Weekly anb04266.txt #7

[anb-bia <anb-bia@village.uunet.be>]

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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)

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