Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 2 September 2010 — Page 20

Page 20 * The Muncie Times • September 2, 2010

A F R T C A N BRIEFS

other environmental rights group are furious over a U.N. report, whose partial contents wore leaked, that blames toxic oil spills in the Niger Delta primarily on poor Nigerians living in the highly polluted region. The 3 year old U.N. study received $9.5 million in funding from the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, with approval of the Nigerian government. ‘The report relies more on figures produced by oil companies and Nigerian state statistics than on community testimony and organizations on the ground who work with communities, wrote Nnimmo Bassey, chair ofFriends of the Earth in a press release. ing human rights and environmode, wrote that the findings were only “official estimates by the oil industry.” “They do not represent nor rent assessment process which is still ongoing. .. .UNEP wishes to assure all concerned that the assessdence, integrity

Shell's version of the facts.” Amnesty Inf 1 wrote: “The people of the Niger Delta have been lied to and denied justice for decades. The issue of oil spill causation is sensitive. If UNEP is going to comment on the cause of oil spills it should do so only on the basis of hard and credible evidence, not figures that are a source of conflict.” w/pixof N. Bassey South Africa Unions threaten wider walkout (GIN) - South Africa's biggest labor federation, Cosatu, this week rallied its members to join a strike by about 1.3 miland benefit issues. secondary sympathy strike in a press interview. Cosatu claims to have

luxury vehicles. This is Lebohang Pheko, a South African policy analyst, called the striking public workers’ demand for a pay hike and housing allowance justified. The current crisis is the outcome of years of delay in implementing promises of past years, she said. Meanwhile, the 250,000member National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union disputed government charges of violence by its members. “Striking workers exercising their legal rights have come under attack from police with intimidation, mbber bullets and arrests,” the union said. “The entire ! government continues to fail the poor South Africans by failing to provide the necessary leadership to resolve the impasse.” Media fears censorship under new govt, bill (GIN) - South Africa’s investigative reporters say they fear a proposed “media tribunal” could end their exposes of public corruption and maladministration by government officials. In the name of allowing average citizens to hold the media accountable, President Jacob Zuma’s ANC has proposed a tribunal, accountable to an ANC-ied parliament to monitor and sanction the

ulariy and our observations move to make a produced by (til companies spends “millions of rand

deration to curb the

of so-called “state

Forum, defended the tribunal concept but stressed that media would not be treated as the apartheid regime treated black journalists. He invited the media to participate in drafting legislation. In an opposition piece, Thulani Ndlovu, former Zimbabwe reporter and now law student, wrote: “The imperfections and limitations of the press are hardly the most pressing problems facing South Africa... Instead of attacking the press for "blowing the whistle" on maladministration and cormption, the government should tackle those problems head on.” w/pixof J.Radebe U.N. Peacekeepers silent as 200 women are gang raped C)j (GIN) - An American aid worker and Congolese doctor reported this week that nearly 200 women and some young boys were gang-raped by Congolese and Rwandan rebels over four days within miles of a UN peacekeepers' base in an eastern Democratic Republic of Congo mining district. More than three weeks later, the UN mission has issued no statement about the atrocities and said Mon AC

"Ubakaji" is the Congolese word for rape. It is bonowedboring Tanzania; Congolese culture itself did not openly speak of rape until very recently. An estimated 500,000 women and girls have been victims of sexual violence since the Second Congo War began in 1996. Less than a year ago, Hillary Clinton became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit war-tom regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo—and pledged $17 million to light the rape epidemic. "Working together, we will banish sexual violence into tne oark past, where it belongs, and help the Congolese people seize the opportunities of a new day," she wrote later in an op-ed. Ten months later, Africa experts are questioning how the $17 million has been

spent.

For more information, contact Lisa Vires Executive Director Network AAV/. | 146 W, 29th St., Suite 7E New York Cur, NY WOO! i nn i \globalmfo.org 212-244-3123 (voice) 212-244-3522 (fax) Global Information Network (GIN) distributes news and feature articles on Africa and the developing world to mainstream, alternative, ethnic and minority-owned outlets in the U.S. and Canada. GEN’s goal is available to readers in North America and to bring into their

A’ mainstream