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NEWS from AEFJN - January 2008 PDF Print E-mail
Written by AEFJN   
Thursday, 31 January 2008

Africa tells Brussels: “No to EPAs; Yes to APDs”

On the 11th January, Africans living in Europe organised a demonstration in Brussels to make clear in no uncertain terms their refusal to accept the EPAs which should have been well under way early this year. Instead, they called for APDs: Agreements Promoting Development.

West African countries were in the forefront in organising this demonstration. The President of Senegal had financed the travel of several groups: one plane came from Dakar with 130 people; another from Spain with about 50 demonstrators; several coaches came from France and there was also a delegation from Italy. Alongside the groups of Africans living in France and Belgium, there were also representatives of workers, small farmers and of the private sector from West Africa who had flown in from Dakar. European organisations that are working to change the current format of the EPAs were there, too, including members of the Belgian antenna of the AEFJN, 11.11.11, Solidarity, Oxfam and many others. It is hard to say how many people took part in the demonstration, perhaps between 1000 and 1500, although the media calculated about 600 and the organisers 3000.

An African atmosphere pervaded the event: women in African dresses wore scarves and caps decorated with the theme of the day; there was singing, dancing, drumming and the deafening chanting of slogans. The demonstration passed in front the European institutions, a lorry leading the way and helping the orchestration of the march. Banners proclaimed “No to the balkanisation of Africa! Yes to partnership with dialogue!”; “Strengthen our agricultural potential”; “The Italian generation of the real world says ‘no’ to EPAs and ‘yes’ to APDs for a win-win partnership between the EU and Africa”; “CAP21 says: no to EPAs, yes to a win-win partnership”; “Say ‘yes’ to APDs for the sake of the MDGs”; “Yes to APDs for the promotion of women’s enterprise” and other similar messages.

One delegation spent an hour at the European Commission. During this time, in spite of the rain, the crowd continued to cry out “No to EPAs; Yes to APDs” and to listen to the chanting of some Senegalese women. They applauded the leaders who were perched on the lorry denouncing, amongst other things, this new slavery being imposed on Africa and calling to mind the days of colonisation.

At last, some members of the delegation came back and told the assembly of their satisfaction at being so well received and at being promised that the dialogue would continue. Iba Der Thiam, an MP and leader of the Senegalese delegation that had come from Dakar, reported back on what they had heard from the European Commission: that partnership was economically fundamental in the world today and that the relationship between Europe and Africa was a winning card for both in the common globalisation struggle. This shows that, in the eyes of several observers, the hoped for effect of the EPAs has not yet been achieved. Loanne Koab of the Nigerian Coalition against EPAs did not hide her scepticism at the response from the Commission. “We believe that popular pressure must continue,” she said “and institutions in all African countries must continue to hear our call.”

Marie Paul Schiltz, Belgian Antenna

EPAs

You can find the last events on the signing and negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) in English on http://www.ictsd.org/tni/tni_english/TNI_EN_6-8.pdf It is a special number of the magazine "Trade Negotiations Insights". The articles on pages 6, 8, 10, refer to Africa and are excellent.

The reading will encourage all of us to go on working towards more pro-development EPAs and to support the efforts of the African civil society and Churches.

AGROFUELS: Why should we be cautious about production of biofuels?

There are several reasons why we should be very cautious about diverting agricultural products into biofuels.

1. It would take all the world’s agricultural land to produce enough biofuels to replace just the amount of fossil fuel currently used for transportation, not counting the amount used to run electricity generating plants.

2. If crops are made into biofuels instead of food, then as the cost of fuel rises, so will the cost of food. (3reasons why food prices can be expected to continue rising: 1. higher cost in producing the food because industrial agriculture is highly fuel intensive; then the surplus grain which used to depress the world prices of grain will be removed from the food market as the grain is sold to companies making biofuels; and finally; global warming will reduce the total amount of grain produced on earth.

3. In some countries, where hunger and malnutrition already exist, the production of biofuels will lead to a decrease in land available for food production and an increase in food insecurity.

4. For some methods of biofuel production, e.g. of ethanol from maize, more energy is spent in producing the fuel than is contained in the fuel.

5. The drive to switch over to biofuels is leading to deforestation in many places.

6. The biofuel boom could also affect food aid. The amount of money budgeted by certain agencies for food assistance is limited – so, as farmers sell more grain to ethanol-producing companies, the rising food prices will reduce the capacity of these agencies to supply sufficient food aid.

7. The widespread use of ethanol in vehicles could have serious effects upon human health (increase of the ground-level concentration of ozone which will, in turn increase respiratory problems).

Summary of an article from Roland Lesseps, S.J.Senior Scientist at Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre in Lusaka in The Challenge 2007, Vol.9 N°4 « Should we grow crops for biofuels ?, Lusaka, Zambia

Sexual violence in East DR Congo

"The rapists roam the streets; [local] customs allow them to pay a goat [as recompense to the victim’s family] without serving prison terms. Even worse, some of the rapists are HIV-positive or old and rape girls of around 12 and 13 thinking they will be cured [of illness] or live longer," Marie Pacuryema, the coordinator of a local NGO, Solidarité Féminine pour la Paix et le Développement Intégré en Ituri, said. A November 2007 report released by Médecins Sans Frontières-Suisse said that since 2003, between 30 and 500 patients reported sexual assaults each month in Ituri. At least 2,708 people were also raped in an 18-month period, with 7,000 more having been raped in a four-year period, according to the report.

At least 23,000 ex-combatants, in addition to 11,000 child soldiers, have been reintegrated into the community under a national disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme. The main perpetrators of the crimes include the military, the police, civilians, ex-combatants and even children. "The military and the police are supposed to know the law, which is well explained in training centres. But I have come to realise that they rape to defy the law. None has claimed ignorance of the law. In court cases they claim not to have known the age of the victim, which cannot be right because a 13-year-old is easily identified due to her physical development," Maj Innocent Mayembe, the judge and chairman of the military tribunal in Ituri District, said in the regional capital, Bunia.

The forms of sexual violence being perpetrated are more violent and dangerous than before, according to the judges. In February 2007, the commander of one of the regular army battalions in the town of Bavi, 60km south of Bunia, François Molessa, alias Bozizé, was sentenced to life imprisonment along with some of his staff for killing 30 civilians, whom they then buried in a mass grave. The female victims, both women and girls, were systematically raped first. "The perpetrator of rape behaves like an animal. The aggressor is transformed into a beast which attacks the prey. The rapist, once sated, abandons the victim," Mayembe said.

In a bid to reduce cases of rape and sexual violence, the UN Mission in the DRC, MONUC, conducts inquests into all reported rape cases involving agents of the state (police, military, FARDC) and takes the perpetrators to court. In addition, the mission is also involved in awareness-building among the military. According to the human rights division of MONUC, there had been a decline in the number of state agents committing rape, with current cases mainly involving civilians and minors. At least 30 boys of about 14 and 15 have been detained on rape charges at the central prison in Bunia.

One of the causes of the chronic rape was the culture of impunity, Mangaza of UNICEF said. UNICEF had helped at least 110 rape victims in Ituri although 80 judgments have not been rendered.

According to Mangaza, this was sending a wrong message to potential perpetrators of rape that they would not serve sentences or pay fines. At least 50,000 people died in the five-year conflict, which began in 1999, with 150,000 others still displaced due to security concerns, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Bunia.

Source: http://www.irinnews.org/

BURKINA FASO: SHEA BUTTER - A CASE STUDY

http://62.149.193.10/wide/download/Africa.pdf?id=553
This Case Study has examined how rural women mobilised to establish a women's shea butter sector enterprise in Burkina Faso. By adding value through processing of shea nuts into shea butter, women are directly reaping the benefits of their labour. The enterprise is creating jobs and providing extra income to the women. Shea is one of the few economic commodities in the region that is entirely under the control of women.

BURUNDI : A hundred thousand small arms flowing into country

Burundi Réalités (Burundi) - January 17, 2008.
Bujumbura (Burundi) - More than a hundred thousand small arms continue to flow into Burundi. This was reported in a study jointly carried out by leading local human rights organizations, Ligue Iteka, and the Small Arms Survey.
In the study, these two organisations indicate that most of these arms come from the Democratic Republic of Congo where fighting continues. These weapons were carried into Burundi by civilians after the government failed to protect them when they were targeted by rebel groups. The president of the Ligue Iteka, Jean-Marie Kavumbagu, recommends that the commission in charge of disarming civilians should take the results of this study into consideration.

Armed civilians continue to commit violent crimes. Six people were wounded by a grenade blast in Makebuko commune, an area that the President of the Republic recently visited in the course of his seed-planting tour. The victims have been evacuated to the hospitals, but some of them were serious wounded. In Kinama commune of the mayorship of Bujumbura one person was gunned down and brought to the hospital by the police. In a search operation conducted in order to find unregistered people living in this commune two grenades were found.

Some people maintain that it is possible to complete the disarmament process before the end of the peace process. The cordon-search operation that was carried out in Ruyigi province is cited as an example. About thirty guns were seized in Sanzu during the operation. It should be recalled that the disarmament campaign that was launched by the former President of the Republic in Gishubi in 2005 was blocked by the current ruling party

MEDICINES

A new document related to the treatment of malaria, and issued by AEFJN can be looked at on our website http://www.aefjn.org . It is the result of the questionnaire sent in the fall of 2006 to many of our members in Africa. Many thanks to all those who made it possible to produce this contribution to the treatment of this disease.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 January 2008 )