On the run – again. Residents of Abyei have been displaced numerous times in the past three years

SUDAN: Rains aggravate plight of displaced

Photo: Tim McKulka/UNMIS

On the run – again. Residents of Abyei have been displaced numerous times in the past three years (file photo)

NAIROBI, 27 May 2011 (IRIN) – Seasonal rains are among several factors to have exacerbated the crisis sparked by the sudden flight of tens of thousands of civilians from the disputed Sudanese region of Abyei, say aid workers, who point to both short- and long-term repercussions.

“Most of the roads in Southern Sudan are not passable during the rains and so that will make the movement of food difficult,” World Food Programme (WFP) spokeswoman Amor Almagro told IRIN.

This is the second large-scale exodus from Abyei in as many months. In March, some 25,000 people fled the town amid clashes.

Earlier in the year, WFP had prepositioned some 27,000MT of food in Southern Sudan in anticipation of the rains, as part of plans to feed up to 1.5 million people in 2011.

“With what is happening in Abyei now, we will have to consider moving some 2,000MT of food from our logistical hub in El Obeid [North Sudan] to an operational base we are setting up in Wunrok in [Southern Sudan] Warrap state,” said Almagro.

“We have seen thousands of people – mainly women and children – carrying bags on their heads, or sitting on mats on the side of the road, exhausted by hours of walking. The populations of both Abyei and Agok [40km to the south] have been displaced and are spread out in several different areas: near Turalei, near Mayen-Abun and on the road to Agok,” said MSF head of mission Raphael Gorgeu.

“There are severe signs of dehydration among many children who are on the move. We are very concerned about the harsh conditions the displaced population has to endure on the roads. Their health condition can deteriorate rapidly if assistance is not delivered promptly,” he added.

The International Organization for Migration, which is among many agencies responding to the crisis, noted that “tracking and assessing the displaced population has been difficult because many people are still on the move or are hiding in the bush. The continued heavy rainfall has made some roads impassable and this has impeded access to areas where IDPs may be sheltering.”

On 21 May, Khartoum government forces took control of Abyei town, after clashes with soldiers from the soon-to-be-independent south.

Straddling the border, Abyei is supposed to be under a form of joint administration until a referendum determines its permanent status. Delays in this landmark vote have heightened tensions in the region.

For Andrews Atta-Asamoah, senior researcher of the African Conflict Prevention Programme (ACPP) at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), the political priority now “is for the international community to insist that the North withdraws from Abyei and reinstate the Abyei Administrative Council. This will pave the way for the thousands of displaced people to return and for normality to resume.”

Food stability concerns

“Longer-term food stability is a major concern,” added Almagro. “This is the planting season and if people are not able to plant [because they are displaced] they will face shortages down the line and will require assistance for a much longer period of time than this lean season, when food from the previous harvest has run out.”

WFP had been supplying food to some 60,000 people in Abyei. Almagro said 800MT of food, enough to feed 50,000 people for a month, had been looted from the agency’s warehouse in Abyei town.

Photo: OCHA

Population movments in May 2011

Facilities run by other UN agencies and NGOs in the town have also been targeted. “Items looted include medical supplies, surgical equipment, non-food items and water and hygiene equipment. These supplies had been dispatched to Abyei town in recent weeks to respond to urgent needs of the town residents and the rural population of surrounding villages,” the UN Country Team in Sudan stated.

The displaced need urgent assistance, the statement added. “In Turalei, 130km from Abyei town, 15,000 displaced people are living in the open. An additional 4,000 people have sought safety in near-by Mayen Abun village. Unknown numbers are believed to have fled into the bush between Agok and Turalei.”

While an emergency response in sectors such as shelter, food, health, nutrition and water and sanitation is accelerating, “there are concerns that fuel is short and that nearby airstrips may become unusable due to heavy rains”, the statement added.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), “two out of three main [fuel] supply routes from the north into the south have been blocked since the beginning of May.

“A key priority for partners has been to establish the whereabouts of people who have fled to enable delivery of assistance. As of 26 May, humanitarian partners estimate that more than 30,000 people have made their way south. Reports of new arrivals continue,” OCHA’s statement added.

It also noted that while no outbreaks of communicable diseases had been reported as of 26 May, “there are concerns that the wet weather conditions increase the incidence of illnesses such as respiratory infections and water-borne diseases”.

am-cp/mw source www.irinnews.org

Foreign Minister Støre presents Norwegian position at EEA Council meeting

In connection with a meeting of the EEA Council in Brussels recently, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre informed the EU of Norway’s position on the EU’s Third Postal Directive.

“There are weighty grounds for why Norway is unable to incorporate this directive. For the Government it is important to maintain mail distribution six days a week, uniform postage rates and decent working conditions and pay for Posten Norge’s employees. There is justified doubt as to whether the Third Postal Directive would provide for this,” said Foreign Minister Støre.

“I took the opportunity to present Norway’s view at this meeting of the EEA Council. The EU took note of Norway’s position and invited us to talks to discuss our objections. We have accepted this invitation,” said the Foreign Minister, adding that he anticipated that such talks could start before the summer.

 
By the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Duty Press Officer:May 23 2011
E-mail<mailto:info@mfa.

AMISOM-backed government troops have intensfied their offensive against Al-Shabab insurgents

SOMALIA: Internet lifeline cut in Mogadishu

Photo: Siegfried Modola/IRIN

AMISOM-backed government troops have intensfied their offensive against Al-Shabab insurgents (file photo)

NAIROBI,  – Telecommunications companies based in Somalia’s largest open-air market have been hit by stray shells in the latest round of fighting, leading to internet failure in the past four days.

“Our internet service has been down since 24 May,” a senior official of an internet service provider, who requested anonymity, told IRIN on 26 May.

The official said many people’s livelihoods depend on internet use; “for many businesses and journalists, the internet is their lifeline”.

He said his company was trying to revive the service. “We depend on the telecoms companies and when they get hit we are also hit.”

A local radio journalist told IRIN he was unable to send his reports to his station based outside the country. “It is very frustrating.”

The three major telecommunications companies, Nationlink, Hormood and Olympic, have their most important equipment at Bakara market, which has been a flashpoint in the fighting between insurgents and government troops backed by African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) peacekeepers in the past two weeks.

“When we were setting up, in the 1990s, Bakara market was the safest place but now it is the most dangerous,” another official of a telecommunications company said.

The official told IRIN the headquarters of Hormood – the largest telecommunications firm in the country – in Bakara had been repeatedly hit by shells, killing and injuring staff and destroying equipment.

“It is not easy for us to move the equipment we have here, so we are caught in the middle of a war zone,” the official said.

In the past eight days, government and AMISOM troops have intensified an offensive to dislodge Al-Shabab insurgents who control Bakara market and parts of the city.

AMISOM spokesman Maj Paddy Ankunda told IRIN on 27 May that the mission was urging civilians not to expose themselves to crossfire.

“We have secured the road nearest Bakara as well as the southern and western edges of the market; I cannot put a time tag on how long the fighting will go on but we are urging civilians to get out of entanglement [in the fighting] as they will become increasingly vulnerable,” Ankunda said.

“About 80 percent of civilians [in Al-Shabab-held areas] have left for areas controlled by the government because of insecurity; if Al-Shabab chooses to continue fighting, they will bear the responsibility for the damage caused to Bakara market,” Ankunda said.

Appeal for help

The Hormood official said business people in Bakara had appealed to the government to save what was left of the market.

“We can talk to the government but we cannot talk to the insurgents,” the official said.

However, another businessman who has operations in Bakara told IRIN he supported the continuation of the offensive against Al-Shabab.

Photo: Mohamed Amin Jibril/IRIN

AMISOM has urged civilians not to expose themselves to crossfire (file photo)

“They [government forces and AMISOM] are making progress and are close to the market; they should continue until they dislodge Al-Shabab,” the businessman said.

He said many other business people were in favour of the offensive even though they would not admit it: “We are all aware of the cost and I am sure once this is over we will recover but they [Al-Shabab] must be eliminated at any cost.”

Traders have been leaving the market due to the intense fighting and have moved their wares to other parts of the city, a local journalist said.

“Most of the people have left the market; only those who could not leave like these big telecom companies are still there,” the journalist, who declined to be named, said.

However, the majority affected are poor civilians who buy what they need on a daily basis, the journalist added. “They don’t have the means to buy in bulk and store at home.”

Civilian casualties

Ali Mohamed Siyad, chairman of Mogadishu’s Bakara market traders, told IRIN the latest fighting around the market had been among the worst in years.

“A lot of businesses are being lost and the government, so far, has not responded to our appeal to safeguard Bakara,” Siyad said, adding, “Many people are losing a lifetime’s worth of work.”

Siyad said Bakara was not the only place where Al-Shabab had a presence in the city. “They [government troops] should be fighting them in areas less crowded and with less property to damage and destroy, instead of the biggest market in the country. It makes you wonder what the real purpose is.”

Medical sources told IRIN the number of injured seeking help was growing daily.

Ali Muse, who runs the city’s ambulance service, told IRIN his teams had collected 75 bodies and more than 249 civilians wounded from the market area and nearby neighbourhoods in the past eight days.

“We are receiving many families, including very small children and those of school-going age,” said Duniyo Ali Mohamed, head of the medical department of Madina Hospital.

She said the beds at the hospital were full and many families were sleeping under trees. She said the hospital also had to deal with families fleeing their homes.

“We are not equipped to deal with displaced people,” she said.

She said the hospital’s generators were working 24 hours a day “and fuel consumption was increasing as the prices are rising. If our fuel situation does not improve we may not be able to help those who need operations.”

ah/mw source www.irinnews.org

“Biomedical strategies can only have a limited impact if MSM live in fear, live hidden or have limited access to safe and effective clinical care”

SOUTH AFRICA: MSM still sidelined in HIV programming

Photo: Mujahid Safodien/PlusNews

“Biomedical strategies can only have a limited impact if MSM live in fear, live hidden or have limited access to safe and effective clinical care”

CAPE TOWN, 27 May 2011 (PlusNews) – South African men who have sex with men are twice as likely to be HIV-positive as heterosexual men, but spending on research, prevention and treatment for this group remains low, delegates at a conference on MSM and HIV in Cape Town heard.

“We see HIV incidence rates for MSM continue to increase in all studied countries; we must advocate for more research,” Linda-Gail Bekker, deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, said in a statement.

Bekker called for the introduction of specific HIV packages tailored to the needs of particular groups, including one for MSM.

Studies show that the risk of contracting HIV during anal sex is 18 times higher than during penile-vaginal sex.

According to research whose results were revealed at the conference, held on 23-25 May, more than one in 20 men taking part in the survey reported consensual participation in a sexual act with another man and MSM were twice as likely to be HIV-positive as their heterosexual peers.

The survey of 1,737 men – conducted by South Africa’s Gender Health Research Unit (GHRU) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces – also revealed that MSM were more likely to be poorly educated and suffer from food insecurity than non-MSM. Across the board there was no difference between the various race groups in South Africa.

“MSM are at risk [of HIV] because of the nature of their activities, which is underground,” said Kristin Dunkle, co-author of the study and assistant professor of behavioural sciences at the Emory Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta.

The term MSM refers to men who engage in sexual activity with other men but who may also have sex with women; they do not necessarily consider themselves to be homosexual. MSM are considered to be a bridging population for HIV into the general population.

Three-quarters of the study participants who reported being MSM had a female partner; one-third had a male partner; 20 percent had both and half those questioned had children. One in 10 MSM had also been sexually assaulted by another man.

According to Glenn de Swardt, director of the Cape Town-based Health4Men, which established the first clinic in Africa dedicated to MSM, gay people have a sense of identity that is formed through their sexuality, while MSM often view themselves as heterosexuals who take part in same-sex sexual acts purely for pleasure.

No one really wants to talk about anal sex and what is the safest way to practise it, even though the risks associated with it are huge

“Hidden group”

“Men who engage in this activity try to keep it a secret from most people in their communities; they are a hidden group in our society,” he told IRIN/PlusNews.

“No one really wants to talk about anal sex and what is the safest way to practise it, even though the risks associated with it are huge,” he added. “For instance, in the townships people use substances like butter, margarine and cooking oil as a lubricant when having anal sex, but these substances are harmful to condoms.

“We are trying to get the message out there that water-based lubricants need to be used, but then the question for most people is, where do you get it?”

Training health workers

Delegates were told one of the main barriers MSM encountered when trying to seek HIV-related care was the attitude held by many medical and healthcare providers who were not trained properly to deal with this group.

Nelis Grobbelaar from the public health NGO, Anova Health Institute’s West Coast Winelands Project, said his experience of training health professionals was that they were initially uncomfortable talking about sex to their patients.

“When we started some of the MSM sensitivity training, the clinic staff were very clearly very opposed to the idea of [homosexual] sex and were not comfortable talking openly with their patients about their sexual practices,” he said. “Through MSM training we are changing people’s minds – not just about homosexual sex but about sex in general.”

Stefan Baral of the Centre for Public Health and Human Rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health noted that HIV prevention strategies needed to happen in a stigma-free environment.

“Biomedical strategies can only have a limited impact if MSM live in fear, live hidden or have limited access to safe and effective clinical care,” he said.

bc/kr/mw source www.irinnews.org

Norway aligns itself with extended EU restrictive measures against Syria

 “The situation in Syria is deteriorating. This means that even stronger reactions are required from the international community. Norway has therefore decided to align itself with the EU’s strengthened measures against Syria, which now also target the highest level of political leadership in the country,” Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre commented.

On 23 May, the EU decided to extend the restrictive measures against Syria adopted on 9 May to the highest level of leadership in Syria. The measures include an assets freeze, visa ban and an embargo on exports to Syria of arms and equipment that could be used for internal repression.

The demonstrations in Syria are continuing, and dozens of protesters lost their lives at the weekend. Several hundred people have been killed in the demonstrations that began in the middle of March, and many more have been injured or arrested.

“Norway deplores the continued use of violence by the Syrian authorities,” Mr Støre said. “We urge the Syrian authorities to end the use of violence against protesters immediately, to allow peaceful demonstrations, release political prisoners and enter into dialogue with the opposition. For every person killed, the chances of this happening diminish further. President Assad must either lead the transition to democracy or step down.”

 
By the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Duty Press Officer:May 23 2011

Preparing for more migrants: The inhospitable terrain in Western Chad

CHAD-LIBYA: Agencies prepare for more migrants

Photo: Kate Holt/IRIN

The inhospitable terrain in Western Chad

DAKAR, 25 May 2011 (IRIN) – As thousands of Chadian returnees continue to cross from Libya into Chad – via Niger – villagers near the arrival points face a “double burden” with remittances drying up and their scarce resources overstretched, said International Organization for Migration (IOM) operations officer Craig Murphy.

Some 25,000 Chadians have returned since the conflict in Libya began, according to IOM. Most arrive in the small village of Zouarké, 600km northwest of the town of Faya from where returnees find transport to return to their home villages and towns.

There are now many more migrants than residents in Faya, which is usually home to 15,000, said Felix Léger, head of the NGO International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Chad.

Though no one can estimate how many more migrants are on their way, according to Murphy 1,566 turned up in Faya in just two days – on 23 and 24 May – and there is no sign of the number abating.

While the immediate concern is to get food, water, and health care to returnees, in the long term they will need assistance in finding work, said Murphy. “It [the influx of returnees] puts a strain on all these towns – a lot of them are dependent on remittances and those have dried up. Now they have to support them, which is a double burden,” he told IRIN.

IOM is starting by profiling migrants to assess what they did and what they earned in Libya, with a view to perhaps assisting them in re-starting work in Chad, said Murphy.

According to IOM, 90 percent of the returnees are young men who have worked for years as manual labourers, farmers, and guards in Libya; the rest are women and children.

Tensions have risen in Zouarké, usually home to just a couple of hundred people, where there is one well which must now serve thousands. Murphy saw 1,000 people trying to access the well in one day. 

Photo: Reliefweb

Measles

Following arduous journeys of about 30 days with minimal food or water on overloaded trucks, migrants arrive in Zouarké and Faya exhausted, hungry and sick. Common illnesses include advanced dehydration; respiratory illnesses; diarrhoea; and about 20 cases of measles – mainly among adolescents and children, according to IRC.

To stem the spread of measles, the organization will launch a one-week vaccination campaign in Faya targeting 10,000 people. It also screens incoming migrants for health problems, sending them to the local hospital if they need treatment.

Due to severe staff shortages at the hospital, IRC has put in place one doctor and two nurses.

In the immediate term, in Zouarké, IOM is sending food, and will set up a water tank to enable returnees to access well-water from a second point. Meanwhile, in Faya it is registering returnees, providing food, and helping find transport so they can return home.

Migrants in Faya are receiving more or less enough help, said the IRC’s Léger, but the response must be scaled up in Zouarké and along the roadside in Niger – both before migrants arrive in Chad and once they have left Faya, he said, adding that IRC is considering setting up medical “way stations” on busy migrant routes.

aj/cb

source www.irinnews.org

Electrocution: Family cries foul

BY   DICKENS WASONGA.

 
A FAMILY of a nine-year old school boy who was electrocuted at Manyatta Estate in Kisumu has faulted the Kenya Power and Lighting Company for not handling the case genuinely.
 
The victim identified as Bruce Omondi, a class four Pupil at Migosi Primary school, reportedly sustained severe injuries in both arms when he was electrocuted by an electricity wire which was hanging near their house at Corner Legion in Manyatta when the incident occurred early three weeks ago.
 
He is now undergoing treatment at the New Nyanza Provincial General Hospital where his four fingers from the left hand has been amputated following the incident that almost claimed his life.
 
The electricity wire reportedly hanged after the pole was tilted to the ground following a heavy down pour witnessed in the area at the time of the incident on May 9 this year.
 
Speaking to the press in Kisumu yesterday to explain the family predicament, Maurice Onono who is the elder brother to the victim said efforts  to have the Kenya Power and Lighting to help them over the incident has bore no fruit at all.
 
Onono said the Kenya Power and Lighting Company should admit liability and compensate the boy who is a total orphan.
 
He said he went back to the KPLC Kisumu regional office in a bid to pursue the matter but without success after reporting to office.
 
When contacted to comment on the matter, Western Kenya KPLC Regional Manager Eng. Jared Othieno said the matter had not been brought to his attention but instead referred the press to his deputy who is based in Kisumu.
 
The Deputy western Kenya KPLC Michael Adhiambo could not be reached for comments as his cell phone was switched off.

Meanwhile, Kisumu Town West Member of Parliament John Olago Aluoch wants Kenya Power and Lightning Company to admit a liability following the incident.

In a letter addressed to KPLC Managing Director Eng.Joseph Njoroge, the MP, a lawyer by profession says, “you failed and or ignored to keep live power transmission wires away from contact with the public with the tragic outcome that a minor came into contact with the same causing near fatal injuries that have left him paralyzed.

The legislator lamented that even after the onlookers alerted both the police and KPLC’s emergency crew, who came to the scene, no action had been taken by the company..

In his letter to the KPLC Managing Director, Olago concluded that, we regret to advise that if your admission of liability will not have been received within 15 days from May 17, we will have no option but to file appropriate common law proceedings against you.

END:

Public sector: Striking essential workers, including health workers, have been fired

BOTSWANA: Public sector strike hurts poor

Photo: WHO/Paul Garwood

Striking essential workers, including health workers, have been fired

GABORONE, 25 May 2011 (IRIN) – Patients and schoolchildren are emerging as the biggest losers from a strike by public service workers in Botswana which is entering its sixth week.

Close to a 100,000 public servants, including about 1,500 considered essential workers, are staying away from their posts while government and unions tussle over salaries.

Medical practitioners have disregarded warnings by the Botswana Health Professions Council to go back to work or risk being deregistered – with the result that major health centres like the Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital in Francistown and Princess Marina Hospital in the capital, Gaborone, are barely functioning, and smaller clinics have closed completely.

Maria Bogadi, 24, is expecting her second child any day and is unsure where to go when her labour pains begin.

“What will I do if there is no one to attend to me at the hospital?” she said. “I cannot afford to go to a private clinic, they are very expensive.”

Bogadi and her husband usually survive on the small income they receive doing casual labour at public facilities through a government initiative called `Ipelegeng’ which provides limited employment to some 50,000 beneficiaries. While Bogadi’s husband continues to do work through the programme, he has not been paid since the strike began.

Winfred Rasina, an activist from the opposition Botswana Movement for Democracy, told IRIN the poor and the marginalized had been hardest hit by the disruption of public services.

“The projects meant for the poor such as `Ipelegeng’ are at a standstill because staff… are on strike,” she told IRIN.

Rasina added that the rich and middle classes were less affected because they were not dependent on government handouts and mostly used private schools and doctors.

When the strike action started on 18 April, it was meant to last only 10 days, but the government said it could not afford unions’ demands for a 16 percent wage increase and offered 5 percent. That figure has now been revised to 3 percent.

In a public address, President Ian Khama slammed union leaders for failing to appreciate that the country was recovering from a recession which had left the government with a significant deficit.

“You cannot give what you don’t have, that is a fact,” said Khama. “We should all be in this together and I have no intention of drawing out this painful recession any longer than it has to be. So I am afraid we have stood our ground and we will continue to stand our ground.”

Schools shut

The minister of education closed all public, primary and secondary schools indefinitely on 16 May following violent clashes between the police and students who were protesting about the absence of teachers in classrooms.

Later that day, the government announced that it had fired all essential workers who had refused to return to work in contempt of a court order that barred them from striking, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists already in short supply at public hospitals.

The Botswana Centre for Human Rights (Ditshwanelo) released a statement noting that the stalemate between government officials and union leaders had already led to the loss of lives due to the absence of adequate medical staff at health facilities.

Delays in the supply of medication and problems with waste collection caused by the strike have also had an impact on public health.

The Botswana Confederation of Commerce, Industry and Manpower (BOCCIM) said the protracted strike had also had a negative impact on the economy, causing serious cash flow problems for many companies that relied on government orders for goods and services.

“Businesses in all categories and sectors have experienced, in general, a slow growth period,” said the Confederation in a statement.

“We’ve had some instances where BOCCIM business members indicated that they may close shop within a month if the situation does not subside.”

vs/ks/cb source www.irinnews.org

Rumbling volcano: A top shot of one of Taal Volcano’s several craters

PHILIPPINES: Villages wait out rumbling volcano

Photo: Jason Gutierrez/IRIN

A top shot of one of Taal Volcano’s several craters

TAAL VOLCANO ISLAND, 25 May 2011 (IRIN) – Along with many other residents, father-of-two Chris Pornea has refused to leave his home in the coastal village of San Isidroon on Taal Volcano Island, ignoring a deep rumbling sound within the mountain that has been threatening to explode for more than a month.

Pornea is one of 3,000 residents who have lived for generations in the volcano’s shadow, mostly as farmers, subsistence fishermen, or as guides for the tourists that visit regularly.

“We can’t just leave the volcano. This is our home,” the 36-year-old told IRIN, as he tended his small shop stocked with soft drinks and canned goods. “These are mostly sold to tourists, but with them gone, my small business is also failing.”

Just 60km outside the capital Manila, Taal volcano is among the most powerful and destructive of the country’s 23 active volcanoes.

The 23 sqkm volcano island is famous for its unique crater lake, although the island itself lies inside a bigger lake formed from past volcanic explosions.

For years, tour operators have taken visitors to the area, with many resorts around the island specializing in outdoor activities, injecting much-needed revenue into the local economy.

Rumblings

Taal has erupted about 33 times since the 15th century, the deadliest occasion in 1911, when wave surges wiped out entire lakeshore villages, and ash fell as far away as the capital. It also killed more than 1,300 people.

Its last major eruption was 34 years ago, although villagers were quick to evacuate then and no-one was killed.

But despite the island’s designation as a “permanent danger zone” (PNZ), local authorities have failed to convince residents to permanently abandon the island.

Photo: Jason Gutierrez/IRIN

Menfolk on the Taal Volcano Island while their afternoon away by talking about their future

However, renewed rumblings since April have forced the government to move to the second of a five-step alert system, meaning magma and steam were creeping up the volcano’s crater ahead of a possible eruption. Many of the island’s 7,000 permanent residents left voluntarily.

All tourists were banned, and pregnant women, children and the elderly among the island’s population joined a voluntary evacuation. The rest, like Pornea, opted to stay despite the apparent dangers.

On 25 May, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) reported four instances of seismic activity on the island in 24 hours, while its crater lake continued to emit carbon dioxide and steam.

“Air with a high concentration of toxic gases can be lethal to humans, animals and even cause damage to vegetation,” the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDCC) warned one day earlier. “In addition… the entire volcano island is a permanent danger zone, and permanent settlement in the island is strictly not recommended,” it said.

But the residents, such as Peter Mangabuhat, 24, ignore the warnings. “These rumblings are normal for us. We are not scared. Why are they not allowing tourists here? You know it’s very easy to evacuate using our boats once there is an explosion,” said Mangabuhat, a third-generation resident.

“Look around us, there is nothing. Many of us rely on tourist money for our livelihood, but when they are gone, we will starve,” he said.

Asked what he would do if the volcano did suddenly erupt, he said: “I am confident it will not come to that. Taal loves its people.”

Municipal tourism officer Genalyn Barba is not surprised by such sentiments, noting that at alert level two, forced evacuations were not even possible.

“These people say they are used to the rumblings of Taal, but even then, we have contingency plans in case of a sudden eruption,” Barba said. “Our economy is severely affected, and we have lost a lot of tourism revenue. We are just waiting for volcanologists to declare the island safe, and we can lift restrictions to tourists.”

Up to 300 foreign and local tourists would normally visit the island daily, Barba said, adding: “These peoples’ lives are connected to Taal volcano. It gives us a lot of blessings, but we are perpetually at its mercy as well.”

fv/ds/mw source www.irinnews.org

Trafficking: Returning to the village can be tough

LAOS: Family pressures exacerbate trafficking

Photo: Contributor/IRIN

Returning to the village can be tough

VIENTIANE, 26 May 2011 (IRIN) – Trafficked girls have few prospects upon their return home and often the family can push them back into leaving, warn aid workers.

“We have to consider that often someone in the village convinces them to leave and sometimes it’s one member of the family. So the risk is that when they go back home they end up going back to Thailand again,” Isabella Tornaghi, empowerment and protection officer for the French NGO, Action for Women in Distress (AFESIP), told IRIN.

According to statistics from the International Organization for Migration, 145 human trafficking survivors were returned to Laos in 2010. The majority returned from Thailand and 119 of those were younger than 18.

The country is a source, and to a much lesser extent, a transit and destination country for women and girls who are subjected to trafficking, specifically forced prostitution, the US State Department’s 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report stated.

Tet* was 14 when she was promised a job in a Thai restaurant. “My friend said we should go but when we got there they took us to a factory to make gloves,” she said.

For the next two years Tet was forced to work in dire conditions. “If I failed to reach the day’s production quota I would receive no food or drink and was sometimes beaten.”

Unable to escape, it was only until another girl managed to run away that the authorities were informed.

After 12 months at a transit centre in Thailand, waiting for the judicial process to be completed, Tet returned to Laos.

Under a 2005 Memorandum of Understanding between the Thai and Lao governments, trafficking survivors are repatriated and housed in a government-run transit centre in the Lao capital, Vientiane, for up to seven days before returning to their communities.

At this point, NGOs such as AFESIP get involved to try to help the most vulnerable and offer rehabilitation.

“In our shelter we give medical, psychological and legal support to the girls. They have the possibility to choose some vocational training and we give some computer skills,” said Tornaghi.

AFESIP provides support to families while the girls are in the shelter, including supplying food and water and contributing to house repairs when necessary.

“It’s to avoid any pressure on the girl, who is expected to be working,” the aid worker said.

Tet spent six months in the AFESIP shelter and learnt to sew. But on her return to her village in southern Laos, the problems began.

“I fulfilled my dream of opening a small sewing shop but after three months there were no customers because people bought ready-made clothes.”

Xoukiet Panaya, the Laos coordinator of the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP), sees this as a pivotal moment in the reintegration process.

“After vocational training they might not be able to do what they wanted to and/or they could not manage their business. Sometimes they go back to Thailand and are re-victimized,” she said.

According to Keomany Soudthichak from the NGO Village Focus International (VFI), some families rely on income from their children, which is often more lucrative when trafficked than what they can earn in their community.

“She goes back home, opens a shop and the money from the business is not enough for the family. Everything that the family uses has to come from the money that she makes,” she said.

But Tet’s problems were not just confined to money. On return to her community she also faced possible stigmatization. “I met with my friends… they saw that other people were not talking to me so they thought I wasn’t a good person,” she said.

Such social stigma, according to Tornaghi, can also push women back again.

“But it is a result of a lack of knowledge, people just don’t have information about human trafficking and how traumatic it can be for the victim,” she said.

And while NGOs such as AFESIP, Village Focus International and World Vision are making inroads in creating a conducive reintegration environment for survivors and their families, the time spent apart can sometimes be too much.

“If they’ve been trafficked for a long time, of course they change. When she gets back she’s not the same person. That’s a hard thing for the family to accept and for her to accept the family,” Soudthichak explained.

*Not her real name

tf/ds/mw  source www.irinnews.org

Nordic ambassadors laud IITA research

Ibadan,Nigeria— The ambassadors fromFinland,Norway, andSwedenhave commended the quality of research and scientific professionalism displayed at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in fighting hunger and poverty in tropical countries.

The visit to IITA-West Africa inIbadan,Nigeriaby the diplomats further reinforced the imperative for agricultural research to address the challenges of food insecurity in tropical countries.

Her Excellency Anneli Vuorinen,Finland’s Ambassador toNigeria, said “The level of excellence and knowledge at IITA is extraordinary.”

Established in 1967, IITA is now one of the world’s leading research partners in finding solutions to hunger, malnutrition, and poverty.

Using the research for development (R4D) approach, the Institute works with partners to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture.

In over four decades of existence, the Institute has contributed to building the capacities of scientists in tropical nations, thereby helping to stabilize the national research systems especially those in sub-SaharanAfrica. Improved maize varieties released by the Institute today make up 60% of farmers’ preferred varieties in West andCentral Africa. “The biological control programs of the Institute against food crop pests saved cassava, a major staple inAfrica,” said Dr. Peter Hartmann, IITA’s Director General.

Norway’s Ambassador toNigeria, His Excellency Kjell Lillerud, said he was proud of his government’s support to IITA and the positive outcomes that research has had on the lives of people in the tropics.

 “I am happy my country is supporting IITA and I am impressed with the work here,” he said.

Among the areas visited by the ambassadors were the Institute’ Genetic Resources Center, which holds in trust for the world the largest collection of cowpea and other crops such as soybean, cassava, maize, yam, and banana, among others. The team also visited theBioscienceCenterand the IITA forest—one of the few surviving secondary forests in the West African region, where thousands of indigenous tree seedlings are being raised for reforestation.

The Swedish Ambassador toNigeria, His Excellency Per Lindgärde, who was instrumental in organizing the visit, said his country appreciated the positive impacts IITA’s work has had on food production inAfrica. “We see the value in the work IITA is doing and we will continue to give our support,” he said.

The visit provided the Nordic ambassadors and IITA Administration the opportunity to explore a broad range of development challenges.

END

Filed by Godwin Atser
Corporate Communications Officer (East & Southern Africa)

 
About IITA
IITA is an international non-profit R4D organization established in 1967, governed by a Board of Trustees, and supported primarily by the CGIAR. We work with partners in Africa and beyond to reduce producer and consumer risks, enhance crop quality and productivity, and generate wealth from agriculture. We develop agricultural solutions with our partners to tackle hunger and poverty. Our award winning research for development (R4D) is based on focused, authoritative thinking anchored on the development needs of tropical countries.

Foreign Minister Støre welcomes Azerbaijani newspaper editor’s release

“It was high time the prominent Azerbaijani newspaper editor Eynulla Fatullayev was released. This is very good news,” said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. “Mr Fatullayev has been imprisoned since 2007, and in 2010 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that he should be released.”
Azerbaijan has been heavily criticised for keeping Mr Fatullayev imprisoned and for failing to comply with the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights.
“I am very pleased that in pardoning Mr Fatullayev, Azerbaijan has taken an important step towards complying with the Court’s ruling. We have long been concerned about the human rights situation in Azerbaijan and have raised this issue on a number of occasions. We have also taken up Mr Fatullayev’s case,” said Mr Støre.
“I hope Mr Fatullayev’s release will be accompanied by similar progress in other cases, and that the situation as regards freedom of expression in the country will improve,” said Mr Støre.

 
By the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Duty Press Officer:Date:   May 27 2011

Prices: How much did you just say?

FOOD: Prices and perceptions

Photo: Siegfried Modola/IRIN

How much did you just say?

LONDON, 25 May 2011 (IRIN) – Banu Bibi’s shopping basket is becoming emptier. When she goes shopping in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she spends more than a year ago, but that money buys less. In 2010, for 134 taka (US$1.80), she could afford lentils and laundry soap, and the family’s favourite fish. This year she has to spend 185 taka ($2.50) just for the basics: more rice to make up for the lack of other food, and cheaper vegetables.

Banu Bibi lives in one of eight communities picked by a research team from the Institute of Development Studies in the UK to track the effects of rising food and fuel prices. For three years, with the help of partner organizations in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Zambia and Kenya, they have been talking to people in selected rural and urban communities about how rising prices affect their lives.

Banu Bibi’s experience is fairly typical. Her family is not starving; they still have food, but it is not the food they like and is not as nutritious as it could be. They certainly ate more and ate better before the food price shock and financial crisis of 2008. And across the world, homemakers are having to work harder, spending more time shopping or looking for food, and planning more carefully to stretch their budgets to feed their families.

A woman in Lango Baya, Kenya, spoke for many when she told the researchers: “You go to a shop to buy something with the same amount as you paid the previous day, only to be told that prices have risen.”

Although food and fuel prices did fall after the initial spike in 2008, they never went back to their previous levels, and this year they have jumped again. Only one of the four countries studied has experienced some respite this year – Zambia, where the price of maize, the staple food, has not increased.

Local locus

While the two previous studies concentrated on the mechanisms people used to cope with the rising prices, this time the researchers decided to ask some more political questions – why did people think prices were so high? Who was to blame? And what should be done about it?

“It was an interesting time, with the Arab Spring and unrest around the world, and we wanted to ask how people felt about the food and fuel price rises,” the research team leader, Naomi Hossain, told an audience at the University of Sussex, recently.

Her presentation coincided with the publication of a report into the global causes of rising prices by the British charity, Christian Aid. It analyzed recent movements on commodity markets, and concluded that much-vilified hedge funds were not the real culprits, instead singling out pension funds. They have very large pots of money, and have been pulling out of volatile stocks and shares and investing in funds linked to a basket of commodity prices, forcing fund managers to protect their positions by buying commodity futures on such a scale that they move the market.

But although commodity price rises are now an international phenomenon, extensively reported in the media, the people Hossain and her colleagues spoke to only looked for causes within their own country, citing hoarding and speculation, changing climate and environmental problems in their own area, and – overwhelmingly – their governments’ failure to care about the poor.

One interviewee in Bangladesh told them, “I don’t believe in this global market story at all. It is just an excuse for the government not to do anything.”

Hossain describes “a real failure of global civil society to get people to see how their livelihoods are connected to the global economy. I am not surprised people prefer local causes. It gives people a sense of agency; if it’s a global problem, then what can they do?”

Moral focus

But she has a certain sympathy for governments. There are more social protection schemes in place, for instance, than at the time of the first survey, despite governments having their budgets squeezed, but even so they get little credit.

Those who believe the government should “do something”, suggest banning exports, controlling prices, punishing hoarders and subsidizing basic foodstuffs. The researchers found a sense that it was the moral duty of a government to provide for its people, sometimes linked to notions of democracy. A woman in Kenya told them, “In the new constitution, we have the right to be provided [with] food by the government.”

The moral sense also extended to the business community. A rural doctor in Bangladesh said, “The businessmen should get some moral teaching. If they were afraid of Allah and conducted business honestly, the situation would improve.”

All in all, says Hossain, “There is a popular consensus about what is legitimate, about social norms and obligations. People set moral limits to the freedom of the markets.”

High food prices are not bad news for everyone. Another IDS research fellow, Xavier Cirera, pointed out that the rises followed a long period of low food prices, which had been very hard on farmers. “We always have to ask the question, what is the real price of food? And how can governments ensure better safety nets for the poor while ensuring that traders pass the benefits of price increases back to the producers? The evidence is that farmers are getting some benefit and are responding. But they are not realizing the full benefit of higher prices.”

eb/mw source www.irinnews.org

Many religious leaders believe condoms promote adultery

BURUNDI: Religious leaders’ resistance to condoms hurts HIV fight

Photo: Neil Thomas/IRIN

Many religious leaders believe condoms promote adultery

BUJUMBURA, 26 May 2011 (PlusNews) – Asha* is in a polygamous marriage, and while she would like to protect herself from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, the message from the preachers at her local mosque in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, is that condoms promote adultery.

“We can’t use condoms as a way of preventing AIDS in our community; only abstinence is preached in our mosques,” she said. “We [Muslims] are so exposed to the AIDS pandemic, especially because we believe in polygamy…”

The scholars at her mosque, in the predominantly Muslim suburb of Buyenzi, are keen to participate in the fight against HIV, caring for HIV-positive people and orphans in their communities and even encouraging HIV testing before marriage, but according to Asha, this advice is flawed.

“I can take HIV tests but the problem is that I can’t know that the other wife of my husband has done it or will do it; I have no right to tell her to do so,” she said. “How do you [protect yourself from HIV] when… subjected to the constraints of religion?”

Muslims make up about 10 percent of Burundi’s population; research is divided on the HIV risk posed by polygamy – some regional studies indicate that women in polygamous relationships are at higher risk of HIV, while others argue that “closed” polygamous relationships can actually protect against HIV as long as sexual relationships remain within the closed group. However, HIV policy-makers and implementers do agree on one thing – condoms should be an essential part of any effort to prevent HIV.

But Islamic scholars insist that condoms must be avoided at all costs. “Encouraging condoms in Islamic circles is a way of calling people to sexual debauchery,” said Secretary-General of the Islamic community of Burundi, El Hadj Nkunduwiga Haruna. “We ask people to be faithful and not to engage in sexual promiscuity as a means to fight AIDS.”

Poverty factors

According to Jolie*, a non-practising Christian, poverty was often a bigger consideration than religion or HIV prevention when choosing a spouse.

“With this poverty everywhere here in Burundi, if [a woman] gets a chance to get married to a rich man who happens to be a Muslim, she can’t refuse it… thoughts of AIDS come afterwards,” she said.

“It is difficult to convince a man who wants to marry, especially when he is rich, to do HIV tests,” she added.

Muslim scholars are not the only religious leaders firmly against condom use. Father Emmanuel Gihutu, a professor of philosophy at a seminary in Gitega, east of the capital, said: “It is unthinkable that people insist on condom use in schools and even among young children, rather than teaching them to [wait] before any sexual temptation.

We are so concerned about the AIDS pandemic, but we cannot teach Christians to engage in debauchery; that’s not our mission

“I was surprised when I was rector of the seminary during a training seminar in Gitega and we were told to go and teach our students to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS with condoms. Do you believe that as a spiritual personality we can teach such things?”

“We’re so concerned about the AIDS pandemic, but we cannot teach Christians to engage in debauchery; that’s not our mission,” said Father Evode Bigirimana, rector of the Marian shrine at Mount Zion in Bujumbura. “Encouraging the faithful to use condoms is a way to encourage them in a way to indulge in carnal acts.”

Members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church have similarly strong views on the subject. “Condoms are the satanic ways to fool the gullible that AIDS can be fought by the hoods,” said Cassien Sindaye, a member. “Our condom is the sixth commandment, which prevents us from adultery.”
 
Condoms “integral” to HIV prevention

However, according to INERELA+, a network of religious leaders living with or personally affected by HIV/AIDS, condoms must be an integral part of any realistic HIV prevention strategy.

“The implication that the use of a condom automatically marks a person as unable to be faithful fuels stigma and acts as a disincentive to evidence-based prevention,” the organization says in its prevention model, which involves safer practices such as abstinence and condom use, counselling and testing, and empowerment and education.

Local NGOs are urging religious leaders to rethink their stance on condom use.

“We ask them to change their language because it can prevent people from using condoms to protect themselves against AIDS, and I am sure among them [religious leaders] there are those in need of condoms,” said Baselissa Ndayisaba, coordinator of the NGO, Society for Women Against AIDS in Africa. “The condom is a tool to prevent AIDS and church teachings can have negative impacts on our work.”

*Not their real names

dn/kr/mw source www.irinnews.org

Governments Invest in planning

• By Thomas Ochieng(API Kenya)   

                                               
The Africa community of practice, a bilingual community of planners established in 2007 and made up of 2000 members from 42 African countries, meeting in Nairobi have come up with strategies to measure the results emanating from socio-economic planning in respective governments in the continent dubbed, Results for Africa by Africans.
 
The launch of the programme that encourages members of the body to use knowledge shared through the south-south platform in their daily works as governments across Africa. The Africa community of practice (Afcop) conducted a survey in 2010 where 85.4% of members indicated that the community was a useful and
relevant resource tool in achieving fundamental development results. The strengths and weakness of poverty reduction strategies in the continent have been identified and highlighted, in which experts have used the same in accelerating growth and development thus reducing poverty through citizen’s engagement in decision making processes.

 
Speaking during the launch of the Afcop general meeting 2011 and launch of the development measuring tool, the Co-chair of the body, Senegal Planning Minister Abdou Karim Lo, expressed his pleasure in the development of the continental initiative.
Africa planners need a proactive platform to share experiences and develop a tool that will measure results in governments throughout Africa; stressed the Minister. The 4th AGM of Afcop provided member states a tool for assessing progress made over past years which will be used to set targets and deliverables for the coming years. During the previous meeting last year in Dakar the community ratified the establishment of linkages both national and international, shifting individual capacity building to institutional capacity building, encouraging south to south capacity building and cooperation with regional economic blocs.

 
The host of the Nairobi meeting, The Kenya ministry of Planning through the directorate of monitoring and evaluation, head Mr Samson Machuka articulated the country’s commitment towards the Afcop initiative in harnessing planning by governments in a participatory manner that encompasses sharing of information in
South-South cooperation. The government and the planning ministry in entirety is delighted by the tireless work and dedication of the Afcop community in coming up with a measurement tool that is developed by Africans and for use by Africa; said the Director.
 
In bid to witness the results of proactive planning enspoused by the Afcop, delegates at the meeting were taken to a constituency known as Gatanga in Central Kenya, a success story of utilization of the development fund in the most prudent and effective manner countrywide, where development planning for the constituency development fund (CDF) is done through public participation to achieve its overall intended purpose.

Ends.