Residents Flee Kenya Slum Fearing Police Crackdown

By Katy Migiro Nairobi 08 June 2007

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Police in Kenya continue searching through a sprawling Nairobi slum, where they have been battling with members of the violent Mungiki sect for the past four days. Hundreds of residents have fled the violence, which has left more than 30 people dead. For VOA, Katy Migiro has this report.

A woman with facial injuries runs away with her baby next to people rounded up during fighting between police and Mungiki sect in Nairobi's Mathare slum, 07 Jun 2007

On Friday, hundreds of people poured out of Nairobi's sprawling Mathare slum, which has been the epicenter of the bloody police crackdown on the Mungiki sect. The residents carried mattresses, furniture and sacks of clothes in handcarts and cars.

Many said they feared further violence, not from the Mungiki, but from the Kenyan police.

A woman who did not want to be named said that she was beaten by the police who believed that she was married to a member of the Mungiki sect.

"They are claiming my husband is Mungiki. I told them I don't have a husband," she said. "They beat me. They said I should say where is my husband and he's Mungiki."

The police operation in the Nairobi slum began on Monday night, following the deaths of two officers. Officials blamed the sect for the killings.

A police officer keeps guard as residents are forced to demolish their homes during fighting between police and the Mungiki sect in Nairobi's Mathare slum, 07 Jun 2007

On Thursday, some 500 members of the paramilitary wing of the police, known as the GSU, and regular police officers cordoned off a section of the Mathare slum, barring anyone from entering or leaving the area for six hours. Men and women were separated and order to lie down in the dirt while they were frisked. Residents were told to help the police demolish shacks which the police said were known Mungiki hideouts. Twelve people were shot dead and around 200 were arrested.

David Kimaiyo, director of operations at Police Headquarter in Nairobi, denied that his officers have used excessive force.

The Mungiki are thought to be militants from Kenya's biggest ethnic group, the Kikuyu. Some have linked them to politicians wanting to cause unrest and fear ahead of December elections. The sect promotes such ancient tradtions as female circumcision which was outlawed in 2002.

Five former and current members of parliament were recently questioned by the police over Mungiki connections.

African Health Officials Cautiously Welcome G8 Health Pledge

By Phuong Tran Dakar 08 June 2007

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Health officials in Africa are reacting cautiously to the pledge of more aid money from G8 nations to tackle major diseases on the continent. They say managing the huge sums of money remains a problem. Phuong Tran has more from VOA's Central and West African Bureau in Dakar.

G-8 leaders are seen during a working meeting in Heiligendamm June 7, 2007

On the closing day of the G8 meeting in Germany, leaders of the world's richest countries pledged $60 billion in the coming years to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa.

Some of the money overlaps with earlier pledges by the United States and international donors.

Lusamba Pikassa, a director at the World Health Organization's regional office for Africa in Congo, says Africans need the money for life-saving drugs, decaying laboratories, and training for new health workers.

"We are losing the best human resources," he said. "They go because of the conflict and all the problems related to working conditions. They prefer to migrate."

He says staffing clinics with new medicines, equipment, and people is not enough to solve the continent's health problems.

"Part of the amount should be used to ensure that we have in place health systems that can not only manage those funds, but also ensure that the population has access to care, that there is transparency and no corruption," he added.

Another concern Pikassa has with the proposed aid is how to make it last.

"It is very good for the G8 to provide these funds, which will be very helpful. But that needs to be sustained over time and we need to ensure the states themselves are able to [raise] these kinds of resources," he explained.

Ibra Ndoye, director of the National AIDS Council of Senegal, says he hopes G8 leaders will honor the pledge for health aid.

Ndoye says without the funds, it will be difficult to fund prevention activities that he says have helped keep the rate of HIV infection relatively low in Senegal, at less than two percent for the population.

The promise to boost health care funding comes on top of an earlier G8 pledge to double aid to Africa by the year 2010. Economists have said the world's wealthiest industrial nations are not giving enough to meet their goal.

African Union president and President of Ghana John Kufuor has said he hopes the G8 leaders will honor their pledges, and that in return, Africans will work to manage the increased aid.

Israel Ready to Discuss Golan Heights in Peace Talks with Syria

By Robert Berger Jerusalem 08 June 2007

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An Israeli Cabinet member says the government wants to open peace talks with Syria and is prepared to discuss terms for returning the Golan Heights. The Cabinet minister's comments follow a newspaper report on Israeli overtures to Damascus. Robert Berger reports from the VOA bureau in Jerusalem.

Meir Sheetrit (file photo)

Cabinet Minister Meir Sheetrit says Israel is interested in resuming negotiations with Syria based on the formula of land for peace. The talks would focus on the strategic Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria during the Six Day War in 1967.

Sheetrit told Israel Radio that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is prepared to negotiate, and the ball is now in Syria's court. There was no immediate response from Damascus.

Sheetrit was responding to an Israeli newspaper report which said that Mr. Olmert has sent secret messages to Syria saying he is prepared to withdraw from the Golan in exchange for full peace. According to the Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot, the messages were sent through German and Turkish diplomats.

Sheetrit said an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan would have to be tested over a long period of time.

He says that under a peace agreement, Syria should lease the Golan Heights to Israel for 25 years. If peace endures during that period, Israel would withdraw from the territory.

The newspaper said Mr. Olmert set down tough conditions for peace talks: Syria must scale back ties with Iran and end support for Islamic militant groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The offer reflects the thinking in some Israeli circles that peace talks with Syria would weaken radical forces in the region by bringing Damascus into the camp of the moderates.

The United States had no immediate reaction to the latest reports. Washington has been pressing Syria to do more to halt the flow of weapons into Iraq, and end its interference in Lebanon.

The Bush administration has been publicly cool to the idea of a resumption of Israeli-Syrian talks.

Israeli opposition leaders say it would be a grave mistake for Israel to rescue Syria from its diplomatic isolation, which stems largely from its behavior in Lebanon and Iraq.

VOASE0608_In the News

08 June 2007

How Six Days in 1967 Changed the Middle East Until This Day
A 40th anniversary look at the war in which Israel captured the Palestinian territories and more as it fought for its survival.

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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Forty years ago this week, Israel, fearing a threat of destruction, defeated three Arab

Israeli soldiers stand at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest place, which was captured by Israel 40 years ago from Jordan.

armies in six days of war.

Egypt had gathered a huge force in the Sinai Desert across the border from southern Israel. Israeli planes carried out surprise raids on June fifth and destroyed most of the Egyptian air force at its bases. Israel also moved ground forces to fight the Egyptians.

Jordan launched attacks on Israel that same day. Jordanian artillery and planes attacked Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem and other areas.

The Israeli military responded the next day, June sixth. Heavy fighting pushed Jordanian forces out of Jerusalem. The Israelis captured East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank. The city of Jerusalem had been divided since Israel's war of independence in nineteen forty-eight.

By the time the Six Day War ended with a cease-fire, Israel had almost three times as much territory as before. It won control of the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank from Jordan and the Golan Heights in fighting with Syria.

In addition to Egypt, the Israeli air force destroyed aircraft in Syria, Jordan and another Egyptian ally, Iraq.

In the weeks earlier, Egypt had taken steps that included dismissing United Nations peacekeepers from the Sinai border area. Egypt also blocked Israeli ship traffic to and from the Red Sea through the Straits of Tiran. And Egypt's president, Gamal Abdel-Nasser, said the goal of war with Israel would its complete destruction.

Arabs often call the Nineteen Sixty-Seven War "an-Nakash," the Setback. Israel returned the Sinai as part of its nineteen seventy-nine peace treaty with Egypt. Peace with Jordan came later.

Israel and Syria have recently expressed willingness to renew peace talks that ended seven years ago. But Israel is reported waiting to see how much Syria is willing to compromise in return for the Golan Heights. At issue is Syrian ties with Iran and anti-Israeli groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

Israel has left Gaza but still controls movement into and out of the territory. And it still occupies the West Bank.

The West Bank and Gaza are home to almost four million Palestinians. Unemployment and poverty are high. The United Nations World Food Program says it feeds about six hundred sixty-five thousand people in Gaza and the West Bank.

Israel says its actions are needed to defend against terrorist attacks.

Israel held events last month, in keeping with the Jewish calendar, to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of its reunification of Jerusalem. In the West Bank, people this week marked the anniversary of occupation. But much of the attention went to the current violence in Gaza between armed groups loyal to the Palestinian parties of Fatah and Hamas.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned of being on the edge of civil war. He said the fighting is a danger equal to or greater than Israeli occupation.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember.