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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 26-09-2002

PART #4/4 - From NIGERIA to  ZIMBABWE

* Nigeria. Seeking to recover $1bn stolen by Abacha — The Nigerian government is seeking to confiscate more than $1bn of funds stolen by Sani Abacha, the former dictator, after an out-of-court settlement with his family collapsed. The funds are in bank accounts in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and the UK. The government is also seeking Abacha funds in the US. Separately, the Financial Times has established that up to 15 banks in London are to avoid prosecution for handling Abacha funds. An investigation last year by the Financial Services Authority found 15 banks with accounts linked to the dead dictator’s family had significant weaknesses in their money laundering controls. City of London police launched an investigation but decided against pushing for prosecutions. Nigeria’s effort to recover funds looted from the country’s central bank during Abacha’s 1993-98 rule resulted in the out-of-court settlement in April. The Abacha family agreed to return $1bn of funds in exchange for the dropping of theft and money laundering charges against Mohammed Abacha, the dictator’s son, and Abubakar Bagudu, a business associate. However, Mohammed Abacha rejected the settlement last week. Enrico Monfrini, a Swiss lawyer acting for the Nigerian government, said: «The global settlement agreement has collapsed because Mohammed Abacha did not honour his word. The Nigerian government has instructed me to deliver a stronger than ever battle against the Abacha family and their associates, aiming to confiscate the money which we have frozen so far and to find more money.» (The BBC reports that Sani Abacha’s son, Mohammed Abacha, was released from prison on 23 September, after three years in detention on embezzlement charges. On 25 September, the BBC reported that the deal to return the money from Switzerland to Nigeria, has collapsed because Mohammed Abacha refuses to sign vital legal papers releasing the money.) (Financial Times, UK, 24 September 2002)

* Nigeria. Fin de la grève au secteur pétrolier — Les activités économiques et sociales reviennent à la normale dans la plupart des villes du Nigeria qui voient disparaître petit à petit les files d’attente devant les stations d’essence, après que les travailleurs du secteur pétrolier ont mis fin lundi soir, 23 septembre, à leur “grève d’avertissement”. Le lundi, les travailleurs avaient entamé une grève de deux jours pour protester contre la privatisation envisagée de la compagnie nationale du pétrole du Nigeria (NNPC) et de ses filiales. Mais ils ont retiré le mot de grève après que leurs représentants ont rencontré les autorités du ministère du Travail et de la NNPC. Le président du collectif des syndicats a déclaré: “Nous ne leur demandons pas de ne pas privatiser, mais ils ne peuvent pas tout vendre. Ils ne peuvent pas vendre l’industrie du pétrole”. (PANA, Sénégal, 24 septembre 2002)

* Nigeria. Devaluation hits — Staff at the federal high court in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, find it increasingly hard to afford the imported foods sold from wooden tables dotted close to the north bank of nearby Five Cowrie Creek. Stallholders and customers report sharp rises over the past year in the prices of common tinned goods such as sardines, milk and tomatoes. «Our money is not worth anything in dollars,» Daniel Agbo, a court official, says. «There are a lot of things that have the price always rising.» The increases highlight a creeping devaluation of the Nigerian naira that has hurt ordinary people and led the central bank to launch landmark and controversial reforms of a currency market long notorious for abuse. The bank hopes to halt a fall in foreign currency reserves that has highlighted the vulnerability of the economy of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, to public corruption and unhelpful trends in the world oil market. «The demand for foreign exchange was getting higher and higher,» the central bank says. «We felt if we were to continue that way it would deplete all our reserves.» (Financial Times, UK, 24 September 2002)

* Nigeria. La procédure de destitution — Le 24 septembre, les députés nigérians ont fait état de leur détermination à poursuivre le processus de destitution du président Obasanjo, en dépit des efforts de conciliation des dirigeants du Parti démocratique populaire (PDP, au pouvoir). A l’issue d’une réunion du groupe parlementaire du PDP, les députés ont fait part de leur détermination à “maintenir la motion de destitution”. Ils avaient soumis une liste de présumées violations de la Constitution dont se serait rendu coupable le président. Celui-ci a réfuté toutes ces accusations. Selon des sources parlementaires, un plan pour l’exécution de la motion de destitution a été adopté et doit commencer, le 25 septembre, par une motion destinée à annuler le pouvoir de veto du président sur la loi électorale 2002 controversée. (PANA, Sénégal, 25 septembre 2002)

* Rwanda/Uganda/Congo RDC. Withdrawals from  Congo RDC — 19 September: Rwanda has ordered the withdrawal of another segment of its troops from the neighbouring Congo RDC, this time from the cities of Kabalo, Kalemie, Kongolo and Nyunzu in northern Katanga Province. The withdrawal from the four cities is scheduled to begin on 21 September, according to Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for MONUC, citing a letter received from the Rwandan government. 22 September: France’s Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, says the start of a Rwandan army withdrawal has revived Congo’s peace prospects and he will now talk to Congo about fulfilling its side of a peace deal. Rwandan officials say a third and final phase will begin on 27 September, removing soldiers from North and South Kivu Provinces directly bordering Rwanda. 23 September: Uganda has begun its pull out of troops from Gbadolite, the birthplace of former President Mobutu. The Ugandans say they have already pulled their forces out of Beni, but will retain a force in Bunia until the UN can improve their security presence there. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 23 September 2002)

* Sierra Leone. Athletes on the run — In its issue of 25 September, the UK‘s The Guardian, published the following report. «Sierra Leone sent a team of 30 to the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, UK, this summer. But after the closing ceremony, when the time came to catch the flight back home, all but ten had disappeared. Precisely how they did it was, and has remained, a mystery. One thing is certain: athletes from a poor country had used a tournament in a rich one to do a runner; it was asylum seeking by other means. However, recently one of the team agreed to an interview. The athlete did not want his name used. He sat nervily and gulped orange juice. But he was forthright about why the team had disappeared. It had not been a carefully concocted plan, he said; it had been a revolt. Friction between the team’s athletes and officials has started as soon as they arrived in Britain. They had been training for years in difficult circumstances but when they arrived at the airport in UK, there was no one to greet them. Athletes lacked the essentials for taking part in the competition and team officials were doing almost nothing to help them. Officials were arguing among themselves about who was owed favours and who was in charge. The officials often neglected to tell their athletes when and where they were supposed to be competing. Eventually, some of the athletes staged a walkout to protest against their officials». (Edited by ANB-BIA, Belgium, 25 September 2002)

* Sierra Leone. Réduction des casques bleus — Le 24 septembre, le Conseil de sécurité de l’Onu a renouvelé pour six mois le mandat de la mission en Sierra Leone (Minusil). Mais, suivant une recommandation de Kofi Annan, il a approuvé à l’unanimité une résolution demandant la réduction du nombre des casques bleus, même si le conflit  au Liberia voisin continue à menacer la paix dans le pays. La Minusil regroupe 17.000 personnes. La résolution appelle à une réduction de 4.500 hommes en huit mois. — D’autre part, le 19 septembre, le FMI a annoncé avoir approuvé un décaissement de l’ordre de 25 millions de dollars à la Sierra Leone dans le cadre de sa Facilité pour la réduction de la pauvreté et la croissance. On rappelle qu’il existe d’énormes défis sociaux à relever, notamment la réinsertion des ex-combattants, l’appui à la réinstallation de la population déplacée et les soins aux victimes de la guerre. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 25 septembre 2002)

* Sierra Leone. UN force to stay — The UN military mission in Sierra Leone will continue for at least another eight months. The Security Council has agreed unanimously to extend the mandate for the force by six months and has said that measures to reduce the size of the 17,300 member force will begin after eight months. A UN statement said that the force would stay in a bid to support the government’s efforts to continue building on the peace process. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 25 September 2002)

* Somalia. The Puntland region detains Ethiopians — Police in the breakaway Somali territory of Puntland say they have arrested more than 100 people for entering the area illegally. They say most of the detainees are Ethiopians waiting to travel to Yemen and Saudi Arabia in search of work. Speaking by telephone from the port town of Bossaso, police chief Jama Ali Farah said that those arrested would soon be taken to court. Puntland declared itself autonomous from the rest of Somalia in 1998 after the collapse of Siad Barre’s regime in 1991 plunged the country into bloodletting. In recent months, political in-fighting has intensified in Puntland as two militia factions continued to battle it out for territory and political influence in the area. (BBC News, UK, 19 September 2002)

* South Africa. Lawsuit over AIDS drugs — South African Aids activists launched legal action on 19 September against GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim, accusing the pharmaceutical groups of charging «excessive prices» for their Aids drugs. The lawsuit, which has been filed to the country’s competition authorities, alleges that the companies have abused the patent protection on their drugs to charge prices that have been «directly responsible for premature, predictable and avoidable deaths» of Aids patients in South Africa. The companies described the charges as baseless, but the lawsuit could lead to renewed criticism of the pharmaceutical industry and its role in the Aids epidemic in Africa. Some 4.7m South Africans are infected with HIV/Aids, more than any other country. The case has been brought by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the lobby group that won a case in the constitutional court this year, forcing  the government to supply an Aids drug for pregnant women. The Congress of South African Trades Unions and a group of health workers have also signed the complaint. They accuse the companies of breaching South African competition law by charging prices well above the «economic value» of the drugs and will ask the competition authorities to force the companies to disclose the real development costs of treatments. «This is not just a symbolic gesture,» said Mark Heywood, TAC general secretary. «The companies can be ordered to lower their prices and they can also be sued by people who suffered loss as a result of past excessive pricing.» (Financial Times, UK, 20 September 2002)

* South Africa. Keen to control land redistribution — The violent land invasions in Zimbabwe have weakened the South African rand, undermined foreign investor confidence and put unprecedented international pressure on the Pretoria government to deal more forcefully with its wayward northern neighbour. The invasions have also turned the spotlight on South Africa’s own land redistribution problems. Yet, despite gloomy forecasts that «South Africa is next», the Zimbabwean experience appears to have given a new sense of urgency to both the government and the mainly white commercial farmers to speed up land reform through negotiation. The government in Pretoria has been criticised for its soft approach to Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and his controversial policies. But there has been no hint of softness in the government’s reaction to a spate of copycat land invasions in South Africa. Last year in Bredell, near Johannesburg, a few thousand squatters who tried to settle on privately owned land were swiftly evicted by police and their makeshift shacks demolished. Since then the land affairs department has made a determined effort to accelerate its land restitution programme, designed to return land to black South Africans dispossessed by removals under the apartheid regime. Some 33,510 claims — nearly half the total lodged — have been settled, 20,000 of them in the past 12 months. (Financial Times, UK, 20 September 2002)

* Soudan. Bombardements dans le sud — Le lundi 23 septembre, les rebelles du Sud-Soudan ont accusé le gouvernement de Khartoum d’avoir tué 26 villageois et blessé des dizaines d’autres lors de bombardements de villages au cours du week-end. Des avions Antonov et Mig-29 et un hélicoptère auraient bombardé les régions de l’Equateur occidental, du Nil supérieur central et du Nord-Bahr el Ghazal, selon un communiqué de la SPLA. Des pourparlers pour un cessez-le-feu, qui se tenaient à Machakos, avaient été suspendus le 2 septembre. Depuis, les rebelles accusent Khartoum de multiplier les attaques contre le Sud. (Le Monde, France, 25 septembre 2002)

* Soudan. Programme de déminage — Le gouvernement de Khartoum et les rebelles de la  SPLA ont signé une entente avec les Nations unies pour le déminage d’une partie du territoire soudanais. Bien que les négociations entre les deux parties soient au point mort, une stratégie commune a été adoptée pour le déminage afin de pouvoir intervenir plus efficacement sur le plan humanitaire. L’accord signé à Genève prévoit l’ouverture d’un bureau onusien à Khartoum et à Rumbek. La rébellion et le gouvernement s’accusent mutuellement à propos de l’usage des mines. (Misna, Italie, 26 septembre 2002)

* Swaziland. The country’s food crisis — Swaziland’s National Disaster Relief Task Force is confident that it can overcome the challenge of the country’s food crisis, and help feed the 270,000 Swazis that will be in need of aid by early next year. «In a national disaster like this, the worst of its kind that Swaziland has ever faced, it is encouraging to note that everything is under control. The new numbers were a surprise, but we can handle the task. We are keeping our heads, and we are coping,» Ben Nsibandze, the head of the disaster relief task force, said. He said some 144,000 people were affected by food shortfalls when this year’s maize crop, the national staple food, was harvested in April. From now until November, at least 153,000 Swazis will go hungry unless they get relief food. According to the latest estimates, between January to March 2003, the figure is expected to peak at 270,000 — an increase of 40,000 on earlier forecasts. (IRIN, Kenya, 23 September 2002)

* Swaziland. King chooses tenth wife — Swazi monarch King Mswati III plans to marry once again, bringing the total number of his official wives to 10. A private traditional ceremony will be held at the royal village with the bride’s family. The 34-year-old king chose high school student Nolichwa Ayanda Ntenteza, 18, as his new bride two months after marrying wives number eight and nine. King Mswati, Africa’s last absolute monarch, can choose a new wife every year from among thousands of virgins who parade at annual reed dance ceremonies. Official biographers say Mswati’s father, King Sobhuza, had more than 125 wives during his reign of 61 years, which ended when he died in 1982. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 23 September 2002)

* Tchad. Mort de Togoïmi — Youssouf Togoïmi, président du Mouvement pour la démocratie et la justice au Tchad (MDJT) et principal chef rebelle du pays, est mort d’une embolie cérébrale, le 24 septembre, à l’hôpital de Tripoli. Le porte-parole du gouvernement tchadien a réagi en déclarant que “Togoïmi était le seul obstacle à la paix” au Tchad. Le vice-président du MDJT, Adoum Maurice el Bongo, a appelé à une reprise rapide des négociations de paix avec N’Djamena. Togoïmi avait été blessé fin août au Tibesti (extrême nord du Tchad) par l’explosion d’une mine et hospitalisé en Libye. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 25 septembre 2002)

* Togo. Législatives - appel au consensus — L’opposition togolaise vient d’appeler les populations à se mobiliser contre la tenue des élections législatives prévues pour le 27 octobre prochain. Selon l’Union des forces de changement (UFC, principal parti d’opposition), le décret de convocation du corps électoral est anticonstitutionnel et ces élections ne sont pas celles convenues par l’accord-cadre de Lomé (juillet 1999). - Par ailleurs, l’Eglise évangélique presbytérienne du Togo a exprimé ses craintes à propos de ces élections. Elle déplore l’impossible consensus pour une paisible alternance politique et la constante dégradation des valeurs éthiques et morales dans le pays. Pour le Comité synodal qui a signé la déclaration, “la sortie de la crise passe par l’organisation d’élections démocratiques précédées par l’établissement d’un consensus politique qui prend en compte toutes les sensibilités qui s’expriment dans la nation”. (D’après PANA, Sénégal, 25 septembre 2002)

* Tunisie. Enquête sur 14 clandestins noyés — Le mardi 24 septembre, le président Ben Ali a ordonné la création d’une commission d’enquête après la mort, dimanche, de 14 jeunes Tunisiens, noyés au large de la Sicile lors d’une tentative d’immigration clandestine vers l’Italie. Plusieurs autres sont encore portés disparus. La commission aura pour tâche de “recueillir les éléments et les données concernant cette affaire, afin de délimiter les responsabilités”. Selon le journal Le Temps, le passeur, un Tunisien de 27 ans, a été arrêté. Il aurait obligé ses passagers, une cinquantaine au total, à se jeter dans la mer agitée, à quelque 300 mètres de la plage. (AP, 24 septembre 2002)

* Uganda. LRA atrocities — 19 September: The Government says rebels have attacked a village in the north of the country, killing at least 14 people. A local official said the rebels, belonging to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), attacked Pece Acoyo village, 360 kilometres north of Kampala, before dawn. They used hoes and axes to hack the villagers to death, he said. In a separate incident, army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza said that a rebel unit killed five census workers in nearby Labora on the evening of 17 September. The workers were returning home after completing their work, he said. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 19 September 2002)

* Zambia. Mwanawasa senses plot — 22 September: President Levy Mwanawasa has accused his predecessor — and former political mentor — of trying to have last year’s elections declared void. Mr Mwanawasa said he had been told that ex-president Frederick Chiluba wanted to «mislead» the Supreme Court with alleged evidence of vote-rigging. He sent a letter to Mr Chiluba accusing him of trying to topple him and «pervert justice».  Mr Chiluba — who nominated Mr Mwanawasa as his successor — denied the accusations and would fight to clear his name, his aides said. President Mwanawasa claimed he had received reports from an «impeccable source» that Mr Chiluba met opposition leader Anderson Mazoka to discuss how to use the evidence to have the presidential poll nullified. Mr Mazoka has always claimed that December’s election — in which he received 27% of the vote compared with 29% for Mr Mwanawasa — was rigged. Together with other opposition leaders, he made an application to the Supreme Court in January for the vote to be declared void. Mr Mwanawasa’s letter — which was also addressed to Mr Mazoka and other presidential challengers — said: «It is important that all who are involved in the presidential election petition should work towards ensuring that the court is not misled into making a wrong decision all prompted by personal interests.» The President released the letter to the media because «it is important that the public should know how our justice is being perverted». (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 22 September 2002)

* Zambie. Pillage de maïs OGM — Les habitants d’un village du sud de la Zambie, particulièrement affecté par la famine, ont pillé des sacs de maïs génétiquement modifié stockés par le gouvernement. Les autorités avaient refusé ce type d’aide alimentaire que des pays étrangers avaient envoyé pour lutter contre la famine. (La Croix, France, 24 septembre 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Inflation skyrockets — Zimbabwe’s annual rate of inflation leapt to a record high last month as the country’s economic situation continued to deteriorate. The annual rate of inflation rose to 135.1% in August from 123.5% in July, according to the latest figures from Zimbabwe’s Central Statistical Office. The surge in inflation reflects high levels of debt-fuelled government spending as economic output falters due to a combination of drought and political unrest. The relentless increase in consumer prices is expected to inflict further economic hardship on a population already burdened with an unemployment rate estimated at 60%. «All the conduct of the government at the moment is inflationary. They are borrowing enormous quantities of money at very low interest rates which they themselves set,» said economic consultant John Robertson. Government price controls on basic commodities aimed at reining in inflation have created a thriving black market where bags of grain change hands for up to three times the official price. Zimbabwe’s economic crisis has been exacerbated by the government’s policy of seizing white-owned farms, a programme which has disrupted agricultural output. About 6.5 million Zimbabweans — half the country’s population — are thought likely to need emergency food aid this year. (BBC News, UK, 18 September 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Mugabe snubs Commonwealth talks — 22 September: Zimbabwe’s President,  Robert Mugabe, has decided to boycott talks about his country’s suspension from the Commonwealth, apparently because he objected to the tone of his invitation. Mr Mugabe had, until the last minute, been expected to attend tomorrow’s meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to review Zimbabwe’s response to its exclusion from the organisation. But in a phone call to the Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, Mr Mugabe says he objects to the invitation letter from Australian Prime Minister John Howard. «Mugabe says the invitation gives the impression that he is going to be court-martialled in Abuja,» a Nigerian official says. 23 September: The Commonwealth «troika» set up to address Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis, today admits it is split on whether to take tougher action against President Robert Mugabe’s government. Nigeria and South Africa block demands by Australia to suspend Zimbabwe fully from the Commonwealth over the behaviour of Mr Mugabe’s government since contested presidential elections earlier this year. Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard says he is in favour of the full expulsion of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth. The three members say they are disappointed by Mr Mugabe’s refusal to attend the meeting and by the failure of efforts to arrange talks between the president and Don McKinnon, Commonwealth secretary-general. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 23 September 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Le Commonwealth reste divisé — Le 23 septembre, réunie à Abuja (Nigeria), la troïka du Commonwealth, composée du Premier ministre australien, John Howard, et des présidents sud-africain et nigérian, Thabo Mbeki et Olusegun Obasanjo, n’a pu s’entendre sur de nouvelles sanctions à l’égard du régime de Robert Mugabe. L’Australie plaidait pour l’exclusion immédiate du Zimbabwe. (Libération, France, 24 septembre 2002)

* Zimbabwe. MDC plans open defiance — 25 September: Zimbabwe’s main opposition party is to defy security laws and hold rallies and meetings without police clearance, its leader Morgan Tsvangirai has announced. The proposed action — ignoring strict public order and security laws introduced before March’s controversial presidential elections — will open the way for the arrest of members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). But Mr Tsvangirai said action had to be taken against what he called the «illegal regime» of President Robert Mugabe, the man who beat him to lead Zimbabwe. The MDC also announced it was starting a court challenge to stop local elections set for this weekend, saying hundreds of its candidates were being prevented from standing in the polls. Mr Tsvangirai stopped short of calling for the sort of strikes and mass action against the government that he used in 1998 as Zimbabwe’s main labour leader. But he said: «If anyone thinks we are not doing enough, just wait.» (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 25 September 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Vendetta contre les juges — Le rapporteur spécial des Nations unies sur l’indépendance des juges et avocats, Dat’o Param Cumaraswamy, a condamné les nombreuses atteintes à l’Etat de droit perpétrées au Zimbabwe. Il a particulièrement cité le cas de l’ancien juge de la Haute Cour à la retraite, Fergus Blackie, qui a récemment été arrêté, emprisonné et inculpé. Selon lui, il s’agit d’un acte de vendetta menée par le gouvernement pour venger la condamnation par ce juge du ministre de la Justice, Patrick Chinamasa, une condamnation qui avait été annulée par la Cour suprême. Outre cette affaire, le responsable onusien a également fait part de son indignation à la suite du récent refus du gouvernement de permettre à l’opposition d’accéder aux listes électorales, dans une affaire concernant un recours pour dénoncer la légalité de l’élection présidentielle du mois de mars. Par ailleurs, le président Mugabe a menacé récemment d’emprisonner David Coltart, porte-parole de l’opposition. Le rapporteur spécial a exhorté la communauté internationale à continuer à exercer des pressions sur le gouvernement afin de veiller au respect de ses obligations. (PANA, Sénégal, 25 septembre 2002)