In this issue:

Hell in Africa and 'Mass Murder by Complacency'

South Africa Justice Ministry Investigates Israeli Fraud Charges

South Africa Sees Progress in Zimbabwe Land Resettlement

War on Hunger/Malnutrition Can Stem AIDS Fatalities

Kenya Planning To Implement Free Medical Care

Peace Talks Set for Jan. 15; France Intervenes with Troops in Ivory Coast

From Volume 2, Issue Number 2 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Jan. 13, 2003
Africa News Digest

Hell in Africa and 'Mass Murder by Complacency'

Discussing the developed sector's response to the AIDS crisis—namely, "Mass Murder By Complacency"—UN AIDS envoy to Africa Stephen Lewis told a press briefing in New York that "those who watch the pandemic unfold with a kind of pathological equanimity must be held to account. There may yet come a day when we have peacetime tribunals to deal with this particular version of crimes against humanity."

Speaking on Jan. 8, Lewis reported that at every stop of his four-country visit last month to Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Zambia, he was struck by the determination with which the African people and their governments were prepared to do battle against the plague. "I am weary to the point of exasperated impatience at the endless expressions of doubt about Africa's resolve and Africa's intentions and Africa's capacities. Africans are engaged in endless numbers of initiatives and projects ... and models which, if taken to scale, if generalized throughout the country, would halt the pandemic."

He cited in particular Zimbabwe, which, "whatever the level of political turbulence, has created a sturdy municipal infrastructure for the purpose of dealing with AIDS." In Malawi, the government is going to treat people free of charge, and delivered anti-retroviral medication through the public health sector to 50,000 people.

Underlying how hunger and AIDS "have come together in a Hecate's brew of horror," he spoke about a visit to the pediatric ward of the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia. "The infants were clustered, stick-thin, three and four to a bed, most so weakened by hunger and ravaged by AIDS that they really had no chance. We were there for 45 minutes; every 15 minutes, another child died, awkwardly covered with a sheet, then removed by a nurse, while the ward was filled with the anguishing weeping of the mothers. A scene from Hell."

About the AIDS orphans, he noted that this is a new phenomenon for which the world has no evident solution. "Public health has confronted terrible contagions of communicable disease at other moments in human history. One day the same will be true for AIDS. But we've never before confronted the selective destruction of parents that leaves such a mass of orphans behind." He noted that there is no way to deal with this. "They wander the streets as orphan gangs, bewildered, lonely, disenfranchised from all reality...."

Of the UN Global Fund for AIDS, Lewis said it will be in financial crisis after this present month. And, "If there is a war in Iraq come February, then the war will eclipse every other international human priority, HIV/AIDS included," Lewis said.

South Africa Justice Ministry Investigates Israeli Fraud Charges

See this week's INDEPTH section for South Africa's role in the investigation of organized-crime bribery and fraud in Israel's Likud Party, the party of accused war criminal Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

South Africa Sees Progress in Zimbabwe Land Resettlement

The South African Ministry of Labour said it was impressed with the progress resettled farmers in Zimbabwe were making, following a visit to several farms in Mashonaland on Jan. 9.

"After visiting three farms, Minister Membathisi Madladlana was impressed with the commitment of the resettled farmers," a spokesman for South Africa's Department of Labour told the UN Integrated Regional Networks (IRIN,) which filed the report. "In one case a black farmer who now owns 250 hectares of land and employs 74 people has developed the land much more than the previous owner. Also, contrary to what is believed, there are white farmers in Zimbabwe who are patriotic and want the land reform to yield some positive changes.... The visit to the farms was a learning curve for the South African delegation. What was evident was that the land that was given to resettled farmers was not left idle," the spokesman added.

Labour Minister Mdladlana has been on a four-day visit to Zimbabwe for talks with the government aimed at regulating the status and working conditions of illegal Zimbabwean immigrants working on South African farms. Before leaving Harare, Mdladhana called for closer cooperation with Zimbabwe, saying that the two countries "shared a common destiny."

War on Hunger/Malnutrition Can Stem AIDS Fatalities

The South African government has committed itself to providing nutritious food to all people living with HIV-AIDS throughout the country. Government officials said Jan. 3 that the support system would be an extension of the existing nationwide nutrition program for poor communities to improve their health status. The plan will prevent and reduce morbidity and mortality rates due to malnutrition among HIV-positive people. "This program will be multi-pronged, using simple approaches such as establishing food gardens in communities in partnership with business, the Department of Agriculture and other role players," said Department of Health chief director for tuberculosis and HIV-AIDS Dr. Nono Simelela.

Prior to this initiative, the Department of Social Services and Population Development has paid HIV-positive people a disability grant of R640 a month, but only when a doctor or nurse declares the individual terminally ill.

Health Minister Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Simelela have committed themselves to facilitate meetings between AIDS activists and the institutions they were targetting, such as banks and insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

Kenya Planning To Implement Free Medical Care

The incoming government of President Kibaka in Kenya has announced plans to offer free medicine, and is set to provide health insurance for all Kenyans. Charity Ngilu, taking over the Health Ministry, outlined steps she was taking to ensure the introduction of free health care for all. The new government, she said, was aware that proper medical care had become too expensive for most Kenyans to afford. She said that discussions have resumed among health professionals on the establishment of a national health insurance scheme. She also issued a set of directives to take effect immediately. She forbade public hospitals from refusing patients because they had no money. Hospitals were ordered to return all title deeds and other forms of security collected from patients unable to pay hospital charges.

Preparations for moving to free health care began several months ago under the government of President Daniel arap Moi. A team of Members of Parliament and health sector managers have visited European and Southeast Asian countries where such programs have been successful. A Kenyan task force was formed, and the German government sent experts on health insurance to help the task force.

Peace Talks Set for Jan. 15; France Intervenes with Troops in Ivory Coast

France appears able to control military action from all sides in Ivory Coast, while it also shapes a political resolution Western powers will ratify. Helicopters of the Ivorian government carried out attacks Dec. 23 and 31 north of the ceasefire line—in territory held by the Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI)—killing at least 24 people, and possibly 40 or more. The MPCI General Secretariat responded Jan. 2 with a declaration that "the troops of the MPCI have received carte blanche to go over into a general offensive." French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin then flew to Abidjan Jan. 3 to demand an explanation for the government's attacks and restore the ceasefire.

De Villepin also discussed with President Laurent Gbagbo—according to Le Monde Jan. 3—the " 'global plan for solving the crisis,' which Gbagbo is supposed to present," and which addresses major issues raised by the MPCI rebels. Before departing Ivory Coast Jan. 4, de Villepin also went to MPCI headquarters in Bouake and, according to the International Herald Tribune Jan. 7, "announced an agreement between the government and the main rebel force [MPCI]... and said that France would ensure that the deal was respected by both sides. Gbagbo agreed to send home about 200 foreign mercenaries [serving] with his forces and ground three Russian-built MI-24 helicopters reportedly flown by white mercenaries. Villepin promised that France would head an international aid effort to rebuild the country if the two sides reached a peace agreement at the Paris talks scheduled for Jan. 15."

Le Monde added, "The compromise negotiated under this plan [in Paris] is then to be ratified by a summit that brings together, in addition to the West African Presidents, the UN Secretary General and the Western heads of state, who are to guarantee the application of the accords."

On the western front, where there is no ceasefire between the government and two newer rebel groups, French troops again inflicted losses on these rebels Jan. 6—this time described as "quite heavy" by a French Army spokesman—when the rebels again attempted to move eastward toward Abidjan. (The first of several such French actions occurred Dec. 1.) Officially, the French claim only to have troops in the country to protect or evacuate Westerners and maintain the ceasefire.

All rights reserved © 2002 EIRNS