ISS Today, 22 September:

Organised crime in Zimbabwe is on the rampage and turning out to be a problem that is affecting neighbouring countries. Various forms of organised crime are being committed including the running of prostitution rings, the production of fraudulent identity documents, corruption, aggravated robbery, motor vehicle and truck hijacking, extortion and smuggling activities.

Washington Times

... 'Darfur has been on the table for a long time now, and at least 200,000 people have been displaced,' said Festus Aboagye, who heads the peace missions program at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies.

ISS Today: 21 September:

Insecurity of land tenure is a socio-political condition that can be made - and unmade. During the last decade a large number of African countries have gone through processes of land policy change, leading in many instances to comprehensive legislative reforms. Although the notion of private property has been, and continues to be, viewed as 'the ideal tenure system', there is growing acknowledgement that customary tenure systems should not be ignored or 'abolished' - in fact, underway is a new wave of land reform within which the legal status of customary rights held by rural Africans is improving.

ISS Today: 20 Sep

The attempt on 18 September on the life of Abdullahi Yusuf, President of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG), and the deaths of some 12 people in the car-bombing and the ensuing actions have rightly drawn condemnation from all quarters. Not surprisingly, various parties immediately presented claims about the provenance of the perpetrators of the outrage, without awaiting even the most perfunctory of investigations.

Mail & Guardian Online

... Cheryl Hendricks of the Institute for Security Studies recently wrote that the succession debate highlights the need for a public discussion on how future presidents are elected.

This summary features highlights of ISS programme and staff activities during the week.

Staff members from Regional Projects are leaving for Tanzania this Wednesday to facilitate a Pan-African Parliament workshop bringing together representatives of the AU Commission, RECs and the PAP to share perspectives on the harmonisation and rationalisation of RECs.

The Arms Management Programme have been preparing for a Seminar on 28 September titled, “The End of the United Nations Small Arms Process?”. Speakers include, Mr. Rob Wensley, Deputy Director: Conventional Arms, South African Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr. David McNaught, Second Political Secretary, British High Commission, Pretoria, Mr. Joseph Dube, Africa Programme Manager, International Action Network on Small Arms.

The African Security Analysis Programme attended R to P conference in London, 13 to 17 September, had a seminar on EUFOR RD Congo, briefed CJOPS on the situation in Kinshasa, attended a briefing on the DRC at the University of Pretoria and also met with the Chinese Ambassador to prepare for the upcoming Chinese study tour. The meeting centred on the newly signed SA-China textile agreement, China in Africa and the agenda for the visit. The programme will this week participate in a meeting at Wits University on the development of a framework for analysing vulnerability in southern Africa.

The Crime and Justice Programme visited Lesotho on 12 September regarding the ‘Justice Reform Programme’. They also attended a signing of an MOU between the ISS and ACIPOL (police training academy in Mozambique). The programme will this week meet with the SOCA unit at the National Prosecuting Authority to discuss the specifics of a project they are doing in partnership with SOCA to review diversion services in SA. A seminar is also being planned after the release of the latest SAPS crime statistics.

The Defence Sector Programme will this week be lecturing at the CDSM (WITS) on management of defence resources, host a visit of the Zambian Command and Staff College delegation and on Thursday and Friday will be in Cape Town for the SA Air Force for the Air Power symposium where they will speak on the implications of the CADSP and the ASF on the SAAF.

The Southern African Human Security Programme held a successful two-day workshop, co-hosted by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, on Civil Society and Governance in Southern Africa, and another on the “Role of civil society in post conflict reconstruction” presented by Naison Ngoma from the African Union.

The Training for Peace Programme is busy with follow-up work from the 5th APSTA AGM and will this week hold further discussions with SRB Nairobi on the EAPCCO UNPOC, consult with SANWC on plans for the annual PSO seminar (13-14 November) and will participate in the Peace Missions Symposium (Wits, 20 Sep), co-organised by the South African National Defence College (SANDC) and the Centre for Defence and Security Management (CDSM).

The Cape Town Office has been invited to participate in a regional steering committee for ‘National Integrity Studies’ in 2007 (organised by TI-Zimbabwe). The programme has also been invited to participate in the 12th International Anti-Corruption Conference in Guatemala (15-18 November). A programme article on the World Bank’s anti-corruption strategy and Lesotho dam project was published in the Business Day and Bretton Woods Project Update (London). Preparations are being made for a regional seminar/experts meeting on the extraction of natural resources and the role of corporations in Southern Africa in November.

The Nairobi Office last week met with a team from RECSA in preparation for RECSA October Researchers’ Workshop, met with the Director of Community Policing to follow up on a community policing proposal and also met with the Hanns Seidel Foundation to discuss planning for a conference in 2007 on the Horn of Africa conflict and human security.

The Addis Ababa ICPAT programme has commenced preparations for the first meeting of the Training Task Force – a body made up of ICPAT and EAPCCO staff along with one training official from each IGAD member state – from 11-12 October 2006 in Addis Ababa.

Staff from the e-Projects component presented a lecture to the senior officers' training course at the Defence College in Thaba Tshwane on ISS online resources and tools and tips for Internet-based research.

ISS Today: 19 September

Something positive is happening in Zimbabwe on the HIV & AIDS front that may be critically important to other countries in southern Africa, the epicentre of the epidemic. Yet that message is in danger of being lost in the broader political struggle that the country is experiencing.