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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 13-04-2000

PART #3/4 - From KENYA to SOUTH AFRICA

* Kenya. Total ban on ivory trade? — 10-20 April: The Conference on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) being held in Nairobi, is likely to generate intense debate on whether to impose a total ban on the ivory trade. Already, divergent views on the trade have emerged, pitting Kenya and India, which are pressing for a total ban, against South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana, which want the sale of elephant products legalised under strict regulations. Members will discuss whether poaching is on the rise following the limited trade in ivory allowed in 1997. (The East African, Kenya, 3-9 April 2000)

* Kenya. L’effet Zimbabwe — Stimulé par l’exemple du Zimbabwe, un député kényan a invité les paysans privés de terre à occuper les domaines agricoles appartenant aux Kényans blancs. Selon le East African Standard, Stephen Ndicho, membre du Parti social-démocrate, a lancé un appel au président Moï pour qu’à l’image de Mugabe il apporte sa caution à un grand mouvement d’occupation des exploitations blanches. Il vise en particulier les grandes plantations de thé et de café appartenant à des Blancs ou à des Asiatiques, ainsi que les plantations de la multinationale Del Monte. La question des terres est beaucoup moins controversée au Kenya, où la plupart des anciens colons ont volontairement remis leurs domaines à la majorité noire après l’indépendance. Mais la vaste majorité des grandes exploitations agricoles demeure entre les mains de Kényans blancs ou de multinationales. (Reuters, 10 avril 2000)

* Kenya. CITES meeting — 10 April: President Moi of Kenya calls for the reimposition of a total ban on ivory trading until elephant poaching is brought under control. «No ivory trade should be permitted under any circumstances until an effective monitoring capacity is established and is operational», Mr Moi told the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Nairobi. «We in Kenya see evidence that the illegal killing of elephants has increased», he said. 11 April: Arguments on the merits and demerits of relaxing the global ban on the trade in endangered species. Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, with healthy elephant populations, are pressing to have the ban on the ivory trade lifted further. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 12 April 2000)

* Madagascar. Vanilla crop ravaged — 10 April: A violent cyclone which hit Madagascar earlier this month has destroyed at least half of the island’s vanilla crop. A spokesman for the local vanilla industry says Cyclone Hudah has ravaged nearly 80% of the plantations in Antalaha, the world centre of vanilla production, and in nearby Andapa. The spokesman says it will take an estimated three years to restore production to its previous levels. 11 April: At the request of the Malagasy Government, the UN this week launched a new «flash appeal», seeking US $15.7 million from donors to provide urgent humanitarian assistance for over 300,000 people affected by the devastation wrought by the cyclone. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 12 April 2000)

* Malawi. Teaching religion in schools — The on-going debate on the introduction of a new subject called Religious and Moral Studies in secondary schools has split the Muslim community in Malawi, with a rebel faction accusing the Muslim establishment of bowing to the whims of President Bakili Muluzi, a Muslim himself. The faction of the Muslim Association of Malawi is planning street protests and a march to Muluzi’s Sanjika Palace to make known their concerns. They are also demanding fresh elections to revamp the Association which it accuses of being full of sell- outs. But Ronald Mangani, Secretary General of the Association, has issued a statement calling the Muslim community not to follow the call by the break-away faction. «The Muslim Association of Malawi condemns and wishes to disassociate itself from any and all acts of violence that any Islamic group or such other individuals may instigate,» he said. In an unsigned letter calling for the protest march, the disgruntled Muslims say if Muluzi is a real Muslim, he should use his executive powers to protect the interests of his fellow Muslims. But Muluzi cannot afford to ignore the majority Christian community to whom he owes the very office his fellow Muslims wish to evoke to further their interests. And the President increasingly finds himself between a rock and a hard place since he has his faith to protect and at the same time, does not want to be seen as snubbing the majority Christians who gave him the vote. The plan to introduce the religious and moral Studies caused great concern among the Christians, who viewed the new subject’s lopsided content in favour of Islam as a covert move by Muluzi to indoctrinate Malawi’s young people with the Islamic faith. (Raphael Tenthani, PANA, 6 April 2000)

* Mozambique. President visits child born in a tree — Born on a tree top while flood waters raged through the Mozambican town of Chibuto in Mozambique’s southern province of Gaza, Rosita Chivure has been dubbed a symbol of suffering for all the country’s women and children. Rosita gained media fame after being delivered by a South African paramedic, while awaiting rescue in the height of the flooding that devastated most regions of southern and central Mozambique in February. The flooding meted out heavy damaged to infrastructures as well as causing the death to 699 people to date with 95 still missing. Rosita became the symbol of all the people in the manner in which she was born, and also represents the solidarity shown by the international community because if she survived, it was because she got the assistance right there on the tree top, said President Joaquim Chissano when he saw Rosita and her mother at a special meeting arranged in Maputo. Presenting the baby with a gift of clothes, blankets and other items, Chissano said that he would personally support Rosita until she was ready to go to university. The Mozambican state, Chissano said, will monitor the growth of the child, who will have the right to a bank account to pay for her studies up to university. Her parents will be given a house, built by the government. «We will open a bank account to assist in her education and even clothes, and this government’s gesture will also allow her to know how to help others when she grows up,» Chissano said. On meeting the child, Chissano said: «When I look at her happy face, I can see that she is a woman full of hope and determination, representing the image of the Mozambican woman who know that it is possible to overcome their difficulties.» (Africa Press Bureau, Johannesburg, 7 April 2000)

* Nigeria. The President’s official jet — The dispute between Nigeria’s National Assembly and President Olusegun Obasanjo over plans to replenish an ageing plane in the presidential fleet, has taken an embarrassing new twist with the decision by the leader of Africa’s oil-rich nation to now use a commercial flight for official foreign trips. Obasanjo had submitted a proposal to the federal legislature, asking for approval to buy a used aircraft for some 85 million US dollars. This is because his 20-year-old Boeing 727 official jet has not only aged, but also falls within the category of noisy planes banned from overflying European and US airspace under the anti-noise pollution law that came into effect this month. Rejecting the request for a new aircraft as inappropriate, the Nigerian lawmakers rather approved money for the rehabilitation of the noisy jet. Obasanjo’s spokesman, Doyin Okupe, told journalists that following the impasse, his boss would travel to Cuba for the G-77 group of developing nations summit, on a commercial plane, most likely, a British Airways flight. He said Obasanjo, who would pay a two-day official visit to Cuba before the summit, declined an offer by Cuban leader Fidel Castro to fly that country’s plane to the meeting, to be chaired by Nigeria. «The President still considers it easier to take a commercial flight than to cede sovereignty and take another country’s plane, flying the flag of Cuba,» Okupe added. Trying hard to play down the effect of the development, Okupe quoted Obasanjo as saying that «it is not how I go to Cuba, but what I will take there, that is important.» (Paul Ejime, PANA, 7 April 2000)

* Nigeria. Maintenir l’unité — Lors d’une réunion, le 6 avril, le président Obasanjo à déclaré aux chefs traditionnels qu’il maintiendrait l’unité du pays malgré l’agitation. L’une des dernières pressions auxquelles son gouvernement a dû faire face est la volonté de certains Etats du nord, où les musulmans sont majoritaires, d’appliquer les peines les plus sévères prévues par la loi islamique. En réaction, les gouverneurs des Etats du sud-est ont demandé une structure confédérale en lieu et place de la fédération actuelle. Dans sa région natale yorouba, au sud-ouest du pays, les radicaux pressent le président d’organiser une conférence souveraine nationale sur la nature politique du pays. Concernant la crise de la sharia, M. Obasanjo s’est félicité de la décision des gouverneurs de créer un comité composé de musulmans et de chrétiens pour discuter de l’introduction de la loi islamique. Il a également salué la décision des chefs traditionnels de former un organe chargé d’apaiser les tensions intercommunautaires. Ceux-ci ont décidé de maintenir l’unité du pays et prévenu que la question de la sharia ne devait pas être utilisée pour “menacer l’existence commune” du Nigeria. (IRIN, Abidjan, 7 avril 2000)

* Nigeria. Killings in Ogoniland — Reports from Ogoniland in the Niger delta region say there have been violent clashes involving the police and local communities. Security services say several people have been killed. The police say they were attempting to restore order after fighting broke out between rival gangs. The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), is accusing the police of widespread brutality. (BBC News, 11 April 2000)

* Rwanda. Lawyers move to obtain leaked documents — 6 April: Two National Post articles are being used as primary exhibits in a legal bid to obtain confidential documents about an investigation into the presidential assassination that sparked the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Two Montreal lawyers representing a former Rwandan mayor convicted in the genocide, will file the request today before a UN war crimes tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania. Stories that ran in the Post last month about the documents, leaked to the newspaper exclusively, throw new light on who might have killed Juvenal Habyarimana, former Rwandan president, in a missile attack on his plane six years ago today. (...) The lawyers believe the new information could have been used to mitigate evidence presented against their client, also a Hutu, during his 1997-1998 trial. Defence lawyers say that until the Post uncovered the information, prosecutors had withheld it from them, despite a rule obliging the tribunal to disclose any evidence that «tends to suggest the innocence or mitigate the guilt» of an accused. «Full disclosure, a fair hearing and due process should not be subjected to whim, or to the chance of a fortuitous leak,» say John Philpot and Andre Tremblay in their 23-page motion to see the documents. «Had the evidence been disclosed to the defence, the defence would have been approached differently and reinforced according to the known facts.» (...) The document added that Louise Arbour, then chief UN war crimes prosecutor and now a justice with the Supreme Court of Canada, shut down the investigation after learning of the new information. Nevertheless, 20 other lawyers representing dozens of Hutus accused in the genocide are expected to follow Mr. Philpot and Mr. Tremblay in using the recently revealed information to challenge the UN‘s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). (National Post, Canada, 6 April 2000)

* Rwanda. Mea culpa belge — Le 7 avril, le Rwanda a commémoré le sixième anniversaire du génocide. Des fosses communes ont été vidées par les autorités, qui souhaitent enterrer les morts d’une manière décente lors des cérémonies. Une importante délégation ministérielle belge y participait, sous la conduite du Premier ministre Verhofstadt, accompagné de quelque 50 membres des familles des militaires belges assassinés au Rwanda en 1994. A Kigali, M. Verhofstadt a prononcé un discours dans lequel il a reconnu la responsabilité de la Belgique dans l’indifférence coupable de la communauté internationale lors du génocide. «Au nom de mon pays, je m’incline devant les victimes du génocide. Au nom de mon pays, au nom de mon peuple, je vous demande pardon». De son côté, le président a.i. Paul Kagamé a dénoncé “le révisionnisme” qui, notamment, tente “d’exonérer les auteurs du génocide, de l’accident de l’ancien président et des événements qui s’en sont suivis”. Par ailleurs, le procureur général du Tribunal pénal international, Carla Del Ponte, a accepté officiellement une plainte contre X avec constitution de partie civile déposée par la famille de l’ancien président Habyarimana, qui viserait... Paul Kagamé. (D’après La Libre Belgique, 7-8 avril 2000)

* Rwanda. Belgium apologises — 7 April: The Belgian prime minister has asked forgiveness for his country’s part in failing to prevent the killing of hundreds of thousands of Rwandans in the 1994 genocide. Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt’s public apology came as Rwandans concluded a week of mourning for genocide victims — a week which has seen the bodies of thousands of murdered people exhumed and reburied. Mr Verhofstadt also condemned United Nations officials for their failure to prevent the deaths of the Rwandan prime minister and 10 Belgian peacekeepers murdered at the start of the genocide. «I confirm that the international community as a whole carries a huge and heavy responsibility in the genocide», he told a gathering of several thousand Rwandans — including senior officials. «Here before you I assume the responsibility of my country, the Belgian political and military authorities». (BBC News, 7 April 2000)

* Rwanda. «Accusations a conspiracy» says Kagame — Paul Kagame, the acting president of Rwanda, has charged that claims he ordered the assassination of his country’s leader in 1994 are part of a United Nations conspiracy to shirk blame for the genocide that followed. Mr. Kagame told one interviewer he intends to root out the conspirators and «expose them when the time comes.» In another interview, he spoke of worldwide networks that «operate like a mafia» to obscure the failure of both the United Nations and the international community to prevent the genocide. The statements are his first since the National Post revealed on March 1 the existence of a UN report in which three informants implicated Mr. Kagame in the assassination. Absent from the statements, however, are allegations made in recent weeks by several Rwandan officials that the National Post is part of the network conspiring against Rwanda. A Rwandan government statement issued in the days following the March 1 article accused the Post of taking part in a «well orchestrated smear campaign» designed to «intimidate the Rwandan people into silence» about who was to blame for the genocide, which saw political extremist Hutus massacre at least 500,000 of the country’s Tutsis and moderate Hutus. A declaration that Rwanda would take action that «might include suing the paper» came from Martin Ngoga, the country’s official representative at the UN‘s war crimes tribunal for Rwanda, based in Arusha, Tanzania. (Steven Edwards, National Post, Canada, 11 April 2000)

* Rwanda. Bishop Misago’s trial — 11 April: The final hearing in Kigali of the trial against Monsignor Augustin Misago, Bishop of Gikongoro (Rwanda), has been adjourned. The judges of the Nyamirambo court, will meet tomorrow to postpone the conclusion of the trial to 17 April. 57-year old Bishop Misago, born in Ruvune (Byumba diocese), was arrested on 14 April 1999 for his alleged involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Implications categorically denied by the Bishop of Gikongo. (MISNA, Rome, 11 April 2000)

* Rwanda. Mgr Misago — Le 14 avril, cela fera exactement un an que Mgr Augustin Misago, évêque de Gikongoro, est en prison. Son arrestation avait été précédée d’une campagne de dénigrement contre l’Eglise catholique, relayée notamment par l’organisation African Rights, la seule à avoir lancé des accusations contre l’évêque, lesquelles n’ont pas été reprises par le Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda à Arusha. Accusé de complicité dans l’assassinat, de non-assistance à personne en danger et de collaboration dans le génocide, Mgr Misago crie son innocence depuis un an. Selon Me Alfred Pognon, chef du collège de défense de l’évêque, l’accusation et la partie civile ont présenté «un amalgame inacceptable de faits que la loi ne peut qualifier matériellement de faits criminels». La conclusion du procès, initialement prévue le 12 avril, a été renvoyée au 17 avril à la demande de la partie civile, mais la sentence ne devrait de toute façon pas être connue à brève échéance. A l’occasion de l’anniversaire de l’arrestation de Mgr Misago, il est prévue que les évêques rwandais lui rendent visite en prison ce 13 avril. (D’après CIP et ANB-BIA, Bruxelles, 13 avril 2000)

* Sahara occidental. Tournée de James Baker — James Baker, l’émissaire personnel du secrétaire général de l’Onu, a entamé une tournée maghrébine pour tenter de trouver une issue à l’impasse dans laquelle se trouve l’organisation d’un référendum d’autodétermination au Sahara occidental. Le 8 avril il était à Alger, le 9 avril au Maroc, où il a été reçu par le roi. M. Baker a qualifié les problèmes rencontrés par le plan de l’Onu de “sérieux et compliqués”. Interrogé sur l’émergence d’une “troisième voie”, qui passerait par un abandon du référendum et l’octroi par Rabat d’un large statut d’autonomie au Sahara, M. Baker a répondu: «S’il y a un moyen d’appliquer le plan de l’Onu, nous devons le faire. S’il n’y en a pas, nous devons continuer de chercher d’autres approches pour parvenir à une solution définitive». Le 8 avril, le Polisario s’est dit prêt au dialogue avec le Maroc, “à tout moment, avec n’importe qui et n’importe où”, à condition que le plan de paix de l’Onu soit respecté. Après Rabat, M. Baker était encore attendu à Nouakchott (Mauritanie), mais en raison d’une forte fièvre il a quitté le Maroc, le 11 avril, en direction de Madrid, d’où il devrait regagner Washington. A l’issue d’un entretien avec le chef de la diplomatie espagnole, M. Baker a déclaré que “le plan de règlement n’est pas mort, mais il est dans une ornière”. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 12 avril 2000)

* Senegal. President attacked by Press — Less than a week after assuming office, President Wade has come under sharp criticism from the Media. Newspapers attacked him for backing down, during his state of the nation address on 3 April, on pre-election promises to cut the presidential term from seven to five years and to cut the size of his cabinet. He was also slated over his call for a liberalisation of the Press. On 5 April, Mr Wade called for the creation of a commercial television station, and suggested that the state-owned newspaper, Le Soleil, which he has accused of partisanship, should be suspended while a new role for it was thought out. he said he did not want a tame newspaper writing editorials in praise of the government. (BBC News, 6 April 2000)

* Sierra Leone. Les forces de l’Onu — Le 8 avril, une compagnie de réaction rapide des forces onusiennes a riposté par des tirs lorsque des assaillants non identifiés ont pris pour cible les troupes ghanéennes de la mission de l’Onu (Minusil) à Kenema. Les assaillants ont fui; le motif de l’attaque reste inconnu. -Le 9 avril, une avant-garde de 210 soldats jordaniens est arrivée pour se joindre à la Minusil. Le reste des deux bataillons jordaniens devrait arriver plus tard. Le contingent zambien est attendu en mai. Le secrétaire général de l’Onu a déclaré que les 11.100 hommes de la force onusienne de maintien de la paix seraient en Sierra Leone avant la fin de juillet. (IRIN, Abidjan, 10 avril 2000)

* Sierra Leone. ECOMOG considering extending stay — 11 April: West African intervention troops are considering extending their stay in Sierra Leone amid fears that their withdrawal could leave a security vacuum. The Deputy Defense Minister is quoted as saying: «The possibility of the Nigerian-led force remaining until UN peacekeepers are fully deployed, is being actively considered». (CNN, 11 April 2000)

* Somalia. Cholera and food shortages — Hundreds of people in Somalia have been affected by a new outbreak of cholera in the Bay and Bakol regions, about 300 kms south-west of Mogadishu. Health authorities in one area, Dinsor district, say 31 people alone have died from cholera in the past 3 days alone. Aid agencies and the Somali Red Crescent Society have set up quarantine units in health centres. The regions of Bay and Bakol are among several parts of Somalia also stricken by drought. In one town, Wajwd, in south-west Somalia, there’s such a shortage of food, that special high-protein rations meant for a severely malnourished child are routinely being used by an entire family. (BBC News, 12 April 2000)

* South Africa. Media trial — The state built its case on evidence found in plain sight: the defendants’ own words, published photographs, boxes of suspicious videotapes, transcripts and the most public of documents—newspapers. Putting the media on trial for racism may have required imagination, but hardly any sleuthing. Under threat of subpoena, South Africa’s newspaper editors, radio broadcasters and television producers have appeared before a governmental agency to defend their portrayal of blacks. Their testimony has often been testy and defiant, and the ensuing confrontation between the mostly white-owned media and the black majority government has stirred animated debate about censorship, political correctness and the state’s responsibility to protect its citizens from hurtful, dehumanizing speech in a democracy. Under South African law, the hearings are similar to a civil trial. The Human Rights Commission filed formal charges of racism against media representatives in February and subpoenaed 36 mostly white editors and producers to testify. The subpoenas were subsequently withdrawn when journalists agreed to cooperate with the inquiry. Anyone refusing to testify can be held criminally liable by the commission and subject to a fine. «We cannot begin to talk about freedom of the press as long as there is no real diversity of thought in our media,» said Abbey Makoe, a black newspaper reporter who presented testimony that supported the Human Rights Commission’s allegations. «The public discourse is being driven by a minority who do not value black lives as much as white lives, who focus on black criminality and the alleged corruption of [black] elected officials without ever identifying the historical contributions of whites to our problems.» But to the editors, producers and broadcasters who testified before the commission, the hearings were a reminder of the white minority’s oppressive apartheid government, which shuttered newsrooms that published stories deemed too sympathetic to the black liberation movement. (Washington Post, 10 April 2000)

* South Africa. Cricket captain in bribes scandal — The world of cricket was plunged into turmoil on 11 April, when Hansie Cronje was sacked as South African captain and suspended from playing after he admitted receiving between $10,000-15,000 from an Indian bookmaker based in London during a limited over series with Zimbabwe and England. Cronje said he «had not been entirely honest» with the cricket board over match-fixing allegations which surfaced last week following an Indian police investigation. «We in South Africa are shattered» said Ali Bacher, managing director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA). «He has not been honest. The UCBSA and the government have been deceived». The all-rounder Shaun Pollock has succeeded as captain. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 12 April 2000)