Weekly Round-Up - IRINSA-312: 15-Dec-06
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-Up 312
9 - 15 December 2006
CONTENTS:
MALAWI: Curing the symptoms not the cause
SWAZILAND: Media slammed for neglecting real issues - report
ZIMBABWE: Mugabe set to rule until 2010
ZIMBABWE: Pro-democracy protestors commend police for non-violence
BOTSWANA: The San can return home now
ZIMBABWE: Sick economy fuels growth of fake drug market
MADAGASCAR: Ravalomanana likely to win presidential election
MALAWI: Curing the symptoms not the cause
Emergency interventions to alleviate suffering during times of crisis,
such as the 2005 food shortages in Malawi, often cure the symptoms but
not the cause, the annual International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies World Disasters Report has warned.
The persistent and recurrent nature of many humanitarian disasters was
driven as much by chronic poverty and vulnerability as by natural
hazards, the report said, and called for the establishment of larger,
common, unearmarked emergency funds for neglected crisis situations and
sectors. Lack of funds to provide timely agricultural inputs in Malawi,
combined with pockets of chronic food insecurity, drove the numbers in
need of aid to almost five million in 2005.
See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56744
SWAZILAND: Media slammed for neglecting real issues - report
Despite Swaziland's humanitarian crisis, local newspapers are largely
ignoring issues such as poverty, food shortages and HIV/AIDS in favour
of reports about crime and bickering amongst political personalities,
according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA).
MISA's Media Monitoring Project report found that news stories were
largely restricted to covering one area of the country, poorly reflected
gender diversity, and that national politics dominated content with an
emphasis on gossip rather than substantive reportage on political or
governance issues.
See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56745
ZIMBABWE: Mugabe set to rule until 2010
Moves to extend President Robert Mugabe's tenure of office by two years
are being seen by civil society and opposition groups as a consequence
of the messy presidential succession battle being waged in the ruling
ZANU-PF party.
At its annual conference this week in the capital, Harare, ZANU-PF is
expected to confer an extension of office on the president - a post
Mugabe, 82, has held since 1980, when Zimbabwe gained independence from
Britain. In his opening address Mugabe warned delegates to keep their
"hands off" the presidency.
See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56746
ZIMBABWE: Pro-democracy protestors commend police for non-violence
More than 300 protesting Zimbabweans were arrested on Tuesday, but as
they braced for a repeat of the police crackdown at a similar gathering
two weeks ago, the group was unexpectedly and quietly released.
Over 800 members of Women Of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and Men Of Zimbabwe
Arise (MOZA) marched on Parliament in the capital, Harare, to launch the
'People's Charter', a declaration of political and economic rights, but
were met by riot police as they approached the parliament buildings.
Protestors feared the police would again turn violent: WOZA organised a
march two weeks ago in Bulawayo to bring attention to the charter, but a
crackdown by police brought the protest to an abrupt end.
See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56717
BOTSWANA: The San can return home now
After a hard-fought court battle - billed as the longest and most
expensive in Botswana's legal history - the San won the right on
Wednesday to return to their ancestral home in the Central Kgalagadi
Game Reserve in the Kalahari Desert.
The High Court of Botswana in Lobatse, about 70km south of the capital,
Gaborone, ruled that the San, also known as the Bushmen, had been
wrongfully evicted from their ancestral homeland in 2002.
The government intended setting aside the protected area for wildlife
and tourism development and began relocating the San outside the CKGR in
1997. Rights groups claimed that the San community was forcibly removed
from their ancestral land to make way for diamond exploration, while the
government maintained that the emphasis has always been on persuasion
and voluntary relocation.
See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56729
ZIMBABWE: Sick economy fuels growth of fake drug market
Zimbabwe's deteriorating health services have made room for a thriving
parallel market for drugs, many of them counterfeit, warn concerned
health professionals.
The sale of genuine as well as fake medicines on the streets was "big,
booming business," according to Dr Paul Chimedza, the president of the
Zimbabwe Medical Association (ZIMA). Drugs are much cheaper on the
parallel market, and among health professionals the overriding concern
is that there is no quality control of the drugs available on the
streets.
See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56690
MADAGASCAR: Ravalomanana likely to win presidential election
Provisional results show president Marc Ravalomanana has been re-elected
in what observers have generally considered free and fair elections.
Government projections gave Ravalomanana 54.80 percent of the
presidential ballot on 3 December, a comfortable lead that will allow
him to avoid a second round runoff. Jean Lahiniriko, the recently sacked
president of the National Assembly, was Ravalomanana's closest
challenger with 11.68 percent, and Roland Ratsiraka, Mayor of
Madagascar's second city, Toamasina, and nephew of former president
Didier Ratsiraka, came in third with 10.09 percent.
See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56699
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