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Weekly anb04266.txt #7

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 26-04-2001      PART #6/7
* South Africa. Victor's mantle for S. Africa as drugs industry dons fig leaf - Shouts of victory went up in the crushed court house in Pretoria on 19 April when 39 pharmaceutical companies suing the South African government over legislation that allegedly contravened patent law dropped their case unconditionally. Although the pharmaceutical industry claimed to have reached a settlement, it has merely won an assurance from government that legislation will be used in line with international patent law -- something the government has said all along. The text of clause 15c of the 1997 Medicines Act, which drug companies had challenged as arbitrary and unconstitutional, will stand untouched, though the government agreed to consult the industry on its implementation. The industry will pay all court costs. "We regard today's settlement as a victory that restores to us the power to pursue policies we believe are critical to securing medicines at affordable rates," said. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, health minister. Jean-Pierre Garnier, chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline, one of the pharmaceutical companies that led the industry's retreat from what had become a public relations catastrophe, said he had been influenced by concerns from investors, shareholders and the public about access to medicines. Mr Garnier said he had confidence in South African assurances that it would adhere to international patent norms. "We have got all the security we need." (Financial Times, UK, 20 April 2001)
* Afrique du Sud. Médicaments génériques - Le 19 avril à Pretoria, les militants des ONG célébraient leur victoire historique contre les géants de l'industrie pharmaceutique. Les 39 laboratoires qui avaient porté plainte contre la loi sud-africaine favorisant les médicaments génériques bon marché, l'ont retirée, reculant devant la pression de l'opinion publique. Tout n'est pas réglé pour autant. Les ONG entendent maintenir leur pression sur les compagnies pharmaceutiques pour qu'elles continuent à réduire leur prix, mais aussi sur le gouvernement sud-africain afin qu'il mette en place une politique de traitement des séropositifs. En effet, relançant la politique controversée du gouvernement du président Mbeki, le ministre de la Santé a souligné que les médicaments antirétroviraux restaient trop coûteux et que leur innocuité n'était pas établie. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 20 avril 2001)
* South Africa. AIDS case -- a hollow victory? - Africa's millions of AIDS sufferers may still not get the vital drugs they need, despite the decision by the pharmaceutical industry to withdraw its legal patent fight. In the euphoria that followed the move on 19 April by 39 of the world's most powerful drugs companies, activists described it as offering a potential lifeline to Africa's 25 million HIV-positive people. But South Africa, where the court action was fought, woke on 20 April to face the realisation that cheap, generic AIDS medicines are unlikely to flood quickly into a country ravaged by the disease. While South African health officials said Pretoria was committed to fighting AIDS through education, prevention and drugs that primarily treated diseases associated with AIDS -- such as pneumonia --access to affordable key anti-retroviral drugs that suppress the replication of the virus may be no nearer. "The use of anti-retrovirals would need a policy decision because of the cost implications," said health department spokeswoman Jo-Anne Collinge. "Clearly even at the current prices on offer they are still not in the realms of what is possible. We are looking at how we can get the cheapest source of drugs to treat opportunistic diseases, but I wouldn't want to speculate on a timetable." Several drug companies have offered Pretoria discounted prices on their anti-retrovirals but the government has rejected them on the grounds that they are still too expensive and that the necessary infrastructure to monitor their use is lacking. The German firm Boehringer-Ingelheim has offered the drug free to Pretoria but the government wants ethical safeguards before the trials at 18 national sites begin. A meeting between Pretoria and the drug firms involved in the case is scheduled for early next month to plan a way forward. (CNN, USA, 21 April 2001)
* South Africa. Police probe plots to oust Mbeki - Police are investigating claims that President Thabo Mbeki is in "physical danger" from leaders in his ruling party plotting to oust him, South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper reported on 22 April. Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete told the newspaper that police intelligence units had been investigating the allegations since last year. Mbeki took over from South Africa's first democratic leader, Nelson Mandela, in 1999. "As the department charged with protecting the safety and security of this country, we have to ensure that these plots do not culminate into something ugly," Tshwete said. "As far back as last year, we picked up clandestine activities involving certain individuals and we are monitoring this on a day-to-day basis to ensure that the president is safe," Tshwete added, without giving details or naming the individuals. But Mbeki's spokesman, Bheki Khumalo, declined to comment on the report when contacted on 22 April, referring all queries to the police. A spokesman in Tshwete's office, Joseph Ngobeni, also declined comment. The Sunday Times quoted Tshwete as saying evidence gathered during the investigation would be "very damaging" to some ANC leaders. "If people want to be president, that's fine. There are ANC structures...where they can canvass properly. They must not do things in a sinister and clandestine way," he said. (CNN, USA, 22 April 2001)
* South Africa. ANC whip defiant on "car bribe" - The chief whip of the ruling African National Congress, Tony Yengeni, has failed for a second time to explain adequately to a parliamentary ethics committee how he acquired a luxury car from a European arms manufacturer which won a lucrative weapons contract from the South African government. Mr Yengeni is at the centre of an inquiry by three government agencies and the ethics committee to discover if a £32,000 Mercedes four-wheel drive vehicle was a bribe by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company. When the car was delivered three years ago, Mr Yengeni was chairman of the parliamentary defence committee. He only took steps to start paying for the car seven months later, after rumours about its origin began circulating. While Mr Yengeni is evasive about the origins of his Mercedes, he is frank about his taste for such cars and the good life. The former guerrilla and communist said just a few months ago that he did not fight for South Africa's liberation to be poor. "There's nothing wrong with the good things in life," he said. And Mr Yengeni so loved his chrome-enhanced Mercedes that he told a reporter last year: "It's very fast and very stable. One feels as though you're flying in a jet." That proved to be an unfortunate comparison. Many of those who wonder how Mr Yengeni got his car also question why South Africa needs £4bn worth of jets, warships, tanks and submarines when its hospitals, schools and police force are in much greater need of the cash. (The Guardian, UK, 23 April 2001)
* South Africa. Nkosi J. victim of armed robbery - A 12-year-old South African who has become an icon in Africa's struggle against AIDS was a victim of the country's crime scourge on 23 April when armed robbers broke into his home. Nkosi Johnson, who is bed-ridden and brain damaged by AIDS, had a gun pointed at him while three men made off with televisions, a mobile telephone and other household goods, his mother Gail Johnson said. "The gun was pointed at him and he was forced to close his eyes," Johnson, his foster mother, told Reuters. A nurse attending Nkosi was traumatised after the intruders covered her with a duvet and threatened to shoot her if she was not quiet, Johnson said. Nkosi made headlines at the world's biggest AIDS conference in Durban last year when he called on South African President Thabo Mbeki to do more to combat the disease that affects 4.9 million, or one in nine, South Africans. Mbeki has courted controversy by questioning the link between HIV and AIDS and limiting the use of key AIDS drugs in the public health system because of cost and efficacy concerns. Nkosi, who lost his natural mother to HIV/AIDS, has been praised by former President Nelson Mandela for speaking out about the disease. The schoolboy became a leading figure in the fight against HIV and AIDS in 1997 after a group of parents opposed his admission to a school in a well-to-do Johannesburg suburb because he was HIV positive. (CNN, USA, 23 April 2001)
* South Africa. Mandela And Clinton hail civic engagement - Two former presidents, the elder from South Africa, the younger from the United States, stood together on the same platform in Johannesburg on 24 April, to launch a two-day conference on the role of civil society and national cooperation in Johannesburg, and were greeted with warm and enthusiastic applause. Former presidents Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton, addressing more than 800 delegates, both urged South Africans to continue rebuilding a country which was devastated by apartheid and division. Clinton, the keynote speaker at the conference organized by the Civil Society Initiative, appealed to the people of South Africa to use their civic organizations, churches, community groups -- and their youth -- to come together and move forward. He said South Africans should reach across racial barriers to help their government build a brighter future. "No country needs a vibrant and, strong civil society more than South Africa," said Clinton, "and few countries have the resources to build one that you have --a civil society that works not in opposition to the state, but in partnership with it, one that applies its talents and energies to the next steps of liberation, the liberation of potential, intellect, initiative and spirit." (all Africa.com. 24 April 2001)
* Afrique du Sud. Complot contre le président? - La police sud-africaine a ouvert une enquête concernant un éventuel complot pour chasser le président Mbeki du pouvoir, a confirmé le ministre de la Sécurité, Steve Tshwete, le 25 avril. Selon Tshwete, l'enquête se concentre sur trois anciens membres éminents de l'ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, Mathews Phosa et Tokyo Sexwale. Ces trois personnalités ont toutes un jour eu l'ambition de devenir président; actuellement ils se sont investis dans le monde des affaires. Phosa a déclaré à la radio que toute cette affaire est une insulte à l'intelligence des Sud-Africains. (D'après De Standaard, Belgique, 26 avril 2001)
* South Africa. ANC veterans accused of plot to harm Mbeki - The South African government has ordered the investigation of three leading anti-apartheid politicians, including the former secretary general of the African National Congress Cyril Ramaphosa, who is a now a monitor of the IRA's weapons dumps, for allegedly plotting to physically harm and oust President Thabo Mbeki. The investigation was immediately denounced as an attempt to use the police to suppress legitimate political challenges to Mr Mbeki's leadership of the ANC. The president added to speculation about a conspiracy by issuing a call for those with information about the alleged plot to come forward. The surprise announcement came from the security minister, Steve Tshwete. He said that, among other things, Mr Ramaphosa and two former provincial premiers, Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa, were being investigated for spreading "disinformation" that could endanger Mr Mbeki's safety. He implied that the men were responsible for rumours circulating in the ANC that Mr Mbeki had a hand in the murder of the highly popular Communist party leader Chris Hani in 1993. "This rumour can set the president up to be harmed, because Hani was loved by the people," he said. "It can put the president in danger, not only as the president of the ANC but as the head of state. We need to investigate, because when something happens, people will say "We told them about this"." Mr Tshwete said some of the allegations had been made by a former ANC youth leader, James Nkambule. They were being taken seriously because Mr Nkambule "was pretty close" to some of the people allegedly behind the plot. (The Guardian, UK, 26 April 2001)
* Sudan. Christians treated harshly - The Catholic Information Service reports that more than 50 Christians who were flogged and locked up on the Wednesday during Holy Week, were later released. They had been arrested and sentenced after taking part in a demonstration against a Sudanese government order to move Easter services out of a public square to the suburbs. 52 Christian men were each sentenced to 15 lashes and 20 days in prison, while four young women and two 12-year-old boys were each given 15 lashes. It appears the trial was summary with no lawyers present to defend the young Christians. All of the convicted were immediately flogged. On 23 April, the Archbishop of Canterbury expressed concern in a letter to Sudan's Minister for External relations. Points he raised included: The bombing and destruction of the Episcopal Cathedral at Lui; Government planes bombing civilian centres, schools, hospitals, churches; whipping, harassment, arrests, tear gas; unjustifiable obstruction against prayer and celebration of Easter. (CISA, Kenya, 24 April 2001)
* Soudan. L'Onu condamne - La Commission des droits de l'homme de l'Onu a accepté par 25 voix pour et 28 abstentions un texte jugé trop faible, notamment par les Etats-Unis. La Commission a adopté un texte de l'Union européenne exprimant une profonde préoccupation face aux exactions commises au Soudan, notamment à l'enlèvement de femmes et d'enfants contraints au travail forcé par des milices alliées au gouvernement. Pour certaines ONG et pour les Etats-Unis, il s'agit purement et simplement d'esclavage. Selon l'ambassadeur des Etats-Unis à Genève, George Moose, "le gouvernement du Soudan ne reconnaît pas le problème de l'esclavage et il n'a pas agi activement pour faire cesser cette pratique. La résolution aurait dû énoncer clairement ces faits". (La Libre Belgique, 21 avril 2001)
* Swaziland. Swazis pray for "poisoned" King - Scores of Swazis gathered at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Manzini on 19 April to pray for the ailing Swazi King Mswati III, who is suspected to have been poisoned by one of his eight wives. Libyan President Muamar Gadhaffi has sent a team of ten specialist doctors to treat the King, who was originally reported to have been poisoned at Hlane Royal residence in eastern Swaziland during the annual marula drinking ceremony almost a fortnight ago. But sources in the royal family say that the King did not drink the marula fruit brew. "He started complaining of a stomach-ache soon after taking his breakfast, which was prepared by one of his wives. The King is not supposed to have his meals prepared by any of his wives as per the tradition, and we don't know what happened on this day," a senior royal prince said. Three cooks and an aide have been fired, and are being held for questioning. The King was admitted to a Pretoria clinic for a week, but when he got home the sickness started again so the Libyan president sent the doctors to examine what exactly caused the sickness, the royal source said. By 19 April his condition was reported to be stable but serious. Yet he was unable to attend his 33rd birthday party on 19 April because of his illness. (Independent, UK, 20 April 2001)
* Tanzanie. Aide humanitaire - L'Union européenne a accordé à la Tanzanie une aide humanitaire de 32 millions d'euros destinée à venir en aide aux réfugiés burundais, congolais et rwandais vivant dans ce pays, annonce un communiqué du 20 avril à Bruxelles. Avec 14 camps abritant plus de 500.000 réfugiés, la Tanzanie est considérée par les ONG comme le plus important théâtre humanitaire en Afrique, et en raison de l'instabilité permanente dans la région des Grands Lacs, le nombre de réfugiés dans ce pays ne va cesser d'augmenter, selon le communiqué de l'UE. En 2000, la population de réfugiés dans ce pays s'est accrue de 90.000 personnes et depuis janvier 2001 ils continuent d'affluer en territoire tanzanien en provenance des trois pays voisins. (PANA, Sénégal, 20 avril 2001) 

Weekly anb0426.txt - End of 6/7