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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 08-06-2000

PART #3/3 - From NIGER to ZIMBABWE

* Niger. Désarmement d’ex-rebelles — Le 5 juin, environ 300 ex-rebelles touaregs ont remis leurs armes aux autorités nigériennes, mettant ainsi un terme à une rébellion de neuf ans dans le nord du pays. La cérémonie officielle s’est déroulée en présence de représentants de la France, l’Algérie et le Burkina Faso, les trois pays médiateurs dans le conflit. Le 24 avril dernier, le chef d’Etat nigérien avait encore appelé ses compatriotes touaregs et toubous à s’atteler à la construction nationale. Déjà plus de 2.000 ex-rebelles ont été intégrés dans les forces de défense et dans la vie socio-économique. (D’après PANA, 6 juin 2000)

* Nigeria. The Battle of the mace — 1 June: Armed police force their way into the home of Chuba Okadigbo — the Senate’s president and number three in Nigeria’s year-old civilian administration — in search of the Senate mace which has gone missing. A close aid says there is evidence that Mr Okadigbo has taken it to his house. «That is a criminal act. Without the mace, the Senate cannot sit». The ceremonial mace of the Nigerian Senate is at the centre of a deepening political crisis dividing President Obasanjo and the National Assembly. The dispute coincides with public anger at a 50% increase this week in fuel prices and labour union threats of widespread strike action. 4 June: Okadigbo has backed down on his decision to adjourn the Senate for one month, saying it will re-convene on 7 June to deliberate the 2000 Appropriation Act. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 5 June 2000

* Nigeria. Prix de l’essence. Emeutes — Le 5 juin, des émeutes ont éclaté dans la plupart des villes de sud-ouest du pays à l’annonce d’une hausse de 50% du prix de l’essence. Etudiants et travailleurs se sont opposés à la police à Lagos, à Abeokuta et à Ibadan. Un oléoduc a été incendié dans la région du delta du Niger. Les syndicats ont annoncé une grève générale le 8 juin. D’autre part, au moins 15 personnes ont été tuées dans des affrontements entre villageois à Owo, dans l’Etat d’Ondo, a rapporté la presse nigériane. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 6 juin 2000)

* Nigeria. Oil price rise — Nigerian students rioted in Lagos, Abeokuta and Ibadan on 5 June, in protest against a 50% rise in the price of fuel prices, amid rising social tension and threats of a general strike on 8 June. The riots coincided with a fire on an oil pipeline supplying the north of the country with refined petroleum products from the southern oil city of Warri. In south-western Nigeria, fuel price rises turned violent at several flashpoints as students erected burning barricades and smashed federal government vehicles. On 6 May it was reported that the fuel protests have spread to Abuja. The same day, labour leaders met with government officials. The talks were deadlocked. On 7 June, the negotiations continued but are reported to have ended without agreement. The unions say they will call a strike for 8 June. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 8 June 2000)

* Rwanda. Human Rights Situation — The UNHCR‘s Centre for Documentation and Research in Geneva, has published a Background Paper on the Human Rights Situation in Rwanda. Issues covered, include: A Review of the General Human Rights Situation; the situation in the North-Western provinces; the national legislative context; issues regarding the security forces, detention, genocide trials, political dissidents; freedom of religion, assembly, association, the Media, movement; vulnerable groups; the villagisation policy. (UNHCR, 5 June, 2000)

* Rwanda. Le TPIR et Habyarimana — Le Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda pourrait ouvrir, avant la fin de l’année, une enquête sur l’assassinat du président rwandais Juvénal Habyarimana en avril 1994. La procureur du tribunal, Carla Del Ponte, a expliqué le 2 juin à New York que pour commencer l’enquête, le TPIR devrait conclure “qu’il existe un lien entre l’attentat contre l’avion du président et l’organisation du génocide”. Le tribunal avait rejeté, plus tôt dans la journée, une demande d’enquête sur les circonstances de l’accident, introduite par l’ancien général rwandais Gratien Kabiligi inculpé pour génocide. (Le Monde, France, 6 juin 2000)

* Sénégal/Mauritanie. Regain de tension — L’intention affichée du Sénégal de reprendre un projet de développement du fleuve formant frontière avec la Mauritanie, a rencontré de vives critiques à Nouakchott et déclenché une activité diplomatique intense. La Mauritanie s’insurge contre une déclaration du président Wade annonçant une exploitation unilatérale du fleuve Sénégal, parce que cette exploitation priverait la Mauritanie d’une eau dont elle a cruellement besoin. Le prédécesseur de M. Wade, Abdou Diouf, avait abandonné le projet après des protestations similaires de la Mauritanie. Celle-ci estime que les statuts de l’Organisation pour le développement de la vallée du fleuve Sénégal (OMVS) imposent aux membres (Sénégal, Mauritanie et Mali) de consulter les autres avant toute exploitation significative du fleuve. Qualifiant d’arrogantes les déclarations de M. Wade, la Mauritanie a conseillé à ses ressortissants de quitter le Sénégal. En 1989, expulsant mutuellement leurs ressortissants, les deux pays avaient frôlé la guerre. Le 5 juin, le Premier ministre sénégalais, Moustapha Niasse, s’est rendu à Nouakchott pour discuter la crise. Le roi Mohammed VI du Maroc a offert sa médiation si nécessaire et a appelé les deux pays à faire montre de retenue. Le 6 juin, Mauritaniens et Sénégalais continuaient d’affluer à la frontière, malgré les tentatives d’apaisement. Selon leur association, les Sénégalais de Mauritanie ont reçu un délai de quinze jours pour rentrer chez eux. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 6 juin 2000)

* Sierra Leone. Otages et réfugiés — 5 juin. La rébellion retiendrait en otage un nouveau contingent d’une dizaine de casques bleus. Selon la Minusil, le RUF aurait intercepté un convoi envoyé le 4 juin dans l’est du pays pour tenter de ravitailler un groupe de 235 autres soldats de la paix encerclé à Kailahun. D’autre part, des milliers de civils ont fui ces derniers jours les alentours de Makeni, ont annoncé des organisations humanitaires. Et selon le PAM, plus de 20.000 habitants de la région autour de Port Loko, contrôlée par les rebelles, ont fui leur domicile pour échapper aux combats et aux recrutements de force effectués par le RUF. L’armée sierra-léonaise affirme progresser vers la frontière guinéenne. - 7 juin. Après plus d’un mois de crise, la rébellion a donné un premier signe positif en s’affirmant prête à revenir à l’accord de paix signé en juillet 1999. L’armée gouvernementale aurait repris la ville stratégique de Lunsar, qui mène aux mines diamantifères de l’est du pays contrôlées par le RUF. D’autre part, à quelques jours du retrait annoncé du contingent militaire britannique, la population de la capitale se mobilise pour réclamer le maintien du millier de marines dépêchés début mai. Par ailleurs, les organisations humanitaires sont de plus en plus préoccupées par l’insécurité du grand nombre de personnes déplacées qui ont besoin d’assistance; les agences en ont enregistré 220.000, mais on suppose qu’il y en a bien plus dans des régions inaccessibles. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 8 juin 2000)

* Sierra Leone. Havoc — 4 June: Government forces fight rebels for control of the strategic town of Lunsar. Control of the town, 100 km by road to the east of Freetown, would give the Sierra Leonean army access to the centre of the country, much of which remains under the control of the RUF rebels. UN officials are visiting Sierra Leone to find out what went wrong with their peacekeeping operation, when over 500 of its soldiers were taken hostage. 5 June: Human Rights Watch accuses the RUF of routinely raping women in the town of Makeni, and in other towns under RUF control. The organisation has interviewed numerous women from Makeni and other RUF areas who gave detailed accounts of rape, including cases of gang rape and rape of young children. Medecins sans Frontières decries the international community’s «neglect of the plight of the civilians» in Sierra Leone. The UN Mission says the RUF are blocking supplies to UN peacekeepers. Liberia has offered to send peacekeepers to help bring peace to that nation. 6 June: Britain calls for an international embargo on the sale of Sierra Leone diamonds which has fuelled the civil war. 7 June: Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, arrives in Sierra Leone, to review Britain’s support for the government there. Government forces recapture Lunsar. 8 June: Cook will visit Freetown today having spent the night aboard HMS Ocean. The Independent reports that weapons are being seized from the Sierra Leone army and secreted in dumps by a 300-strong militia who are supposedly the government’s allied in the fight against rebels. Senior British and Sierra Leone officers are increasingly alarmed by the activities of the paramilitary West Side Boys (WSB), commanded by Johnny Paul Koroma. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 8 June 2000)

* Sierra Leone. Two ILO Conventions adopted — The Government of Sierra Leone has put before Parliament two International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions for ratification. Because of the precarious security situation, the two conventions, 102 and 151 have not been debated. Convention 102 is concerned with minimal standards of social security; Convention 151 is concerned with the right of the individual to organise and the procedures for determining the conditions of employment in the civil service. Plans have been made for the implementation of Convention 102. A committee has been set up to advise the government on the establishment of a National Social security scheme. It is intended to alleviate the adverse economic conditions in post-war Sierra Leone. If the conventions are ratified, they will enable civil service organisations to benefit substantially from education and training programmes. (Alpha Jalloh, ANB-BIA, Sierra Leone, 1 June 2000)

* Soudan. Puits pétroliers fermés? — Le 6 juin, l’Armée de libération des peuples du Soudan (SPLA de John Garang) a affirmé que le gouvernement soudanais a été contraint de cesser le travail dans six puits pétroliers, dans le sud-ouest du pays, en raison des combats avec les rebelles sudistes. (La Libre Belgique, 7 juin 2000)

* Tanzania. From the Press — 8 May: The European Union plans to disburse at least US $4.9 million to support next October’s general elections in Tanzania (The Guardian). Another privately-owned bank, First Adili Bankcorp Limited, closed shop on 7 May and was placed under the statutory management of the Bank of Tanzania (Daily News). 11 May: The government has conceded that it was losing millions of shillings in revenue from sugar, rice and garments imported through the Zanzibar route (Daily News). 22 May: The national chairman of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi, President Benjamin Mkapa, has thanked all Tanzanians for the support they have given him so far in his resolve to vie for the Union presidency (Daily News). 25 May: Last month, the Minister for Energy and Minerals, Dr Abdallah Kigoda, warned oil traders using unethical and unfair business practices of stern government action (Daily News). (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 5 June 2000)

* Tanzania. Pulling out of COMESA— Tanzania has been praised for deciding to withdraw from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and remaining in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Recently, some Zambian politicians and economists said in interviews in Lusaka, that COMESA‘s validity for Tanzania and Zambia was questionable. They had advised their government to follow Tanzania’s example, and stop draining Zambia’s meagre resources into both COMESA and SADC. They want Zambia to remain in SADC which plays both a political and an economic role, and to abandon COMESA whose function is only economic. Although Tanzania had decided to pull out of COMESA last year, officials were said to be divided over the issue. However, Idd Simba, Tanzania’s minister for Industries and commerce, confirmed two weeks ago that Tanzania will pull out of COMESA next September. (Titus Kaguo ANB-BIA,, Tanzania, 5 June 2000)

* Tchad. Feu vert pour l’oléoduc — Le 6 juin, la Banque mondiale a finalement décidé d’apporter son concours financier et surtout sa caution à l’exploitation du pétrole dans le sud du Tchad. Ce projet qui prévoit un investissement privé de quelque 3,7 milliards de dollars, porte sur le forage autour de Doba et la construction d’un oléoduc de plus de 1.000 km à travers le Cameroun. La Banque mondiale accordera des prêts d’un total de 92,9 millions de dollars. Le projet est fort contesté par de nombreuses ONG qui dénoncent les risques pour l’environnement et réclament un partage équitable des ressources et des garanties contre la corruption. Toutefois, le Tchad a voté une loi prévoyant que 80% des royalties seraient consacrées au développement, et 10% bloqués dans un fonds spécial “pour les générations futures”. Un comité spécial sera instauré pour garantir ces engagements. Il reste qu’on peut s’interroger sur la validité de ces engagements, et que les trois quarts des revenus, estimés à près de 10 milliards de dollars au total, reviendraient aux pétroliers. (D’après Libération, France, 7 juin 2000)

* Chad. World Bank says «yes» to pipeline project — On 6 June, the World Bank approved $193 million in financing to help support a controversial $3.7 billion oil development and pipeline project to link oilfields in southern Chad to the coast of Cameroon. World Bank support has been considered critical to the project’s success. The consortium of companies backing it, led by Exxon-Mobil as operator, Petronas of Malaysia and Chevron, had said they could not have proceeded without World Bank involvement. In addition, the World Bank loans are considered necessary to secure more than $1 billion in outside funding from sources, including export credit agencies and commercial banks. (Financial Times, UK, 7 June 2000)

* Tunisia-Libya. Ben Ali hails Kadhafi’s efforts in Africa — Tunisia and Libya have appealed to rich developed countries to redouble their efforts to remove the debt burden which hinders Africa’s development process. In a joint communique issued on 4 June in Tunis, the two neighbours also urged these countries to help the continent’s programme of economic and social reforms and to fight poverty and marginalisation. According to the document issued at the end of Tunisian President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali’s two-day visit to Tripoli, the Libyan leader, Col. Moammar Kadhafi, has «expressed support to Ben Ali’s appeal in favour of the creation of a world solidarity fund of which African peoples and others can take advantage.» On his part, Ben Ali commended Kadhafi for his efforts to settle African conflicts and to end blood-letting between Africans. The two leaders launched a join appeal to Ethiopia and Eritrea to stop the fighting and resort to dialogue and to peaceful means to settle their conflict. Tunisia and Libya said they are satisfied with the outcome of the 31 May to 2 June extraordinary OAU foreign ministers conference in Tripoli. The meeting was called to review the implementation of the recommendations of the September 1999 Sirte extraordinary summit devoted to the creation of an African union and an African parliament. The two countries also «stressed the significance of the grouping of Sahelian and Saharan states, as one of the components of the African unity, and its role in the unification of the continent’s efforts». According to the communique, Tunisia has decided to become a member of the Economic Community of Sahelo-Saharan Countries, which groups 11 states from North, West, Central, and Eastern Africa. (Bouazza Ben Bouazza, PANA, 5 June 2000)

* Ouganda. Appel des Eglises — Le Uganda Joint Christian Council (Conseil chrétien uni ougandais), qui réunit les Eglises anglicane, catholique et orthodoxe, a fait appel au gouvernement ougandais pour qu’il se retire de la RDC et cantonne ses troupes “dans les limites des frontières ougandaises”. Cet appel fait partie des résolutions passées le 2 juin par les membres de l’UJCC à l’issue d’une réunion de deux jours à Kampala. (IRIN, Nairobi, 5 juin 2000)

* Zimbabawe. Domestic debt skyrocketing — Zimbabwe’s domestic debt is now skyrocketing by more than Z$98 billion at a time when the country’s economic possibilities are very poor and the currency continues to weaken against major international currencies. Last month, economists predicted that the debt would reach Z$100 billion before August, dashing all hopes of adhering to Finance Minister Dr Herbert Murerwa’s budget proposals for the year 2000. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe which advises the government on expenditure, said the domestic debt had reached Z$98 billion as of 20 April. The Reserve Bank also said the government’s overdraft at the Bank is continuing to increase. The International Monetary Fund which last year suspended its US $193 million balance of payments support for Zimbabwe’s economic recovery programme, has repeatedly asked the government to curb its excessive expenditure. The chief executive of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce has said the unsustainable domestic debt, a bloated civil service and high expenditure on defence, means the largest slice of the national budget goes towards interest on debt and wages and salaries, at the expense of the important poverty eradication programme. He says that with about 64% of total expenditure expected to go towards interest payments this year, the incidence of poverty is expected to rise even higher. (Dumisani Khumalo, ANB-BIA, Zimbabwe, 22 May 2000

* Zimbabwe. Bureaucracy restricts PAZ‘s functioning — Barely one year since it was established, the Privatisation Agency of Zimbabwe (PAZ) is being hampered in executing its functions properly. PAZ‘s marketing and Public Affairs Executive Tapiwa Kamuruko, says the agency has found it impossible to overcome the bureaucratic government structures which are affecting the way in which it carries out its duties. The PAZ has to consult and report back to a cumbersome string of organisations — the State-owned enterprise in question; the appropriate ministry; an inter-ministerial committee on privatisation; and finally, the Cabinet. Kamuruko says that PAZ has sent proposals to the government so that procedures can be simplified and speeded-up. Unfortunately, PAZ is housed in the Office of the Presidency, a factor which many interested parties believe effects the autonomy and transparency of the privatisation exercise. PAZ‘s functions include advising on all matters of privatisation, including preparing detailed work plans, a timetable for privatisation and financial reorganisation of concerned entities. (Tonderayi Mukeredzi, ANB-BIA, Zimbabwe, 2 June 2000)

* Zimbabwe. Expropriations — 2 juin. Le Journal officiel zimbabwéen a publié une liste de 804 fermes appartenant à des Blancs qui seront expropriées sans dédommagement et redistribuées aux Noirs sans terre. Les propriétaires qui souhaitent contester ces expropriations ont jusqu’au 2 juillet pour présenter leurs arguments par écrit au ministère de l’Agriculture. Certaines familles blanches ont commencé à préparer leurs affaires, mais le syndicat des fermiers les a exhortées à ne pas céder à la panique. -3 juin. Le principal parti d’opposition, le Mouvement pour le changement démocratique, a rempli les formulaires d’inscription de ses candidats aux élections législatives, malgré les allégations de tentatives d’intimidation et d’irrégularités qui entourent le scrutin. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 5 juin 2000)

* Zimbabwe. Pressure mounts — 2 June: Zimbabwe officially proclaims the expropriation without compensation of 804 white-owned farms. Owners are given a month to object. There is no comment from the Commercial Farmers Union, but lawyers say there is little point in farmers objecting since they have no legal redress, govern that Parliament has approved new legislation providing for expropriation without compensation. 4 June: The Zimbabwean Government launches an attack on senior judges of British descent. In a series of comments in the state-run media, the Government accuses judges sitting in the Supreme and High Courts of being ill-qualified to pass judgement in politically sensitive cases, on the grounds that they are not citizens of Zimbabwe. 4 June: The EU has bowed to Zimbabwe’s demands that no British national should be included in its team of election observers. Political parties announce their candidates for the election. 5 June: Several High Court judges are planning to make a public protest today, against the Government’s claims. There are fears that the accusations will be followed by a direct attempt to have white judges removed from the bench. At least 250 schools across Zimbabwe have closed down in recent weeks in the wake of a campaign of political intimidation against teachers. 6 June: The British Government launches an unprecedented attack on President Mugabe, charging that he is determined to hold unfair elections and to ruin the country’s economy. 7 June: President Mugabe warns that all white-owned farms in Zimbabwe could be taken over by the government. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 7 June 2000)