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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 19-04-2000

PART #4/4 - From SENEGAL to ZIMBABWE

* Sénégal/Guinée Bissau. Nouveaux remous en Casamance — La Guinée Bissau a protesté auprès du Sénégal, affirmant que des régions de sa frontière nord, Cutima et Jumbembem, ont été bombardées par des avions de l’armée sénégalaise qui auraient poursuivi des rebelles du Mouvement des forces démocratiques de la Casamance (MFDC). Le porte-parole du MFDC, Alexandre Djiba, a nié que son mouvement ait des combattants dans les zones bombardées. Il a reconnu que des combats avaient repris, le 10 avril, dans la région de Kolda, alors que l’armée sénégalaise indiquait qu’un “ennemi” avait attaqué ses positions à Sare Wari, dans cette région. M. Djiba dément que les combattants du MFDC fassent des raids sur la Casamance à partir de la Guinée Bissau. (D’après IRIN, Abidjan, 13 avril 2000)

* Somalia and Kenya. Bracing for drought emergency — Food stocks are being pre-positioned in Somalia in anticipation of a major emergency. Even where there is aid, children who could be saved are now dying. For the 6th year in succession, harvests are expected to fall, and the blow will fall on a population enduring a bare level of subsistence. In Kenya, the WFP says more than 75,000 tons of food is urgently needed to feed drought victims in Kenya. A UN spokesperson in Kenya says there is already an emergency appeal for around 43 million dollars to but food for drought victims in Kenya. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 17 April 2000)

* South Africa. Mbeki under fire for plans to buy new jet — President Mbeki has come under fire after revealing plans to purchase a new jet costing US $50 to replace the present presidential aircraft. Mbeki plans to buy a bigger Airbus 319 to replace the Falcon 900 which he and former presidents Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk used over the past decade. The official opposition Democratic Party criticised the plans on 18 April, saying there were other pressing needs facing the country. (PANA, Dakar, 18 April 2000)

* Sudan. Government oppression — Sources from Sudan have informed ANB-BIA about atrocities committed by Sudan government soldiers in a massive onslaught on civilians around the Bentiu oil area in March. People in the oil area are being forced to flee up to 200km away. In Kadugli, capital of the Nuba Mountains, eight army divisions are assembling for a new offensive on four fronts. The government is preparing for the construction of a second oil pipeline from Bentiu. This time it will run a long way due north, then sharply east to Port Sudan, avoiding the eastern border which is under pressure from the opposition alliance. The above has been confirmed by the New Sudan Council of Churches. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 13 April 2000)

* Tanzania. Opposition supporters in Zanzibar beaten and arrested — On 12 April, Amnesty International, in a Press Release, stated that over 300 supporters of the Civic United Front (CUF) opposition party in Zanzibar, have been beaten by police in the last week, and over 100 arrested and charged with petty criminal offenses, such as vagrancy. Amnesty International appeals to Zanzibar President Salmin Amour and Tanzanian President Benjamin Mpaka to ensure that freedom of opinion and association are respected in Zanzibar. (Amnesty International, 12 April 2000)

* Uganda. A Pandora’s box for the economy — The war in Congo RDC is opening a Pandora’s box for Uganda’s economy. Western donors who met in Kampala in March told Museveni to move his troops out of Congo soon, to avoid economic chaos, and political problems at home. «The war in Congo is the major threat to Uganda’s», says Rene Rodault, France’s ambassador to Uganda while addressing the consultative donor group that agreed to give Uganda $800m for the next financial year and also make available a $1.1bn debt relief package. The Ambassador’s warning war supported by Switzerland, the USA and Sweden, both of whom see the continuing war as hopeless. Donors are worried that if they don’t criticise, Uganda’s economic progress will be on the line. Programmes that were meant to maintain the country’s economic growth-rate at 5% annually, are floundering. The stability of the Ugandan shilling is under constant threat, and the Bank of Uganda has recently warned that it is running short of funds necessary to maintain the shilling’s stability. It’s bad news for Uganda, which has been trying to keep up appearances despite the grinding war. Donors say huge resources have been transferred to the military ever since the war in Congo broke out in 1998. But the Bretton Woods Institutions think in spite of what’s happening, Uganda still deserves this generous help. (Crespo Sebunya, ANB-BIA, Uganda, 11 April 2000)

* Uganda. Plan to buy jet, delays debt aid — Plans by Uganda to acquire a new Gulfstream jet for its President have led international lenders to put off a decision on new debt relief for that country. The delay is an embarrassing new complication for a global debt-relief program that Congress is sceptical about funding. Uganda, an early participant in the program, has won praise for using the savings from cancelled debt payments to improve primary education. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank had hoped to announce approval of an expanded package for Uganda at a meeting of their governing committees this week here. But last week officials delayed implementing the plan, some of them appalled at the idea of forgiving more loans just when a luxury jet was ordered. Sources said the reported cost of the plane, about $35 million, is about what Uganda would save annually in debt-service payments under an expanded aid plan that now has been delayed. (...) An IMF director representing Uganda in the organization said he believed the delay would be short. Questions were posed about the jet, but not «in a challenging way,» Cyrus Rustomjee said. «We don’t recognize this as being any extraordinary expenditure.» The plane’s purchase had been discussed in Uganda’s parliament. It would be used by President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in office since seizing power in 1986. (John Burgess, Washington Post, 16 April 2000)

* Uganda. Links with Australian doomsday group — The former Ugandan cult leader Joseph Kibwetere, now wanted for murder, was linked to an Australian doomsday group, the Marian Workers of Atonement, according to documents found at his home by The Guardian. According to his wife, Teresa, she and her husband attended talks on supernatural manifestations given by the leader of the Australian group, William Kamm — whose spiritual name is «Little Pebble» — in Kampala. Based in Nowra, New South Wales, the followers of 49-year-old Kamm, share many beliefs with Kibwetere’s cult, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. (...) According to the documents, Mr Kamm held four meetings at the Kampala police mess between October 6 and 10, 1989 — when reports of manifestations of the Virgin Mary, an aspect common to both cults, were becoming frequent throughout Uganda and neighbouring Rwanda. Mrs Kibwetere said she had been in contact with Mr Kamm before she and her husband went to hear him talk. «We were interested in visions of His Blessed Mother... Little Pebble sent us these papers and I used to write to him. Then he came to Uganda and we went to see him in Kampala.» The couple’s son, Rugambwa, said the visit made a strong impression on his father. «I remember them going, and when my father came back he said that Little Pebble had filled him with new hope.» The manifesto of the Kanungu cult — entitled: «A Timely Message from Heaven: The End of the Present Times», which was first published in 1991 — also names Little Pebble among those «from various countries who got revelations and visions of the chastisements that are coming». Australian cultwatch groups have expressed a suspicion of links between Mr Kamm’s group and the Ugandan cult. (The Guardian, UK, 18 April 2000)

* Zimbabwe. Defiance all round — 13 April: The High Court rules that police must carry out an order to evict black squatters who are occupying white-owned farms, rejecting police claims that they have insufficient manpower to enforce property laws. «The rule of law has to be upheld», said the judge. «There is no basis for me to interfere with the judgement of 17 March.» In a BBC interview, the veteran’s leader, Chenjerai Hunzvi, said the court could «go to hell», as he put it. President Mugabe tells the G-77 Summit in Cuba: «I want to assure you that the land will be acquired, sanctions or no sanctions. Let Zimbabweans own Zimbabwean land as Britons own British land». He says that Britain’s call for sanctions was the «most brazen example of the abuse of sanctions as an instrument of coercion». His declaration comes after Zimbabwe’s Vice-President Joseph Msika orders squatters to leave the white farms they are occupying. Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, announces that talks in London with a high-ranking Zimbabwean delegation, will be held in London within a fortnight. There are reports of black farm workers defending some white-owned farms against the squatter invasions. They fear their jobs are at risk. 14 April: Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, meets with the UK Foreign Secretary, as he tries to raise his party’s (the Zimbabwe Movement for Democratic Change) international standing. Tsvangirai urges the British government to «tone down condemnations of Mr Mugabe». The Government appeals against the court order to evict the squatters. 16 April: President Mugabe brushes aside the murders of a white farmer and two members of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, and condones the illegal land seizures. 17 April: Anxious white Zimbabweans queue to reclaim their British citizenship at the British High Commission in Harare. President Mugabe meets with leaders of the Commercial Farmers’ Union. he expresses regret over the death of the white farmer and promises to bring the chaotic situation under control. 18 April: A second white farmer has died after being shot and beaten by war veterans. The farmer died after being besieged in his farm near Bulawayo by about 100 war veterans who arrived in a convoy of trucks. Zimbabwe’s 20th anniversary celebrations have been cancelled. Instead, the President makes a televised address to the nation. In it he says that land reform remains a critical issue 20 years after he became the first black leader of independent Zimbabwe. In English he expresses regret for deaths on the farms. In the Shona version he congratulates war veteran squatters. The UN Secretary-General appeals to President Mugabe by phone to defuse the tensions. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 19 April 2000)

* Zimbabwe. Meeting with Mugabe — «We are on the right path and a solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe is possible». This was the declaration released to MISNA by 51-year-old Jesuit Father Fidelis Mukonori, who today organised the meeting between a delegation of representatives of the white farm-owners union and President Robert Mugabe, in the presidential office. «The meeting was cordial and I believe that there are concrete possibilities of a peaceful accord on the delicate issue of the occupation of farms of former British colonialists by veterans of the liberation war». Father Mukonori, originally from Zimbabwe, then pointed out that the talks, attended also by two government ministers, began at 13:20 (local time) and lasted for one hour and forty-five minutes. «President Mugabe has already established contact with the veteran leaders and I am sure that the good intention will bring desired results. The main point for a peaceful solution to the entire matter», concluded the Jesuit, «is the respect of current laws.» (MISNA, Rome, 17 April 2000)

* Zimbabwe. Escalade de la violence — Le 13 avril, la Haute Cour du Zimbabwe a confirmé l’illégalité des occupations de terres gérées par des Blancs et a rejeté une requête de la police qui demandait à être déchargée de l’expulsion des squatters. Le vice-président du Zimbabwe, Jospeh Msika, a appelé à l’arrêt de ces occupations et s’est ainsi désolidarisé du président Mugabe dont il assure l’intérim pendant un séjour à l’étranger. «Les anciens combattants et le peuple n’ont nul besoin de continuer à manifester ou à occuper des fermes n’importe comment. Nous avons fait adopter la réforme agraire qui nous permettra de reloger les gens dans le respect de l’ordre», a-t-il affirmé. Pour sa part, le président Mugabe, qui se trouvait à Cuba pour le sommet du Groupe des 77, jugeait toujours les occupations des terres “moralement justifiés”. «Ce n’est pas un combat contre les Blancs. C’est un combat contre une partie de la population blanche, qui possède des terres», a-t-il déclaré. - Le 15 avril, le mouvement d’occupation a basculé dans le drame. Un fermier blanc, David Stevens, a été enlevé et exécuté par des squatters, alors que d’autres Blancs venus à son secours ont été sévèrement battus. Dans le même temps, deux membres de l’opposition ont péri, brûlés vifs dans une attaque au cocktail molotov contre leur voiture, attribuée à des militants du parti ZANU-PF, au moment où ils quittaient une réunion du Mouvement pour le changement démocratique (MDC), près de Buhera à 180 km au sud de Harare. - Le 16 avril, à son retour du sommet des G77 à Cuba, le président Mugabe a refusé de calmer le jeu et a continué à soutenir le mouvement des vétérans, malgré les arrêts de la Cour suprême. “C’est nous, le gouvernement et le peuple zimbabwéen, qui résoudrons le problème des terres et non les tribunaux”, a-t-il déclaré. Londres a dénoncé l’utilisation par Mugabe du thème populaire du “Zimbabwe aux Zimbabwéens” afin de faire oublier le mécontentement grandissant de la population à l’égard de ses tendances autocratiques et de la précarité économique du pays. - Le 17 avril, des Zimbabwéens blancs se bousculaient au consulat de la Grande-Bretagne à Harare pour redemander leur citoyenneté britannique, après que Londres s’était déclaré prêt à accueillir 20.000 Blancs zimbabwéens. Cependant, le président Mugabe a rencontré des représentants du syndicat des fermiers blancs qui se sont déclarés “encouragés” par l’attitude du chef de l’Etat. D’autre part, le 18 avril le Zimbabwe devait célébrer les vingt ans de son indépendance, mais les cérémonies officielles ont été annulées en raison de l’instabilité actuelle. Ce jour là, le matin, un deuxième fermier blanc, Martin Olbs, a été tué par balles dans la région de Bulawayo (sud-ouest de Harare). Dans l’après-midi, le secrétaire général de l’Onu a rencontre le président Mugabe. Kofi Annan a exhorté M. Mugabe à désamorcer les tensions et a accueilli favorablement sa décision d’envoyer une délégation à Londres le 27 avril pour discuter des problèmes de la réforme agraire. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 19 avril 2000)