frequently commit abuses,” says Kessié.

But a combatant called Commandant Soum told IPS: “For the moment, the police and gendarmes have not completely returned to work; so we are doing it with our own forces. After the registration of combatants (in the new army), we will hand over to them…”

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Bomb blasts hit a military base in the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi on Sunday, killing ten and injuring more than a dozen just hours after the swearing in ceremony of President Goodluck Jonathan in the capital, Abuja. News reports also said three others died in a bombing in Zuba, just outside the capital.

Jonathan will not have needed a violent reminder of widening insecurity in Africa’s most populous country. More than 800 people died in post-election clashes across northern Nigeria in April. The new president has appointed a panel to investigate, but observers are sceptical it will accomplish much.

Kafanchan, a town in the northern state of Kaduna, where there was strong support for both Jonathan and his main rival, retired general Muhmmadu Buhari, was one of the worst affected by the post election violence.

“In Kafanchan and neighbouring towns, people don’t sleep well because every day they are conscious of the fact that somebody might slit their throat. This is not right,” Pastor Emmanuel Nuhu Kure, head of the Christian group, Throneroom Ministry, told IPS from his town 200 kms from the capital, Abuja.

Post-election violence

Buhari’s party, the Congress for Progressive Change, has filed a petition before the Court of Appeal Tribunal in the capital Abuja asking for the nullification of the presidential election results in 24 of Nigeria’s 36 states due to alleged electoral malpractice. The party says it has clear evidence that Jonathan did not win the election.

“There is no economic activity in Kafanchan now: houses were brought down, the market was burnt down and flattened. Most of the Christian houses are burnt, the whole economy was washed down, and they will need to restart from scratch.”

Speaking from the other side of the town’s religious divide, Alhaji Saleh Jema’a, secretary of the group Jama’a Indigenous Muslim Ummah, said it was Christians who went on the rampage. “Muslims were randomly attacked and massacred and their property vandalized,” he told a press conference.

Both sides accuse the police of failing to intervene quickly to end violence that included the use of high calibre weapons.

Kure, who has witnessed several rounds of violence between Christians and Muslims in the town he was born in, says the cause has remained the same through the years.

“Religion and politics are over mixed. The crisis is a reflection of religion and politics. On the one hand you hear the people saying they are fighting for religious leverage, on the other hand in the same voice they say they are fighting for political power, so you see the interplay there of religion and politics.”

Managing competing claims in this diverse country will be among President Jonathan’s biggest challenges over the next four years.

Nigeria is almost evenly split between a predominantly Christian south and a predominantly Muslim north, with both sides struggling for political power at the national level. The contest for control at the local level is equally fierce, in north central cities like Kafanchan and Jos, where there are large populations of both Christians and Muslims. All too often this rivalry ends up in sectarian clashes.

Deepening enmity

Kure lost two of his church members during the post-election violence in April. He says he has grown tired of praying for families that have lost loved ones. “Can my people trust the government to protect them or should they begin to prepare for the worst? And preparing for the worst means they need to begin to get their own arms, and fight back,” he said.

This same feeling is being expressed in other parts of the country – especially among southerners who are beginning to threaten reprisal attacks on northerners living in the south.

Restoring Nigerians’ confidence that they are free to live anywhere in the country without fearing for their lives, will be one of President Jonathan’s top priorities. The president has set up a panel to investigate the most recent violence, including identifying the source of the weapons used. The panel is also tasked with making recommendations on how to prevent future violence.

But some groups, like the Nigerian Coalition for the International Criminal Court, have described the government’s action as an exercise in futility. “Legally the panel does not have the power to compel people to come and testify, which means they have set it up to give the false impression that something is being done,” Chino Obiagwu chairman of the Coalition told IPS.

The panel is not the first one set up to investigate sectarian or political clashes. “It is the usual government response of giving the world the impression that we are doing something when they are not, it is a way of sweeping things under the carpet, especially when it is clear that the rioters were incited by prominent people,” said Obiagwu.

Many Nigerians believe that the government has failed to take action against those behind violence in the past because it was cautious about hurting the powerful people behind them. This, Obiagwu says, has only encouraged them to instigate more violence.

“Once conflict is not resolved and people punished, there is always a circle of violence,” he says. “We need to show seriousness in investigating these crimes otherwise it will continue because people know they can get away with it especially the political class.”

By Nebert Mulenga
MANSA, Zambia, May 27 2011 (IPS)

Mirriam Kauseni is on a quest to become her town’s first ever female parliamentarian. She has yet to be elected to run for the post by her party, the Patriotic Front (PF), but Kauseni has already been conducting door-to-door campaigns, telling people to vote for her in the country’s national elections.

Mirriam Kauseni has been conducting door-to-door campaigns, telling people to vote for her in the country's national elections. Credit: Nebert Mulenga/IPS

“I have never stopped going into the field from 2006 to-date. I have been to remote villages in Mansa Central. My name is a household name,” she says.

The PF is yet to announce its candidates for the forthcoming general election, but Kauseni has continued to campaign. When asked why she was campaigning before the party made its final decision on her candidature, she tells IPS: “I don’t know the chances but if they follow popularity of a candidate, then I think I stand a very good chance. I am working very hard, I am campaigning, I am on the ground to ensure the party adopts me, to ensure I win the election after I am adopted.”

This is Kauseni’s second attempt to run for parliament. She first put herself forward as a parliamentary candidate in Zambia’s 2006 general election. She was then a member of the ruling Movement for Multi- party Democracy (MMD).

But she says she was not elected to run by the MMD because she had no money to fund the campaigns. She adds that she also believes she was not elected because she was a woman. She has since defected to the PF, the country’s main opposition, which enjoys massive support in northern Zambia. The PF is not funding her campaigns either, but her husband now financially supports her campaigning. Kauseni does not say why her husband did not support her campaigning when she was with the MMD but says his support has enabled her to reach the outmost parts of the constituency. But, Kauseni says, she cannot always rely on her husband’s support. “But sometimes even my husband tells me … ‘I have given you enough money so, this time look for some money on your own.’ He gets tired and it’s normal, because I am always asking for money. So that’s my biggest challenge. Besides that, I don’t get anything elsewhere. The political party also doesn’t give me anything, not yet,”

Kauseni’s main campaign issues hinge on opening up agricultural-based factories and markets for farming produce, as well as improving the road network in the rural parts of the constituency.

Kauseni is not alone in her quest. The Zambia National Women’s Lobby Group (ZNWLG), a gender-based non-governmental organisation promoting the participation of more women in governance, is fully behind her.

Since early 2011, the ZNWLG has been empowering prospective women politicians with skills in public speaking, self-confidence, self-esteem, and usage of persuasive language when articulating issues, among others. Women ‘politicians’ are also learning about public office etiquette, the functioning of the arms of government, and leadership in general.

Kauseni is one of 198 women trained under the programme so far. “The (ZNWLG) training was about encouraging us not to give in to men, not to accept any type of intimidation, to be confident, to be visionary and to be courageous. There’s going to be a bit of change like in the approach. They taught us how to best approach the people,” Kauseni tells IPS.

The women being trained were floated by their political parties as prospective candidates for parliamentary and local government seats, says Beauty Phiri, chair of the ZNWLG.

Zambia has one of the worst records in the region in terms of women participation in politics. Out of the current 150 MPs, only 22 are women; with a further 91 women occupying local government seats out of the over 3,000 councillors countrywide.

The ZNWLG is concerned and says the record is embarrassing for Southern Africa’s oldest democracy.

“Our biggest worry is that men are still the final decision makers in this. A woman would have laid the ground, done everything in that constituency, but when it comes to adoption, it is the men who have to make the final decision,” Phiri comments.

“They will tell her, ‘yes you have done everything but we feel financially you cannot manage, so you are going to be the campaign manager for this gentleman who has a financial muscle’.”

But the response to the ZNWLG training programme is providing a window of hope for better things to come. Phiri explains: “The response is overwhelming. In southern province, for example, we had a programme to train about 35 women but 45 turned up and instead of sending them away, we had to train them all.”

Meanwhile, Kauseni believes in herself and has just relinquished her position as PF vice-treasurer for Mansa District, which she has held since 2008, to concentrate fully on her campaign as a prospective parliamentary candidate for Mansa Central Constituency.

“I am going to do it, with or without the money. I talk to people; I tell them what I stand for. With or without the money, I am going to talk to the people because I don’t intend to buy them. I intend to talk to them.”

Excerpt:

At independence in 1980, Loyce Tshuma (55), a villager in rural Tsholotsho in Matebeleland North, was a loyal believer in politics as a powerful vehicle to change and better lives. Since then she never missed an opportunity to cast her vote.

But now, with the upcoming national elections, Tshuma has lost all trust in the process. “So much has changed about what I used to believe in about politics,” Tshuma says.

“There has not been any commitment to better our lives and some now think things could be better if we had promoted our own women to lead us,” she said expressing a common frustration that emerged during IPS interviews with some rural women.

As the country heads for national elections that President Robert Mugabe insists must be held in 2011, the general feeling among rural women who spoke to IPS is that there has not been much improvement of their lives since independence.

Early in 2011, an audit by the Zimbabwe Election Network (ZESN) found that very few women (48 percent) were registered by 2010 to vote in 2011 as many – alongside youths – had lost interest in participating in national elections.

There also remains a palpable absence of female political leaders in rural parts of the country. Activists say there are no signs that women will challenge positions and seats currently held by their male counterparts despite commitments by political parties to ensure gender parity within their structures

While political parties have made commitments to elect women to positions of influence in line with SADC protocols and other multilateral policy frameworks that seek gender parity in parliament and government, the coming elections offer a test for those commitments.

The main political parties themselves are struggling to meet gender parity commitments they set for themselves as seen by the recent Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) congress. Here top posts were dominated by men. Out of thirteen senior posts, only one was won by a female, Thokozani Khuphe, who was re-elected party deputy president.

Gender activists say the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) (ZANU-PF), the former ruling party that now forms part of the government of national unity, has also not faired well in gender equity. There are only seven female cabinet ministers in Zimbabwe.

“Women are still not taken seriously even by male politicians themselves,” said Tabitha Khumalo, a senior MDC official.

“We still need to change attitudes among ourselves before we take on men in elections and only then will other women whom we want to vote for us take us seriously,” she said.

The Women in Politics Support Unit (WiPSU) says statistics about women’s representation in parliament “reached nine percent at its lowest and 22 percent in 2009 at its highest – a far cry from the 30 percent minimum set by the 1997 SADC Declaration on Gender and Development and even further from the achievement of the 50 percent benchmark set by the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development and the Millennium Development Goal three.”

It has become an accepted feature of local politics for women to don party regalia bearing the image of the party president, and that is where their active participation ends as reflected in the numbers that are voted into office.

“Rural women are easy to forget for politicians as soon as the election is over as they have all forms of communicating with the world blocked because of being in rural areas,” says Josephine Ngulube, a Bulawayo gender activist.

“If the politician cannot go to them, they too cannot go to him. The disenchantment with the electoral processes is understandable because it can be proven that they remain the poorest in the country affected by years of economic hardships,” said Ngulube.

However, it is the disgruntlement of rural women such as Tshuma that could be telling about the state of women’s participation with voting and leadership.

Mugabe’s ZANU-PF has announced it will be targeting the registration of women ahead of the coming polls as the party claims its support is in the rural areas.

Rural women have traditionally been looked upon as a huge constituency for political parties who have nevertheless continued to field men for parliamentary and senatorial seats. But changing attitudes and perceptions about voting itself by rural women, at least according to IPS interviews and the ZESN report, could mean the drive for gender parity in government and parliament could have a setback.

“We have seen in the past that women would generally not support another woman, but women are beginning to be politically literate and are voicing that they would rather vote for one of them based on the kind of leadership they have received from men,” said Samukeliso Mthunzi, a Zimbabwean gender relations researcher based in South Africa.

“Attitudes must change if women are to assert themselves in the market place of political ideas, otherwise we will see women voters simply boycott polls without any long-term solutions to why they stayed away in the first place,” Mthunzi said.

According to agencies such as the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development, rural women in sub-Sahara Africa are some of the poorest in the world as they survive as smallholder farmers. It is this lamented poverty that persists despite their being able to vote for change that could see them shying away from the polls, Mthunzi believes.

By IPS Correspondents
JOHANNESBURG, May 24 2011 (IPS)

Political parties should be forced, through changes in legislation, to bring more women into government.

Only 17.25 percent of councillors who made it onto South African municipalities are women. Credit: Tinus de Jager

Janine Hicks from the CGE says the number of female councillors that made it onto South African municipalities is very disappointing.

She says it is clear that more needs to be done to ensure equal representation for women at all levels of government in the future.

“This is in clear conflict of the legislation that guides municipal elections. The legislation calls for 50 percent representation of women on the councils, but it says political parties must ‘endeavour to get there’. Clearly this is not working.”

Hicks says there are two methods available to address the inequality of women in government. Firstly, through legislation and secondly gender groups, activists and other non-governmental organisations must engage with political parties to convince them to push up their numbers.

The low female representation in local government is despite the fact that a majority of voters polled by IPS said they were voting for female candidates, no matter which party they stood for.

In Auckland Park, a suburb of Johannesburg, nine out of eleven voters canvassed on election day said they were voting for the women candidate, not matter which party they stood for.

“Women are more trustworthy,” said 81-year-old Kathleen*. “They are not in politics for the money, they are here to make a change.”

Others questioned were not as vocal, but most of them also supported the female candidate.

After the votes were counted, however, women are falling way short of targets. More than half of the South African population are women but only 37 percent of the candidates in this year’s election were women. Even more dismal were the election results as less than one in five councillors elected are women.

But some political parties say that although they were involved in ensuring that they had women on their ballot sheets, they do not believe in the quota system.

Dr. Pieter Mulder, party leader of Freedom Front Plus, said his party was actively recruiting women before Wednesday’s election.

“In the Free State, for example,” Mulder said, “some 38 percent of our candidates are women. They were mostly young women as well. But they came to the floor on merit … the people nominated them and I think that is good. “I don’t think to nominate women as representatives, based on a quota system, is good for women.”

Mulder did not want to commit himself to equal representation for women candidates in the South African government, “as this practice is artificial and bad for the image of women.”

On the day before the election, the outgoing chief electoral officer, Pansy Tlakula, expressed her concern about the skewed gender representation in South Africa and said if the situation does not improve, the country may have to legislate to address the issue.

Mulder disagreed, and so did the leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), Helen Zille.

“We don’t believe in quotas,” Zille said, “we believe in fitness for the purpose. The DA has a female party leader, the party with which we are in a merger, currently, has a women leader (the Independent Democrats). The national spokesperson (of the DA) is a woman and we are all there because we can do the job.”

Lisa Vetten, of the Tswaranang Legal Advocacy Centre, said South African women need to be more involved in the daily running of government, on a local, provincial and National level. And that will only happen if their numbers in government are closer to the percentage women make up of the South African population.

“… Sometimes you need to do different things … even if they are not the most popular … to ensure equality, fairness and justice,” Vetten said.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) saw a drop in overall support, with 61 percent of the vote from 64 percent in 2006. The ANC still controls the majority of local councils in South Africa, followed in a distant second by the DA, which received 24 percent of the total votes cast. Almost one in five South Africans voted in the May 18 election, compared to less than one in five in 2006.

*Not her real name.

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