Great Lakes

Burundi is having elections today for their President. It's uncontested - and turnout is low. Opposition was encouraging people to boycott the polls. (By the way, did you know that voting is compulsory in Australia? It means that there's a much higher level of political awareness, though some wonder about how democratic it is to force people to vote.

Things in Rwanda are looking fairly tense at the moment. A journalist has just been killed, and many think it's because he was looking too closely into the death of a former army chief a few weeks before. There's concern about intimidation of the media in the run up to Presidential elections in August.

Congo is celebrating its 50th anniversary of Independence on Weds. The President has called a holiday tomorrow afternoon, Weds and Thurs, so it'll be nice and quiet in the office.