wfn.org | All Africa News Agency Dec 8 2003 Features

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

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

AANA BULLETIN No. 48/03 December 8, 2003 Features

SPECIAL REPORT

Meeting Defines New Role For Regional Peacemaker

NAIROBI (AANA) December 8 - The role of the Inter-Governmental Authority on 
Development (IGAD) will be reduced to only maintaining peace in the region, 
and leave out post-conflict reconstruction to the relevant United Nations 
(UN) agencies, and other development institutions.

This was agreed upon during a three-day conference organised by IGAD 
Partners Forum (IPF), to review IGAD's role in promoting and sustaining 
peace in the Horn of Africa region.

The meeting was held in Nairobi, Kenya, from December 1 to 3, under the 
title, Strengthening Peace Making Initiatives and Post Conflicts 
Reconstruction.

"IGAD should seek to have the closest links with the government of national 
unity and if possible, institutionally with civil society actors, and NGOs 
(non-governmental organisations), while at the same time, work closely with 
the UN, AU (Africa Union) and other relevant agencies," stated a document 
adopted at the end of the meeting, while making reference to Sudan.

"But while a peace deal for Sudan now appears realisable, the litmus test, 
however, would be the ability to cater for the expectations of the people 
during the interim period, on the future sustainability of peace in Sudan," 
Dr Kjell Hodnebo, a Norwegian observer at the Sudan peace talks, warned.

Dr Hodnebo said "if the new government cannot deliver good and relevant 
services to its population during the interim period, we could very soon 
witness a reversion to an unstable situation".

According to Dr Attalla H Bashir, the Executive Secretary of IGAD, lack of 
negotiating experience, among other issues, has been responsible for the 
prolonged peace initiatives for Sudan and Somalia.

Dr Bashir said that the ten-year peace process for Sudan is testimony that 
IGAD lacked the experience and the means to see the progress forward.  "We 
have lacked guidelines that would have seen us move faster," he noted.

IGAD initiated a peace initiative to resolve conflict in southern Sudan in 
the mid 1990s and framed a declaration of principles.

After some lull, the initiatives gained momentum in 2002 and 2003, leading 
to signed agreements between the warring factions, namely the Government of 
Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).

The agreements include the Machakos Protocol (July 2002), Memorandum of 
Understanding on Cessation of Hostilities (October 2002), agreed Aspects of 
Power and Wealth Sharing (February, 2003), and Agreement on Security 
Arrangements during the Interim Period (September, 2003).

Last week's IGAD conference, funded by the Danish government and the South 
Africa-based Institute for Strategic Studies, was also aimed at finding 
solutions to the obstacles facing the ongoing peace initiatives for Sudan 
and Somalia, and help IGAD formulate better policies on the way forward.

It brought together experts from the UN, AU, Norwegian embassy, Italy, and 
the Arab League, among other stakeholders.

Officially opening the meeting, Kenya's Minister for Foreign Affairs and 
International Co-operation, Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, challenged Africa to 
engage fully in conflicts resolution, as one way of reducing perpetual
poverty.

"Conflicts are inextricably inter-related to poverty, and hence lack of 
economic development. We have witnessed wanton destruction of the 
socio-political environment in many of the countries, and despair amongst 
the people, who yearn for peace," noted the minister.

Noting that sub-Saharan Africa was currently witnessing more than 17 
low-intensity conflicts, Kalonzo stated: "This paints a gloomy picture."

The minister went on to explain that the purpose of the conference was "to 
demonstrate the urgency needed to dismantle the existing propensity for 
conflicts in the continent", saying that there was a similar number of 
passive conflicts that could become active any moment, if action was not 
taken in advance.

"The task ahead is therefore not easy, but must be done," stressed Kalonzo, 
pointing out that "building trust among the conflicting parties and 
maintaining it has proved evasive".

"As it is, whatever little trust that develops, quickly evaporates over 
suspicions and other concerns," he said, noting that such situations led to 
complications in reconciliation efforts.

"Management of time is another challenge. The processes have been ongoing 
without set deadlines for concluding comprehensive peace agreements," 
stressed the Kenyan minister, adding: "We are fully aware that donors 
cannot continue to fund the talks indefinitely. At the end, there must be 
tangible results to show for it."

The minister was particularly incensed at the amount of time being spent by 
the Somali National Reconciliation Conference, going on in Kenya, without 
tangible outcomes.

Reported by Henry Neondo and Osman Njuguna

FEATURES  SECTION

Appointment Of Woman Priest Tears Church Unity

The contentious issue of ordination of women into priesthood has taken a 
dangerous turn in Botswana.  A dispute over the appointment of the first 
female priest is threatening to split the country's Dutch Reformed Church 
along gender lines. AANA Correspondent, Rodrick Mukumbira, reports.

B
otswana's Dutch Reformed Church is engulfed in a dispute concerning the 
appointment of its first female priest.

The saga erupted in February when the church's oldest parish in Mochudi, a 
small town 60 kilometres north of the capital, Gaborone, announced plans to 
appoint Monnie Kgosiemang as its first woman moruti (priest), to fill a 
vacancy created by Rev Ranfi Seoke, who retired in December 2002.

Since then, the church has not enjoyed peace, and to date, rivalry reigns 
supreme.  Sadly, this is emerging at a time the Mochudi parish is due to 
celebrate 100 years of its existence this month, having been built in 1903.

Kgosiemang's appointment is supported by majority of the church's 
membership, but a small segment calling itself the Concerned Group, led by 
hard-line anti-feminists, has managed to stall her installation.

In a town with nearly 35,000 people, the majority of who belong to the 
Dutch Reformed Church, the Concerned Group seems very insignificant.

Kgosiemang would have been installed in March, but the group found a 
loophole in the church's constitution, to block the installation.

A clause within the church's order states that "only confessing male 
members of the congregation, known to be blameless in doctrine and life 
according to the scripture, may be elected as elders or deacons".

While the constitution maintains such a clause, it is the General Assembly 
of 1994 that passed a resolution against any form of discrimination within 
the church.

"Instead of preaching peace, what we have now is a scenario of mudslinging, 
gossip, hatred and anything that can be used to discredit others," says 
Butho Masole, an elderly member of the congregation.

When AANA visited Mochudi on November 30, the scenario at the parish could 
be likened to a political rally with speakers drawn from opposing camps.

Small groups of people could be seen milling around the church in mini 
conferences, whose discussions passed in whispers.

"We are sick of (people) listening to troublemakers instead of priests 
preaching from the pulpit," Kutso Motsamai, another elderly member of the 
church told AANA.

Dikeme Radikgomo, a male clergyman within the church, could have replaced 
Rev Seoke, but he declined the offer at the last minute, citing work 
commitments.  He is employed by Air Botswana.

Like Radikgomo, Kgosiemang holds a Diploma in Theology, courtesy of the 
Church's General Assembly, which then believed that by so doing, the church 
was being gender sensitive.

In a September 19 letter to the Church's Council signed by the Mochudi 
Choir chairperson, Marvis Letshwiti, the Concerned Group, said it did not 
have a problem with the appointment of female priests.

The group says it only has problems with Kgosiemang's integrity, because 
she is a single mother.

During the same month, the group also took up their grievances with Chief 
Paul Linchwe, the area's traditional leader.

Chief Linchwe admitted to AANA that while the opposition of the group 
undermined the Church's authority, he had entertained the appeal "in the 
interest of peace".

"I did not pass my decision on the matter to allow both sides to mutually 
resolve the issue," he said.

The Church's youths have also thrown their weight behind Kgosiemang. In 
October, police had to be called in when the youth forcefully tried to kick 
suspected members of the Concerned Group out of the church.

"We are not interested in reconciliation that does not lead to Kgosiemang's 
installation," Tebogo Ramatsui, a youth leader, told AANA, adding: "We 
young people are united on the fact that the troublemakers should be 
suspended from attending church service."

However, Janet Motlhatlhadi, a confirmed member of the Concerned Group, 
says her group is prepared to settle the matter through the courts "if 
reason fails to prevail".

"We are concerned with safeguarding the reputation of the Church. We do not 
want the world to dismiss us as jokers by being led by someone whose 
reputation is questionable," she says.

In the meantime, Kgosiemang has placed her fate in the hands of God. 
Instead of going into "petty" issues of the squabbling, she says the 
stalemate is the will of God.

"God knows what is happening.... Maybe it is not my call, but when that 
call comes, I will answer it," she says.

She says she was under pressure when the saga begun, but has since regained 
her composure, and has turned back to what she is talented in - preaching.

The goings-on at the church have also sparked debates into whether Batswana 
women are fully empowered.

Botswana is ranked high among African countries that have made great 
strides in empowering women by putting them in leadership positions.

A 1996 government legislation bars discriminatory institutions from 
flourishing in the country.

Ogomoditse Matsile, the deputy director of civil and national registration, 
says that as one of the oldest churches in the country, the Dutch Reformed 
Church does not need government monitoring, since it was established way 
before the legislature was enacted.

Marty Legwaila, the country's director of women affairs, says the Concerned 
Group is behaving "as if Botswana is in the 18th Century".  "That is how we 
were socialised but the time has come for change," she says.

Envoy Sees Glimmer Of Hope In Troubled Talks

As Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) foreign ministers 
meet in Nairobi today (December 8) to restart the stalled Somali peace 
talks, a senior United Nations official is urging the mediators not to 
waver until a comprehensive and all-inclusive peace settlement is 
reached.  Our writer, Nernlor Gruduah, reports.

T
he head of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), Mr 
Winston A Tubman, has said that only an all-inclusive agreement will bring 
lasting peace in the country, and end the suffering of the people.

Bickering among Somali clan-based factions over the composition of a new 
political structure has resulted in the current stalemate in the Somali 
National Reconciliation Conference.

The talks have been taking place in Kenya for more than a year 
now.  Discussions began in October last year in Eldoret town in western 
Kenya, before being transferred a few months later to the capital, Nairobi.

Despite an immediate agreement on cessation of hostilities, the various 
militia groups operating in parts of Somalia have made it impossible for 
this to be observed.

The foreign ministers meeting here today, drawn from a facilitation 
committee comprising representatives from Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti 
and Eritrea, are expected to table a proposal that will push forward the 
process.

Their meeting will be followed by a proposed 10-day retreat of the various 
Somali factions in the Kenyan coastal town of Mombasa, according to Tubman, 
who is also the representative of UN Secretary-General in Somalia.

"The process should not be abandoned because of this impasse.  The foreign 
ministers should come up with a decision that will unblock the process," 
says Tubman.

"Our duty is to support IGAD, and we will continue to support it fully," he 
adds.

The UN envoy, a Liberian, whose country is beginning to emerge from 14 
years of brutal civil war, says he is aware of the complexity and 
intractability of the Somali crisis.  He is calling on facilitators not to 
grow weary, but to ensure that a durable solution is found.

His advice comes amid threats of a boycott of the talks by the recently 
formed Somali National Salvation Council, an alliance of 12 factions.

The vice chairman of the alliance, Barre Hirale, is quoted as having said 
that the Nairobi talks were not home-grown, and imposed on them.  He had 
suggested that a reconciliation conference be held inside Somalia.

But several other past reconciliation conferences have failed to produce a 
unifying government in the country.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991, 
following the ousting of President Siad Barre.

Clan-based rival warlords have carved out numerous fiefdoms within the 
country, with the defacto Transitional National Government (TNG), headed by 
Abdulkassim Salat Hassan, controlling only parts of the capital, Mogadishu.

The main sticking point has been over the number of members of parliament 
to be chosen by each group, including elders, and clan and faction leaders.

Despite this, an optimistic Tubman maintains that the international 
community is putting pressure on all the stakeholders, including those 
threatening a boycott, to turn up and begin the third phase of the talks.

After the withdrawal of the interim president from the talks in July, the 
UN official explains, other groups opposed to the government felt the delay 
was unnecessary, and also threatened to boycott the talks.

Salat walked out of the talks, arguing that they were leading to the 
"dismemberment" of Somalia.  He was particularly incensed by plans being 
negotiated to introduce a federal system in the country.

"We do not want to leave out any group that represents a significant 
segment of the Somali society, which would be a potential threat to any 
future arrangement.  That is why this conference is different from the one 
held in Djibouti, that led to the creation of the interim government," 
Tubman cautions.

The Salat government was appointed in August 2000 by clan elders and other 
senior Somali leaders at the Djibouti conference, but excluded key warlords.

Consequently, some of the warlords ganged up against the interim 
government, making it impossible for it to exercise authority over the
country.

Groups opposed to the TNG are also allegedly backed by Ethiopia, thereby 
complicating the situation.  Intermittent clan fighting has continued ever 
since.

Another contentious issue is Salat's refusal to leave office after his 
three-year mandate expired in August.  He argued that his government would 
not step down until a new government and parliament had been set up.

His sacked Prime Minister, Abshir Farah, told journalists that the TNG 
became illegitimate as from August 13, and accused Salat of deliberately 
attempting to make the Somali peace talks fail, so as to justify prolonging 
his stay in power.

Salat's camp has been joined by the so-called Juba Valley Alliance in 
opposing other factions at the talks.

The Kenyan head of the facilitation committee, Ambassador Bethwel Kiplagat, 
is quoted as saying the talks have so far cost US$7 million.

Funding is being provided by the European Union, individual EU member 
states, as well as the Arab League.

Less than two weeks ago, Kenya's foreign affairs minister, Kalonzo Musyoka, 
also complained that since the talks began last October, no tangible 
arrangement had been reached at.

Asked about his acceptance by the Somali people to oversee the process, a 
confident Tubman replied: "I find them very friendly people.  They know we 
in Liberia have had similar problems, so they open up to me."

He added: "Moreover, they know the UN is being headed by an African and as 
such, there is a lot of trust in us.  They are able to convey messages on 
pertinent issues through me to the Secretary-General."

The Dire Situation Of AIDS Sufferers In Zimbabwe

Faced with empty coffers, a failed economy and a collapsing health sector, 
Zimbawean government last week had nothing to offer HIV/AIDS patients as 
the world marked AIDS day, except the explanation that it could not afford 
to subsidise anti-retroviral drugs.  AANA Correspondent, Ntugamili Nkomo, 
reports on the dire situation of AIDS sufferers in Zimbabwe.

R
ising languidly from what appears to be her death-bed, 22-year-old Senzeni 
Khumalo takes a quick glance at a Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) 
member, who is part of a team that has visited her in her squalid, rented 
house in Makokoba, one of Bulawayo's oldest suburbs.

Unaware that the "strangers" in her house are Christians who have paid her 
a courtesy visit to mark the World AIDS Day, she raises her snow-white 
eyes, already swelling up with tears.

Having been a subject of ridicule for a long time because of her HIV 
status, Khumalo latter admits that she suspected the visitors "were coming 
to pour scorn on me as has been the case with several old friends and 
relatives".

As the world commemorated the World AIDS Day last Monday (December 1), it 
acknowledged that the fight against the scourge could never be won unless 
all and sundry stopped attaching stigma to people living with AIDS.

In Zimbabwe, discrimination of AIDS patients is still high.  Khumalo is one 
out of hundreds of Zimbabweans faced with the stark reality of the disease 
after being discarded by family members because of their status.

"Members of my family, let alone the community at large, are now shunning 
me. They say I am a disgrace who gleefully brought trouble unto myself," 
she says.

She weeps uncontrollably for a while, but soon gains her composure, and 
continues to narrate her ordeal . "... I sincerely hope that people will 
soon realise that being infected with HIV is not anyone's liking," she 
says, before draping her skeletal body in a messed-up blanket.

According to surveys by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Zimbabwe, 
the plight of AIDS patients is worsened by the crippling shortages of food 
and unavailability of anti-retroviral drugs.

About half of the country's population is threatened with starvation, 
induced by recurrent droughts and the chaotic land reforms that slashed 
agricultural food production by more than 70 percent.

Food shortages have forced scores of NGOs, the Red Cross Society of 
Zimbabwe, and church organisations such as the ZCC, to provide food and 
auxiliary care to HIV/AIDS patients.

"As a church community, we see it fit to provide food and clothing to 
people infected with AIDS because it appears there is little the society is 
doing for them," says Marvel Dube, a spokesman for a Catholic group that 
cares for people affected by the pandemic.

"In Bulawayo alone about half a million people are infected with the 
disease. The challenge these people are facing is that of stigmatisation, 
and if communities are to behave in such a manner, then we can as well 
forget about winning the battle against the scourge," adds Dube.

He continues: "If only African countries, including Zimbabwe, could come up 
with comprehensive strategies to arrest the spread of the disease, then one 
day we could emerge victors. But if there is no unity of purpose at the 
grassroots level, then we are doomed to extinction as a people."

In their solidarity messages to people living with HIV/AIDS, several 
organisations deplored stigmatisation and urged communities to be tolerant 
of affected people.

The Zimbabwe National Network for People Living with AIDS charged that 
stigmatisation remained the greatest obstacle in the fight against the 
pandemic.

About 1.8 million Zimbabweans are reportedly infected with HIV, while 3,000 
succumb to AIDS-related death every week, a situation that analysts fear, 
could reach unmanageable proportions in the next few years if serious steps 
are not taken.

In southern Zimbabwe, particularly in  Matabeleland North and Matabeleland 
South, the situation is reportedly worsened by cross border migration, as 
poverty-stricken people stream into Botswana and South Africa in desperate 
search of jobs.

But with the scarcity of employment in those countries, many of them end up 
engaging in desperate commercial sex, which make them vulnerable to HIV 
infection.  Recent statistics indicate that about 65 percent of 
Matabeleland's rural folks are HIV positive.

Said a spokesperson of the Matabeleland AIDS Council (MAC): "The rate of 
HIV infection in the region is so alarming that much has to be done to 
avert a catastrophic disaster against humanity. The situation is worsened 
by the shortage of food that has gripped the nation for the past two years."

AIDS activists last week called for behavioural change among the youth, 
invoking the slogan, "prevention is better than cure."	Moses Sibanda (22), 
a well-known AIDS activist said: "It is rather encouraging that we are 
hearing a clarion call from world leaders to abate AIDS, and we hope that 
with the concerted effort, the fight will soon be won."

Like many people interviewed by AANA, Sibanda said stigmatisation was still 
the biggest challenge that people living with AIDS in Zimbabwe were facing.

The government has also come under fire for neglecting the plight of HIV 
patients, as there is little help coming from it.

The performance of the country's health sector has crumbled drastically, 
with scores of qualified personnel leaving the country to look for better 
paying jobs abroad. The situation has also been exacerbated by a spate of 
strikes by doctors and nurses pressing for better payment.

Middle-level doctors, including nurses, went on strike for the second time 
in two months, late last month, as the salary dispute with government 
resurfaced.

The government has failed to address the situation, which has resulted in a 
major service collapse at hospitals and referral centres throughout the 
country.

Marking the World AIDS Day, the Minister for Health and Child Welfare, Dr 
David Parirenyatwa, said the government will continue to fight the spread 
of HIV/AIDS and help remove the stigma attached to it.

Dr Parirenyatwa, however, admitted that anti-retroviral drugs were too 
expensive for the government, which is already burdened with a collapsing 
economy characterised by hyper-inflation and a shortage of basic commodities.