CONTENTS:

1 - BURUNDI: Activists decry rights abuses, culture of impunity
2 - GLOBAL: $8.8 billion the magic malnutrition number?
3 - MADAGASCAR: The cyclones are coming


1 - BURUNDI: Activists decry rights abuses, culture of impunity

BUJUMBURA, 25 November (IRIN) - One of the guards of a provincial governor in
Burundi seriously beat up a man in early November in a dispute over land and
property. The man died after a few days in hospital. The case received wide
media coverage in Burundi, with human rights organizations condemning the
incident and calling for legal action to be taken against the perpetrator.

The guard has since been arrested but human rights activists say this is not
enough and have called for further investigations into the governor's role in
the incident.

"This is just one case of human rights violations that are often met with
little or no action by authorities," a human rights activist, who requested
anonymity, told IRIN.

Expressing concern over the increasing number of politically motivated killings
and violence among political opponents, human rights organizations and activists
have called on the government and the international community to ensure those
responsible are brought to book.

"It is a fact that several political parties have been mobilizing demobilized
ex-combatants to carry out political violence and we are likely to see more
violence as the elections [due in 2010] approach," the activist said. "However,
these parties know they have to be careful, so we expect no massacres or
killings of high-ranking people but it is likely that the incidents involving
low-cadre people at local levels will continue."

René-Claude Niyonkuru, a land conflict and human rights consultant who is also
chairman of the Association of Human Rights Promoters in Burundi, told IRIN the
country had human rights problems at three levels: community, intermediate -
civil service and public administration - and the upper level - senior
government officials.

"If one analyses the general trends, most human rights abuses at the community
level are related to the lack of a culture of accountability," Niyonkuru said.
"A communal administrator can arbitrarily jail someone for months when they know
what they are doing is wrong."

Incessant musical chairs at the level of senior government has not helped
matters.

"Since 2005 when the ruling party came to power, we have had seven cabinet
reshuffles; everyone comes in with their policies and agenda and soon they are
gone - this is a major problem as they do not have enough time to implement
their policies and often human rights is the least of their concerns," he said.
"Ministers and members of parliament lack team spirit and since the long-term
commitment is also absent, rights will continue to be abused."

Strategy for change

The country needs to change strategy by investing more in long-term human
rights protection programmes, Niyonkuru said.

"We must invest in human rights education right from primary school to
secondary and even at university level; we must create a culture with a
different way of appreciating human rights," he said. "We must also undertake
human rights education at the community level so that all Burundians can learn
to stand up for their rights."

Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa, founding president of the Burundi Association for the
Protection of Human Rights and Detainees, said although cases of human rights
violations had decreased since the FNL, the last rebel movement, transformed
into a political party early this year, sporadic rights violations continue
across the country.

"What is interesting is that gender-based violence has also reduced; cases of
torture are also reducing, according to our statistics," Mbonimpa said.
"However, other violations have persisted because of impunity. In some cases,
the judiciary has failed to punish some of the perpetrators because some
authorities were involved in the crimes."

Mbonimpa pointed to prison conditions as particularly worrying: 12,000 inmates
are housed in facilities designed for 4,000.

"The situation in some of these facilities is catastrophic; we have situations
where prisoners sleep outside even in the rain; sometimes they attempt to escape
because of the congestion and they are often shot and killed," he said, adding
that torture was common in Burundi's jails.

Mbonimpa said a revised criminal code passed in April 2009 only beefed up human
rights protection on paper.

"There is no political will to implement some of the initiatives mentioned in
the code; the international community can help by asking the government to stop
misusing the judiciary and to take action against its agents found guilty of
committing human rights abuses," he said.

In a report released in June, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the government
to take urgent measures to end politically motivated killings, assaults and
arbitrary arrests.

The report, Pursuit of Power: Political Violence and Repression in Burundi,
[http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/06/03/pursuit-power] details cases in which
the Conseil National pour la Défense de la Démocratie-Forces pour la Défense de
la Démocratie (CNDD-FDD) government and the then rebel Forces nationales de
libération (FNL - now a political party) used political violence and
intimidation against opponents and dissenting voices in their own ranks.

"The ruling party and the former FNL rebels have been all too ready to commit
abuses to intimidate their political rivals and assert power," said Georgette
Gagnon, HRW Africa director. "But this is not the road either to meaningful
elections or to a decent future for Burundi's people."

However, Agathon Rwasa, FNL leader, denied that his members were to blame for
cases of human rights abuses.

"Before FNL disarmed and integrated into the army and the police, any abuse
that occurred in the country was attributed to FNL, but today FNL has been
integrated yet the abuses continue," he said. "This means the government, the
security forces [army and the police] could be involved in these abuses. It
means the perpetrators have been the same but they have had scapegoats in the
past, now they don't."

He added: "There are many abuses with regard to human rights not only against
the FNL but against all opposition; one could even extrapolate it's a directive
from the top to those on the ground."

Numerous attempts by IRIN to obtain comment from the ruling party were
unsuccessful.

Accountability

HRW urged the government to start on the path to accountability by
investigating and prosecuting 23 killings and other crimes documented in the
report, which covers 2008 and 2009.

"Killings, arrests, and other forms of repression have meant that Burundians
live in fear of the consequences of expressing their political opinions," Gagnon
said. "Their rights are at risk as long as both the ruling party and former
rebel group face no consequences for their actions."

Jean-Marie Gasana, a Burundi analyst, said a culture of impunity had taken root
in the country.

"Justice has been swept under the carpet. The leadership is enjoying the
prevailing culture of impunity," he said.

He said civil society in the country was young and weak, contributing to the
entrenching of the culture of impunity.

"Civil society is elitist and subject to influence by the highest bidder, like
anywhere else in Africa," Gasana said.

"People are tired of the day-to-day politics; they just need the means to
live," he said. "The government is providing the means to survive but it is
using this to hold the people to ransom. More capacity-building among the
general population needs to be undertaken to curb the violations that continue
among the population."

js/am/mw

[ENDS]


2 - GLOBAL: $8.8 billion the magic malnutrition number?

DAKAR, 25 November (IRIN) - It would take US$8.8 billion annually over several
years to halve the number of malnourished children worldwide, currently at some
178 million, says Save the Children in a new eight-point action plan.

In its report, Hungry for change, Save the Children focuses on eight countries
where it says half of the world's malnourished children live: Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Sudan and
Vietnam.

Political leaders have focused on agriculture and food security at the expense
of nutrition in their response to global high food prices, Alex Rees, head of
Save the Children's hunger reduction team, told IRIN.

"The nutrition MDG [Millennium Development Goal] has not had high-level
political attention," he said. "Malnutrition has no champions....Malnutrition is
typically everyone's business but no one's responsibility".

Five percent of the 19 million children suffering severe acute malnutrition
reportedly receive treatment annually, while donor funding for nutrition
interventions in 2008 amounted to just $2 per child under two in the 20
worst-affected countries, according to the Lancet.

Save the Children's Rees said: "Malnutrition should go right to the top and all
the ministries involved in it report directly to the President's office."

The Ethiopian government is among a handful to have adopted this approach, which
Rees said has made its response to malnutrition more effective.

Economic barriers

The $8.8-billion price tag on Save the Children's plan is equivalent to the
annual budget of the UK Department of International Development (DFID).

Save the Children says donors and governments must address the underlying
economic causes of malnutrition through cash transfers or social protection
schemes such as education and health subsidies.

"Economic barriers to a nutritious diet have not been adequately considered in
donors' or governments' nutrition strategies," Rees told IRIN.

High food prices have pushed between four million and 10 million more children
into malnutrition, according to World Bank and Save the Children statistics.
While an average UK-based family will spend 9 percent of its income on food,
rural families in parts of Ethiopia and Kenya spend as much as 80 percent.

Preliminary studies of the few existing nutrition-related cash transfer
programmes show they can reduce the risk of children becoming malnourished,
according to Save's report.

In one programme cash transfers to combat malnutrition in urban families in
Colombia resulted in average birth weight increases of 578 grams.

The Save the Children package also pushes recommendations made by nutrition
experts in a series of 2008 Lancet articles, including exclusive breastfeeding,
micro-nutrient and fortified food supplements, nutrition and hygiene education
and enhanced treatment for severe acute malnutrition.

The critical period for malnutrition is from conception to a child's second
birthday, during which most developmental defects can occur.

Change

Rees said while donors to date have been slow to make malnutrition prevention a
priority, attitudes appear to be changing. DFID is launching a nutrition
strategy soon and the European Commission has held high-level meetings on
nutrition over the past year.

DFID will address the causes of under-nutrition in high-risk countries,
including food insecurity, ill health, lack of social protection and gender
inequality, according to its October nutrition report which forms the basis of
its forthcoming strategy.

The World Food Programme launched a nutrition strategy last month and the World
Bank is channeling more money to nutrition, recently hiring seven nutrition
advisers, according to Rees.

National governments, donors and UN agencies working on nutrition need to
coordinate their efforts so they are all working towards the same goal, Rees
told IRIN.

UNICEF West Africa spokesperson Martin Dawes said UN agencies, NGOs, donors and
the World Bank are starting to collaborate more closely on nutrition
interventions.

The UN Standing Committee on Nutriton and European Commission are currently
meeting to discuss stronger coordination and governance on nutrition.

"Certainly we could do better," said Dawes. "We need to advocate for a common
agenda - one that includes not only the UN and NGO community, but donors as well
- to accelerate the scale-up of proven interventions."

Value for money

Well-timed and -targeted early warning mechanisms can save governments millions
of dollars in nutrition interventions, Rees said. In Niger, hit by a
malnutrition crisis in 2005, it would have cost $1 a day per child to prevent
acute malnutrition, but by July 2006 the cost of treatment had reached $480 per
child, estimates the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

In developing countries one child in three is chronically malnourished, while
malnutrition accounts for 35 percent of child deaths annually, according to the
UN.

Malnutrition reduces gross domestic product by 3 percent to 6 percent and costs
billions of dollars in lost productivity and healthcare expenses, the UN says.

"Preventing malnutrition should appeal as much to ministries of finance as to
ministries of health and social welfare," Rees said.

aj/np

[ENDS]


3 - MADAGASCAR: The cyclones are coming

JOHANNESBURG, 25 November (IRIN) - Two near misses by huge storms rolling in
from the Indian Ocean have signalled an early start to Madagascar's cyclone
season, prompting the humanitarian community to appeal for "urgent" preparedness
funding. Meteorologists forecast that four to five intense cyclones could strike
Madagascar during the 2009/10 season.

The approaching Tropical Storm Bongani, hot on the heels of Cyclone Anja in
mid-November, provided a wake-up call for aid agencies and the partly paralyzed
national disaster management authority.

A UN Country Team statement on 25 November "raised concern over the approaching
cyclone season that could seriously affect the lives of up to 600,000 people",
and appealed for US$6 million "to be used for pre-positioning stocks in the most
vulnerable regions of the country".

The concept of preparedness is not new to Madagascar. The island lies in the
main path of storms crossing the Western Indian Ocean and is battered by
cyclones every year; five have struck it in the last two years, affecting over
463,000 people.

Cyclone season usually starts in December and runs through April, hitting some
of the poorest regions in the country - around 70 percent of Madagascar's people
live on less than a dollar a day and coping mechanisms are quickly overwhelmed.

The focus had started shifting from a reactive approach - limited to response
and recovery after an event - to a more comprehensive approach centred on
preparedness.

"We can see the payoff of prepositioning stocks ahead of the cyclone season.
This has made it possible to help victims immediately," IRIN quoted Colonel Jean
Rakotomalala, then Executive Secretary of the disaster response agency, BNGRC,
who stressed the importance of recent investments in disaster risk reduction in
January 2009.

Political storms

Madagascar has also been reeling from a political storm of its own making,
putting a halt to progress in disaster preparedness. The infighting that began
in January 2009 ousted President Marc Ravalomanana and replaced him with his
rival, Andy Rajoelina, but resulted in international donor disengagement that
still holds the island hostage.

During the past year, humanitarian agencies have exhausted their stockpiles in
responding to drought in the south, cyclones that hit the island in early 2009,
and, according to the UN Country Team statement, as a result of "losses of
supplies related to the political crisis".

BNGRC spokeswoman Dia Styvanley Soa said, "Maybe because of the political crisis
... the budget allocated to BNGRC is not sufficient." Among aid agencies also,
"The problem is lack of stock," Pierre Bry, Senior Humanitarian Affairs Officer
at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in
Madagascar, told IRIN.

To be able to ensure an initial response in the event of a cyclone, aid agencies
and the BNGRC require tarpaulins, medicines, water purification tablets and
health, school and recreational kits, among other items. "We have small amounts.
They [BNGRC] don't have much," Bry noted.

In the previous two cyclone seasons, "We were able to stockpile food and
emergency items in the 22 regions. This year we are still waiting for money for
this activity, and the problem is that many of our hangars were looted during
this [political] crisis," said Soa.

Out of touch

Aid agencies have found it difficult to engage their Malagasy government
counterparts because the international community could not fully recognise
Rajoelina's self-appointed administration, the Higher Transitional Authority.

"Because of the crisis we had not been able to work together," OCHA's Bry said,
adding that it was now important to bring together government and humanitarian
community coordination systems.

There has been some re-engagement with the BNGRC in recent weeks, but various
staff members in the organization had been replaced. "The quick rotation of
[key] people does not help," Bry commented.

Soa noted that "partnership with the international community has been renewed
recently - we've just finished a workshop focused on updating the national
contingency plan with our partners, UN agencies, International NGOs."

Out of reach

Christopher Metcalf, the interim UN Resident Coordinator in Madagascar,
commented: "The tragedy is that [cyclones are] an annual event, and it appears
that each year the severity and impact is potentially greater."

Moreover, poor infrastructure means that once a cyclone hits it could take weeks
to reach communities left isolated and at greater risk of hunger and disease.
"Investments in disaster risk reduction programmes can save lives and help
communities recover more quickly," he said.

Flexible, predictable funding mechanisms are critical to a country like
Madagascar, which has to deal with recurring emergencies like cyclones and
droughts. "It is urgent that resources be mobilized now. We urge the
international community not to ignore the plight of the Malagasy people,"
Metcalf said.

BNGRC's Soa agreed: "Is BNGRC ready to respond? All I can tell you is that our
capacity is very low. For sure, we will need the help of all our partners."

In the meantime, Madagascar has been doing what it can to prepare. Soa said an
information and sensitization campaign was underway. "This year, we will try,
for the first time, a new system of warning people: we will send out cyclone
alerts via sms [text messages]."

tdm/he[ENDS]


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