Weekly anb03131.txt #7

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 13-03-2003      PART #1/7

* Africa. Politics of abortion delays $15 Billion to fight global 
AIDS  -  President Bush's initiative to spend $15 billion on global AIDS 
programs, a central element of his compassion agenda, is getting bogged 
down in partisan disputes over how to spend the aid and whether the money 
should be steered away from international clinics if they promote abortion. 
The White House proposal, which would triple spending on international AIDS 
programs over the next five years, was widely expected to sail through 
Congress when President Bush announced it in January in his State of the 
Union address. But officials now say the window of opportunity for passing 
a bill in short order is closing. "The hope for something quick has sort of 
escaped us," an aide to a senior Senate Republican said. There are two main 
problems. First, Democrats and Republicans are at odds over how much money 
should go to a global fund to fight AIDS. The White House wants $200 
million this year, but some Democrats, notably Senator John Kerry of 
Massachusetts, a presidential hopeful, want more, as much as $1 billion. 
Perhaps more important, the initiative has gotten caught up in the complex 
politics of abortion in the wake of a recent decision by President Bush 
involving the so-called "global gag rule." The rule, also known as the 
Mexico City policy because that is where President Ronald Reagan first 
announced it, prohibits international family planning clinics from 
receiving taxpayer dollars if they promote or perform abortions. President 
Bush, pressed by abortion opponents to extend the rule to clinics that also 
have AIDS programs, has instead decided on a compromise: organizations can 
perform abortions and can receive global AIDS money, as long as they keep 
the programs strictly separate and account for the money.   (New York 
Times, USA, 6 March 2003)

* Africa. Rich countries urged to end subsidies  -  6 March: The United 
Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has called on the world's richest 
countries to stop subsidising their farmers, as a step towards tackling 
famine in Africa. He said governments had to deal with the structural 
causes of famine as well as the lack of food itself. Mr Annan was 
addressing a contact group of the eight richest nations, established to 
give higher priority to agricultural development in Africa. He told them 
that their food subsidies --which total $300bn a year -- were stifling 
agricultural production in Africa. Lack of sustainable food production was 
contributing to severe shortages which threatened more than 30 million 
Africans with starvation, said Mr Annan. Developing countries struggle to 
sell their produce to highly protected markets like Japan and the European 
Union because they do not enjoy the kind of subsidies that allow their 
farmers to sell food more cheaply. Observers say that matters are made 
worse by the fact that they also have to contend with cheap imports from 
the same rich countries into their own markets, leaving them without any 
livelihood. Mr Annan said the way that agricultural trade was structured 
was just as responsible for famine in Africa as the lack of food 
itself.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 6 March 2003)

* Africa/UK. Clare Short condemns globetrotting African ministers 
wanderlust  -  Britain's international development secretary, Clare Short, 
has attacked African ministers for spending most of their time away from 
their homes attending conferences, and not focusing on problems in their 
own countries. In the same speech Ms Short criticised some environmental 
groups for trying to protect the great apes. She called them "morally 
disgusting" because they appeared to care more about animals than people. 
Speaking without a prepared text at a conference on biodiversity and 
development in London aimed at helping the poor and also preventing the 
extinction of many of the world's endangered species, she said that 
conferences often failed to achieve anything. This conference, jointly 
hosted by the British government, the UN and environmental groups, would 
only be significant if it produced concrete results, she said. "What is the 
point of bothering with all these conferences if we are not going to start 
implementing things in the real world?" she asked. "On any day of any week 
of any year, most African ministers are not in Africa. They are at a 
conference in the northern hemisphere talking about what to do about 
development." In an exchange with charities trying to prevent the killing 
of apes for human consumption and the import of their meat into Britain, 
she said: "People who care for nature and biodiversity have to care for 
humanity, and focusing on the animals without the people is morally 
disgusting. The bush-meat campaign, forgive me if I offend anyone, is a bit 
like that. The human beings don't figure." Tony Juniper, director of 
Friends of the Earth, said: "Whilst groups around the world work together 
to solve the twin crises of environment and development, we wonder which 
planet Clare Short lives on. It has been accepted in these circles for more 
than a decade that human and environment welfare go hand in hand... That 
fact seems to have escaped her. "The reason African ministers have to 
travel so much is that the decisions which affect development in their 
countries are made in London, Paris, New York and Tokyo, and often create 
the problems they face at home -- issues like the power of transnational 
corporations, world trade, unacceptable agricultural subsidies and 
unpayable debts. The prime minister seems to understand these issues; he 
should get his cabinet to toe the line."   (The Guardian, UK, 7 March 2003)

* Afrique. Sommet du NEPAD  -  Le 6ème sommet consacré au Nouveau 
partenariat pour le développement de l'Afrique (NEPAD) s'est déroulé le 9 
mars à Abuja (Nigeria) en présence de huit chefs d'Etat africains (sur 22 
invités). Au centre des discussions: le mécanisme d'évaluation. A l'issue 
de la réunion, le président nigérian Olusegun Obasanjo a déclaré que les 
participants avaient examiné les progrès accomplis, et notamment les 
rapports sur la paix et la sécurité, les engagements avec les agences des 
Nations unies et la coopération avec le G8. "Nous avons noté avec 
satisfaction qu'il a été proposé de doubler l'assistance internationale de 
financement afin de permettre au NEPAD de réaliser ses objectifs", a-t-il 
indiqué. La réunion lui a confié la mission de mettre en oeuvre le 
processus pour la nomination, à la fin de ce mois, d'un Comité de 
personnalités chargées d'administrer le Mécanisme africain de revue par les 
pairs (MARP), considéré comme un élément essentiel à la bonne gouvernance 
sur le continent.   (D'après PANA, Sénégal, 9 mars 2003)

* Africa. NEPAD vows to take Africa forward  -  10 March: NEPAD envisions 
contributions from both Africa and the West African leaders have agreed on 
a framework for a peer-review mechanism aimed at tackling obstacles to 
growth and development on the continent. It follows a meeting on 9 March in 
the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to discuss implementation of the New 
Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). Launched just over a year ago, 
NEPAD aims to promote economic and governance improvements across the 
continent through African-led reforms. Critics of the initiative have been 
impatient for clear signs of progress. The NEPAD plan is ambitious. It 
recognises that many of Africa's problems are the result of poor leadership 
and aims to set up a mechanism by which leaders on the continent can 
scrutinise each others' performance. The idea is not simply to blow the 
whistle on underachievers, but to identify problems and provide support. 
But those impatient with the pace of progress towards this goal will find 
little new in the document released after this weekend's meeting. It talks 
of voluntary self-assessment, constructive peer dialogue and the sharing of 
common experiences. Nothing in the wording of this document suggests any 
punitive sanctions or teeth for Nepad against wayward governments. Donor 
nations who are being asked to provide billions of dollars in development 
assistance as part of the plan had been hoping for a mechanism with real 
clout, rather than just another talking shop. Hosting the summit, President 
Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria countered those sceptics by saying that NEPAD 
had moved beyond the level of mere rhetoric to the concrete and pragmatic 
stage of implementation.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 10 March 2003)

* Africa. Africa and Iraq  -  1 - Africa's media and IraqAs - French 
Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin returns from his visit to Angola, 
Cameroon and Guinea to drum up support for the French position on Iraq, the 
media in the three UN Security Council member countries debate the pros and 
cons of the vexed issue. Angola's leading daily Jornal de Angola proclaims 
in a headline: "The country maintains an independent stand." It says Angola 
has made it clear it subscribes "to the general position of the African 
Union on Iraq", which has openly opposed the war option. A commentary on 
Angolan government radio argues that although "the world can no longer 
accept the intolerance of dictators like Saddam Hussein, human lives, 
notably those of civilians, must be spared". A leading Cameroon daily, Le 
Messager, says the country's president, Paul Biya, is caught between a rock 
and a hard place. "In Cameroon, the pressure is clearly perceptible. It is 
seen in the sustained courting of Biya by Washington. Since no initiative 
could be too much, George Bush himself put his hand to the wheel," Le 
Messager continues. "He personally called the Cameroonian president on the 
telephone. This act takes on special importance in diplomacy." According to 
Guinea state radio, the country's diplomacy has gone into overdrive. The 
foreign minister, Francois Fall, held talks on 10 March in Washington with 
US Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser 
Condoleezza Rice after an earlier meeting with Mr De Villepin. "The foreign 
minister stressed the possibility of a rapid solution as demanded by the 
international community," Guinea radio reports.   (BBC News, UK, 11 March 
2003)  -  2 - Iraq and the scramble for Africa's votes -- 10 March: French 
foreign minister Dominique de Villepin last night flew to Africa for 
meetings with the holders of three potential swing votes in the United 
Nations Security Council --Angola, Guinea and Cameroon. French diplomatic 
sources say France still supports Mr de Villepin's proposal that heads of 
state and government should vote in person on any second resolution 
authorising immediate military action against Iraq for not complying with 
disarmament resolutions. The idea, immediately rejected by Colin Powell, US 
secretary of state, on 7 March, underlines France's determination to wring 
maximum publicity from its anti-war stance and to remind the US and its 
allies of the importance of the UN as the symbol for preserving 
international peace. French officials believe it is vital to stop 
Washington in effect trying to "buy" the votes of the six undecided nations 
-- Pakistan, Chile, Mexico, Angola, Cameroon and Guinea - over the next 48 
hours. Mr de Villepin's punishing schedule reflects how much is at stake 
for the European diplomat who has done most to champion the peaceful 
disarming of Iraq. 11 March: Hard on the heals of France's Foreign 
Minister, comes Britain's Minister for Africa, Lady Amos. This is her 
second visit in a fortnight. On 10 March she was in Cameroon and her next 
port of call is Guinea.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 11 March 2003)  -  3 - Africa 
and the Iraqi crisis -- African Union: On the fringes of the second 
ordinary session of its executive council in N'djamena, Chad, devoted to 
administrative, budgetary and economic issues, the African Union reiterated 
(7 March) its position against war on Iraq. Egypt: Speaker Ahmed Fathi 
Sorour of Egypt's National Assembly criticises (7 March) the determination 
by the USA to attack Iraq, warning that such war will cause "international 
chaos". -- On 10 March, the highest authority in the Sunni Islamic World 
declared that war against Iraq will be a "new crusade" compelling every 
Muslim to perform "jihad". The Islamic Research Centre at Cairo's Al-Azhar 
University, the world's leading teaching institution from Islam's Sunni 
sect, did not elaborate, however, on what form any "jihad", ("holy 
struggle"), should take. -- On 11 March, Ministers of Information from 57 
Islamic countries denounced "any attempt to wage an unjustified war on Iraq 
by the USA", and called for a peaceful resolution of the crisis within the 
framework of the UN. Mauritius: The Council of Mauritian Muslims sends a 
letter (7 March) to Prime minister Anerood Jugnauth urging him to back the 
diplomatic option in the conflict pitting the USA and Britain against Iraq. 
Senegal: On 6 March, several civil society organisations staged protest 
marches in Dakar stating their opposition to war against Iraq and urging a 
peaceful approach to the disarming of Iraq. South Africa: On 12 March, the 
government said it is working round the clock to defuse the crisis in Iraq. 
Tunisia/Libya: On 10 March, Tunisia's President Ben Ali and Libya's 
President Gaddafi stressed the need for a "peaceful resolution" of the 
Iraqi-USA crisis.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 12 March 2003)

* Afrique. Cour pénale internationale  -  Créée par le traité de Rome en 
1998, entrée en fonction le 1er juillet 2002, la Cour pénale internationale 
(CPI) a été inaugurée le 11 mars à La Haye, où ses 18 juges ont prêté 
serment. L'élection du procureur de la CPI doit avoir lieu en avril. A ce 
jour, 89 pays ont rejoint la Cour. Depuis le 1er juillet 2002, quelque 300 
plaintes sont déjà parvenues à La Haye. Contrairement aux tribunaux de 
l'Onu pour le Rwanda et l'ex-Yougoslavie, des individus, des associations 
et des ONG peuvent demander au procureur de la CPI d'ouvrir une enquête sur 
des faits précis. Si certaines de ces accusations sont farfelues, d'autres 
sont solidement étayées. Ainsi, la Fédération internationale des droits de 
l'homme (FIDH) a déposé plainte contre le président centrafricain 
Ange-Félix Patassé, accusé de "crimes de guerre", et contre le chef de 
guerre congolais Jean-Pierre Bemba, dont le mouvement rebelle serait 
responsable d'exactions, y compris d'actes d'anthropophagie. Autre cible 
éventuelle: le pouvoir d'Abidjan. Le 24 janvier, le Haut Commissariat de 
l'Onu pour les droits de l'homme a accusé "des éléments proches du 
gouvernement" de fournir des troupes aux "escadrons de la mort" sévissant à 
Abidjan. Toutefois, la Côte d'Ivoire n'a pas ratifié le statut de la CPI, 
et donc la Cour n'a pas compétence, à moins que le Conseil de sécurité 
décide de lui déférer l'affaire.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 12 mars 2003)

* Africa. Africa and the International Criminal Court  -  Under the 
watchful eyes of Kofi Annan and the Queen of the Netherlands, 18 judges are 
sworn in today as the most important human rights institution the world has 
seen in half a century is formally inaugurated. The ceremony in the Dutch 
parliament marks the coming of age for the International Criminal Court 
(ICC) -- and the fulfilment of a dream that began with the Nuremberg and 
Tokyo tribunals for Nazi and Japanese war criminals, and later found 
expression in the work of the UN tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and 
Rwanda. But the ICC will be a new and, crucially, a permanent feature of 
the geopolitical landscape. It faces enormous challenges, including 
powerful American opposition, the task of choosing a prosecutor -- and 
deciding who to put in the dock. The court's job is to provide justice for 
genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, so that future victims 
have somewhere to turn to when national systems fail. Bruno Cathala, the 
French judge who has been overseeing the ICC since it came into existence 
last summer, can hardly contain his excitement. "This is about globalised 
justice," he said. "No one has ever built an international criminal court 
before. We are going to fill the impunity gap." Getting this far has been a 
long haul. The US, China, Russia and India remain opposed. Neither Iraq nor 
Israel has signed up. And Washington continues to pick off small countries 
to sign deals ensuring that American personnel are guaranteed immunity. But 
89 other states now back the court, and the moment is approaching when the 
first pre-trial investigation will be launched: its likely target is the 
Congolese rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba. The Bemba case falls into the 
category of those where a "state party" to the ICC statute -- in this case 
the Democratic Re public of Congo -- is either "unwilling or unable" to 
prosecute a suspected war criminal.   (The Guardian, UK, 11 March 2003)

Weekly anb0313.txt - #1/7