Lao PDR Unilaterally Moves Forward In Spite of Commitments to Temporarily Suspend the Project

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Bangkok, Thailand: A field visit to the site of the proposed Xayaburi Dam has revealed that construction on the dam’s access road and work-camp is rapidly forging ahead, in spite of commitments by the Government of Laos to temporarily suspend the project. The trip to the Xayaburi Dam site on July 23rd revealed that a substantial construction camp has been established near Ban Talan village with at least a few hundred workers. An access road leading down to the dam site was also under construction and some land has been cleared without compensation provided to the owners.

“The Government of Laos appears to be set on unilaterally moving forward with the Xayaburi Dam in violation of international law and its commitments under the 1995 Mekong Agreement,” said Ame Trandem, Southeast Asia Program Director for International Rivers. “By building this dam, Laos is disregarding its regional commitments and robbing the future of millions of people in the region who rely upon the river for their livelihood and food security.”

Representatives from the four lower Mekong countries had originally been scheduled to meet in Phnom Penh this Friday, in order to discuss the next steps in the Mekong River Commission’s (MRC) Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement (PNPCA), the regional decision-making process for the Xayaburi Dam. On Tuesday, the meeting was postponed indefinitely without explanation.

As input into the future meeting, International Rivers has submitted to the MRC and regional governments a legal opinion by the US law firm Perkins Coie, which states that “The Mekong Agreement precludes any unilateral decisions that threatens the river’s ecological balance or impacts the needs of people who rely on it.” The opinion concludes “Lao PDR’s unilateral action to prematurely terminate the PNPCA process, without allowing its neighbor countries to properly conclude that process, violates the Mekong Agreement, and therefore international law.”

“This hypocrisy needs to stop,” said Pianporn Deetes, Thailand Campaign Coordinator for International Rivers. “If Laos is committed to cooperating with its neighbors on the project, then the government should stop all construction activities and start dealing honestly and truthfully.”

Less than two weeks ago, the Government of Laos was reported to have confirmed to a top U.S. diplomat for Asia that the dam’s suspension would continue, which was welcomed as a “forward-leaning” decision by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This came after Laos attempted to call the regional decision-making process complete at an Informal Donor Meeting of the Mekong River Commission, held on 24 June in Phnom Penh, despite calls from its neighbors for further study and consultation.

Only a few months earlier, on 19 April, the four governments had reached an agreement to defer the decision over the Xayaburi Dam for a future Ministerial-level meeting, which is expected to occur in October or November.

Despite the Xayaburi Dam’s construction forging ahead, the next steps in the regional decision-making process and how the knowledge gaps identified by the MRC’s Technical Review of the project will be filled remain unclear.

The Xayaburi Dam is currently the single greatest threat facing the Mekong River and its people. The project would forcibly resettle over 2,100 people and directly affect over 202,000 people. It threatens the extinction of approximately 41 fish species, including the critically endangered Mekong Giant Catfish and an additional 23 to 100 migratory fish species would be threatened through a blocked fish migration route. These impacts in turn will affect the livelihoods and food security of millions of people in the region.

Vietnamese experts at a seminar last week presented research findings indicating that all 12 dams planned for the Mekong Mainstream could result in one billion dollars in annual losses to Vietnam, due to impacts on the rich and productive Mekong Delta.

By International Rivers

Grassroots leaders in Nakuru County have succesful managed to petition the courts to stop Nakuru Municipal Mayoral elections that were to be held today starting at 10am on among other grounds that the process has not allowed public participation as required by the new constitution. Second, one of the top contenders for the Mayoral seat called Mr. Mohamed Surow has a pending criminal case in Wajir court where he is charged on allegation of smuggling weapons from Somali into Kenyan soil – the case is recorded as Criminal Case No 12 of 2010. 
 
The petitioners led by Bunge la Mwananchi Central Rift Coordinator Joseph Omondi of telephone 0727410812 and escort of Kenya Police Officers have succesful served the court orders to Mr. Kaio Mbulusi the Clerk of Nakuru Municipal Council officials in the presence of the council legal advisors.
 
This civic action is a bold statement and wake up call to all political leaders that we are in a new order and the days when when the taxpayers, the voters and the citizens were ignored or treated as incosequential and political office holders transacted public affairs with impunity without regard of the constitution are long gone.
 
Our message to all Kenyans is that we must be vigilant and should not allow the new order to be hijacked by corrupt cartels. Llet’s make the new constitution our tool for civic action. Let us take charge of the battle of demanding transparency and political accountability. Let us make sure that no one escapes through the new constitution’s demand  that public office holders must be people of integrity and individuals who inspire public honor and public trust.
 
This civic action was made possible because of tireless and risk venture of our community leaders network in North Eastern who have asked to be kept anonymous.  
 
 
By George Nyongesa | National Coordinator, Bunge la Mwananchi |

NEPAL: Migration main factor for HIV prevalence in west

Photo: Amy Lieberman/IRIN

Nearly 70percent of households in Achham migrate at some stage

MANGALSEN, 27 July 2011 (PlusNews) – HIV prevalence in Achham is estimated at 1.7 percent, but many residents, who have never left the remote western district, know HIV only as “Bombay [Mumbai] disease”.

Naming HIV after India’s bustling commercial city is considered the most logical explanation for what happened to men who were healthy when they migrated for work and returned home years later sick. The district has supplied cheap migrant labour to cities such as Mumbai for years.

“There’s only one main cause for HIV prevalence here and that is men going to India,” said Surja Kunwar, a nurse at Achham District Hospital, near the district capital of Mangalsen. “Men have to migrate and don’t know about safe sex and women cannot demand safe sex with their husbands.”

Although HIV prevalence in Nepal’s general population is a low 0.5 percent, the country has been experiencing a concentrated epidemic among high-risk groups such as seasonal migrant workers. The government found that in 2008, 41 percent of all HIV cases in the country were among labour migrants.

Testing and public awareness for HIV are said to be increasing in Achham, where nearly 70 percent of households migrate at some stage, according to the International Labour Organization. An inclusive maternal care programme at district hospitals, which provide women with US$20 if they give birth on-site, has helped control mother-to-child transmission of HIV; the Achham District Hospital reports only 42 cases of transmission since 2005.

But the silence between husbands and wives at home about protected sex – and men’s frequent unprotected encounters with sex workers in Mumbai – continues.

Damdar Saud worked in Mumbai as a physical labourer for 16 years before returning to Achham two years ago. He learned he was HIV-positive after his health began to decline last month, and then walked two days to the hospital.

He is now receiving free antiretroviral treatment and feels better, but has not shared any details of his diagnosis or healthcare with his wife.

“Soon I will go home and I will bring my wife back here to get tested,” said Saud. “But I think I know what will be the result. I’m thinking she is positive.”

Kalashi Vishwakarmas, now pregnant with her fourth child, was the last to know that her husband of 10 years was HIV-positive. He, like Saud, worked in Mumbai, but she says she did not know what kind of job he had. She says she never felt comfortable asking about his sexual activity abroad.

She learned of her own HIV-positive status about two years ago, while she was pregnant with her third child and underwent routine testing at the hospital. All her children have since tested negative.

“I never heard of HIV before,” Vishwakarmas said. “My husband kept this secret from me… I wish I would have known.”

There’s only one main cause for HIV prevalence here and that is men going to India … Men have to migrate and dont know about safe sex and women cannot demand safe sex with their husbands

Housewives in Achham constitute the highest number of reported persons living with HIV – 60 percent of the 1,141 recorded cases as of 14 May 2011, according to the Ministry of Health and Population’s district health office.

Although more people have been getting tested for the virus, the number of people who know their status is still low. About 13 percent of Achham’s approximate 300,000 population have been tested, said Krishna Singh, programme supervisor of the national NGO, Working for Access and Creation, in Achham.

Singh estimates that 5,000 Achham residents are HIV positive. About 64,000 people are estimated to be living with HIV in Nepal, meaning the estimated HIV-positive residents of Achham – only one of 75 districts – account for 7 percent of this national prevalence.

An estimated 1,500 children are affected by HIV/AIDS, many orphaned and serving as heads of households in Achham.

Dhunki Nepali says it may be difficult for her three children living with her if she becomes sick. “My family is here but they don’t give us anything, they have their own families to take care of,” said Nepali, whose second husband left after he learned she was HIV-positive.

Her first husband, who used to work as a labourer in India and did not tell her when he tested positive, is no longer alive. “I didn’t know anything at the time about his status. I was very young,” she explained.

Nepali’s oldest son, aged eight, is also HIV-positive, but she is not sure about her toddler’s status. She did not reach the hospital – about an hour’s walk – for her delivery and gave birth on the side of the road.

Nepali and her son’s status has led to further isolation in their community. “Even though people don’t say things [about my positive status] I know they talk and they want the children to stay away,” Nepali said.

al/kn/mw source www.irinnews.org

By API

Kenyans believed in this institution after new people took over from the defunct Electoral Commission whose then Commissioners led by Mr Kiviutu made the country shed blood after the 2007 general elections. This is a shock to many who expected the new IIEC led my Hassan to lead by example especially after doing a very good job during the few by-elections that has so far taken place under their watch and the very good watch over the referendum on the New Constitution, a consitution that will lead Kenya to prosperity if implemented well.

The Star writes “These are facts. If you find them unsettling, then we have cause to be afraid, very afraid, indeed. If you doubt these please seek to establish the same from any or all of the following; Institute of Education in Democracy (IED), Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa (EISA), National Democratic Institute (NDI), International Commission of Jurists-Kenya Chapter (ICJ-Kenya), the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), URAIA e.t.c. These are NGOs involved intimately in supporting and collaborating with IIEC in various ways.

The Stars continues to dig in saying “On issues touching on governance or corruption in the IIEC, even the state Intelligence agency, we are sure has corroborative evidence. The IIEC commissioners are fiercely divided on regional or tribal lines. First, against all common sense and better judgment, they first recruited Regional Election Coordinators (RECs), Constituency Election Coordinators (CECs) and Managers. Then lastly contracted the recruitment of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Directors to KPMG. Reasonable approach would have started with the CEO and Directors who would have been instrumental in putting up criteria for the recruitment of lower cadre. The reason is simple: Commissioners see themselves as representing and projecting ‘provincial’ interests and their own personal interests. The result is that nearly all RECs are either directly related to the Commissioners or were recruited at the behest of dominant political interests in the provinces. For instance, how is it that in the entire Rift Valley, all the three RECs are either Kipsigis or related to the Commissioner from the same ‘region’? How come there is not one Maasai as REC? And why is the REC for Southern Rift located in Bomet Town and not Narok? Could it be because the Commissioner for Rift Valley is a Kipsigis? Can it be denied that the South Rift Regional Elections Coordinator is related to the Commissioner for Rift Valley? In Nyanza, the REC for South Nyanza, a Kisii, has lived and still lives in Eldoret Town where her home immediately borders that of the Commissioner for Nyanza, also a Kisii, and the two are long-time family friends.”

As if that is not enough, the Star reveals that “ The Chairman himself is a relative of the REC for Garissa and many CECs! There is a Staff Disciplinary Committee in the Commission. Fraud cannot be prosecuted because the commissioners protect their own. Example: A CEC related to the Rift Valley Commissioner, withdrew money to pay clerks, about Ksh. 400,000. His station is Muhoroni Constituency. Instead of paying the clerks he took the money to Eldoret, booked himself into a hotel with his wife and enjoyed mightily. Later he claimed that the money was stolen. The CEC was suspended and should have been sacked in accordance with the Commission’s disciplinary procedures. But the Commissioner from Rift Valley obstructed the process arguing that the fellow had returned the money after getting the family shamba sold and that this was enough punishment. ALL CECs from Nyanza, Rift Valley and Western Provinces were interchanged. This means that CECs that originate from Nyanza can be found posted to constituencies in either Rift Valley or Western Province and vice versa. Therefore, the CEC for Kisumu Rural Constituency is a Luhya; Budalangi a Kalenjin; Bomachoge a Luhya; Tinderet Luhya; Muhoroni Kalenjin and Narok South a Luo. This ‘ethnic interchange’ affected only Nyanza, Western and Rift Valley Provinces. The Commissioner for Central led a rebellion against this policy and the result is that all CECs born and bred in Central serve only in Central.”

If we have to go by the revelations the Star says ” if a general election is called, all poll officials from Central will be Kikuyus, while in Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western, there will be an ‘ethnic interchange’. As well, all Kambas will serve in their own backyard. In North Eastern, Eastern and Coast Provinces it will be the same thing. The Chairman of the Commission failed dismally to enforce a standard policy across all regions and this is a time bomb waiting to explode if not addressed immediately. To make matters really worse all Regional Election Co-ordinators serve in their Regions of birth. In South Nyanza which includes Kisii, the REC is a Kisii, in Luo Nyanza, a Luo,in Central all the two RECs are Kikuyus, in Coast, North Eastern Western and Eastern the same! All public and private sector employees in Kenya do not work only in the provinces of their birth. Why is IIEC so primordial in its thinking? In the entire North Eastern, Eastern, Central and Coast provinces, all electoral officials are native. This is a recipe for electoral fraud. This much can be guaranteed. Relevant Links East Africa Kenya Commissioners have attempted to influence or influenced the conduct of elections to the extent that, due to repeated public outcry, the Commission adopted an unofficial policy that a commissioner will not take part in or supervise any election taking place in their Region or Province. But this policy hasn’t been enforced consistently as the examples here illustrate. In the recent Juja by-election, all the seven candidates – except Thuo who was considered by many to be a ‘state candidate’ – stormed the offices of the IIEC and protested at the ‘visible’ partisan involvement of Commissioner Winnie Guchu in the elections in favor of Thuo. This was widely covered in both the print and electronic media. The same was repeated in Kirinyaga where Martha Karua loudly, repeatedly and bitterly complained about the partisan state role in the election and the biased role of Commissioner Winnie Guchu. These are facts that the IIEC Chairman and his Commissioners must be asked to confirm or deny!”

Now the Kenya AntiCorruption Commission boss PLO Lumumba has been called in to investigate the IIEC. It is sad this is happening when the elections in the country is around the corner, leave alone the Kamukunji by-elections next week.

It is, however, not clear why the Chairman of the IIEC and some of the Commissioners decided to suspend Mr Odongo, the Personal assistant to the CEO Mr Oswago. The suspension was done quickly while Odongo’s boss is out of the country on an official visit.

Observers are now saying that Hassan and his Commissioners are acting fast because they want to remove Oswago, the CEO because he has not been a “YES” man to the Commissioner’s requests in the recent issues touching on election managers for the coming 2012 elections.

End

KENYA: Clinics struggle to keep patients not yet eligible for ARVs

Photo: Wendy Stone/IRIN

Newer, point-of-care diagnostic technologies are likely to improve patient retention

NAIROBI, 2 August 2011 (PlusNews) – Jairus Musau tested HIV-positive two years ago, but when he was told he would not immediately be given antiretrovirals, his parents insisted he visit a traditional healer in his eastern Kenya hometown of Kitui.

“The doctor told me I would not be given ARVs since I still did not qualify for them,” the 25-year-old told IRIN/PlusNews. “When I shared this with my parents, they told me I would live with somebody who would pray for me.”

When Musau first sought treatment, his CD4 count – a measure of immune strength – was 389. The UN World Health Organization currently recommends that HIV-positive people initiate treatment at a CD4 count of 350 and below; while Kenya has indicated that it will switch to these guidelines, most people still access treatment at the national guidelines-stipulated threshold of 200 and below.

When he started feeling very ill, Musau left the traditional healer’s home and went to Mbagathi District Hospital in the capital, Nairobi, where his CD4 count was found to be well below 200 and he was immediately given treatment.

“Now I can see I am improving soon after I started taking my drugs. If I had sunk my head in prayers, I would be dead today,” he said. “Many people die like that, not because they want to, but because when you are told you are HIV positive but you must wait and start taking ARVs later, you believe even swallowing a rock can save you.”

More than 400,000 HIV-positive Kenyans are currently on ARVs, but another 600,000 need the drugs and have no access to them; an estimated 1.5 million Kenyans are infected with HIV.

The national guidelines state that all patients diagnosed with HIV be put on cotrimoxazole, an antibiotic used as a prophylactic against opportunistic infections. A 2011 study conducted at Nairobi’s Coptic Hospital found that provision of cotrimoxazole improved the retention rates of Kenyan HIV programmes from 63 percent to 84 percent; 16 percent continued to be lost to care.

Challenges

According to Georgina Masivi, a senior Comprehensive Care Centre Nurse at the country’s largest referral facility, Kenyatta National Hospital, retaining HIV-positive patients not yet eligible for treatment remains a challenge.

“[Some] will come while they are still being treated for opportunistic infections and once they start to feel better, they just disappear, forgetting it is ARVs that they need for their long-term survival,” she said.

According to Andrew Suleh, medical superintendent at Mbagathi District Hospital, the many processes involved in attaining ARV treatment can act as a deterrent. “There are procedures that health workers need to follow like taking CD4 counts of a patient, waiting for the results, counselling for adherence and making sure that a patient is psychologically prepared to be initiated on treatment,” he said. “Some patients are lost along the way because of the frustration of having to wait and they run to seek treatment through some other means.

“Children are even more susceptible to loss to care because somebody, either a parent or a caregiver, doesn’t care to take them back for treatment or fails to go back and collect their test results,” he added.

A recent review of studies on retention of patients between testing and treatment found that more than two-thirds of people who tested positive for HIV but were not yet on treatment were lost.

Health workers in Kenya say some of the major reasons include: the stigma involved in visiting a health facility where they are known, long distances from health centres and the long wait for test results.

Ibrahim Mohamed, head of the National AIDS and Sexually transmitted infections Control Programme, noted that the government was trying to improve record keeping at health centres in an effort to keep track of patients.

“It would be too ambitious to say you can eradicate cases of patients getting lost before they can be initiated on treatment, but we emphasize proper health records and patient information management by healthcare workers to ease follow up,” he said. “Maybe what we need to do now is share this information with all ART sites so that if one patient is lost at a particular centre, he or she can be traced should they seek treatment at another.”

According to Suleh, boosting community health worker numbers and introducing technologies that give much faster CD4 and TB diagnoses would improve programmes’ ability to retain patients on care. Most recently, the developers of an “mChip” successfully tested in Rwanda, say it can diagnose infectious diseases such as HIV and syphilis at patients’ bedsides and potentially streamline blood testing worldwide.

“Now we are talking about point-of-care CD4 count and advanced technologies that can give results of TB diagnosis in just hours,” he said. “If we invest in these and have more community workers to track down patients, then such cases of loss of patients can be reduced.”

ko/kr/mw
source www.irinnews.org

Analysis: Understanding the drivers of homophobia in Ghana

Photo: Samuel Darko Appiah/IRIN

People in western Ghana denounce homosexuality

DAKAR, 1 August 2011 (PlusNews) – Recent condemnation of homosexuality by religious and political leaders in Ghana has led to a climate of fear preventing men who have sex with men (MSM) from accessing vital health services, say local NGOs.

The minister of Ghana’s Western Region, Paul Evans Aidoo, publicly described homosexuality as “detestable and abominable” after media reports in late May that 8,000 homosexuals had registered with health NGOs in the country’s west (the information appears to come from records kept by the NGOs of people who accessed services for MSM). Aidoo has since called for increased security in the region and the arrest of all homosexuals. Other religious leaders and politicians have followed suit, condemning homosexual activity.

As a result, far fewer MSM are accessing safe sex education and support programmes run by the Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights (CEPEHRG) to prevent the spread of HIV, said MacDarling Cobbinah from the Coalition against Homophobia in Ghana and a member of CEPEHRG.

“It has brought about a lot of fear and stigma for the people. It is difficult to organize programmes,” Cobbinah said. “It is very difficult for people to walk freely on the street… The call for arrest has really pushed people down.”

He added that one of his colleagues was recently accused of being gay and beaten up by a group of men.

Cobbinah said numbers had dropped at a regular HIV peer education programme that once had more than 20 people attending; two weeks ago only half the people came, and last week no one came, he told IRIN on 27 July. “They said, ‘If we come, we might be arrested.’”

An estimated 25 percent of Ghanaian MSM were HIV-positive in 2006, according to the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

According to the UN World Health Organization, since the beginning of the epidemic in the early 1980s, MSM have been disproportionately affected by HIV. The organization said social discrimination of MSM led them to delay or avoid seeking HIV-related information, care and services.

Other organizations in Ghana are also facing obstacles to providing vital services. An NGO based in the Western Region’s capital Sekondi-Takoradi, which distributes condoms and safe sex information to MSM, told IRIN that since Aidoo increased security and called for arrests they have felt threatened.

Male-to-male sexual relations are a crime in Ghana. Considered a misdemeanor, it carries a maximum sentence of six months, according to Kissi Agyabeng, a law lecturer at the University of Ghana. However, despite Aidoo’s calls for a crackdown, arrests do not yet appear to be taking place.

A spokesperson for the Sekondi-Takoradi NGO, who did not want his name or the organization’s name published for security reasons, said the NGO was now coming under pressure from the government to stop their work on HIV prevention if they did not reveal the names of MSM who have registered to use their services.

Stopping this work would affect thousands of people. In 2008, 2,900 people accessed their services, and by this year numbers had quadrupled, the spokesperson said.

Motivations

Cobbinah said the current climate of homophobia is a reaction to growing awareness of homosexuality in the country. When the figure of 8,000 homosexuals surfaced, he said, “it shocked most people… They thought [the number of] gays was growing”.

Rachel Spronk, a Ghana-based researcher on sexuality, said in this environment homophobic sentiment feeds off itself. “Leaders feel they have to respond to it,” she said. “People who have never [previously] thought about it are speaking out.”

Researchers and human rights workers have also indicated an underlying motivation for the current condemnation may be political point-scoring as the 2012 elections approach.

Spronk said the current public debate “is not happening by coincidence… Leaders have to make their position [and themselves] visible for election.”

Graeme Reid, director of Human Rights Watch’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights programme, pointed out it was not uncommon for “gay issues [to be] used as a distraction against economic and political concerns, uniting people against a common enemy”.

Un-African behaviour?

While hardly unique to Africa, homophobia appears to be rising on the continent.

Reid said this began when Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe condemned homosexuals at an international book fair in 1995 after a gay and lesbian group applied to open a stand there. “This was the first time there was a public statement from the president of an [African] country condemning gays and lesbians.”

He said this was followed by statements by other African presidents, and more recently there had been a wave of anti-homosexual sentiment in sub-Saharan Africa.

Spronk said part of the reason for the spread of homophobic statements is the use of language such as “un-African”. When this is used in one country, it invokes issues of identity across the continent, she said. “It appeals to African identity and culture, people feel they have to respond to it.”

Ghana’s Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa told IRIN the president considered homosexuality “alien to our culture”.

“It also ties into ideas about colonialism,” Reid said. “People say it has been imposed on Africa by the West.”

Fred Degbe, general secretary of Ghana’s Christian Council, said Ghanaians and Africans cherished “rich values on such issues as homosexuality” and must not allow others “to impose what is acceptable in their culture on us”.

wb/sda/np/cb source www.irinnews.org