Fyi.

Elizabeth Bell, MPH
STOP Activity Unit
Polio Eradication Branch
Global Immunization Division
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention



-----Original Message-----
From: Gerzoff, Bob
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2003 12:29 PM
Subject: AARPCV: Jane Magazine article


Here is an article that is running in next month's Jane Magazine about
safety and security in Peace Corps.  You may be interested in writing a
letter to the editor at Jane Magazine concerning your reaction to this
article.

Thanks,
Victoria Sturdivant, Regional Recruiter
Atlanta Regional Peace Corps Office
100 Alabama Street, Bldg. 1924, Suite 2R70
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
(800) 424-8580, option 1, ext. 23470
Direct Line (404) 562-3470
Fax (404) 562-3455
Returned Volunteer - Ghana '97-'99
www.peacecorps.gov



>  -----Original Message-----
> From:  Murphy, Carla
> Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2003 11:39 AM
> To: VRS/OPS/R/ATL
> Subject: Jane Magazine article
>
> Hello all,
>
> Please read article below. Just FYI.
>
> carla
>
>
>
> The Peace Corps never warned me what I was really in for." Claudine Ko
> explores why women bail out of the program.  Hint: It may have
> something to do with assault, forced medication, and parasites.
>
> Jane Magazine *  November 2003
>
> "Before I left for the Peace Corps, I was enamored with my own
> benevolence," laughs Katy Backes, 25, who spent most of her life in
> northern Minnesota and North Dakota.  "I thought I was really great
> for going."  Three months into her assignment as a Peace Corps
> Volunteer (PCV) in Mozambique in 1999, reality set in.  "Local men
> used to yell in Portuguese, 'White pussy, white pussy!'" she says.
> "The locals had a hard time understanding what a young foreign woman
> would be doing living alone. They know I got money somehow and they
> started to think that I was a prostitute.  A lot of men on their way
> back from the bars would stop outside my house and holler, 'We know
> you want to come and party with us!'
>
> "There was actually quite a bit of threatening of PCVs, but we weren't
> made aware of that before we left," Katy says.  "A volunteer who's
> been living on my site had been robbed twice.  The Peace Corps said it
> wasn't a problem - that a guard was going to start walking past my
> house.  But the guard didn't show up."  The harassment got so bad that
> Katy said she began calling her program's head office - located a 10
> hour bus ride away.  "I didn't feel like the Peace Corps believed me,"
> she says.  "They said, 'Everyone has problems at their site at first.'
> They thought maybe I was overreacting and suggested I see a
> psychologist."
>
> Then eight months into her service, a local man showed up at Katy's
> classroom while she was teaching.  "I told him he needed to go the
> administration building," she says.  "That's when he pushed me very
> violently and started to hit me and rip my clothes, saying things
> about what I do at night, like, 'We know how you get your money.'  I
> pushed him off and started yelling, 'Get out of here!  Get out!' and
> then he went away.  The kids looked ready to fall apart, so I
> straightened my clothes, swallowed my tears, and kept teaching."
>
> Afterward, the Peace Corps gave Katy the option of leaving through
> "interrupted service" or choosing another country to serve in.  "I
> didn't feel the problem was Mozambique," says Katy, who was part of
> only the second PCV group to enter the country post-civil war.  "It
> was with the Peace Corps making a safe living environment, and they
> weren't actively changing my situation."  Cassandra Champion, the
> organization's press person, says that while they are not familiar
> with that happened in Katy's case, a community will occasionally
> increase its own guard or police patrols when necessary and when
> asked.  Ultimately, Katy decided to leave her 27-month program early,
> joining the nearly one-third of her fellow 6,678 volunteers worldwide
> who drop out.
>
> It's another blistering hot afternoon in Tabanco, a shantytown of
> about 400 people in northern Peru's Sechura desert.  Heather
> Frankland, a soft-spoken, blue-eyed 24-year-old, walks along a stretch
> of the Pan-American Highway dressed in a blue cardigan and matching
> tank top over loose woven pants and sandals.  She is part of Peru One,
> a group of 26 PCVs (19 are female) who are the first here since Peru's
> military government axed the program in 1975 during and anti-U.S.
> backlash.  Her job, technically, is to teach Tabanco's residents about
> health, like the importance of hand-washing and boiling water.  Her
> secondary project is teaching English to the local children a few day
> as week.
>
> Heather also spends much of her time going up and down the highway,
> stopping to socialize in people's homes.  Eighteen-wheelers and buses
> roar past while passersby shout warm greetings to her, wave or honk
> their horns.  Everybody in town knows who she is.
>
> "Being the first group, we're more here to establish and meet people,"
> she explains, noting that because Heather is difficult for many of the
> Peruvians to pronounce, she goes by Flor.  "It's better that gringa,"
> she says, smirking.
>
> "I wanted to do something to help somebody," adds Heather, an
> incredibly earnest Indiana native who majored in English at Knox
> College, a small liberal arts school.  "Just the fact that you are
> here in a community that has been neglected to some extent, you are
> doing something."  Donkeys loiter around her quiet neighborhood, which
> is framed by sand dunes. Turkeys gobble.
>
> "The first three months are really hard,' Heather says.  "The Peace
> Corps tells you that.  You have to speak Spanish all the time, and
> it's hard to see why we're here.  Some days, you get homesick and just
> have to go to the city and get a Coke."  Problem is, the closest
> groceries, Internet access, and Cokes are in Piura, a 90-minute bus
> ride away.
>
> Many PCVs -61 percent of who are female- live on their own, but Peru's
> head office in Lima decided to have its volunteers stay with families
> for safety reasons and when it come to the women, also for
> "respectability". Heather lives with the Sandovals in their cozy
> mud-and-reed walled home. It has a tin roof and sand floors, plus no
> running water of electricity. It is one of the few houses with a solar
> panel, which powers a couple of fluorescent tubes, and every once in a
> while, a TV.  She even keeps two pet cats in her sparsely decorated
> room, which is safeguarded by a wrought-iron gate and bars over the
> window.  Her Peace Corps-issued cell phone beeps in the corners,
> signaling low battery power.  The phones are a new effort to improve
> PCV safety.  Unfortunately Heather says hers only works in Piura.  If
> she needs help fast, like the time she passed out from a migraine,
> it's a 20-minute bike ride to the nearest working phone.
>
> "The people here look after you," Heather says.  "And we're a small
> group, so we have good contacts with our director, assistant director
> and nurse. The local men are macho, but I've never felt threatened.
> Still, I try to be careful."
>
> The Peace Corps stresses that volunteer safety is the "No. 1
> priority." However, Suerie Moon, 29, was a PCV in rural South Africa
> in 1999, where she was supposed to train teachers at the local school.
> She lived with the principal's family, and one night shortly after she
> arrived, a man tried to get into her bedroom.  "The window was broken,
> so he could stick his arm through and open it," she recalls.  "He had
> taken my bra, which was sitting on a chair near the window.  Then I
> saw his head coming into the room and I freaked out and he went
> running off."  She says that at first, her host family didn't believe
> her.  "They said, 'You're having nightmares.'"  Then the principals
> saw the man's footprints in the yard.
>
> Since the Peace Corps s founding in 1961, 250 people have died during
> service- 40 fatal illnesses, 20 murders, 171 accidents, 15 suicides
> and four of undetermined causes.  The most recent death was a
> 23-year-old man who hanged himself in Mali in July.  From 1993 to
> 2002, there were 787 aggravated assaults and 134 rapes.  Sueire says
> the risks she might encounter were never explained in her
> pre-departure information packet: "The staff knew that crime and rape
> were serious issues in South Africa, but I was totally not expecting
> it."  (Cassandra says that this info is available to volunteers who
> ask, and safety issues are usually discussed once the volunteers reach
> their assigned country.)  Suerie adds that female PCVs were harassed
> as soon as they arrived.  But when she asked to be assigned to a
> village with a male PCV, she says, the Peace Corps wouldn't consider
> it.  "They didn't find daily harassment to be a sufficient reason to
> change their plans.  It was a steady stream of drop-outs - I was one
> of them."
>
> "One girl got a big dog she took everywhere," Suerie remembers.  "It
> was a decision she made in order to stay and feel safe.  But there's a
> real trade-off - the apartheid government used dogs to attack and
> terrorize. You're trying to do community work, not stand out as some
> version of old apartheid police forces."
>
> "If you leave, it's a sign of weakness that you can't handle pit
> latrines, insufficient sanitation, or not having a lot of money,"
> continues Suerie, who now works for Doctors Without Borders.  "I think
> it pushes people to stay longer than they want to or should.  Here was
> this girl who literally fought off a local teacher who had a knife and
> was intent on raping her. She stayed."  Suerie doesn't think that the
> Peace Corps is an evil institution, but wonders if they bring up
> safety concerns with their local counterparts.  "It's embarrassing to
> say, "Our female volunteers are afraid of being raped by your
> nationals,'" she says.
>
> "If the volunteer feels unsafe for any reason," Cassandra says, "the
> staff immediately work to resolve the situation, including moving the
> volunteer."   Cassandra doesn't know the specifics of Suerie's
> circumstances, but notes, "Another volunteer close by does not
> necessarily create greater safety."
>
> "My Stomach Always Hurts"
> Heather's host mom, Josefa, cooks the family meals over an open-flame
> stove constructed out of large, uneven bricks.  Her kitchen looks like
> a diorama from a natural history museum exhibit on primitive living.
> Today's lunch is fried white rice with peas, steamed chicken and
> lemon-colored Kola Real.  Behind Heather, an empty white casket,
> donated to the community for future use, is slowly being eaten by
> termites as it rests against the wall.  A battery-operated radio plays
> cumbia, the popular local dance music.
>
> When Josefa collects the dishes, Heather's meal is only half-eaten,
> which is part of the reason she's lost weight since arriving in Peru.
> "People in my community tell me that I'm thinner because of love (she
> has a phoneless Peruvian boyfriend back in Piura).  I say, 'No.  It's
> the parasites.'"
>
> Posted on Heather's bedroom wall is a list she's made of problems and
> solutions.  Grievance No, 10 is, "My stomach always hurts."  Her fix?
> "Cook for yourself."
>
> "You go to people's houses and want to gain their trust, so you eat
> what they give you," explain Heather.  "I'm willing to eat anything to
> gain their confidence."  The result is that she has had parasite four
> times. "It's funny - we're health volunteers, and we've had so many
> problems with our health."
>
> While stomach issues are the biggest medical complaint, they're not
> the only ones.  "Lots of people get depressed," says Judy Gerring, 26,
> who in 2001 was stationed 33 hours from her PC headquarters in
> Kazakhstan and was depressed for six months.  "PCVs, feeling isolated
> and having trouble adjusting to a culture where drinking is a way of
> life, fell prey to alcohol abuse."
>
> The Peace Corps also requires PCVs to take antimalarial drugs.  Almost
> 80 percent of volunteers in Africa are in Lariam, even though its
> manufacturer warns that the drug's side effects can include psychotic
> episodes, paranoia, depression and suicidal thinking.  "Some PCVs
> said, 'I'd rather stop taking it than go crazy.'" Suerie remembers.
> But the official Peace Corps line is, 'If you've stopped, we're
> shipping you home.'"  The Peace Corps acknowledges Lariam's side
> effects and says it consults with volunteers to decide which
> antimalarial medication is appropriate.
>
> "I Don't Want to be a Political Pawn"
> At the top of Heather's problem/solution board is; "Not sure if I
> joined because I wanted to, or just to prove how good I actually am to
> peeps...I get bored, restless and unmotivated."  She says there are a
> "multitude of reasons" she signed up, "but sometimes it's hard to
> remember them."  It's a ten minute walk from Heather's house to the
> school where the community has asked her to teach English.  Standing
> in front of one of her classes, she tells the children, who seem to
> genuinely like her, that it's song time.
>
> "Trash, trash, trash," she sings as a few students join in.  "What do
> you do with it?  You throw it away!"
>
> Later, she says, "You wonder if learning English really helps them.
> Defining your role here is difficult, you come in with a big idea I of
> changing things, and you get frustrated."
>
> "Development money could be spent in better ways than sending out more
> inexperienced kids with few skills to offer," says Suerire who has a
> history degree from Yale. "I totally put myself in that group.  I was
> supposed to train teachers in South Africa to teach the new
> post-apartheid curriculum.  I was in a group of 39, and about 30 of us
> had no full-time teaching experience.  The whole proposition was
> ludicrous.  The Peace Corps could have thought a little harder about
> what's the best way of using volunteers and their skills and
> backgrounds."
>
> On the other hand, some volunteers - like Reena Shah, 27, a former PCV
> who wanted a "grassroots experience" involving her environmental
> studies major
> - get exactly what they want.  She was assigned to be a soil extension
> volunteer in her country of choice, Nepal.  Beth Blacklow, 23, who wanted
> to learn Spanish and become a teacher is currently happily teaching in
> Ecuador.
>
> During his last State of the Union address, President Bush called for
> Americans to "extend the compassion of our country to every part of
> the world" by doubling the number of Peace Corps volunteers to 14,000
> by 2007. But the House only approved a 6.5 percent funding increase.
>
> "If they double the size on the cheap, they might out support
> services." Suerie worries.  But the Peace Corps insists that while it
> is optimistic about successfully making the jump, it won't compromise
> volunteers security or the program's infrastructure to do it.
>
> "This feels like Bush compensating for cutting international funding
> in Africa, for cutting family planning, for fighting a war that
> doesn't need to be fought," says Jennifer Warren, 23, who questions
> her PCV time in oil-rich Jordan.  "Now Bush wants to shove more PCVs
> out there to be do-gooders just to prove ourselves?  I don't agree
> with using them a political pawns to make the U.S. look like a nice
> country."
>
> Lots of returned PCVs had intensely worthwhile experiences - many say
> they got more than they gave.  "There's not a whole lot you offer,
> except your youthful enthusiasm and Americanism," says Suerie.  But it
> would suck if the Bush Administration were exploiting these qualities
> and putting volunteers at risk for the sake of cheap PR.
>
> Back in Lima, the Peace Corps staff is welcoming Peru Two, a fresh
> batch of 23 female and 13 male PCVs, on their first weekend of a
> three-month training session.  They look like a Road Rules reunion as
> they climb into a minivan that takes them back to their cushy but
> temporary hotel.  As we make our way up the hill back to the resort,
> Lindsay, a pale, tongue-pierced 22-year-old from Virginia exclaims, "
> My first real llama I've ever seen!  Cool.  I expect to see a lot
> more."
>
>
>
>
>  <<Jane article.doc>>
>
>
> Carla Murphy
> Public Affairs Specialist
> Atlanta Regional Office
> 404.562-3472 (direct)
> 404.562-3455 (fax)
> (800) 424-8580
> cmurphy2@...
> www.peacecorps.gov
>

This article has been gnawing at me all day.  The facts seem ok, and the
opinions are often ones that I have held.  But the it raises a question:
what is the distinction between acceptable hardships and
unnacceptable risks?  These seem completed conflated in the article.

The reasoning process in the article is foreign to me.  One sentence says:
PC says volunteer safety is the "number one priority."  Immediately
afterward is the story of a PCV being attacked.  Is this supposed to be
a contradiction?  Does an attack on one PCV mean that volunteer safety is
not the "number one priority"?  What about 2 attacks?  How do you measure
whether volunteer safety is being adequately addressed?

I read the article through again and jotted down some questions that came
to mind as I read through it.  In most cases, I believe the article gives
a list of negative examples without giving much thought to these
questions.

1. Does PC give adequate information about safety, crime, and health
issues during the recruitment process?  Before people leave the US?
During in-country training?

2. What does PC do to ensure that volunteers are placed in situations that
are not too insecure?  How do they decided what "too insecure" is?  How
often do they slip and put people where they should not go?

3. To what extent do PCVs understand and accept the risks inherent in the
low level of emergency medical services available at many sites?

4. How successful is PC in responding to complaints about harassment or
security problems?  How often does it fail to address these concerns
adequately?

5. What kinds of risks increase for people when they become PCVS?  Fatal
illnesses?  Accidental Deaths?  Assaults?  Depression?  How informed and
aware are PCVs of their increased risks?  What level of risk is acceptable
for a PC program?

6. Does PC adequately address health and safety issues with host
communities?  How much could PC be expected to do?

7. What should a proper anti-malarial policy be?  Merely saying what we
all know, that mefloquine has risks, does not really get anywhere on that
issue.

8. How do we measure the effectiveness of PC as a "development"
organization?  Does the development component get too much emphasis
relative to the "building cultural bridges" component?  How do you measure
the value of all the PC missions and the level of success?

9. What is the role of PC in US foreign policy?  Is it changing?  Should
it?  Will it get the funding it need to support the health and safety of
PCVs as it expands?

10. How many volunteers do not offer a whole lot "except your youthful
enthusiasm and Americanism"? Do most offer more than that?  In the cases
where that is "all," is it enough?

I think the anecdotes in this article could have been very useful in a
piece that explored these questions more carefully.  As it is, I think
they were just out to scare people, which probably helps to sell
advertising.

-Eric

High Court Awards K48,000 to Nation Newspaper

Media Institute of Southern Africa (Windhoek)

October 8, 2003
Posted to the web October 8, 2003

The High Court of Malawi Has Awarded a Total of K48, 000 (approximately
Us$ 457) in Damages for "Assault And Trespass to Goods" to the Nation
Newspaper Senior Reporter Mc Donald Chapalapata Who Was Assaulted By the
Financial Controller of the National Food Reserve Agency Paul Chimenya
(nfra) in 2002.

Assistant Court Registrar Thomson Longweruled on September 9 2003, that
Chapalapata be compensated K28, 000 (approximately US$ 267) for
replacement of the cellular phone and Dictaphone that Chimenya destroyed
and K20, 000 (approximately US$ 190) for assault and battery. Lawyer for
Chapalapata Ian Malera entered a judgment in default after the defendant
failed to respond to the court's affidavit to appear in court.


Chapalapata lodged a complaint with the Malawi chapter of the Media
Institute of Southern Africa (MISA Malawi) - also known as the National
Media Institute of Southern Africa (Namisa) - last year after Chimenya
assaulted him. Misa Malawi/Namisa, through its Media Legal Aid Fund,
sued Chimenya on the reporter's behalf.

BACKGROUND

Mc Donald Chapalapata was assaulted on November 28 2002, during an
interview with Paul Chimenya. Chapalapata was investigating contracts
that had been awarded to persons within the NFRA. In the course of the
interview, he found that Chimenya had been awarded a contract without
going through the required tender process. When questioned by
Chapalapata the defendant (Chimenya) lost his temper, assaulted the
reporter and shattered his cellular phone and dictaphone.

*****

Supreme Court Judge Says Malawi Electoral Commission Independent

Malawi Standard (Blantyre)

October 7, 2003
Posted to the web October 7, 2003

Peter Banda
Blantyre

The Electoral Commission has said that it is an independent body, which
is well prepared and well-equiped to conduct next year's national
elections to the satisfaction of all political parties, stakeholders,
observers and the electorate.

Electoral Commission chairperson, Supreme Court of Appeal Judge James
Kalaile, said in an interview that preparations for next year's
elections are going on smoothly following the release of funds by the
government and the donor community.


He said that Malawians should have the trust in the Commission and
expect very free and fair elections.

Asked how the Commission can be independent when all its commissioners
are members of and appointed by political parties represented in
Parliament, Kalaile explained: "the commissioners come from both the
ruling and opposition parties and the number of those from the ruling
party is almost equal to that of the opposition, so there is no way,
they can favour a particular party."

He also said that to ensure maximum independence, transparency, and
accountability the commission only deals with policy matters while the
Secretariat under the guidance of the Chief Elections Officer is
responsible for the day to day operations of the electoral body.

Kalaile observed that experience has shown that in most African
countries people question the independence of the Commission just
because electoral bodies are funded by government. He, however, said
that the fact that an organisation is receiving funding from government
does not necessarily mean that it is not independent.

"As a Supreme Court of Appeal Judge, I am a member of the Judiciary.
The judiciary in this country is very independent and many people have
trust in our judiciary, yet it receives funding from government. As a
member of the judiciary, I make sure that the Electoral Commission is
very independent," said Kalaile.

He explained that he does not get instructions from anybody. "I have
never received any instruction from the Head of State nor any cabinet
ministers on any issue involving elections."

Commenting on what the Commission is doing at the moment in readiness
for the forthcoming elections, Kalaile explained that they are now
recruiting and training staff, while at the same time working with Non
Governmental Organisations and other bodies in civic education.

"The Commission will be better prepared to hold 2004 elections than it
was prepared for the 1999 general elections. We have received funding in
good time, we have experienced commissioners and we have observed
elections in more than four countries," said Kalaile.

Asked to comment on why the Commission is sitting idle when political
parties are busy campaigning for their candidates, yet it is not the
official campaign period, Kalaile said the Constitution of Malawi grants
them that opportunity.

"We cannot stop anyone from campaigning because Section of 40 of the
Constitution, which is the Supreme Law of the land allows people to
campaign for a political party or cause.

Section 40 of the Malawi Constitution reads: "Subject to this
Constitution, every person shall have the right to (a) form, to join, to
participate in the activities of, and to recruit members for, a
political party; (b) to campaign for a political party or cause; (c) to
participate in peaceful political activity intended to influence the
composition and policies of the Government; and (d) freely to make
political choices." He however pointed out that the official campaign
for the 2004 elections would be done two months prior to the elections.
Kalaile said it is during this period that the EC would ensure that the
playing field for all political parties is under the Commission's
control.

"At that time we will make sure that all parties have access to public
broadcasters," hinted Kalaile.

*****

Who Will Lead the Malawi Opposition Coalition?

Malawi Standarad

October 7, 2003
Posted to the web October 7, 2003

Dickson Kashoti
Blantyre

With only eight months to the May 2004 Presidential, Parliamentary and
Local Government elections, opposition parties in the country are still
struggling to form a common front because they are failing to identify a
suitable leader, the Malawi Standard has learnt.

Alliance for Democracy (Aford) Parliamentarian Manifesto Kayira cast
his doubt on the formation of a common front, saying most leaders in the
opposition were greedy.


"I have my doubts (on the opposition making a unified front). Very
strong doubts. There are individuals in the MCP (Malawi Congress Party)
who vehemently oppose any sort of alliance with any party. They are
power hungry," he said.

Kayira said in 1999, when his party wanted to go into an alliance with
the MCP, some individuals in Malawi's oldest political party vehemently
opposed the alliance.

"That is why in 1999, our leader, the Right Honourable Chakufwa Chihana
willingly allowed Honourable Gwanda Chakuamba to lead the alliance in
the election. You need certain leaders who can allow others to lead," he
said.

He doubted whether the same spirit of giving up positions could prevail
in the opposition alliance.

"Given the current quality of leadership in the opposition, it is very
doubtful that the same spirit would prevail. Every one in the opposition
leadership would want to be presidential candidate for the opposition
and that would kill the opposition," he said.

Nixon Khembo, a political scientist at Chancellor College said it is up
to the opposition to identify a leader for the opposition who would be a
presidential candidate.

"The ruling party has already identified its own and it is selling Dr
Bingu Mutharika and his running mate Dr Cassim Chilumpha to the
electorate. The opposition, if they are indeed forming a common front,
need to do the same," he said.

He said the electorate is anxious to know who would be the presidential
candidate in the opposition.

Steve Ching'ang'a, Deputy Publicity Secretary in the MCP admitted the
opposition parties were finding it difficult to identify a suitable
presidential candidate ahead of the 2004 elections. "If we had answers,
then we could not be holding these meetings. We are still meeting so
that we can have a leader who would be a presidential candidate," he
said.


But Ching'ang'a was optimistic that the opposition would make a common
front.

"No single opposition party in the country can win the elections alone.
We need to work together, we need to form a formidable force," he said.

The MCP deputy publicist acknowledged that church leaders were
encouraging the opposition to form one common front in order to oust the
United Democratic Front (UDF) in 2004.

He said the church leaders already met his party's leadership. "I have
all the confidence that the opposition will carry the day," he said.

Green Mwamondwe, spokesman for Mgode said the opposition would identify
a leader to lead the opposition front after consultations.

"We have no problem at all. We will identify our leader. One day we
will shock the people and the Government. We are definitely forming the
next government," he said.

He said the opposition is making consultations on the leadership of the
common front.

"We want to have someone who is very popular, a person who can turn
around the economic problems the country is facing," he said.

Salule Masangwi, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Director of
Information said discussions on who would lead the opposition were
underway but refused to give details, saying the information would help
the ruling party strategise their campaign.

*****

UDF Presidential Candidate Speaks Out

Malawi Standard (Blantyre)

INTERVIEW
October 7, 2003
Posted to the web October 7, 2003

Blantyre

The Minister of Economic Planning and Development, Dr Bingu Wa
Mutharika, was recently elected as the ruling party's Presidential
Candidate in the 2004 National Elections. The Malawi Standard Editor,
Brian Ligomeka, had an interview with Dr Mutharika in Blantyre and the
following are the excerpts:

Honourable Dr. Mutharika, how does it feel to be Presidential candidate
for the ruling United Democratic Front?


Dr. Mutharika: I feel greatly honoured and I am thankful to the UDF
National Executive Committee, Cabinet Ministers, regional Governors,
District Governors, Women, the youth, Area and Constituency Chairmen,
and all delegates to the recent National Conference for their confidence
in me by electing me as the UDF Presidential Candidate for next year's
general elections. I am also particularly deeply grateful to His
Excellency the President, Dr. Bakili Muluzi for his unflinching support
and encouragement.

What makes you think you can rule this country?

There are many things that make me feel confident that I can rule this
country but here I will mention just two. Firstly, I am a clean, honest,
dedicated and hardworking leader whose main objective is to see Malawi
economically develop. I do not have skeletons in my closet. I have not
mismanaged nor misappropriated public funds nor have I caused any
suffering to any family or group of individuals. My aim is to serve the
people of Malawi and not to be served. I do not have reasons to be
partial or practice nepotism. I want to see Malawi develop and to escape
from poverty.

Secondly, I have vast amount of experience at the national, regional
and international levels, in managing economic transformation and
developments. I know the secret that can make Malawi develop. I also
know where to go to get financing for development. I have worked at very
senior levels in the World Bank and the United Nations on economic
development and trade. I was Director of Trade and Development Finance
covering 53 African countries. I was Secretary General for PTA and
COMESA where I advised twenty Presidents of COMESA in matters of trade,
regional economic cooperation and development. At the national level, I
was Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi for 2 years. This
experience adequately prepared me for leadership of our country.

What ideas do you have to change things in this country?

Plenty. I have very concrete programmes to transform our country from
being an importing and consuming country to being a producing and
exporting country. I shall change our policy thrust towards encouraging
increased production of goods and services in order to increase incomes
of the poor people. My campaign platform will reveal my plans in due
course.

What do you think are the major challenges to your position as UDF
Presidential Candidate?

The major challenges are to lead Malawi out of poverty into prosperity
by resuscitating our economy and to ensure our economy achieves
sustained growth. I have the political will to do so, the determination
to advance our people to prosperity and the commitment to make things
better in Malawi.

How do you intend to overcome the challenges facing you as UDF
Presidential Candidate?

Development and transformation is about change and continuity. To build
the present you must benefit from the past and to build the future you
must benefit from the present.

I shall meet the challenges by always working in collaboration with the
retiring President, Dr. Bakili Muluzi and the First Vice President, Rt.
Honourable Justin Malewezi in order to benefit from their wisdom and
wide experiences accumulated over the past ten years.

I shall also regularly consult all stakeholders, the opposition, the
private sector, the traditional chiefs, the women, the youth and the
international community so that we move together towards one goal- to
resume economic growth of this country and to reduce poverty.

What are you doing to sell yourself to the people of Malawi?

I shall launch my political platform, which will explain why I am
different from and superior to the other presidential candidates. I
shall never promise lies to the people. I shall promise only what I can
deliver. And I shall deliver my promises indeed.

How do you feel when the opposition castigate you and call you a stooge
for President Bakili Muluzi?

Dr Bakili Muluzi is a very intelligent, honest and dedicated leader.
Those of us who know him well realise that he never imposes himself upon
anyone. He therefore has not shown me signs that he wants to create
stooges. If you follow the advice to develop our country from a good
retiring President, you are not a stooge. In our tradition we say, "Mau
a akulu amakoma akagonera". There is wisdom in the counsel of the
elderly.

How would you work with President Bakili Muluzi in his role as UDF
National Chairman, while you are President of the Republic of Malawi?

The arrangement to have President Bakili Muluzi as the UDF National
Chairman and me as the State President is the best thing that could
happen to Malawi. There are many advantages but I shall highlight only a
few. Firstly, Dr Muluzi will have full time to develop and strength our
party so that we win again in 2009. On the other hand, I shall have full
time to concentrate on the economic and social development of our
nation. This will mean that the affairs of the Party will not unduly
overflow into the affairs of the State hence ensuring an arms length
relationship. Secondly, Dr. Bakili Muluzi has vast experience and still
fresh with important contacts and friends outside Malawi ready to assist
us as a country. When these contacts are combined together, Malawi will
always be a winner. So the two positions are both complementary and
mutually supportive of each other. In other words, we shall work
together.

Some top UDF officials and founding members have resigned from the
party, charging that you have been imposed on the party, how do you feel
about such protests?

A good leader is never happy when some member quits an organisation. I
was never imposed on anybody. Therefore, I feel sad that some top UDF
founding members felt compelled to resign from the party because I won
the nomination. I was elected democratically. However, I respect their
decisions. These colleagues have vast experience we need to build our
country. My hope and prayer is that they will reconsider their positions
and come back to the party so that we can develop our nation together.

Do you have plans of including UDF members who have resigned in
opposition to your election as UDF Presidential candidate in your
government once you are voted into power?

The next Government will be fully representative drawing its membership
from a cross-section of leadership in our country. Everybody will have
an equal voice.

What position would you give Honourable Chakufwa Chihana in your
government?

Right Honourable Chakufwa Chihana is a member of our Government of
National Unity. He is loyal, dedicated, hardworking and dependable.
Besides, the UDF and AFORD are working closely together to win the
general elections next year. It will be a great pleasure for me to work
with Right Honourable Chakufwa Chihana. We shall serve this country
together.

As the case is always in an election within the UDF some members will
vote for you and others will not vote for you; similarly some members
will vote for Cassim Chilumpha and others will not vote for him. How
will you reconcile with the two camps to create a strong UDF led
government?

I am the UDF Presidential Candidate while Honourable Dr. Cassim
Chilumpha is my running mate. Running mates always run together with the
Presidential candidates. I am not aware that people would chose to vote
separately for Cassim Chilumpha and myself.

It is a fact that Malawi is in economic turmoil. How will you handle
the economic situation once voted into power?

I shall release my political platform to resuscitate the economy in the
near future. As a matter of fact, the UDF as a Party will launch its
manifesto soon and that will form the cornerstone of our campaign and
the post election period.

Some people believe that once you are voted into power, you will turn
to become another Levi Mwanawasa, what do you say to those who have such
fears?

This is an unfounded speculation. I am Bingu Wa Mutharika and I have my
own independent and original views of how to manage Malawi's future. I
will not copy anyone or any country in dealing with national affairs. I
find no reason to copy and even the circumstances at home are very
different from what may have obtained in the neighbouring country.

Do you consider yourself as a politician or a technocrat?

Politician or technocrat, a rose is a rose by any other name. I have
the advantage of being both.

In the forthcoming elections, who do you regard as the main opponent
among the opposition leaders? And what is your strategy to win the
elections?

Every opposition leader is my main opponent. But I with the UDF shall
win the elections. Our strategy to win the elections will be announced
in due course.

What is your message to Malawians as we prepare for the 2004 elections?


My message to Malawians as we prepare for 2004 elections is that we
must all unite and work together to build a new Malawi. We need
cooperation between the Government and civil society organisations.

We need cooperation between Government and religion denominations, we
need cooperation between Government and the business community; and we
need cooperation between Government and the general public. Let us have
peaceful campaigns and let us avoid violence. Let us have a truly "free
and fair" general election.

*****

Country Getting On Track Again - IMF

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

September 30, 2003
Posted to the web September 30, 2003

Johannesburg

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team in Malawi has
recommended that the body's executive board, which meets in late
October, authorise the resumption of aid disbursements to the country.

IMF Resident Representative in Malawi Germa Begashaw told IRIN on
Tuesday that "disbursements would follow only upon the conclusion of the
Board discussion, which is now scheduled to take place on October 20,
2003".


The IMF has been withholding disbursements of millions of dollars
because it has not been satisfied with Malawi's fiscal management.

He explained that "on 21 December 2000 the IMF's Executive Board
approved a three-year arrangement under the Poverty Reduction and Growth
Facility (PRGF) for Malawi for SDR 45.11 million (equivalent to about US
$58 million at SDR-US dollar rate which existed then)".

Following the Board's decision in December 2000 "the IMF disbursed to
Malawi SDR 6.44 million (about US $8 million then). The remaining
balance of SDR 38.7 million - this is the one referred to as undisbursed
balance of US$ 47 million (valued at old exchange rate) even though the
amount is now equivalent to about US $54.7 million at today's SDR/US
dollar rate - was to be disbursed semi-annually in six equal tranches
following reviews by the IMF to ascertain whether or not Malawi has
fulfilled performance criteria agreed at the outset".

However, the IMF has made no further disbursements since December 2000
because Malawi has been unable to meet its performance criteria in terms
of policy implementation.

"Since the beginning of 2001, several IMF missions have visited Malawi
and held discussions with government officials relating to the
programmed reviews. However, due to slippage in policy implementation,
it has not been possible to conclude any of the reviews and therefore,
none of the planned tranches could be disbursed up to today," Begashaw
said.

He added that progress has since been made in getting Malawi on track
with the IMF.

"Despite the slippage in policy implementation, the IMF staff continued
its discussions with the Malawi authorities during the period since
December 2000. During early 2003, the IMF staff and the Malawi officials
agreed on a programme, to be implemented during January - June 2003,
that will bring Malawi back on track," Begashaw noted.

IMF missions that held discussions with the government during May-June
and July-August this year "observed that Malawi's performance with
regard to the track-record programme was broadly satisfactory".

"In particular the fiscal targets for end-March and end-June 2003 were
largely met. The missions also agreed with the Malawi officials on a
macroeconomic framework for fiscal year 2003/04 and structural reforms
that would be implemented during the fiscal year," he said.

It was due to "this agreement and the satisfactory performance under
the track-record programme formed the basis for the IMF staff and
management to recommend to the IMF Executive Board [that it] thus
authorise the resumption of disbursements," Begashaw concluded.

*****

Journalists Reject Ministers Call for HIV Testing



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African Church Information Service

September 29, 2003
Posted to the web September 29, 2003

Hobbs Gama
Blantyre

Malawian journalists have snubbed a call by Minister for Information,
for them to patronise HIV voluntary testing centres, in order to
effectively lead the way in influencing behaviour change, especially
among the youth.

Outspoken information minister, Benard Chisale, has urged members of
the media to act as role models and take the lead for HIV testing, as
this would make people have trust in them and take their HIV/AIDS
messages seriously.


He was speaking at the launching of a media and government partnership
programme funded by the National AIDS Commission (NAC), to train
journalists on the required skills in reporting AIDS issues.

"Jesus lived by example as he would not sin. If journalists can be role
models, people will follow them with keen interest. In this way, the
media will be seen to practise what they write and hence encourage
voluntary counselling and testing (VCT)," said Chisale.

But most of the journalists interviewed showed open reluctance to go
for testing, let alone disclose their HIV status.

Charles Vintula, a reporter for the state-run Malawi Broadcasting
Corporation (MBC) said, while he supported the idea, he would not be
paraded as a role model.

"Some NGOs take advantage of people who declare their status, making
money through parading them in the villages," asserted Vintula.

Another journalist, Anthony Kasunda, a senior reporter for the Daily
Times, said he feared going for VCT because of the stigma suffered by
people who disclose their status.

"People will be saying, there goes the HIV positive journalist. I would
not want to be subjected to such ridicule," he said.

The most important thing, according to Milly Kafuka of Capital Radio
FM, was to report accurately and positively about the HIV pandemic.

Said she: "I would not go for testing just because I'm a journalist. If
I am tested that would not change anything. I would rather concentrate
on reporting effectively about the scourge."

Earlier, Chisale asked journalists to fight stigma and discrimination
of people living with HIV, so that they (HIV/AIDS sufferers) are not
ostracised by society. Proper choice of terminology, phases and
language, he said, would offer hope and assurance and help people live
positively despite carrying the HIV virus.

"HIV patients are referred to as AIDS victims, while people suffering
from malaria are not called victims," Chisale pointed out.

*****

Zimbabwe food crisis continues to deepen

Johannesburg

08 October 2003 10:25


Zimbabwe's food crisis continues to deepen, with the country's staple
cereal gap for the 2003/04 marketing year (April 1 2003 to March 31
2004) standing at 738 464 tons, of which 671 424 tons is maize, the
latest Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net) report on the
country says.

Food aid and commercial imports achieved by mid September have covered
only
28% of Zimbabwe's 2003/04 marketing year's initial cereal deficit, the
report
said.

Zimbabwe's food inflation was estimated at 487,3% in August.

The 2002/03-harvest is running out for most rural households, and
purchased
foods are selling at prices that continue to escalate far beyond the
reach of
the majority of poor households.

However, maize grain, cooking oil, rice and bread supplies continue to
be stable in most areas of the country.

Maize meal, which was becoming more visible on the formal market, has
become less so following the government's crackdown on major millers for
selling the commodity at above government stipulated prices.

The World Food Programme (WFP) food aid distribution to about 1
164-million
beneficiaries went ahead in August without any disruptions, despite
fears that
Zimbabwe government's new policy guidelines on humanitarian assistance
would provide impetus for interference with humanitarian food
distributions.

Access is by far the biggest constraint to food security for the urban
population throughout the country. Food access constraints are
compounded by high inflation and national cash shortages, which showed
no signs of abating at the end of September 2003.

Rainfall prospects for the 2003/04-rainfall season, as currently
forecast, are fair to good for the country.

However, changes in the agricultural landscape and shortages of inputs
including fertilisers, seeds, fuel, credit and spare parts, are all
combining to severely limit potential production for the 2003/04
agricultural season.

If current shortages of fuel, fertiliser, foreign currency, cash and
maize seed persist, Zimbabwe will not be able to produce more than
1,2-million tons of maize (66% of national requirements) in the 2003/04
agricultural season, in the best of rainfall circumstances, Fews Net
said. - I-Net Bridge

*****

Fire rages in Zimbabwe park


Lions are among the animals trapped by the fire
A fire has devastated vast tracts of Zimbabwe's Matopos National Park
and is threatening many of its wild animals.
Reports say that three-quarters of the central part of the 43,000
hectare park has been engulfed by a raging fire that has forced hundreds
of wild animals to flee the flames.

Officials at the park, which was recently designated a world heritage
site by the United Nations, say the blaze was probably started by
poachers.

The BBC's Themba Nkosi in Bulawayo says the park has been closed to
visitors, while firefighters try to put the fire out.

Visitors who tried to enter the park on Monday were greeted by the
carcasses and remains of bush bucks and reptiles such pythons, our
correspondent says.

He says that lions, black rhinos and baboons are among the animals
trapped by the fire, which began at the weekend.

Rock paintings

A state-owned radio station described the fire as "an act of arson"
probably caused by poachers or by reckless villagers.

The threat from poachers

Hunters sometimes set fire to bushland to flush out wild animals, while
small scale farmers light fires to clear bush in readiness for planting
crops.

Earlier this year, the UN cultural organisation, Unesco, listed the
Matobo Hills as an area of world significance because of its distinctive
geological formations and ancient rock paintings.

It also contains the grave of Cecil Rhodes, who led Britain's
colonisation of southern Africa.

It is the third time in four years that the park has been hit by fire.


*****

Zimbabwe targets union protest

More than 100 trade union members and leaders have reportedly been
arrested across Zimbabwe on the day of a protest march in the capital
Harare.

Police said the Zimbabwe Conference of Trade Unions (ZCTU) had broken
the law by organising a public gathering without permission.

The train union federations in both the UK and South Africa have
condemned the arrests, which included some 41 trade union leaders in
Harare and over 100 in the eastern town of Mutare.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead, in Johannesburg, says it is yet another
protest against the economic collapse in Zimbabwe - it was quashed by
riot police armed with guns, batons and tear gas canisters.

Our correspondent says the ZCTU, Zimbabwe's trade union umbrella group,
planned a march to highlight the workers' grievances over inflation, the
high cost of transport, cash shortages as well as abuses of "human and
union rights".

Respect

In a letter to Zimbabwe's High Commissioner Samuel Mumbengegwi, the
UK's Trade Union Congress (TUC) demanded the release of unionists:


Zimbabwe is experiencing an economic crisis
"The TUC and its affiliates are particularly concerned about the
situation of several union officials being held in secret locations and
the apparent targeting of a number of women trade unionists," read a
letter from TUC General Secretary of the UK's Trade Union Conference,
Brendan Barber.

"In this light, we request that you treat all trade unionists with
respect and dignity and release them without delay."

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said: "It is
regrettable that the Zimbabwe government sees trade unions as one of its
main opponents, rather than as a partner to help reverse this political
and socio-economic collapse."

The ZCTU, which has led strikes in the past against the government of
President Robert Mugabe, said the arrests and the banning of peaceful
protests were "a gross violation of human rights" when the lives of
Zimbabwean people are so unbearable.

The cost of living in the country is rapidly increasing, fuel is scare
and prices high and inflation is officially around 425%.

Malawi saves the nation by saving the chambo

Blantyre

10 October 2003 07:42


Alarmed by the dwindling numbers of a rare species of fish, locally
known as chambo, the Malawi government has formulated a 10-year plan to
restore the fish in Lake Malawi, and its largest outlet, Shire River.

Lake Malawi is Africa's third largest fresh water lake.

In a statement on Thursday, Malawi's minister of natural resources and
environmental affairs, Uladi Mussa, said the plan aims at restoring
depleted fish stocks to maximum sustainable yields.

The Malawi Fisheries Department said their goal was to meet the
country's international obligations to restore chambo to its 1980 level
by 2010.

Chambo, a delicacy in Malawi, is a species of the tilapia family. Mussa
attributed the depletion of the fish in Lake Malawi and Shire River to
over-fishing by an ever-increasing number of fishermen.

Mussa, who represents the lakeshore and fishing district of Salima in
parliament, said: "The fishery is riddled with the use of illegal gear,
such as small meshed nets, that catch small and not fully grown-up
fish.

"The destruction of aquatic vegetation beds and breeding grounds, which
exposes young chambo to predation and to fishermen's nets, is another
concern."

Mussa said the species had suffered a violation of their closed
breeding season.

"Fishermen have been illegally catching fish during the breeding
season, resulting in loss of eggs and young fish."

Malawi's fishing industry is an important source of food, income and
employment.

Statistics from the Malawi Fisheries Department indicate that 14% of
lakeshore communities survive through fishing, fish processing,
marketing, boat and gear sales and repair, and allied industries.

The 2002 Malawi State of the Environment Report, recently presented to
parliament, stated that fish played a key role in food security.

It said Malawi's fishing industry used to contribute as much as 70% of
protein in rural and urban areas.

Overall, the industry contributes 4% to the country's gross national
product, it stated.

Fish consumption, the report stated, averaged 14kg per person per year
in the mid-1970s, but today it was less than 6kg per person each year
due to an increase in human population and the decreasing numbers of
fish in Lake Malawi.

The initiative to revive the stock involves the commitment made by
Malawi at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development held in
Johannesburg last year, Mussa said.

"The Fisheries Department intends by 2004 to prevent, deter and
eliminate illegal fishing.

"By 2010 the department will apply the ecosystem approach to
sustainable development of fisheries. It is hoped that by 2015 all
depleted fish stocks will be restored to maximum sustainable yields."

The countries bordering Lake Malawi -- Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania
--are signatories to the Southern African Development Community's
protocol on fisheries.

Under agreement, parties commit themselves to maintain a proper balance
between resource development for a higher standard of living for their
people, conservation, and enhancement of the environment to promote
sustainable development.

Tropical biologists said the lake contains more freshwater species than
most lakes in Europe and North America. To reverse the dwindling
fortunes of chambo, the government has launched a campaign, called
Nation, Save the Chambo, to save the
species, Mussa said.

"The campaign also aims to attract foreign and domestic funding to
restore stocks to the pre-1990 levels," he said. - Sapa-IPS

*****

Church Groups Confront Archaic Marital Traditions



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African Church Information Service

September 29, 2003
Posted to the web September 29, 2003

Hobbs Gama
Blantyre

Church groups in Malawi have protested that despite many programmes to
sensitise people on child rights as provided for in the Republican
Constitution, there is still rampant abuse of the rights of the girl
child and women.

The Roman Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) and the
Livingstonia Synod of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP),
have mounted campaigns to rid traditions that enslave young girls and
women into unwanted sexual and marriage relationships.


A social audit report conducted by the CCJP of the Mzuzu diocese in
northern Malawi, gathered from parish committees, indicated that despite
the fact that many Malawians were now relatively aware of their
constitutional, human and civil rights, rights activists had not reached
most remote corners of the country due to limited resources.

"We have therefore lined up projects to penetrate the far away places
because abusers were taking advantage of the ignorance of their
victims," says Fr Charles Chinula, chairman of the Mzuzu diocese of
CCJP.

In some northern districts of Malawi, like Chitipa and Karonga, it was
discovered through surveys conducted by the churches that a traditional
practice called kupimbira, where parents force their daughters as young
as 12 years to marry well-to-do older men, had resurfaced after it was
abandoned decades ago.

Some parents give away their daughters after failing to repay loans,
which saw one rich man in his late sixties, in Karonga, acquiring 14
young girls through the practice. Girls who resist such traditional
marriages are threatened with death or magical curse referred to as
chighune.

Another practice is elopement, locally known as kusomphola. It is
accepted among the Nyakyusa and Ngonde tribes of northern Malawi. Here,
parents of the boy eagerly repay, with cattle or money, the offended
parents of the seduced girl.

There is also Kuhara (called chokolo in other regions), where a man can
inherit the wife of a deceased brother to take care of her and her
children. Church activists say this cannot be tolerated in the present
democratic dispensation.

Northern Malawi CCJP parish committees are pressing their secretariat
to lobby government to include in the constitution, a section that
provides for security of marriages.

"We cannot watch people continue enslaving young girls in the rural
settings for monetary gains through these bad cultures," asserted George
Chizeka, a local CCJP member.

Traditionalists say kupimbira resurrected because of rising poverty,
especially the famine crisis that inflicted Malawi in the past few years
due to erratic weather conditions.

Loaning off of daughters was first brought to light by women of the
Livingstonia CCAP Church women's guild, who provoked action by the
congregation.

Livingstonia synod is the seat of the CCAP Church in northern Malawi.

The synod's Church and Society Programme director, Moses Mkandawire,
said his organisation had already started conducting civic education in
the affected areas.

"We are also putting up posters depicting the dangers of the practices
in the face of HIV/AIDS pandemic," he said.

The Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC), a body mandated by the
constitution to protect and investigate human rights violations, which
carried out its own survey, have thrown weight behind the churches'
campaign.

MHRC Executive Secretary, Emiliana Tembo, said although the areas
concerned were the remotest parts of the country, where few people read
newspapers or owned radios to access rights issues, they were determined
to reach them and save the innocent young girls and women who could be
suffering in silence.i
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"After our civic education strategy, we will start taking legal action
against any perpetrators," said Tembo.


*****

Zimbabwe food shortages scare


Some 3.8m Zimbabweans need food aid
Zimbabwe has imported less than a third of the grain it will need to
meet its requirements up to the end of March, a United States-based
monitoring agency says.
In its latest monthly report, the Famine Early Warning System Network
(FEWS) says grain from last year's harvest is running out for most rural
households, and food is selling at prices that are rising beyond the
reach of most people.

FEWS said that high inflation and a shortage of cash were making it
difficult for people to get food in urban areas.

President Robert Mugabe blames Zimbabwe's economic crisis on years of
drought and a plot by western countries to bring down his government
because of his land reform programme.

His critics say the seizure of most white-owned farm land has decimated
agricultural production and caused the food shortages.

Food aid

In July, the government of Zimbabwe appealed for more than 700,000
tonnes of imported maize.

FEWS added that if current shortages of items such as fuel, fertiliser
and seed persisted, Zimbabwe would only be able to produce two-thirds of
the country's staple food, maize, that it needed in the next
agricultural season.

Some 3.8 million Zimbabweans need food aid to survive; by the end of
the year, it is predicted that that number will rise to 5.5 million.

The United Nations predicts that more than five million Zimbabweans,
about a third of the population, will need food aid this year because of
a combination of bad weather, economic mismanagement and the
government's land redistribution policy.

I cant put my disappointment into words as well as Eric. I thought this
article sucked. Sure there is truth to many of the points made. However, I
had a great experience in Peace Corps; it has really shaped my life. All the
goals I have stem from that experience. If any of you out there feel you can
write a reply that can encompass the positives in the experience-you
definitely have my support.

Luz

>From: "Bell, Elizabeth" <eib6@...>
>Reply-To: ujeni@yahoogroups.com
>To: "'Ujeni (ujeni@egroups.com)'" <ujeni@yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: [ujeni] FW: AARPCV: Jane Magazine article
>Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 12:41:40 -0400
>
>Fyi.
>
>Elizabeth Bell, MPH
>STOP Activity Unit
>Polio Eradication Branch
>Global Immunization Division
>Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Gerzoff, Bob
>Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2003 12:29 PM
>Subject: AARPCV: Jane Magazine article
>
>
>Here is an article that is running in next month's Jane Magazine about
>safety and security in Peace Corps.  You may be interested in writing a
>letter to the editor at Jane Magazine concerning your reaction to this
>article.
>
>Thanks,
>Victoria Sturdivant, Regional Recruiter
>Atlanta Regional Peace Corps Office
>100 Alabama Street, Bldg. 1924, Suite 2R70
>Atlanta, Georgia 30303
>(800) 424-8580, option 1, ext. 23470
>Direct Line (404) 562-3470
>Fax (404) 562-3455
>Returned Volunteer - Ghana '97-'99
>www.peacecorps.gov
>
>
>
> >  -----Original Message-----
> > From:  Murphy, Carla
> > Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2003 11:39 AM
> > To: VRS/OPS/R/ATL
> > Subject: Jane Magazine article
> >
> > Hello all,
> >
> > Please read article below. Just FYI.
> >
> > carla
> >
> >
> >
> > The Peace Corps never warned me what I was really in for." Claudine Ko
> > explores why women bail out of the program.  Hint: It may have
> > something to do with assault, forced medication, and parasites.
> >
> > Jane Magazine *  November 2003
> >
> > "Before I left for the Peace Corps, I was enamored with my own
> > benevolence," laughs Katy Backes, 25, who spent most of her life in
> > northern Minnesota and North Dakota.  "I thought I was really great
> > for going."  Three months into her assignment as a Peace Corps
> > Volunteer (PCV) in Mozambique in 1999, reality set in.  "Local men
> > used to yell in Portuguese, 'White pussy, white pussy!'" she says.
> > "The locals had a hard time understanding what a young foreign woman
> > would be doing living alone. They know I got money somehow and they
> > started to think that I was a prostitute.  A lot of men on their way
> > back from the bars would stop outside my house and holler, 'We know
> > you want to come and party with us!'
> >
> > "There was actually quite a bit of threatening of PCVs, but we weren't
> > made aware of that before we left," Katy says.  "A volunteer who's
> > been living on my site had been robbed twice.  The Peace Corps said it
> > wasn't a problem - that a guard was going to start walking past my
> > house.  But the guard didn't show up."  The harassment got so bad that
> > Katy said she began calling her program's head office - located a 10
> > hour bus ride away.  "I didn't feel like the Peace Corps believed me,"
> > she says.  "They said, 'Everyone has problems at their site at first.'
> > They thought maybe I was overreacting and suggested I see a
> > psychologist."
> >
> > Then eight months into her service, a local man showed up at Katy's
> > classroom while she was teaching.  "I told him he needed to go the
> > administration building," she says.  "That's when he pushed me very
> > violently and started to hit me and rip my clothes, saying things
> > about what I do at night, like, 'We know how you get your money.'  I
> > pushed him off and started yelling, 'Get out of here!  Get out!' and
> > then he went away.  The kids looked ready to fall apart, so I
> > straightened my clothes, swallowed my tears, and kept teaching."
> >
> > Afterward, the Peace Corps gave Katy the option of leaving through
> > "interrupted service" or choosing another country to serve in.  "I
> > didn't feel the problem was Mozambique," says Katy, who was part of
> > only the second PCV group to enter the country post-civil war.  "It
> > was with the Peace Corps making a safe living environment, and they
> > weren't actively changing my situation."  Cassandra Champion, the
> > organization's press person, says that while they are not familiar
> > with that happened in Katy's case, a community will occasionally
> > increase its own guard or police patrols when necessary and when
> > asked.  Ultimately, Katy decided to leave her 27-month program early,
> > joining the nearly one-third of her fellow 6,678 volunteers worldwide
> > who drop out.
> >
> > It's another blistering hot afternoon in Tabanco, a shantytown of
> > about 400 people in northern Peru's Sechura desert.  Heather
> > Frankland, a soft-spoken, blue-eyed 24-year-old, walks along a stretch
> > of the Pan-American Highway dressed in a blue cardigan and matching
> > tank top over loose woven pants and sandals.  She is part of Peru One,
> > a group of 26 PCVs (19 are female) who are the first here since Peru's
> > military government axed the program in 1975 during and anti-U.S.
> > backlash.  Her job, technically, is to teach Tabanco's residents about
> > health, like the importance of hand-washing and boiling water.  Her
> > secondary project is teaching English to the local children a few day
> > as week.
> >
> > Heather also spends much of her time going up and down the highway,
> > stopping to socialize in people's homes.  Eighteen-wheelers and buses
> > roar past while passersby shout warm greetings to her, wave or honk
> > their horns.  Everybody in town knows who she is.
> >
> > "Being the first group, we're more here to establish and meet people,"
> > she explains, noting that because Heather is difficult for many of the
> > Peruvians to pronounce, she goes by Flor.  "It's better that gringa,"
> > she says, smirking.
> >
> > "I wanted to do something to help somebody," adds Heather, an
> > incredibly earnest Indiana native who majored in English at Knox
> > College, a small liberal arts school.  "Just the fact that you are
> > here in a community that has been neglected to some extent, you are
> > doing something."  Donkeys loiter around her quiet neighborhood, which
> > is framed by sand dunes. Turkeys gobble.
> >
> > "The first three months are really hard,' Heather says.  "The Peace
> > Corps tells you that.  You have to speak Spanish all the time, and
> > it's hard to see why we're here.  Some days, you get homesick and just
> > have to go to the city and get a Coke."  Problem is, the closest
> > groceries, Internet access, and Cokes are in Piura, a 90-minute bus
> > ride away.
> >
> > Many PCVs -61 percent of who are female- live on their own, but Peru's
> > head office in Lima decided to have its volunteers stay with families
> > for safety reasons and when it come to the women, also for
> > "respectability". Heather lives with the Sandovals in their cozy
> > mud-and-reed walled home. It has a tin roof and sand floors, plus no
> > running water of electricity. It is one of the few houses with a solar
> > panel, which powers a couple of fluorescent tubes, and every once in a
> > while, a TV.  She even keeps two pet cats in her sparsely decorated
> > room, which is safeguarded by a wrought-iron gate and bars over the
> > window.  Her Peace Corps-issued cell phone beeps in the corners,
> > signaling low battery power.  The phones are a new effort to improve
> > PCV safety.  Unfortunately Heather says hers only works in Piura.  If
> > she needs help fast, like the time she passed out from a migraine,
> > it's a 20-minute bike ride to the nearest working phone.
> >
> > "The people here look after you," Heather says.  "And we're a small
> > group, so we have good contacts with our director, assistant director
> > and nurse. The local men are macho, but I've never felt threatened.
> > Still, I try to be careful."
> >
> > The Peace Corps stresses that volunteer safety is the "No. 1
> > priority." However, Suerie Moon, 29, was a PCV in rural South Africa
> > in 1999, where she was supposed to train teachers at the local school.
> > She lived with the principal's family, and one night shortly after she
> > arrived, a man tried to get into her bedroom.  "The window was broken,
> > so he could stick his arm through and open it," she recalls.  "He had
> > taken my bra, which was sitting on a chair near the window.  Then I
> > saw his head coming into the room and I freaked out and he went
> > running off."  She says that at first, her host family didn't believe
> > her.  "They said, 'You're having nightmares.'"  Then the principals
> > saw the man's footprints in the yard.
> >
> > Since the Peace Corps s founding in 1961, 250 people have died during
> > service- 40 fatal illnesses, 20 murders, 171 accidents, 15 suicides
> > and four of undetermined causes.  The most recent death was a
> > 23-year-old man who hanged himself in Mali in July.  From 1993 to
> > 2002, there were 787 aggravated assaults and 134 rapes.  Sueire says
> > the risks she might encounter were never explained in her
> > pre-departure information packet: "The staff knew that crime and rape
> > were serious issues in South Africa, but I was totally not expecting
> > it."  (Cassandra says that this info is available to volunteers who
> > ask, and safety issues are usually discussed once the volunteers reach
> > their assigned country.)  Suerie adds that female PCVs were harassed
> > as soon as they arrived.  But when she asked to be assigned to a
> > village with a male PCV, she says, the Peace Corps wouldn't consider
> > it.  "They didn't find daily harassment to be a sufficient reason to
> > change their plans.  It was a steady stream of drop-outs - I was one
> > of them."
> >
> > "One girl got a big dog she took everywhere," Suerie remembers.  "It
> > was a decision she made in order to stay and feel safe.  But there's a
> > real trade-off - the apartheid government used dogs to attack and
> > terrorize. You're trying to do community work, not stand out as some
> > version of old apartheid police forces."
> >
> > "If you leave, it's a sign of weakness that you can't handle pit
> > latrines, insufficient sanitation, or not having a lot of money,"
> > continues Suerie, who now works for Doctors Without Borders.  "I think
> > it pushes people to stay longer than they want to or should.  Here was
> > this girl who literally fought off a local teacher who had a knife and
> > was intent on raping her. She stayed."  Suerie doesn't think that the
> > Peace Corps is an evil institution, but wonders if they bring up
> > safety concerns with their local counterparts.  "It's embarrassing to
> > say, "Our female volunteers are afraid of being raped by your
> > nationals,'" she says.
> >
> > "If the volunteer feels unsafe for any reason," Cassandra says, "the
> > staff immediately work to resolve the situation, including moving the
> > volunteer."   Cassandra doesn't know the specifics of Suerie's
> > circumstances, but notes, "Another volunteer close by does not
> > necessarily create greater safety."
> >
> > "My Stomach Always Hurts"
> > Heather's host mom, Josefa, cooks the family meals over an open-flame
> > stove constructed out of large, uneven bricks.  Her kitchen looks like
> > a diorama from a natural history museum exhibit on primitive living.
> > Today's lunch is fried white rice with peas, steamed chicken and
> > lemon-colored Kola Real.  Behind Heather, an empty white casket,
> > donated to the community for future use, is slowly being eaten by
> > termites as it rests against the wall.  A battery-operated radio plays
> > cumbia, the popular local dance music.
> >
> > When Josefa collects the dishes, Heather's meal is only half-eaten,
> > which is part of the reason she's lost weight since arriving in Peru.
> > "People in my community tell me that I'm thinner because of love (she
> > has a phoneless Peruvian boyfriend back in Piura).  I say, 'No.  It's
> > the parasites.'"
> >
> > Posted on Heather's bedroom wall is a list she's made of problems and
> > solutions.  Grievance No, 10 is, "My stomach always hurts."  Her fix?
> > "Cook for yourself."
> >
> > "You go to people's houses and want to gain their trust, so you eat
> > what they give you," explain Heather.  "I'm willing to eat anything to
> > gain their confidence."  The result is that she has had parasite four
> > times. "It's funny - we're health volunteers, and we've had so many
> > problems with our health."
> >
> > While stomach issues are the biggest medical complaint, they're not
> > the only ones.  "Lots of people get depressed," says Judy Gerring, 26,
> > who in 2001 was stationed 33 hours from her PC headquarters in
> > Kazakhstan and was depressed for six months.  "PCVs, feeling isolated
> > and having trouble adjusting to a culture where drinking is a way of
> > life, fell prey to alcohol abuse."
> >
> > The Peace Corps also requires PCVs to take antimalarial drugs.  Almost
> > 80 percent of volunteers in Africa are in Lariam, even though its
> > manufacturer warns that the drug's side effects can include psychotic
> > episodes, paranoia, depression and suicidal thinking.  "Some PCVs
> > said, 'I'd rather stop taking it than go crazy.'" Suerie remembers.
> > But the official Peace Corps line is, 'If you've stopped, we're
> > shipping you home.'"  The Peace Corps acknowledges Lariam's side
> > effects and says it consults with volunteers to decide which
> > antimalarial medication is appropriate.
> >
> > "I Don't Want to be a Political Pawn"
> > At the top of Heather's problem/solution board is; "Not sure if I
> > joined because I wanted to, or just to prove how good I actually am to
> > peeps...I get bored, restless and unmotivated."  She says there are a
> > "multitude of reasons" she signed up, "but sometimes it's hard to
> > remember them."  It's a ten minute walk from Heather's house to the
> > school where the community has asked her to teach English.  Standing
> > in front of one of her classes, she tells the children, who seem to
> > genuinely like her, that it's song time.
> >
> > "Trash, trash, trash," she sings as a few students join in.  "What do
> > you do with it?  You throw it away!"
> >
> > Later, she says, "You wonder if learning English really helps them.
> > Defining your role here is difficult, you come in with a big idea I of
> > changing things, and you get frustrated."
> >
> > "Development money could be spent in better ways than sending out more
> > inexperienced kids with few skills to offer," says Suerire who has a
> > history degree from Yale. "I totally put myself in that group.  I was
> > supposed to train teachers in South Africa to teach the new
> > post-apartheid curriculum.  I was in a group of 39, and about 30 of us
> > had no full-time teaching experience.  The whole proposition was
> > ludicrous.  The Peace Corps could have thought a little harder about
> > what's the best way of using volunteers and their skills and
> > backgrounds."
> >
> > On the other hand, some volunteers - like Reena Shah, 27, a former PCV
> > who wanted a "grassroots experience" involving her environmental
> > studies major
> > - get exactly what they want.  She was assigned to be a soil extension
> > volunteer in her country of choice, Nepal.  Beth Blacklow, 23, who
>wanted
> > to learn Spanish and become a teacher is currently happily teaching in
> > Ecuador.
> >
> > During his last State of the Union address, President Bush called for
> > Americans to "extend the compassion of our country to every part of
> > the world" by doubling the number of Peace Corps volunteers to 14,000
> > by 2007. But the House only approved a 6.5 percent funding increase.
> >
> > "If they double the size on the cheap, they might out support
> > services." Suerie worries.  But the Peace Corps insists that while it
> > is optimistic about successfully making the jump, it won't compromise
> > volunteers security or the program's infrastructure to do it.
> >
> > "This feels like Bush compensating for cutting international funding
> > in Africa, for cutting family planning, for fighting a war that
> > doesn't need to be fought," says Jennifer Warren, 23, who questions
> > her PCV time in oil-rich Jordan.  "Now Bush wants to shove more PCVs
> > out there to be do-gooders just to prove ourselves?  I don't agree
> > with using them a political pawns to make the U.S. look like a nice
> > country."
> >
> > Lots of returned PCVs had intensely worthwhile experiences - many say
> > they got more than they gave.  "There's not a whole lot you offer,
> > except your youthful enthusiasm and Americanism," says Suerie.  But it
> > would suck if the Bush Administration were exploiting these qualities
> > and putting volunteers at risk for the sake of cheap PR.
> >
> > Back in Lima, the Peace Corps staff is welcoming Peru Two, a fresh
> > batch of 23 female and 13 male PCVs, on their first weekend of a
> > three-month training session.  They look like a Road Rules reunion as
> > they climb into a minivan that takes them back to their cushy but
> > temporary hotel.  As we make our way up the hill back to the resort,
> > Lindsay, a pale, tongue-pierced 22-year-old from Virginia exclaims, "
> > My first real llama I've ever seen!  Cool.  I expect to see a lot
> > more."
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >  <<Jane article.doc>>
> >
> >
> > Carla Murphy
> > Public Affairs Specialist
> > Atlanta Regional Office
> > 404.562-3472 (direct)
> > 404.562-3455 (fax)
> > (800) 424-8580
> > cmurphy2@...
> > www.peacecorps.gov
> >
>
><< Janearticle.doc >>

_________________________________________________________________
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Globetrotting Muluzi defends his trips abroad

Blantyre

14 October 2003 10:20

Malawi President Bakili Muluzi on Monday defended his numerous overseas
trips, saying they benefit the impoverished southern African country.

Muluzi, who has just returned from a three-week trip to Asia, told a
press conference that his critics were "ignorant" and that he needed to
travel in order to "engage people", especially donors.

"You have to engage people. If you don't travel how do you engage
them?" Muluzi asked.

Muluzi held the press conference after receiving stiff criticism in the
press and from opposition leaders in Malawi, which is facing its worst
economic crisis in years.

Western donors suspended financial support two years ago citing bad
governance and fiscal indiscipline, among other reasons.

Malawi's major donors, which include the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), the World Bank, European Union and Britain, have been withholding
around $100-million in budgetary support.

But last month the IMF board said it had concluded its review of
Malawi's economic performance and would resume releasing funds around
October 20.

On Monday, Muluzi said he had managed to clinch pledges of aid during
his recent trips to Japan and Taiwan, including one-million US dollars
from Taiwan to support Malawian farmers.

The southern African leader usually travels with a large entourage of
government ministers, journalists, lawmakers and ruling party officials.
- Sapa-AFP

*****

Charged Political Climate Worries Civil Society

African Church Information Service

October 13, 2003
Posted to the web October 14, 2003

Hamilton Vokhiwa
Blantyre

Officials of the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) in Malawi have
expressed concern over what they call an unfavourable political
situation being experienced in the country.

The PAC is an umbrella body of political, civic and religious
organisations that plays a watchdog role on the country's political
direction, and on other matters of national interest.


The officials made the remarks during a national elections roundtable
conference here, saying political parties have not embraced democratic
principles, almost 10 years after the onset of multi-party politics in
the country.

The two-day conference attracted all registered political parties,
civil society groups and the media.

PAC chairperson, Boniface Tamani, who is a Catholic priest, lamented
the lack of inter-party dialogue in the country, which he said has
resulted into divisive politics becoming the order of the day.

He appealed to politicians in the country to ensure transparency and
accountability during the general elections in May next year, without
which there was a danger that the elections results could be rejected.

The conference, however, resolved to use all resources available to
ensure free and fair general elections.

One of the resolutions called on the electoral commission and the
police to act on concerns from different stakeholders involved in the
electoral process, such as disruption of rallies addressed by opposition
parties.

PAC, which produced a four-paged communiqué after the meeting,
highlighted a number of problems that needed to be tackled by the
electoral commission and the civil society, to ensure smooth running of
the 2004 elections.

In the communiqué participants observed that there was need to review
the whole electoral calendar to ensure that it was practical.

It was noted that according to the current calendar, nomination of
candidates would start before dissolving parliament, a situation that
many said could raise confusion among the electorate.

In the meantime, representatives of religious organisations together
with diplomats from major western governments have been meeting with
politicians to determine how they could diffuse intolerance that is
threatening to mar the scheduled general elections.

With just eight months to go to the polls, there have been widespread
reports and debates on the climate of intolerance between religious and
political leaders.

Confirming the meetings, a western diplomat, who asked not to be
identified, said she could not give details because of the sensitivity
of the discussions.

*****

Clerics Gang Up to Impeach Electoral Commission Boss

African Church Information Service

October 13, 2003
Posted to the web October 14, 2003

Hobbs Gama
Blantyre

Malawi's senior clerics have instituted a probe into the activities of
the chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), whom they claim to be
aligned to the ruling party and therefore incompetent to lead the
country to a free and fair elections next year.

The Public Affairs Committee (PAC) and the Forum for the Defence of
Democracy (FDD) have reported that they have started investigating James
Kalaile for "partisan conduct frustrating expectations for free
presidential, parliamentary and local government elections" scheduled
for May 18, 2004.


Kalaile is one of the judges at the Common Market for Eastern and
Southern Africa, by virtue of which he is an advisor to President Bakili
Muluzi.

Monsignor Boniface Tamani of the Roman Catholic Church, who is PAC
chairperson, said church leaders were under pressure to act. "We will
have to carry out investigations to establish if there are people with
questionable elements in the commission, for the sake of free and fair
elections next year," he stated.

Meanwhile, three clergymen from the country's major Christian
denominations have declared interest in overseeing coalition talks
between opposition parties.

Anglican Bishop, James Tengatenga, who recently received death threats
for his biting criticism of government's mismanagement of public
resources, is the chairman of the team, while his deputy is Livingstonia
CCAP synod general secretary, Reverend Howard Matiya Nkhoma.

"Opposition parties asked for assistance and as church leaders, we have
the responsibility to bring them to a roundtable," said Tengatenga,
brushing aside president Muluzi's outbursts that the Church was meddling
in politics.

*****

Where Human Beings Vanish Into the Unknown

African Church Information Service

October 13, 2003
Posted to the web October 14, 2003

Hamilton Vokhiwa
Nairobi

To the naked eye, Mount Mulanje in Southern Malawi would simply pass as
another spectacular geographical attraction. But mention Sapitwa, a peak
found at its top, and the locals would shudder. Frightening occurrences
have been witnessed on this peak, including the recent sudden
disappearance of a Dutch woman.

About 290 kilometres to the south-east of Lilongwe, Malawi's capital,
lies Mulanje town at the south-eastern corner of the country, not far
from its border with Mozambique.


It is here that the famous Mount Mulanje stands. With its protruding
peaks often encircled by cloudy mist, it presents an impressive
scenery.

Up the 9840ft (about 3,000 metres) high mountain, lies a rocky peak
known as Sapitwa, which translates to "no go area", in the local
Chichewa or Chinyanja language.

It was at Sapitwa where on Saturday, September 13, a 29-year old Dutch
woman disappeared after climbing the mountain.

She had tried to scale Sapitwa peak, which even accomplished
mountaineers describe as formidable.

Linda Plonk, a laboratory technician at Mulanje Mission hospital run by
the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) Synod of Blantyre,
climbed the mountain with a party of 10 people.

According to police, she hiked up the peak, while nine of her group
members gave up along the way. She did not report back to the rest of
the group that was waiting for her.

Police and officials from Mulanje forestry department, as well as the
department of parks and wildlife, joined by the army, scoured the peak
using a helicopter, but could not find clues as to what could have
happened to Linda Plonk.

The Royal Dutch Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe, also sent a helicopter,
together with a rescue team of ten climbers with six snifter dogs, to
help in the search, but to no avail.

Mulanje mountain is the highest in central Africa, and it is one of the
major tourist attractions in the country, besides Lake Malawi.

But strange events have occurred here, just like the recent
disappearance of Linda Plonk.

According to local communities, legend has it that the mountain is home
to ghosts. They say that in the early days, supernatural beings
inhabited forests around it.

But those beings, who natives believed sometimes took the form of
dwarfs or Abathwa, as they were locally known, were considered to be
extinct.

Others believe that they probably migrated to the Congo forests, where
Abathwa or Tikitiki are found

It is said that if one ventured into the realm of the ghosts or
spirits, the chances of survival were unpredictable. One could go
missing forever or could return by chance to the mortal world.

Stories abound of people disappearing at the mountain at different
times in the past, some being recovered miraculously.

One such incident happened 38 years ago, when an employee of the
Department of Forestry went missing from a party of workers who were
descending from one of the peaks known as Chambe.

The party was ferrying timber down the peak when one of the forestry
workers, Patrick Fewa, a local villager in his twenties then,
disappeared and could not immediately be traced.

It took more than a week of frantic beating about the bush for the
search team to come across Patrick, perched on a rock and clad in the
clothing he was last seen in.

He was unscathed, except that he was not able to speak for another
week.

When he came around, he narrated how he found himself leaving the rest
of the party, and followed a figure clad in white robes. Since then he
could not tell day from night, he said.

He told the searchers, including relatives, that he was, however, able
to see them, but could not utter a word or cry in the presence of that
figure.

According to him, the strange being first appeared as a crow that flew
over his head, but later turned into a tall human-like figure, which
apparently bound him under a spell.

It was only after the bizarre being turned into a whirlwind that he was
able to communicate with his searchers and joined them down the slope on
the last day of the ordeal in the environment of the "ghost".

Officials of the forestry department confirmed the story, which was
carried in local newspapers of that time.

But in the case of Linda Plonk, the authorities are puzzled as to why
she insisted on climbing onto the forbidden Sapitwa peak.

Official guidelines state that no tourist should climb the mountain
without local guides, who lead the paths to the top. The climb takes
slightly more than five hours to a camping site, where boarding
facilities are provided.

Authorities strongly recommend against tourists attempting to reach
Sapitwa, owing to the strange occurrences there.

It is against this background that sympathisers and the government
officials have been hoping against hope of finding Linda Plonk alive.

*****

Meltdown of liberty in Zimbabwe

Wilson Johwa | Harare

14 October 2003 09:15


"Demonstrations here never last more than 10 minutes before the police
move in," photojournalist Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi remarks casually.

It is another misleadingly tranquil day in Zimbabwe's capital city,
Harare, where Mukwazhi and two colleagues are keeping tabs on a group
advocating for a new constitution, the National Constitutional Assembly
(NCA). Members of the organisation are due to march to parliament with
placards, agitating for a new constitution as the starting point to
resolving the political gridlock in the country.

However, Mukwazhi's comments turns out to be an understatement. Even
before the demonstration begins, it is quashed. Plainclothes police
officers sneak up on anyone wearing an NCA shirt and throw them into
waiting vehicles.

Mukwazhi and the two other freelance photojournalists are bungled
together with the NCA demonstrators within seconds of snapping pictures
of NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku who, with a small group of activists,
tries to unfurl a banner.

Altogether, 102 NCA activists are arrested. Together with the three
photojournalists they spend 24 hours in custody charged with "engaging
in conduct likely to breach the peace". This is an offence under an
all-encompassing law from the country's colonial past, the Miscellaneous
Offences Act.

Freedom only comes when they pay admission of guilt fines, even though
they all know they have committed no crime. "We paid in protest, not
paying the fine would have meant staying in prison," their lawyer, Alec
Muchadehama says.

Once released Mukwazhi seeks legal action to have the admission of
guilt stuck down. Having three such admissions could cost any journalist
his hard-to-get official accreditation card as it is tantamount to
having a criminal record.

While the government of President Robert Mugabe digs it's heels in, the
right to peaceful demonstration is one less freedom Zimbabweans have.

Engaging in a public protest is like waiving a red flag in front of the
police who have a reservoir of laws to justify a clampdown. The main law
against gatherings is the Public Order and Security Act (Posa), which
replaced another draconian colonial legislation, the Law and Order
(Maintenance) Act.

Since its enactment in January 2002, Posa has been used to target
opposition supporters, independent media and human rights activities. It
restricts their right to criticise the government, engage in or organise
acts of peaceful civil disobedience.

On October 9, a demonstration by the country's powerful labour
organisation, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), was also
foiled before it began. Fifty-five ZCTU members who had planned to speak
out against high taxation and the cost of living were arrested. Three of
them were seriously assaulted by the police.

Members of the group were cautioned and released. But charges might be
pressed later if the police decide to do so. However, the ZCTU remains
unintimidated. It has planned more demonstrations against high taxation
and inflation until Zimbabwe's budget is presented next month.

It's president, Lovemore Matombo, was among those detained. He says the
most distasteful irony was finding himself in the same cell that he
occupied for 35 days in 1975 for resisting colonial injustice. "You
really feel quite depressed purely because we are an independent country
and are supposed to be democratic enough to allow the basic freedoms to
flow in the normal way," he says.

The union leader says what disturbed him further was that they were
hassled merely for protesting against the well-known issue of taxation.
For years Zimbabweans, who are among some of the most heavily taxed
people in the world, have unsuccessfully sought tax relief from the
government.

Three days after the ZCTU protest, a newly-formed anti-globalisation
coalition, the Zimbabwe Social Forum which is affiliated to the World
Social Forum, was denied permission for a peaceful march.

"Because of the legislation and the political environment in Zimbabwe,
it had to be a peace rally instead," said one of the organizers, Thomas
Deve. Matombo says the government's intolerance for civil disobedience
is purely a matter of clinging to power despite all odds.

The government stands accused of plunging the country into it's worst
economic crisis ever, with inflation at over 500%, unemployment at 70%
and the local currency being worth a little more than the paper on which
it is printed.

Suppressing all forms of protest is the method of choice in
perpetuating control over a very frustrated population.

At the University of Zimbabwe, previously the country's melting pot of
protest, many students' rooms still do not have doors since soldiers
knocked them down during the "final push" mass action organised by the
opposition in June to force Mugabe to the negotiating table.

Talks with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have
been on and off. To date no headway has been made.

Over the weekend at it's annual general meeting, the NCA warned members
who dare to speak out to expect a lot more State repression. "As we
continue in our conviction towards the established of sustainable
democracy in Zimbabwe, more arrests, torture, closure and even worse
forms of oppression, suppression and repression are certain to come our
way," Matombo said. - IPS

*****

Zimbabwe inflation hits new high

Annual inflation in Zimbabwe has risen to 455.6% for September, a new
unwanted record for the country's troubled economy.
The rise, from 426.6% in August, has been put down to price increases
in the average price of everyday items such as meat, bread, cereals,
fruit and vegetables.

The country was once southern Africa's breadbasket, but now seven
million of Zimbabwe's 12 million people are believed to be at serious
risk of famine.

There are fears that the economic difficulties, following President
Robert Mugabe's controversial land reforms, are forcing more people out
of the country.

Commonwealth secretary general Don McKinnon has been reported as saying
that large numbers of Zimbabweans were leaving to find jobs and income
in nearby states.

Strike threat

He said the presidents of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, and of Mozambique,
Joaquim Chissano, had alerted him to the growing extent of the problem.


Mr McKinnon was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying: "I was talking
to President Thabo Mbeki the other day and he told me he has three
million Zimbabweans in South Africa.

"[Mozambique's President] Chissano has 400,000 while Botswana hosts up
to 200,000."

On Tuesday the Central Statistical Office in Harare also revealed that
Zimbabwe's consumer price index rose by 24.8% in September, a rise from
17.6% in August.

Now the country's main labour movement is threatening a series of
strikes over the economic policies which it says are crippling the
country.

Currency shortages

Lovemore Matombo, president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU), said they were protesting against high inflation, prices, taxes
and unemployment.

He said: "We won't ask for permission because it is our right to
express ourselves."

As well as one of the highest inflation rates in the world, Zimbabwe is
struggling with shortages of foreign currency, and unemployment is over
70%.

Gross domestic product is down by a quarter on the late 1990s.

President Mugabe denies mismanaging the economy and has put economic
problems down to foreign opponents, and has blamed drought for food
shortages.


*****

Zim prison sex common despite HIV rate

Harare

15 October 2003 10:42


Up to 70% of male Zimbabwean prisoners have sex with other males in
jails where the HIV prevalence rate is estimated to be 60%, the
state-owned Ziana news agency said on Tuesday.

The news agency cited a doctor from a government referral hospital who
said many prisoners seeking medical attention have been involved in
same-gender sexual acts, which is illegal in the Southern African
country.

"Out of all the prisoners that we attend to on a daily basis, about 60%
to 70% of them admit to have had sex with other males at one time or the
other," Blessing Mukumba was quoted as saying.

Sixty percent of the prisoners admitted to the hospitals are infected
with HIV, according to research done by the referral hospitals, Ziana
said.

A prison officer said same-gender sex was widespread in the overcrowded
jails, but said it was difficult to detect despite regular patrols.

In 1993 a lawmaker and now Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Edna
Madzongwe, suggested the provision of condoms for prisoners to curb the
spread of HIV, but was rebuffed because such a move would be tantamount
to legalising homosexuality in prisons. In January the country's prisons
held 24 500 inmates, far exceeding their capacity of 16 000.

The government in July revised the HIV/Aids tally, putting the
percentage of Zimbabwean adults infected with the HIV/Aids at 24,9%,
down from 33,7% recorded in 2000 by the United Nations.

However, Zimbabwe remains one of the countries worst affected by the
pandemic in the world. An average of more than 3 000 Aids-related deaths
occur each week in Zimbabwe. - Sapa-AFP

Sabre Rattling Ahead of Election

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

October 16, 2003
Posted to the web October 16, 2003

Johannesburg

The stage is set for a hotly contested presidential election next year,
and Malawi's senior clerics have signalled their intention to closely
monitor the conduct of the presidential and legislative polls in May
2004.

The African Church Information Service (ACIS) quoted Monsignor Boniface
Tamani of the Roman Catholic Church as saying "we will have to carry out
investigations to establish if there are ... questionable elements in
the [Electoral] Commission, for the sake of free and fair elections next
year".


Two NGOs, one of which is headed by Tamani, reported that they would
investigate members of the Electoral Commission "for partisan conduct
frustrating expectations for free presidential, parliamentary and local
government elections", ACIS reported.

Rafiq Hajat, of the Blantyre-based Institute for Policy Interaction
(IPI), told IRIN on Thursday there was "a lot of sabre rattling going
on", which was "basically meant to ensure that next year's elections are
free and fair".

He added that, following the controversy around the aborted attempt to
secure a third term for President Bakili Muluzi, "everybody is looking
forward to these elections".

"It's occupying the spotlight on the national stage and is very much in
the nation's consciousness, as it is a crucial one," Hajat said.

A key issue in the upcoming elections will be the humanitarian crisis,
from which Malawi has largely recovered, although there are remaining
pockets of need in rural parts of the country.

At the height of the crisis millions of Malawians were dependent on
food aid to stave off hunger.

"People are saying that the crisis would not have occurred if there had
been good management in the first place," Hajat noted. The government
was heavily criticised for selling off the country's strategic grain
reserves at a time of food shortages.

The state of the economy was also expected to be a central theme in
campaigning. "Our local currency, the Kwacha, has depreciated so badly
in recent days - [to the point] where you pay US $1 for about K110. The
currency has depreciated by 20 percent in the last quarter, and this has
had a knock-on effect on the price of all basic commodities, including
the price of fuel," Hajat added.

The fuel price "went up again just yesterday [Wednesday], and all of
these increases lead to extreme hardship in the rural areas, where
people live hand to mouth".

"When fuel goes up by 10 bucks, you and I will complain but still fill
up and have a gin and tonic in the evening. But for the rural poor, it's
the difference between life and death," Hajat explained. At least 70
percent of Malawians live in rural areas.

"This state of affairs - the hardship of life - is going to be a major
talking point during the election," he added.

In April, Muluzi announced that the ruling United Democratic Front
(UDF) had selected Bingu wa Mutharika as his successor, effectively
ending attempts to allow Muluzi a third five-year term of office.

A president is allowed two consecutive terms by the Malawi
constitution. The bid to have Muluzi serve a third term, and the
proposed constitutional amendment to allow it, heightened political
tensions in Malawi. The move was opposed by human rights groups, the
diplomatic community, the clergy and opposition parties.

The five main opposition parties have formed an alliance to contest the
election, but they have yet to put forward their presidential
candidate.

"They're searching around for a very credible, neutral person," Hajat
said.


*****

SA companies pull out of Zambia

Zarina Geloo | Lusaka

16 October 2003 14:20


More than 2 000 Zambian workers have been left in the lurch as the
South African franchise shop Supreme Furnishers was liquidated by a
Lusaka High Court this week.

The court order scuttles the government's opposition for Supreme
Furnishers, with its subsidiary companies Barnetts and Hifi Electrical,
to cease operations in Zambia. Lawyer for the workers Mark Haimbe has
asked the court to make an order for all employees to be paid their
terminal benefits in full.

The courts have now blocked the company from moving or transferring any
assets or cash to South Africa, in an attempt to force it to pay workers
their terminal benefits.

Durite Chella, a shop attendant, believes workers are being treated
this way because the majority of them are unskilled.

"Would they have treated us this way if we had [college or university]
degrees? It is because the majority of us are attendants and do not have
formal qualifications, that's why they throw us in the streets," she
says.

Supreme Furnishers and its subsidiaries have more than 10 outlets in
Zambia.

Labour Minister Patrick Kafumukache expressed shock at the investor's
decision to pull out of Zambia at such short notice and without paying
workers their full benefits. His Deputy Minister, Chile Ng'uni,
described the liquidation as "fallacious" and "contemptuous".

Ng'uni said workers had exhibited the most decent behaviour for the
seven months the company was in limbo, sacrificing in the face of doom,
banking the company's takings, kept property and used the due process of
law to resolve the matter, only to receive a kick in the face.

"Workers should not despair because government is not going to allow
Zambians to be abused."

Assuring words, but they have only earned the ire of workers.

"How can the ministers now say they are shocked when it is them that
award these licenses to these opportunists -- with no exit clause,
nothing to protect workers?" asked Leah Numutenga, one of the workers.

She said workers had been faithfully working for the company since its
inception and to be treated in this manner with no protection from the
government was similar to living in the pre-independence days when
natives were abused.

"This thing about Supreme Furnishers closing is not new. It was on the
cards as soon as we knew their five-year grace period for paying tax was
over. And we were diligently telling government to beware.

"Now that it has happened, the government has taken no action apart
from saying they should give us our terminal benefits. What happens when
those benefits finish? Where do we get jobs? We have to feed our
families," said Joseph Phiri, another worker.

Supreme Furnishers is the third South African franchise to close down
after the expiry of its tax grace period. Smart Centre, a clothing
company, turned into another company, Duns, and then closed last year.

Food chains Quick Save and Pie City also closed down two years ago. All
eyes are on Shoprite, a huge department store, whose management changed
hands, but after huge protests, the new administration was forced to
keep on all the workers.

Ng'uni said the closure of South African businesses in Zambia was a
consequence of post-privatisation challenges that needed urgent
solutions. He said the decision to privatise and open Zambia's markets
were a good idea but "perhaps we were too gullible, desperate or maybe
somebody was profiteering from the exercise, but its handling has been a
shambles".

Barnetts manager Andrew Chella said the government should not start
looking for excuses because it had been folding its arms while Supreme
Furnishers began closing its shops countrywide last month.

"This company has been running without a board of directors. We have
done everything by the law but they have issued instructions from South
Africa and we are now thrown on the streets. This is arrogance," he
said.

So incensed have the workers been that they marched to former Zambian
president Kenneth Kaunda's house and presented him with a petition in
the hope that he could intervene on their behalf as a world-famous
statesman. The workers begged Kaunda to lobby support on their behalf
with the international community.

Kaunda said it was criminal for the investor to abandon its workers in
that manner. He advised the workers to approach the Zambian government
through the minister of labour and foreign affairs because the matter
needed the intervention of the South African government.

He also advised President Levi Mwanawasa to speak with his South
African counterpart, President Thabo Mbeki, over the issue.

South African high commissioner to Zambia Reddy Mampane said his office
had formed a business association to monitor the activities of South
African-based investors in Zambia, because he too was not happy that
investors fled when their tax rebate period expired.

Supreme Furnishers lawyers Corpus Globe argue that the firm was heavily
indebted and refused to comment further.

When the Zambian government began privatising and opening up the
country for investment in 1993, it offered, as an incentive, a tax-free
grace period of five years.

Franchises such as Shoprite, Game, Woolworths and Peps and other food
chains flooded the country. After the initial grace period was over,
some of the companies either closed down completely or were sold to
other investors who were due for another five-year grace period.

Opposition parties have always warned that there was not enough in the
investment act to guarantee workers' rights or an exit clause that would
safeguard the interests of the country.

Commerce Minister Dipak Patel says the government needs to rethink its
investment policy and make it more Zambia-friendly.

"Our hands are tied because we appeared to have set ourselves up for a
fall. We have to scrutinise this policy again," said Patel. -- IPS

*****

Used pants ban in Tanzania

The Tanzanian government has banned the importing of second-hand
underwear.
An official from the Tanzanian Bureau of Standards (TSB) said they were
acting because of the possibility of users developing skin diseases.

"Standards are demand driven......there is a demand and that's why we
should come up with standards for these garments," the director of the
TSB, Daimon Mwakyembe told the BBC.

But market traders have expressed their unhappiness at the decision,
saying there is no proof that imported clothes posed any risk.

One Tanzanian trader in Dar es Salaam told the BBC that although
imported pants, bras and socks are often in a bad state when traders
receive them, they advise their customers to observe certain rules
before wearing the garments.

"The underwear would usually be in a poor state....the exporters tell
us that the garments have been disinfected but we normally advise our
customers to wash them in hot water before wearing them," said Ibrahim
Jumanne.

Class dependent

Another trader said that the TBS would do better investigating
sub-standard food imports.

   "Tell TBS this is not food. They should concentrate on checking upon
foodstuff imports many of which are expired or sub-standard or unfit for
human consumption," said stall holder Saidi Abdallah Umbe.

Many Tanzanians wear second hand clothes because they are relatively
cheap.

One seller of second hand clothes - known as mitumba - said he believed
the decision was due to pressure from struggling textile manufacturers,
while another said the choice to wear new or used underwear depended on
one's social status.

"It is not right to ban these garments because we all belong to
different social classes... Used underwear is all that the poor people
can afford," said the trader who wished to remain anonymous.

I received this from my former WUSC/Canadian neighbors. I personally found
it very interesting and thought to pass it on.
Luz


>From: "Ingrid Ermanovics" <scott.and.ingrid@...>
>To: "Luz Huntington" <luzhunt@...>,"Celeste Jeff"
><luddites@...>
>Subject: Bolivian Troops Kill Strikers: Strikers against Gas privatization
>and the IMF
>Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 14:29:25 -0400
>
>I thought this would interest you both :)
>Ingrid
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "WuscNet" <wuscnet@...>
>To: "WuscNet" <wuscnet@...>
>Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2003 10:12 AM
>Subject: Bolivian Troops Kill Strikers: Strikers against Gas privatization
>and the IMF
>
>
>In response to a very inspiring popular uprising, things have gotten
>very ugly in Bolivia - we need to get the word out around the world
>that we condemn this bloody repression and support the popular
>uprising.  Below I have added an email that was sent to me through an
>FTAA listserve in the US which includes some ideas for action. I have
>also added (directly below) articles about the situation in Bolivia
>from ZNet.
>
>Bolivia: Aymara Rebellion And Democratic Dictatorship
>http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=52&ItemID=4343
>
>Thirty Killed in Gas War
>http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=52&ItemID=4342
>
>
>-----------------------------
>
>Bolivia is right now on the front lines of the life and death struggle
>against neoliberalism and imperialism.  A popular uprising there
>against the IMF, the FTAA and a proposed sale of a precious national
>resource (gas) to the U.S. via a pipeline to Chile has been met with
>martial law and extreme violence by the Bolivian government.  Many have
>already been killed by police forces.  It is our responsibility to
>respond to the calls of our allies in Bolivia for support and
>solidarity and make sure that the Bolivian government knows that the
>whole world is watching.
>
>See below for info on what to do.
>
>Pablo Solón from Fundación Solón in Bolivia has asked us to:
>
>*Get the word out in the press in our countries and internationally
>about the massacre that is taking place in Bolivia and the extreme
>violence that the government has resorted to to defend the neoliberal
>model.
>* Organize demonstrations and protests against the massacre and
>demanding respect for human rights in Bolivia in front of the Bolivian
>embassy.
>* Arrange international delegations of human rights observers,
>activists, well -known officials and individuals to Bolivia to let the
>Bolivia government know that they are being watched
>* Send messages to the Presidential Ministry at:
>unicom@... and the Cancillería de Bolivia
>dgri6@... with copies to the ERBOL network
>erbol@... and the
>Fundación Solón funsolon@...
>* Organize Bolivian solidarity committees to continue with campaiging.
>
>More information in Spanish and English below about the situation
>there.
>
>"26 reported killed. Bolivian troops massacre strikers"  By César Uco
>and Bill Vann
>14 October 2003
>
>Bolivian army troops backed by tanks killed at least 26 workers and
>peasants and wounded some 90 more Sunday, as the US-backed government of
>President Gonzalo Sanchez Lozada unleashed murderous repressive force in
>an attempt to crush a month-long rebellion against his government's
>International Monetary Fund-dictated austerity policies...
>http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/oct2003/boli-o14.shtml
>
>
>37 killed and 120 injured in 4 weeks of popular uprising
>By solidarity@...
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 14:21:14 -0500
>From: "USA Bolivarian Circles"
>Subject: 37 killed and 120 injured in 4 weeks of popular uprising
>
>
>
>Compañeras and Compañeros:
>
>At this very moment the people of Bolivia are being massacred by the
>Bolivian army and police forces. President Sánchez de Lozada have
>decided to massacre the people of Bolivia. So far there are counts of
>37 deaths, but the amount of deaths is rising by the minute. The
>four-week uprising has not been reported or is being misreported in the
>mass media. In those cases that the Bolivian crisis is reported it
>appears as a hidden note among other news. People in Bolivia are asking
>for the resignation of Sanchez Lozada.
>
>More information follows in Spanish. (NOTE: Information in Spanish from
>aporrea.org)
>
>LA PAZ (AP) - El vicepresidente de la República, el independiente
>Carlos Mesa Guisbert, retiró el lunes su apoyo al presidente Gonzalo
>Sánchez de Lozada y exigió a éste rectificar sus decisiones, en
>momentos en que crecen pedidos para la renuncia del mandatario.
>
>Mesa rompió su silencio el lunes tras los cruentos enfrentamientos del
>fin de semana en la ciudad de El Alto que derivaron, según los
>reportes, en la muerte de al manos 20 personas, lo que aumentó a 30 las
>bajas en las protestas que comenzaron hace un mes. Hay más de un
>centenar de heridos, según diversos informes.
>
>El aeropuerto internacional de El Alto estaba cerrado el lunes y decen
>as de viajeros estaban atrapados en Santa Cruz de la Sierra o
>Cochabamba.
>
>"No puedo seguir apoyando una situación como la que estamos viviendo",
>dijo.
>
>"He pedido al gobierno que busque una posición de diálogo y establezca
>la paz, pero no he tenido éxito y las acontecimientos se han venido
>desencadenando ininterrumpidamente con un costo de vidas humanas que mi
>conciencia de ser humano no puede tolerar", dijo en una rueda de prensa.
>
>Mesa, periodista de profesión, aseguró que no va a renunciar al cargo.
>
>"No puedo aceptar que las cosas lleguen al extremo que han llegado y no
>hay razón que justifique la muerte de compatriotas", acotó.
>
>Asimismo, hizo un llamado a los parlamentarios a reanudar sesiones el
>lunes para debatir la situación que vive en estos momentos Bolivia.
>
>El anuncio Sánchez de Lozada en la madrugada del lunes de postergar la
>decisión sobre la exportación del gas no logró frenar las protestas.
>
>Sánchez de Lozada, cuyo mandato finalizará el 6 de agosto de 2007,
>anunció a las dos de la madrugada del lunes que no tomará una decisión
>sobre la exportación del gas hasta realizar consultas y debates, que
>deben terminar hasta el 31 de diciembre próximo.
>
>Evo Morales pide la renuncia de Sánchez de Lozada
>
>Mientras el Presidente hacía el anunció, el diputado cocalero, Evo
>Morales, uno de los líderes de las protestas en la llamada "guerra del
>gas", insistía en la renuncia de Sánchez de Lozada para dar paso a una
>"sucesión constitucional".
>
>"Queremos ser responsables, por eso pedimos la sucesión constitucional,
>porque vamos a defender la democracia ante todo", dijo Morales.
>
>Los llamados de Morales a oponerse a la venta del gas comenzaron hace
>un mes con protestas y cortes de rutas que se localizan en La Paz,
>mientras el resto del país vive una relativa calma.
>
>Morales fue acusado la madrugada del sábado por el gobierno de
>propiciar un golpe de estado en contra Sánchez de Lozada, según dijo el
>vocero presidencial, Mauricio Antezana.
>
>Preocupado por el giro que van tomando las cosas, el ministro de Salud,
>Javier Torres Goitia, calificó el lunes como una "verdadera tragedia"
>lo que ocurrió el fin de semana en El Alto.
>
>"El Presidente está dispuesto a negociar sin condiciones, pero que pare
>la violencia y los llamados de Evo Morales a tomar las propiedades
>privadas", dijo.
>
>Al mismo tiempo anunció que las tropas se replegaran a sus cuarteles
>cuando pare el caos y vuelva la calma a El Alto.
>
>El lunes la ciudad de La Paz amaneció sin transporte y sólo algunos
>vehículos públicos circulaban debido al paro indefinido decretado por
>la Confederación de Choferes, la falta de combustible y ante el temor
>se sufrir represalias. El comercio y la banca no abrieron sus puertas y
>la gente se movilizaba a pie.
>
>Vecinos de las villas comenzaron a bloquear las calles mientras el
>alcalde de La Paz, Juan del Granado hizo un llamado a suspender las
>actividades en la urbe para "evitar enfrentamientos y más muertos".
>
>Militares redoblaron la vigilancia en la plaza Murillo, sede del
>palacio presidencial, donde el pasado febrero una enfrentamiento entre
>policías y militares dejó 30 muertos.
>
>La vecina ciudad de El Alto, escenario de dos días de enfrentamientos,
>amaneció el lunes como un campo de batalla en el sexto día de paro
>indefinido con tanques de guerra y soldados en las calles, comercios
>saqueados e incendiados y gran cantidad de barricadas. Solo algunas
>bicicletas transitaban por calles alfombradas de piedras.
>
>Aun así, miles de manifestantes desafiaban la presencia militar y
>preparaban un marcha que se anticipa masiva para llegar hasta el centro
>de la ciudad de La Paz, exigiendo la dimisión del presidente.
>
>El alcalde de El Alto, José Luis Paredes, manifestó su criterio de que
>el Presidente se responsabilice por las muertes y renuncie a su mandato.
>
>Los habitantes de esa ciudad de 750.000 habitantes son en su mayoría
>migrantes del área rural y viven una vida muy precaria.
>
>Iniciaron un paro indefinido hace seis días exigiend o el rechazo a la
>exportación de gas y la derogatoria de una nueva ley impositiva que,
>ellos dicen, les grabará con más impuestos.
>
>Pero el lunes antepusieron a sus demandas la renuncia del presidente.
>"Sánchez de Lozada debe irse, lo que ha ocurrido en El Alto es una
>masacre",dijo el dirigente sindical, Roberto de la Cruz.
>
>El lunes todavía se reportaban enfrentamientos y probables bajas entre
>grupos de manifestantes y soldados en los suburbios de esa ciudad.
>
>Bolpress.com: Ministro de Desarrollo Económico renuncia a su cargo
>
>Jorge Torres, ministro de Desarrollo Económico, del Movimiento de
>Izquierda Revolucionario (MIR), presentó hoy renuncia irrevocable a su
>cargo argumentando diferencias insalvables con el gobierno respecto a
>cómo solucionar los actuales conflictos sociales del país.
>****************************************************************************
>*****
>To get on or off this listserve, please email wuscnet@... with
>SUBSCRIBE
>or UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject field.  For more information on WUSC, please
>visit: www.wusc.ca
>
>Pour vous abonner au réseau ou pour mettre fin à votre abonnement, veuillez
>adresser un message électronique à wuscnet@... et inscrivez comme
>suject
>du message "SUBSCRIBE" ou "UNSUBSCRIBE".  Pour plus d'information visitez
>notre site:  www.wusc.ca.
>****************************************************************************
>*****
>

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Africa childbirth deaths 'unacceptable'

African women are 175 times more likely to die in childbirth than
Westerners, a UN report says.
Overall, African woman have a one in 16 chance of dying in child birth
- but the report says many deaths could be avoided.

Unicef Executive Director Carol Bellamy desribed said the figures
showed an "unacceptably high number of women dying in childbirth" and
called for increased access to emergency obsteric care.

Many women deliver their children alone or with untrained attendants,
says the report.

In 2000 95% of the 529,000 maternal deaths occured in Africa and Asia.


The report calls for more women to have access to a skilled health
worker during pregnancy and labour, and access to emergency medical care
when complications arise.

It says most maternal deaths and disability result from delays in
recognising complications, reaching a medical facility or receiving
quality care.

Lee Jong-wook, director-general of the World Health Organization, said:
"Skilled attendants are vital because they can recognise and prevent
medical crises."

New technique

The report is the first time a new analytical technique has been used
to estimate the number of maternal deaths in countries where accurate
figures are hard to come by.

It shows that in the year 2000, the death rate among mothers per
100,000 live births was 920 in sub-Saharan Africa.

In developed countries it was just 20. In south central Asia it was
520, and in southeastern Asia 210.

The two countries with the worst record were Sierra Leone and
Afghanistan, both suffering from years of civil strife, where the risk
of death among pregnant women was one in six.

In Angola, Malawi and Niger, it was one in seven.

Japanese women have an only one in 6,000 chance of dying in pregnancy
or childbirth.

In 2000, world leaders agreed to slash the numer of maternal deaths by
75% by 2015.

Three UN agencies - World Health Organisation, the UNICEF children's
agency, and the UN Population Fund - collaborated on the report.

  Chance of maternal death
Sierra Leone, Afghanistan: one in six
Angola, Malawi, Niger: one in seven
Nepal: one in 24
Pakistan: one in 31
India: one in 48
Malaysia: one in 660
China: one in 830
US: one in 2,500
South Korea: one in 2,800
Britain: one in 3,300
Japan: one in 6,000
Sweden: one in 29,800

*****

Zimbabwe admits land 'chaos'

Less than half the number of supposed beneficiaries have been resettled
under Zimbabwe's land reform programme, an official report says.
The government has previously said that 300,000 black farmers had been
given land seized from whites in the past three years.

But a report prepared by Charles Utete, a close ally of President
Robert Mugabe, puts the figure at 127,192, according to leaks in two
local newspapers.

The report also said that bureaucratic failings and political
interference had hindered the process.

One part of the land reform programme was meant to create 50,000 black
commercial farmers but just 7,260 families have been given land under
this scheme, according to the privately-owned Financial Gazette.

Zimbabwe is experiencing economic meltdown, with shortages of basic
foods, petrol and even banknotes and inflation reaching 455%.

Government critics blame this on the disruption of the land reform
programme to agriculture.

Mr Mugabe blames a plot by western powers opposed to his reforms.

Criteria ignored

The government has seized some 8.6m hectares of land on 4,324 farms,
the report says.

It says that 1,323 white farmers remained on their land - far above the
400 estimated by their representatives.

Although the government published clear and well-defined criteria for
who would lose their farms - absentee landowners, those who had multiple
properties, those near already black areas - the lists of seized farms
often did not respect these.

Even some properties already belonging to the state were listed for
compulsory seizure.

Many of those properties seized had previously been given a
certificate, saying that the state did not want to acquire them, the
report said.

"Many of these (properties) would, not infrequently, then be delisted
via the same Government Gazette and the same newspapers in which they
had been listed in the first place," the report says.

These failings have resulted in many of the white farmers who have lost
their land appealing to the courts.

"As the committee went about its work, it could not fail to be struck
by the number and the variety of legal issues that still required a
resolution," the report said.

*****

Zim group demands new constitution

Wilson Johwa | Harare, Zimbabwe

20 October 2003 15:43


Without New Constitution, No Chance for Opposition


Zimbabwe's main constitutional change pressure group has taken its
campaign to a level, demanding that the next general election be held
only under a new democratic constitution.

The National Constitutional Assembly, a grouping of civic groups,
labour unions, churches and opposition parties, says to get into another
election before changing the rules would be self-defeating.

"Zimbabweans would be foolish to go into another election without a new
constitution," says chairperson Lovemore Madhuku. "The current
government is not accountable because there is nothing in the
Constitution to make it accountable."

Zimbabwe is in the grip of its worst political and economic crises,
blamed on the country's long-serving, all-powerful executive President
Robert Mugabe with a limitless number of terms of office.

Last year Mugabe won his fifth election since independence under a
cloud of controversy that he stole victory through intimidation,
violence and mass disenfranchisement.

The opposition is contesting the outcome of this election in court.

But the problems go beyond one man. Zimbabwe has not had a popular
constitution since gaining independence from Britain in 1980, following
a protracted liberation struggle against the rebel Rhodesian government
of Ian Smith.

The country has been operating on the ceasefire document signed at
Lancaster House in London, Britain, in 1979 and subsequently amended 15
times.

Political analysts in Zimbabwe say a skewed electoral playing field has
helped the ruling party dominate all elections held since 1980.

"You can have 100 elections under the current Constitution and they
will all be stolen," Madhuku says.

Elections in Zimbabwe are run by civil servants and verified by an
ineffective Electoral Supervisory Commission appointed by the president,
who also has the power to validate and invalidate elections.

Thus, in effect, the Constitution allows the president to be both
referee and player.

One of the Constitution's major weaknesses is that the presidential
election and parliamentary elections do not have to be held
simultaneously. The presidential term is six years while
parliamentarians are elected for five years.

Furthermore, the gap between the two elections is growing. The last
parliamentary election was held in 2000. The presidential election took
place two years later.

The next parliamentary elections will be in March or April 2005 and the
presidential election will be in 2008.

This two-year interval between the two elections will swell to five
years by 2020, potentially making the country ungovernable.

Madhuku says to reject voting under the current Constitution is not
akin to boycotting elections.

"We are saying let's disturb the electoral process under the current
Constitution. If an election is called, we will disrupt nomination
through mass action."

But the ultimate decision to participate will be left to the political
parties themselves, he says.

Launched in January 1998, the National Constitutional Assembly
spearheaded the successful campaign against a new ruling-party-drafted
constitution in February 2000, giving Mugabe his first ever electoral
defeat.

Twenty months after its formation, the National Constitutional Assembly
gave rise to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has since
become the country's main opposition party.

Since then the two organisations have sometimes had an uneasy
relationship.

"At the moment, the relationship with the MDC is fine, we are agreed on
these principles," Madhuku says. "But we don't trust that they will be
with us on this point."

"Political parties are opportunistic," he says. "When they see power
they abandon principle."

The second round of talks between the MDC and Zanu-PF aimed at halting
the country's decline has been on and off since March. Madhuku says if
the MDC believes these talks will offer it a chance at power it is
likely to forget about a new constitution.

Equally, he says if the MDC thinks the current constitution will lead
it into power it will stick to it.

"They have some faith in the current Constitution since they have
managed to win elections under it."

Nine months after formation in 2000, the MDC won 57 of the contested
120 parliamentary seats. Since then the party has scored major victories
in council elections.

However, MDC spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi says "the only way forward
for Zimbabwe is through constitutional reform".

Nyathi adds that the decision to contest elections is made by the MDC's
national executive.

"We will cross that particular bridge when we get to it."

Meanwhile, Zanu-PF spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira says the 2005
elections will go ahead as scheduled and that the ruling party has no
plans to adopt a new constitution.

He accuses the National Constitutional Assembly of indecisiveness.

"They were the ones who rejected the constitution we put on the table
in 2000. They don't seem to know what they want," he alleges. -- IPS

*****

Zim judge wonders why The Daily News was banned

Susan Njanji | Harare

18 October 2003 08:23


A judge hearing an appeal by Zimbabwe's only private daily newspaper,
shut down by the government, questioned on Friday why the country's
media law was not applied when the paper was refused a licence last
month.

Administrative Court Judge Michael Majuru grilled the licensing
commission's head Tafataona Mahoso on the criteria used by the
commission in deciding to refuse The Daily News registration.

"This is not a case where you can come up with reasons of your own ...
it has to be reasons laid down by the law."

"The wording of the act is very clear, it tells you when you can refuse
registration," said Majuru.

The sections of the media law referred to by the judge states that the
commission may not refuse to register a mass media house unless it
contravenes any provisions of the law or provides misleading or false
information on its application form.

Other grounds that can lead to the rejection of registration include
non-payment of registration fees or if the application is filed by an
non-authorised person.

On Thursday Mahoso said his commission's decision was influenced by the
Supreme Court ruling which had declared The Daily News illegal because
it was not yet registered by the media commission.

Majuru also asked Mahoso why his commission did not take any steps as
provided in the law against The Daily News for the eight months during
which it operated without a licence.

The commission had powers under the law to remind the paper that it was
operating illegally, to issue an order to the paper not to continue
publishing or impose daily penalties for the period the paper
contravened the act.

Mahoso, who admitted that his commission did not set up a new deadline
for The Daily News to register, decided not to take action against the
paper because the newspaper had turned to the courts to seek the
nullification of the media law.

"Since the matter was now in the court, we did not feel that we had to
act in the first place," he told the court.

The hearing continues on Sunday when the lawyers will sum up their
arguments.

The Daily News's lawyers had argued on the first day of the appeal
hearing that the media commission's refusal to grant the paper a
registration certificate was politically motivated.

They accused Mahoso of bias and hostility against The Daily News.

The paper has been off the news stands since armed police forcibly shut
it down last month and confiscated all its equipment.

Police moved onto the paper's premises in the capital on Friday
September 12 after the Supreme Court ruled that the newspaper was
operating illegally because it was not registered with media commission,
set up shortly after President Robert Mugabe was re-elected in disputed
elections in March last year.

The paper had earlier decided against registering with the commission,
arguing that obligatory registration was against the constitution of the
southern African country. It subsequently submitted an application last
month, but it was rejected. -Sapa-AFP

*****

Zimbabwe fuel firm on empty



20 October 2003 07:49


Zimbabwe's state fuel company has run dry, paralysing virtually all
government departments and stopping many trains, buses and cars across
the country.

The government responded to the latest twist in the long-running fuel
crisis by blaming the British government. "There is no fuel here, not a
single drop," said an official of the state National Oil Company of
Zimbabwe (Nicoz) in the state-controlled Herald newspaper on Saturday.
The official said some fuel was expected "early next week".

Without fuel, the work of government departments around the country has
been hit. Police operations in many areas are being carried out on foot,
bicycle or by public transport.

Ambulances have had to be refuelled by patients' relatives.

The severe shortage should embarrass the energy minister, Amos Midzi,
who said only last week that fuel supplies were "adequate".

International oil companies closed off supplies to Zimbabwe in December
1999 because the government had failed to meet payments.

The state oil company, Noczim, is said to owe around £180-million.

Since then, the country has staggered through on temporary arrangements
- including a year's supply from Libya - which all dried up as the
government continued to fail to pay its bills. - Guardian Unlimited ©
Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

*****
\
Three injured in MDC shooting

Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), has said three people were shot at its headquarters in the
capital, Harare.
The MDC said a lawyer who rents an office in the same building opened
fire on two security guards and a party supporter.

However, a Zimbabwe police spokesman, Wayne Bvudzijena, disputed the
MDC's version of events, saying the lawyer opened fire only after he was
shot at.

-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Anne Baker <anne@...>
Sent: Oct 18, 2003 7:15 PM
To: npcanews@...
Subject: [NPCANews] Addendum to this week's NPCANews posting

News and information from the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA).  Please
visit us online at http://www.rpcv.org.


Following the item in this week's NPCANews on a possible series about
security issues, the Peace Corps asked us to send you this background
information (see below).

If you have any comments or questions, please direct them to
president@... <mailto:president@...>.

Anne Baker
Director of Global Education and Technology
National Peace Corps Association
globaled@...


>From the Peace Corps:

Based on numerous discussions with the reporter, we believe the upcoming
series about Peace Corps by Russell Carollo, which is scheduled to run
October 26th, will provide a misleading picture of the Peace Corps and
Peace Corps Volunteer service, particularly with respect to safety and
security.  For example, Mr. Carollo indicated he would print that assaults
and rapes have substantially increased in recent years.  However, the
facts are that Peace Corps data shows a significant decrease in the rate
of major sexual assault events over the past six years as this type of
assault event is down by more than 30 percent since 1997.  As NPCA members
know, Peace Corps has placed and continues to place its highest priority
on the safety and security of Volunteers.  Every Peace Corps director
beginning with Sargent Shriver has maintained this focus and added
training, procedures, and systems as region and world circumstances
change.  Utilizing this focus, and through its reporting and tracking
systems, Peace Corps has achieved great successes in recent years in
reducing major assault incidents and rapes. Unfortunately, we believe that
this fact will not be represented in the article.  We also understand that
this story will argue that the world is too dangerous a place for Peace
Corps Volunteers and will include selected and not representational
anecdotes and incidents spanning the past 30 plus years.  We also have
great concerns about the intentions of the reporter, who stated to Kevin
Quigley, among others, after Kevin informed Mr. Carollo of the many
positive attributes of the Peace Corps, that many others have said the
same thing.  Mr. Carollo further stated that Peace Corps is an agency that
has had nothing but good stories written about it over the past 40 years.
He then said he was not interested in these positive remarks; he was
interested in the problems.


_______________________________________________
Please note: The materials and information included in this listserv are
provided as a service to you and do not necessarily reflect endorsement by the
National Peace Corps Association.  Postings to this list are by NPCA staff only.
The NPCA is not responsible for the accuracy of information provided from
outside sources.

We encourage subscribers to pass the information along to colleagues and other
interested parties.  Please credit this listserv as the source and include
subscription information.

To join the National Peace Corps Association or renew your membership, go to
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Scribes to Stand By Harassed Zim Counterparts

African Church Information Service

October 20, 2003
Posted to the web October 20, 2003

Hamilton Vokhiwa
Blantyre

The closure of the an independent newspaper in Zimbabwe, The Daily
News, has triggered condemnation from media practitioners in Malawi.

Representatives of Malawi's National Media Institute of Southern Africa
(NAMISA), have criticised the Zimbabwe government, and have promised to
petition the Zimbabwean High Commissioner in Malawi on the matter.

Secretary for NAMISA, Lowani Mtonga, expressed sympathy with a team of
journalists from Zimbabwe who were in Blantyre to brief their colleagues
on the situation in their country.

The journalists also visited South Africa, Botwsana, Namibia and
Zambia.

National Director for Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA)-Zimbabwe, Sara Chumbu, condemned journalists from the Southern
Africa Development Community (SADC) region for not using their regional
weight to help media in one country when in trouble.

She subsequently called on all media practitioners in the region to
start helping each other in order to promote media freedom in the
region.

Chumbu explained the repercussions of the closure of Daily News,
pointing out that according to Zimbabwean laws, journalists who were
employed by the paper are not supposed to work as media persons for two
years.

The closure of Daily News last month has meant loss of jobs for the 60
journalists that it was employing.


*****

Zim opposition's 'peaceful weapon'

Johannesburg

21 October 2003 13:57


Zimbabwe's opposition on Tuesday defended its "peaceful" legal
challenge to the legitimacy of the government of longtime leader Robert
Mugabe, re-elected last year in controversial polls.

Zimbabwe's High Court is to begin hearing the challenge on November 3
when the opposition will argue that Mugabe, who has ruled the southern
African country since 1980, won re-election through massive fraud,
violence and intimidation of opposition supporters.

"This case is our peaceful weapon," David Coltart, an MP and legal
adviser of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said during a visit
to South Africa.

By challenging the results of the March 2002 polls, the MDC "are
exercising our constitutional right," Coltart told a press conference in
Johannesburg. "We are showing we are a mature political party ready to
use the law even if it's subverted."

The MDC, Zimbabwe's main opposition party led by former union leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, filed the challenge in April 2002, the month after
the election which was widely condemned as flawed, prompting sanctions
from the European Union and the United States and suspension from the
Commonwealth.

Coltart said: "The court procedure will show why the election was
illegitimate. The case will also refocus world attention on the issue,
the illegality of the government."

However the MDC official said he feared that the High Court, whose
president was appointed by Mugabe, "are not taking this case
seriously."

Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front
(Zanu-PF) party "wants to clear Mugabe's name," he said, adding: "I fear
tactics to postpone the case."

Coltart noted that the lawyer chosen for the case by the government is
little known in Zimbabwe and that the presiding judge in the case has
not yet been chosen.

Zanu-PF has demanded that the MDC drop the challenge and take part in
talks to resolve Zimbabwe's economic and political crises, a dialogue
that broke down in May last year after the opposition launched the
challenge. - AFP

*****

Zimbabwe tobacco sales lowest in 50 years

Harare

21 October 2003 12:27


Zimbabwe's annual auction of tobacco, once the motor of one of Africa's
most vigorous economies, closed on Monday at its lowest volume in nearly
50 years, with even an even gloomier future for the next season's crop.

Sales on all three auction floors ended with 80,2-million kilogrammes
of smoking leaf -- less than half last year's 166-million kilogrammes
and a third of the record 236-million kilogrammes sold in 2000.

The Zimbabwe Tobacco Association, which represents growers, is
forecasting a crop next year of 60-million kilogrammes, but officials
admit it may drop to 40-million.

President Robert Mugabe's seizures of white-owned farms -- a large
proportion of which produced tobacco -- and the accelerating economic
collapse driven by the 79-year-old former guerilla leader's economic
policies are said to be behind the tobacco collapse.

This year's crop -- nearly all of it exported -- earned about
US$179-million, less than half of what the record bumper crop of
236-million kilogrammes earned in 2000, before Mugabe's "revolutionary
land reform programme" had taken full effect. Since well before
independence in 1980, tobacco has been the country's most important
source of foreign currency.

"Without a significant tobacco industry, there are almost no other
sources of foreign currency," said Harare-based economist Tony Hawkins.

"It means fertilisers, crop chemicals and fuel will be harder than ever
to get. We will have to import more and more food. Hard currency will be
harder and harder to get on the black market, and the exchange rate will
disappear into the stratosphere."

"The industry is dying," said David Machingaidze, the managing director
of Tobacco Sales Floors. "We are going into the dark. We don't know
which farmers are going to take the risk of planting a crop."

"If the (white) commercial sector continues to dwindle significantly
without any meaningful growth from the new farmers (who have taken over
white-owned land), that is probably the biggest question," he said.

Commercial farmers, nearly all whites, with generations of experience
in growing and curing high grade leaf, accounted for 75% of this year'
crop. The small-scale peasant farmers crop is not only much less, but of
low quality.

Even if commercial farmers were left alone to grow, they would face the
task of trying to produce in a hyper-inflationary environment, with the
annual inflation index at the end of September at 455%.

"Chemicals and fertiliser are not only expensive, but also difficult to
find," Machingaidze said. "There are serious shortages."

Last year it cost farmers 1,8-million Zimbabwean dollars to grow a
hectare of tobacco. Forecasts by farmers' unions of 30-million
Zimbabwean dollars now are "not entirely wild", he said.

The government worsened conditions for growers by pegging the exchange
rate at one US dollar to 800 Zimbabwe dollars, as the unofficial
"parallel" rate soared unchecked to about one US dollar to 5 500
Zimbabwe dollars.

Twice in the five-month growing season, peasant growers withdrew their
crop from sale in an attempt to force the state to devalue and give them
a better price. Their action went unheeded. - Sapa-DPA

*****

South Africa HIV rate 'falling'

A new analysis of the Aids epidemic in South Africa suggests that fewer
people are becoming infected with HIV than in previous years.
The research also predicts that the total number of HIV-positive people
in South Africa will remain constant for the foreseeable future.

About 5m South Africans carry the Aids virus - more than in any other
country.

The researchers say Aids remain a "huge burden" in the country.

Research from ante-natal clinics shows that the proportion of young
women carrying the Aids virus has declined over the last five years.

Scientists have now combined that finding with information from a
recent nationwide survey, and put the data into a computer programme
which aims to model the epidemic.

Safe sex

The results were published in the African Journal of Aids Research.

They suggest that the annual rate of new infections has declined
substantially, from 4.1% of the population aged 15-49 in 1997 to 1.7% in
2002.

  One of the researchers, Dr Thomas Rehle, says that is partly because
young people are paying more attention to safe sex education.

"Well, it looks like people more and more get the message. And
particularly among the young groups, it looks like it gets better and
better absorbed."

But BBC science correspondent Richard Black says the epidemic is
certainly far from over.

In the immediate future, the proportion of the adult population
infected with HIV will stay roughly constant, the researchers say; the
average life expectancy will continue to fall for around 10 years.

The projections made by this research team are considerably lower than
previous estimates, and the scientists acknowledge there are
uncertainties in their figures.

But they emphasise their analysis does not mean that the scale of the
AIDS problem has been exaggerated.

Bridging Govt And Civil Society Divide

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

October 21, 2003
Posted to the web October 21, 2003

Johannesburg

Moves are underway to enhance interaction between Malawi's parliament
and civil society to increase the flow of information to the
electorate.

The Blantyre-based Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI) embarked on a
series of regional workshops with MPs, NGOs and the media, culminating
in a national workshop held from 15 to 17 October.

"The purpose of the national workshop was to deliberate on the feedback
emanating from the regional workshops, and translate it into a feasible
action plan that would be implemented by elected teams, with fixed
deadlines to achieve their objectives, which were all aimed towards
enhancing links and accessibility between parliament and civil society,"
the IPI said in a statement.

Teams are now being formed to translate "into concrete action" the
concept of building bridges between government, civil society and the
electorate.

Areas to be immediately addressed include capacity building for MPs, to
enable them to understand subjects that are highly technical, thus
enhancing their ability to contribute more constructively in
parliamentary debates. Civil society's comprehension of parliamentary
procedures was also identified as an area that needed improvement.

The teams would also work on improving "channels of communication, for
better flow of information from parliament to the electorate, i.e.,
better distribution of Hansard [parliamentary records] and fact sheets
at grassroots levels".

A permanent civil society office is to be established in the parliament
buildings in Lilongwe. "The office would be manned by a parliament
liaison or publicity officer," the IPI added.

Crucial to the success of the initiative was revitalising the formal
relationship with the media, through the media committee in parliament,
so that they would be encouraged to participate in the committee.

The introduction of legislation in areas of specific interest through
private member's bills also needed to be encouraged, the national
workshop found.

Malawians will go to the polls in May next year to choose a new
president and parliament.


*****

IMF admits it is failing Africa

By Martin Plaut
BBC Africa analyst

Countries cannot raise enough revenue for spending
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has admitted that one of its key
African initiatives is in trouble.
In a working paper published in Washington, two of the IMF's
researchers show that its programme to relieve some of Africa's poorest
countries of their debt burden may not produce a sustainable economic
situation.

The IMF's initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries was launched
in 1996.

Its aim was simple: to cut the mountain of debts that countries had run
up, reducing them to more manageable levels.

At the same time, the programme encouraged states to increase their
spending on the poor - on badly needed policies aimed at building
schools and paying teachers.

Spending shortfalls

This study looks at the performance of 12 African countries - all of
which were heavily indebted before the programme got under way.

These include Mozambique, Tanzania, Ghana and Cameroon - countries
chosen to represent a variety of economic conditions.

IMF and World Bank

The problem highlighted by the study is that half the countries sampled
are estimated to be unable to raise enough revenue to pay for the
spending programmes the IMF is calling for.

"As countries made progress in macroeconomic stabilisation they are now
'allowed' to increase their expenditure to address poverty reduction
needs," says the report by Annalisa Fedelino and Alina Kudina.

It gives Tanzania as an example. The country is projected to increase
its expenditure level by more than 4% of GDP, to above 22% of Gross
Domestic Product (GDP), in 2002/3 relative to the previous fiscal year.


"However, based on our framework, this may result in the country's
swinging back into unsustainable debt levels," the report continues.

"Unless HIPCs improve their primary fiscal positions or grant financing
is sustained at current, or possibly higher, levels, debt sustainability
in HIPCs may prove elusive in the long term," it says.

The authors warn that the countries concerned are likely to move back
into unsustainable levels of debt.

Only raising taxes or getting more foreign aid will allow Africa's
poorest nations to escape this fate.

*****

Retrenched Farm Workers Sink to Destitution

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

October 20, 2003
Posted to the web October 20, 2003

Lee Berthiaume


SEVEN kilometres south of Kadoma town, a small farmhouse stands
surrounded by a fence topped with razor wire. Signs on the fence warn
against trespassing. The fields around the house have not been ploughed
in over a year and there is no sign of any preparations for the coming
agricultural season.

Some distance south of the farmhouse, few cement buildings are
clustered around several thatched huts. Children in torn and dirty
clothes play in the red dust, oblivious of the insects and parasites
that have infected their scalps and faces. Many of the children have
distended stomachs, symptons of their malnutrition.

A group of women watches the children from the door of a cement hut
that was built years ago to house them. A large '12' is painted on the
door to identify it from the other worn down buildings.

An old man sits in a chair a few buildings away, lost in his own world.
He offers a toothless smile and shakes hands before returning to
wherever it is he goes. A young man sits near him, his face in his
hands. There are 20 families living here, consisting of just over 100
people, including 50 children.

As one aid worker explains, these are the silent voices of Zimbabwe;
while the farm owners fled with what little they could carry as war
veterans and "Green Bombers" seized their properties, the farm workers
were forced to stay behind and watch it all fall apart.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) released a report in July in which
it estimated as many as 240 000 farm workers had lost their jobs, 100
000 people had been forced from their homes and more than one million
people - including the workers' families - had been directly affected by
the land reform process.

This particular farm was one of the 2 900 designated on August 10 last
year. According to Senzeni Sibanda, before the resettlement, life was
good for the farm workers.

"We were living quite peacefully," she explains. "We were happy, we had
everything."

Children were attending school, the people were well fed and were even
making money to spend on themselves. As Sibanda talks, the children
gather around and rip a loaf of bread apart, eating it ravenously. The
women stand and watch; they probably won't eat today.

The farm workers only learned of the resettlement when the former farm
owner called them to the farmhouse and asked them to pack his
belongings. That was the last they saw of him but they didn't have to
wait long for the new settler.

"Just soon after the farm was taken over we were told we were
unemployed," Sibanda says.

With their only source of income lost, the people were forced to fend
for themselves.

With the help of the Zimbabwe Community Development Trust (ZCDT), the
community has managed to start a small garden where they grow various
vegetables to sell at the market down the road. But even that hasn't
been enough.

"We cannot get anything," Sibanda says. "We can't even pay school fees,
medication, or anything. We are like people in a coma; we can't see our
future."

According to a report from the Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe (FCTZ),
only about 100 000 commercial farm workers were still employed at the
end of last year on the 20 per cent of farms that were still
operational. The rest have had to fend for themselves. To make ends
meet, some have turned to doing odd jobs at nearby farms, panning for
gold under railway tracks and prostitution.

In Sibanda's community, 12 people have died from disease - the
prevalence of HIV/AIDS is presumed to be high - malnutrition and
dehydration over the past seven months and that number is expected to
rise as the situation continues to deteriorate.

"We just need food and medication," says Sharai Bava, whose husband was
a farm worker. She indicates the head of one of her daughters, which is
covered in scabs and flies.

Bava says there have been rumours the new settler will chase the former
farm workers off his farm.

"We are just like animals; we are rejected, we can't eat good food, we
can't have anything."

North of the farmhouse is another group of huts and cement buildings.
Where the southern compound was brown and white from the buildings, red
from the dust and green from the vegetable garden, the northern compound
is just brown and red.

Last year the compound's electric water pump broke down and the former
farm owner took it to get a replacement but didn't have a chance to
replace it before being evicted.

Now the people in the northern compound are forced to walk across the
nearby highway to fetch water.

There is no garden to make money, no water to bathe or wash. There are
only a few scrawny chickens and many mouths to feed.

"We only survive because you are giving us something," 81-year-old
Stone Banda says to one ZCDT aid worker.

The organisation delivers care packages of food and soap to the
compound every month. Banda, who moved to the farm to work in 1978, says
the lack of water is killing the community.

"We have no future unless we get water. We are like refugees because we
don't have anything," Banda says.

While life has been hard for these ex-farm workers, they have not been
spared from the political violence. At the height of the land reforms,
war veterans and the youth militia accused many farm workers of
supporting the white farm owners and the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).

The United Nations estimated at the end of last year that more than 100
000 former farm workers had been chased from their homes.

In addition, dozens of ex-farm workers have been killed and thousands
others forced to move due to the violence.

Ex-farm workers have been the centre of the many humanitarian efforts
in the country as dozens of non-government organisations have scrambled
to provide emergency food aid while others have offered training in
alternative ways to generate income.

But thousands of former farm workers are in places that NGOs are banned
or find difficult to reach so they must try to survive on their own.

"There are quite a number of challenges," says Didimas Munhenzva,
acting director of ZCDT, citing fuel and resource shortages as well as
ongoing political violence as some of the reasons the NGO hasn't been
able to do more.

"People are just waiting for tomorrow and are trying to make it through
today," says Munhenzva.

IMF ends loan sanctions against Malawi

Blantyre

22 October 2003 16:45


Local economists have welcomed Monday's decision by the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) to resume aid to Malawi, but warned government to
keep its promise of fiscal discipline by cutting over-expenditure in
non-priority areas such as foreign travel.

"We expect the government to treat the aid and its conditionalities
with kid gloves to avoid angering the donors again," said Perks Ligoya
of the Economics Association of Malawi (ECAMA).

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday approved a $9,2-million
aid disbursement to lift the lid on three years of lending sanctions
against Malawi. The resumption of the aid has raised hopes of an
economic recovery in the poor southern African country of more than
10-million people.

The approval followed the conclusion of a review of Malawi's economic
performance under a Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) by the
IMF executive board in Washington on Monday, according to a statement by
the IMF.

It said the IMF Board's decision would become effective after a further
decision when the World Bank's Executive Board will meet to review
Malawi's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (MPRSP) on October 23.

The IMF also said it has agreed to Malawi's request for resumption of
interim assistance under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)
initiative by approving the release of $6,6-million "to help Malawi meet
its debt service payments to the IMF".

IMF Deputy Managing Director Shigemitsu Sugisaki said Malawi has made
satisfactory progress in restoring "some" measure of fiscal discipline
and targets during the first half of 2003, despite a prevailing severe
drought and related food shortage.

"Not withstanding these recent gains, Malawi continues to face daunting
economic and social challenges. Sustained political will, therefore,
continue to be needed to reverse economic deterioration, ensure
macroeconomic stability, improve public service delivery and promote
poverty reduction," he said.

Local economists agree.

Ligoya warned the government against diverting donor resources for
election-related expenditure. General elections are due in Malawi in May
2004.

"The problem is, when we get the money, government will get excited,
thinking they have triumphed," said Collins Magalasi of the Malawi
Economic Justice Network (MEJN).

He criticised the penchant for unnecessary foreign travels by senior
government officials.

Last month President Bakili Muluzi cancelled a trip to the UN General
Assembly in New York following pressure from civil society that the
visit would waste over $740 000 of taxpayer's money. Ironically, Muluzi,
with a bloated delegation, opted for a trip to Japan to attend the
annual Japan-Africa Development summit.

The IMF suspended aid to Malawi under PRGF -- its most concessional
facility for low-income countries -- in 2001 following implementation
slippages by the Lilongwe government. Malawi only managed to withdraw
about $9,2-million in 2000, out of $64,5-million of the PRGF
arrangement.

The IMF's suspension of aid served as a signal to Malawi's other
traditional bilateral donors in Europe to pull the aid plug. They froze
$75-million worth of balance of payments for Malawi, and demanded
repayments of misused money in the interim.

But the three-year drought threw the Malawi economy into the deep end,
and government had to resort to heavy borrowing from the domestic market
to balance its budget.

The situation had a disastrous impact on private sector as it pushed up
interest rates to more than 45%, on the back of fast drying forex
reserves which resulted in rapid depreciation of the Malawi kwacha.

At least 30 companies closed shop since 1999 owing to the tough
economic conditions following aid suspension, according to studies by
Polytechnic, a branch of the University of Malawi.

"Doing business is like cycling to the top of a mountain," said Mathews
Chikaonda of Press Corporation Limited (CPL), Malawi's largest
conglomerate listed as a depository on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Responding to critics, finance minister Friday Jumbe vowed on Tuesday
to take unpopular decisions to ensure government stays on track with the
IMF's conditions that go with the release of the aid.

He said expectations were that other donors withholding millions of
dollars in the form of balance of payments and budgetary support in
Europe would thaw their aid.

"It's not an extra bonus to us because it was already factored in the
budget but it would give us a foothold to start building our economy,"
he said.

But the Malawi Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) warned
government that the aid resumption "will not cure all the country's
ills".

"There's no need for overexcitement because this aid will not be enough
to cater for everything," said MCCI's Chancellor Kaferapanjira,
referring to famine.

More than 400 000 people will need food aid from January to March next
year, according to last week's joint Food and Agricultural Organisation
(FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) Crop Supply Assessment Mission
report released in the capital, Lilongwe.

The food shortage, which hit most of southern Africa last year, has
affected implementation of Malawi's 2002/2003 budget, said Finance
minister, Jumbe. - IPS

*****

Strict aid conditions for Malawi

Four key western donors have agreed to resume aid payments to Malawi,
subject to strict terms.
Britain, the European Union (EU), Norway and Sweden said they would
suspend funding if Malawi - one of the world's poorest countries -
failed to adhere to terms agreed recently with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF)

The terms of the $52m (45m euros) aid package include tighter limits on
public spending, the repayment of debt, and reform of government
departments and the civil service.

"Meeting these commitments will require a strong and sustained
political commitment to fiscal discipline and poverty reduction," said a
statement released by the four donors.

Aid was halted in November 2001 over concerns about corruption,
political repression and alleged interference in the judiciary.



*****

Tuition centres 'the rage' in Zambia

Zarina Geloo | Lusaka

23 October 2003 10:53


Martin Mubanga's parents have changed his schools twice this year,
because his class got too large, 15 pupils. "What's the point of sending
your child to an expensive school if it's going to be crowded," says his
mother Elizabeth.

Up to 15 pupils in a class might not be considered "crowded" by most
schools but for Mubanga's type of school -- tuition centres, offering
one-on-one teaching, anything over 10 a class is definitely one too
many.

Tuition centres have become the rage in Zambia. The centres offer what
would appear to be dream schools. Small classes with individual
attention from teachers, concentration on weak subjects and to top it
all British accredited examinations: O level and A level.

Zambia, which gained independence from Britain in 1964, has its own
version of the O level, which is acceptable only in the country.

Students who go on to study abroad either have to sit another entrance
test or sit for their O level examinations at accredited centres,
usually the British Council. To sit for the examinations they have to
follow the British syllabus which the tuition centres offer.

Elizabeth says apart from the fact that Mubanga will go to university
abroad, she has to make sure that he passes well in his chosen subjects
and, therefore, needs close supervision.

"He was getting away with just mere passes and needed to buck up. That
is why I opted for tuition centres," she says.

But her sister, Nathalie Kaunda, says tuition centres should be just
that -- centres for extra tuition for children having difficulty in
certain subjects. She says children going to the centres fulltime are
simply learning how to pass an exam and are not getting an education.
Teacher at a private school Elias Nyanthandu says initially teachers
offered to give struggling students extra tuition to top up their meagre
income.

"All of a sudden it became institutional and now the learning centres
are taking full time students," he says.

Nyanthandu says while it is fine for students, who are in the
completing years and want to obtain UK accreditation, he has a problem
with children in elementary grades being in learning centres.

There is no socialisation, no sports, no engagement in arts and very
rarely do the pupils develop a competitive spirit or leadership skills.

Nyanthandu also says children with special needs like special talents
or learning difficulties are not diagnosed correctly or not provided
with the relevant curriculum or effective practice. Children from this
schooling system find it difficult to cope at
institutions of higher learning where they have to use independent
analysis because they have been conditioned to merely passing exams, he
says.

Head of a tuition centre Annita Deasai argues the centres are filling
the gap left by a crumbling state-provided education system on the one
hand, and exploitative private schooling on the other.

She says at present, Zambia faces two major challenges in education:
access and quality education that is relevant to the needs of learners
and society.

"Our institutions provide good quality education with one-on-one
teaching. We are accessible to those that can afford it. We are also the
only centres accredited to the British Council to teach the British
curriculum. Of course, our aim is to make the children pass their exams,
but to do that we will have taught them appropriately. The standards of
government schools have fallen so badly children are hardly getting any
kind of education at all," she says.

There are 4 500 government-run schools and only about 34 196 teachers,
meaning less than 8 teachers per school. Teachers are demotivated.
Strikes are frequent due to delays in salaries and even then,
remuneration is poor, less than $100 per month.

There is a low pass rate in the final year. To turn around the low
enrolment and retention rate, the government introduced a free education
for all policy in which pupils are no longer required to pay school fees
up to grade seven and do not have to wear uniforms. But this has not
helped very much, out of the 4 500 students who
sat for their final year exams only 2 100 managed to attain full
certificates.

Many argue that even in this dire scenario, tuition centres are not the
answer.

Bandawe Banda, a teacher at a private school, says because the centres
are not schools, they are not monitored and are run by non-academics
whose qualifications are not verified.

"We just see teachers moving from one tuition centre to the next
looking for the best money, there is no consistency and no monitoring,"
he says.

But Oswald Mwansa, an inspector from the Ministry of Education, says
the centres are regulated just like other private schools and are also
rated according to the service they provide.

"We cannot stop parents from sending their children to these centres,
especially those who want the UK certificates. It is true that we do not
have any control over their syllabus since it is from the United
Kingdom, we just make sure that the public is given information to make
informed decisions," he says.

Gertrude Phiri (16) who completed her A level at a tuition centre, says
she would not have been able to do so well in her studies if she had not
gone to a centre.

"Here it was intensive. I had access to the teachers at all times and
did not waste too much time on extra-curricula activities which I was
not interested in the first place. I also finished the O level course in
one and half years instead of three," she says.

Mwansa, from the Ministry of Education, says the argument that tuition
centres are exploitative is neither here nor there because private
schools charge upwards of $3 000 per term. Tuition centres would appear
to be the middle ground, they charge from $200 to $300 per term.

"Tuition centres are providing a service that is needed. There should
be no hard feelings about this," he says. - Sapa-IPS

*****

Arrests in Zimbabwe demonstration

Some 100 activists were arrested in Zimbabwe on Wednesday after
protesting near the parliament in Harare.
The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) organised the protest in
support of political reforms.

They said the demonstration had been peaceful - but that riot police
moved in to make arrests almost immediately.

Witnesses said the police used batons and dogs to disperse those who
were not detained.

Speaking on a mobile phone from a police cell, NCA chairman Lovemore
Madhuku told AFP news agency: "It was the usual demonstration, pushing
for a new constitution".

Lawyers said they were denied access to those arrested and ordered out
of the building.

"Police said we were not wanted and they pushed us outside," said
lawyer Alec Muchadehama.

A proposed constitution drafted by a government-appointed commission
was rejected in 2000 in a national referendum.

Lost MP

Meanwhile, an MP belonging to the ruling Zanu-PF party has had his
election victory annulled.

Shadreck Chipanga, a former intelligence chief, won the seat of Makoni
East in the 2000 parliamentary elections.


Mugabe's election victory will be challenged next week
The court ruling is the result of a legal challenge mounted by the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

The MDC has disputed the victory of more than half of Zanu-PF's seats,
citing ballot rigging and intimidation of its supporters.

It has won eight, and lost a similar number of the 37 election appeals
it has brought to court.

A by-election must now be held in the vacant seat.

On 3 November, the courts are due to start hearing the MDC challenge to
President Robert Mugabe's 2002 election victory.

Word on the street is that Gaddi Vasquez is stepping down as PC Director
to go back to CA and work for Ah-nold.  Too soon for news of replacement
possibilities...

Cool.  Gah-di and Ah-nold wah-king to-gah-ther in Cah-lifor-nah.
Hasta la vista babee

--- In ujeni@yahoogroups.com, "Christine Chumbler" <cchumble@d...>
wrote:
> Word on the street is that Gaddi Vasquez is stepping down as PC
Director
> to go back to CA and work for Ah-nold.  Too soon for news of
replacement
> possibilities...

EU to Support Food Security

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

October 23, 2003
Posted to the web October 23, 2003

Johannesburg

The European Union (EU) is to commit -45 million (about US $17.7
million) to strengthen food security in Malawi.

Malawi recently emerged from a national food shortage, which at its
height saw millions of people depending on food aid to stave off
hunger.

EU spokesman Charles Undulu told IRIN that "during the last two or
three years Malawi has not been able to achieve food security, partly
due to the lack of a proper food security policy".

"With the drafting of a new policy, we hope that within the next three
to four years the country will be food secure," Undulu said.

The EU head of delegation in Lilongwe, Wiepke van der Goot, told IRIN
the EU sponsored Multi-Annual Food Security Programme was of "enormous
importance" to Malawi.

"[Food security] is one of the major challenges facing Malawi,
especially when 30 percent of the population lives below the poverty
line. Given the food crisis we have had over the last couple of years,
it is extremely important to get to a situation where Malawi is
completely food secure," Van der Goot added.

The EU funds will go towards providing nutritional support to
vulnerable groups such as people affected by HIV/AIDS, women and
children.

Undulu confirmed that approximately -11 million (US $12.9 million)
would be used to implement the country's food security and nutrition
policy, -10 million (US $11.8 million) to the strategic grain reserves
and about -1.6 million (US $1.8 million) for trade improvement measures.
-13 million would be used to improve household incomes and -10 million
(US $11.8 million) for nutritional support.

The Multi-Annual Food Security Programme will run from 2004 until 2007,
Van der Goot added.


*****

Malawi Applauds Land Reform

The Herald (Harare)

October 23, 2003
Posted to the web October 23, 2003

Harare

Malawi deputy High Commissioner to Zimbabwe Mr Bilisoni Itaye yesterday
expressed his government's gratitude to the Zimbabwean Government for
integrating Malawian nationals in the land reform programme.

He said the Malawian Minister of Labour and Vocational Training, Mr Lee
Mhlanga, who was recently in Harare to sign a memorandum of
understanding with the Government, had sent him to express the gratitude
after having been impressed by developments on resettled farms.

Mr Itaye said this after paying a courtesy call on the Minister of
State for Information and Publicity, Professor Jonathan Moyo.

He said the Malawian government supported the country's cause of
correcting historical injustices through the land reform programme.

A number of ex-farm and ex-mine workers of Malawian origin were
allocated land in the country.

Mr Itaye applauded the land reform programme for its all-inclusive
nature, saying it was one way in which regional integration could be
enhanced as ex-farm and ex-mine workers from other countries were also
allocated land.

After the visit to Zimbabwe by Malawian Minister of Labour, that
country's Minister of Information was also exploring ways of coming up
with a similar memorandum of understanding that would promote the
exchange of information about the two countries.

There was need for the two countries to enhance their relations through
exchange programmes, Mr Itaye said.

The envoy commended the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation for its local
content policy.

The two countries, he said, would benefit from the exchange of economic
programmes which would make business people aware of the opportunities
existing between them.

Mr Itaye also commented on the visit to Malawi by some MDC officials
who are said to have held discussions with the country's ruling United
Democratic Front.

He said although he was informed of the visit he was, however, not
privy to the details of the visit.

"I am not aware of what they discussed but I do know that they have
been visiting Sadc countries, including Malawi," said Mr Itaye.


*****

Zimbabwe has a 'genuine moral case'

Harare

24 October 2003 07:15


White farmers in Zimbabwe now own just three percent of the country's
land, according to a long-awaited audit of the country's controversial
land reform programme that was made public on Thursday.

According to an executive summary of the audit published in the
state-controlled Herald newspaper, white farmers own 1 377 farms, or
roughly 1,2-million hectares.

Whites used to own 11-million hectares or 30% of Zimbabwe's land before
the government launched a programme in 2000 to redistribute the land
among new black farmers and landless blacks.

The summary contradicted government figures on the number of people it
had resettled, saying only 127 192 households had been given some
4,2-million hectares of land. The government had said 300 000 families
had been resettled.

The report, commissioned by President Robert Mugabe, had been widely
expected to look into allegations that prime commercial farms had gone
to ruling party officials.

But the executive summary made no mention of ruling party members
owning multiple farms.

Commenting on the report on state television late on Thursday, the
chairman of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front
(Zanu-PF) dismissed allegations of cronyism.

"We are satisfied there were no favourites," said John Nkomo.

He said that beneficiaries had "cut across the entire nation" and
included members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
who have been strong critics of the land reform programme.

Nkomo claimed more than 60 000 hectares of land had been given back to
the state by people who had got more than one farm.

When the report was handed over to Mugabe last month he vowed to
"urgently act" on its recommendations.

One recommendation is for dairy farms in one Zimbabwean province to
remain with their orginal owners "with a view to restoring viability in
this crucial industry".

Dairy production, as with other sectors of commercial agricultural
production, has been significantly cut since the country embarked on
land reform.

Another key sector affected is tobacco production, the country's key
foreign currency earner.

Tobacco production is reported to have declined 50% since 2000, to
79,9-million kilograms.

Nkomo said former colonial power Britain should now work with Zimbabwe
instead of against the country.

"Rather than confront us they must cooperate with us and accept that we
have a genuine moral case," he said. Britain has strongly criticised the
implementation of the land reform programme in Zimbabwe. - Sapa-AFP

*****

Group: Zimbabwe Gov't Uses Food As Weapon

By TERRY LEONARD
The Associated Press
Thursday, October 23, 2003; 8:28 PM


JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Zimbabwe's government is using food as a
weapon, denying it to political opponents as nearly half its people face
starvation, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

The group said the government and ruling party punish opponents by
manipulating the supply and distribution of subsidized food, as well as
the registration of people eligible for international relief.

In a 51-page report, the New York-based group said corruption and
profiteering are rampant at the government's Grain Marketing Board,
which oversees distribution of most staple food. It said officials
divert large quantities of grain at tremendous profit to the black
market and neighboring countries.

"Select groups of people are being denied access to food," Peter
Takirambudde, executive director of the group's African division said in
a statement. "This is a human rights violation as serious as arbitrary
imprisonment or torture."

Human Rights Watch said food is used as a weapon against members of the
main opposition party and people presumed to support it, teachers,
former commercial farmworkers and those living in urban opposition
strongholds.

"That's a lie," George Charamba, the spokesman for President Robert
Mugabe, said in a telephone interview. "It sounds like a very familiar
lie to which we are too busy to respond."

The report also criticized international donors for preventing
international food aid from going to black farmers who received land
confiscated without compensation from white farmers under Zimbabwe's
controversial land reform program.

However, Richard Lee, regional spokesman for the U.N. World Food
Program, said he was unaware of any such conditions imposed by donors.

Human Rights Watch, aid workers and political analysts in Zimbabwe said
people without ruling party membership cards are routinely denied access
to government-subsidized food and often prevented from registering to
receive international relief.

"No party card, no food," said John Makumbe, a political analyst at the
University of Zimbabwe.

Increasing numbers of people seen as opponents must turn to the black
market, where Makumbe said a day's supply of food for one person can
cost more than a household makes in a day.

Zimbabwe until recently was a grain exporting nation. The United
Nations now estimates more than 5.5 million Zimbabweans will need
emergency food aid before the next harvest.

Human Rights Watch and others say a collapse in agricultural production
prompted by the government's often violent land seizures has contributed
greatly to the shortage.

The government and state-controlled press have reported 40 deaths from
malnutrition in the second city, Bulawayo. No figures are available for
the rest of the country.

"We expect the situation is much worse in other areas, particularly in
Matebeleland north and south," said Makumbe, who also advises the Famine
Early Warning System monitoring food supplies in the region.

Human Rights Watch said the government compounded food shortages and
consolidated its control by preventing private merchants, the opposition
party and all but a handful of aid groups from importing grain.

More than 220,000 tons of grain imported by the government have simply
vanished, according to diplomats in Zimbabwe.

Human Rights Watch said it appears grain bought by the government
abroad was diverted to foreign markets and the local black market, where
reports indicate ruling party politicians and favored businessmen can
make a 220 percent profit.

The group said the grain board is run by former police, military and
intelligence officials who report directly to Mugabe's Cabinet in what
Makumbe and other analysts called the militarization of key government
industries and ministries.

The government blames food shortages on prolonged drought and donor
withdrawal.

However, Lee, the WFP spokesman, said drought has eased in the region,
and donors have not withdrawn humanitarian aid.

Britain, Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler, committed a further $8.5
million Thursday to emergency food aid after receiving assurances that
politics would not interfere with the handouts.

Human Rights Watch said the government often uses war veterans and
ruling party militants, groups blamed for the widespread violence and
intimidation, to distribute food.

International relief organizations such as WFP have strongly resisted
government attempts to take over food distribution, Human Rights Watch
said.

Relief groups have briefly suspended operations in some areas because
of government interference and threatened to pull out entirely if the
government persists in trying to politicize food aid.

However, the government still punishes opponents by manipulating the
list of people eligible for international aid, said Human Rights Watch.


Makumbe said party officials and traditional leaders are instructed to
exclude opponents from the lists.

Lee acknowledged there had been interference, some of it serious, but
said the vast majority of incidents were minor.

Charamba, Mugabe's spokesman, called Human Rights Watch a tool of the
British government and dismissed the report as an attempt to support the
hardline anti-Mugabe position of Australia, Britain and Canada. "We
don't even dignify it by denying it," he said.

*****

Zimbabwe fuel drought hits food transport

By Chris Carnegy
BBC World Service business reporter



Fuel shortages have hit commuters, businesses and farmers
An acute shortage of diesel fuel has created big problems for farmers
trying to transport their harvest to feed the starving.
Part of Zimbabwe's maize crop has been left to rot, in a country facing
a food crisis, despite a relaxation of this summer's ban on commercial
fuel imports.

Fuel shortages began to bite as long ago as 1999, but they have got
worse in recent weeks, leaving commuters, businesses and farmers
struggling to keep moving.

Although the mainstream maize harvest is in, thousands of tons grown by
peasant farmers in the Mashonaland East province are in danger of
rotting for lack of transport, the Herald newspaper reports.

The situation has worsened at a desperate time, hot on the heels of a
water shortage that has hit harvests so hard, more than five million
Zimbabweans will need food aid by the end of this year, aid agencies
have warned.

Expensive fuel

This summer, President Robert Mugabe relaxed regulation to allow the
commercial import of fuel, but that has delivered help only at a high
price.


White commercial farmers are still feeling the effects of the land
seizures
"Farmers normally get together in groups and order fuel in bulk. They
import it directly or import it through various groups using foreign
currency," explained the chief executive of Zimbabwe's Commercial Grain
Producers' Association, George Hutchison.

"What this means is that instead of fuel costing the regulated price of
450 Zimbabwean dollars per litre, it is costing over Z$2,000, probably
NZ2,200-2,300 per litre," he said, referring to the difference between
the official exchange rate of Z$824 to the US dollar and the actual
market rate of up to Z$6,000 to the US dollar.

Farmers who are able to pay have little choice but to do so.

"Farmers are having to do this in order to reap their crops and pay for
the following season," Mr Hutchison said.

Falling output

Faced with a fuel bill that as quadrupled and more than 450%
hyper-inflation that makes essential supplies like seed more expensive,
Zimbabwe's farmers are engaged in a battle for commercial survival.

White commercial farmers are still feeling the effects of President
Robert Mugabe's land seizures, designed to put resources in the hands of
the black majority.

Some are moving out of staple crops like maize and turning to
higher-margin vegetables.

But agricultural production is down by 50% in the last year, and the
fuel crisis feels like one more blow for an already punch-drunk farming
sector.

Fyi.

Elizabeth Bell, MPH
STOP Activity Unit
Polio Eradication Branch
Global Immunization Division
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention


***********

The Mississippi Teacher Corps is a two-year program for
people who are interested in teaching and making a difference.  The program
starts in June of each year at the University of Mississippi with an
intensive summer training, modeled after the Peace Corps.  Once the school
year starts you will teach in a critical-needs area of Mississippi (most of
our teachers are placed in the Mississippi Delta).  In exchange you will
receive a full scholarship for a master's in education from the University
of Mississippi (which you complete during the two years), full pay and
benefits from your school district, free textbooks, teacher certification,
housing and a stipend during the initial summer training, housing during
weekend classes, courses tailored to the program, continuous support, and
the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children in some of the
poorest areas of the country.  The program is administered by an RPCV and
RPCV's are our number one recruiting target.

For more information please contact:

Ben Guest
Program Coordinator
Mississippi Teacher Corps
1-800-884-7606
www.mtcorps.net
bguest@...



"We look at our expenses as blessings because we can afford to pay them."
               -Rev. Norman Vincent Peale



Bernadette Zayas Lorenzo M.A.
Peace Corps Regional Recruiter

100 Alabama St.  Suite 2R70
Atlanta, GA  30303
(404) 562-3479 (Direct Line)
1-800 424-8580 "Option 1" Ext. 23479
(404) 562-3455 (Fax)
blorenzo@...

Fyi.

Elizabeth Bell, MPH
STOP Activity Unit
Polio Eradication Branch
Global Immunization Division
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention



-----Original Message-----


> ALL PEACE CORPS ANNOUNCEMENT FROM DIRECTOR GADDI H. VASQUEZ
>
>  It is with mixed emotions that  I am announcing to you that I have
> resigned as Director of the Peace Corps effective November 14, 2003.   In
> my resignation letter to President George W. Bush, I wrote, " The
> Peace Corps is well positioned to expand and achieve even more in the
> 21st century.  In my view, the Peace Corps remains one of the most
> viable means to train men and women in host countries and do so with
effectiveness and
> positive outcomes of which we can be proud."
>
> On February 15, 2002, I was privileged to assume the role of Peace
> Corps Director.  The honor and opportunity to lead an agency with such
> a noble mission has been one of the great highlights of my
> professional life. During my time as Director, I have met hundreds of
> Peace Corps Volunteers who are engaged in remarkable work and are
> advancing the first and second goals of Peace Corps.  I have traveled
> to 24 countries and all 11 recruiting offices and have enjoyed the
> opportunity to meet and work with exceptional staff who are performing a
great service in support of the
> Volunteers' work.   I have also had the opportunity to meet RPCVs in many
> states and appreciate their continuing commitment to advancing the
> third goal of the Peace Corps.  I am confident that the Peace Corps is
> well positioned to achieve much in the 21st century.
>
>  Since I have become the Director, the Peace Corps has established
> programs in nine countries and is poised to grow in the coming years.
> Much of what has been accomplished is due to the strong partnership
> between Peace Corps Washington and field staff in the United States
> and overseas.  From recruiters to desk officers and from medical staff
> to safety and security personnel every man and woman I have met
> represent the finest of Peace Corps professionals.  It has been my
> honor to serve with each of you.
>
> I will always be grateful to President Bush for the high honor and
> confidence he had in nominating me to serve.  Moreover, he has been a
> strong advocate and proponent of Peace Corps and his continued support
> throughout his Presidency has been extraordinary.
>
>  As I prepare to return to California, I will fondly remember the
> friendships and the support that so many of you have given to me since
> my first day at Peace Corps.  I am proud of what has been accomplished
> and each of you has made a contribution to that effort.  Together we
> have made a difference, achieved many objectives, and we have created
> new opportunities for all Americans to serve in the Peace Corps.  I
> thank you for your dedicated service.
>
> # # #
>
>

I got this from a friend of mine that confirms Christine's message.

Dan

>Subject: Fwd: Gaddi Vasquez resigns as Peace Corps Director
>Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 16:54:39 -0700
>
>----Original Message Follows----
>From: "John Coyne" <jpcoyne@...>
>
>Well, he lasted 21 months---
>
>Here is Gaddi Vasquez's statement to Peace Corps Staff that was emailed out
>yesterday afternoon around 4 p.m., in case you haven't seen it.
>
>"It is with mixed emotions that I am announcing to you that I have
>resigned as Director of the Peace Corps effective November 14, 2003.
>In my resignation letter to President George W. Bush, I wrote, "The
>Peace Corps is well positioned to expand and achieve even more in the
>21st century.  In my view, the Peace Corps remains one of the most
>viable means to train men and women in host countries and do so with
>effectiveness and positive outcomes of which we can be proud."
>
>On February 15, 2002, I was privileged to assume the role of Peace Corps
>Director.  The honor and opportunity to lead an agency with such a noble
>mission has been one of the great highlights of my professional life.
>During my time as Director, I have met hundreds of Peace Corps
>Volunteers who are engaged in remarkable work and are advancing the
>first and second goals of Peace Corps.  I have traveled to 24 countries
>and all 11 recruiting offices and have enjoyed the opportunity to meet
>and work with exceptional staff who are performing a great service in
>support of the Volunteers' work.   I have also had the opportunity to
>meet RPCVs in many states and appreciate their continuing commitment to
>advancing the third goal of the Peace Corps.  I am confident that the
>Peace Corps is well positioned to achieve much in the 21st century.
>
>Since I have become the Director, the Peace Corps has established
>programs in nine countries and is poised to grow in the coming years.
>Much of what has been accomplished is due to the strong partnership
>between Peace Corps Washington and field staff in the United States and
>overseas.  From recruiters to desk officers and from medical staff to
>safety and security personnel every man and woman I have met represent
>the finest of Peace Corps professionals.  It has been my honor to serve
>with each of you.
>
>I will always be grateful to President Bush for the high honor and
>confidence he had in nominating me to serve.  Moreover, he has been a
>strong advocate and proponent of Peace Corps and his continued support
>throughout his Presidency has been extraordinary.
>
>As I prepare to return to California, I will fondly remember the
>friendships and the support that so many of you have given to me since
>my first day at Peace Corps.  I am proud of what has been accomplished
>and each of you has made a contribution to that effort.  Together we
>have made a difference, achieved many objectives, and we have created
>new opportunities for all Americans to serve in the Peace Corps.  I
>thank you for your dedicated service."
>
>
>Now, what will Gaddi do? My guess is that he will work on Bush's
>re-election campaign and if Bush wins return to Washington with another
>federal job. (Or he'll go work for Arnold!) Or he'll start building a base
>in California and run for office.He now has his "international" experience
>(he has been to 24 countries, after all)  to mix with with his local
>government experience, and he does give a great speech. My hope is that he
>runs against Senator Boxer who came to the Senate Hearing to support him
>during his nomination. She said that the RPCVs who wanted a former
>Volunteer to run the agency (i.e. people like myself) were unfair and
>shortsighted and mean. If Gaddi runs against Boxer, then I'll give money to
>Gaddi's campaign.
>
>I doubt if Bush will nominate anyone for the position as director and that
>Jody Olsen will be "acting" and if Bush wins then he has another political
>Schedule-C position for one of his financial supporter. One of the things
>that Gaddi did do--but didn't mention--was that he got get rid of the Peace
>Corps tag line that have been identified with the agency since the late
>1960s--"The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love!" It has been dropped from all
>Peace Corps materials. Perhaps the next director will bring it back. Or
>perhaps Jody will have the courage to bring it backt, now that for however
>briefly, she is running the show. We wish her the best. She is, after all,
>an RPCV. That's all we wanted. That's all we ever wanted.
>
>john
>

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A must-read, now 2 days into the series:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/project/content/project/peacecorps/inde
x.html

A much more thorough treatment than I expected, I found some of their
findings very interesting. It takes Peace Corps to task, but also
holds PCVs accountable as well. I hereby open the discussion....

Data Show Assaults on Peace Corps Workers Up

Associated Press
Sunday, October 26, 2003; Page A15


DAYTON, Ohio, Oct. 25 -- Assaults against Peace Corps volunteers around
the world more than doubled from 1991 to 2002, with nearly 70 percent
committed against women, the Dayton Daily News reported.




A Peace Corps database shows that assault cases jumped 125 percent
during the 11-year period, while the number of volunteers increased by
29 percent, the newspaper said.

Peace Corps spokeswoman Barbara Daly disputed the newspaper's
interpretation. She said that since 1997, the agency has had a 30
percent decrease in the rate of major sexual assault cases -- excluding
such things as touching and unwanted kissing -- and a 35 percent
decrease in the rate of rape cases.

"They're lumping major and minor assaults and coming up with this
number. That's where they get this number that's so high," Daly said
Saturday. "The majority of the increase is in these minor assaults," she
added.

The newspaper said that although the number of rape cases did decrease
from 20 in 1997 to 13 in 2002, the number of all sexual assault cases
increased from 73 to 94 during that period and the overall number of
assault cases -- including aggravated assaults, simple assaults, sexual
assaults and death threats -- rose from 251 to 283. A single rape or
assault case could involve multiple workers, the newspaper noted.

The Daily News spent 20 months examining thousands of records and
interviewed more than 500 people in 11 countries.

It said that although many volunteers have little or no experience
traveling outside the United States, some are sent to live alone in
remote areas of some of the world's most dangerous countries and are
left unsupervised for months at a time.

In 62 percent of the more than 2,900 assault cases since 1990, the
victim was alone, and in 59 percent the victim was a woman in her
twenties, the Daily News said.

Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez told the Daily News that his
number one priority is the safety of the agency's 7,533 volunteers
serving in 71 countries.

"We send volunteers only to countries and communities where they can
serve safely, and we have systems in place to maximize their safety and
security," Vasquez said.

Two officials who oversaw the Peace Corps's security over the past 12
years said they had warned about the increased dangers to volunteers but
that the agency has ignored many of their concerns.

"Nobody wanted to talk about security. It suppresses the recruitment
numbers," said Michael O'Neill, the Peace Corps's security director from
1995 to August 2002.

In 1992, John Hale, then the acting inspector general of the Peace
Corps, warned in a report to Congress of "a marked increase in violent
acts against volunteers worldwide."

*****

Trouble for Malawian spin doctor

Malawi's main opposition party has suspended its spokesman for treating
patients linked to political opponents.
Last month, Dr Heatherwick Ntaba escorted President Bakili Muluzi's
mother to a hospital in South Africa.

The Malawi Congress Party says there is a conflict of interest if he
continues to try to carry on with both roles.

Dr Ntaba condemned the decision as "political intolerance of the
highest order" saying a professional doctor cannot discriminate against
the sick.

He said he would continue to treat her.

Doctor-for-life

In a statement, the Malawi Congress Party's National Executive
Committee said that the publicity he was receiving and the contact he
was having with the president, in particular, made it difficult to trust
him to carry out his role as the party's spokesman.

The MCP said they would review his position after he stops looking
after President Muluzi's mother.

Dr Ntaba, who once served as minister of health in the MCP government,
was personal doctor for more than 20 years to former president-for-life,
Hastings Kamuzu Banda, until his death in November 1997.

*****

Zim police charge more Daily News directors

Harare, Zimbabwe

27 October 2003 11:40


Zimbabwe police on Monday charged four more directors of The Daily News
for publishing the country's only independent daily without a licence,
the paper's legal adviser said.

Publisher Samuel Nkomo was also being charged with "obstructing the
course of justice".

"They [police] claim the directors were in hiding over the weekend,"
she said. On Sunday police arrested Washington Sansole, one of the
paper's directors, in Bulawayo.

The charges against the directors follow the publication on Saturday of
a comeback edition of The Daily News, which is highly critical of the
government, six weeks after it was shut down by the authorities.

Copies of the paper were snatched up by an enthusiastic public on
Saturday morning. But police later shut down the paper's city offices
and briefly detained 18 staff members.

Police said they wanted to interview the directors of the paper for
publishing without a licence a day after a court ordered the government
to issue it a licence by November 30.

Under Zimbabwe's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act,
all publications and journalists must be licensed.

The paper initially refused to apply for a licence under the law,
saying it was unconstitutional. But the Supreme Court ruled that it was
operating illegally and should register.

The state-appointed media commission subsequently refused to register
The Daily News.

But on Friday another court ordered the Media and Information
Commission to license it by November 30.

If convicted the directors could each face a fine of Z$200 000 (R1 660)
or a two-year prison sentence. -- Sapa-AFP

*****

Zimbabwe court backs Daily News

The Zimbabwean authorities have been told to grant an operating licence
to a paper shut down by police last month.
A judge ruled the government-appointed media commission had been wrong
to deny a licence to the Daily News.

One of the newspaper's legal team, Gugulethu Moyo, said they were
excited by the decision and hoped it would be respected by the
government.

The authorities have a right to appeal. The paper was Zimbabwe's
best-selling and only privately-owned daily.


Tough law

The Daily News was highly critical of President Robert Mugabe, in stark
contrast to the state-owned media, which are seen as government
mouthpieces.


The offices of the newspaper have been raided twice by police
Under tough media laws, introduced after President Mugabe's disputed
election win in 2002, all newspapers and journalists must be registered
with a state-appointed media commission.

The Daily News only applied some eight and a half months after the
expiry of the deadline for registration, after riot police sealed off
its offices.

It said the media law was designed to stifle the press and initially
refused to apply for accreditation.

The media commission ruled that the Daily News had missed the deadline
to apply for the licence and had also failed to supply the commission
with free copies of the paper, as required under the law.

Church Moves to Rescue Children From Witchcraft

African Church Information Service

October 27, 2003
Posted to the web October 27, 2003

Hamilton Vokhiwa
Blantyre

A church organisation here has come to the rescue of children alleged
to have been practising witchcraft in a suburban area.

Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry brought together 14 of the
children, together with their parents, to special prayers that took
three days.

At the end of the session, the pastor, who did not want to be named,
reported that all except three of the children "were delivered" by the
prayers.

Parents had complained that up to 50 children in Maone area of Limbe
were practising witchcraft under the guidance of an unidentified man in
the area.

The pastor said the rest of the children could be delivered if their
parents decided to take them to prayers as well.

The children's ages ranged from seven to ten years. One of them, who
repented after attending the prayers, expressed regret that he had
killed two of his relatives through witchcraft.

A 10-year-old girl alleged that the suspected witchcraft coach had been
taking the children to a graveyard to give them foodstuff associated
with black magic.

Another child claimed that the man, most of the time accompanied by his
wife, spat on the food before giving it to them.

"The other day he took me to the graveyard, cut my arm and drank the
blood that oozed ," the child claimed.

The alleged witchcraft teacher is said to be moving from township to
township to administer his powers of darkness on children.

Malawi is predominantly Christian, with 80 percent of the faithful
proclaiming Jesus Christ as their Saviour. But in isolated cases, some
ethnic groups stick to a culture of paying homage to their ancestral
spirits.

In those communities, evil deeds are associated with witchcraft, while
the good ones are from "kind-hearted spirits".

The gravity of the problem is manifested in frequent news about
witchcraft, on radio as well as in the newspapers.


*****

Journalists Beaten, Verbally Assaulted

Media Institute of Southern Africa (Windhoek)

PRESS RELEASE
October 27, 2003
Posted to the web October 27, 2003


On October 18 2003, officers of the Malawi Police Service beat up six
journalists for attempting to take pictures of a scuffle between the
police and a motorist at the police road-block at Zalewa Road Block on
the border between Malawi's Blantyre and Mwanza districts.

The journalists were retuning from a field visit organised by the
Technical, Entrepreneurial, Vocational Education and Training Authority
(TEVETA) when they came upon the incident.

Raphael Mwenenguwe, a journalist and specialist with TEVETA, told the
Malawi Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA Malawi)
that the journalists found the police struggling with a motorist who
refused to surrender his bags of charcoal to forestry officials at the
road block. He said the man opted to turn over his bags accusing the
police of applying double standards in enforcing forestry laws.

Mwenenguwe said the police allowed the journalists to take pictures of
the incident until their Officer-in-Charge (OC) arrived on the scene and
grabbed George Ntonya, a senior reporter with The Nation newspaper, by
the neck and dragged him around.

"The policemen joined their boss and beat us up using baton sticks and
butts of their guns," recalled Mwenenguwe.

The only female journalist in the group, Chikondi Phikiso who works for
the state controlled Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, said in a separate
interview that the police scratched her chest with gun butts while
showering insults on her.

She said when the OC learnt that the group composed of journalists, he
had private discussions with his men and opted to talk it over with the
journalists.

Police spokesperson George Chikowi refused to comment saying he did not
have enough information.

Meanwhile, NAMISA is talking to the concerned journalists on a
possibility of a legal action against the police.


*****

Victory: Police to Drop Case Against Journalist

Media Institute of Southern Africa (Windhoek)

PRESS RELEASE
October 27, 2003
Posted to the web October 27, 2003


Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Fahad Assani, has instructed
police to drop a case in which Daily Times reporter Frank Namangale was
answering a charge of authoring an article likely to cause breach of
public peace.

In an article published last month, Namangale quoted police sources as
saying president Bakili Muluzi's son was involved in an armed robbery.
Police detained Namangale for a few hours before releasing him on bail
saying it was the president's nephew who was involved, and not his
nephew.

Assani told the local press in an interview that Namangale had no case
to answer since the mere mention of Muluzi in an article did not mean
the president was involved.

"In a family there is always one who is a rotten apple and it does not
mean that they should be spared because their relation is a president,"
he said.

The DPP said that the story the reporter wrote was credible, the only
error being that it made reference to Muluzi's son when it should, in
fact, have made reference to his nephew.

"The story was not a fabrication and it did not warrant the arrest of a
journalist," he said.

Assan vowed to protect journalists as long as they work
professionally.

"I view the press as the fourth estate who are supposed to be watch
dogs, without them, we cannot perform better. If there was no
journalist, most things would have been buried under the carpet," he
said.

The Malawi Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA
Malawi) has described the decision by the DPP as a timely tonic for the
struggle for media freedom in Malawi. MISA Malawi has encouraged other
public officers to take heed of the DPP's advice.


*****

Daily News hearing delayed without reason

Susan Njanji | Harare, Zimbabwe

28 October 2003 14:26


The publisher and three directors of The Daily News, the independent
Zimbabwean newspaper highly critical of President Robert Mugabe's
government, were to appear in court on Tuesday after being arrested for
publishing without a licence.

A company lawyer, Gugulethu Moyo, said the four, who spent the night in
police holding cells after their arrest on Monday, were due in a
magistrate's court on Tuesday morning.

But the hearing was delayed for no stated reason, and Moyo speculated
that the police were merely seeking to punish the owners of the
country's only private daily newspaper.

"The police are detaining people not because they require time with
them for any investigations, but it seems they intend to punish them
before they have actually been convicted of any crime, and it's very
disappointing," Moyo told reporters outside the courtroom.

"Quite clearly people are being denied access to justice," she said.

The charges against the paper's owners -- who include the paper's
publisher, Samuel Nkomo -- follow the short-lived return to the
newsstands on Saturday of The Daily News, six weeks after it was shut
down by the authorities.

The reappearance of the popular newspaper followed a court ruling on
Friday that a state-appointed media commission had been wrong to deny
the paper a licence when it applied for one in September.

It ordered the paper to be licensed by November 30.

Police, insisting that the newspaper cannot publish until it actually
has a certificate, on Saturday shut down the paper's city offices for
the second time in as many months, and briefly detained 18 staff
members.

Under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act signed
into law by Mugabe in March last year, just days after his disputed
re-election, all publications and journalists must be licensed.

The Supreme Court had ruled in September that The Daily News -- which
was contesting the constitutionality of the Act -- was operating
illegally and should register under the new law.

Moyo said that police had recorded statements from the directors and
there was no need to detain them any longer.

If their hearing does not take place in the afternoon, Moyo said they
would seek a High Court order for their release. An urgent application
was made on Monday, but no judge was available to hear it.

One of the paper's directors, Washington Sansole, arrested in
Zimbabwe's second largest city, Bulawayo, on Sunday, was released on
Monday on a High Court order.

Lawyers on Tuesday were denied access to the directors.

If convicted under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy
Act, The Daily News's directors face a maximum fine of Z$300 000
Zimbabwe dollars (about R2 500) or a two-year prison sentence.

The other three directors are Rachel Kupara, Michael Mattinson and
Brian Mutsau.

The Daily News was established in 1999 as an alternative to its main
rivals -- the state-run Herald and Chronicle dailies. -- Sapa-AFP

Malawi-German Program for Democracy: the Quest for Free, Fair &
Transparent Elections

The Chronicle Newspaper (Lilongwe)

October 28, 2003
Posted to the web October 28, 2003

Lilongwe

The Malawi-German Programme for Democracy and Decentralisation (MGPDD)
is a bilateral cooperation programme between the Governments of Malawi
and the Federal Republic of Germany.

Since it started its operations in Malawi in 1996, MGPDD has been
working in the area of promoting institutional and organisational
capacities in state as well as civil society to ensure that the
processes of democratic consolidation and decentralisation are
stabilised. The programme emanated from the realisation by both
governments of the need to support the building of capacities to
facilitate the implementation of decisions and procedures necessary in
the new political system.

Activities have been implemented with government and civil society
organisations in the focal areas of Local Democracy, Youth, Media and
Public Sphere. In the three areas, core activities have been on:
*capacity building largely through interventions such as training, study
tours and workshops; * technical contribution to national policies and
programmes such as the National Decentralisation Programme,
Decentralisation Policy and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper *
logistical support to national events like elections * support to the
Department of Local Government through provision of equipment *
financial support to government bodies and civil society organisations
and technical support to civil society organisations.

MGPDD strongly believes in the principle of subsidiarity. It therefore
supports and promotes local initiatives and considers its own role as a
facilitating and complementing one. It therefore works through civil
society organisations and government through the Department of Local
Government.

The latter is the official government counterpart while the Deutsche
Gessellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) is mandated to
implement the programme on behalf of the German Government.

Democratic Decentralisation Programme

Since January 2003, MGPDD has recast its focus under Democratic
Decentralisation to support the decentralisation process with focus on
Capacity Building in the areas of Local Political Leadership; Local
Finance; Local Planning and Administration, and Decentralisation
Management. The Programme goal is to ensure that local governments work
along democratic principles and assume their roles as development agents
by facilitating the provision of services to the population in an
effective and sustainable manner. The Programme is being recast based on
the Joint Strategy Paper: Democratic Decentralisation as a result of the
October 2002 Government to Government consultations. Under this strategy
a Countrywide Approach (CWA) has been adopted and this has necessitated
the opening of Operation Centres in the North and South respectively.
Currently, one centre is ready for operations in Rumphi for the North,
and negotiations are still under way with the Department of Local
Government for the office in the South. The centres will be used to
develop Capacity Building Measures eventually to be applied in all
districts on demand.

Elections Project

Within MGPDD, an Elections Project has been set up to handle MGPDD's
support to the Electoral Process. The Government of Malawi and the Donor
Community in June 2003 accepted the Electoral Commission's Budget for
the 2004 Tripartite Elections. This formed the basis for the Federal
Republic of Germany to fund three components of the Electoral
Commission's budget through the Malawi-German Programme for Democracy
and Decentralisation (MGPDD): * The biggest share is dedicated to
support the Malawi Electoral Commission.

GTZ will support three components, which are Political Environment,
Voter Education and Media and Public Relations. * The second part of the
elections project is support to civil society organisations involved in
voter education and election monitoring. * The third part entails
documentation of various aspects of the electoral process.

Soon after the elections a conference for all stakeholders will be held
to look at the findings of the electoral process, analyse what went well
and what could be improved during the next elections. The findings of
the conference will be published and will form the basis for the
planning of future elections.

Below are some of the activities implemented under the Elections
Project since a framework agreement was signed between MGPDD and the
Electoral Commission: * The first National Consultative Forum (NECOF) on
elections took place on 29th August at Capital Hotel in Lilongwe where
stakeholders in the electoral process discussed issues, which need to be
addressed before the 2004 elections. * A Media Conference on Media
Empowerment for Balanced Coverage of the 2004 Elections was recently
held in Blantyre. It aimed at getting the media fraternity, particularly
public media to open up the airwaves in order to level the playing field
during elections. *Civil society organisations accredited by the
Electoral Commission have formed a network. MGPDD has provided support
to this network for its first planning meeting.

This forum will provide an entry point for rendering financial
assistance to specific activities that these organisations will propose
for implementation in the electoral period, within the realm of civic
and voter education as well as election monitoring.

In concluding, MGPDD is committed to assisting Malawi in her quest for
free, fair and transparent elections through financial and technical
support throughout the electoral period and beyond. MGPDD believes that
support to the electoral process and the decentralisation process is one
way of consolidating democracy in Malawi.

*****

Grow More Cassava for Food Security - Chiefs

The Chronicle Newspaper (Lilongwe)

October 28, 2003
Posted to the web October 28, 2003

Wezie Nyirongo
Lilongwe

Traditional leaders have advised villagers surrounding Mpenu Area in
Traditional Authority Mazengera in Lilongwe to diversify their crop
production to growing more cassava which survives in times of drought
instead of concetrating on growing maize in an effort to control hunger
in the area.

They also advised them not to rely too much on the government to give
them food for their families but said they have to make their own
efforts in increasing their crop production in cassava and save their
lives in times of emergencies.

One of the leaders, Traditional Authority Mazengera said it is time
people stop waiting for the governemnt to give them food saying
government is not mandated to do so. Instead, he said they have to work
hard in their fields and come up with an alternative crop to maize in
times of difficulties.

'You need to start growing more cassava this year because we can not
rely on maize which is sometimes not reliable in times of drought. And
stop looking to the government to feed your families,'said Mazengera
recently at the Area Development Committee meeting held at his
headquarters at Nathenje in Lilongwe.

He also advised farmers to control their goats which are ussually
reported to feed on cassava if the crop is to be productive to them in
the area.

Also speaking at the same meeting, Traditional Authority Lukwa also
advised chiefs in the area to have a leading role in encouraging their
subjects on strategies which would encourage food security. He said
chiefs are not only responsible for settling disputes but should also
discuss with his people ways on how they can control hunger in the
area.

'Chiefs have the responsibility of enlightening their people on
political and developmental issues but they shouldn't forget that they
also have the role of advising their people on how they can control
hunger and encourage food security,' said Lukwa.

In a joint effort the leaders also noted that the western culture is
dominating in the country and is killing the traditional cultures,
especially for the Chewa clan. They said the Chewa clan should not
forget their cultural values and copy western cultures because that
means the future generation will be lost and will have no knowledge
about their culture and the origin of the Chewas.

'We shouldn't let ourselves be driven to western cultures, we have our
own culture and we need to practice how our forefathers earned a living
and how they respected their traditional leaders,' said Lukwa adding
that the Chewa tribe should be on the forefront in showing other tribes
in the country how best they know about their culture. In a related
development, the Chewa chiefs in conjuction with their counterparts in
Zambia have formed a committee to work together on how they can revive
their culture and coordinate when holding their festivals.

*****

Promoting Voluntary Counselling and Training to Fight HIV/Aids

The Chronicle Newspaper (Lilongwe)

October 28, 2003
Posted to the web October 28, 2003

Pushpa Jamieson
Lilongwe

The HIV infection in Malawi is one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa
and in the world. The first case of HIV infection was officially
recorded in 1985 and since then, the virus has quickly penetrated the
population of the country. It is now acknowledged that the HIV/AIDS
infections in Malawi have reached an epidemic level.

Statistics collected by the National AIDS Control Programme from ante
natal clinics in the three regions indicate that infection rates in
women have increased considerably. Infections in pregnant women vary
from 10% in rural areas to 30% in urban area.

The high infection rates in women of child bearing age indicate that
there is a high rate of infections in the general population.

There is also evidence that infections in younger females aged between
15 - 24 is almost 6 times higher than males of the same age. Many people
who are infected with HIV do not yet know their status and continue to
live without the knowledge of their sero-status.

In Africa, sexual intercourse is still identified as the highest form
of transmission of HIV/AIDS. To fight the spread of new infections in
order to reverse the epidemic, Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT)
has been identified by the National AIDS Commission (NAC) in Malawi as a
strategy to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS VCT provides people who have
tested positive with information on how to manage the condition, avoid
infecting others and plan for the future.

The fear of discrimination, stigmatisation, absence of a cure and
inadequate user friendly VCT facilities are major issues that hinder the
progress in more people seeking to know their HIV status.

Malawi AIDS Counselling Resource Organisation (MACRO) on Malangala Road
provides free VCT to the public. People are encouraged to 'Walk in' for
counselling and testing. A visit to the centre revealed some interesting
facts about VCT.

The waiting room was mainly occupied by men. Of the 17 people counted
in the room only 2 were women.

Tamanda Phiri a member of staff at MACRO is a senior counsellor and who
has 4 years experience in counselling said that there were a number of
things that contributed to the lack of response to VCT by women.

'The lack of response from women is because most of the time women only
come in to test if they have got a problem. If they see that the man is
womanising then they come for testing.' She adds that most women do not
know the advantages of VCT.

Phiri said women also fear being victimised. 'Because of our culture
women are not able to discuss sexual issues even if they have the
information. If a woman suggests the use of a condom, she is asked: 'Who
has told you this?' and is immediately accused of having other men and
is even call a prostitute.

Phiri adds that it is a big problem when men come for testing alone.
'What happens is that the man does not disclose his status to the woman
which can be risky. Added to this, the man received counselling and the
woman does not. She is not able to live a positive life because she is
not aware of her status even if it is negative,' Phiri lamented.

A client at the centre, Mai Gondwe (not real name) from Kasungu has
came to the centre for VCT after her husband passed away. 'I have
travelled from my home in Kasungu just to have my blood tested because
my husband was sick and he died. I want to know if I am fine and I know
that this centre will tell me the truth. Whatever the result, I do not
worry, I am prepared because I know that it is good for me to know'
Another client, Elemani (not real name) said he had come for testing in
order to know his status: 'I have come to give blood so that I may know
if I am fine.' Asked why he did not bring his wife, he responded: 'If I
test and I am fine, then it means that everything with my wife is also
fine.' The fear of stigma and discrimination is hindering the use of VCT
centres by women. Cultural background and beliefs are also contributing
to the women staying away from testing. In most cases women will go for
testing only if the spouse grants them permission to do so.

In many cases a woman knowing he sero-status is of little importance
because it is information she is not able to share with her spouse
because of the fear of rejection and of being labelled a prostitute even
if she is aware and sure that she has been infected by her husband.

A document produces by UNAIDS and other partners on Advocacy for Action
on Stigma and HIV/AIDS describes stigma as being negative thoughts about
a person or group on a prejudiced position. HIV/AIDS related stigma
builds upon and reinforces earlier prejudices.

It plays into, and reinforces, existing social inequalities -
especially those of gender, sexuality and race. HIV/AIDS related stigma
also derives from HIV/AIDS association with some of the most elemental
parts of the human experience: sex, blood, disease and death.

It is also associated with behaviours that may be illegal or forbidden
by religious or traditional teachings, such as pre-and extra-marital
sex, sex work, men having sex with men, and injecting drug use.

*****

Action Now And Not Later - Cohen

The Chronicle Newspaper (Lilongwe)

October 28, 2003
Posted to the web October 28, 2003

Maxwell Zingani II
Lilongwe

The United Nations Population Fund resident representative to Malawi,
Sylvie Cohen has said that the problem that the youths face needs
immediate action.

Cohen was speaking at the launch of this year's State of The World
Population Report in the country, the launch took place last Wednesday
at Le Meridien Capital Hotel in Lilongwe.

She said that there are problems that the youth are currently facing
that also bring other problems.

'The challenges faced by young people range from poverty, food
insecurity, poor access to quality education, and poor access to
adequate reproductive and sexual health information and services. This
situation further translates into early and unplanned teenage
pregnancies, abortion complications, sexually transmitted infections
including HIV/AIDS, sexual violence, abuse and exploitation,' said
Cohen.

She went on to say that it is important that something has to been
done, because young people are the future of the nation.

'What matters is action. Action now and not later. Political will,
actions and the investments that are taken and made to today in
improving young people's well being will have major impact on health,
development and promotion of human rights, not only for the young
people, but for entire population,' said Cohen.

Acting Director of Population services in the Ministry of Health, Grace
Hiwa, said that there are a number of problems that the country's youth
are facing one of which was lack of resources.

'The problem faced by the youth is that there are very limited
resources in the country to have good education as the public service of
education has been over-stretched due to lack rapidly growing
population,' she said.

This year's theme of the State the World Population Report is 'Making 1
billion count: Investing Adolescent's Health and Rights. Most of the
countries launched the report on 8th October 2003.

*****

National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Trains Youth in Civic
Education

The Chronicle Newspaper (Lilongwe)

October 28, 2003
Posted to the web October 28, 2003

Maxwell Zingani II
Lilongwe

National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) recently trained its
Para Civic Educators in how they are going to conductor civic education
for the forthcoming voter registration exercise for the 2004 elections.

Speaking at one of the training sessions at St. Johns in Lilongwe
District Civic Education Officer for Lilongwe urban Hajira Ali told the
PCEs that they should not take part in politics.

'As people who are to go about telling people to go and register, you
should not take part in politics because this can mislead people,' said
Ali.

Ali told the PCEs that they need to work hard in educating people so
that they should go and register in large numbers.

Julius Kambanzeru, District Elections clerk told the PCEs that they
should be careful of the picture that they are going to portray to the
people that they are going to be talking to.

'You need to be careful with the way you present yourself to the
public. You do not want to show anyone which party you belong to because
if you show this people are going to think that you have been sent by
that particular party,' said Kambanzeru.

He went further to tell the PCEs that it is important that they tell
people the truth about the forthcoming elections and the importance of
registering.

'When you are telling people about the importance of voting do not beat
about the bush - be honest with them, tell them the importance of these
elections,' said Kambanzeru.

Kambanzeru educated the PCEs on the registration procedures, including
the importance of telling people to go to registration centres and to
report those who have died.

'Tell people that they have to report the names of those who have died
because it will help the Malawi Electoral Commission to know the exact
number of people that had registered to vote in the forthcoming
election,' said Kambanzeru.

One of the participants, Albert Lulaka said that he was happy that they
had been given the information on how to conduct civic education for the
elections.

'As PCE we need to know how were are going to do civic education for
the forthcoming elections,' said Lulaka.

NICE has Para Civic Educators who work as volunteers in civic education
who will conduct civic education for the forthcoming elections.

NICE is one of the 21 Non Government Organisations (NGOs) that were
accredited to conduct civic education which was due to start last
August.

*****

US Hands Over Voluntary Counselling and Training (VCT) Centre to Malawi
Army

The Chronicle Newspaper (Lilongwe)

October 28, 2003
Posted to the web October 28, 2003

Maxwell Zingani II
Lilongwe

The United States Department of Defense last Friday handed over the
first HIV/AIDS Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre at Kamuzu
Barracks in Lilongwe to the Malawi Defense Forces.

The VCT centre was handed over by the United States Ambassador to
Malawi, Steven Browning.

Browning said that it was important that the people should work jointly
in the fight against Aids.

'The scourge of HIV/AIDS in Africa and in Malawi is a battle that must
be fought on numerous battlefields. Every sector of the society must do
its part, and the military early on made clear its commitment to take a
leading role,' said Browing.

He pointed out that HIV/AIDS is a threat to development.

'We all know that HIV/AIDS threatens to undermine all the hard-won
economic, political and social achievements made in the past decade,'
said Browning.

He also disclose that there were plans to construct two more VCT
centres at more Malawi Defense Force barracks.

Accepting the facility, the Commander of the Malawi Defense Force,
Josephy Chimbayo, said that the contribution was timely because HIV/AIDS
is impacting on all the sectors of the society including the Army.

'Highly qualified and experienced workers have become difficult to
replace and HIV/AIDS is threatening to wipe out the social and economic
gains Malawi has made in the recent decade,' said Chimbayo.

He went on to say that HIV/AIDS is one of the challenges which those in
leadership positions need to address.

'I see HIV/AIDS as one of the leadership challenges. May I take this
opportunity to urge all those in leadership positions to make it their
responsibility to effectively address this crisis,' said Chimbayo.

The construction of the facility has been funded by US Department of
Defense HIV/AIDS Prevention Program and assisted by DOD's Naval Health
Research Centre. The cost of the centre and other associated equipment
is US$252,000.

*****

Social Action Fund Gives Hope to the Vulnerable

The Chronicle Newspaper (Lilongwe)

October 28, 2003
Posted to the web October 28, 2003

Pilirani Phiri
Lilongwe

With the welding skills that Jane Loti, a 17 year old orphan has learnt
from Chilungamo Skills Training Centre in Area 24 in Lilongwe which is a
Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF) funded Community Sub Project (CSP)
Loti says she is optimistic that she will one day live independently and
forget the burdens of orphanage she has gone through since she was two
years old.

Listening to her ordeal is a moving, touching, and heart pounding
experience that would make an Angel shed tears.

'My parents died when I was very young - I think at the age of two or
three years. Life has not been all that smooth since my parents died. I
failed to go far with my education as I could have done if my parents
were a live," she says.

However she says since she joined Chilungamo Skills Centre which is an
initiative of the community but supported by MASAF she is confident that
one day she will get employed as welder and live a happy and independent
life.

'I have learnt a lot here as a welder and I can produce anything from a
door frame to windows," says Loti smiling.

To prove her capability in welding, Loti showed this reporter some of
her products that she made during a MASAF media tour recently. The
hopeful orphan caught the attention of many journalists with her
art-of-the-class products that she displayed to the reporters.

'This is excellent. I can't believe this. Suppose other organisations
emulate MASAF's gesture and help to train other orphans in the country -
we can empower the vulnerable children to live independently," said
Philip Business a journalist working with the Malawi Broadcasting
Corporation (MBC).

Loti says she plans to get a job after graduating from the centre and
live with her brother who is also at the same centre and face the
challenges of life independently and not by relying on handouts from
well wishers.

Confident with her efforts that she is now at least endeavouring to
restore her dignity from a hopeless orphan to an independent individual,
she appeals to her fellow orphans and other vulnerable children in the
country not to rush to the streets but to join orphanages that will
offer various skills to them as is the case with Chilungamo Skills
Centre.

Reverend Moses Phiri of the Hill Top Assemblies who is the director of
Chilungamo Skills said the centre trains orphans and other vulnerable
children like those with disabilities in welding, tailoring and
carpentry. *'We have been training orphans in various skills since 1997,
the year the centre was opened," said Phiri.

According to him MASAF funded the project with K750,000 while the
community managed to commit about K200,000. In a bid to ensure that
their centre has a sustainable source of income, Phiri said the centre
sells some of it's products so that they are able to buy food, cloths,
and necessities for the orphans.

Chilungamo Skills Training centre is not the only centre that is
helping to restore the dignity of vulnerable children in Malawi with
assistance from MASAF. In the northern region on the outskirts of Mzuzu
city MASAF is also supporting the Kang'ona Early Childhood Development
Centre which looks after 120 orphans from Nkhwawapasi Village.

According to Stuart Kazira who is the Zone Manager for Mzuzu MASAF
Community Sub Project, MASAF contributed about K1 million while the
community coughed up about K300,000 to help in the welfare of the
orphans.

Kazira said the components that were funded included the ECD centre
block, three latrines and furniture.

Village Headman Robert Singini said the community decided to come up
with the idea of establishing the ECD due to the devastating impact of
HIV and AIDS which is killing parents in the village. Apart from acting
as an orphanage Kang'ona ECD also acts as a nursery school and a play
ground for the orphans.

Among other objectives of MASAF which was introduced by the ruling
United Democratic Front in 1994 is to give assistance to the most
vulnerable groups which include orphans, street children and HIV/AIDS
infected persons.

Meanwhile, government will on November seven this year launch MASAF III
to the tune of US$ 240 million.


*****

Zim state hospitals in strike crisis

Harare, Zimbabwe

29 October 2003 12:07


The Zimbabwe government has deployed military doctors and nurses to
state hospitals that are reeling under a strike by state medical staff,
the Herald newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Health Minister David Parirenyatwa told the state-run daily that the
deployment was an emergency measure aimed at avoiding loss of lives.

Doctors at government hospitals in the Southern African country went on
an indefinite strike last week demanding an 8 000% pay increase, from a
current gross monthly salary of Z$378 000 Zimbabwean dollars (about R3
300).

Nurses joined in the strike this week, demanding a 7 000% pay hike.

Before the military doctors stepped in, only foreign consultant doctors
hired by the government from Cuba and the Democratic Republic of Congo
have been at work at the affected hospitals.

Pay-related national strikes by Zimbabwe's government hospital doctors
have become an almost annual tradition and can last for as long as
several months.

Poor renumeration of medical personnel has seen a mass exodus of health
workers -- doctors and nurses -- particularly to Britain, Canada, the
United States and neighbouring South Africa where pay and conditions are
more attractive.

Parirenyatwa, who has described the pay demands as "unrealistic", said
the strike was "unethical".

He has appealed to the striking workers to return to work.

"I urge all health workers on strike to return to work to avoid further
loss of lives while government looks into their grievances," he said.

No figures are available of any unavoidable deaths that may have
occurred so far at the affected hospitals. -- Sapa-AFP