wfn.org | All Africa News Agency 24/03 June 23 2003 (c)

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

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AANA BULLETIN No. 24/03 June 23, 2003 (c)

SPECIAL  REPORT

Abuses Continued In Sudan, Somalia Despite Peace Talks

NAIROBI (AANA) June 23 - As peace negotiations for Somalia and Sudan 
continued here, so did human rights abuses related to persistent conflicts 
in the two countries.

Amnesty International (AI) 2002 report, released at the start of this 
month, confirms that human rights abuses went on with impunity in various 
parts of Somalia and Sudan throughout the year.

The two countries have experienced some of the most destructive civil 
conflicts in the continent. War between Arab-dominated Sudan government in 
the north and southern Sudanese rebels, Sudan People's Liberation 
Movement/Army (SPLM/A), has lasted 19 years.

Somalia has been torn apart by various warring factions, and has had no 
central government since the ousting of Siad Barre in 1991.

Clearly exhausted by the war, the two countries last year moved to hold 
peace talks in Kenya's capital Nairobi under the auspices of 
Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). The talks, which have 
resulted in some landmark agreements, are expected to come up with 
long-term solutions soon.

The latest AI annual report however, indicates that communities on the 
ground continued to experience various forms of human rights abuses, 
despite the on-going peace processes.

In Somalia, hundreds of civilians lost their lives in Mogadishu, Baidoa, 
Gedo and Puntland regions due to clan fighting. Warring militias were also 
responsible for kidnappings and rape.

According to the report, there was no effective national or regional rule 
of law, and human nights defenders were frequently at riskof attacks by 
militias.

The report says that inter-factional and inter-clan fighting in the south 
claimed scores of lives. Several factions used children as combatants, and 
scores of people died from landmine injuries.

Militias and other gunmen raped women and girls of opposing clans and other 
vulnerable groups, particularly internally displaced people and the 
severely underprivileged Somali minorities such as the Bantu, Midgan, 
Tumal, Yibir, Bravanese and also the wealthier Benadiri community.

Dozens of people, including children and aid workers, were kidnapped for 
ransom.

With regards to the rule of law, Amnesty International says that courts did 
not adhere to international standards of fair trial, and there was general 
bias against perceived enemies. Courts imposed several death sentences, 
which were swiftly carried out.

The report further states that many prisoners in Mogadishu seemed to be 
from minorities who lacked support from any armed clan, clearly indicating 
existence of oppression during the year.

The situation is no better in the war-torn Sudan.  According to AI, 
war-related human rights abuses were committed in large scale until a 
cease-fire was signed in October.  Even though, some cases of harassment of 
communities by government security personnel were reported.

One search case was reported early this month by Nuba Relief, 
Rehabilitation and Development Organisation.  A press release from the 
organisation said eight women attending a conference in the Nuba Mountains 
region were arbitrarily arrested and some of their items confiscated.

Towards the end of last year, women continued to be singled out for cruel, 
inhuman and degrading punishments for adultery, in circumstances where men 
involved remained unpunished. In November, at least 14 women from Darfur 
region were convicted of adultery and each sentenced to 100 lashes of the
whip.

For a greater part of the year, government forces, rebels and militias 
allied to both sides killed, abducted and raped civilians, destroyed 
houses, livestock and crops and restricted humanitarian aid.

Both government forces and armed opposition groups indiscriminately and 
directly targeted civilians and reportedly carried out extra-judicial 
executions.

Apart from the killing of civilians, the report also complains of 
displacements. Attacks on civilians and their properties led to the flight 
and displacement of tens of thousands of people.

Some of these activities were allegedly executed even after the landmark 
Machakos Peace Protocol signed towards the end of June between Sudan 
Government and SPLM/A.

In August, approximately 127,000 people displaced in Western Upper Nile 
added further pressure to an already precarious food situation in Bahr 
el-Ghazal.

Like Somalia, suspected government critics were arrested and held in 
prolonged incommunicado detention without charge. The detainees included 
civil servants, especially those from the Dinka ethnic group, states the AI 
report.

Reported by Vincent R Okungu

  FEATURES  SECTION

Where AIDS Awareness Work Is Hitting The Rocks

Although Botswana is known to have the world's highest percentage of people 
living with HIV/ AIDS, a significant proportion of the youth still believe 
the pandemic is a figment of other people's imagination. With such 
dangerous mindset, AIDS awareness programmes are not having the desired 
impact, reports AANA Correspondent, Rodrick Mukumbira.

H
IV/AIDS statistics in Botswana are shocking. Roughly, four in 10 people 
aged 15 to 49 are infected.  In Selebi Phikwe, a mining town in central 
Botswana, more than half of pregnant women aged between 20 and 29 were 
found to be infected in random tests conducted between June and August 
2002, according to an HIV Seroprevalence Report by the National AIDS 
Co-ordinating Agency (NACA).

Alarmingly, HIV prevalence among young people in the 15-24 age group is 
again rising after a brief drop in the late 1990s.  "Young people do not 
take AIDS seriously enough to change their behaviour," says Baatweng 
Motladiile, a training co-ordinator at the Scripture Union, which runs 
"Positive Parenting" workshops for teenagers and their parents.

Motladiile attributes this to absence of reproductive health education in 
families. "Parents and children do not talk about sex. They live in 
different worlds," she says.

But parliamentarian, Shirley Segokgo, who has been an active anti-HIV/AIDS 
crusader in Botswana, has warned that the culture of silence over the 
epidemic in the country must end.

"We need to talk about the issue to our children. We need to come clean 
when one of us dies of HIV/AIDS, though it is not part of our culture to 
reveal the cause of death. Let us call a spade a spade and then deal with 
the consequences," she argues.

Among those aged from 15 to 29, there are three HIV-positive women for 
every HIV-positive man, according to Botswana Human Development Report of 
2000, published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The ratio stabilises at one-to-one in older age groups. The disparity 
suggests that girls are infected at a younger age than boys, and that HIV 
is transmitted across generations through sex between older men and younger 
women.

Teenage pregnancy here is among the world's highest. Half of teenage girls 
have been pregnant. Illegal abortions are frequent.

The depth of the matter has forced even President Festus Mogae, to 
repeatedly say that in the absence of a cure, the only salvation lies in a 
drastic change of attitude toward the epidemic.

"We must sensitise the people to change their attitude towards sex and the 
disease and also remove all taboos about sex and change our sexual 
lifestyles.  Otherwise, we would lose the fight of people dying of 
HIV/AIDS," Mogae is reported to have recently told parliament.

The belief that HIV/AIDS does not exist is certainly the major impediment 
in the fight against the pandemic. A 2002 government report found that many 
Batswana still believe that HIV/AIDS was a foreign disease, which is only 
found in urban areas and major villages. Others brand self-confessed people 
living with AIDS as liars.

In the face of the crisis, the government, through NACA, has intensified 
awareness programmes on the epidemic. But the effort, which include putting 
up billboards with HIV/AIDS messages, are falling on "deaf ears" as young 
people think these are like any other advertisement.

"Who wants to look at these billboards, they are so boring," says Kabo 
Lesomo, pointing at one in Maun, a resort town in north-western 
Botswana.  The billboard depicts a nuclear family smiling, with a message 
reading, "Unlock AIDS", and featuring a huge padlock.

Since 1995, Lesomo has been working with Peer Approach to Counselling by 
Teens (PACT), an organisation sponsored by Young Women's Christian 
Association (YWCA).

PACT has 1,000 peer educators in schools in Botswana.  Lesomo's concern, 
however, is not about slick billboards, but getting young people to 
understand that AIDS is here and they must learn to live with it or die of
it.

"AIDS has become a boring topic, abstinence means nothing to a 
14-year-old," Lesomo asserts. She would like PACT to design its own 
information material with a "cool" design using street-wise terminologies. 
In her opinion, hammering that "AIDS kills", does not work.

"Scare tactics do not make people change their behaviour," interjects PACT 
training co-ordinator, Bawani Mutshewa.

PACT has joined a number of NGOs, the UN, and the Ministry of Health, in a 
new approach to reach youth in three townships of Gaborone.

Through a combination of sport, music, peer education and youth-friendly 
reproductive health services, the Urban Youth Project is pulling out all 
the stops to offer young people choices other than alcohol, drugs and 
unsafe sex.

"It's about getting young people excited about their lives, their health, 
their future," says Sarah Kirby, a consultant on adolescent reproductive 
health with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Poverty perpetuates the epidemic. Despite diamond-rich Botswana being the 
world's fastest growing economy, about 50 percent Batswana are poor.

In the country's townships, unemployment and boredom coupled with alcohol 
and drugs encourage people to indulge in behaviour that increase the risk 
of infection, such as commercial sex.

Myths abound. One-fifth of young people believe that having sex with a 
virgin cures AIDS. The conviction among older men is that such engagement 
rejuvenates and cleanses their blood.

The stigma is strong. Half of those aged 10 to 14 believe that HIV-positive 
people should be isolated from society.

There is also a belief amongst some Batswana men that HIV infection comes 
as a result of engaging in sex with a woman who never passed through 
certain traditional rituals.

According to social analysts, Botswana's deeply entrenched sexual habits, 
traditional customs and beliefs, are to blame for the failure to bring 
behavioural change in regard to HIV/AIDS. But elders in Botswana generally 
maintain that scourge is spreading rapidly among young people because they 
are departing significantly from their cultures.

"The initiation schools where young members of society used to go for 
orientation on conduct, morals, responsibilities, marriage, among others, 
have been abandoned," says Paramount Chief Oarabile Kalaben, the deputy 
chairperson of the House of Chiefs.

Traumatised Women Speak Out, Want Compensation

About 300 women in Dol Dol and Archer's Post in central Kenya are preparing 
to launch a compensation claim against the British army, for rapes 
allegedly committed years ago by British soldiers training in grounds near 
their homes. Observers say some of these allegations, stretching 30 years 
back, could be true. AANA correspondent, Muuna Wamuli, visited the area 
recently and filed the following report.

F
ear grips 49 year-old Maria Nepusoi (not her real name) every moment she 
glances at a school British soldiers built on a hill in Dol Dol, a trading 
centre some 260 kilometres north of Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

For her, the structure is a poignant reminder of how the "Johnnies", as the 
soldiers are called in this area, raided her house, 24 years ago, and 
gang-raped her.

"It was 7.00 p.m in 1978. I was with my friend. Six soldiers forced their 
way into my house, tried to offer us some money for sex, but we refused. 
They then violently ripped our clothing and raped us in groups," she says. 
"I was raped by three of them, and my friend by the other three."

Nepusoi is now living a shattered life in this trading centre, where she 
sweeps the tiny market compound for a living.

She says sometimes pupils coming down the hill from the school seem to turn 
into monsters that threaten to rape her. She lives in constant fear and 
drinks uncontrollably, presumably to escape such illusions.

"I nearly committed suicide," she recalls. "Some neighbours had heard the 
commotion in my house that night, and the news spread around that the 
'Johnnies' had raped us. Women do not talk about such terrible things 
(here). We keep it to ourselves for fear of being rejected. Unfortunately, 
word was already out," she explains

Nepusoi's story is similar to that of hundreds of women claiming to have 
been raped by British soldiers undertaking military training in the range 
lands of Mukodogo Division in Laikipia District.

Here, about 300 women of the Maasai community, with the help of Mr. Martyn 
Day, a British lawyer, are preparing to launch a civil case against the 
British Department of Defence for rape committed by their soldiers.

According to Johnson Ole Kaunga, the director of Indigenous Movement for 
Peace Advancement and Conflict Transformation (IMPACT), the alleged rape 
cases have been taking place since the 1960s. IMPACT is a local self-help 
group promoting peace and the rights of indigenous people.

For all these years, rape victims have suffered silently. Many of them were 
rejected by their husbands and the larger community after the incidents, 
turning them into social misfits.

Driven by a desire for justice, these women now want the soldiers punished 
for the offences. They also want the British government to compensate them 
for the rejection, trauma and the impoverishment they have been thrown into 
after the rape ordeals.

Nepusoi alleges that her 24 year-old light-skinned son with curly hair, 
whom she gave birth to after being raped, is a Briton.

"He is British. You don't need to be told," says Nepusoi, her voice 
betraying the glasses of a local brew she had just taken.

She lost her husband, with whom they had had six children, and retreated 
into silence. She says she has lived with the pain of bringing up a 
mixed-race child, who the community has refused to accept.

For 44 year-old Jacinta Lemaku (not her real name), her life would be 
different if a group of soldiers had not raped her. She weeps as she 
recalls her experience.

Lemaku says she had gone to collect firewood when four soldiers pounced on 
her and raped her one after the other. She aborted a baby she was 
expecting. Her husband abandoned her with their eight children. She has 
been traumatised ever since.

Having gathered these stories, among many others, Ole Kaunga observes that 
about 200 of the claims are likely to be genuine.

"You will see women whose lives have been shattered. You will meet women 
who are a complete kind of social misfits after they were raped. Most have 
been forced to move away from the traditional lifestyle to the urban areas, 
where they are involved in drinking. You meet single women who have been 
rejected by their husbands after they were raped," says Ole Kaunga.

He explains that just like in urban centres, where rape cases are not 
reported, so has been the case in Dol Dol.

"Women, however sensitive they may be to their rights, fear being told that 
they exposed themselves.  This is a case of illiterate women who could only 
report to the regular police, who are barred from handling (cases involving 
the) military," explains ole Kaunga.

Asked why he had picked up the rape issue, Kaunga says he wants to bring 
out these cases so that the British authorities can know what kind of track 
records their soldiers set when they train in Kenya.

"They should know that a lot of bad things go with it when they come for 
training here. We want them to take Kenyans serious as they do with their 
own citizens. We want them to respect the culture and the lifestyle of the 
people they meet," says Ole Kaunga.

Simeon Ole Kaparo, IMPACT's peace and human rights co-ordinator, points out 
that his organisation wants the cases of these women investigated further. 
Says he: "Not all women have come out.	There is a possibility of some 
missing out.  Some have been traumatised so much that they will never come 
out."

According to him, there should also be an assessment of the damage, both 
physical and psychological.

Nepusoi's mixed-race son complains of social harassment. He wants the 
soldiers responsible for his mother's plight punished.

"I feel bad because the Maasai do not see me as one of their own. The 
British government should take care of my mother, because it was out of the 
action of one of their soldiers that sent my mother away from the normal 
Maasai lifestyle," he says.

In July 2002, some members of this community and the nearby Samburu, won a 
claim of almost US $7 million against the British army for injuries 
sustained from live explosives left behind by soldiers training in the 
area. British soldiers have conducted live weapon training in this area 
since 1945.

What African Govts Should Do To Annul Brain Drain

Although brain drain is not a new phenomenon, its prominence in Africa's 
health sector has become an issue of concern. Medical practitioners 
maintain that African governments are largely to blame for the mass exodus 
of skilled manpower to countries abroad, reports Osman Njuguna.

Z
ambian doctor, Marlon Banda, of Christian Health Association of Zambia 
(CHAZ), is not amused that his fellow medics, are leaving the country in 
big numbers in search of "greener pastures" abroad.

He blames the conditions under which Zambian medical practitioners are 
operating for this exodus, and refers to them as "financially pathetic".

According to him, the factors facilitating migration of doctors from the 
country are many. "They range from poor remuneration to non-existence of 
hardship allowances for those working in harsh areas," he told AANA in an 
interview in Nairobi, where he attended an ecumenical consultation on 
HIV/AIDS last month.

But his counterpart, Dr. Hendrew Lusey of the Democratic Republic of Congo 
(DRC), has a different view. "My concern is that many of my fellow medics 
are checking out of the country when their services are badly needed, more 
so now, when the country is facing civil conflict," he says.

Dr. Lusey is the regional HIV/AIDS co-ordinator for Central Africa for the 
World Council of Churches (WCC).

"There are times when money should not supersede the sense of nationhood, 
when one should accept to suffer for the sake of fellow human beings 
irrespective of the monetary gains, hence my disagreement with those who 
might argue that in situations as we are today, one should hardly fail to 
take the advantage of checking out for 'greener pastures'," he contends.

But again, the Congolese doctor agrees that better remuneration and 
improved working conditions in Africa's health sector could "effectively 
dissuade some of us from leaving our countries of origin".

Fredrick Kigadye, a Tanzanian medical practitioner, says his country, which 
is equally affected by the phenomenon, is not at "zero" on the issue.

Says he: "The Government is currently engaged in matters pertaining to 
improving the national conditions under which Tanzanian medics are 
operating. This is edged on salaries, training of personnel, among others."

Dr Kigadye points out however, that this is all done within "unfavourable 
economic conditions, which Tanzania, like most other African countries, is 
facing".

Dr Kigadye is the director of Christian Social Services Commission 
(CSSC).  He is optimistic that things will change for the better in future, 
noting, "We are making efforts to increase the current in-take of 25 
medical students to 100 in Dar-se-Salaam university".

He continues: "I am also happy that in private universities, some of them 
being run by religious organisations, medical faculties have been 
incorporated, meaning that the turnout of trained [medics] will shoot up."

Head of Health and Healing programme at the Geneva-based WCC, Dr. Manoj 
Kurian, is equally concerned about the effects of brain drain on the health 
sectors of many African countries.

"It deprives countries of their rightful position to [promote] effective 
health care services, hence my opposition to it," he observes.

Exodus of professionals from Africa has also been discussed in-depth in a 
March 2003 edition of the Africa Woman, a journal funded by the Department 
for International Development  (DFID) of the United Kingdom (UK), and the 
British Council.

"They come from different parts of Africa, but have just one goal when they 
arrive in Britain - to make a better life for themselves and their families 
back home," states the lead article in the journal.

According to the authors, the phenomenon did prompt former South African 
president, Nelson Mandela, in 1999, to tell the British government to stop 
"systematically stripping" Southern Africa of its skilled medical staff.

But as brain drain continues to bite Africa, the International Organisation 
for Migration (IOM), an inter-governmental organisation enjoying United 
Nations (UN) observer status, is making efforts to reclaim "poached" brains.

In the early eighties, for example, the organisation received grants from 
the European Economic Commission (EEC) to help contain "brain drain", and 
to assist African governments to meet requirements of qualified personnel 
as a means of facilitating return of their respective skilled nationals 
residing abroad.

By then, countries listed to have benefited from the EEC-funded programme 
included Angola, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, 
Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Alice Githinji, project development assistant at the IOM Regional Office 
for East and Central Africa, says her organisation plays an arbitrator role 
between countries suffering consequences of brain drain and those gaining.

"This is where the whole business would be carried out openly and 
officially by both parties... to 'rescue' the situation," she states, 
referring to her organisation, and adds, "but we only come in when invited 
by the affected governments".

But Dr. K'Owino John Otieno, commenting on the issue in a Kenyan daily, is 
not amused by the UN's involvement in "retrieving" professionals back to 
Africa.

"UN is wasting a lot of funds trying to woo back people who have no desire 
to leave their comfortable existence," he notes, arguing, "UN should 
instead use these funds to develop the skills of those professionals who 
are still in Africa".

Dr. K'Owino wonders why professionals who are abroad should be asked to 
return home when thousands of qualified graduates are jobless in the
continent.

Yunia Mulukusi (not her real name) has a different story to tell those who 
are against the idea of African people leaving their countries of origin 
for employment overseas.

"I have already worked for the government for the last twenty-five years, 
yet I can hardly claim to have benefited. I pray hard that all goes well so 
that I will be able to check out of the country as some of my colleagues 
have managed to do," she says.

A nurse in one of Kenya's government hospitals, Mulukusi adds: "The 
'negative' stories I hear from some of my friends, such as people being 
overworked or racially discriminated will not stop me from pursuing my 
mission. I have set my ears to listen only to the positive stories about 
better life overseas".