weekly anb04066.txt

[anb-bia <anb-bia at village.uunet.be>]

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 06-04-2000      PART #6/9

* Mozambique. Troisieme cyclone  -  Apres "Eline" et "Gloria", le
Mozambique, victime en fevrier et mars de terribles inondations,
s'appretait a affronter, dans la soiree du 5 avril, un troisieme
cyclone venu de l'ocean Indien. "Hudah", qui a fait au moins 13
morts dimanche lors de son passage sur le nord-est de l'ile de
Madagascar, etait attendu vers minuit sur le littoral mozambicain,
avec son cortege de pluies diluviennes et des vents soufflant a des
pointes de plus de 100 km/h. Selon les services de meteorologie,
"Hudah" a legerement devie de sa course dans le canal du Mozambique
en s'affaiblissant, avec une vitesse de deplacement de 15 km/h. Le
cyclone devrait frapper la ville portuaire de Beira, la deuxieme du
pays, dans la nuit du 5 au 6 avril. Ian Mcleod, coordinateur de
l'Unicef a Maputo, a indique que son agence disposait de deux
avions Buffalo capables de decoller tres rapidement pour acheminer
des secours d'urgence. On estime que les inondations de fevrier et
mars ont fait quelque 700 morts dans le sud du Mozambique.  
(Reuters, Johannesburg, 5 avril 2000)

* Namibia. Export Processing Zone Companies  -  Companies operating
within Namibia's Export Processing Zone (EPZ) have been accused of
gross violations of labour and negotiating in bad faith because
workers are not allowed to go on strike. The accusation is
contained in a study conducted by The Labour Resource and Research
Institute, in which union organisers complained that EPZ companies
tended to threaten with disinvestment whenever workers tabled
demands. The report added that most of the EPZ workers allegedly
define themselves as migrants, non-permanent residents in their
town of employment. The institute's director, Herbert Jauch, said
that only half of the workers were permanently employed and they
experience low salaries, poor benefits, and danger to their health
and safety as the major problems. Although the EPZ workers have
higher levels of education than workers in other industries, their
pay was lower than the "normal" wages in the local labour market,
he added. Jauch further said that the study also found that the
women workers in the EPZ earn lower wages and receive fewer
benefits than men. It also revealed that at two EPZ companies,
there are very serious concerns about health and safety conditions.
"Workers are exposed to chemical fumes, heat or cold coupled with
a lack of adequate protective equipment and the absence of
independence monitoring," Jauch said. The study also found that
racial discrimination is dominant among the EPZ companies,
especially against workers who join trade unions. Non-union members
apparently receive more benefits than those who are union members. 
 (PANA, Dakar, 30 March 2000)

* Namibia. Africities Summit set for Namibia  -  The second
Africities summit, a gathering of government leaders, business and
the donor community to discuss the financing of local governments
in Africa, will open in the Namibian capital Windhoek next month.
A spokesman for the Africities secretariat in Namibia in a
dispatch, announced that the five day meeting is expected to bring
together 1200 delegates from within the continent, north America,
and Europe. Major topics to be discussed at this year's summit
include the exploration of innovative ways and methods of financing
local government and building human resources capacity. Inadequate
financial resources in the local government sector in Africa, the
expansion of squatters, increased poverty and crime in African
cities and uncoordinated urban development are among the serious
problems the meeting will focus on. According to some of the
position papers on the meeting, the mobilisation of resources is
one area where local governments in Africa need to make substantial
efforts. Currently, most local governments levy only about $2 per
inhabitant per year. Approximately 80 per cent of this revenue is
devoted to administration. A whole range of activities, especially
from the informal sector, escape taxes, in spite of the fact that
this sector represents 50 per cent of all economic activities in
African cities. About 95 per cent of all investments in African
communities come from donations and only 5 per cent come from
municipal budgets. The first Africities summit was held in Cote
d'Ivoire in 1998.   (The Times of Zambia, 5 April 2000)

* Niger. Epidemie de meningite  -  L'epidemie de meningite qui
sevit depuis deux mois a fait 250 morts sur 2.815 cas
officiellement signales, selon un nouveau bilan publie mardi 4
avril par le gouvernement. La maladie sevit notamment a Niamey et
dans les regions de Birni N'Konni (est), pres de la frontiere avec
le Nigeria, et de Tera (ouest), limitrophe du Burkina Faso. En
1995, le Niger, un des pays les plus pauvres du monde, avait connu
une epidemie de meningite qui avait fait pres de 4.000 morts sur
42.000 cas recenses officiellement.   (Le Monde, France, 6 avril
2000)

* Niger. The right to truth and justice  -  In a News Release dated
6 April, Amnesty International said: "The people of Niger have the
right to truth and justice." Amnesty International recalled the
events of 9 April 1999, when President Mainassara and three others
were killed by the Presidential Guard. "The truth about the
political killings of 9 April 1999, as with all other human rights
abuses committed in Niger since the beginning of the 1990s, is
vital, so that the victims' families may complete their mourning
and so that Niger can be reconciled with its past". Amnesty
International called on Parliament to annul the amnesty granted by
Parliament in January 2000, so that an independent and impartial
inquiry may take place, and that those responsible for these
killings may be brought to justice.   (Amnesty International, 6
April 2000)

* Nigeria. More unrest  -  30 March: Thousands of Nigerians have
grabbed what possessions they can, and have fled from the northern
town of Damboa after fighting broke out between Christians and
Muslims, leaving 20 people dead. Young Muslims, incensed about the
construction of a church in the predominately Muslim town, attacked
the building on 27 March. Some Christians fought back. Clashes
continued on 28 March, prompting thousands to flee their homes.
About 20 people were killed, state officials said. Riot police
restored relative calm on 29 March, but frightened residents
continued to pile into buses, cars and trucks to escape to the
Borno state capital of Maiduguri, 50 miles to the north. Others
took shelter in the local police compound.   (CNN, 30 March 2000)

* Nigeria. Northern states -- to suspend Sharia plans  -  Governors
from northern Nigerian states say they are to suspend controversial
plans to introduce the penal code prescribed by Islamic Sharia law.
But Kano state is at the same time banning alcohol and
prostitution. The 19 governors from the predominantly Muslim north
also decided to set up a Muslim-Christian committee to look at
implementing aspects of Islamic law not covered in the penal code.
In a joint statement, the 19 governors said they intended to make
northern Nigeria "one indivisible geo-political entity" within the
country's federation of states.   (BBC News, 4 April 2000)

* Rwanda. Barayagwiza sera juge au TPIR  -  Le 31 mars, la chambre
d'appel du Tribunal penal international pour le Rwanda a decide que
Jean Bosco Barayagwiza, ancien directeur des affaires politiques au
ministere rwandais des affaires etrangeres et considere comme un
des ideologues du genocide, sera juge par ce tribunal. La chambre
d'appel est ainsi revenue sur sa decision de novembre dernier,
lorsqu'elle avait relaxe Barayagwiza pour vice de forme (le delai
legal entre son arrestation et sa premiere parution avait ete
depasse; arrete en mars 1996 au Cameroun, il y avait ete detenu
pendant 19 mois sans etre informe des charges retenues contre lui).
Cette decision avait provoque un tolle international et une rupture
temporaire des relations entre le TPIR et le Rwanda, qui le
considere comme l'un des principaux architectes du genocide de
1994. Le detenu avait ete maintenu en prison a Arusha en attendant
la decision qui vient de tomber.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses,
1er avril 2000)

* Rwanda. Political parties want Kagame as President  -  30 March:
Seven leading political parties call for interim President Paul
Kagame to assume the job permanently. Party leaders requested the
ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) to ask Kagame to take the post
until the term of the country's current transitional government
expires in 2003. The parties are supposed to represent the
Opposition in Rwanda, but are in fact strongly influenced by the
RPF and are all represented in the RPF government, the RPF set up
after the 1994 genocide.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 30 March 2000)

* Rwanda. Defendant launches lawsuit against Kagame  -  A Hutu man
accused of participating in Rwanda's 1994 genocide is launching a
lawsuit against the country's Tutsi leader -- based on information
contained in documents uncovered by the National Post -- in an
apparent attempt to undermine charges that he was involved in the
murder of 10 UN peacekeepers. Bernard Ntuyahaga, a former Rwandan
army officer, has instructed his lawyers to sue Paul Kagame,
interim president and de facto leader of Rwanda, accusing him of
wartime atrocities and crimes against humanity. The suit is the
first of what could be a spate of legal challenges from Hutus
accused in the genocide, following the Post's March 1 report that
UN war crimes prosecutors hid, ignored or otherwise failed to
follow up leads about who assassinated Rwanda's then president,
setting off the mass killings of Hutus. Evidence of an official
cover-up could help suspects obscure responsibility. The leads,
provided to UN war crimes investigators by three informants,
suggest that the assassins who shot down the president's plane were
not extremist Hutus but Tutsis working for the Tutsi-dominated
Rwandan Patriotic Front, which now holds power. According to two
confidential documents that were obtained by the Post, the
informants said Mr. Kagame, at that time military chief of the RPF,
was the "operations commander" of the assassination. Whether or not
this information has any substantive bearing on the genocide cases
and other criminal trials arising from the violence of 1994,
evidence that the United Nations might have concealed information
fundamental to understanding the terrible events will be seized
upon by those currently blamed for the killing.   (St. Edwards,
National Post, Canada, 31 March 2000)

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