Congratulations to the Young Journalists Association of The Gambia who celebrated one year in existence yesterday. We very regularly hear people say in this country that the youth are the future leaders and this is most definitely true of our young journalists. In the future these young men and women will be on the front lines fighting for truth, justice and democracy. Indeed many of them are already involved in this noble struggle. They are working in our media houses and working diligently to inform the public and make the truth widely known.

We must support them in this endevour as it will ultimately benefit every Gambian. The only person who fears the truth is the one who has something to hide. Many people critisise journalists, young and old, and attempt to smear their name by saying that they do not print the truth. But to print the truth journalists need to have access to it. To publicise information they must also have access to it. In an open society information is not constricted and the journalists job is much easier.

Another very important aspect of journalism is training. We must ensure that journalists have access to training through a course at the University of The Gambia. If this is put in place then young people who wish to ply this noble trade can have a solid grounding in the basics of the craft. They can also be introduced and educated in best practice. If these steps are taken then we will have a generation of journalists who will adhere to the strictest codes of practice simply because they are aware of them. While there is no doubting that the young journalists of The Gambia have only the best interests of the nation at heart and are unlikely to carry out malicious acts on purpose, we must empower them to make informed choices with regard to their chosen career. We owe it to them.

The Role of Political Leaders during the Liberation Struggle

Mr./Madam Chairperson,

This is a very important subject and I wish to start my deliberation by quoting a Ghanaian Professor who in a conversation with me, said that African elders don’t present papers per se in the western sense of the word.

He said because of the range and depth of their experience, combining what have been derived from sources of western education with indigenous knowledge, and what they themselves have witnessed with their own eyes, what they do is to give talks. That is why am not sure whether I am presenting a paper or giving a talk or a combination of all. Whichever it is, please bear with me.

First, I wish to congratulate the organizers of this ceremony on the observance of these auspicious day. And in the same vein thank you the organisers for considering me competent to appear before you, to address and to be listened to on a subject of the commemoration of 2008 African Liberation Day Struggle.

As a living witness with a good memory of events of what transpired at the time of the struggle and able to fall back on my reservoir of knowledge of the occurrences of the time, added to the advantage of having being involved in the formation, launching and promotion of political parties, I feel, and rightly so, that this is a subject I can discuss objectively.

This subject is a very important one which, as far as I know, has never been brought out for discussion in this organised and respectable way. In my view, Pan Africanist and African Historians have been too slow in bringing together people to highlight what knowledge lies in their memories about the work of political leaders and to acknowledge, publicise, popularise, and promote their contributions and accord them the credit and honour they deserve as heroes and valiants who had dangerously ventured and without any feeling of what may happen to them, struggled with colonial powers already established with all the trappings of a government, an administration with an hierarchy ranging from a Governor to a district Commissioner, a police force, an army, a death squad, a secret service and informers all secretly and openly working for a government that owed its loyalty to a King/Queen for whom and in whose name the country was being ruled. This monarch never had a first hand knowledge of the situation on the ground. The only way a subject people were able to make their views heard was by petition through a colonial governor who may support or reject the petition.

Did we as individuals or representatives of institutions ever ask ourselves, how the chain of colonial bondage was shattered? We should all know that something had happened and that thing is a strong force to liberate Africa. It should be acknowledged that some people among the subject people decided to sacrifice themselves for a better life for you and I.

Political leaders at the time were selected carefully considering among the several factors social, ethnic, educational background, and capacity to face the challenge that lay ahead. The challenge was of great risk for the colonial expatriates who would not have had even a menial job in his own country. In Africa he rose to the level of a district commissioner flying the flag of king and queen basked on the glory and the achievement of the enslavement of Africans.

These expatriates considered anybody among the indigenous who attempted to educate, and show light to the people as a dangerous enemy, attempting to cut the ground under their feet. They should be liquidated. And the reactions involved among other things imprisonment, assassination and exile among several unpleasant acts. This is why political leaders at the time faced an unpredictable life whether in or out of his house more so when he was out in the street, he was not sure whether he would go back home on his feet or in a coffin or land in a police cell.

Among the several roles they performed included presiding over political meetings, visiting the lawyer’s chambers to appear for them in court for a very trivial thing they called public disorder, libel and other concocted charges. Also in some other times, the politicians are in a doctor’s clinic to see that the life of a supporter shot by a colonial service man is saved. In other times the politician is a peacemaker trying to bring peace among quarrelling neighbours and supporters. Another time he is in a press room trying to prepare an editorial for his newspaper. Another times he is acting as the commander-in-chief of his fighting army was presiding over his war council. He was everything to everybody. They also operated as unionists advocating a fair labour law and a living wage for all workers

This trend continued up to the attainment of independence and beyond. It is unfortunate that the masses of the people of this day and age are not aware of the acute nature of the struggle, the hardship, risk, African political leaders went through at the height of the colonial rule. And what is glaringly painful is that many people nowadays enjoying the fruits of the sacrifices of these leaders don’t even know how these achievements came about, others do know but choose to depraise the effort of the leaders in an attempt to downplay their contributions. The efforts of these leaders should be proclaimed loud and clear it should be trumpeted that the good life being enjoyed today has not come in a silver platter. 

 African leaders struggled for everything acquired in the face of threats, harassment, imprisonment and even assassinations and that did not make them back down. A case in point is that governor Armitage once told Edward Francis Small that he would break every bone in his body if he fell foul of the law. Despite all those threats and actions against the African leaders, they were able to take their countries to independence and freedom. At the beginning and up to this moment, the count of the independent states of Africa are 53 in number. But the number of territories before independence far exceeded this number. Some leaders were not only satisfied with fighting for the freedom of their own country but they also had their eyes cast on neighbouring countries with a view of annexing them. Example is Ethopia annexed Eriteria, Cameroon annex British mandated territory of Cameroon and this is why Cameroon is a bilingual country. And British Togo on their own volition joined Gold Coast to become Ghana. These 53 present day states vary in size and their geopolitics, determining the nature of politics of each territory. These also determine the level of stakes and the task on the part of the political leaders to produce results for their people. These ended in many unpleasant acts. For the audience to understand the struggle, the nature, the variety and intensity, herewith is presented in four different groups, the ordeal through which African leaders went. The leaders of what I categorise as group one had to take up arms to go to war to liberate their countries.

Group one consists of 10 countries namely Algeria, Kenya, Ethopia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, South West Africa, Angola, Guinea Bissau and Western Sahara. Group two consists of five leaders killed namely (1) Phillip Moumie of Cameroon, (2) Samori Marcel of Mozambique whose predecessor (3) was also killed, (4) Cabral of Guinea Bissau and (5) Patrick Lumumba. Those imprisoned consists of seven leaders and they are (1) Ben Bella of Algeria, (2) Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, (3 )Keneyatta of Kenya, (4) Mandella of South Africa, (5)Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, (6)Dr Hastins Banda of Malawi and (7) Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Other categories of politicians who fought for the total liberation of the whole continent giving their financial resources and diplomatic support consists of seven. These were Kwame Nkrumah, Dr Ndamdi Azikwe, Saikou Toure, Modibo Keita, Colonel Nasa, Dr Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kwanda and President Leopold Sedat Senghor. At this point, I wish to reiterate that the freedom, prosperity and progress enjoyed in all areas of our social lives had been paid for through the blood, sacrifice and the lives of others. May I at this point strike an unpleasant note. All the first generation of African politicians have all except four gone to eternity. These four are; Kenneth Kaunda, Sir Dawda Jawara, Nelson Mandela and Sam Nujoma of Namibia. Mr. Chairperson, ladies and gentlemen, I call on all to stand up and give a big hand to these surviving politicians. I also call on all to stand in remembrance of the dead veteran politicians who have made life what it is today for Africa but are not with us to enjoy.

The 9th Ordinary session of the Pan- African Parliament was recently held in Johannesburg, South Africa and saw some very interesting discussion taking place. Parliamentarians attending the session raised major concerns relating to the issues affecting peace and prosperity in Africa.

 One of the Parliamentarians who talked tough on African crises was Hon. Eugene Kpakka from Liberia. He said one of the leading problems faced by Africa is power-struggles. He said African leader’s failure to hand over power at the end of the term is a major problem. He called on the need for African leaders to come forward and work for the best interest of the Africa

All African leaders should heed these words. The scourge of leaders clinging to power has blighted the continent for a very long time and has never been anything but destructive. In the burgeoning spirit of pan-Africanism leaders must be urged to do what is best for their people and not just themselves.

Mandatory maximum terms are the obvious solution to this issue. They are in place all over the world and have proved to be very effective in ensuring that no one person holds on to power for too long. It ensures fresh ideas and young energetic leaders get to serve the people.

The Pan African Parliament is at its transformative stage from an advisory and consultative organ into a fully-fledged legislative organ of the AU.

It would be a very useful and intelligent thing if one of the body’s first pieces of legislation was related to fixed terms of office. Any African leader who would not agree to sign up would be making clear to the whole continent that their own lust for power was uppermost in their thoughts as opposed to the good of their people. Change in this area must come soon if we are to continue building a unified and highly developed continent.

She was taken to a nearby village and raped by 10 men. One of the militia leaders asked her to make a choice: become a wife or be killed.

She became a wife. Later, she learnt that her family had all been killed. That was in 1994.

Now 32, Mukandoli is struggling to accept that it is possible to forgive her tormentors.

"There is no reconciliation before pardon," she told IRIN. "If security for genocide survivors can be provided - and it is a big if - then we can hope for possible reconciliation with the killers."

Mukandoli is just one of the thousands of Rwandan women who suffered abuse during the 100 days of genocide when Hutu militias turned their guns and machetes on Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Rwandan scholars say more than one million people were killed between April and July 1994. Hundreds of thousands of women and girls suffered various forms of sexual violence.

According to AVEGA-AGAHOZO, an NGO for genocide widows, 80 percent of its 25,000 members suffered sexual abuse during the genocide.

Traditional courts

Rwandan officials, pushing for a long-term solution, initiated traditional “gacaca” courts to try some of those responsible for crimes committed during the genocide, and to decongest the prison system.

"Reconciliatory justice is an important stage in the eradication of the culture of impunity [and] in the process of reconciliation," Domitille Mukantaganzwa, executive secretary of the national authority in charge of gacaca courts, said.

According to the authority, the courts were set up because “classic justice didn’t meet expectations” - after five years, only 6,000 out of 12,000 suspects had been tried.

The 12,103 gacaca courts, manned by about 250,000 “judges”, elected by the local population, were therefore a strategy to expedite justice.

Mukandoli and other survivors are sceptical, however, arguing that the process does not offer adequate protection. Théodore Simburudali, head of the umbrella organisation for genocide survivors, known by its local name Ibuka, which means "remember" in Kinyarwanda, concurs.

The authorities, he said, were reluctant to arrest and prosecute all those charged with killing genocide survivors. Even those charged are released for flimsy reasons, he added.

"It is unbelievable to talk about reconciliation when the criminals are freed for the simple reason of having repented their crime publicly," he said.

However, Samson Gwakwavu, a 40-year-old perpetrator, who was freed by a gacaca court, insisted that the system offers true reconciliatory justice.

"It was difficult to believe that there could be a presidential pardon for such acts," he said while doing community service for agreeing to testify before a gacaca court.

Mixed views

Some analysts argue that despite the trials, genuine reconciliation has yet to be achieved. According to Anne N Kubai, a Swedish-based researcher, some Rwandans see the gacaca process as “victors’ justice”, which has not yet addressed the root causes of the conflict.

"As many Rwandans say, forgiving is an effort that one makes in order to make life liveable, especially since victims and the ex-prisoners have to live together as neighbours again," she noted in a May 2007 paper.

"Describing the experiences of living in the same communities, some survivors said that despite having forgiven and reconciled, they found it hard to look each other in the eye."

This assessment is echoed by Mukandoli: "The existence of survivors is still as a danger to the killers," she told IRIN.

Rwandan authorities, however, argue that the gacaca courts have worked well. According to the national authority in charge of gacaca courts, the process has involved 85 percent of the population, and helped alleviate suspicion.

By December, up to 761,446 people will have been brought before these courts - a much faster way of handling the backlog of cases in a manner that enables people to live again in peace and harmony.

"We believe that punishing perpetrators, honouring victims and rehabilitating survivors are the pillars of post-genocide reconstruction and the basis for preventing new genocide," Kamali Karegesa, Rwanda's envoy to Uganda, noted during the official mourning week that ended on 14 April.

Well done Barrack Obama! The Democratic front runner has done what so many African leaders have failed to do and critisised Robert Mugabe for not releasing the results of the election held on March 29th. The US Senator was unafraid in his words. He said that the people of Zimbabwe were tired of Mugabe’s failed policies, which have reduced the country from the breadbasket of Africa to a basket case. This is leadership. The Zambian President, Levy Mwanwasa, has called for an emergency meeting of the Southern African Development Committee. This is in contrast to Thabo Mbeki’s call for patience and the deafening silence ringing out from the State Houses and Palaces of other African leaders. In the spirit of African unity we must do all that we can to help our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe by forcing Mugabe and his party to release the results or leave office. It is becoming clearer by the day that there is trickery afoot.

The BBChas hard evidence that Police officers were ordered to vote for Robert Mugabe before the election so the mind boggles at the thought of what is going on behind the scenes at the moment with regard to the results of the ballot.

Our neighbours in Senegal have shown their leadership and their Pan-African justice credentials in recent days by changing the constitution to allow for the trial of the ex-Chadian leader Hissene Habre. The man, described as Africa’s Pinochet, is accused of human rights abuses during his eight years in power.

This is the kind of action that we need to see on the continent. All nations must support their neighbours and ensure that justice is available to all African people. It is too late to save the people of Chad from this man but at least they can get a form of justice if he is tried.

It is not too late however for the people of Zimbabwe. All African leaders must speak out against this mockery of democracy. The power is in the hands of all African leaders to stand up for the people of Zimbabwe because it is now crystal clear that Robert Mugabe is putting his pride, power lust and well being before that of his people. It’s reported that Mugabe and other African leaders were expecting an easy ride from Barrack Obama because of his African roots but this young man has once again risen above the issue of race and put truth and justice ahead of everything else. If he is elected to the office of United States President the unjust in Africa can expect a torrid time. African leaders who are fair and just, do not cling to power, don’t persecute journalists and put the needs of their people before their own can expect the support and friendship of the worlds most powerful nation and its President.

Admitting to being HIV-positive is a difficult task for anyone, but David Balubenze was faced with some special challenges as the pastor of Deliverance Church Nankandulo, in Kamuli, about 100 kilometers from the capital, Kampala.

Balubenze knew he was HIV-positive for a year before he told church elders and it was several more years before he informed his congregation. "My fear was that if I tell them, maybe they will abandon the church," Balubenze told IRIN/PlusNews.

The catalyst for his disclosure came after attending a 2004 meeting in Mukono, Uganda, of the African Network of Religious Leaders living with or personally affected by HIV/AIDS (ANERELA).

In Mukono, Balubenze met ANERELA's founder, Canon Gideon Byamugisha, who in 1992 became the first African religious leader to publicly declare he was living with HIV.

Byamugisha started ANERELA in 2003 with the goal of creating a support network for HIV-positive religious leaders that would help them discuss their status and inform their congregation about the virus.

By the end of 2006, ANERELA had over 2,000 members in 39 African countries. The Uganda chapter of ANERELA, the Ugandan Network of Religious Leaders living with or personally affected by HIV/AIDS (UNERELA), has about 245 members, including at least 40 religious leaders who are living openly with HIV/AIDS.

According to Gabriel Amori, the national coordinator of UNERELA and a church deacon, Byamugisha’s groundbreaking disclosure has changed the way Ugandans think about AIDS.

"HIV used to be seen as a disease caused by sin," he said. "For Canon Gideon to boldly come out and say he is living with the virus was an indication that to have HIV/AIDS is a disease like any other."

Through UNERELA, Balubenze learned more about the disease’s epidemiology, and how to approach HIV/AIDS discussions with congregants and colleagues.

Before he made his disclosure in 2005, he asked his congregation a series of questions aimed at emphasising their own susceptibility to the virus. "All of us are at risk [from contracting HIV]," he told them.

Afterwards, Balubenze said many people in his church sought his advice. Some asked where and how to test for HIV, while others enquired about the side effects of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), implying that they too were living with HIV.

Religion and HIV education

About 85 percent of Africans belong to some kind of religious community, making places of worship ideal venues for HIV/AIDS education.

"Christianity reaches more people than health care," said Stephen Waititi, a former church deacon and the medical director of Milmay Centre, an HIV/AIDS clinic in Kampala.

"When we train religious leaders, we train a nation," Balubenze said. "Their words are final and whatever religious leaders tell their congregations is taken as truth."

While religious leaders living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda still face discrimination, Amori believes the situation has improved. "In the past, because of stigma, we’ve had religious leaders dying in silence," he said.

Byamugisha recalled how some of his congregants had refused to accept communion from him after he first announced his status.

Some of the religious leaders belonging to UNERELA are open about their HIV status with their family members and those close to them, but have still not disclosed to their congregants.

Recognising that it takes time for people to come to terms with their status, UNERELA allows new members to join the organisation as religious leaders affected by HIV/AIDS without having to disclose their own status.

Balubenze, however, now tries to be as public as possible about his status - even ensuring that his ARVs are delivered to his home in a well-marked car from The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO), a local nongovernmental organisation providing HIV/AIDS services.

He would like to see more religious leaders living openly with the virus. "If there is enough sensitisation and medicine," he said, "the time will come when we say, 'Once upon a time there was HIV/AIDS.'"

Source: PlusNews

Recent clashes between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) army and fighters from the mainly Arab Miserriya community have displaced hundreds of civilians from their homes and raised tension across Abyei, the governor of the region lying between the north and South Sudan, said.

"I have received reports of fresh attacks, four days after the 16 March attacks [in which] our men, the SPLA [Southern People’s Liberation Army], exchanged fire with the Miserriya 20km east of the Heglig oil field," Edward Lino, the SPLM-appointed governor, said in Juba on 23 March.

The latest clashes occurred on 20 March, barely three weeks after 70 people were killed in Al-Mayram township - an incident over which the two sides traded accusations. Another 75 people were killed in violent skirmishes in December 2007 and January 2008.

Lino attributed the escalating tensions between the Miserriya and SPLM troops to the delay by the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and southern leaders in reaching a consensus on the demarcation of borders in the oil-rich Abyei region.

Local leaders in Abyei, however, accused the SPLM troops of crossing into northern villages and harassing civilians in villages like Makaire and Al-Na'ama as well as Luo in eastern Abyei.

Bishta Mohammad Salem, chairman of the committee on tribal reconciliation between the Miserriya and Dinka, said SPLM forces were present in the north and east of Abyei. The forces, he said, were harassing non-Dinka populations and undermining co-existence among communities in Abyei.

Denial

Denying the presence of SPLM troops in northern Abyei, Lino demanded the immediate disarmament of the Miserriya. "Who are the Miserriya? Where do they get tankers from? Who finances them and why do they operate with the utmost impunity?" he asked.

On 23 March, Southern Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit accused the NCP of using the Miserriya to try and push the border boundaries further south.

"Some people would want to use the Abyei dispute to trigger war in Sudan. Let them be told that Southerners will not provoke anyone but we deserve the right to defend ourselves if need arises," he said in an Easter message.

The SPLM would remain vigilant against any attempts to frustrate it in Abyei, Kiir said, calling on the Southern Sudanese to be wary of schemes to return the country to war.

Administrative vacuum

In January 2005 the SPLM signed a historic peace deal with the NCP to end more than two decades of war in the south. The parties later signed the Abyei protocol, but the region has experienced an administrative and political vacuum after disagreements over its status.

SPLM leaders say the NCP has ignored its proposals over Abyei because of oil revenues - estimated at US$529 million in 2007. The government in Khartoum denies the claims.

Addressing an SPLM convention in Juba on 16 March, Kiir warned that fresh fighting could resume in Abyei following a souring of relations between the Miserriya tribesmen and locals over cattle raids.

"I advise our people, the Ngok Dinka, to let the Miserriya nomads move south and graze their animals, but that does not mean that they occupy our land permanently and even attack our people through cattle raids. They must return to the north during the dry season," he said.

Lino said at least 200,000 people have been displaced by violence from Abyei, but only 60,000 had returned in the last three years. "We still have over 140,000 people displaced from Abyei [who see] insecurity as a reason not to return home," he told IRIN.

Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, special representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan, in a19 February report to the UN Security Council, warned that Abyei was a possible troublespot from which conflict could resume.

Abyei had emerged as "the biggest stumbling block between the two partners," he said.