POVERTY: BURUNDI: A new rebellion?

BUJUMBURA, 30 November 2011 (IRIN)

 Photo: Jane Some/IRIN : FNL leader Agathon Rwasa fled Burundi in 2010 for eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where he has reportedly been remobilizing (file photo)

Amid growing concerns about a wave of political assassinations in Burundi, a former police officer has announced the formation of a new armed group, with the aim of overthrowing a government he accuses of numerous killings, rampant corruption and economic incompetence.
The army quickly denied a new rebellion was under way and a news blackout has been imposed.
Some 300,000 people are thought to have died during a civil war that raged in Burundi between 1993 and 2005 and whose aftershocks continue to be felt in the form of frequent violence and political instability.
"Our men are on the front in Cankuzo and Ruyigi [in the east of the country],” said Col. Pierre Claver Kabirigi, naming his group during a 25 November interview on Radio Publique Africaine as the Le front de restauration de la démocratie (FRD) Abanyagihugu.
Kabirigi said his group carried out attacks in the provinces of Cankuzo and Ruyigi. On 21 November, clashes were reported between government security forces and a group of armed men in a locality in Cankuzo.
In a statement, he said he formed his group in reaction to the misappropriation of public funds, as well as a wave of extrajudicial killings allegedly carried out by intelligence operatives and police at the instigation of the ruling Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie-Forces de défense de la démocratie (CNDD-FDD) party, in an operation codenamed Safisha, which is Kiswahili for “to clean”.
Kabirigi further alleged that state agents were behind the 18 September massacre of 40 people in a bar in Gatumba and the 8 October execution of two university students.
"Oddly, as far as the Burundian authorities are concerned, all is well. [But the] Burundian people are feeling abandoned and to deal with this situation, they have decided to take up arms."
In keeping with previous official reactions to armed violence, on 28 November, army chief Maj. Gen. Godefroid Niyombare dismissed Kabirigi’s supporters as mere “criminals” and “bandits”, insisting no new rebel group had been created. He said Kabirigi was a fugitive from justice who had already served prison time.
But Kabirigi’s claims of government complicity in widespread killings have been echoed by Burundi’s human rights community.
According to the Observatoire de l’Action Gouvernementale (OAG), a watchdog comprising 18 organizations, as well as journalists and members of parliament, at least 300 members of opposition parties have been killed by security forces or the youth wing of the CNDD-FDD.
“We have observed with dismay that in all parts of the country, a diabolical machine has continued killing opposition party activists,” OAG chairman Onesphore Nduwayo told a 21 November press conference.
“Since May, at least 300 [civil society] activists or former demobilized FNL combatants have been killed,” he said, referring to the Forces nationales de libération, one of the main armed groups during the civil war, which is now a political party. FNL leader Agathon Rwasa fled Burundi in 2010 for eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where he has reportedly been remobilizing.
“The people were arrested by the Imbonerakure [the ruling party’s youth wing] or by police elements or the secret service and taken to an unknown location and later found dead, executed,” said Nduwayo.
At present, the violence and political assassinations seem directed towards members of the Movement pour la solidarité et la démocratie (MSD) party, whose leader Alexis Sinduhije is also in exile.
“[The MSD] today seems to be in the eye of the storm,” said Nduwayo.

 Photo: Désiré Nimubona/IRIN
Bullets close to the scene of the Gatumba killings (file photo)

The president of the Association for the Defence of Human Rights and Prisoners' Rights (APRODH), Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, added: “I know that there are people who were killed because of their political [affiliations] and I say this loud and clear, they were political assassinations and if I should die because I have spoken the truth, I accept [that].”

"Score-settling"
A government report on security over the past two years, released this month, acknowledged numerous killings had taken place but attributed them to score-settling, land disputes, banditry and the prevalence, despite several post-war disarmament campaigns, of weapons across the country.
Playing down charges of an orchestrated campaign against the opposition, government spokesman Philippe Nzobonariba told reporters that numerous government officials had also died in the violence, especially in the province surrounding the capital, Bujumbura.
The report said several police and military officials were among 223 arrested for crimes including murder or attempted murder, rape or attempted rape, robbery, fraud, embezzlement and corruption, illegal possession and sale of weapons and complicity to escape.
But according to APRODH’s Mbonimpa, only a few people have been arrested and jailed in relation to extrajudicial executions.

Time to talk
The European Union, through its representative in Bujumbura, Stephane de Loecker, called on the government and all political partners to sit and talk to avoid bloodshed.
“The European Union is concerned by the current situation especially the executions and the extrajudicial killings,” said De Loecker, noting that it would not be easy to bring parties to the negotiating table.
According to Pacifique Nininahazwe of the Forum de Renforcement de la Societé Civile, a grouping of civil society organizations, the government should meet the exiled opposition politicians to enable a return to peace and security.
“We do not want any more war in the country. The bloodshed since independence is enough,” said Nininahazwe.

Media under pressure
There are also concerns over increasing pressure on journalists.
On 29 November, Radio France International (RFI) said its Kiswahili service correspondent, Hassan Ruvakuki, had been arrested the previous day while attending a regional summit in Bujumbura because of his alleged links with Kabirigi, whom he is accused of meeting in Tanzania. RFI said it believed Ruvakuki was being interrogated in a military camp in the east of the country.
Explaining the development, National Intelligence Service spokesman Télesphore Bigirimana appeared to contradict the official government position that no new rebellion existed, telling reporters: “[Ruvakuki] was arrested with others, not as a journalist, but as an individual, for investigations. He is suspected of lending support to a rebel group. If he is innocent, I think he will be released quickly."
Reporters Without Borders, which works for press freedom around the world, criticized the authorities for carrying out the "abduction-style arrest" and for failing to disclose Ruvakuki's whereabouts, even to his family.
Meanwhile, the National Council for Communication has banned media from reporting on Kabirigi and his group, or even commenting on its existence.
A few days earlier, Daniel Bekele, Africa director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), warned that “statements by senior government officials [with regard to journalists] have heightened the tension.
“On November 11, the National Security Council issued a statement, delivered by Defense Minister Pontien Gaciyubwenge, accusing certain members of the media and civil society of flagrantly violating [a separate] blackout on coverage of the Gatumba massacre and calling on the government to enact sanctions against them quickly,” said Bekele.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=94346

MALNUTRITION: BURUNDI: Thousands need food aid after poor crop season

BUJUMBURA, 28 April 2011 (IRIN)


 Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN : Agricultural officials have appealed for seeds to enable farmers to plant during the next planting season (file photo)

Heavy rains in March in Burundi's eastern province of Ruyigi destroyed beans, banana and cassava crops, leaving thousands of people desperate for food aid, agricultural officials said.
"With regards to the 2011 B agricultural season [February-June], farmers in Ruyigi are expecting nothing from their fields after heavy rains, accompanied by hailstorms, devastated their fields and they lost all the beans, bananas and cassava crops," Festus Ntihabose, agricultural director for Ruyigi, told IRIN.
According to Ntihabose, at least 8,000 families, or 40,000 people, now require urgent food aid and seeds to prepare for the next planting season.
The most affected communes are Butaganzwa, Nyabitsinda, Kinyinya and Bweru and, to a lesser extent, Gisuru, Ntihabose said.
Agricultural officials say the 2011 B agricultural season is the most important in Burundi, accounting for 50 percent of national food production.
Méthode Niyongendako, a consultant with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said the provinces of Ruyigi and Cankuzo (in the east) were the most fragile and "likely to face a serious food crisis during the first semester of the current year. The risk of low production in June is very high in those provinces, which means the food crisis can be prolonged."
Pontien Hatungimana, an adviser to the Ruyigi governor, told IRIN that since an appeal for assistance in February, humanitarian organizations had, so far, not responded.
"Only routine [food] distributions to vulnerable groups were made; but no relief aid, as such, has reached us," Hatungimana said.
However, in February, the Ministry of National Solidarity, Human Rights and Gender distributed 61MT of rice and beans to the affected population. The ministry also distributed 5MT of rice in March.
"This response was a simple support to sustain the population but it is still very little, since the needs are huge," Hatungimana said.

Appeal for seeds
Agricultural officials in Ruyigi have appealed to charitable organizations to provide seeds for the farmers to plant during the next planting season.
"They need to prepare for the next season [season C in wetlands]; they need vegetable seeds and sweet potato cuttings because these are very rare as a result of the rains," Ntihabose said.
They need to prepare for the next season; they need vegetable seeds and sweet potato cuttings because these are very rare as a result of the rains
Niyongendako said approximately 15,000 households would receive seeds for vegetables, sweet potatoes and cassava cuttings as well as Irish potatoes for season C.
Weathermen attribute the rain deficit in the north and east of Burundi to the La Niña weather phenomenon, which cut crop production in season 2011 A.
Niyongendako said the food deficit for the period between January and June 2011 is estimated at 490,000MT of cereals.
However, Niyongendako said the northern province of Kirundo, which is annually prone to food shortages, seems promising this time because farmers planted early and were likely to have a good harvest.
In its April issue, the monthly bulletin of the Burundi Food Security Monitoring Early Warning System said throughout March 2011, countrywide, the UN World Food Programme assisted 244,531 beneficiaries with 1,626MT of food, mainly through general food distribution, food-for-work, as well as aid for the most vulnerable.
"The cumulative food deficit of 1,922 tonnes for all foods is predicted between May and October, equivalent to [US $]1.96 million," according to the bulletin.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=92602

POVERTY: BURUNDI: Banana blight threatens food security

BUJUMBURA, 22 April 2011 (IRIN) -

 Photo: BSPP:
Banana blight is threatening livelihoods in Burundi (file photo)

 A disease affecting banana plants has spread to five provinces of Burundi, raising concern among agricultural officials, who fear the disease could hit the country's food security.
According to Adelin Girukwishaka, a plant protection officer in the Ministry of Agriculture, the disease, "Banana Xanthomonas Wilt" - commonly known as banana blight - was first detected in November 2010 in Cankuzo province, near the border with Tanzania.
"In January 2011, the disease was reported in the eastern province of Ruyigi and Makamba in the south; the disease has also been identified at Cibitoke and Bujumbura Rural provinces," Girukwishaka said.
Ernest Manirambona, deputy coordinator of the Food and Agriculture Organization's emergency coordination unit, told IRIN: "The disease is now confirmed; it spread to five provinces within six months."
Leonard Ndayishimiye, a farmer in the northwestern province of Cibitoke, said the disease had infected most of his plantation; he is worried his monthly income will drop as a result.
"When the plants are healthy, a single plant can extend to 5m wide, giving me five big bunches," Ndayishimiye said. "However, since the disease struck, I only get one tiny bunch or even nothing, depending on when the plant was infected."
Burundians consume bananas raw, cooked, as a juice or alcohol. Ndayishimiye said: "I eat it as breakfast before going to work, at lunch with beans and sometimes as banana juice in the evening."
Cibitoke, which means "the land where bananas are plenty" in Kirundi, is known for producing banana beer consumed across the country. Many of its residents depend on banana farming for their livelihoods.
Girukwishaka said: "Banana plants cover the biggest cultivated areas and represent more than 60 percent of the population's income. If the banana is affected [by this disease], it will not only mean great problems for farmers but also a socio-economic problem for Burundi."
At the main market in Bujumbura, the capital, the price of green bananas has increased because of the spread of the disease.
A buyer at the market told IRIN she could no longer afford to buy a whole bunch, estimated at 6,000 francs (US$4.80), and was opting to buy the bananas singly.
"I think it is not only climatic conditions that are behind the shortage of bananas in the market; the banana blight is also to blame," the trader said.

"No need to panic"
Celestin Niyongere, head of the fruit and vegetable division at the government's Research Institute for Agronomic Sciences, told IRIN the disease spreads slowly in some banana varieties, especially those that grow in the highlands.
However, he said, "no variety resists the disease even if there are some varieties more sensitive than others".
Niyongere said: "This is the case with the banana variety grown in Cibitoke, Makamba and Rutana; they can be totally decimated in a few months."
However, FAO's Manirambona said there was no need to panic: "The disease has been identified, preventative measures are also well known; we only need to implement them."

Preventative measures
Agricultural officials say they are making the population aware of the best field practices.

 Photo: David Gough/IRIN
The price of bananas is rising (file photo)

Farmers have been encouraged to remove male buds in the banana plants since insects, "notably bees, can spread the disease to uninfected bananas 60km away in one day", according to an agricultural officer.
Theodomir Bigirumuhirwa, the head of Agrobiotech, a private research laboratory dealing with bananas, said local agronomists in direct contact with farmers would be trained in June.
Once a banana field is infected, the only remedy is to cut off all the infected plants.
Farmers have also been advised not to re-plant bananas on the same land within six months and to use clean field tools and planting materials.
Manirambona said: "We also need to raise funds to mobilize not only farmers but also give support to the producers of in-vitro plants. People who depend on bananas for their livelihood should get support to encourage them to cut all their infected plants."
Apart from sensitizing the public, the Burundian government plans to distribute at least 750,000 selected bananas shoots in September to ensure that farmers have plants free from the disease.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=92553

POVERTY: BURUNDI: Former child soldiers "languishing in poverty"

BUJUMBURA, 5 April 2011 (IRIN)


 Photo: Désiré Nimubona/IRIN

Many former child soldiers who underwent vocational training are yet to find gainful employment or set up income-generating activities
 - The lucky ones among Burundi's 3,421 former child soldiers who went through a demobilization, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) process returned to school but most languish in poverty, with little to do, officials told IRIN.
"We receive cases every day of these people saying their life is undermined by poverty, which prevents them from developing," Serge Mpawenayo, a supervisor of reintegrated former child soldiers in Matongo commune of Kayanza Province, said.
Cyprien Ndayishimiye, supervisor of former child soldiers in Bubanza province, said those in Bubanza and Cibitoke provinces, western Burundi, faced a similar predicament.
Ndayishimiye said the situation for many former child soldiers was "dangerous" as even those who underwent vocational training during reintegration had yet to find gainful employment or set up income-generating activities.
"Many have even sold the materials they got from the DDR programme, such as sewing machines for those who learned sewing, and planes for those who hoped carpentry would help them," Ndayishimiye said.

Funding
Burundi's DDR programme began operating in 2005, two years after civil war ended in the country with the establishment of a transitional government.
Initially, the World Bank funded the Programme de Démobilisation et de Réinsertion Transitoire, but this funding ended in July 2010. The programme is currently supported by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), through local NGOs.
According to Sogoba Bakary, head of protection for UNICEF in Burundi, the agency's role in the demobilization process was structured around advocacy with armed groups, identifying the children and their families, support for transitional life, family tracing, reunification of the children with their families, supporting the coordination process in general and monitoring post-reunification.
"In the context of the demobilization of children associated with armed groups and forces since the [programme's] starting date, UNICEF has received support from French Cooperation and Belgium, giving a total of at least US$591,000," Sogoba said.
Désiré Ndagijimana, spokesman for the DDR programme, told IRIN some 3,041 former child soldiers underwent DDR between 2005 and 2008 while 380 others underwent the programme between 2009 and 2010.
Ndagijimana said those who resumed learning after being reunited with their families had fared better.
"Those who are at school have few problems because they are doing well at school," Ndagijimana told IRIN, adding that 102 such children returned to school, 23 of them to primary and the rest to secondary schools.



Child soldiers : Too small to be fighting in anyone's war





Doing well
Ndagijimana said some of those who returned to school have joined university. Those who sustained injuries while serving as soldiers continue to receive medical help from the DDR programme, he said.
Of the former child soldiers who have undergone DDR, 380 had served in the Forces nationales de libération (FNL), the country's last rebel group to join government.
"At the separation step, we separated them from adults at a transit centre; at the second step, we sought to find out from them what vocational programme could help them in order not to send them to face a difficult life that could tempt them to robbery," he said. "At the last step, we gave them money or other material they said could help them; this was done when the children were already re-united with their families."
While Ndagijimana played down problems facing former child soldiers who returned to school, a group of them in Bubanza said they were facing difficulties due to lack of school fees. They said they could be sent home for failure to pay fees.
UNICEF's Sogoba told IRIN the former child soldiers who opted for school after demobilization continue to receive UNICEF support.
Sogoba said: "Besides attention given to these children associated with armed groups and who have been regularly demobilized, UNICEF is in charge of other children who are known as 'self-demobilized' children - those who decided to go home without passing by any known demobilization structures."
Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict, visited Burundi in 2007 and commended the country for its demobilization of former child soldiers.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=92371

POVERTY: BURUNDI: Aid workers worry about food insecurity

23 February 2011 (IRIN)


 Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN
One of the regions most affected by the food deficit is Bugesera, covering the northern provinces of Kirundo and part of Muyinga provinces

BUJUMBURA,  - High food prices, increasing malnutrition and the impact of La Niña are Burundi's major humanitarian concerns as the country moves from post-conflict to a development phase, say aid workers.
"We cannot take short cuts when it comes to development; we need to absolutely address the basic needs of the population before we go beyond that," Jean–Charles Dei, the acting humanitarian coordinator for Burundi, told IRIN. "As [members of] the international community, we are monitoring the situation, trying to extinguish fires ... [such as] pockets of cholera, measles, diarrhoea or malnutrition."
After years of civil war in the 1990s, Burundi has embarked on economic recovery but aid workers say much more needs to be done to ensure basic needs are addressed. The war deprived the population of their rights to basic services such as health, education and sanitation.
The infrastructure was extensively damaged and the little that remained intact has not been maintained, with drastic consequences for the provision of health services as preventable or previously eradicated diseases are making a comeback.
"We had cases of polio some months back; there are cases of measles and cholera, which has reached epidemic proportions, mainly because of poor access to water and sanitation," Dei said. "In parts of the country, most notably in the highlands, there is an ongoing epidemic of malaria."
The chronic malnutrition rate in Burundi is above 50 percent and more than 60 percent of the population is considered to be food-insecure.

Food deficit
Methode Niyongendako, a UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) consultant, said Burundi’s food deficit was at least 400MT, with some regions in a crisis phase.
While the deficit in other areas was at the level of food insecurity, "a little shock could provoke chronic food insecurity," Niyongendako said.
The most affected regions are Bugesera - covering the northern provinces of Kirundo and part of Muyinga provinces - as well as the Moso region, including the eastern provinces of Ruyigi, Rutana, Cankuzo and parts of southern Makamba province.
The harvest for the 2011 agricultural season, known as season A - from September to February - will not ameliorate this situation because of the La Niña phenomenon, which has hit most of the food-insecure regions.
The latest bulletin by the country's food security early warning system indicates that the La Niña-induced rain deficit in some highland regions and floods that have damaged crops in these areas have compromised the chances of a good harvest for season A.
On 12 February, two people died and 10 were injured at Mena in Bujumbura Rural's Kabezi commune when their houses collapsed following heavy rains. Kabezi administrator Léonce Ndinzirindi said 100 houses and several hectares of cassava, beans and bananas were destroyed.
Access to food, therefore, remains a crucial challenge and an area of concern for the humanitarian community as it could compromise Burundi's chances for stability.
"If we do not pay special attention to feeding people, what may happen is that those people, because of poverty, can develop negative coping mechanisms with the risk of being easily enrolled in armed groups or bandits," Dei said. "This is a situation we can avoid; this is the main worry we have in this country today."
Dei said a national investment plan for agriculture exists, which would allow the country to access funds from global agriculture and food security programmes managed by the World Bank.

Dependence on agriculture
A national forum on agriculture and nutrition is scheduled this year and will be expected to put the hunger and nutrition issues on the government's agenda.
Food insecurity could aggravate an already fragile situation since the conflict has been particularly disruptive to agriculture, with seed production and agricultural infrastructure destroyed.
At least 90 percent of the people depend on agriculture as their principal livelihoods; the high population rates and land scarcity are other factors aggravating food insecurity.
Dei said the UN Word Food Programme (WFP) was monitoring the most vulnerable among the population and had developed a mapping system to identify when the situation became critical.
He said WFP was also looking at "a new cash and voucher system that will help vulnerable groups purchase needed staples during this period of high prices”.
Since the start of 2011, fuel prices have risen from 1,750 francs to 1,900 francs (US$1.54), and 1kg of rice has risen from 1,000 ($0.80) to 1,300 francs ($1.04).
"The international community should pay attention to what is happening in Burundi because poverty and the huge effects of the social political crisis on the population could create social tension," Dei said.
"The [population's] needs are getting bigger and bigger; today we need to invest maybe $200 million in nutrition and food, but [that] will increase at an exponential rate if we don't do it today."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=92007

BIOTERRORISM: WikiLeaks Show Terrorists Working Toward a Weapon of Mass Destruction

« Wearing anti-chemical and biological suits, Japanese firemen participate in an anti-terror drill at a Tokyo subway station on March 16, 2010, ahead of the 15th anniversary of the doomsday cult’s chemical weapon attacks. (JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images)
February 7, 2011
By Richard Palmer From theTrumpet.com

A summary of the latest WikiLeaks revelations on nuclear terrorism
Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups are working to produce chemical, biological or radioactive weapons to attack the West, according to WikiLeaks diplomatic cables released by the Telegraph on February 1.
“Although there was a limited assessed capability for al Qaeda and other groups to acquire wmd [weapons of mass destruction], the intent was clearly present, and there were ongoing credible reports of attempts to recruit the needed expertise,” said one of the cables, a summary of North Atlantic Council meeting held on Jan. 28, 2009.

A Dirty Bomb
“A ‘dirty’ radiological ied program was assessed to be under active consideration by al Qaeda,” said the cable.
A dirty bomb is a conventional explosive device that spreads radioactive material as it explodes. This can cause lethal radiation sickness, and can contribute to cancer. However, a dirty bomb would be far more effective at spreading fear and panic than killing people.
Fear of a silent, mysterious radioactive killer combined with widespread misinformation about dirty bombs and radioactive material in general could cause mass panic in an entire city if a dirty bomb was detonated.
Such a bomb would also be a powerful economic weapon. It could costs millions, or even billions, to clean up an area contaminated by the radioactive material.
Another cable revealed that India’s National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan warned U.S. senators Russ Feingold and Bob Casey that terrorist groups were trying to get a hold of the ingredients necessary for a dirty bomb.
India has discovered a “manifest attempt to get fissile material,” although terrorist groups have not yet been successful said Narayanan, according to a cable from June 2008.
Those terrorists have “enough physics to fabricate a crude bomb beyond a dirty bomb,” he said.

Bioweapons
Al Qaeda and other groups are also working to produce a biological weapon. Again, a biological weapon is more an instrument of terror than a means of killing people. In Japan, a terror cult tried to stage biological weapons attacks in the 1990s. They had to try several times before anyone noticed.
Nonetheless, fear of a silent and infective killer could make a biological weapon an effective tool of terror.
A cable summarizing a November 2007 arms control meeting between the United States and Japan stated that “U.S. monitoring has shown growing interest in bioterrorism methods among terrorist groups.”
The cable continued to note that “the growth of the biotech industry in Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia, brings many benefits, but it also makes potential biological weapons more available to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.”
“Al Qaeda bioterrorism plans found in Afghanistan revealed greater advances than was previously known,” stated the cable.
Cables also show that Syria and Iran are continuing to pursue a chemical weapons program.

Pakistan
The released cables also contained details of where terrorists could get a hold of chemical, biological or nuclear material. A cable released in November showed that the U.S. is worried that someone working at Pakistan’s nuclear facility could “gradually smuggle enough material out to eventually make a weapon.”
Harvard’s Matthew Bunn, author of an annual report titled “Securing the Bomb,” written for the Nuclear Threat Initiative, agrees.
“The biggest concern of major production, to my mind, is theft from the places where the material is being handled in bulk—the plants that produce it, convert it to metal, fabricate it into bomb parts, and so on,” he said. “All but one of the real thefts” of weapons-grade uranium or plutonium “were insider thefts from bulk-handling facilities—that’s where you can squirrel a little bit away without the loss being detected,” he said.

Nuclear Trafficking
The cables also noted instances of individuals attempting to sell or transport nuclear material. One cable detailed that an informant stated that Russian customs officers found the element cobalt-60 in passenger railway carriages coming from Kazakhstan into Russia in 2009. Cobalt-60 could be used to make a dirty bomb, though the cable states that the cobalt was not weapons grade.
Another cable published last December by the Guardian reported an instance where a group may have successfully smuggled cesium-137, another element that could be used to make a dirty bomb, into Georgia.
The cables also gave reports of highly enriched uranium being smuggled across Uganda, possible nuclear material being seized in Burundi, an individual trying to sell “uranium plates” from Chernobyl and another trying to sell uranium bricks from an underwater wreck in the Philippines.
It is important to note that some, or even all, of these instances of nuclear smuggling could have involved fake material. Selling dangerous radioactive material is lucrative, so people will try and sell forgeries.
The cables reveal that even the laboratory of the International Atomic Energy Agency (iaea) in Austria could be a source of nuclear material for terrorists. An interagency delegation visiting Safeguards Analytic Laboratory (sal) in 2008 “was particularly struck by safety and security concerns at sal,” reported one cable.
“For example, the nuclear laboratories that handle plutonium and uranium have windows, per Austrian law, and are located in a building housing the Austria Research Center (arc),” the cable said. “There is no way to provide perimeter security to this laboratory. The lack of space and inefficient set-up of the laboratories (scattered in the arc building and the iaea-owned lab) increase the safety concerns for personnel.”

Iran
The cables also showed how Iran could get a hold of dangerous material. Officials in Uzbekistan had intercepted a railway carriage with radioactive “scrap metal” heading to Iran, according to 2007 cables.
Even more worrying was the report by American officials visiting a couple of checkpoints on the border between Turkey and Iran. It concluded: “In both posts … there is a sense that when operational capabilities are not running optimally (either because the power is out or because the capacity never existed in the first place), the border is left open to anyone who is not overtly suspicious.”
At the first border station, they found that “the power is frequently out for up to 12 hours at a time.”
Their description of the second border post—a train crossing—would have been funny if it wasn’t so serious. Here, there is no electronic scanning equipment at all. The report stated that here, “people are allowed to pass unless they do something to arouse the suspicion of the customs officer.”
The officials are so remote that their main concern is not being attacked by radical Kurdish groups. After this “they focus primarily on counternarcotics, with only cursory attention paid to countering other forms of smuggling,” stated the report.
“When asked about smuggling in the railcars, as opposed to an individual trying to smuggle things in his baggage or on his person, Kucuk [the man in charge] expressed surprise and asked why anyone would smuggle things in railcars.”
There is very little to stop Iran smuggling dangerous material in or out of Turkey.
These leaked cables show that terrorists stand a good chance of getting hold of terrifying weapons. With rogue states and jihadist groups all trying to get their hands on weapons of mass disruption, it is only a matter of time before someone succeeds.
http://www.thetrumpet.com/?q=7944.6560.0.0

MALNUTRITION: Burundi : Fortified Rice for 15,000 School-Children

Burundi is set to benefit from a rice fortification technology that will not only be the first in Africa but will also help check malnutrition in children through school-feeding programmes.
International organizations PATH and World Vision will introduce Ultra Rice, made from rice flour and enriched with micronutrients, including iron, zinc and folic acid, to about 15,000 children from April.
Marc Neilson, a public information officer for the World Food Programme (WFP), told IRIN that "the purpose of the Ultra Rice project is to conduct a field trial to test the operational feasibility and biological impact of introducing fortified rice through a large food-aid programme".
Thomas Ruttoh, operations director for World Vision Burundi, said the project was "primarily about improving the nutritional quality of the food being taken by the children; anaemia is about 31 percent in Burundi".
The end result of the project, he said, would be to address malnutrition, which is considered "very high" in Burundi.
"Children can eat cassava, they can eat potatoes, but it is not the right food for a child because there is something missing," Rutto said, adding that the rice fortification was done mainly with iron as a micro-nutrient.
In October 2010, PATH received US$1 million from the US Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture for the project.
"With the USDA grant, PATH will bring the benefits of Ultra Rice to the African continent for the first time, and we are thrilled to do so in collaboration with World Vision," Dipika Matthias, director of PATH's Ultra Rice Project, said in a statement. "Our pilot [project] will generate critical data and also serve as a model for improving the nutritional quality of rice-based food aid."
Matthias said the project would focus on generating both operational and biological impact data to demonstrate that PATH's Ultra Rice is an effective rice fortification method for food aid programmes.
World Vision Burundi will provide technical expertise and training as well as the warehouse facilities for the storage and distribution of fortified rice to about 15,000 children through a school-feeding programme supported by WFP.
http://www.portalangop.co.ao/motix/en_us/noticias/africa/2011/0/1/Fortified-Rice-for-000-School-Children,3e589159-70df-45f3-8c30-9517e882585b.html

POVERTY: BURUNDI: Land key obstacle to reintegration

  Photo: IRIN  :  Landless returnees are the most vulnerable and difficult to reintegrate, according to a Burundian official

BUJUMBURA, 10 January 2011 (IRIN) - After living abroad as refugees for years – in some cases decades – many of the half-million people who have returned to Burundi since 2002 are having to cope with a severe shortage of one of the tiny country’s most precious commodities: land.
“The issue of access and entitlement to arable land on which to undertake subsistence farming and of securing shelter [for the returnees] ... are among the most acute hurdles which continue to confront returnees," Hugues van Brabandt, associate external affairs officer for the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, told IRIN.
He added that those returning home – especially those who fled in 1972 after a rebellion prompted mass killings of Hutus – often found that the state had taken over their property.
"State-occupied land is sometimes used for exploitation of palm oil, sugar or other more lucrative crops, making land claims more intractable," he said.
Célestin Sindibutume, the general manager in charge of repatriation, resettlement and reinsertion of IDPs and refugees in the Ministry of National Solidarity, Human Rights and Gender, said the landless returnees were “the most vulnerable and difficult to reintegrate".
More than 20,000 disputes over land have been registered by the National Commission on Land and Other Properties, of which some 13,000 had been resolved, often amicably.
Manassé Havyarimana, chairman of the Bujumbura section of the commission, said his team faced the difficult task of reconciling the law and fairness.
“We have, on the one hand, the law protecting the occupant after 15 years of regular occupation if the property was acquired in a legal way, or 30 years of regular occupation whichever way the occupant got it," Havyarimana said.
"On the other, we have a returnee who could not come to claim ownership of his property because his absence was not voluntary. You have to take the two into account."
Compensation fund
According to Havyarimana, a compensation fund is vital. "Some houses were sold by the government, how you can tell the occupant to evacuate them?" he said. "The compensation fund will allow Burundians to get reconciled." Such a fund would certainly help the likes of Pascal Mugabonihera, 70, a former refugee who returned to Burundi with his four children in September 2009.
Mugabonihera said he found private houses built on his cassava field on the border of Ntahangwa River in Bujumbura.


  Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN :  A group of returnees aboard a UNHCR lorry. According to a UNHCR official, long periods of exile exposes returnees to social dislocation

"I was told it was government property; there is no way to get the field back," he said. "Another plot I owned is now occupied by priests. They have refused to tell me who they bought it from. I have no evidence for it but I am sure there are traces at the land registry agency, but I know there is no hope.
"I have been in the country for two years now but I have no right to my properties, yet when I was repatriated, I was told I would live in my own houses."
Mugabonihera had counted on a compound he had in Nyakabiga suburb in Bujumbura but the occupants refused to leave, saying it was theirs as they had lived there for so long.
Despite the commission ruling that the plot be restituted to Mugabonihera, he has still to recover it.

Other options
The returnees have been encouraged to form associations which would help them initiate income-generating projects. "For those associations, the ministry gives them a reintegration kit; it might be cash to start a project, and it might be a mill, a welding machine depending on the beneficiaries’ potential," Sindibutume said.
The government and its partners have also initiated integrated rural villages to settle landless returnees and other vulnerable people.
According to UNHCR, eight such villages have been constructed since 2008.
As Burundi moves from a post-conflict phase to a development phase, many facilities such as health, sanitation, education and road facilities have not kept up and remain in deplorable conditions.
Van Brabandt said multilateral donor support to communal development plans, "which is still low, needs to be improved in almost all areas of return".
He said the long periods of exile also exposed refugees to social dislocation. Some lost family members. In addition, some - especially returnees born in exile - are "culturally and linguistically alienated and this also complicates their reintegration.
“The chronically ill, persons with disabilities, hearing, speech and sight impediments; single elderly persons as well as survivors of gender-based violence, belong to categories at particular risk and whose needs are yet to be properly addressed through a comprehensive national policy and/or legal framework,” Van Brabandt said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=91590

MALNUTRITION: BURUNDI: Fortified rice for 15,000 school-children

BUJUMBURA, 5 January 2011 (IRIN)

  Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN : Just add micro nutrients: Ultra Rice is a blend of rice flour, iron, zinc and folic acid

Burundi is set to benefit from a rice fortification technology that will not only be the first in Africa but will also help check malnutrition in children through school-feeding programmes.
International organizations PATH and World Vision will introduce Ultra Rice, made from rice flour and enriched with micronutrients, including iron, zinc and folic acid, to about 15,000 children from April.
Marc Neilson, a public information officer for the World Food Programme (WFP), told IRIN that "the purpose of the Ultra Rice project is to conduct a field trial to test the operational feasibility and biological impact of introducing fortified rice through a large food-aid programme".
Thomas Ruttoh, operations director for World Vision Burundi, said the project was "primarily about improving the nutritional quality of the food being taken by the children; anaemia is about 31 percent in Burundi".
The end result of the project, he said, would be to address malnutrition, which is considered "very high" in Burundi.
"Children can eat cassava, they can eat potatoes, but it is not the right food for a child because there is something missing," Rutto said, adding that the rice fortification was done mainly with iron as a micro-nutrient.

Data gathering
In October 2010, PATH received US$1 million from the US Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture for the project.
“With the USDA grant, PATH will bring the benefits of Ultra Rice to the African continent for the first time, and we are thrilled to do so in collaboration with World Vision," Dipika Matthias, director of PATH’s Ultra Rice Project, said in a statement. “Our pilot [project] will generate critical data and also serve as a model for improving the nutritional quality of rice-based food aid."
Matthias said the project would focus on generating both operational and biological impact data to demonstrate that PATH's Ultra Rice is an effective rice fortification method for food aid programmes.
World Vision Burundi will provide technical expertise and training as well as the warehouse facilities for the storage and distribution of fortified rice to about 15,000 children through a school-feeding programme supported by WFP.
The Burundi project will focus on the northeastern province of Muyinga, where WFP and the provincial education director have targeted 20 schools.
WFP's Neilson said Muyinga was chosen because it is among "the most food-insecure provinces and is characterized by low primary school enrolment rates.
"Muyinga shows, indeed, high malnutrition rates and vulnerability to natural disasters as well as a general lack of food security," Neilson said. "This is based on several joint vulnerability studies conducted with partners, including [the] government."
Ruttoh said a World Vision survey in the commune of Gashoho in Muyinga showed the rate of malnutrition was "very high. Results seem to be the same in other communes like Bugenyuzi in Karuzi province."
Taste test
Ruttoh said World Vision would conduct an acceptability test in April before beginning the rice distribution.
"The biological test has two components: is it tasty or not? You give a group a handful of rice; they close their eyes and are asked to tell if there is a difference. The second test is about the iron content in the blood before and after one year of use of fortified rice.
"In September, we will start again with some schools receiving plain and others fortified rice; the project will continue until September 2012," Ruttoh said. "In 2012, we will make an assessment to check if we have really contributed to reversing anaemia.
"It is anticipated that the lessons learnt from the project will inform partners of the need to improve the nutritional quality of food," Ruttoh said. "In future, the government, donors and the local community, especially entrepreneurs, may choose to adopt the practice of food fortification."
According to Neilson, the project will impact “on the attendance and retention of primary-school students. In addition, the students continue to receive nutrition education through the government health and education programmes."

Rice is not a staple food in Burundi, however.
A parent in the capital, Bujumbura, who declined to be named, said: "In our home villages, we eat rice only on special occasions, like Christmas or during other ceremonies. This will be interesting for children to get it at school on a daily basis; we hope its taste won’t be too different from the normal rice."
Athanase Ntiyanogeye, a university lecturer and nutritionist, said it would take time for the Ultra Rice “to make an impact because rice is still a luxury food and there is not enough rice production; it is not accessible to ordinary Burundians".
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=91529