ANB-BIA - Av. Charles Woeste 184 - 1090 Bruxelles - Belgium
TEL **.32.2/420 34 36 fax /420 05 49 E-Mail: anb-bia@village.uunet.be
_____________________________________________________________
WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 10-05-2001

PART #3/4 - From GUINEA-B. - NIGER

* Guinea-Bissau. Detainees released after six months — Reports from Guinea-Bissau say the authorities have begun releasing some of the military personnel detained last November in connection with an alleged coup plot. Sixteen soldiers were released at the weekend and more were expected to be freed on 8 May. About one-hundred-and-fifty people, including seven generals, have been held in detention for six months without any charges being brought. A report by parliament on 3 May called for the suspension of legal proceedings against three MPs being held and the speeding up of procedures against the soldiers. (BBC News, UK, 8 May 2001)

* Guinée Bissau. Démobilisation des anciens combattants — Le 8 mai, un programme de démobilisation et de réinsertion économique et sociale des anciens combattants a été lancé à Bissau en présence du corps diplomatique et de représentants de l’Onu. Le programme en est à sa phase expérimentale, a indiqué le secrétaire d’Etat aux Anciens combattants, M. Cabral. Le processus concernera d’abord 500 soldats volontaires. Chaque démobilisé recevra 100.000 FCFA et des projets seront créés pour eux. Selon le représentant du secrétaire général de l’Onu, la stabilité de Bissau devra impérativement passer par le règlement du problème des militaires. Les institutions de Bretton Woods ont débloqué 25 millions de dollars pour ce programme. (PANA, Sénégal, 9 mai 2001)

* Kenya. Church angered by State inertia — «The government has failed», says a Church. The Presbyterian Church of East Africa’s General Assembly, said Kenyans had lost confidence in the government, particularly because it appeared to have lost control of the economy. In a wide-ranging criticism of the State, the Church urged Kenyans to vote in, at next year’s General Election, a new government sensitive to their plight. (Daily Nation, Kenya, 1 May 2001)

* Kenya/Somalia. Somalis ordered to leave Kenya — Kenya has ordered 10,000 Somali refugees who’ve been living in the north-eastern border area that they must move. A local official in the town of Mandera Jamlek Mbaruga told the refugees they had a week either to go home to Somalia or move into existing camps in Kenya. The refugees fled into Kenya after fighting broke out amongst rival factions in a border town Buulohaawo a month ago. They have so far refused to return home, saying they needed security guarantees. Some are also unwilling to move into camps because of experiences at camps elsewhere. Correspondents say the presence of the Somalis in Mandera has placed a burden on the town’s infrastructure. (BBC News, UK, 10 May 2001)

* Liberia. Liberian timber profits finance regional conflict — Recent Global Witness investigations have found that two individuals involved in the illicit arms and diamond trade to Sierra Leone, also hold high-ranking positions within the Liberian government body assigned to oversee Liberia’s million dollar timber industry. The link between the Liberian timber industry and the war in Sierra Leonean is now plain to see. The United Nations Security Council must urgently reconsider the imposition of a total embargo on Liberian timber exports and immediately implement the diamond embargo. Gus Kouwenhoven, identified by the UN Expert Panel Report as «responsible for the logistic aspects of many of the arms deals,» is on the board of directors of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), the Liberian government regulatory body assigned to monitor forest practices and exports. Talal El-Ndine, identified by the Expert Panel Report as the individual who personally pays «Liberians fighting in Sierra Leone alongside the RUF, and those bringing diamonds out of Sierra Leone,» is also on the board of directors of the FDA. These ties show that it is now probable that profits accrued from the export and sale of Liberian timber are being used to train and arm the notoriously brutal Sierra Leonean rebel group, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). These practices can continue because millions of dollars are being made through the international marketing of valuable Liberian timber. The FDA bi-annual report, covering the period from January to June 2000, showed that China imported 46.4% (worth an estimated 13 million USD) of total Liberian timber exports while France imported 17.9%(3) (worth an estimated 7 million USD). These dramatic figures shed light as to the possible reasons why both countries were the principal objectors to timber sanctions being placed on Liberia in March 2001. (Global Witness, 4 May 2001)

* Libéria. Des femmes contre la guerre — Le 6 mai, le chef de l’Etat libérien Charles Taylor a appelé les pays africains et l’OUA à lui apporter leur soutien face aux sanctions imposées par le Conseil de sécurité de l’Onu contre son pays. (Les sanctions votées en mars entrent en vigueur le 7 mai. Ces mesures, dont un embargo sur les armes et les diamants, sanctionnent le soutien de Monrovia aux rebelles de la Sierra Leone). -Par ailleurs, le 5 mai, plusieurs centaines de Libériennes ont manifesté dans les rues de la capitale Monrovia pour dénoncer les combats et réclamer des pressions internationales contre les assaillants rebelles. Les manifestantes ont dénoncé les attaques rebelles dans la région de Lofa (nord), d’où quelque 60.000 personnes ont été déplacées par les combats qui se sont intensifiés ces dernières semaines. Elles ont remis une pétition demandant à l’Onu, à l’OUA, à la CEDEAO, à l’Union européenne, aux Etats-Unis et à la Grande-Bretagne d’intervenir et de “libérer le Libéria du fléau de la guerre”. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 7 mai 2001)

* Liberia. Sanctions take effect — 7 May: United Nations sanctions against Liberia are coming into effect — an attempt by the international community to quell the conflict in neighbouring Sierra Leone. The sanctions are being put in place because of Liberia’s apparent failure to sever ties with Sierra Leone’s rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The movement has been accused of killing, raping and mutilating civilians over the last decade. Diamond exports from Liberia will be banned, in an effort to halt the smuggling of gems from rebel-held areas in Sierra Leone. Foreign travel by senior Liberian officials will also be restricted. Britain and the United States believe the Liberian President, Charles Taylor, has been running guns to the rebels in exchange for so-called «blood diamonds» from the rich Sierra Leonean diamond fields. UN officials said the sanctions were designed to hit the president and his government ministers, rather than ordinary Liberians. The decision was based on a report last week from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He said information indicated Liberia had not yet cut ties with the rebels, closed their bank accounts or expelled their leaders as the UN Security Council demanded. But some West African nations, the very countries which will have to implement the sanctions, are opposed to them. They think the measures could put Mr Taylor’s back to the wall and cause a nationalist backlash in Liberia, which he could exploit. The Liberian Government has accused London of backing Liberian rebels. In a statement, the government says some of the arms and ammunition given by Britain to the Sierra Leone national army are now being supplied to rebels fighting in northern Liberia. The British army strenuously denies any involvement in the Liberian war, but the BBC‘s West African correspondent, Mark Doyle, says it is quite possible in this chaotic region, that some British weapons have reached the Liberian rebels. 8 May: The government has restricted foreign diplomats from travelling outside Monrovia and has advised them going out at night after 8.30 p.m. (BBC News, UK, 7-8 May 2001)

* Maghreb. Création d’une banque commune — L’Algérie, la Libye, la Mauritanie, le Maroc et la Tunisie vont fonder une banque commune dotée d’un capital de 500 millions de dollars, dont l’objectif sera d’encourager les investissements et les échanges commerciaux dans tout le Maghreb. L’Union du Maghreb arabe (Uma) a annoncé que la Banque du Maghreb pour l’investissement et le commerce extérieur (BMICE) sera basée à Tunis. L’Uma, fondée en 1989 dans le but de créer à terme un marché commun des pays d’Afrique du Nord, n’a toutefois pas précisé quand cet établissement serait opérationnel. (Reuters, 4 mai 2001)

* Malawi. Traditional healers research HIV/AIDS — Traditional healers in Malawi are working together to determine of they really have found a cure for AIDS. Their research is targeting 100 AIDS patients who will be receiving treatment under their direction. The Herbal AIDS Drug Research Project (HADREP) will then inform the government about the results of their work. Speaking at a meeting held at the Malawi College of Medicine in Blantyre, HADREP‘s president, Christopher Kadzamira, said that his treatment had already cured a number of patients and it is unfortunate the government does not heed the traditional healers’ claims. The government has accused traditional healers of «doing things in a hurry» and rushing into making conclusions even before testing their drugs in laboratories. Kadzamira said that after an initial period of six months, the patients will be taken to hospital to be tested for a second time by medical personnel there. The results of the research being conducted in 15 herbal clinics, will be published one the patients have finished taking their prescribed dosages. (Frank Jomo, ANB-BIA, Malawi, 30 April 2001)

* Malawi. Churches criticise President Bakili Muluzi’s third term bid — Christian Churches in Malawi have joined together and agreed to strongly oppose and block the political manoeuvres by the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) to amend the Constitution to allow President Bakili Muluzi stand for a third term. The Churches agreed to meet on 4 May in Lilongwe, to jointly express their opposition to what is happening. Reverend Daniel Gunya, General Secretary of the Blantyre Synod of the Church of Central African Presbyterian (CCAP) said that the meeting would allow Christians in Malawi to show support for the pastoral letters the Catholic bishops and the Church of Central African Presbyterian have recently published. Both letters urged Muluzi to abandon contemplating to run for a third mandate against the Constitution. «As church leaders we think it’s high time we meet and discuss the two pastoral letters,» he said. There’s been a mixed reaction from government to the hard-hitting CCAP pastoral letter read out in over 10,000 prayer houses on 22 April. While the Justice Minister Peter Fachi has criticised the clergy, branding them as acting for opposition politicians, President Muluzi has asked for dialogue with the church leaders. «We are all not perfect,» President Muluzi told the congregation of at a Roman Catholic Church service in the southern town of Balaka on 29 April. «We should accept criticism and avoid being confrontational,» he added. The government has said the political politburo of the ruling United Democratic Front has never discussed the third term issue. (Brian Ligomeka, ANB-BIA, Malawi, 2 May 2001)

* Malawi. Govt. cutbacks — Malawi’s government ministers should say goodbye to first-class flights, long trips at government expense and joyriding in their official cars, Finance Minister Mathews Chikaonda said on 8 May. The cutbacks are aimed at trying to get control of finances in this small southeast African nation that is one of the poorest countries in the world. Chikaonda told a meeting of economists, civil rights activists and journalists that he was going to clamp down on wasteful spending in his new budget plan. Under intense pressure from donors, President Bakili Muluzi fired his entire Cabinet in November after Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee published a report detailing high levels of corruption and fraud in the government, the first to be democratically elected here. Chikaonda, a former economics professor at Canada’s Memorial University of Newfoundland, was reappointed to the new Cabinet. (InfoBeat, USA, 9 May 2001)

* Maroc. Nouvel archevêque de Rabat — Le 5 mai, le pape a accepté la démission de Mgr Hubert Michon, archevêque de Rabat depuis 1983. Pour lui succéder, Jean-Paul II a nommé Mgr Vincent Landel, déjà coadjuteur. Mgr Landel, 56 ans, est originaire de Meknès. Le Maroc, pays musulman à 99%, compte quelque 25.000 catholiques répartis dans les archevêchés de Rabat et de Tanger. (La Croix, France, 7 mai 2001)

* Morocco. Prison abuses «rampant» — Morocco’s 44 prisons are overcrowded with unhealthy conditions belonging to another age, according to a hard-hitting report. The Moroccan Prison Observatory, an umbrella organisation which incorporates a number of local human-rights groups, speaks of a prison regime that is immersed in corruption, violence, disease and the sexual abuse of children as young as 12. They say the country’s prisons house anything up to 80,000 detainees in a system designed for less than half that number. What makes the overcrowding worse is that, while some prisons are half-empty, in others the only place left to sleep for some prisoners are the toilets. Hygiene is minimal, medical care normally non-existent and disease rife. One of the most alarming aspects of the report deals with evidence that children as young as 12 are being kept in the prisons and are regularly falling victim to sexual abuse including rape, even though legally nobody under 16 years old is allowed to be in prison. This is said to be just one aspect of a comprehensive climate of corruption in which, for instance, the only food available to prisoners is that which is brought in by family members who must first pay a bribe to prison warders. The Observatory report is a damning indictment of the country’s prison system at a time when the talk is of general reform and judicial improvement under the new king, Mohammed VI. (BBC News, UK, 8 May 2001)

* Mozambique. Bilan des inondations — Le nombre des victimes des inondations qui ont touché, au mois de mars, les régions de Manica, Sofala, Tete et Zambésia, s’accroît: d’après les données du gouvernement, 113 personnes auraient péri dans la catastrophe. Le nombre de déplacés, environ 223.000, semble en revanche diminuer (il y a quinze jours, on signalait 300.000 sans abri). Les inondations ont endommagé 2.800 km de routes, dont 1.240 ont été réparées. La voie navigable sur le fleuve Zambèse, qui dessert la ville de Caia, n’est toujours pas praticable à cause de la hauteur des eaux. On dénombre 150 écoles détruites et 82.500 hectares de récoltes perdus. Le gouvernemement indique que la réparation des routes est sa priorité. (Misna, Italie, 3 mai 2001)

* Mozambique. No third term for President — The Mozambican president, Joaquim Chissano, has told his party he does not intend to run for a third term. Mr Chissano told his ruling party’s central committee his decision was taken out of respect for the democratic process. His statement comes amid a spate of possible third term bids which has led to political crises in several African countries. Opposition leaders in Mozambique said the move could be a ploy by Mr Chissano to provoke calls for him to stand for re-election in 2004. In the last elections, the governing party called on Mr Chissano to stand after he announced he would not take part in the poll. A party spokesman, Bernado Chirinda, said they could call on Mr Chissano to stand again, if a credible successor is not found. (BBC News, UK, 10 May 2001)

* Namibia. Over 20,000 refugees face starvation — More than 20,000 refugees at the Osire Refugee Camp in Namibia are facing starvation, the World Food Programme (WFP) office in Namibia has confirmed. WPF Programme Officer, Penelope Howarth said on 6 May that the world body has only received 30 percent of the funds required to supply food to the refugees in the camp for this year. Howarth said most of the refugees are Angolans who have fled the ongoing civil war in that country. The shortfall in funding has forced the UN agency to reduce monthly food allocations of 2,100 kilocalories by 20 percent, the sources said. WFP Namibia has appealed to international donors to help minimise the situation of hunger that is facing the refugees at Osire. Refugees fleeing to Namibia arrive weak and exhausted due to malaria and gastric disorders combined with low food intake, she said. «This leaves many refugees, especially children under the age of five, suffering from malnutrition,» Howarth stated. She said health conditions could also deteriorate further if supplementary feeding programmes for the refugees are suspended due to lack of funding. (PANA, Senegal, 7 May 2001)

* Niger. Luxembourg offers food assistance — The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has granted food relief amounting to 420 tonnes of millet to 53 famine-stricken villages in Niger, official sources in Niamey said on 3 May. The gesture followed an appeal launched by Niger as famine threatens some 4 million people following a cereal deficit of 163,000 tonnes at the end of the last agricultural season. Prime Minister Hama Amadou launched an urgent appeal to the international community in April for at least 60,000 tonnes of cereal for the period May-August. He mentioned the exhaustion of farmers’ stocks in 12 administrative areas and rural depopulation sometimes combined with the displacement of entire families from the north to the south. According to statistics issued by the Trade ministry, a 100 kg bag of millet that sold at an average of 13,000 CFA francs in January has shot up to 20,000 CFA francs. (PANA, Senegal, 3 May 2001)

* Niger. Etudiants en grève de la faim — Le maire de Niamey a interdit un meeting et une marche qu’envisageaient d’organiser les partis d’opposition et la société civile en soutien aux étudiants incarcérés qui observent une grève de la faim pour protester contre leur détention après des manifestations estudiantines. 15 étudiants incarcérés à la prison civile de Kollo ont entamé une grève de la faim depuis 11 jours. Ils sont soutenus depuis huit jours par une centaine de leurs camarades qui observent le même mouvement devant l’Assemblée nationale. Selon l’opposition, les étudiants grévistes sont totalement affaiblis et cinq d’entre eux sont déjà hospitalisés. La crise qui secoue l’université de Niamey dure depuis trois mois. (D’après PANA, Sénégal, 7 mai 2001)