Weekly anb04135.txt #8

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

_____________________________________________________________
WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 13-04-2000      PART #5/8

* Kenya. L'effet Zimbabwe  -  Stimule par l'exemple du Zimbabwe, un depute kenyan
a invite les paysans prives de terre a occuper les domaines agricoles appartenant
aux Kenyans blancs. Selon le East African Standard, Stephen Ndicho, membre du
Parti social-democrate, a lance un appel au president Moi pour qu'a l'image de
Mugabe il apporte sa caution a un grand mouvement d'occupation des exploitations
blanches. Il vise en particulier les grandes plantations de the et de cafe
appartenant a des Blancs ou a des Asiatiques, ainsi que les plantations de la
multinationale Del Monte. La question des terres est beaucoup moins controversee
au Kenya, ou la plupart des anciens colons ont volontairement remis leurs
domaines a la majorite noire apres l'independance. Mais la vaste majorite des
grandes exploitations agricoles demeure entre les mains de Kenyans blancs ou de
multinationales.   (Reuters, 10 avril 2000)

* Kenya. CITES meeting  -  10 April: President Moi of Kenya calls for the
reimposition of a total ban on ivory trading until elephant poaching is brought
under control. "No ivory trade should be permitted under any circumstances until
an effective monitoring capacity is established and is operational", Mr Moi told
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in
Nairobi. "We in Kenya see evidence that the illegal killing of elephants has
increased", he said. 11 April: Arguments on the merits and demerits of relaxing
the global ban on the trade in endangered species. Botswana, Namibia, South
Africa and Zimbabwe, with healthy elephant populations, are pressing to have the
ban on the ivory trade lifted further.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 12 April 2000)

* Madagascar. Vanilla crop ravaged  -  10 April: A violent cyclone which hit
Madagascar earlier this month has destroyed at least half of the island's vanilla
crop. A spokesman for the local vanilla industry says Cyclone Hudah has ravaged
nearly 80% of the plantations in Antalaha, the world centre of vanilla
production, and in nearby Andapa. The spokesman says it will take an estimated
three years to restore production to its previous levels. 11 April: At the
request of the Malagasy Government, the UN this week launched a new "flash
appeal", seeking US $15.7 million from donors to provide urgent humanitarian
assistance for over 300,000 people affected by the devastation wrought by the
cyclone.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 12 April 2000)

* Malawi. Teaching religion in schools  -  The on-going debate on the
introduction of a new subject called Religious and Moral Studies in secondary
schools has split the Muslim community in Malawi, with a rebel faction accusing
the Muslim establishment of bowing to the whims of President Bakili Muluzi, a
Muslim himself. The faction of the Muslim Association of Malawi is planning
street protests and a march to Muluzi's Sanjika Palace to make known their
concerns. They are also demanding fresh elections to revamp the Association which
it accuses of being full of sell- outs. But Ronald Mangani, Secretary General of
the Association, has issued a statement calling the Muslim community not to
follow the call by the break-away faction. "The Muslim Association of Malawi
condemns and wishes to disassociate itself from any and all acts of violence that
any Islamic group or such other individuals may instigate," he said. In an
unsigned letter calling for the protest march, the disgruntled Muslims say if
Muluzi is a real Muslim, he should use his executive powers to protect the
interests of his fellow Muslims. But Muluzi cannot afford to ignore the majority
Christian community to whom he owes the very office his fellow Muslims wish to
evoke to further their interests. And the President increasingly finds himself
between a rock and a hard place since he has his faith to protect and at the same
time, does not want to be seen as snubbing the majority Christians who gave him
the vote. The plan to introduce the religious and moral Studies caused great
concern among the Christians, who viewed the new subject's lopsided content in
favour of Islam as a covert move by Muluzi to indoctrinate Malawi's young people
with the Islamic faith.   (Raphael Tenthani, PANA, 6 April 2000)

* Mozambique. President visits child born in a tree  -  Born on a tree top while
flood waters raged through the Mozambican town of Chibuto in Mozambique's
southern province of Gaza, Rosita Chivure has been dubbed a symbol of suffering
for all the country's women and children. Rosita gained media fame after being
delivered by a South African paramedic, while awaiting rescue in the height of
the flooding that devastated most regions of southern and central Mozambique in
February. The flooding meted out heavy damaged to infrastructures as well as
causing the death to 699 people to date with 95 still missing. Rosita became the
symbol of all the people in the manner in which she was born, and also represents
the solidarity shown by the international community because if she survived, it
was because she got the assistance right there on the tree top, said President
Joaquim Chissano when he saw Rosita and her mother at a special meeting arranged
in Maputo. Presenting the baby with a gift of clothes, blankets and other items,
Chissano said that he would personally support Rosita until she was ready to go
to university. The Mozambican state, Chissano said, will monitor the growth of
the child, who will have the right to a bank account to pay for her studies up
to university. Her parents will be given a house, built by the government. "We
will open a bank account to assist in her education and even clothes, and this
government's gesture will also allow her to know how to help others when she
grows up," Chissano said. On meeting the child, Chissano said: "When I look at
her happy face, I can see that she is a woman full of hope and determination,
representing the image of the Mozambican woman who know that it is possible to
overcome their difficulties."   (Africa Press Bureau, Johannesburg, 7 April 2000)

* Nigeria. The President's official jet  -  The dispute between Nigeria's
National Assembly and President Olusegun Obasanjo over plans to replenish an
ageing plane in the presidential fleet, has taken an embarrassing new twist with
the decision by the leader of Africa's oil-rich nation to now use a commercial
flight for official foreign trips. Obasanjo had submitted a proposal to the
federal legislature, asking for approval to buy a used aircraft for some 85
million US dollars. This is because his 20-year-old Boeing 727 official jet has
not only aged, but also falls within the category of noisy planes banned from
overflying European and US airspace under the anti-noise pollution law that came
into effect this month. Rejecting the request for a new aircraft as
inappropriate, the Nigerian lawmakers rather approved money for the
rehabilitation of the noisy jet. Obasanjo's spokesman, Doyin Okupe, told
journalists that following the impasse, his boss would travel to Cuba for the G-
77 group of developing nations summit, on a commercial plane, most likely, a
British Airways flight. He said Obasanjo, who would pay a two-day official visit
to Cuba before the summit, declined an offer by Cuban leader Fidel Castro to fly
that country's plane to the meeting, to be chaired by Nigeria. "The President
still considers it easier to take a commercial flight than to cede sovereignty
and take another country's plane, flying the flag of Cuba," Okupe added. Trying
hard to play down the effect of the development, Okupe quoted Obasanjo as saying
that "it is not how I go to Cuba, but what I will take there, that is important." 
 (Paul Ejime, PANA, 7 April 2000)

* Nigeria. Maintenir l'unite  -  Lors d'une reunion, le 6 avril, le president
Obasanjo a declare aux chefs traditionnels qu'il maintiendrait l'unite du pays
malgre l'agitation. L'une des dernieres pressions auxquelles son gouvernement a
du faire face est la volonte de certains Etats du nord, ou les musulmans sont
majoritaires, d'appliquer les peines les plus severes prevues par la loi
islamique. En reaction, les gouverneurs des Etats du sud-est ont demande une
structure confederale en lieu et place de la federation actuelle. Dans sa region
natale yorouba, au sud-ouest du pays, les radicaux pressent le president
d'organiser une conference souveraine nationale sur la nature politique du pays.
Concernant la crise de la sharia, M. Obasanjo s'est felicite de la decision des
gouverneurs de creer un comite compose de musulmans et de chretiens pour discuter
de l'introduction de la loi islamique. Il a egalement salue la decision des chefs
traditionnels de former un organe charge d'apaiser les tensions
intercommunautaires. Ceux-ci ont decide de maintenir l'unite du pays et prevenu
que la question de la sharia ne devait pas etre utilisee pour "menacer
l'existence commune" du Nigeria.   (IRIN, Abidjan, 7 avril 2000)

* Nigeria. Killings in Ogoniland  -  Reports from Ogoniland in the Niger delta
region say there have been violent clashes involving the police and local
communities. Security services say several people have been killed. The police
say they were attempting to restore order after fighting broke out between rival
gangs. The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), is accusing the
police of widespread brutality.   (BBC News, 11 April 2000)

* Rwanda. Lawyers move to obtain leaked documents  -  6 April: Two National Post
articles are being used as primary exhibits in a legal bid to obtain confidential
documents about an investigation into the presidential assassination that sparked
the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Two Montreal lawyers representing a former Rwandan
mayor convicted in the genocide, will file the request today before a UN war
crimes tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania. Stories that ran in the Post last month
about the documents, leaked to the newspaper exclusively, throw new light on who
might have killed Juvenal Habyarimana, former Rwandan president, in a missile
attack on his plane six years ago today. (...) The lawyers believe the new
information could have been used to mitigate evidence presented against their
client, also a Hutu, during his 1997-1998 trial. Defence lawyers say that until
the Post uncovered the information, prosecutors had withheld it from them,
despite a rule obliging the tribunal to disclose any evidence that "tends to
suggest the innocence or mitigate the guilt" of an accused. "Full disclosure, a
fair hearing and due process should not be subjected to whim, or to the chance
of a fortuitous leak," say John Philpot and Andre Tremblay in their 23-page
motion to see the documents. "Had the evidence been disclosed to the defence, the
defence would have been approached differently and reinforced according to the
known facts." (...) The document added that Louise Arbour, then chief UN war
crimes prosecutor and now a justice with the Supreme Court of Canada, shut down
the investigation after learning of the new information. Nevertheless, 20 other
lawyers representing dozens of Hutus accused in the genocide are expected to
follow Mr. Philpot and Mr. Tremblay in using the recently revealed information
to challenge the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).  
(National Post, Canada, 6 April 2000)

* Rwanda. Mea culpa belge  -  Le 7 avril, le Rwanda a commemore le sixieme
anniversaire du genocide. Des fosses communes ont ete videes par les autorites,
qui souhaitent enterrer les morts d'une maniere decente lors des ceremonies. Une
importante delegation ministerielle belge y participait, sous la conduite du
Premier ministre Verhofstadt, accompagne de quelque 50 membres des familles des
militaires belges assassines au Rwanda en 1994. A Kigali, M. Verhofstadt a
prononce un discours dans lequel il a reconnu la responsabilite de la Belgique
dans l'indifference coupable de la communaute internationale lors du genocide.
"Au nom de mon pays, je m'incline devant les victimes du genocide. Au nom de mon
pays, au nom de mon peuple, je vous demande pardon". De son cote, le president
a.i. Paul Kagame a denonce "le revisionnisme" qui, notamment, tente "d'exonerer
les auteurs du genocide, de l'accident de l'ancien president et des evenements
qui s'en sont suivis". Par ailleurs, le procureur general du Tribunal penal
international, Carla Del Ponte, a accepte officiellement une plainte contre X
avec constitution de partie civile deposee par la famille de l'ancien president
Habyarimana, qui viserait... Paul Kagame.   (D'apres La Libre Belgique, 7-8 avril
2000)


Weekly News anb0413 -  END of PART 5/8