By Jonathan Ambaye
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk

HARARE, Zimbabwe-On Monday a week-long parliamentary caucus was started to begin Zimbabwe’s process of creating a new constitution.  It was revealed today by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change Party Publication that foreign donors had agreed to fund the process of making a new constitution, which would likely lead to “real” multiparty elections. The estimated costs for the entire process are around 3.6 million dollars a month.

Much of today’s time during the caucus was spent on how much money would be distributed to senators and others involved in the process. It is expected that the government will hire around 800 people for high-paying temporary jobs as field officers. These field officer’s jobs would be to ask Zimbabweans what they would like to see in the new constitution.

The goal has been to make this constitution representative of the Zimbabwean people. The actual process of consulting the Zimbabwean people on a new constitution is to begin next week. Many different civic groups have spent weeks training activists to educate communities about the new charter and provide new ideas for it, to ensure the goal of the constitution is met.

Olivia Gumbo, a coordinator for the Zimbabwean Human Rights Association emphasized that her group wants a “people driven document.” “We are talking about the right to participate in the governance issues, the right to vote, the right to speak out your view and also, the freedom of association,” she said.

This new constitution is part of a power-sharing agreement between President Robert Mugabe’s party and Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s party. The new constitution is hoped to end months of confrontation and controversial elections, and lead to “fresh” and fair ones within two years.

For more information please see:

Reuters –South Africa Sees Progress In Slow Zimbabwe Talks – 5 January 2010

Time – Zim MP’s Scramble for Seats On Gravy Train – 5 January 2010

VOA – Drafting Of New Constitution To Begin In Zimbabwe – 5 January 2010

By Jonathan Ambaye
Impunity Watch Journal, Africa Desk

BLANTYRE, Malawi-Today, two men, Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, were arrested and jailed after participating in Malawi’s first same-sex public wedding ceremony over the weekend.  The ceremony took place on Saturday.  The two men are set to appear in court soon, to face charges of gross indecency. Homosexuality is banned in the conservative southern African country where discussions involving sexual orientation are still very taboo. The country’s penal code outlaws homosexuality and sodomy, which are both punishable by a maximum of fourteen years in jail.

Hundreds of people attended the ceremony. It was held at a guesthouse in Blantyre, which included traditional and hip-hop music and consisted of the two men wearing traditional robes. “I went there to see for myself a gay couple, “Finiasi Chikaoneka, one of the hundreds of people who attended the ceremony told, AFP.  “There were many people who were just curious about the whole affair because this was the first time that gays have come out openly,” he added.

The Malawi law society, composed of around 150 lawyers in Malawi, has condemned the wedding, saying it was illegal and “against the order of nature.” Gift Trapenze, who is in charge of the centre for the Development of People (“CEDEP”), which is in an advocate for gays, prostitutes, and prisoners, defended the couple, saying “they were expressing their legal rights.” Trapenze claims the wedding was aimed at challenging the Malawi laws which were silent on these issues. “the two individuals were expressing their sexual orientation as human beings. The police should not interefere in this matter,” he told AFP.

For more information please see:

AFP – Malawi Arrests Newly-Wed Gays For Gross Indecency – 29 December 2009

BBC – Malawi Gay Couple To Face Court After Engagement – 29 Decemeber 2009

NY Times – Malawi Police Arrest 2 Men for Engagement Ceremony – 29 December 2009

By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

LAGOS, Nigeria – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was charged on Saturday with trying to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253, an American passenger plane carrying nearly 300 people.

Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old, London-educated Nigerian, boarded a flight in Lagos, Nigeria, changed planes in Amsterdam, and, as the flight was approaching Detroit, attempted to detonate a bomb.  Instead of exploding, however, the explosive device caught fire and burned the suspect.  He was treated for burns at a Detroit hospital before being transferred to a federal prison about 50 miles away in the city of Milan.

The suspect graduated from a prominent London university in June 2008 and soon after began showing signs of trouble.  He went to Dubai to continue his education but defied his family’s wishes and went to Yemen to study Arabic and Shariah law (Islamic law).

In May of this year, the UK denied Abdulmutallab re-entry because of the questionable nature of the university to which he said he was applying.

According to Nigeria’s Minister of Information Dora Akunyili, he entered and left Nigeria on December 24, the day before the bombing attempt.

“The man in question has been living outside the country for a while.  He sneaked into Nigeria on the 24th of December and left the same day,” she said.

His cousin Mohammed Mutallab claims that Abdulmutallab came into contact with extremist groups while studying in London and that he became influenced by these groups when he visited East London mosque.  The mosque has three times previously been accused of hosting Muslim extremist preachers.

Those in the town he grew up in blame his foreign education.

“Everyone knew about the Mutallabs and the father is honest, generous, helpful and above all a prominent banker.  I cannot see why his son should be involved in this act.  My only advice to the elite is to allow their children to mingle with the children of the masses so that he will have some of the traditional morals and values that (the elder) Mutallab himself enjoyed,” said Ibrahim Bello, a Funtua resident close to the Mutallab family home.

Abdulmutallab sent one final text message to his father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, in November saying he no longer wanted any contact with his family.  Mutallab and his wife applied for visas to Yemen to bring their son home but when they were denied, he alerted Nigerian and American officials.  He believed that his son had been “radicalized” during his trips outside the country.

Authorities in the United States, Europe, and Africa are all trying to figure out where Abdulmutallab has been in the past year and under whose influence he came.

“Nigerian security agencies are working hand-in-hand with international security agencies on this matter,” said Akunyili.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Plane Bomb Suspect ‘in Nigeria on December 24’ – 28 December 2009

Independent – Nigerian in Aircraft Attack Linked to London Mosque – 28 December 2009

Wall Street Jourmal – Suspect’s Privileged Existence Took Radical Turn – 28 December 2009

LA Times – Nigerian Accused of Trying to Destroy Northwest Airlines Flight Transferred to Federal Prison – 27 December 2009

Reuters – Nigeria Bomber’s Hometown Blames Foreign Schooling – 27 December 2009