wfn.org | All Africa News Agency Sept 8, 2003 (b)

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     AANA Bulletin			Bulletin APTA
  Editor -Elly Wamari		  Editor - Silvie Alemba

AANA BULLETIN No. 35/03 - September 8, 2003 (b)

FEATURES  SECTION

Will Next Round Of Peace Talks On Sudan Deliver?

As delegates from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and 
the Khartoum Government gear towards yet another round of peace talks 
slated for September 10, one begging question has stuck the minds of 
observers. Will the talks, which have been postponed time and again over 
the past few months deliver the goods this time around? AANA's 
Correspondent, Osman Njuguna, looks at the chronology of events that have 
triggered this question and reports on the surviving hopes.

The next round of Kenyan-hosted peace talks for Sudan opens on September 10 
at a venue yet to be disclosed.

The negotiations follow last month's talks in Nanyuki town (about 200 
kilometres north of Nairobi), which aborted after less than two weeks of 
discussions.

As delegates now prepare to plunge into yet another round of negotiations, 
observes are wondering if there will be some headway made this time round.

Concerned circles point to the fact that in the course of the past eight 
months, the peace talks have been deferred several times without tangible 
progress.

The last time a notable advancement was made in the talks was on February 
4, when the warring parties signed some additions to the October 15, 2002 
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cessation of Hostilities, arrived at 
in Machakos town, some 60 Kilometres from Nairobi.

The addendum, signed in Nairobi, was meant to strengthen implementation of 
the MoU reached at in Machakos.  But before this, there had been some major 
hiccups.

Peace discussions which had been scheduled to resume in Machakos on January 
15 after the December 2002 festive season, were suddenly cancelled and 
venue changed.	Instead of Machakos, the talks were rescheduled for 
Nairobi, to open on January 20. This too, did not materialise.

Khartoum Government appeared at the talks with surprise demands, stating 
that the Kenya Government should take charge of the talks and not 
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the mediating body.

A few days later, the differences were ironed out and talks reopened. They 
went on until February 4, when the Addendum to the Machakos MoU was signed.

Then the adjournments and re-openings of the negotiations, as well as 
shifting of venues, re-emerged.  From Nairobi, the next round of talks 
opened on July 7 in Nakuru, about 180 kilometres north-west of Nairobi. 
This phase ended quietly towards the end of the month without notable 
achievement.

Discussions were then expected to resume in Nanyuki town on August 3, but 
this did not materialise until August 11.  But just before then, 
controversy erupted about a Nakuru Draft Framework document, detailing 
issues for intended discussions. The Khartoum Government expressed its 
disappointment with the document, saying that it was biased.

On August 9, only two days before the Nanyuki peace meeting opened, 
Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir was reported to have slammed the document 
as presented by IGAD, charging that it was aimed at dismantling not only 
the present regime but the whole of Sudan.  "We are not going to sign any 
peace agreement that does not implement justice," the head of the Sudanese 
Government was reported to have remarked in an interview with an Egyptian 
daily, Al-Ahram.

SPLM/A, through its spokesman, Dr Samson Kwaje,  on August 10  warned the 
Khartoum Government against any move to bring in new issues to the 
negotiating table. "We are not ready for anything new. We are moving to 
Nanyuki with one thing in mind - that we shall stick to the draft document 
and that nothing new will be accommodated," stressed Kwaje.

As predicted by some analysts, the Nanyuki talks did not last long, for 
come August 23, another adjournment was effected.  Both IGAD and Sudanese 
Embassy in Nairobi, though central in the peace matters, have declined to 
comment on the concerns being expressed about the several deferments the 
negotiations have suffered.

"We have nothing to say on the issues. We are busy looking forward for the 
resumption of the peace talks," said an official at the Sudan Embassy, when 
reached on telephone for a comment.

At the IGAD Office in Nairobi, the response was: "We have nothing to add to 
our press statement we issued on August 23."  The brief press statement the 
official was referring to had stated: "The parties discussed procedural and 
some outstanding issues in the Sudan peace process.  After series of 
engagements through consultations and direct talks, the parties asked for 
an adjournment in order to consult further with their principals."

It went on: "In advance of the next session that will tentatively convene 
on September 10, 2003, the parties will compose a small joint working group 
to prepare the procedures with the envoys".

But an insider at the meeting disclosed to AANA that "one of the reasons 
behind the saddening frequent deferments of the peace meetings is simply 
due to many disagreements arising from the deliberations".

He, nevertheless, chose to look at it from a positive standpoint, stating: 
"This, to me is normal, taking into account that the issues on the table 
are too crucial for the negotiations - power and wealth-sharing as well as 
security."

As keen eyes get directed at the forthcoming round of talks, one notable 
thing is that there is growing goodwill support from church institutions.

At a press conference in Nairobi last week, the World Council of Churches 
(WCC) President for Africa Region, Dr. Agnes Aboum, observed: "The Church 
in Africa would like to assure the Church in Sudan that she will accompany 
her in the pastoral mission to bring peace and reconciliation to the 
suffering of the people of Sudan."

A consultant for the WCC programme on Decade to Overcome Violence 
(2001-2010), Amy Gopp, who for the past two months worked closely with the 
All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) and the New Sudan Council of 
Churches (NSCC) on Sudan matters, gave credit to churches for their concern 
for the Sudan peace process.

"For the year 2003, the annual theme for the Decade to Overcome Violence is 
Healing and Reconciliation. While under this, the geographical focus is 
Africa, and Sudan in particular," she told AANA in an exclusive interview.

To demonstrate commitment to the talks, SPLM/A chairman and 
Commander-in-Chief, Dr John Garang de Mabior, and Sudan's First Vice 
President, Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, met in Naivasha town in Kenya last week 
to thrash out outstanding issues in the peace talks.

"We are going to Naivasha to save the process from collapsing, to resolve 
the deadlock..." Said Dr Garang on September 4, soon after arriving in 
Kenya for the meeting.

How About Some Gorilla Hands In The Frying Pan?

Although some consider eating ape meat as an act of cannibalism, local 
communities in Tambura in Sudan are quite at home with monkey and gorilla 
meat, which they regard as a most cherished delicacy. However, Oscar Obonyo 
reports that this insatiable appetite for ape meat has attracted the ire of 
the United Nations Environmental Programme.

I
t is business as usual at a makeshift market in Mabia, south Sudan. Openly 
displayed on the stalls, are smoked and dried pieces of monkey head, tail, 
tongue and gorilla jaws and hands. Shoppers move in to sample their pick of 
ape meat.

Owing to lack of butcheries trading in raw ape meat, only traditionally 
cured pieces of the same are available for sale. To most newcomers, this 
set-up is a scary affair.

"When I came around, I looked forward to tasting monkey meat out of sheer 
adventure. However, I was totally put off by the display of the half-rotten 
meat," says Miss Josephine Onyango, an employee of CARE International, a 
non-governmental humanitarian agency.

Her disgust is not necessarily because of the "half-rotten meat", but 
rather the awkward feeling most people get on encountering the displayed 
heads, complete with ears, nose and lips, and the gorilla hands that remind 
one of a human being.

"You do not, for instance, expect me to walk away with that hand, complete 
with five fingers, to my kitchen. I can only be persuaded to purchase the 
meat if it is sold raw in already skinned and demarcated pieces," says 
Onyango, who is stationed at the Tambura County headquarters, some 13 
kilometres away.

Although Onyango and scores of other foreign aid workers may consider 
eating ape meat as some act of cannibalism, the locals are quite at home 
with monkey and gorilla meat, which they regard as a most cherished delicacy.

However, owing to their insatiable appetite for the meat, the locals have 
attracted the ire of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).

According to the latest UNEP report, bushmeat trade and consumption poses 
the greatest risk to the lives of apes, particularly in Central Africa. 
West and Central Africans consume a variety of 60 different species of 
animals, says the report.

Enthusiasts of ape meat in Mabia, are mainly the Internally Displaced 
Persons (IDPs) who recently settled in the area after migrating from the 
northern Raga County.

They fled to Mabia, Tambura County, mid 2001, following the recapture of 
Raga County by forces allied to the Government of Sudan, and subsequent 
murder of civilians.

As the over 17,000 survivors struggle to settle down in their new home, ape 
meat has proved handy to most families.

The rest of their food has mainly been supplemented by a number of 
Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) agencies, chiefly CARE International and 
World Food Programme (WFP).

The apes are largely hunted from their habitat in the neighbouring Western 
Equatorial thickets that characterise this part of Sudan.

In the neighbouring countries of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the 
Central African Republic (CAR), monkeys, chimpanzees, and gorillas started 
thinning in number towards the end of last year.

Scientists estimate that unless this trend is reversed, the apes, which 
number less than 300,000 in total,  will certainly be extinct in the next 
50 years. Many other wildlife species will be long gone by then.

Now primatologists are expressing new concerns following the persistent 
outbreak of the deadly ebola disease. To date, it has claimed over 700 
lives along the CAR-Sudan border region.

Experts fear this outbreak is getting more virulent. They also believe 
ebola is triggered by the consumption of infected ape meat. The meat is a 
staple food among remote forest communities, and deemed a delicacy in many 
urban centres in this region.

Ebola takes its name from a river in the DRC, where it was discovered in 
1976. The worst outbreak was there in 1995, when more than 250 people died.

In Mabia though, no ebola-related deaths have been reported to date among 
the local communities or the IDPs settled in the area. The ebola threat 
notwithstanding, those who partake of the ape meat are truly hooked to it, 
and no amount of advice can dissuade them from licking their fingers.

"Monkey meat is real tasty, especially if dried and fried well by use of 
tomatoes, onions and some garlic," explains Jan-Marie Luwala, a mother of 
four from Ezo on the CAR-Sudan border.

According to UNEP, nearly 55 percent of the populations in Sudan, CAR and 
DRC depend on bushmeat (or game meat) for their supply of valuable protein 
ingredients.

"The meat accounts for between 80 and 90 percent of the protein consumed by 
residents of Liberia and between 70 percent of what those living south of 
the Ivory Coast consume," says the UNEP report.

The danger of it all, though, is that bushmeat is not inspected by the 
authorised veterinary officers to ensure it is fit for human consumption.

Furthermore, the meat is produced and transported without being subjected 
to hygiene checks. "The human health implications posed by bushmeat are 
numerous and deadly, some are even unknown," warns UNEP.

In the past, bushmeat was part of the diet of forest-dwelling communities 
and only source of protein. Today, it is taken as a symbol of prestige 
mainly in luxurious restaurants.

This has had a devastating effect on wildlife, and the Convention on 
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), a United Nations 
conservation convention, has accordingly set up a crisis task force to 
manage a global campaign against unsustainable trade in wildlife meat.

In Africa, the chimpanzee, gorilla and bonobo, are primarily found in 
Central and West Africa, with a few in Tanzania, Uganda and Sudan. None are 
naturally found in Kenya.  They are a delicacy in Central and West Africa, 
and their meat find way to Europe to supply an exclusive demand from the 
elite African immigrant community from these sub-regions.

According to records from the British Customs body, an average traffic of 
1,000 tonnes of bushmeat is smuggled into the United Kingdom annually, with 
about 200 airport seizures per month.

  Fresh Prescriptions For Africa's Brain Drain Woes

Controversial scholar, Prof Ali Mazrui, touched off another debate on 
Africa's brain drain recently, when he said that instead of trying to stem 
the mass exodus of professionals seeking employment abroad, the continent 
should take advantage of the situation to "counter penetrate" the Western 
culture, as a way toward the realisation of a global culture. Pedro 
Shipepechero reports.

Delivering a lecture on Public Universities and Development in Africa at 
the University of Nairobi on August 19, outspoken Prof Ali Mazrui explained 
the theory of "counter-penetration" as the injection of African values in 
the host countries, which, according to him, could result in a positive 
change of attitude in how the West perceives Africa.

He further argued that by working in the West, African expatriates 
benefited from technological advancement that could be critical in the 
transfer of skills from highly developed to less developed countries.  "We 
should use Western technology, but retain the African spirit in the same 
way the Asian Tigers did in the 1970s, prior to their economic take-off," 
the historian said.

He was addressing more than 2,000 scholars, professionals and students who 
attended the lecture, only his fifth on Kenyan soil since he started 
teaching in the early 1970s.

Prof Mazrui's views on Africa's cohabitation with the West mark a dramatic 
shift from his past espousal of radical Afrocentricism, to a moderate 
campaigner for the continent's economic recovery through intellectual 
engagement with the West.

The historian has in the past been critical of the West for misrepresenting 
African civilisation through Western stereotypes that portrayed black 
people as incapable of intellectual thought, and Africa as a disease, 
famine and civil-strife-prone continent.

However, Prof Mazrui's latest prescription for the continent's brain drain 
problem was described as an unworkable solution by Prof Chris Wanjala, a 
don at the University of Nairobi.

"Mazrui is attempting to justify his economic exile in the US (United 
States). He has lived and taught in an environment where the school and 
university curricula insist on imparting American values in students. It is 
impossible to introduce African values in America," he lashed out.

Prof Mazrui, who has taught mainly in US universities for most of his 
working life, was recently appointed chancellor of Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta 
University of Agriculture and Technology, following President Mwai Kibaki's 
decision to step aside as chancellor of all state universities.

It is estimated that up to about 40 percent of Africa's top-level managers 
and professionals desert the continent every year for opportunities abroad.

A top African computer scientist, Dr Philip Emeagwali, estimates that over 
43 percent of the African immigrants to the US have at least a bachelor's 
degree. "Since one in three African professionals will like to live outside 
Africa, African universities are actually training one-third of their 
graduates for export to the developed nations," Dr Emeagwali pointed out 
recently.

He continued: "We are operating one third of African universities to 
satisfy the manpower needs of Great Britain and the United States. The 
African education budgets are nothing but a supplement to the American 
education budget."

Dr Emeagwali added: "In essence, Africa is giving developmental assistance 
to the wealthier Western countries, which makes the rich nations richer and 
the poor nations poorer."

The impact of the exodus strains Africa's economies.  Brain drain forces 
many countries in Africa to hire expatriates to replace the expertise on 
the move. According to recent data compiled by United Nations Economic 
Commission for Africa (ECA) and the International Organisation for 
Migration (IOM), 20,000 professionals leave the continent to take up jobs 
elsewhere.

To fill the gap created, IOM says the continent spends approximately US$ 4 
billion to employ 100,000 non-African expatriates.  Dr Emeageali observed: 
"The contradiction is that we spend four billion dollars annually to 
recruit and pay 100,000 expatriates to work in Africa, but we fail to spend 
a proportional amount to recruit the 250,000 African professionals now 
working outside Africa."

Dr Emeagwali, said brain drain had serious impact on African economies 
because the continent had failed to create a strong middle class, which in 
other countries, is the mainstay of robust economies.

Among the outward bound expatriates, says the United Nations Development 
Programme (UNDP), 60 percent are doctors, nurses and scientists, while the 
remaining 40 percent are teachers, IT experts, engineers and university 
lecturers.

The receiving countries include the US, Australia, and Germany. Top among 
the sending countries are Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Ghana.

It is estimated that Nigeria has 100,000 immigrants in the US alone, out of 
which, 64 percent of foreign-born Nigerians aged 25 and older, have at 
least a bachelors degree. Forty-three percent of foreign-born Africans 
living in the US have at least a bachelors degree. According to Dr 
Emeagwali, Africans are the most educated ethnic groups in the US.

The challenge now rests on African governments to employ some of the many 
options suggested, to staunch the outflow of intellectuals.

During a United Nations-sponsored conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 
2001, it was resolved that bilateral tax arrangements, which require 
receiving nations to tax citizens of other countries and remunerate the 
home country, be adopted to enable Africa to benefit from the investment in 
the professionals who emigrate.

The resolution also suggested repatriation of the continent's fleeing 
professionals, under terms similar to those in the receiving countries, so 
that it is acceptable to them.

The other suggested approach involves adoption of international agreements 
between industrial and developing countries, under which the rich countries 
do not recruit manpower from poor nations.  So far, these proposals have 
not become functional.

Instead, Prof Mazrui's views seem to tie in with new strategies of 
transferring skills through networks of professionals and intellectuals who 
are opposed to repatriation.  One such network is the South African Network 
of Skills Abroad. The professionals who sign up with the network train 
staff and conduct research for institutions back at home without having to 
relocate.

In Prof Mazrui's opinion, the transfer of skills through 
counter-penetration could succeed in the war against extreme poverty in 
Africa, if local universities established international linkages to enable 
the region to be proficient in technology without being investors in 
Western cultures.  "... Africa is at present westernising without 
technologically modernising," he noted.