<a href=www.sfgate.com>SFGate.com-Associated Press Friday, April 18, 2003
(04-18) 16:12 PDT CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) --

A fight between inmates wielding homemade knives and machetes left 11 dead and 40 injured inside a maximum security prison in northcentral Venezuela, authorities said Friday.

Dozens of National Guardsmen were dispatched to restore order at Yare II prison, located roughly 30 miles from Caracas. It was the third Venezuelan prison riot in the last 15 days.

"We have 10 dead inside the prison, one of them decapitated," Fire Chief Denis De Lima told The Associated Press by telephone. "One died when he was being treated at the hospital."

De Lima said the riot was a fight over territory disputed between rival prison gangs.

The Interior Ministry's Inmate Custody and Rehabilitation Director, Carlos Sutrun, told the state-run Venpres news agency that 40 inmates were transferred to nearby hospitals.

Riots are common in Venezuela's 32 overcrowded and understaffed prisons, where almost half the inmates are in pre-trial detention. On April 4, four prisoners died and 10 were injured by gunfire during fight between inmates at Uribana prison.

Six days later, 15 inmates and a security guard were injured during a riot at Rodeo I prison.

There were 244 deaths and more than 1,200 injuries in prisons between Oct. 2001 and Sept. 2002, according to the U.S. State Department 2002 Human Rights Report. Most of the deaths resulted from fighting between prisoners, the report said.

CBSNews.com HAVANA, April 18, 2003 (AP)

"The unquestionable majority vote is a clear signal from the Human Rights Commission that Cuba has the right to apply its own laws." Felipe Perez Roque Cuban Foreign Minister

(AP) The U.N. Human Rights Commission's failure to condemn Cuba for its recent crackdown affirmed the island leadership's belief in the right to defend itself from attempts to subvert its system, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Friday.

"The unquestionable majority vote is a clear signal from the Human Rights Commission that Cuba has the right to apply its own laws," Perez Roque told a news conference. "`This was a resonant victory for Cuba, and we express our profound satisfaction."

The top United Nations watchdog on Thursday rejected a proposed amendment criticizing Cuba's recent crackdown on opponents, instead approving a milder resolution calling for a U.N. rights monitor to visit the island.

The 53-nation U.N. Human Rights Commission, which regularly criticizes Cuba on its rights record, voted 31-15 during its meeting in Geneva against condemning the communist state's month-long drive against dissidents and other opponents.

Cuban tribunals earlier this month sentenced 75 dissidents to prison terms ranging from 6 to 28 years on charges of being mercenaries who worked with the American government to harm the island's socialist system. The dissidents and the U.S. government deny the accusations.

The rejected amendment expressed "deep concern about the recent detention, summary prosecution and harsh sentencing of numerous members of the political opposition" and called for them to be released.

Governments and human rights groups around the world have condemned Cuba for jailing dozens of dissidents. The crackdown was followed by the April 11 executions of three men convicted of the hijacking nine days earlier of a ferry filled with passengers.

Perez Roque accused the U.S. government of concocting the failed attempt to condemn the communist-run island and questioned the human rights records of those countries that backed the measure.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday that despite the measure's defeat, the United States was pleased that the commission passed a Cuba resolution.

"It sends a strong message of support for the courageous Cubans who struggle daily to defend their human rights and their fundamental freedoms," Boucher said.

Although Perez Roque acknowledged that the final measure was not a condemnation of Cuba's, he said his country would not comply with it.

The milder resolution, passed 24-20, urged the Caribbean nation to accept a visit by U.N. human rights investigator, French jurist Christine Chanet. There were nine abstentions.

Cuba has previously refused to allow Chanet to visit, claiming such a visit could infringe on its sovereignty.

Latin American countries voting in favor of the resolution that passed included Mexico a longtime Cuban ally as well as Paraguay, Chile, Guatemala and Costa Rica. Argentina and Brazil abstained on the resolution that was approved. Venezuela, a strong political ally of Cuba, voted against it.

The commission also turned down a proposal 26-17, brought by Cuba itself, that criticized the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba.

DailyCamera.com April 19, 2003

Refusing to face reality, much less grow a spine, the United Nations Human Rights Commission voted Thursday in Geneva to give Fidel Castro nothing more than a gentle slap on the wrist for his brutal surge of new human rights violations in Cuba.

The commission had a choice. A resolution amendment, soundly voted down, had been presented by small, democratic Costa Rica. That text expressed "concern about the recent detention, summary prosecution and harsh sentencing of numerous members of the political opposition" and called for them to be released.

The text that was finally approved mildly urged Castro to allow a representative of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights to visit the island. Cuba has refused to allow a U.N. investigator to visit, alleging that would infringe on its sovereignty.

Even the Costa Rican version made no mention of the summary executions of three Cubans accused of hijacking a boat in an unsuccessful attempt to flee the island. Arguing for an outlandish notion of neutrality and "fairness," Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela either abstained or voted against that mild amendment.

Some among the amendment opponents incongruously argued that the U.S. embargo imposed on the island four decades ago was illegal and just as much a human rights violation as the practices of the Cuban regime. The embargo is certainly worth arguing about, but the equation above is not worth the breath used to express it.

Another factor that influenced the vote was a vigorous antipathy to President Bush. An old ghost of anti-Americanism has made a furious comeback after the United States struggle with the Security Council and the subsequent war in Iraq. Members grumbled that they didn't want to justify any U.S. actions against Cuba.

Tentative bursts of freedom in Cuba followed the 1998 visit of Pope John Paul II and last year's visit by former President Carter. But since mid-March, Castro has imprisoned the most effective advocates of free speech and democratic reform, handing down long sentences for their daring to call for freedom of expression, press and association.

What U.N. commission members did, in the false name of political parity, was to make Cuba's newly brutalized human rights advocates pay for the perceived sins of the U.S. president. Shame.

The Los Angeles Times

Guardian Unlimited Saturday April 19, 2003

The struggle to get help to Iraq has put aid workers on the front pages. But it's a competitive business which demands practical skills and experience as well as qualifications, reports Nic Paton

As the humanitarian crisis in Iraq deepens, the work of the world's aid agencies has come centre stage. But while television pictures of front-line aid workers bringing food, water, medical and other relief to people in desperate need have become all too familiar from crises around the world, it is just one small part of a much bigger picture.

Relief work is the public, indeed glamourous, face of the aid business, but the vast majority of aid and development agency work is, in fact, the job quietly of improving lives and battered environments.

Aid agencies rely on a vast array of support staff, such as political lobbyists and fundraisers, IT, finance and logistics specialists, media and policy experts, managers and administrators and often, on high streets up and down the country, volunteers and employees in shops.

The first thing to realise if you fancy working for an aid agency is not to expect to find yourself doling out food in Um Qasr at any time in the immediate future, says Mark Goldring, chief executive of volunteering organisation VSO.

A former development worker with both the UN and Oxfam, Mr Goldring stresses that a burning commitment to do good, while warmly welcomed, is rarely enough. You need to be able to prove you have experience or skills that can be put to practical use.

"It could be something in your own profession or in international development, either paid or voluntary. But it needs to be more than travelling," he says.

Getting into aid and development work is extremely competitive, agrees Andrew Thompson, international HR director for Oxfam, and getting into overseas field work is even tougher - with good reason.

"We cannot just put keen but inexperienced people into situations where are beneficiaries are relying on them, because for them it is life or death," he says.

Perhaps one of the most popular routes into field work is through a job in a support role, adds Mr Thompson. "But you have to be patient, and you need to be committed. We look for people who can push things through and take decisions, but also work as part of a team."

At Oxfam, employees are drawn from many different sectors, says Mr Thompson. Within its regional management centres alone there will normally be senior managers, fund raisers, people doing media and advocacy work, policy researchers, health and education workers, economic and humanitarian crisis specialists, poverty specialists and so on.

Voluntary work is another good route. "A lot of our volunteers are graduates and a lot of them use it as a stepping stone to get into the development sector," says Nicola Jamie, advocacy co-ordinator with charity Students Partnership Worldwide.

Doing voluntary work in India gave Jenny Willott, head of advocacy at Unicef in the UK, a taste of development work, but it was through working in parliament that she honed her professional skills. Ms Willott, 28, worked in the office of Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik for two years.

After a stint with Barnardo's in Cardiff, she joined Unicef in November 2001. With a remit to lobby MPs and civil servants and generally raise awareness about Unicef's work, her knowledge of the corridors of Westminster has proved invaluable, and was a key reason for her getting the job.

None of the jobs on her team are "entry level", she admits. "You have to have quite a good level of knowledge of the political system or working with the press. We will not just take people because they have a degree in bright ideas."

Formal entry routes are few and far between, too. Oxfam runs a UK graduate entry scheme, which tends to be focused on administrative and support roles, and some organisations, such as the World Bank, the UN and the Department for International Development, have internship schemes, but these are almost always at degree or postgraduate level.

Aid work undoubtedly can be extremely dangerous, as the death in Iraq last week of Canadian aid worker Vatche Arslanian, shot in crossfire in Baghdad, has highlighted.

It can also be emotionally demanding but hugely rewarding, says Dereje Wordofa, head of Oxfam's regional policy team. Mr Wordofa, 37, has worked extensively in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.

"You have to have a lot of tenacity and personal strength. You are emotionally involved but you do not express it. It should not affect your rational thinking," he says.

Development work requires passion, commitment and multi-disciplinary skills but also an in-depth knowledge of the organisations and people you are dealing with, he argues.

"You need to know who you need to be changing in terms of behaviour and policies, and who are the allies you need to work with."

I am doing something worthwhile

Some 800 people applied for Arry Fraser's job as a policy researcher at Oxfam. But it was the skills she had picked up as an analyst at Business Monitor International, a specialist business and global markets publisher, that helped her to stand out from the crowd.

"It was a deliberate choice to go and work in the private sector to gain commercial expertise, I wanted to learn how financial markets work," says Ms Fraser, 25, who has been with Oxfam since January.

A Cambridge University social sciences graduate, she went to Venezuela for a year after graduating and then did a masters degree in politics and development at the London School of Economics.

"You really feel that you are doing something worthwhile, people are committed, professional and dedicated," she adds of working for Oxfam.

While very happy with her new role, Ms Fraser's long-term ambition is to gain more experience in development work in the field. And her advice for others wanting to work in aid agencies? "Be prepared to go into other sectors to build up skills. And just keep trying - perseverance helps."

Nursing skills were key to role in Brazil

Three years working as a volunteer on a leprosy programme in a remote village in the Amazon helped to convince nurse Jan Smith that aid and development work was what she wanted to devote her life to.

On her return she did a course in tropical medicine at London's St Pancras Hospital for Tropical Medicine, a degree in Latin American studies at Essex University and finally, in the summer of 1999, landed a job as programme officer for the Latin American section of CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development.

"It has been a perfect opportunity. You meet marvellously inspiring people who are absolutely and completely dedicated. Last year, I went back to Brazil twice, which is about average," says Ms Smith, 41. She believes her practical skills as a nurse, backed by her volunteering experience and her academic work, were the key to her getting her the job.

"People think just doing a degree in international development studies will get you a job, but it's not true," she says. "You need to have some skills and you need to know that you are good at it, because all you will be able to take with you is your ability to do the job - and even that is hard because you are in a different cultural context."

It's also essential to have "endless enthusiasm" and excellent communication skills, she believes. "I can one minute be talking to someone living in a shanty town in Brazil and the next someone at the Foreign Office," she says.

London |<a href=www.gulf-news.com>Gulf News-Reuters | 19-04-2003

Algeria's prolific Hassi Berkine oil basin may further boost production growth this year as leading foreign investor Anadarko expands infrastructure beyond initial plans, a top manager said.

While the Ourhoud mega-find in the Sahara Desert will stay at a plateau 230,000 barrels per day (bpd), on target for next month, the Hassi Berkine South (HBNS) facility capacity may be pushed over 300,000 bpd, Anadarko's Algerian manager Rex Alman said.

"We think we can handle more there with some de-bottlenecking. We could bring on stream the new discoveries within the year," he said.

Anadarko, Algeria's leading foreign investor, has made two new finds this year near the HBNS centre, which was commissioned last year and has already reached capacity.

Alman declined to say how much additional capacity could be added at the facility.

Anadarko is also planning another or four exploration wells in Block 404, in which the foreign investor group it leads holds 49 per cent. Its partners are Italy's ENI and Danish Maersk, each with a quarter of the Anadarko Algeria Comp.

Sonatrach holds 51 per cent of the block's equity. "This is our backyard now, it's a core area," Alman said.

HBNS and Ourhoud are tied into Algeria's trunkline with a 30-inch pipeline, indicating capacity of 600,000 bpd up to 750,000 bpd, more than sufficient for the estimated 530,000 bpd plateau output from the two facilities.

Other export bottlenecks are being unclogged by Sonatrach, which is commissioning a new pumping station to help boost flows from the Berkine basin, Alman said. They are also in the process of constructing a new export pipeline from Haoud el Hamra to the port of Arzew.

Alman said there had been some production constraints earlier this year due to infrastructure improvement and a more than week-long bout of bad weather on the Mediterranean coast.

But the main obstacle for Algeria is not infrastructure but politics - the north African nation is pumping nearly 50 per cent over its official 782,000 bpd Opec limit.

Most of that capacity is less than a year old, as Algeria's own production of some 700,000-800,000 bpd had plateaued until the HBNS and Ourhoud fields came onstream.

So far the extra oil has not been a major issue - between Venezuela's strike last year and the stoppage of Iraqi oil last month, Opec has been pumping practically at will. But an attempt to rein in production is expected at next week's group meeting.

Alman would not be drawn to comment on whether Sonatrach or the foreign partners would be required to take the brunt of cutbacks that most analysts now believe are necessary.

Algeria's low cost of development for the massive, on-shore Saharan fields should help ease the pain of any constraints on production, he said.

Alman said the Ourhoud field, where the last of three trains came onstream in February, should reach capacity over the next month or so. Ourhoud has an estimated 2.3 billion barrels of oil in place, with more than half recoverable.

The field, covering three blocks, has been monatised between the three joint-venture groups: Anadarko 37.5 per cent, Cepsa 56.8 per cent, Burlington 5.7 per cent.

Anadarko's next major development is set for Block 208, to the south of the current facilities, which is expected to produce around 100,000 bpd no sooner than 2007, Alman said.

And exploration activities are set to continue in two other recently acquired blocks - 406B and 403 - at the end of this year and later next year, respectively.       · Exxon quits Saudi Arabia gas initiative · U.S. benefited from Iraq-Syria pipeline · Petrobras plans $34b investment · Yukos and Sibneft 'may merge soon' · New Algeria oil finds may boost output - Anadarko · Gulf crude prices firm · Oil Briefs - April 19, 2003