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19 May 2006
ISS Today: SARS Officials Make Drug Bust Worth Millions
On 10 May 2006, the South African Revenue Service (SARS), working in conjunction with the South African Police Service and Immigration officials intercepted and seized one of the biggest consignments of Mandrax that law enforcement agencies in South Africa have ever come across. An estimated 2,5 million tablets of Mandrax were stopped from reaching intended consumers in a display of the spin-offs of cooperation among the country�s law enforcement agencies.
Police ignore 'abused' sex workers' seminar
... The Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat) on Wednesday held a seminar in Rondebosch, in co-operation with the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), about statements by 48 local sex workers who alleged abuse of their human rights by members of the police.
When democracies become monarchies!
... From across Africa there were Adebayo Olukoshi, head of Africa's premier Social Science Research body, CODESRIA, in Dakar; Jibo Ibrahim newly appointed Director of the Abuja-based Centre for Democracy and Development, Cheryl Hendricks, from the Institute for Security Studies, Johannesburg, Muthoni Wanyeki, Director of FEMNET and leading columnist in the East African and others.
18 May 2006
'Sex workers at cops' mercy'
... The research was done by Nicole Fick of Sweat, who released the results at a seminar of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
ISS Today: Zimbabwe's Inflation Surges to 1 042.9%
Zimbabwe's annual inflation, already the highest in the world, surged to 1 042.9 percent in April up from 913.6 percent the previous month, the state Central Statistical Office (CSO) announced on Friday. On a month-on-month basis, the key rate rose by 1.3 percentage points to 21.2 percent in April from 19.8 percent in March. The CSO announced the inflation figures after a two-day delay, amid widespread speculation of differences within the government to make public the figures that show amply that efforts to revive Zimbabwe's comatose economy are achieving little.
NOTICE ON EMAIL AND WEB DOWNTIME
Email: From 10h00 GMT on Friday, 18 May to approx 06h00 GMT on Saturday, 19 May, no email sent to ISS email addresses will be delivered. You will have to resend any messages to the ISS after Saturday morning if they were sent during this time period.
Websites: We will have downtime on all websites hosted by the ISS on Saturday/Sunday during the transfer to the new web server. We are also setting up the new ISS website and will make that live early in the next week once we’ve completed testing it on the new server.
We hope to have only minimal disruption in services. Your understanding and patience are appreciated!
17 May 2006
ISS Today: Mozambique and the Upcoming UN Review Conference on the PoA
Civil society organisations in Mozambique gathered on 3 May to decide on their common position regarding priorities and topics for debate during the upcoming 'RevCon' taking place in New York from June 26 to July 7. The meeting equally provided occasion for the different civil society organisations to take stock of the current situation and trends in the proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SALW) in Mozambique.
ISS Programme Highlights: 17 May 2006
The Africa Security Analysis Programme (ASAP) hosted the Regional Manager in the Finnish DFA on DRC and Dafur and had US War College participants attending their morning briefing. The head of the Programme met with colleagues at the Centre for Policy Research and Dialogue (CPRD) on the project on “Local Conflicts in the IGAD Region” in Addis Ababa. In the same week, the programme held a seminar on the DRC, had the opportunity to make a presentation at the National Defence University and briefed a French military-industrial delegation on the African Battle Space. Discussions were also held with Ram Chandra, a counselor at the High Commission of the Republic of Singapore on political Islam in South Africa. The programme took part in a symposium on acts of terrorism in the new millennium at the South African National Defence College. At the request of Pan African Parliament, the programme assisted the Committee on Cooperation, International Relations and Conflict Resolution to prepare resolutions on conflict situations in the DRC, Ivory Coast, Chad and Sudan. During this week in Helsinki colleagues from programme will give presentations at the Finnish War College on “Characteristics of Conflicts in Africa” and the Battle Space.
The Arms Management Programme (AMP) hosted a seminar titled: ‘International Arms Control Agreements at a Crossroads’ on 12 May. Staff members met with the Department of Defence to discuss the National Conventional Arms Control Committee and state of affairs regarding the implementation of arms export legislation. The programme will co-host a workshop with SaferRwanda for government and civil society in Kigali to discuss the UN Review Conference on small arms from 24 to 25 May. The programme is also busy with preparations for a workshop on cattle rustling in Nairobi from 5 to 6 June with EAPCCO, while at the same time making preparations for a civil society workshop co-hosted by AMP and IANSA from 15 to 17 May in Pretoria. AMP is preparing for a Rwandan government / civil society consultation on the Review Conference to be held in Kigali during the week and will also attend a meeting with the Gun Control Alliance on the proposed amendments to the Firearms Control Act. The programme provided the ‘Biting the Bullet’ project with information relating to South Africa’s implementation of the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms.
The ISS Cape Town Office is busy preparing the Apartheid Corruption report for launch and is involved in preparations for a money laundering briefing to the judiciary in Malawi. Staff members last week met the Vice Consul of the Russian Federation, Alexander Anikin, to discuss the financial regulation of charities, non-governmental organisations and occasional fund-raisers in Russia and South Africa.
The head of the Crime and Justice Programme is attending an organised study tour in Germany from 13 – 19 May on “Safety and Security Networking with Germany”. The programme is busy preparing for a seminar in Cape Town on police harassment of sex workers and the first meeting of the research advisory panel on human trafficking which will be held on 17 May.
The Defence Sector Programme hosted a delegation from the US National Defence University for a short roundtable on "Analysis of the Privatized Military Industry with a focus on commercial industries' support to stability operations and reconstruction within the framework of military transformation", while the Training for Peace Programme held discussions on support for the IGAD Executive Council meeting, drafting a compendium of EASBRIG policy manuals. Regional Projects received an official request extended to the ISS to provide ongoing research and technical support to the Pan-African Parliament Committee on Cooperation, International Relations and Conflict Resolution.
The Southern African Human Security Programme held a joint seminar on the elections in the DRC and also attended a workshop on new good governance models in Uganda.
16 May 2006
ISS Today: Angola: Repatriation Plan from South Africa
The voluntary repatriation programme from South Africa to Angola is expected to begin in August of this year. Some 4,000 Angolan refugees in South Africa are expected to return home over an 18-month period. In all, there are some 13, 000 Angolan refugees in South Africa, but many have integrated into local society.
15 May 2006
ISS Today: Côte d'Ivoire to Start Pre-Election Registration
Ivory coast will launch the long-awaited registration of its population next week as a prelude to elections planned for October and aimed at resolving the divided country’s deep political crisis. The government information service said a week-long pilot scheme would begin on May 18 with public meetings in different places in both government-held and rebel-held territory. Magistrates and officials will deliver birth certificates to those who have no papers on the basis of confirmation by community leaders and senior inhabitants of the respective villages.
Zuma's final hurdle looms
'If he were to be found 'not guilty' in the corruption case, he will be unstoppable,' said Prince Mashele, senior analyst at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies.
Term debate shows cracks in African democracy
... 'The question of lack of a successor or lack of a designated one is far-fetched. Look at the United States. Can you tell who will succeed George Bush?' said Prince Mashele, senior researcher at Pretoria's Institute of Security Studies.
Soldiers might protect commuters
... Yet Boyane Tshehla of the Institute for Security Studies said he was not convinced that striking workers were responsible for the increase in crime on trains.
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