Weekly anb06027.txt

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 02-06-2000      PART #7/7

* Uganda. From "The New Vision"  -  26 May: UN observers in Congo
RDC leave for the eastern city of Kisangani to oversee the
withdrawal of rebel forces and their Ugandan and Rwandan allies.
Colonel James Baxter, the British chief of the UN mission, is
leading the team. Uganda is to send a health team to contain a
cholera epidemic in north-eastern Congo RDC. 27 May: President
Museveni will tomorrow address Parliament on the security situation
in Congo RDC. The withdrawal of Ugandan troops from Kisangani began
on 25 May and will last 16 days, says a senior military officer.
UPDF officers have been banned from making any comments about
Rwanda and the Rwandan Patriotic Army. 16 children between the ages
of nine and eighteen were abducted around Gulu Municipality between
20th and 25th of this month by rebels of the Lord's Resistance
Army. 29 May: President Museveni has said that Uganda is working
with the governments of Libya and Egypt as well as with former US
president Jimmy Carter, to ensure that rebel leader Joseph Kony
leaves Juba in southern Sudan. 30 May: The Lord's Resistance Army
(LRA) has rejected an accord signed between Uganda and Sudan in
December, saying they will not be bound by the terms of the deal
"because it did not directly involve the leadership of the LRA in
any practical manner". 31 May: Over 150 Tanzanians have arrived in
Namugongo ahead of the Martyrs Day festivities scheduled for 3
June. At least 20 Kenyans are also here for the occasion. Brother
Deogratius Dominic Karurama, leader of the Tanzanian delegation
said: "We have come to pray for peace. We spiritually value this
day and we also value the Namugongo memorial site".   (ANB-BIA,
Brussels, 31 May 2000)

* Western Sahara. Polisario renews appeal to Security Council  - 
The Polisario Front, on 25 May, renewed its appeal to the UN
Security Council to spare no effort to preserve the UN settlement
plan and to encourage the two parties in conflict to co-operate
with the world body. On the eve of the opening of informal talks on
the Western Sahara by the Council, the Front urged the UN to
facilitate the implementation of the plan as well as other related
accords and instruments. In his latest report to the Council on the
matter, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the two parties to
come up with concrete and specific solutions, aimed at reconciling
the protagonists in the dispute. Polisario's representative in New
York, Ahmed Boukhari, says the UN, in its capacity as the guarantor
of the settlement plan, has full authority to take any measure
likely to guarantee the full co-operation of the parties in
conflict. In a letter addressed to the current chair of the
Security Council, Wang Yingfan of China, Boukhari deplored the fact
that UN hesitations have rather tended to "encourage" Morocco in
its deliberate blocking of the implementation of the settlement
plan. He reiterated Polisario's total commitment to the
implementation of the UN plan, in strict respect of international
legality as stipulated in the various resolutions of the Council.
He said that the UN peace mission in the territory has made giant
progress paving the way for the holding of the referendum.
Polisario therefore considers that inundating the Identification
Commission with an untold number of appeals is a "premeditated
manoeuvre" on Morocco's part, said Boukhari.   (PANA, Dakar, 25 May
2000)

* Zambia. Under pressure  -  25 May: President Chiluba has vowed to
keep on supporting UN peacekeeping efforts in Sierra Leone, where
hundreds of his troops are still being held hostage by rebels. He
says: "The unfortunate incidents in Sierra Leone will not
discourage Zambia from continuing its noble peacekeeping mission in
that country nor will it effect Zambia's participation in other UN
peacekeeping missions in Africa". 26 May: President Chiluba has
warned Angola that Zambia has the capacity to fight back against
attacks on Zambian villages along their common border. He gave the
warning as fighting between Angolan forces and UNITA rebels spilled
over into Zambian territory.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 26 May 2000)

* Zambia. Angolan soldier captured  -  On 25 May, Zambian troops
captured an armed Angolan soldier, armed with an AK47 assault rifle
with 300 rounds of ammunition, following an exchange of fire with
MPLA forces in which one Zambian soldier and two Zambian civilians
were injured. The incident occurred at Lukomantanda village, 12
kilometres inside Zambia.   (Fred Chela, ANB-BIA, Zambia, 29 May
2000)

* Zambia. Suspensions of senior party officials  -  The dust that
President Frederick Chiluba has raised on the Zambian political
landscape by maintaining he is going to hand-pick his successor
when he retires in 2001, has turned into a whirlwind of mass
suspensions in the ruling Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD).
So far, a mountain of suspensions of MMD officials at ward, branch,
constituency, district and provincial levels, including deputy
ministers and Members of Parliament (MP)s, is building up against
those rallying behind Environmental Minister, Mr Benjamin Yorum
Mwila's political ambitions for the MMD presidency. Among those
shown the "red cards" by the controversial MMD national secretary
and minister without Portfolio, Mr Michael Sata, include, Northern
Province MMD chairperson, Mr Samuel Mukupa and his Kitwe District
counterpart Mr Robby Kasuba. Others are former Local Government
deputy minister and Lukashya MP in Northern Province, Mr Bernard
Mpundu, former Youth, Sport and Child Development deputy minister,
Ms Elizabeth Chitika, MP for Kawambwa and Chifubu MP in Ndola, Mr
Chibwe Mulenga. Sata's axe has also fallen on outspoken MMD Chipili
MP Mr Ntondo Chindoloma and two members from the MMD National
Executive Committee (NEC), Mr Charles Mwape and Moses Kaunda.  
(Moses Chitendwe, ANB-BIA, Zambia, 31 May 2000)

* Zimbabwe. Vers les elections  -  Le 26 mai, l'opposition a accuse
le gouvernement d'avoir manipule le decoupage des nouvelles
circonscriptions electorales afin de favoriser les candidats du
parti au pouvoir (ZANU-PF) aux legislatives du 24 et 25 juin; le
ZANU-PF aurait gonfle artificiellement le nombre des electeurs
ruraux, au detriment de celui des urbains. D'autre part, la crise
au Zimbabwe inquiete de plus en plus les pays d'Afrique australe,
qui redoutent une contagion des troubles dans les fermes, notamment
apres un appel lance le 25 mai par le president Mugabe, qui a
invite les Noirs de Namibie a la mobilisation agraire. - 29 mai. 25
parlementaires de la Communaute de developpement d'Afrique australe
(SADC) sont arrives au Zimbabwe pour superviser les prochaines
elections legislatives. Ils se joindront a plusieurs centaines
d'autres depeches notamment par l'ONU, l'OUA et le Commonwealth. -
30 mai. On apprenait que la campagne electorale avait fait encore
deux morts (dont un leader local du ZANU-PF) et plusieurs dizaines
de blesses. - 31 mai. Le gouvernement a declare qu'il voulait,
encore ce mois-ci, exproprier 841 fermes appartenant a des Blancs
et les transferer a des Noirs. Un cinquieme fermier blanc a ete
tue.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 2 juin 2000)

* Zimbabwe. Towards the elections  -  25 May: Zimbabwe's Opposition
has succeeded in a last-ditch attempt to win more time to nominate
candidates for next month's parliamentary elections. The Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) had gone to court to argue that a
postponement was vital if it was to field a full team of candidates
in the 24-25 June vote. The government side told the court in
Harare it had no objection to pushing back the original 29 May
closing date. 28 May: After an initial inspection of voter-
registration lists, the MDC accuses election officials of
deliberately omitting the names of opposition activists. 29 May:
Reporting on the election fever sweeping Zimbabwe, the press agency
PANA says: "Zimbabwe has leapt into a volatile election frenzy as
the 24-25 June parliamentary polls draw closer. The electoral
contest is mainly between President Robert Mugabe's governing ZANU-
PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
led by longstanding trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai. More than 20
people, mainly opposition party members, have been killed in
clashes between rival supporters of both parties. And fighting
between supporters of those parties is intensifying across the
country, with each side blaming the other of starting the
violence." 25 parliamentarians from the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) have arrived in Zimbabwe to monitor
the elections. The World Council of Churches announces it will send
international ecumenical peace observers to Zimbabwe for a period
leading up to and following the elections. 30 May: The EU says it
will send 160 observers to monitor the elections. 31 May: A team of
six election observers from the Commonwealth has arrived to begin
monitoring the run-up to the elections.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 1
June 2000)

* Zimbabwe. Money pledge for farms  -  South Africa's President
Mbeki has secured international funds for a scheme to buy white-
owned farms in Zimbabwe for redistribution to black people. An aide
to President Mbeki confirmed that Saudi Arabia and Norway had
agreed to provide $14 million for the purchase of 118 farms in
Zimbabwe, whose owners have already agreed to sell. Frank Chikane,
director general in the President's office, said the international
funds had no conditions attached and would be made available
through the United Nations Development Programme. He said Mr Mbeki
sought the money from independent sources not involved in the
current dispute over land redistribution in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe,
however, says there is nothing new in President Mbeki's
announcement. This is a return to plans drawn up in 1998. On 31
May, officials in Harare said Zimbabwe will seize 841 white-owned
farms by the end of June.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 2 June 2000)


Weekly ANB0602.txt - End of Part 7/7

THE END

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*  "La liberation sociale?                                            *
*  Se liberer du besoin d'appartenir au troupeau" (A. De Mello)       *
*               --------                                              *
*  "What's Social Freedom?                                            *
*  "Freeing oneself from the need of belonging to a herd" (A.De Mello)*
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