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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 25-01-2001

PART #3/4 - From MALI to SIERRA LEONE

* Mali. Accords des partis politiques — Le 22 janvier, 40 partis politiques toutes tendances confondues (majorité et opposition) ont adopté, à l’issue d’une table ronde, un “pacte républicain de bonne conduite électorale” axé sur leur “franche collaboration, dans la loyauté, le respect de la Constitution et des institutions de la République”. Après trois jours de débats, les partis ont réaffirmé leur volonté de renoncer à la violence sous toutes ses formes et ont accepté un plafonnement des dépenses électorales. La rencontre visait la décrispation du paysage politique malien après les mauvaises élections de 1997, qui s’étaient déroulées sans listes et fichiers électoraux fiables, avec une commission électorale inexpérimentée et une classe politique mal préparée. Des élections générales sont prévues au Mali en 2002. (PANA, Sénégal, 23 janvier 2001)

* Maroc. Marzouki obtient son passeport — Le 17 janvier, Ahmed Marzouki, auteur d’un livre sur le bagne marocain de Tazmamart, où il fut emprisonné pendant 18 ans, a obtenu son passeport dont il était privé depuis sa sortie de prison en 1991. M. Marzouki avait lancé le 15 janvier un appel au roi du Maroc, dans une interview au quotidien La Croix, pour qu’un passeport lui soit délivré afin de pouvoir voyager et faire connaître son livre Tazmamart, cellule 10; il l’a obtenu 2 jours plus tard. M. Marzouki faisait partie d’un groupe de 58 officiers et sous-officiers impliqués dans deux coups d’Etat contre le roi Hassan II au début des années 1970. Sur ces 58 militaires enfermés dans la prison-mouroir, seuls 28 ont survécu. (Le Monde, France, 19 janvier 2001)

* Morocco/Spain. Immigrants try to fight expulsion — Immigrants from Morocco, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Pakistan staged sit-ins and protests across Spain on 23 January against a law that could, if the authorities press on with enforcement, lead to the expulsion of 60,000 or more people who entered the country illegally. As the stringent rules came into force on 23 January, thousands of unregistered foreigners queued at government offices in a last-minute bid to get work and residency papers allowing them to stay. The conservative Spanish prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, has pledged to tackle the rise in illegal immigration following last year’s race riots in the south-eastern town of El Ejido, near Almeria. «To give the same rights to both legal and illegal immigrants, that is something unthinkable,» Mr Aznar has warned. Hundreds of clandestines, paying up to 1,000 pounds sterling a head, cross the busy shipping lanes of the Straits of Gibraltar every week. Many drown when their overladen vessels capsize or are involved in collisions. Those who make it from Morocco head for northern cities such as Barcelona or for the south-eastern vegetable and fruit farms which rely on cheap labour. There are tens of thousands of Ecuadorians working on farms in Murcia, Lorca and Almeria. Chanting «We are not illegals, we are people», they staged protests across the region. Some wore white bands demanding papers to normalise their status, others called for the right to work. (The Guardian, UK, 24 January 2001)

* Mozambique. Police team suspended — The entire police team that was investigating the murder of journalist Carlos Cardoso was suspended about three weeks ago, the independent newsheet Mediafax reported in Maputo on 22 January. Unknown assailants shot Cardoso dead on 22 November, while he was being driven home from the independent newspaper, Metical, of which he was editor. The team, comprising members both of the Criminal Investigation Police and the State Intelligence and Security Service was set up to investigate the killing. But the local media have severely criticised the investigators for failing to do their job properly. They failed to take even the most elementary measures, such as interviewing those who live on the street where the killing occurred. Even journalists who worked with Cardoso on Metical were not promptly interviewed. According to the Mediafax, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has now taken full control of the investigation, and will appoint its own staff to replace the suspended investigators. (PANA, Senegal, 23 January 2001)

* Namibia. Leading Caprivi suspects in court — Not guilty pleas, with no indication of the basis of their defence, were given in the Grootfontein Magistrate’s Court on 22 January by the last group of 18 Caprivi high treason suspects to answer to 265 charges ranging from high treason, sedition and murder to attempted murder. The group included alleged Caprivi Liberation Army commander John Samboma and other suspected leading figures in a claimed plot to secede the Caprivi Region from Namibia. Only one of 132 people charged with a dizzying 265 counts connected to the alleged secessionist conspiracy still has to indicate the nature of his pleas. The case against the others was postponed to April 9 for further investigation and possibly for the Prosecutor General to decide on the further prosecution of the suspects. Kashuku Eugene Kamashunga, one of four high treason suspects released on bail in September 1999, was not present at court on 22 January. Deputy Prosecutor General Lourens Campher told Magistrate Harris Salionga that Kamashunga, a Grade 10 student when he was arrested and charged in the wake of the August 2 1999 separatist attacks at Katima Mulilo, was apparently absent because he was ill. Kamashunga now has to appear in court within two weeks or have his bail of N$1 000 forfeited to the State. Campher also told the Magistrate that another of the suspects, Francis Kilezo Malambo, has died since his last appearance in court in November. It is understood that he succumbed to cancer shortly before Christmas. Malambo is the third of the alleged secessionists to die in custody. (The Namibian, 23 January 2001)

* Niger. Energies renouvelables — Le 22 janvier s’est ouvert à Niamey un atelier international sur la promotion des énergies renouvelables en Afrique. La rencontre, organisée par la Commission solaire mondiale de l’Unesco, regroupe une cinquantaine d’experts qui vont examiner la mise en place du Conseil solaire africain et les mécanismes de financement du programme solaire africain. Ils vont en outre examiner la problématique de l’électrification rurale décentralisée et la protection de l’environnement, la politique d’éducation et de formation sur les énergies renouvelables. Le président du Niger, M. Tandja, a indiqué qu’en cinq ans, l’Etat nigérien avait consacré 10% de son budget à la recherche dans ce domaine. La puissance en énergie solaire créée et installée est de 416 kilowatts. Un programme national de cuisson notamment permet de réduire la coupe de bois. (PANA, Sénégal, 22 janvier 2001)

* Nigeria. Mère célibataire flagellée — Le 19 janvier, une jeune femme de 17 ans, qui avait accouché en décembre, a reçu 100 coups de canne dans un tribunal islamique de Tsafe de l’Etat de Zamfara, dans le nord du Nigeria. Bariya Ibrahim Magazu avait été condamnée à 180 coups après avoir été jugée coupable de rapports sexuels avant le mariage, mais la sentence a été réduite par le tribunal qui a admis des erreurs de procédure. Le gouverneur de Zamfara, qui a introduit l’application stricte de la sharia en 1999, a fait fi des protestations du gouvernement fédéral, de gouvernements étrangers et d’organisations des droits de l’homme. - Pendant ce temps, indique l’agence PANA, les préparatifs vont bon train dans l’Etat de Zamfara pour commémorer le premier anniversaire de l’application du système légal de la sharia. Le vice-président Atiku Abubakar, trois anciens chefs d’Etat nigérians, des ministres, des gouverneurs, des parlementaires et des personnalités islamiques seront présents aux festivités, qui auront lieu du 25 au 27 janvier. D’autre part, l’agence IRIN signale, le 23 janvier, que le Conseil des Oulémas musulmans de Kano ont sommé les ONG locales et internationales de défense des droits de l’homme de quitter cet Etat du nord du Nigeria. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 23 janvier 2001)

* Nigeria. Teenage mother gets public flogging — The New York-based Human Rights Watch» on 24 January denounced the whipping of a teenage mother found guilty of fornication under Sharia law in northern Nigeria’s Zamfara state. Bariya Ibrahim Magazu received 100 lashes as punishment for having sex outside marriage, although an appeal against her conviction and sentence was pending. «Corporal punishment is never defensible, and it is particularly offensive where a young girl has been charged with a crime because she gave birth,» remarked Regan E. Ralph, executive director of the Women’s Rights division of Human Rights Watch. Magazu, in her early teens, was sentenced to 180 lashes in September last year by an Islamic court in the northern Nigerian state. Zamfara State, together with other northern Nigerian states, introduced the Islamic Sharia law last year. Magazu was found guilty of having sex outside marriage and bringing false charges upon the men she allegedly had sex with. Last week, the court reduced the conviction to one hundred lashes, which it said was the penalty for breaking the law prohibiting premarital sex. It cancelled the 80 lashes handed down for falsely accusing the men involved of forcing her to have sex with them. Despite her pending appeal, Magazu was lashed a hundred times on 19 January in the morning. In a news release reaching PANA in Dakar on 24 January, Human Rights Watch urged the Nigerian government to review its legal processes to ensure that all cases, including those in Sharia courts, are dealt with in accordance with due process of the law, as set out in the constitution. The international monitoring group also called on the Nigerian government to protect accused persons from the arbitrary meeting out of extreme and unacceptable punishments. (PANA, Senegal, 24 January 2001)

* Nigeria. Entire cabinet sacked — President Olusegun Obasanjo sacked the entire Nigerian cabinet on 24 January in advance of a reshuffle aimed at reinvigorating government and heading off widespread criticism of his performance. An official close to the president said on Wednesday a list of new cabinet members would be sent for approval at the National Assembly before the end of the month. Those perceived to have performed well would be reappointed, he said. Since May 1999, when he became Nigeria’s first elected president in more than 15 years, Mr Obasanjo has sacked hundreds of army officers and top ranking officials from state institutions in an attempt to clean up a system grown rotten under former military regimes. But until now, he has made only minor adjustments to his ministerial appointments. His decision to fire them all at a cabinet meeting on 24 January comes at a time of popular dissatisfaction with the government and the slow pace with which it has been able to address a legacy of institutional collapse, economic decay, corruption and poverty. The re-emergence of fuel shortages and desperate shortfalls in electricity supplies has compounded the belief that what improvements there were when he first assumed office have been whittled away. «He’s been losing the battle against corruption and losing the wider economic and political battles as well,» said one economic adviser within the administration. According to a member of the ruling People’s Democratic party, this year’s big spending budget, the appointment of a new cabinet and the much-delayed inauguration of an anti-corruption commission are all signs that Mr Obasanjo, a former military ruler, is going on the offensive again. Meanwhile, his relations with the National Assembly which have been tense since the outset, have also eased recently. But the ride remains rocky. Relaxation of fiscal discipline and a huge rise in planned capital expenditure this year was one price he had to pay to appease members of the National Assembly. This brings with it the danger that inflation will be running high and the country will be highly vulnerable to swings in the price of oil, its main export earner, as it heads towards elections in two years’ time. It has also threatened to derail the one-year standby accord with the International Monetary Fund on which relief of the country’s $33bn (£22.6bn) external debt depends. Mr Obasanjo’s choice of ministers is constrained by ethnic considerations at a time of tension between the country’s divided regions. If he picks from old-guard politicians as he did when he assumed office he could lay himself open again to accusations that he discriminates against younger, more dynamic Nigerians in favour of those tried, tested but found wanting in the past. (Financial Times, UK, 24 January 2001)

* Rwanda. Installation du nouveau Mufti — Le 20 janvier, au moins 5.000 fidèles et sympathisants ont assisté à Kigali à l’installation officielle du nouveau Mufti du Rwanda, Cheick Saleh Hategekimana. Les cérémonies ont été rehaussées par la présence des plus hautes autorités du pays, dont le chef de l’Etat, le président du Parlement et la plupart des membres du gouvernement. Quelque 120 mosquées existent au Rwanda où la communauté musulmane a connu un développement numérique important ces 20 dernières années (de 5% de la population en 1982, à 18% aujourd’hui). Cette nette amélioration résulte des bons rapports que les musulmans entretiennent avec le nouveau régime en place dans le pays, a déclaré Cheic Hategekimana. (PANA, Sénégal, 21 janvier 2001)

* Sénégal. Le président Wade et le racisme — “Le racisme n’est plus un grand problème dans le monde d’aujourd’hui”: en quelques mots, le président sénégalais a fait frissonner la conférence régionale africaine contre le racisme, qui se tient actuellement à Dakar. Une tribune dont la vocation même est de dénoncer la persistance du racisme, particulièrement à l’égard des Africains. Mary Robinson, haut commissaire aux droits de l’homme de l’Onu, venait de dénoncer la traite des Noirs. Mais, a déclaré M. Wade, qui avait promis de surprendre son auditoire, plutôt que de demander des réparations au nom de l’esclavage, les Africains devraient se pencher sur les vrais problèmes du continent et “notamment les conflits ethniques et fratricides”. Un franc-parler iconoclaste accueilli avec un certaine froideur par certaines ONG africaines, qui ont promis de se désolidariser publiquement du président sénégalais. La conférence de Dakar, qui se termine le 24 janvier, doit préparer la position africaine à la conférence mondiale contre le racisme, prévue à Durban (Afrique du Sud) début septembre. (Ndlr.: le 23 janvier, dans une “Déclaration de Dakar”, la conférence a recommandé que l’esclavage, la traite négrière et la colonisation soient reconnus et déclarés comme crimes contre l’humanité. Elle demande aussi aux Etats qui ne l’ont pas encore fait, de ratifier tous les textes conventionnels relatifs à l’esclavage, au racisme, à la discrimination raciale, à la xénophobie et à l’intolérance). (D’après Libération, France, 23 janvier 2001)

* Sierra Leone. Abolition des camps de déplacés — Les réfugiés rapatriés en Sierra Leone ainsi que les personnes déplacées à l’intérieur seront désormais logés dans des communautés d’accueil plutôt que dans des camps, a annoncé le 19 janvier l’agence de presse officielle SLENA. Ce concept a été adopté parce que la vie dans les camps “déshumanise et rabaisse la dignité des personnes déplacées”. Les réfugiés recevront des outils pour se construire des abris au sein de leurs villages d’accueil. Et les communautés recevront davantage d’aide pour des centres de santé, des salles de classes, des structures d’assainissement et d’eau, afin de répondre à leurs besoins croissants. Le gouvernement a déjà identifié 20 villages d’accueil pour plus de 15.000 rapatriés jusqu’à ce qu’ils soient en mesure de retourner dans les régions où ils habitaient avant leur fuite. (IRIN, Côte d’Ivoire, 22 janvier 2001)

* Sierra Leone. Elections in serious doubt — Sierra Leone’s presidential election, due in February, looks in serious doubt, the head of the country’s electoral commission said on 23 January, blaming a lack of funds and chronic instability. «The electoral commission needs a total of about $23 million», he said. «The government of Sierra Leone should provide half of that amount and we are looking to foreign donors for the rest, but they are reluctant because of insecurity in the country». (CNN, 23 January 2001)