UN team meets Chad child soldiers!
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By Celeste Hicks
BBC News, N'Djamena
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The UN is working to release more than 80 child soldiers taken prisoner by the Chad army during fighting with rebels.
The children were seized from the rebel Union of Resistance Forces (UFR) group, the UN children's fund (Unicef) says.
The UFR mounted a failed attack in the east of Chad early in May which led to troops capturing many prisoners.
On Wednesday, Unicef staff finally began interviewing the children to establish their age and identity. Some are believed to be as young as 13.
It is hoped they will all be released to a demobilisation centre in N'Djamena as soon as possible.
The issue has highlighted by the British actor Ralph Fiennes, who has just concluded a visit to Chad as a Unicef goodwill ambassador.
More than 200 prisoners were taken at the battle of Am Dam in May, where the UFR rebels suffered a big defeat which forced them to retreat completely.
Bodies of young soldiers were seen scattered on the battlefield, and pictures of the young captives were shown on national television.
Unicef and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been pushing the Chadian government to grant them access to the children since they were transferred from the east to a jail in N'Djamena.
On a visit to Goz Beida in the east of Chad, the home region of many of these children, actor Ralph Fiennes met the mother of a 17-year-old boy who disappeared to join the rebels in 2006.
He took a photograph of the family and was able to show it to the missing son who he found in the demobilisation centre in N'Djamena.
"Someone has had to witness their child being taken and possibly brutalised and the huge distress that must be to a mother," Mr Fiennes said.
Chad says it inflicted a significant blow to the rebels at Am Dam
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"This woman that we talked to had an extraordinary dignity and pride, and to speak your story to someone, the actual speaking of it can sometimes be helpful to people," the actor added.
In 2007 Chad signed the Paris Engagements on the protection of children which obliges them to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers.
While Unicef says the government has been helpful in granting access to the most recent captives, the use of children by all sides in the conflict in eastern Chad and across the border in Sudan's Darfur region continues unabated.
Chad's government accuses Sudan of sending armed rebels over the border from Darfur, a claim Khartoum rejects.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Rusty paper clip
Saturday 30th May 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
The unity government is being torn apart over the retention of the Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono. While they argue, threaten and grandstand, we look at our tattered lives.
In a box, abandoned and covered in dust and fluff, lies the evidence of my lost life savings, seizure of my home and property and destruction of my pension. I am not alone but am one of ten million Zimbabweans who find themselves in the same position, one that has unfolded in just 9 ugly years.
At the bottom of the box are the last accounts from our farm that was seized by the Zimbabwe government in 2000. The accounts show no income and there is a note attached with a rusting paper clip which says: "No compensation paid for house, fixtures, fittings, infrastructure, fencing etc." That statement remains true 9 years later.
Next in the box is a tattered orange cardboard file. Most of it's contents are still too painful to revisit. One section deals with lost life savings which had been invested in a bank that was closed down by Zimbabwe's banking authorities.
In dog eared, dirty bundles held together with melting, perishing elastic bands there are piles and piles of money. Purple 500 hundred dollar notes, olive 1,000 dollar notes and then strange things called 'bearers cheques. They are blue, red, brown, purple and green bits of paper with expiry dates and values ranging from 5 to 100 thousand dollars. They bear the signature of Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono.
Then other bundles with even higher denomination 'bearer cheques' ranging in value from 1 to 500 million dollars. These too have expiry dates and are signed by Gideon Gono.
There in the box are the records of new attempts to save money - futile efforts because Mr Gono slashed three zeroes from the currency and thousands became single dollars overnight.
More bundles of money, this time they are in billion dollar denominations and are called Special Agro Cheques. they too have expiry dates and are signed by Mr Gono: purple, green, brown, blue, valued from 5 to 100 billion dollars.
Then more records of how everything was lost again when Mr Gono imposed daily withdrawal limits from the banks. We could only draw out enough of our own money to buy half a loaf of bread a day; the queues were in the thousands and our money lost all its value before we could get it out of the banks.
Again Mr Gono removed zeroes from the currency; in a single swipe billionaires became paupers. New bank notes which started at one dollar soon got bigger as mismanagement continued and again we had bank notes for 500 thousand, 1 million, 1 billion. We went dizzy as notes were issued by Mr Gono for 1 trillion, 10 trillion. When Mr Gono's presses physically couldn't print the money fast enough, all out trillions, quadrillions and septillions were lost when trading in Zim dollars was suspended and we moved into US dollars.
At the top of the box is a small newspaper cutting. It quotes Mr Gono admitting that he removed money from private bank accounts to fund government expenses.
And after all this there is cause for argument?
Until next week with a view of scarlet poinsettias, love cathy
UN team meets Chad child soldiers1
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By Celeste Hicks
BBC News, N'Djamena
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The UN is working to release more than 80 child soldiers taken prisoner by the Chad army during fighting with rebels.
The children were seized from the rebel Union of Resistance Forces (UFR) group, the UN children's fund (Unicef) says.
The UFR mounted a failed attack in the east of Chad early in May which led to troops capturing many prisoners.
On Wednesday, Unicef staff finally began interviewing the children to establish their age and identity. Some are believed to be as young as 13.
It is hoped they will all be released to a demobilisation centre in N'Djamena as soon as possible.
The issue has highlighted by the British actor Ralph Fiennes, who has just concluded a visit to Chad as a Unicef goodwill ambassador.
More than 200 prisoners were taken at the battle of Am Dam in May, where the UFR rebels suffered a big defeat which forced them to retreat completely.
Bodies of young soldiers were seen scattered on the battlefield, and pictures of the young captives were shown on national televisio
Unicef and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been pushing the Chadian government to grant them access to the children since they were transferred from the east to a jail in N'Djamena.
On a visit to Goz Beida in the east of Chad, the home region of many of these children, actor Ralph Fiennes met the mother of a 17-year-old boy who disappeared to join the rebels in 2006.
He took a photograph of the family and was able to show it to the missing son who he found in the demobilisation centre in N'Djamena.
"Someone has had to witness their child being taken and possibly brutalised and the huge distress that must be to a mother," Mr Fiennes said.
Chad says it inflicted a significant blow to the rebels at Am Dam
|
"This woman that we talked to had an extraordinary dignity and pride, and to speak your story to someone, the actual speaking of it can sometimes be helpful to people," the actor added.
In 2007 Chad signed the Paris Engagements on the protection of children which obliges them to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers.
While Unicef says the government has been helpful in granting access to the most recent captives, the use of children by all sides in the conflict in eastern Chad and across the border in Sudan's Darfur region continues unabated.
Chad's government accuses Sudan of sending armed rebels over the border from Darfur, a claim Khartoum rejects.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Abuses in Zimbabwe 'still go on'!
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By Karen Allen
BBC News, Johannesburg
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Mr Tsvangirai showed no sign of straying away from the coalition
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Zimbabwe's prime minister has set out a bleak assessment of the pace of democratic change in what was once one of Africa's most prosperous nations.
Morgan Tsvangirai said the society for which his supporters were striving bore little resemblance to the reality.
He said political intimidation and rights abuses continued in Zimbabwe.
Mr Tsvangirai was speaking at an annual convention of his MDC party, which is part of a power-sharing government with President Robert Mugabe.
The MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) convention is an annual event but it is the first time that Mr Tsvangirai's party has found itself part of the power-sharing deal, which has now survived more than 100 days.
Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe for close to 30 years
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Addressing more than 1,000 delegates sporting red party T-shirts, the prime minister admitted the MDC had not yet succeeded in restoring the rule of law, warning that people were still hungry and afraid of political persecution.
Although his party is now part of the government, commentators have warned that the MDC has responsibility without authority.
The party complains that it has been undermined by President Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party on a number of issues, in particular the unilateral reappointment of the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Gideon Gono.
The MDC and many in the international community see this as a stumbling block to rehabilitating the country's shattered economy.
Nevertheless, Mr Tsvangirai showed no sign of straying away from the coalition, saying it was the work of the MDC in government that had helped to bring the country back from what he called a truly national disaster.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Friday 29th May 2009
Dear Friends,
Over the years, Zimbabweans have grown used to hearing half-truths and downright lies from Zanu PF and their associated hangers-on. We learned that from Zanu PF we could expect nothing but lies and propaganda.
The emergence of the MDC on the political scene was like a breath of fresh air blowing across the arid political landscape of Zanu PF hegemony. Here at last were men and women of integrity and courage, we thought. They would not lie to us or try to mislead us. Theirs was the political and moral high ground, they stood for truth and justice for all, no 'spin' or lying propaganda from them. That's what we thought. Papa Morgan was our hero. When we saw him beaten and bloody, we wept for him and all the other brave cadres who were putting their lives on the line for the New Beginning we all dreamed of for our beloved country.
Then came the Inclusive Government. The unbelievable had happened: after months of tortuous negotiations, the MDC had sat down with their former oppressors in a so-called Government of National Unity. The past was behind us, we must forgive and forget, we were told. 'National Reconciliation' was what we must all work for now. And if that meant drawing a veil over past and present horrors then that must be done. Whatever the price, we must preserve the illusion that all is now well in Zimbabwe. We must present a united front to the world - or no money would come Zimbabwe's way.
That, apparently, is the thinking within the MDC leadership team now. How else can we explain Morgan Tsvangirai's extraordinary statement this week during an interview he gave to highlight the achievements of the first 100days of the GNU. The pictures of beaten and bloodied white farmers and terrified farm workers, imprisoned and beaten, the stories of their nightmarish ordeals on invaded farms continue to be seen and heard on an almost daily basis; yet Morgan Tsvangirai chooses this moment to refer to the " so-called farm invasions" as "isolated incidents…blown out of proportion. We have investigated examples of these so-called farm invasions…we have asked the Minister of Lands to give us a detailed report of what has been happening over all these so-called land invasions and the outcry over that."
Total disbelief as we listened to the report of Tsvangirai's words; we just could not believe what we were hearing. From the farmers themselves came stunned incredulity and deep shock. How could the Prime Minister deny the truth that was staring at him from the faces of beaten farmers, farmers to whom he had promised the restoration of law and order and punishment for the perpetrators of violence? In the week when Zimbabwe earned the dubious accolade of 'the most food-aid dependent country in the world' and the Red Cross/ Red Crescent figures showed that 80% of Zimbabwe's population is now reliant on food-aid to survive, Morgan Tsvangirai chooses to deny the widespread reality of farm invasions and the subsequent loss of agricultural production. Instead, he describes the chaos as 'so-called'. Since April, Ben Freeth reports, "We have reaped absolutely nothing. 150 farm workers have been unable to work and are living in terror." In an Open Letter to the Prime Minister dated May 26 from his Mount Carmel farm in the heat of the continuing violent invasion of his property, Freeth graphically describes the horror and blatant illegality of the invaders' actions. "As you will know", he writes, "this is not just an isolated incident. In this area where approximately 6000 hectares of irrigated winter wheat used to be grown, I do not know of a single hectare of winter wheat being sown this year."
It is utterly incomprehensible that Morgan Tsvangirai should now choose to deny the reality in the light of such facts. Is this the same man who, just four weeks ago, said, "The rule of law is a moral imperative and a business necessity. The responsibility to save and protect the quality of life for all must preoccupy us in political leadership, regardless of race, colour, tribe, religion or political affiliation." What has happened in four short weeks to so radically change the Prime Minister's vision of the reality on the ground? As he goes back to SADC over Mugabe's refusal to remove Gideon Gono from the Reserve Bank, the Prime Minister denies the reality of farm invasions and says not a word about protecting property rights or even of the urgent necessity of allowing the farmers to grow food, both issues which are specifically covered under the GPA. It is hardly likely that foreign investors will accepts the validity of Tsvangirai's claim that farm invasions are just "isolated incidents blown out of all proportion" when the evidence of their own eyes tells them that the invasions are widespread and violent and the food shortages are desperately real. Today the EU stepped into the debate. The EU's argument is that all farm and conservancy invasions should cease; not, ironically, because of the human rights issue or the rampant food shortages in the country, but because of the damage to wild life and tourism. While that is certainly true, it makes little difference to the central argument which is that farmers, be they black or white, are being prevented from growing food by violent thugs with police and government connivance. So much for the 'Moral imperative'of the Rule of Law that the Prime Minister talked about so passionately just four weeks ago!
For those of us who so much wanted to believe that Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC might bring change from within when they joined this (so-called) Unity Government, this is a moment of bitter disillusion. We see no real change from Zanu PF; it is the MDC who are now changing their tune to chime with their former adversaries. The MDC would do well to remember that their courageous supporters up and down the country risked life and limb to vote for them back in March. Half-truths, expediency, spin and downright lies are Zanu PF tactics, we did not expect them from the MDC. The people are neither blind nor deaf; a disenchanted electorate is not likely to forget when it comes time to exercise their democratic right again. The more the MDC sounds and looks like Zanu PF, the less likely the people are to vote for them. That's how I see it.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.
Britons to return from Zimbabwe!
Pensioner Fred Noble says he is going home to die
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More than 60 British passport holders, reduced to poverty in Zimbabwe, are to be repatriated to Britain over the next few weeks.
They are the first successful applicants to a UK government scheme to resettle elderly and vulnerable people unable to afford the move themselves.
All their savings were lost in years of hyper-inflation in Zimbabwe.
The government says it may eventually have to pay for the return of 750 of its citizens.
The scheme is available to people aged over 70 with medical or care needs.
Fred Noble has lived in Zimbabwe for 51 years, but is now packing his bags for the move back to Britain this weekend. He had built up a good pension fund working on the railways, but is now almost destitute.
"I got sick, had to go to a private hospital and pay all the expenses myself. I had to sell my flat," he said.
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 I came to a beautiful country and I will remember it as that 
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"One day you are very well off, and the next day you are a poor man."
Inflation in Zimbabwe, which at one point reached 231m per cent, made pensions, savings and investments worthless.
British local government minister John Healy says the number of enquiries went up after last year's presidential election in Zimbabwe.
"People were looking for help, particularly as the economy was still collapsing, the health care system, food supplies were getting more difficult," he said.
With the new unity government in power, the economy in Zimbabwe is beginning to stabilise. But it has come too late for Mr Noble.
"I'll miss this," he said. "Wonderful years. But I am not a young man any more, and I am going home to die - that is how I look at it. I came to a beautiful country and I will remember it as that."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Witnesses testify in albino trial!
Many people with albinism are living in fear in Burundi
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Witnesses have testified in the case of 11 men in Burundi, accused of the attempted murder of albino people and selling of their body parts.
Initial charges of murder have been dropped because the prosecution failed to produce enough evidence.
Police suspect the body parts are being sold in neighbouring Tanzania, for use in witchcraft.
Forty-six albino people have been murdered in Tanzania in the past 18 months, but no-one has been convicted.
But the violence against albinos is not restricted to Tanzania; last November a six-year-old albino girl in Burundi was found dead with her head and limbs removed.
Thursday's hearing in the eastern province of Ruyigi, near the Tanzanian border, has generated a great deal of interest.
Witnesses travelled from the remote north-east of Burundi to give testimony linking one of the defendants with the killers of a married man with albinism whose body parts were allegedly taken to Tanzania.
The case began last week, but had to be adjourned after witnesses failed to show up.
The BBC's Prime Ndikumagenge says the courtroom is so crammed many people are waiting outside to hear details of the evidence second hand.
Our reporter says eight of the accused allegedly helped traffic albino body parts and desecrated a graveyard to take the parts of someone who was buried.
The rest of the defendants are accused of attempting to kill an albino child. The accused deny the charges.
Witchdoctors in the region are known to tell clients that potions made with albino body parts will bring them luck in love, life and business.
BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says Tanzania's government has promised action and the fact that there have been no reported attacks or murders of albinos for two months in Tanzania provides some hope.
Hundreds of people including witchdoctors and business people have been arrested but the justice system in Tanzania is notoriously slow and corrupt and so far nobody has been convicted, he says.
Albinism affects one in 20,000 people worldwide, but in Tanzania the prevalence appears to be much higher.
The Albino Association of Tanzania says that although just 4,000 albinos are officially registered in the country, they believe the actual number could be as high as 173,000. A census is now under way to try to verify the figures
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Rainbow nation's outsiders live in fear
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By Karen Allen
BBC News, Johannesburg
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Just a modest crowd - mainly elderly South African women - turned up to St Michael's Church in Alexandra township for a special service to mark a year since their country's descent into xenophobic violence.
A new shopping centre was being opened in the area near central Johannesburg. "Perhaps the people preferred to go there," remarked one bystander, trying to explain the poor attendance.
Her remark symbolised what many human rights activists claim has been the "inadequate" response by the authorities to last year's anti-foreigner bloodshed.
Sixty-two people were killed and about 100,000 were displaced.
Yet some believe the African National Congress (ANC) government has become distracted by other things.
Ernesto Nhamuave from Mozambique was torched by a marauding mob
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In May 2008 international newspapers carried the horrific image of Ernesto Nhamuave - a Mozambican man who was "necklaced" - torched by a marauding mob - simply for being a foreigner.
The 35-year-old father of three later died of his injuries.
It resembled the appalling violence during the struggle against white minority rule.
During last year's xenophobic violence the clashes were between black Africans: locals and those considered outsiders.
South Africa now has a new president, a ruling party which is trying to patch up rifts and factionalism following the ousting of former President Thabo Mbeki, and an ambitious plan to showcase the nation when it hosts the Fifa World Cup in 2010.
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You know what [foreigners] they're like, they take all the jobs
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Jean Pierre Misago, from the University of Witswatersand, has been studying the violence.
"It might look different - there isn't any fighting, but 60 people died, dozens were raped, yet no one has been charged for murder or rape," he says.
"There's been no government response to make sure that the rights of foreigners are protected."
He is among the many who fear that if not confronted head on, anti-foreigner sentiment could grow like a festering wound.
In Ramaphosa settlement where shacks stand side-by-side with brick buildings and a tarmac road runs through the centre, the anti- foreigner sentiment is still simmering beneath the surface.
A new exhibition of photographs seeks to preserve the bloodshed for posterity
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"The crime's got better here since the foreigners moved out," said one woman.
"You know what they're like, they also take all the jobs."
She was the neighbour of a former Mozambican hairdresser whose salon I saw being burnt down a year ago.
The shop is now in South African hands. The Mozambican owner has fled.
One of his countrymen, a man named Abdul, explained what it is now like to be a foreigner in South Africa today.
"They beat me last year. Some have told us after [the election of] a new president we're going to start again, so it's better that you run away now before we beat you again," he said.
Almost all the foreigners we spoke to had heard rumours that meetings were planned by disgruntled South African neighbours, keen to get them out.
When we approached the "organisers", they refused to be interviewed.
This uneasy truce has left community workers like David trying to hold the peace.
Mobs turned on their neighbours, prompting an exodus of foreigners
"The foreigners are visible," he said. "They've started to re-open businesses, but their prices are less than the South Africans.
"It's a free market, so we are going to have to solve this. It is a problem about communication."
But if his message does not get through there are worries about a repeat of last year's violence.
Countless reports have sought to pinpoint the trigger for the violence.
An exhibition of photographs at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg has sought to preserve the bloodshed for posterity.
Poverty, lack of service delivery on housing, health and jobs are the factors that researchers believe underpinned the violence.
Other African countries suffer the same, yet fellow Africans appear not to be targeted in the same way.
In Kenya where I spent the past four years it is not uncommon to see a person set up an informal stall or kiosk at the side of the road, and begin trading.
Last year's orgy of violence spawned a wave of protests
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Researchers at the University of Witswatersand have pointed to the "micro-politics" of South African townships and informal settlements.
The unique and bitter history that South Africa endured under apartheid has exposed the fact that such behaviour is not welcome.
It is a subtle difference that a South African colleague sought to explain.
People here are used to trading from their homes or from their cars, but setting up a kiosk is seen as an encroachment of territory.
The presence of foreign traders, who sell cheap, is also considered "unfair competition".
There have been reports of abuses - foreign labour taken on at below the minimum wage - freezing South Africans out, but this is a separate issue.
The ANC government has pledged to address problems of housing, crime and unemployment, but analysts say it must also try to overcome the sense of "passive citizenship", by encouraging people to become job creators, not simply job-seekers.
President Zuma faces a test meeting South Africans' high expectations
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For some of the three million Zimbabwean immigrants in South Africa the government has indicated that it plans to be more flexible.
Visa restrictions have been relaxed and the authorities are no longer deporting Zimbabweans from a holding centre in Braamfontein back to Zimbabwe.
But there are Mozambicans, Malawians, Somalis and Kenyans who want to know where they stand.
President Jacob Zuma faces a tough challenge meeting the high expectations of South Africans, disappointed about the perceived lack of delivery of services but prepared to give the ANC another chance.
And balancing the rights of foreigners, who under South Africa's constitution, enjoy the same rights as anyone else here.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
SA doctors march for better pay!
Some doctors work up to 36 hours without a break
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Hundreds of doctors in South Africa have taken part in marches to demand a 50% pay rise and more government investment in hospitals.
It comes after several weeks of strikes and pickets by medical professionals.
Dressed in white gowns and black armbands, some protesters in Pretoria held up placards reading "Bus drivers earn more than doctors".
Earlier this week, South Africa's economy went into recession for the first time since 1992.
Correspondents say Jacob Zuma, who was inaugurated as president earlier this month, faces pressure from trade unions to live up to his promises to help poor workers.
The South African Medical Association, which organised the marches in the capital, Pretoria, the port city of Durban and Bisho in the Eastern Cape, says doctors are overworked and underpaid, sometimes working up to 36 hours without a break.
"We are marching to better conditions in the public sector, for you not to be in long queues," Pretoria march co-ordinator Lizzy Kwenda told onlookers, the South African Press Association reports.
She said the doctors on the march - estimated at about 500 in Pretoria - were not neglecting patients.
The black armbands, she said, symbolised the "death" of the health system.
"We cannot take it anymore," she said. "The health system has collapsed."
The doctors in Pretoria marched to the department of health, where they handed over a list of complaints.
"I understand your pain, I am a doctor, and once worked in a hospital; I experience your situation," Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said, adding their concerns were being looked into.
"Give us the time frame, [a] deadline!" the doctors shouted back, Sapa reports.
Earlier, Mpho Mohlala, deputy chairwoman of the United Doctors Forum, warned that patients were not getting basic care.
"We've got an exodus of doctors leaving the country, going to work somewhere overseas, and we've got lots and lots of doctors moving out of the public sector to the private sector," she told the AFP news agency.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Sudan army takes town from rebels!
Jem rebels have attacked two army bases in Darfur in just over a week
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Sudan's army says it has taken control of a town near its border with Chad, recently seized by rebels.
Sudan says more than 60 people were killed during the fighting with the rebel Justice and Equality Movement around the town of Kornoi, in Darfur.
The news comes as African leaders meet for talks, partly on regional conflict.
Sudan and Chad accuse each other of backing one another's rebels and solving their dispute is seen as a key step in solving the crisis in Darfur.
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir is expected at the summit of the 28-member Community of Sahel and Saharan States in Tripoli, Libya.
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Mr Bashir for war crimes in Darfur, which he denies.
A new round of talks between the Sudanese government and Jem rebels is also due to start in Qatar to pave the way for a peace conference on Darfur.
An army spokesman said Jem had "completely evacuated" the area of Kornoi, 50km (31 miles) from Chad, and retreated towards the border, AFP news agency reports.
Jem seized Kornoi earlier this month and it tried to take an army base at nearby Umm Baru twice last week.
The rebels said they had withdrawn from the area for "humanitarian purposes" to protect the civilian population from air attacks.
"The government warplanes were making very wide bombardment," senior Jem commander Suleiman Sandal told Reuters news agency.
Earlier this week, a spokesman from the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force said around 350 civilians and 100 unarmed Sudanese soldiers had sought refuge in a nearby Unamid camp during clashes.
The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people have died in a six-year conflict in Sudan's Darfur region and more than two million more have been displaced.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Tutu in Hay appeal for Zimbabwe!
Archbishop Desmond Tutu said he had a role as a 'global elder'
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu has pleaded for increased support for Zimbabwe's fragile national unity government.
The anti-apartheid icon, a key-note speaker at Hay's literary festival, said Zimbabwe had become a "hell on earth".
He was questioned by a Zimbabwean activist on the lack of unity among the leaders of southern African countries in dealing robustly with Robert Mugabe's regime.
He said the new unity government was the best option and that change could only really come at the next election.
Archbishop Tutu told the woman that he "felt very deeply" with her anguish.
Tutu, now the emeritus Archbishop of Cape Town, said some leaders had taken a tougher line with President Mugabe.
He said he hoped other leaders would follow suit.
Tutu also said he understood too that countries were reluctant to give aid to a country with so many problems.
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DESMOND TUTU FACTFILE
Born October 1931 in Transvaal
Became a teacher until law in 1953 separated races in education
Joined the church and became the first black Anglican Dean of Johannesburg in 1975 and Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986
An opponent of apartheid, he told the government its racist approach defied the will of God and risked jail by calling for a boycott of municipal elections in 1986
Asked in 1995 by President Nelson Mandela to head a truth and reconciliation commission
Advised on reconciliation in Northern Ireland and Cyprus and a strong critic of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and the Iraq war
Won Nobel peace prize in 1984 and other honours include an honorary degree from Cardiff University in 1998
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But he said this was the best way forward and that would help to strengthen the political process and give Morgan Tsvangirai a decisive mandate at the next election.
In a wide-ranging and witty conversation with festival director Peter Florence, the Nobel laureate praised the human spirit in adversity.
He said if apartheid could be abolished in South Africa then surely most of the world's problems could be solved.
There was no situation that was "totally intractable" he said.
Tutu also said his roving brief as a "global elder" had involved him in helping to resolve the problems in Gaza.
He criticised the conditions Palestinians were living under and said the only answer was the two-state solution.
But he warned that if the Palestinian question was not resolved, the world could "give up on everything else".
"This is the problem and it is in our hands," he said.
Tutu said he felt that religious faith had played a large part in the process of rebuilding post-apartheid South Africa.
He said they had had "an enormous advantage that trumped everything - we had Nelson Mandela".
Modestly playing down his own role, he said he was a good captain of a winning team.
Earlier, Archbishop Tutu attended a church service in Hay, where the Archbishop of Canterbury gave the address.
Rowan Williams called for lifestyles to be more human and to avoid the excesses of individualism and collectivism.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Uganda MPs issued with scorecards
Men scored better than women in the assessment
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An independent Ugandan think tank has published performance scorecards for every MP in the country.
Graded from triple A to F, the reports measure such things as attendance and participation at debates and have been welcomed by voters.
The worst-performing MPs were representatives of the army, most of whom got Fs.
Opposition MPs scored higher than those from the governing party, and men did better than women.
The scorecards found 70% of MPs did not attend constituency or district local council meetings.
And only 65% of elected members had set up constituency offices and hired staff, despite receiving funding for this purpose.
Kitgum district MP John Okello Okello scored an A and a B for his parliamentary and committee work respectively, but a D for constituency work.
He told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme he thought he would have done much better in the constituency marks because he said he had a well-established office.
"I have DStv, my people watch football free, I provide newspapers throughout the year," he said. "I think [the scorecards are] good, it encourages us to do better."
Kabarole district MP Margaret Muhanga Mugisa, who got a C and an F, said she had not seen her scorecard.
But she told Focus on Africa: "I've hear I've performed excellent. I bring petitions, I ask for more money for them [constituents]."
David Pulkol, the head of the Africa Leadership Institute, which prepared the cards, said it was best to present the information simply, like a school report card.
Explaining what kind of things were assessed, he told the BBC: "Their attendance. Their participation. It's a talking house [of parliament]. It's not a sleeping house. It's not where you can come to sleep.
"So we're telling MPs, you've been given money to rent a house where you sleep with your spouse and children. But you come to the parliament to deliberate."
A couple of weeks before the results were published, there was a rowdy debate in parliament, when some MPs tried to block the release of the cards.
Parliamentary attendance shot up after the cards were published for the first time last year and revealed that MPs on average turned up for only a quarter of sessions.
One voter was very impressed, telling the BBC: "It's really good because now we can see MPs who are not working for us and indeed it can even help improve their attendance."
The BBC's Joshua Mmali in Uganda's capital, Kampala, says the voters will now know which MPs make the grade, and which do not, with elections less than two years away.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Nigeria United fan kills rivals
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Nigerians follow European football very closely
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A Manchester United football fan in south-eastern Nigeria drove a minibus into a crowd of Barcelona supporters, killing four people, police say.
Ten other people were wounded in the incident in Ogbo town, after United lost Wednesday's European Champions League Final 2-0 to the Spanish team.
A police spokeswoman told Reuters news agency: "The driver passed the crowd, then made a U-turn and ran into them."
He is now in police custody. Both teams have a large fan base in Nigeria.
"The man confessed to doing it on purpose," police spokeswoman Rita Inoma Abbey told the BBC.
"He now says he doesn't know why he did it, but it was an intentional act."
Football fans across Africa closely follow the European leagues, which recruit some of the continent's best players.
Earlier this month, a Kenyan Arsenal fan hanged himself after his team's defeat in Champions League semi-final second leg by Manchester United.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Circumcised die in South Africa
Eight boys have died and three are in hospital after botched circumcisions in the South African province of Mpumalanga, officials say.
The teenager were at an initiation school in the town of Kwamhlanga.
One of the initiates died in hospital and the seven others were found by health officials dead at the school.
Circumcision is a traditional rite of passage for many boys in South Africa, where authorities have long campaigned to stop botched initiation ceremonies.
Although it is unusual for so many boys to die at the same time, deaths from circumcisions are occasionally reported in South Africa, where blunt, un-sterilised knives are sometimes used.
Fifteen initiates were admitted to Kwamhlanga Hospital since Saturday, Simphiwe Kunene, of the Mpumalanga health department, told the South African Press Association news agency.
Eleven were later discharged and three were still being treated, but one died.
Seven more bodies were found at the initiation school when forensic pathology officials were called, bringing the total fatalities to eight.
"At the moment, we are not in position to say what killed the young men, but the three who are still in the hospital had shown signs of excessive loss of blood," another health department spokesman Mpho Gabashane told South Africa's Times newspaper.
Mr Kunene told Sapa that health officials were working with traditional leaders to ensure resources were available that could prevent further loss of life.
In 2001 the government passed an act requiring a licence from a medical officer for each circumcision, but traditional leaders said that infringed community rights.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Gay ministers get backing of Tutu!
Archbishop Desmond Tutu with new moderator Bill Hewitt
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu has voiced his support for including homosexuals in the church, in an address to the Kirk's General Assembly in Edinburgh.
The South African archbishop insisted every kind of person, no matter what their race, class or sexuality was part of God's family.
Earlier this week the Church of Scotland agreed a two-year moratorium on the ordination of gay ministers.
The decision came after the appointment of a gay minister in Aberdeen.
On Saturday, the General Assembly, the Kirk's supreme court, said the Reverend Scott Rennie could become the minister at Queen's Cross Church.
The minister said he was open about living with his male partner and his appointment was backed by a majority of the congregation.
The General Assembly's decision to appoint Mr Rennie - in a 326-267 vote - raised fears among traditionalists of a possible split in the Kirk.
But on Monday, a two-year ban on the ordination of gay ministers was announced while a special commission considered the matter and reported back in 2011.
The Archbishop said he was aware of the debate over whether the body would agree to endorse the gay minister's appointment, adding that "mercifully" this was done.
He said: "For my part, I was involved in the struggle against a system that penalised people for something about which they could do nothing - their race - and I could not stand by when people were being penalised again for something about which they could do nothing - their gender.
"For quite a while our church did not ordain women to the priesthood. I joined the struggle and this is a non-issue in our church now. We haven't yet consecrated a woman bishop but we've called our first woman Dean and any number of women are Archdeacons.
"So, under this rubric, I would find it impossible to stand by when people are being persecuted for something about which they can do nothing - their sexual orientation."
Archbishop Tutu added: "In this family there are no outsiders. All are insiders - lesbian, gay, so-called straight - we are family."
As well as advocating the inclusion of all kinds of people in the church, Archbishop Tutu argued vociferously for an end to poverty.
He questioned how obscene amounts of money could be spent on weapons when only a tiny fraction of defence budgets would feed the hungry.
The archbishop received a standing ovation before departing for Edinburgh University where he was awarded an honorary degree.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Nigeria arrests militant leader !
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Militants are feared and communities tend not to stand up to them
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A key militant leader in Nigeria's oil-producing Baylesa State has been arrested after women in the area he was using as a hideout demanded the police deal with an influx of oil rebels.
Ken Nweigha, known as "Daddy Ken", was detained after a roadblock shootout.
It is unusual for people to turn in militants as they are often feared or pay Delta communities to keep quiet.
But residents of Odi said they feared a repeat of an army operation 10 years ago which devastated the town.
Militants have been fleeing military action in neighbouring Delta State.
Mr Nweigha, the head of an armed group based in Bayelsa State, was said to have been harbouring them.
The 500 women in Odi called on the commissioner of police, visiting the area at the time, to do something to prevent the military coming back to the town.
It was after this that Mr Nweigha drove his car into a roadblock, local media reported.
He tried to escape, but the police opened fire, killing another man in the car.
The women were worried the militants presence would bring soldiers to the town, still living in the shadow of a military attack in 1999.
US-based rights body Human Rights Watch reported 50 people were killed in that attack, which was provoked by the murder of 11 soldiers, allegedly by militants led by Daddy Ken.
Other local accounts put the number of dead at much higher.
A military operation is currently under way in the swamps of neighbouring Delta State.
The military Joint Task Force (JTF) are hunting militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend).
It has been impossible to verify any casualty figures as travel to the region has been restricted by the military.
Militant groups in the Niger Delta have flourished amid a lack of governance and rule of law.
They claim to be fighting to help local people benefit from the region's oil wealth but fund their activities with oil theft, extortion and kidnapping.
The Joint Task Force, charged with bringing security to the Delta, has been accused of brutality and corruption.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Mogadishu victims swamp hospitals
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Medics have been dealing with bullet and shrapnel wounds
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Doctors at one of the main hospitals in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, say they have been swamped with patients injured in an upsurge of fighting.
Medics say some of the casualties are being admitted with horrific injuries.
At Medina Hospital, tents have been set up in the corridors and mattresses laid under trees outside for the victims.
It comes as a radical cleric on the US terror list, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, formally became leader of the Somali Islamist rebel group Hisbul-Islam.
The militia, and an allied hardline group, al-Shabab, have been locked in fierce battles with pro-government forces that have displaced more than 60,000 civilians since 7 May.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which funds and runs two of Mogadishu's three hospitals, Medina and Keysaney, told the BBC more than 650 patients have sought treatment since the clashes began and that many more were trapped in conflict zones.
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We are very stretched but at the moment no-one is being turned away
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It said a number of patients had bullet and shrapnel wounds as well as blast injuries from shells landing on their homes.
"We are very stretched but at the moment no-one is being turned away and we can cope with the pressure," said Pedram Yazdiof, of the ICRC in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
He said fighting in the southern Medina district of the city over the past two days had made it difficult for some staff to get to the hospital.
The BBC's Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says the capital was relatively quiet on Wednesday after two weeks of almost continual fighting.
Meanwhile, the outgoing head of rebel group Hisbul-Islam, Omar Abubakar, said he had not come under any pressure to hand over the leadership to Mr Aweys.
Mr Aweys, who returned from exile last month, was already regarded as the spiritual leader of Hisbul-Islam, say correspondents.
The group was formed in January to fight the unity government led by Mr Aweys' one-time ally, President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys spent two years in exile in Eritrea
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President Ahmed's introduction of Sharia law to the strongly Muslim country has not appeased radicals like Mr Aweys, who have sworn to topple the administration and impose a stricter version of Islamic rule.
Mr Aweys fled to Eritrea in 2007 after Ethiopian troops ousted his movement, the Union of Islamic Courts, which he had led with Mr Ahmed.
He split from the more moderate Mr Ahmed after the latter agreed to UN-led peace talks that brought the latter to power as president in January and saw Ethiopian troops pull out.
Mr Aweys accuses President Ahmed and the unity government of being unelected and unrepresentative and wants African Union (AU) peacekeepers to leave the country.
The UN Security Council has voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the 4,300-strong AU mission in Somalia for eight months, and to provide more stable financing.
John Sawers, the British ambassador at the UN, said this would cost between $200m and $300m (£190m).
The Security Council also urged member states to fund, and provide training for, the Somali military and police so that they can play a greater role in providing security.
Somalia, a nation of about eight million people, has experienced almost constant conflict since the collapse of its central government in January 1991.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Ivorian ex-rebels hand over zones
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The transfer of power was due in January but was twice postponed
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Former rebel forces in Ivory Coast have relinquished territory in the north to civilian administrators appointed by President Laurent Gbagbo.
A handover ceremony was held on Tuesday in the ex-rebel stronghold of Bouake.
Mr Gbagbo says polls cannot be held until the central government's rule is restored throughout Ivory Coast.
He signed a peace deal with the New Forces rebels in 2007. Presidential elections - repeatedly postponed - are due to be held in November.
The former French colony was torn apart by a brief civil war in 2002 when the New Forces seized control of the mainly Muslim north of the country.
The handover of 10 northern zones controlled by the rebels since the conflict is aimed at restoring government authority across the West Africa country.
Reunification is seen as key for luring back investment to Ivory Coast
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The transfer of power, due in January under the latest United Nations-backed peace pact signed at the end of 2008, was twice postponed.
Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, himself a former rebel leader, signed a document authorising the handover.
Interior Minister Desire Tagro, who is close to President Gbagbo, said: "We are seeing the full return of political and administrative normality in Ivory Coast," reported Reuters news agency.
Ivory Coast has put off elections several times since President Gbagbo's mandate expired in October 2005.
Reunification and fair elections are regarded as vital for encouraging investment back to world's biggest cocoa producer.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Opposition anger at Niger leader
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Mamadou Tandja says the people of Niger want him to stay
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Opponents of President Mamadou Tandja of Niger have accused him of trying to turn the country into a dictatorship.
Mr Tandja, 70, dissolved parliament hours after the constitutional court rejected his plan to hold a referendum on extending his time in office.
He is due to complete the permitted maximum of a decade in power, two five-year terms, later this year.
President Tandja's supporters say he deserves to stay on as he has boosted the uranium-rich country's economy.
Mr Tandja has the constitutional right to dissolve parliament, but the chairman of the opposition RDA party, Abdoulahy Diori Hamani, told the BBC the president's move had come as an unwelcome surprise.
Human rights campaigner Abdoul Kamara Dine said it reminded him of the worst kind of African dictatorships from the 1970s.
"Our man is corrupted by power. He wants to create a kind of kingdom, which can't be - Niger is a republic," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
Observers in the mutiny-prone country told the BBC's Idy Baraou they fear the political limbo may give the army an opportunity to intervene.
The dissolution of parliament marks the end of a six-month struggle between the president and parliament over the third term issue.
Mansur Liman from the BBC's Hausa Service says the president is now likely to press ahead with his plans for the referendum.
According to the constitution, he has three months before elections must be held for a new parliament.
Analysts have raised questions about how he will fund the referendum and polls without the help of donors.
On Tuesday, the constitutional court said Mr Tandja, who was first elected in 1999, was breaking his oath of office by trying to hang on.
He had previously promised to quit in December this year, a month after presidential elections were due to be held.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Rally against Zille in Cape Town
Helen Zille campaigned for last month's election on an anti-Zuma platform
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Supporters of South African President Jacob Zuma are to stage a protest in Cape Town against criticisms of him by official opposition leader Helen Zille.
The demonstrators say they will no longer tolerate the Western Cape premier's "anti-African behaviour".
The organisers - veterans of the former military wing of the governing African National Congress (ANC) - accuse Ms Zille of calling Mr Zuma a womaniser.
The Democratic Alliance leader caused uproar with her recent remarks.
The BBC's Mpho Lakaje in South Africa says the authorities could have their hands full in Western Cape.
The protest organisers have warned Ms Zille never to forget they are fully trained soldiers capable of wreaking havoc if necessary.
Ms Zille told the state broadcaster on Tuesday she did not have any problem with Mr Zuma.
"President Zuma and I are political opponents but we are not enemies," she said. "Just yesterday President Zuma and I had a long and relaxed and cordial and professional telephone conversation. "So that's how it works in a democracy: Sometimes you go head on but that doesn't take away from the professional, cordial relationship you have."
Ms Zille was quoted earlier this month by the Sowetan newspaper as saying President Jacob Zuma had put his three wives at risk of contracting HIV.
Self-proclaimed polygamist Mr Zuma was acquitted of rape in 2006 when he admitted having unprotected sex with his accuser, an HIV-positive family friend.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
