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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 08-03-2001

PART #4/4 - From SOUTH AFRICA to ZIMBABWE

* South Africa. Suing the Government — 4 March: Nearly every major pharmaceutical company in the world is suing the government of South Africa in a case viewed as a landmark in the battle to get cheap AIDS medication to many of the world’s poorest countries. The more than three dozen companies argue that a 1997 South African law allowing the government to import or produce cheap, generic versions of patented drugs is too broad and unfairly targets drug manufacturers. They plan to ask the Pretoria High Court to invalidate the law in hearings beginning on 5 March. The government, AIDS activists and international human rights groups say the drug companies are trying to wring profits out of a public health nightmare that threatens to devastate South Africa and dozens of other impoverished countries. The case is about whether «the commercial interests of the companies or the human rights of the people who are trying to stay alive» is more important, said Belinda Coote, regional director of the relief agency Oxfam. More than 25 million of the 36 million people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa, one of the world’s most impoverished regions. In 2000, 2.4 million people in the region died from the effects of AIDS. These statistics, coupled with a perception that some drug companies care more about stopping the spread of generic drugs than the spread of HIV, have damaged the industry’s standing. 5 March: The presiding judge in South Africa’s landmark trial to determine whether the government can override pharmaceutical patents, throws the process into confusion by saying that the case might be outside his jurisdiction. Separately, it has emerged that the Southern Africa Development Community will for the first time meet the five companies that last year offered to slash the price of HIV drugs. The meeting, scheduled to take place on 24 March, will discuss an offer to cut the price of the life-saving drugs at the centre of the South African controversy by as much as 90 per cent. Thousands of protesters, who say the companies are putting patents before lives, march through the streets of Pretoria today. Demonstrations also take place in Cape Town and Durban. 6 March: The court case that saw the South African government in the dock, accused by the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies of violating their patent rights, has been adjourned to April 18. Bernard Ngoepa, the presiding judge at the Pretoria High Court, granted the postponement to give the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association of South Africa (PMA) time to reply to points raised by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), an AIDS activists group. 7 March: Merck, a leading US pharmaceuticals company, says it would offer Crixivan and Stocrin, its two anti-retroviral medicines, for $600 and $500 respectively per patient a year in the developing world. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 8 March 2001)

* Afrique du Sud. Procès sur les produits pharmaceutiques — Le 5 mars, s’est ouvert à Pretoria le procès très attendu de l’Association des industries pharmaceutiques contre l’Etat sud-africain. Cette action judiciaire conteste une clause d’une nouvelle loi sur les médicaments, permettant les importations parallèles et les achats de produits “génériques” (copies moins onéreuses) contre le sida par le ministre sud-africain de la Santé. Cette loi, promulguée fin 1997, n’est pas entrée en vigueur à cause de l’action en justice. Les grands groupes pharmaceutiques veulent protéger leurs licences. Les ONG s’insurgent contre des enjeux strictement financiers. Des milliers de manifestants ont défilé dans les rues de Pretoria pour l’accès aux médicaments, avec à leur tête l’archevêque catholique de la ville, Mgr George Daniel, et l’évêque anglican, David Beetge. - Le procès a été ajourné au 18 avril, après que le tribunal eut accepté d’entendre une ONG d’aide au sida qui plaidera la “justification”, en certains cas, de la violation des brevets. - Rappelons encore que le 28 février, le secrétaire général de l’Onu, Kofi Annan, ainsi que les responsables de la Banque mondiale et d’autres agences de l’Onu, ont annoncé leur intention de soutenir une campagne en faveur de l’accès aux médicaments génériques contre le VIH/SIDA dans les pays du sud. Le 7 mars, le géant américain de pharmacie Merck a annoncé qu’il envisage de nouvelles baisses de prix importantes pour ses médicaments antisida à destination de l’Afrique (une initiative, a reconnu son PDG, destinée à restaurer l’image d’une industrie pharmaceutique sourde aux souffrances de millions de personnes). (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 8 mars 2001)

* Sudan. One million without food, water — 1 March: «The factional fighting in southern Sudan could widen into a devastating famine unless the US intervenes diplomatically with rebel forces and others», Human Rights Watch says. In a letter to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Human Rights Watch calls on the Bush administration to use its influence with the southern factions to stave off the potential crisis. 7 March: Aid agencies say that as many as 1 million people are without food or water in southern Sudan after fleeing government-rebel fighting in the region. «A million people are living under the nightmare of extreme hunger and thirst,» Monsignor Cesare Mazzolari, a bishop in the region, tells the Catholic missionary news agency Misna in Rome. «These people are on the brink of death». The Bishop says the worst situation is in Bahr el-Ghazal in south-central Sudan, close to the border with the Central African Republic, where several people have already died of thirst and there is the threat of cholera and other diseases. He says fighting in the region in recent weeks has left many soldiers dead, and their poorly buried bodies threaten to contaminate the water supply when rains come. «The people are so weak from lack of food that they are facing a famine like that which occurred in 1998». Martin Dawes, UNICEF‘s spokesman for southern Sudan, says the United Nations is expecting a bad year in Bahr el-Ghazal, with 600,000 people in need of food aid. He adds that there has also been an upsurge of fighting in the region. «There are high numbers of people once again on the edge of disaster. A huge number of people are at risk. We’ve seen it before. We don’t want to see it again.» Dawes says the area of concern is not just confined to Bahr el-Ghazal but stretches into other southern regions like Equatoria and Western Upper Nile. «In some areas», he says, «people have no water and are surviving on liquid from cactus plants». (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 8 March 2001)

* Tanzania/Zanzibar. Killings and torture — Amnesty International is calling on the Tanzanian Government to establish an independent and impartial inquiry into the recent killings, systematic torture and mass arbitrary arrests of opposition party supporters in Zanzibar, during and after the demonstrations of 27 March 2001. Preliminary findings by an Amnesty International mission to Tanzania confirm reports of torture, including rape and beatings, as well as indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force against civilians, including women and children. (Amnesty International, 1 March 2001)

* Tanzania/Zanzibar. Speaker and the Opposition — Zanzibar’s House of Representatives, which has been taking a low profile in the island’s recent political affairs, has finally come out into the open. The House’s Speaker, Pandu Ameir Kificho, is now calling for the banning of the main opposition party, the Civic United Front (CUF). Kificho, who has branded the CUF as a terrorist group, has asked the registrar of political parties to determine whether the party still merits to have its name on the list of political parties. The Speaker has told a parliamentary committee on security, that the CUF is taking part in various law-breaking activities and that it is posing a threat to peace and national solidarity. He says the opposition party is sabotaging government’s developmental efforts and that is has failed to fulfil its political obligation of serving the masses. The Speaker’s step comes as a renewed effort by the government to take eliminate the opposition party from the political scene. (Sheen Musa, ANB-BIA, Zanzibar, 5 March 2001)

* Uganda. Coffee growing still lucrative — Ugandan coffee farmers still regard coffee growing as lucrative, unlike the middlemen who have fallen on bad times. According to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), farmers still get 75% of what is offered on the World market and it is one reason why coffee growing is expanding in Uganda. According to the UCDA Managing Director, Tress Buchanayandi, coffee expansion has grown by 30,000 ha in recent years in addition to the existing 272,000ha in the country. The expansion has mainly been in eastern and western Uganda. The UCDA has an ambitious $1.5m programme that in due time, will establish 500 nurseries with a national target of 22m plantlets. So far, farmers have bought 3m of these. In three years, coffee production in the country will have reached 6m bags. At the moment it is estimated around 4.5m bags. (Crespo Sebunya, ANB-BIA, Uganda, 1 March 2001)

* Ouganda. Présidentielle au 12 mars — 1er mars. L’élection présidentielle ougandaise, prévue le 7 mars, a été reportée au 12 mars, en raison d’anomalies dans les listes d’électeurs, a annoncé le 1er mars le président de la commission électorale nationale, M. Cassujja. Les listes électorales ont été affichées cette semaine, mais nombre d’Ougandais se sont plaints de ne pas y voir leur nom. Les six candidats au scrutin ont accepté ce report, a indiqué M. Cassujja. - 5 mars. Selon Human Rights Watch, des violences, des arrestations arbitraires et des actes d’intimidation risquent d’entacher la crédibilité du scrutin. L’organisation de défense des droits de l’homme estime que Yoweri Museveni, le président sortant, “essaie de remporter cette élection en brutalisant l’opposition” par la violence, les arrestations et les mesures d’intimidation. Les militants de Museveni ont également été victimes d’actes d’intimidation et d’agressions, mais à un niveau moindre, a précisé HRW. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 6 mars 2001)

* Uganda. Presidential election — 26 February: On 26 February, Uganda’s New Vision reported that President Museveni’s government is committed to holding free and fair elections. The following day, Kenya’s Daily Nation carried a story that the display of Uganda’s voters’ registers has begun, as controversy deepens over what critics say is a swollen voters’ register. 1 March: The presidential election has been postponed until 12 March. The National Electoral Commission says the delay will allow more time for the display of voting registers and the distribution of voting cards. The Commission also needs more time to check lists of eligible voters are up-to-date. The nominally pro-government daily The New Vision says all the candidates had complained to the Electoral Commission about irregularities, including the multiple registration of some individuals, the deletion from voting lists of others and the registration of minors. An official in President Yoweri Museveni’s campaign team is quoted as saying: «The registration of children and double registration were done deliberately by agents sympathetic to Kizza Besigye,» the main opposition candidate. Dr. Besigye’s team in turn complains that voters had been denied access to the voting registers. Opposition candidates have accused Mr Museveni’s team of pursuing a campaign of intimidation, using the police and armed forces, while it has hit back with its own accusations of abuse. The latter part of the election campaign also coincides with the start of the withdrawal of Ugandan troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo, prompting army commander Maj-Gen Jeje Odongo to «deny rumours that the troops are being withdrawn to impress the electorate in the looming polls», The Monitor reports. 5 March: Human Rights Watch says that serious human rights concerns in the lead-up to Uganda’s 12 March presidential elections, shed doubt on whether the election will be free and fair. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 6 March 2001)

* Zambie. Les religieuses critiquent le gouvernement — Des religieuses catholiques de l’Association zambienne des communautés religieuses (ZSA) et de la Conférence des supérieures de Zambie ont diffusé, début février, un manifeste pastoral qui reproche aux autorités zambiennes le déclin de l’enseignement et la situation déplorable des soins de santé dans les hôpitaux publics et autres établissements. Les religieuses reprochent aussi au gouvernement de ne pas vraiement s’employer à réduire la pauvreté dans le pays. La présidente de la ZSA, Sr Rose Doyle, a déclaré que les religieuses avaient décidé exceptionnellement de diffuser leur déclaration parce que le gouvernement zambien n’avait pas fait assez pour s’attaquer aux problèmes sociaux du pays. (ENI, Suisse, 28 février 2001)

* Zambia. Chiluba’s third term — A senior cabinet minister in Zambia has added his voice against amending the country’s constitution in order to allow President Frederick Chiluba to go beyond his mandated two five-year terms in office. In a press statement released on 5 March, Legal Affairs minister Vincent Malambo called upon Zambians to stand up in defence of the Constitution. He said that he regretted with sadness that a fundamental clause in the constitution limiting the office of the presidency to two terms was now being ejected through a partisan, non-inclusive process in which those who hold different views must be targets of violence. Malambo, a lawyer by profession, said the presidential term-limit was and still is one of the fundamental principles upon which the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) was founded and that nothing has happened since 1990 to change this view. Malambo becomes the fourth senior government official to reject calls to amend the constitution to allow Chiluba to seek a third term of office. Zambia’s vice-president Christon Tembo three days ago called upon Zambians to respect the Constitution clause which limits the office of the president to two terms. Tembo said the country should be governed according to constitutional provisions without personalising development in the country to one person. On 1 March, Zambia’s Education Minister Godfrey Miyanda, who is also the ruling MMD party vice-president, issued a statement to ask Chiluba to lift the ban imposed on party members wishing to campaign for the party presidency. He said there should be ground rules to the ongoing third term debate to guide the discussions in order for the nation to arrive at a credible conclusion. Chiluba last week sacked Local Government and Housing minister Ackson Sejani and Deputy minister for Home Affairs Edwin Hatembo who had campaigned against the third term at a MMD provincial election in Southern province a week ago which rejected the third term calls. (PANA, Senegal, 5 March 2001)

* Zambie. Famine chez les réfugiés — Plus de 250.000 réfugiés qui ont fui les combats en RD-Congo et en Angola, sont confrontés à la famine dans les six camps où ils sont hébergés en Zambie. Ils ont épuisé leurs vivres le 15 février. Le HCR a lancé un appel à la communauté internationale. Le ministre zambien de l’Intérieur, M. Machungwa, a indiqué que le gouvernement ne pouvait apporter une aide alimentaire aux réfugiés. “Nous avons déjà fourni des terres et nous protégeons les réfugiés des violents combats dans leurs pays. Pour l’aide alimentaire, le HCR doit s’adresser à la communauté internationale”, a-t-il déclaré. (D’après PANA, Sénégal, 6 mars 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Le président de la Cour suprême s’incline — Le président de la Cour suprême du Zimbabwe, Anthony Gubbay, a accepté de partir en retraite anticipée début juillet prochain (soit près d’un an avant la fin de son mandat), aux termes d’un accord conclu avec le gouvernement et rendu public le 2 mars. Cet accord met fin à une crise provoquée récemment par le refus de M. Gubbay de quitter ses fonctions sous pression des autorités, mécontentes de décisions de la Cour suprême notamment sur la réforme agraire et les occupations de fermes appartenant à des Blancs. L’accord pose comme conditions que les autorités ne feront quitter illégalement leurs fonctions à aucun autre juge. Ces derniers temps, elles avaient fait pression sur plusieurs magistrats pour qu’ils démissionnent. (La Libre Belgique, 3 mars 2001)

* Zimbabwe, State-organised violence — The fast wanning popularity of President Robert Mugabe’s administration which is now subject to persistent donor criticism due to the country’s increasing political unrest and chaotic economic environment, has seen the ruling ZANU-PF party resorting to all sorts of human rights abuses in an attempt to stifle growing opposition from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led Morgan Tsvangirayi. In an attempt to strengthen its position, the government is bolstering its security branches, especially the police, to suppress the campaign for change. But there are signs that the situation will keep growing tougher for 77-year old Mugabe. Human rights groups condemn his record of shocking human rights abuses involving ZANU-PF, war veterans and security forces. The Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims, the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, and Amani Trust —- a local rights watchdog organisation, charge that Mugabe’s record is littered with crimes against humanity. In their recently released report: «Organised Election Violence in Zimbabwe 2001», they condemn the violence surrounding the recent by-elections in Marondera west and Bikita west, where opposition supporters were harassed and tortured. (Editor’s note: The author od this report comes from Malawi. He is presently on a study visit to Zimbabwe, sponsored by the Namibia-based Media Institute of Southern Africa). (Hobbs Gama, ANB-BIA, Malawi, 5 March 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Visite de Mugabe en Europe — Le président zimbabwéen Robert Mugabe a été reçu, le 6 mars, à Paris par le président Chirac. La veille, il l’avait été à Bruxelles par le Premier ministre belge Verhofstadt. Ces visites ont été vivement critiquées en Grande-Bretagne et dans les rangs de l’opposition zimbabwéenne, qui les a appelées “une gifle pour tous les Zimbabwéens”. La Belgique et la France voient cependant en Mugabe l’une des clés à la solution du conflit en RD-Congo. A Bruxelles, M. Mugabe a indiqué qu’il était disposé à retirer ses 12.000 soldats du Congo, à condition que le dialogue intercongolais empêche tout vide juridique à la tête de l’Etat. Toutefois, la situation intérieure au Zimbabwe a également été évoquée au cours de ces entretiens. M. Chirac a notamment “souhaité que la voie du dialogue sans exclusive, au Zimbabwe comme ailleurs, permette de trouver des solutions dans le respect du droit”. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 7 mars 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Mugabe in Europe — 5 March: The European Commission said today it would launch a political dialogue over human rights with Zimbabwe, its first initiative with the Harare government since President Robert Mugabe began his crackdown on civil rights seven months ago. The dialogue was agreed after Poul Nielson, commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, had been invited to lunch by Mr Mugabe who was on the first leg of a trip that will also take him to Paris. The Commission issued a short, vague statement saying the conversation «covered the main themes in a frank and open way». It added that the dialogue would be anchored on Article 8 of the Cotonou Agreement, which governs the European Union’s relations with its partners in the African, Pacific and Caribbean regions. In particular, Article 8 contains a three-month deadline for completion of the dialogue. However, a Commission spokesman said no timetable for the dialogue had been set. «It will be an open ended dialogue that will cover all the topics related to human rights.» Some EU officials admit they have little leverage over Mr Mugabe. EU aid is only about E10m ($9m) a year and, besides, any sanctions would hit the poorest. Later Mr Mugabe met Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian prime minister, and Louis Michel, foreign minister and deputy prime minister. Belgium, the former colonial power of the now Democratic Republic of Congo, says it wants to stabilise the regime of Joseph Kabila, its president, by liaising with all the country’s neighbours in a bid to implement the UN-sponsored Lusaka peace accord. But Mr Mugabe told his Belgian hosts that Zimbabwe wanted to withdraw its troops. The problem was that an early retreat would «leave a military and political vacuum in Kinshasa», he is reported to have said. Mr Mugabe also insisted he had no intention of expelling foreign journalists. «Contrary to rumours upon my return to Harare there will no such expulsions,» he told the Belgians. 6 March: Today, France’s President Jacques Chirac stepped up French efforts to help bring an end to the long-running conflict in the Great Lakes region by holding talks with President Mugabe in Paris. French officials stressed the decision to meet Mr Mugabe was in no way intended to boost the Zimbabwean leader’s credibility at a time when the opposition and independent judiciary were under attack. «After weighing the pros and cons of a meeting it was decided to go ahead against the background of there being some new movement in the Democratic Republic of Congo,» said an official. (Financial Times, UK, 6-7 March 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Deteriorating situation — 1 March: As Zimbabwe’s white chief justice steered his Mercedes towards the gates of the supreme court on 1 March, he did not know if the policeman on guard would admit him or arrest him. As it turned out, the officer saluted, the gates swung open and Anthony Gubbay — a Manchester-born lawyer described as quiet and even timid by colleagues — reluctantly found himself leading the struggle to defend the last arm of state prepared to defy President Robert Mugabe. The government tried to sack Mr Gubbay as the supreme court’s chief justice earlier this week after months of vilifying him as a racist because he oversaw rulings which found Mr Mugabe’s wholesale redistribution of white-owned farms, and other misuses of power, illegal. Mr Gubbay had already agreed to take early retirement in June but the government wants him out of the way before then. He stands in the way of a grand plan to purge the hierarchy of Zimbabwe’s judiciary — including the entire supreme court and much of the high court — to ensure that the government gets its way over the land seizures and that the ruling party, ZANU-PF, retains power. Zimbabwe’s justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, had told Mr Gubbay to vacate his office by 1 March. But the chief justice went to work anyway, and forced Mr Mugabe to seek another way to seize control of the judiciary. The same day, the British Government says it will withdraw a team of military advisers and trainers from Zimbabwe because of the deteriorating situation there. 2 March: The EU‘s Development Commissioner, Poul Nielson, will receive President Mugabe in Brussels on 5 March. He will also be received by Belgium’s Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt the same day. The next day, he will be received by France’s President Chirac in Paris. Chief Justice Gubbay agrees to take early retirement on 1 July after extracting an assurance from the government that it would not embark on an immediate purge of the judges. The deal was signed several hours after Mr Gubbay received a visit from one of the leaders of the war veterans, Joseph Chinotimba, who openly threatened him with violence. 4 March: Gunmen shoot and kill the mother of a farmer murdered last year at the start of President Mugabe’s campaign to seize white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks. 5 March: The police have launched a manhunt for the killers of the woman. The five remaining white judges have been threatened with violence by Chenjerai Hunzvi, leader of Zimbabwe’s war veterans, unless they surrender their posts immediately. 7 March: Zimbabwe’s Justice Minister insists that media reports that judges in his country have been intimidated and that the rule of law is under threat, are «pure fabrication». (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 8 March 2001)