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AFRICA: Go-ahead for IDP convention

AFRICA: Go-ahead for IDP convention



Photo: Anthony Mitchell/IRIN The African Union flag: Member states are making plans to implement the Kampala convention on the protection of internally displaced people - file photoNAIROBI, 11 June 2010 (IRIN) - African Union members have adopted plans to implement the Kampala convention on the protection of internally displaced people, including increasing their contributions to refugee and IDP funding and accelerating the convention’s ratification, signature and domestication, the AU said.

Signed by 26 countries since it was endorsed in the Ugandan capital of Kampala on 23 October 2009, the convention obliges governments to recognize that IDPs have specific vulnerabilities and must be supported, according to Walter Kälin, Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons.

It covers all causes of displacement, is forceful in terms of responsibility and goes beyond addressing the roles of states to those of the AU and non-state actors. The instrument is aimed at progressively eliminating forced population displacement caused by conflicts and to reduce the suffering of those displaced by natural disasters in Africa.

AU ministers responsible for forced displacement, who met in Addis Ababa on 4 and 5 June, agreed to seek support for implementation from non-traditional and private sector partners and to accelerate the convention’s ratification at an AU summit in Kampala in July. Domestication includes voluntary repatriation, local integration and resettlement, and strategies for prevention, management and resolution of conflicts, as well as post-conflict reconstruction and peace building.

More than 10 million sub-Saharan Africans are affected by forced displacement, according to the AU. These include 2.1 million refugees, 305,000 asylum-seekers, at least 6.3 million IDPs and about 100,000 stateless persons. Africa is also home to three of the world's five countries with the largest conflict-induced IDPs, namely Sudan (about 4.9 million), the Democratic Republic of Congo (one million) and Somalia (1.5 million), data from the Brookings-Bern Project shows.

The Kampala convention, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is the custodian of international humanitarian law, provides a solid framework for enhancing the protection and assistance of IDPs in Africa. To become a binding document, it has to be ratified by 15 of the AU's 53 members. So far, one has done so.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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ANALYSIS: Burundi’s election wobbles

ANALYSIS: Burundi’s election wobbles



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN Traditional dancers at a rally organised by the Movement for Solidarity and Democracy, one of Burundi's opposition parties that want a re-run of recently held local elections - file photoBUJUMBURA, 11 June 2010 (IRIN) - Allegations of massive fraud during May’s local elections in Burundi have cast a shadow over the country's democratic transition, prompting international calls for compromise rather than confrontation.

Attributing the ruling CNDD-FDD’s landslide victory to ballot-box stuffing, vote-buying with state resources, the illegal use of proxies and a lack of secrecy in some polling stations, 13 opposition parties have announced a boycott of the 28 June presidential race, leaving President Pierre Nkurunziza as the only runner.

Now grouped under the Alliance of Democrats for Change, the parties also want a re-run of the local elections and for the “incompetent” and “complicit” electoral commission to be replaced.

"It's unfortunate how the elections have progressed thus far in Burundi,” Nyambura Githaiga, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) told IRIN.

“With the fraud allegations, boycott by opposition and ban on political rallies, political rifts are deepening with the polarizing of adopted stances,” she said.

"If the stand-off between government and opposition persists and the [presidential] elections are held as planned, the opposition may be left with the choice of either entrenching the boycott or disrupting the polls. In any event, due to Burundi’s history, security is likely to pose a major challenge to both sides."

Since the late 1950s, this history has been dominated by armed conflict driven by power struggles between the Tutsi minority and Hutu majority. The last of the densely populated country’s rebel groups, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), finally threw in the towel and became a political party in 2009.

Risk of unrest

Describing the country's current political situation as a "crisis" and "an impasse", university lecturer and political analyst Simeon Barumwete said Burundi was at risk of "civil disobedience that could result in serious social unrest as the local elections created a lot of frustrations".

"Parties could call all their supporters to rebel against the elected institutions, especially in opposition strongholds such as Bujumbura and Bururi," Barumwete said.

Today, the situation can evolve into the same dictatorship and give rise to massive violations of human rights, with anyone speaking against the party lines being arrested or killed

On a brief visit to Burundi on 9 June, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted “the important progress in consolidating peace” through elections in 2005.

“In any democratic country, elections generate excitement, dynamism and sometimes tension," he said. "If there is any allegation of fraud, harassment or intimidation, those claims should be raised and brought to concerned institutions."

(Official complaints have been lodged at provincial election commissions but some in the opposition said the lack of proper voting tallies had hindered this process.)

With regard to the looming boycott he said: “I must underscore the importance of an inclusive process, and of accepting the democratic will of the people as expressed through that process.”

Ban said “a spirit of compromise” was needed to give Burundians “vital peace dividends” such as “recovery, reconciliation, reform, economic development and an end to impunity”.

“Irregularities”

Local and international election observers gave the 24 May election a largely clean bill of health. The minor problems recorded were neither malicious nor influential on the result, they said.

Accepting that “some irregularities” had occurred, electoral commission spokesman Prosper Ntahorwamiye said these needed to be analyzed to see if they had influenced the outcome of the poll.

"But they [political parties] did not wait for the results of this analysis; they have already settled the issue," he said. "They should know they are just one party to the electoral process."

He added that the presidential election would go ahead, even if Nkurunziza ran alone.

On 3 June, Burundi’s partners in the international community praised the enthusiasm shown during the local elections – turnout was above 90 percent – and invited opposition parties to “reconsider their decision” to boycott.

Also wary of a one-horse race was Ramadhan Kibuga, a journalist and analyst. If Nkurunziza wins unchallenged on 28 June, he said, "the president-elect will be a legal president but with no legitimacy".

Historian Claude Niyomwungere, recalling Burundi’s first post-independence local elections in 1961, which led to power being dangerously concentrated in a single party, suggested history was now repeating itself.

"Today, the situation can evolve into the same dictatorship and give rise to massive violations of human rights, with anyone speaking against the party lines being arrested or killed," he said.

While some in Bujumbura told IRIN they feared a resumption of conflict, FNL spokesman Jean Bosco Havyarimana said on 9 June his movement would not be the one to initiate fresh hostilities.

“FNL will not respond to the ruling party provocation… When the FNL laid down weapons we did not get much but for the sake of peace, we accepted this, preferring to await the elections, just to give the country a chance for peace.”



Photo: IRIN

Despite the alleged murder of 17 FNL supporters during the campaign period, Havyarimana said: “It is not now that the FNL can go back to war. Faced with bad governance, you just talk and wait for the rule [term] to change since any rule has an end."

On 6 June, Edouard Nduwimana, the Minister for Home Affairs, warned all political parties not participating in the presidential poll that they were unauthorized to hold rallies or public demonstrations.

“All parties campaigning for the boycott of the polls are depriving citizens of their right to vote,” he said.

Despite this warning, the following day, at a joint press conference with other opposition parties, MSD chairman Alexis Sinduhije said that when campaigns opened on 12 June, his party would press home the boycott call.

Related story: Trading accusations over poll results

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: What will we eat when climate change strikes?

In Brief: What will we eat when climate change strikes?



Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN Develop a diverse supply of local foodsJOHANNESBURG, 9 June 2010 (IRIN) - Diversify food sources; go local, suggests renowned agriculturalist and development expert Hans Herren in the latest news publication by the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN).

The UNSCN has explored ways of assessing the impact of climate change on food and nutrition security in its influential news publication, printed twice a year. Herren is guest editor of the first edition to focus on the impact of climate change on food and nutrition security.

Many projections have illustrated how the unfolding impact of climate change will hit food production. In 2009, the US-based think-tank International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) pointed out that climate change could push up the numbers of undernourished children.

Later in 2009, the UNSCN urged aid and development agencies and other organizations to develop a knowledge base that could inform future programming on climate change and nutrition, and to set up a comprehensive surveillance system that could identify interventions for protecting nutrition from climate-related hazards.

Read this edition of the UNSCN news publication at: Climate change: food and nutrition security implications

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Opposition parties now boycott all polls

BURUNDI: Opposition parties now boycott all polls



Photo: Jacoline Prinsloo/IRIN Supporters of the FNL, one of the parties in the Democratic Alliance for Change BUJUMBURA, 25 June 2010 (IRIN) - Having pulled out of presidential elections scheduled for 28 June - leaving President Pierre Nkurunziza as the only candidate - an alliance of opposition parties in Burundi have announced they are also boycotting parliamentary elections to be held on 23 July.

“If the government maintains the status quo and organizes the presidential poll, we will not participate in that masquerade since the results are already known," Leonard Nyangoma, the spokesman for the Democratic Alliance for Change (ADC) - comprising 12 opposition parties - said at a news conference on 23 June in the capital, Bujumbura.

The alliance claimed Nkurunziza's solo candidature in the presidential poll would give rise to an "illegal and illegitimate" president, adding "we will never accept a president elected from unconstitutional elections".

But the electoral commission (CENI) insists that the two purported legal foundations of this claim, Article 102 of the constitution and Article 25 of the electoral code, do not prohibit an election being held with a single candidate.

The opposition parties made the decision to pull out of the presidential poll and, subsequently, the parliamentary elections following communal elections held on 24 May, which they claimed were rigged by the ruling party, the Conseil national pour la défence de la démocratie-Forces de défence de la démocratie (CNDD–FDD).

"We call on our communal councillors elected in the last electoral masquerade to boycott the meetings," Nyangoma said.

In the light of the boycott of the presidential poll, CENI has changed voting procedures so they resemble a referendum, with white and black envelopes used by those for and against Nkurunziza’s election.

Renata Weber, who heads the European Union’s election observer mission in Burundi, described this as a “total novelty”.

"Insofar as you have the possibility to vote against the president that means that the campaign against the election of the president is allowed."

Despite refusing to campaign for a “no” vote, the opposition alliance says it will not just sit still.



Photo: IRIN

Alexis Sinduhije, leader of the Movement for Security and Democracy

"We will use all our means to counter the illegal government, including arms; I know it is an ultimate decision but, if it is the only one remaining, we will take it," Alexis Sinduhije, chairman of the Movement for Solidarity and Democracy, said on 23 June.

"If it is the price for democracy, to save our liberties and dignity, we will pay it."

Sinduhije added: "We will never accept that a group of people take millions of Burundians hostage."

Open letter

In an open letter to Nkurunziza on 22 June, detailing the irregularities of the communal elections, the alliance called for a revised electoral calendar saying: "We accept that the institutions remain in place for all the needed time for the new election timetable to be agreed upon."

Weber, while acknowledging that irregularities took place in the communal polls, however, said: "It is very difficult to say these types of irregularities affected the final outcome. That is why our conclusion was that, largely, the elections were in line with international standards and with good practice."

She said the irregularities noted have also been recorded in other countries. "They take place when either the legal framework is not good enough, the logistics may not be good enough or the education of the persons in polls [is not good enough]".

Transparency was "not that good" at the level of the electoral commission, Weber said. "Even at this moment, the minutes [tally] of the votes are not published."

According to Weber, the publication of the minutes could have convinced people that the electoral body was working according to the country's legislation, international standards and good practice.



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN

A street scene in Bujumbura: Burundi's political and security climate has deteriorated since communal elections in May

Grenade blasts

Meanwhile, since the communal elections, Burundi's political and security climate has deteriorated. A series of grenade blasts have been reported in various parts of the country, the latest on the night of 24 June. Two days earlier, blasts killed four people in the capital and the surrounding Bujumbura Rural Province.

On 19 June, a series of grenade attacks targeting bars in the northern province of Kayanza resulted in the injuring of at least 21 people.

Despite the incidents, electoral commission chairman Pierre Claver Ndayicariye has reassured potential voters that everything will be done to guarantee security during the presidential poll on 28 June.

"Measures adapted to the situation will be in place," he said.

jb/js/am/cb



Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Straight talk with MSF medical coordinator Dr Eric Goemaere

AFRICA: Straight talk with MSF medical coordinator Dr Eric Goemaere



Photo: Eric Miller/Medecines Sans Frontieres Eric Goemaere, MSF medical coordinator for South AfricaJOHANNESBURG, 22 June 2010 (PlusNews) - Dr Eric Goemaere is the medical coordinator of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in South Africa. His career in HIV and AIDS has spanned decades, moving from an era in which antiretroviral (ARV) drugs were beyond the reach of most, to a time where millions are living with HIV and on treatment. IRIN/PlusNews sat down with Goemaere to ask him about the future of funding, drugs and the fight against HIV.

QUESTION: Has MSF experienced cuts in international funding and, if so, how is this affecting its programmes?

ANSWER: Indirectly. In some of our programmes in Uganda and in Kenya we have seen patients coming to us – and sometimes from far away – and saying,

'Where I used to get access to my drugs, I've been told, No'. By default, they come to an MSF programme where there are still treatment slots available.

For the moment these numbers are limited, but in the future they might grow to the tens of thousands, and that would definitely put a strain on the programme.

MSF is a very small fish in the pond ... we choose to be privately funded and we are extremely restricted in our funding. We are not in a position to absorb the withdrawal of funding, and we do not want in any way to pretend [to do] so.

Q. Second- and third-line drugs are out of reach to many living with HIV and TB; as HIV/AIDS becomes increasingly less "exceptional", what is that likely to mean in the development of these drugs?

A. MSF are supporting patent pools ... to avoid going back to those battles we had in the beginning of the 2000s against pharmaceutical companies. A patent pool is a sort of win-win agreement where [pharmaceutical companies] give up their patent to a pool; in exchange they get royalties for that, as part of a totally negotiated agreement.

In the United States, someone diagnosed HIV-positive at 20 years old has a life expectancy of 69 years. Why so? There are an almost unlimited number of regimens, or different drugs that you can combine, to ensure that once resistance comes up you have an alternative.

Here [in Africa], we don't have that luxury – we have two bullets; two regimens - so we estimate that we can offer [someone diagnosed with HIV] 10 years [or so] ... at this stage.

Q. How serious is the threat of drug resistance?

A. Drug resistance is a problem, [but] this is a natural phenomenon and we will have to deal with it, although I would say it has accelerated [because] people are not adherent.

Twenty percent, or one-fifth, of our patients have drug resistance after one year, [which] compares very favourably with some European cohorts. So it's not more of a problem, but it is an alarming problem for the good reason that we need to shift to second-line regimens, [which] ... are about five times more expensive than first-line regimens – so [drug resistance] will increase cost.

IRIN Film on Drug- resistant TB

Click here to view

Q. Why isn't tuberculosis (TB) declining in South Africa?

A. The answer is very simple: the TB epidemic is fuelled by the HIV epidemic. To tackle the TB epidemic, you need to tackle the HIV epidemic ... 70 percent of TB patients are HIV-positive, so they are co-infected.

In Khayelitsha township [outside Cape Town], where I work, the TB incidence rate has reached astronomical levels, with more than 6,000 new notifications per year – that is more than the whole of the United Kingdom in one township - and this was fuelled only by the high HIV prevalence.

The good news is that when you get a good coverage with the ARVs, you immediately see the TB notification rate going down, and that's what we've been seeing for the last two years.

Q. What is the single biggest obstacle to tackling HIV in southern Africa?

A. It's combined factors, and the importance of these factors changes with time. In the beginning the biggest obstacle was drug prices; we managed to tackle that problem.

Then the problem became about healthcare facilities, because HIV was treated mostly at central level [large hospitals in urban centres, which] required lots of doctors, and not many doctors were available. Slowly, surely, by increasing coverage we managed to decentralise care to primary healthcare level [clinics].

Today, unfortunately, the biggest problem might become funding. If not enough funding is available we [will] go back in time ... back to centralised care, with patients [coming for treatment when they are] sicker, and [case management] becoming more complicated.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Not spending enough on food

AFRICA: Not spending enough on food



Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN Not enough food to go aroundJOHANNESBURG, 21 June 2010 (IRIN) - "Africa is now facing the same type of long-term food deficit problem that India faced in the early 1960s", says a paper by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a US-based think-tank.

In the early 1960s India faced a major food crisis.

African countries are not spending enough on agriculture and the overall productivity of the continent has dropped since the mid-1980s, said the paper which looked at trends in public spending on agriculture in Africa.

"Since the 1960s, Africa has lost ground in the global marketplace. Its share of total world agricultural exports fell from 6 percent in the 1970s to 2 percent in 2007," said the paper entitled, Public Spending for Agriculture in Africa: Trends and Composition.

 

The paper was produced by researchers who work with IFPRI's Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS).

Spending money on food production is critical in Africa, where 70 percent of people live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for food and income.

There are also going to be more people to feed in Africa in the next few decades. Sub-Saharan Africa's population is expected to grow faster than elsewhere by 2050, increasing by 910 million people, or 108 percent; East and Southeast Asia's population is set to rise by only 228 million, or 11 percent, according to UN projections.

Ten percent target

Read more

Political will needed to check hunger

Hunger knows no borders

We need another Green Revolution

In 2003, the continent adopted the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and countries committed to allocating 10 percent of their budgets to agriculture.

Only eight African countries have reached or surpassed the 10 percent target, according to CAADP.

Erratic weather could be turning the screws on food security in Africa as well. Drought-hit Niger features in the eight countries to have allocated the required 10 percent of their budget to agriculture to become food secure, but failed rains have driven more than three million of its people into food insecurity and pushed Niger back onto the list of food aid dependent countries where it last featured in 2004.

The other countries to reach the 10 percent target are Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, Senegal, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

There has been a 75 percent increase in the amount governments spend on agriculture from 2000 to 2005 but the CAADP target "remains unmet because of the very low initial base and the declining trends prior to 2000", says the IFPRI paper.

The researchers used another measure - agricultural Gross Domestic Produce (GDP) - to assess the amount countries spend on agriculture. Babatunde Omilola, ReSAKSS coordinator explained how it was calculated. "This measure of government spending on agriculture weighs in the size of the sector in the overall economy and takes into account factors such as revenue generated and its impact on poverty reduction."

"With the exception of Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, African countries have spent less than 10 percent of their agricultural GDPs on agriculture in recent decades."

Africa spends 5-7 percent as a share of agricultural GDP on food production, whereas Asia spent 8-10 percent. But the range in spending in Africa is quite considerable. "For example, Botswana had the highest percentage in 2005 at 60 percent, while Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana spent less than 2 percent in the same year."

Meanwhile, donor funding for agriculture in Africa has dropped dramatically - from 15 percent in the 1980s to 4 percent in 2006- but the amount countries allocate from aid to food production also varies quite considerably. In 2007 Botswana and Nigeria spent less than 1 percent of all aid received on agriculture. However, Burkina Faso in 2006 spent 8 percent of its total aid on agriculture.

How countries are spending



Photo: Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System

How African countries are faring on the CAADP target - this is based on ReSAKSS' 2010 assessment

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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Analysis: Cautious welcome for ICC decision on crime of aggression

Analysis: Cautious welcome for ICC decision on crime of aggression



Photo: DIAG  The crime of aggression seeks to criminalise the use of armed force by one state against another in contravention of the UN Charter (file photo)KAMPALA, 15 June 2010 (IRIN) - The decision to include the crime of aggression under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a step forward for international justice but raises expectations that the court may be unable to meet, say analysts.

The crime of aggression seeks to criminalize the use of armed force by one state against another in contravention of the UN Charter. It has been the subject of a working group of the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties for seven years after delegates in Rome in 1998 failed to agree on it, and dominated discussions at the recent review conference in the Ugandan capital.

The Kampala conference adopted a compromise position that allows state parties to decide whether the court may act on the crime of aggression where either the UN Security Council refers a matter to the ICC or the alleged aggressor and victim states are parties to the ICC treaty. The decision takes effect in 2017.

It broadly defined the crime of aggression as the use of force that manifestly breaches the UN Charter and includes an invasion, a bombardment, the blockade of ports or coasts of a state by the armed forces of another, an attack by the armed forces of a state on the land, sea or air forces, or marine and air fleets of another state; or a country allowing another state to use its territory to attack a third nation, without the justification of self-defence or without authorization by the UN Security Council.

Individual crimes of aggression were defined as the planning, preparation, initiation or execution by a person in a leadership position of an act of aggression, in violation of the UN Charter.

But the Kampala compromise, according to Antoinette Louw and Anton du Plessis of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS), “is complicated and potentially damaging to the ICC as it creates expectations that cannot be met. It also risks linking the court – which should be an independent judicial body – to highly politicized disputes between states.”

William Pace, convener of the Coalition for the ICC, described the agreement on the definition of the crime as a step forward for international justice, but said conditions agreed by states for prosecution of the crime would leave many out of the reach of justice.

"There also remains a question mark over when the court will be able to exercise its jurisdiction over this crime of concern to the international community as a whole,” he said.

Exceptions

According to the agreement, the court may exercise jurisdiction over the crime arising from an act of aggression committed by a state party, but that state may be exempted from any liability if it has previously declared that it does not accept such jurisdiction to the Court’s Registrar.

In respect of a state that is not party to the statute, the court shall not exercise its jurisdiction over the crime when committed by that state’s nationals or on its territory, a provision that experts at the conference said negated the principles of the Rome Statute.

What we saw was tremendous resistance by the permanent members of the Security Council to keep their exclusive power and on the other side the staunch insistence of states to preserve the principle of independence of the court from interference

“In the absence of such a determination, the prosecutor may not proceed with the investigation in respect of the crime, unless the Security Council has in a resolution, adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the UN, requested the prosecutor to proceed with the investigation,” the new amendments to the Rome Statute read.

The determination of an act of aggression by a body outside the court shall not prejudice the court’s own findings under the Rome Statute.

Individuals in positions to have effectively exercised control over or directed the political or military action will personally be held responsible. The amendments also provide that no person who has been tried by another court shall be tried by the ICC for the same action.

“Many states, including most from the developing south, were strongly opposed to any move that might strengthen the role of the UN Security Council [UNSC] in deciding which cases could be brought before the ICC,” the ISS experts said in a statement. “Although the Kampala agreement does not grant the UNSC exclusive control over the court’s authority to prosecute aggression, in practice the UNSC provides the only alternative for aggression-related prosecution of individuals from non-state parties, and non-consenting states parties.

“Without the UNSC, the ICC’s powers to prosecute aggressive wars will therefore be limited to consenting state parties, from both sides of the conflict.” The court will not be able to exercise jurisdiction until at least 1 January 2017, and only after 30 states have ratified the amendment.

“The agreement may extend the court’s role to cover the crime of waging aggressive war in the future,” said Richard Dicker, director for international justice at Human Rights Watch (HRW). “This could pose challenges to the ICC’s effectiveness by creating expectations that today’s compromise won’t meet.”

Divided positions

The agreement could, however, link the ICC to highly politicized disputes between states, posing a danger to perceptions of the court's role as an impartial judicial arbiter of international criminal law. According to HRW, the amendment bordered on taking away with one hand what was being offered with the other.

"What we saw was tremendous resistance by the permanent members of the Security Council to keep their exclusive power and on the other side the staunch insistence of states to preserve the principle of independence of the court from interference," Dicker told IRIN at the conference.

"With this agreement, the court, its Assembly of States Parties, and individual state members need to get to work explaining what this decision means and what it does not.

"The court's mission and mandate are not well understood, and it will require real effort to convey the reach and the constraints of this crime if activated after 2017."

Discussions about the crime of aggression in Kampala divided delegates, especially over the role of the UN Security Council. Civil society participants hailed the compromise, arguing that granting the Security Council sole power to authorize investigations would have compromised the court's independence.

"We believe that moving forward now on the crime of aggression without genuine consensus could undermine the court," Stephen Rapp, US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, told the conference.

However, Anita La Rose, a civil society delegate from Latin America, told IRIN: "This is surely a compromise as people made concessions. This is a deal which I think we should be happy with."

Latin American and African nations, she added, were wary of ceding authority to a body dominated by the five permanent Security Council members - Britain, the US, China, Russia and France - some of whom are non-members of the ICC, but have veto powers at the world body.

Uganda’s Justice Minister and Attorney-General, Khiddu Makubuya, told IRIN the final position reached rhymed with the law, which is that the Security Council has the primary mandate under the UN Charter over issues of peace, security and aggression.

Some 4,600 representatives of states, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations attended the 31 May-11 June review conference, according to the ICC.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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Analysis: Burundi’s election wobbles

Analysis: Burundi’s election wobbles



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN Traditional dancers at a rally organised by the Movement for Solidarity and Democracy, one of Burundi's opposition parties that want a re-run of recently held local elections (file photo)BUJUMBURA, 11 June 2010 (IRIN) - Allegations of massive fraud during May’s local elections in Burundi have cast a shadow over the country's democratic transition, prompting international calls for compromise rather than confrontation.

Attributing the ruling CNDD-FDD’s landslide victory to ballot-box stuffing, vote-buying with state resources, the illegal use of proxies and a lack of secrecy in some polling stations, 13 opposition parties have announced a boycott of the 28 June presidential race, leaving President Pierre Nkurunziza as the only runner.

Now grouped under the Alliance of Democrats for Change, the parties also want a re-run of the local elections and for the “incompetent” and “complicit” electoral commission to be replaced.

"It's unfortunate how the elections have progressed thus far in Burundi,” Nyambura Githaiga, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) told IRIN.

“With the fraud allegations, boycott by opposition and ban on political rallies, political rifts are deepening with the polarizing of adopted stances,” she said.

"If the stand-off between government and opposition persists and the [presidential] elections are held as planned, the opposition may be left with the choice of either entrenching the boycott or disrupting the polls. In any event, due to Burundi’s history, security is likely to pose a major challenge to both sides."

Since the late 1950s, this history has been dominated by armed conflict driven by power struggles between the Tutsi minority and Hutu majority. The last of the densely populated country’s rebel groups, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), finally threw in the towel and became a political party in 2009.

Risk of unrest

Describing the country's current political situation as a "crisis" and "an impasse", university lecturer and political analyst Simeon Barumwete said Burundi was at risk of "civil disobedience that could result in serious social unrest as the local elections created a lot of frustrations".

"Parties could call all their supporters to rebel against the elected institutions, especially in opposition strongholds such as Bujumbura and Bururi," Barumwete said.

Today, the situation can evolve into the same dictatorship and give rise to massive violations of human rights, with anyone speaking against the party lines being arrested or killed

On a brief visit to Burundi on 9 June, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted “the important progress in consolidating peace” through elections in 2005.

“In any democratic country, elections generate excitement, dynamism and sometimes tension," he said. "If there is any allegation of fraud, harassment or intimidation, those claims should be raised and brought to concerned institutions."

(Official complaints have been lodged at provincial election commissions but some in the opposition said the lack of proper voting tallies had hindered this process.)

With regard to the looming boycott he said: “I must underscore the importance of an inclusive process, and of accepting the democratic will of the people as expressed through that process.”

Ban said “a spirit of compromise” was needed to give Burundians “vital peace dividends” such as “recovery, reconciliation, reform, economic development and an end to impunity”.

“Irregularities”

Local and international election observers gave the 24 May election a largely clean bill of health. The minor problems recorded were neither malicious nor influential on the result, they said.

Accepting that “some irregularities” had occurred, electoral commission spokesman Prosper Ntahorwamiye said these needed to be analyzed to see if they had influenced the outcome of the poll.

"But they [political parties] did not wait for the results of this analysis; they have already settled the issue," he said. "They should know they are just one party to the electoral process."

He added that the presidential election would go ahead, even if Nkurunziza ran alone.

On 3 June, Burundi’s partners in the international community praised the enthusiasm shown during the local elections – turnout was above 90 percent – and invited opposition parties to “reconsider their decision” to boycott.

Also wary of a one-horse race was Ramadhan Kibuga, a journalist and analyst. If Nkurunziza wins unchallenged on 28 June, he said, "the president-elect will be a legal president but with no legitimacy".

Historian Claude Niyomwungere, recalling Burundi’s first post-independence local elections in 1961, which led to power being dangerously concentrated in a single party, suggested history was now repeating itself.

"Today, the situation can evolve into the same dictatorship and give rise to massive violations of human rights, with anyone speaking against the party lines being arrested or killed," he said.

While some in Bujumbura told IRIN they feared a resumption of conflict, FNL spokesman Jean Bosco Havyarimana said on 9 June his movement would not be the one to initiate fresh hostilities.

“FNL will not respond to the ruling party provocation… When the FNL laid down weapons we did not get much but for the sake of peace, we accepted this, preferring to await the elections, just to give the country a chance for peace.”



Photo: IRIN

Despite the alleged murder of 17 FNL supporters during the campaign period, Havyarimana said: “It is not now that the FNL can go back to war. Faced with bad governance, you just talk and wait for the rule [term] to change since any rule has an end."

On 6 June, Edouard Nduwimana, the Minister for Home Affairs, warned all political parties not participating in the presidential poll that they were unauthorized to hold rallies or public demonstrations.

“All parties campaigning for the boycott of the polls are depriving citizens of their right to vote,” he said.

Despite this warning, the following day, at a joint press conference with other opposition parties, MSD chairman Alexis Sinduhije said that when campaigns opened on 12 June, his party would press home the boycott call.

Related story: Trading accusations over poll results

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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EAST AFRICA: Freedom of movement to help pastoralist lifestyles

EAST AFRICA: Freedom of movement to help pastoralist lifestyles



Photo: Anthony Morland/IRIN A girl waters camels in northern Kenya: Security in Mobility ensures that pastoralist communities can continue their traditions and culture while at the same time integrating modern aspects such as health and education (file photo)NAIROBI, 30 June 2010 (IRIN) - Pastoralists across East Africa are set to benefit as the region’s national borders are relaxed amid joint efforts to mitigate the risks associated with their migration.

"With the coming into effect [on 1 July] of the common market protocol, pastoralists like the Maasai, the Pokot and the Somali who do not believe in borders as they have kin in more than one country will enjoy better freedom of movement across the borders," Augustine Lotodo, a member of parliament in the East African Legislative Assembly, told IRIN on 30 June.

The protocol allows free movement of people, goods, services and capital across the East African Community’s five members: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi.

On 29 June, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA Kenya), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) launched Security in Mobility (SIM), a regional initiative aimed at reconciling pastoralist livelihoods and security needs with broader regional security priorities.

Lotodo, who attended the SIM launch, said: "This Security in Mobility initiative is one of the best things to happen to pastoralists in a long time. During colonial times, pastoralism was respected and they were allowed to move around freely but after independence, border restrictions hampered their way of life.

"Security in Mobility ensures that pastoralist communities can continue their traditions and culture while at the same time integrating modern aspects such as health and education."

Jeanine Cooper, head of OCHA Kenya, said pastoralists and their livelihoods were under threat due to a combination of factors, including environmental degradation, resource-based conflicts, changing land tenures, poor governance and restrictive cross-border policies.



Photo: Anthony Morland/IRIN

A regional initiative has been launched, aimed at reconciling pastoralist livelihoods and security needs with broader regional security priorities (file photo)

Mark Bowden, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said many pastoralists were no longer safe during their migration and stay in "foreign territory" and that there was no formal framework to guarantee their security.

Access to markets

Choice Okoro, OCHA Kenya's Advocacy and Outreach Officer, told IRIN: "Through the two years of the Security in Mobility consultations with pastoralists across Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Tanzania, Sudan, Ethiopia and Sudan border areas, access to markets was highlighted as one of the major challenges pastoralists face.

"Included in our SIM approach is the call for better support and facilitation of pastoralism across borders. This will require facilitation of pastoralists’ access to markets."

The protocol “covers three countries of interest to the SIM process: Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. We are looking at similar processes that will begin to facilitate the reconciliation of pastoralists’ markets and mobility to regional economic priorities in the other countries that border Kenya in the Horn of Africa - Somalia and Ethiopia and Sudan," Okoro said.

Climate change

SIM officials say that in 2009, almost 10 million people in the region, including three million pastoralists, were at risk of starvation due to drought.

According to SIM, the effects of climate change and its impact on pastoral communities are now more conspicuous than ever, with evidence pointing to increasing levels of migration and conflict over often scarce resources.

"Vulnerability, a lack of preparedness and appropriate, timely and relevant responses to natural disasters has left millions in need of humanitarian assistance," the agencies said.

The process calls for national and cross-border action to help pastoralists cope with the rising impacts of climate change and urges governments to facilitate safe passage across the borders in the Horn and East Africa regions.

"The Security in Mobility approach for intervention calls for response to pastoralist issues through a joined-up approach that captures provision of humanitarian assistance; provision of basic services such as water and sanitation; facilitated migration and comprehensive security initiatives," the agencies said.

"Mobility is usually associated with conflict and this risk needs to be recognized and managed down," the organizations recommended. "Pastoralists are frustrated with current humanitarian aid policies and want sustainable and transformational solutions."

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Sleeping sickness hits new low

DAKAR Tuesday, June 29, 2010 (IRIN) - For the first time in half a century, the number of new diagnosed cases of human African trypanosomiasis – also known as sleeping sickness - has dropped below 10,000 thanks to  partnerships with drug companies and improved screening, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: When donors receive - a tale of two CAPs

In Brief: When donors receive - a tale of two CAPs



Photo: Mateusz Buczek/OCHA CAP launchNAIROBI, 28 June 2010 (IRIN) - The aid world is an acronym jungle. Sometimes there are simply not enough good ones to go around, so they get used twice.

One of those is "CAP".

About 40%, some EUR55 billion (about US$76.5 billion in 2009 prices), of the EC's annual budget is spent on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a complex system of subsidy and support to farming in the bloc.

Meanwhile, appeals for some of the worst crises in the world are collated in what is known as a Consolidated Appeals Process (also, the CAP). These appeals cover the needs of some, but not all, of the world's most severe emergencies. This CAP raised some US$6.9 billion of an overall US$11.1 billion in humanitarian funding in 2009. Both figures are according to the Financial Tracking System of UN OCHA.

The top five member state recipients of the EC's CAP (using a 2009 average of $1 = EUR 0.719) were allocated some US$49 billion in 2009. These figures are freshly released in June 2010 by farmsubsidy.org, a non-profit group run by a network of European journalists, researchers and activists.

They donated about US$588 million. This, mathematically, is equivalent to just over one percent of their CAP receipts.



 

Receipts from the EC CAP

Donations to the Consolidated Appeals

Percent

France

15,288,095,751

33,719,769

0.2%

Germany

10,430,889,552

119,322,549

1.1%

Spain

10,352,522,462

104,598,528

1.0%

Italy

8,130,416,900

33,935,578

0.4%

UK

5,155,201,160

296,318,489

5.7%

Sources: OCHA FTS, www.farmsubsidy.org

 

[ Note: Member state contributions through the European Commission's humanitarian funding department, ECHO, are not included.

Other bilateral and multilateral and non-governmental humanitarian funds not through the CAP system are also not included. ]

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Diabetes cases to double by 2030

AFRICA: Diabetes cases to double by 2030



Photo: Phuong Tran/IRIN More will need medication to fight diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa in coming decadesDAKAR, 28 June 2010 (IRIN) - Without a major breakthrough in preventing and treating diabetes, the number of cases in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to double, reaching 24 million by 2030, according to the Brussels-based International Diabetes Federation (IDF).

A recent study, Diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa, led by the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon and published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, said inadequate donor attention and national prevention programmes were creating a global "public health and socioeconomic time bomb".

Diabetes is caused by inherited genetic factors and lifestyle choices, and manifests when the body does not produce enough insulin, or cannot break down sugar in the blood, according to the World Health Organization. The disease usually requires long-term treatment and can lead to costly and serious health complications, including heart failure.

In the 34 poorest African countries, the cost of diabetes per person is more than double their average income. In 2010 an estimated 6 percent of total mortality in sub-Saharan Africa will probably be caused by diabetes - a three-fold increase in the past 10 years, the IDF noted.

Jean Claude Mbanya, IDF president and the study's lead researcher, told IRIN that diabetes had been misunderstood as a rich country problem, despite medical data compiled by IDF showing that 70 percent of cases were reported in low- and middle-income countries.

"There is also the perception that when diabetes does affect people in low-income countries, it only affects those who are the wealthy elite. This is absolutely not the case - diabetes is devastating for the poor, affecting breadwinners," he told IRIN.

Researchers acknowledged that data was scarce in Africa and estimates were based on a limited number of studies. "More studies would increase our confidence in the numbers, but this does not mean they are wrong ... Most people in Africa who have diabetes are undiagnosed and, therefore, even when statistics are available from health systems, they will always underestimate the size of the problem."

Insulin



Photo: Phuong Tran/IRIN

Sophie Sar

Sophie Sar, 29, was diagnosed with diabetes in Dakar, capital of Senegal, when she was nine years old. Doctors prescribed insulin, the main anti-diabetic drug, three times a day, costing her almost US$3 per dose. "Every penny I earn as a hairdresser goes to insulin," she told IRIN.

She earns around $6 a day if she has three clients; when she falls short, an uncle lends her money. Her medically approved diet is unaffordable: "We eat mostly rice here in Senegal, but I can only have a few cups of it a day. I am supposed to eat more vegetables but they are so much more expensive."  

The authors call for diabetes treatment to be funded in the same way as HIV/AIDS drugs are, along with "support for delivery mechanisms and chronic disease education and care models".

Also needed are "socio-culturally appropriate health promotion campaigns" to address health beliefs in African, mostly rural, settings, that raise the risk of diabetes – such as obesity being a sign of "good living", and a preference for foods with a high saturated fat content, as well as improved access to care and affordable treatment.

"Late diagnosis of diabetes, coupled with inequalities in access to major anti-diabetes drugs ... leads to early presentation of diabetic complications and premature deaths," the study noted.

"HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis are important conditions, but they are not the only conditions," IDF's Mbanya told IRIN, questioning donor spending priorities that appeared to overlook "chronic non-communicable diseases", or non-infectious diseases requiring long-term treatment.

According to UNAIDS, 6 percent of patients infected with HIV died in 2008 - roughly the same percentage of global patient deaths IDF estimates will be caused by diabetes in 2010.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi