July 1996

EDITORIAL

Welcome to Africanews. In this issue you will find more news and reflections on human rights, peace and justice.

In Tanzania a ship sunk and 800 people died. Politicians and bureaucrats, rather than searching for the causes of such a tragedy, quickly attributed the event to the "the will of God". Instead of taking the opportunity to expound the Christian teaching on social responsibility, the majority of Church leaders chose to keep silent, allowing this blasphemy to become the commonly accepted explanation of the event. Only few people have dared to call the management of the Tanzania Railway Corporation to explain what really happened and to inquiry about the human responsibilities in the disaster. One cannot but recall that when two years ago a train derailed in Kenya on the Mombasa-Nairobi line and more than one hundred people died, the explanation was the same and a Kenyan minister dismissed the issue as "an act of God". So far no compensation has been given to the relatives of the victims.

Crossing the border from Tanzania to Uganda we find that fear and restlessness reigns in the northern part of the country, due to the presence of the rebels led by Joseph Kony, and in the article of our correspondent Charles Ojok, Alfred Latigo recalls some of his experiences in the hands of the rebels as an abductee.

In Zimbabwe people are not only exploiting the business opportunity created by the Aids epidemic: women of this nation are striving to create schemes to fight economic backwardness.

In Zambia too women are protagonists: the US based International Democracy Centre has pledged to support Zambian women aspiring for political office, and many women do not intend to miss this opportunity to make their voice heard in the debate leading to the presidential elections due before the end of next October.

Children are the most vulnerable and widely exploited people in the whole of Africa: there are child soldiers, child workers as well as child prostitutes. In Kenya new initiatives have come up to confront the problem of children living in the streets. A unique rehabilitation centre has been put up for this purpose in Kisumu, as our correspondent reports. Yet not everything is well in Kisumu, where a water shortage has hit the residents. Ironically Kisumu is on the shore of the second largest fresh water lake in the world, Lake Victoria. The press is under fire in Togo. The opposition parties have failed to win a vote on a bill barring president Gnassingbe Eyadema from control of state media.

You will find out about these and other topics in Africanews. Our staff appreciates the contributions of its correspondents and the numerous reactions, accompanied by subscriptions, coming in from the readers. We are aware that we can do more and better, yet with the participation of all our friends the progress so far is steady. Thanks to all.

The Editorial Staff