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UN envoy Jan Pronk has warned that the recent Sudanese peace agreement could fail if the bloodshed in the western region of Darfur proves unstopable. The Khartoum government and the Republic of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) signed the peace deal in the Republic of Kenya 9 January, capping some three years of negotiations to the long-running conflict in the south of the country. (6-FEB-05)
 

The Congress of South African Trade Unions’s (Cosatu) expulsion from Zimbabwe this week has triggered a wave of protest among South African civil society organisations, church groups and youth organisations riled by the African National Congress’s policy of “quiet diplomacy”. This week 12 civil society organisations met in Johannesburg to formulate plans to mobilise mass-based protests in South Africa against the Mugabe regime. (5-FEB-05)
 

Tomorrow, on UN?s day to combat female genital mutilation (FGM), human rights organisations appeal to religious leaders across the world to speak up for zero tolerance to this practice. -Female circumcision is not only a violation of personal integrity and human rights. It is also a cause of extreme pain and represents a serious health hazard, says Norwegian Church Aid?s adviser on gender issues, Thora Holter. (5-FEB-05) 
 

www.humanrightshouse.org hereby joins Reporters without Borders’ request to all advocates of freedom of expression to sign the below online petition urging the Gambian government to open an independent inquiry into the murder of journalist Deyda Hydara. Hydara, one of Gambia’s most respected journalists, was gunned down on 16 December 2004. Witnesses have proven scared of speaking out. (4-FEB-05)
 

Enormous hopes rested on the Government of Republic of the Sudan (GoS) and the rebels Republic of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) when they signed a comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) in Naivasha, Republic of Kenya, on Sunday, 9 January. If sustained, it will mark the end of a more than two decades of war and allowing Sudan’s people to return to a civilian lifestyle with the accompanying rights and freedoms. (4-FEB-05)
 

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has announced that it will participate in the forthcoming parliamentary elections under protest. According to the party’s spokesman, Paul Themba Nyathi, MDC has abandoned plans to boycott the vote to protest political violence and unfair voting conditions in Zimbabwe. (4-FEB-05)
  

A U.N. special commission, which refused to declare the widespread killings in the Republic of the Sudan as genocide,’ has been criticised for restraining its condemnation of the massacre of some 400,000 Sudanese. Reacting to the report released by the commission Monday, Claudio Cordone of Amnesty International said “the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Darfur region are no less serious than genocide.” (3-FEB-05)
 

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has met its Zimbabwean counterparts today after the union federation was turned away at Harare airport yesterday. Cosatu spokesperson Paul Notyhawa said the two federations would meet in Musina in South Africa’s Limpopo province instead. “The meeting will cover all the topics which would have been discussed in Harare,” he said. (3-FEB-05)
 

If the Croatian authorities fail to turn in general Gotovina until the beginning of March 17 to the Hague Tribunal, the European Commission will postpone the negotiations for joining the EU – warned Oli Rehn, commissioner to the European Commission for Enlargement.  (2-FEB-05)