Weekly anb06085.txt #6

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 08-06-2000      PART #5/6

* Niger. Desarmement d'ex-rebelles  -  Le 5 juin, environ 300 ex-
rebelles touaregs ont remis leurs armes aux autorites nigeriennes,
mettant ainsi un terme a une rebellion de neuf ans dans le nord du
pays. La ceremonie officielle s'est deroulee en presence de
representants de la France, l'Algerie et le Burkina Faso, les trois
pays mediateurs dans le conflit. Le 24 avril dernier, le chef
d'Etat nigerien avait encore appele ses compatriotes touaregs et
toubous a s'atteler a la construction nationale. Deja plus de 2.000
ex-rebelles ont ete integres dans les forces de defense et dans la
vie socio-economique.   (D'apres PANA, 6 juin 2000)

* Nigeria. The Battle of the mace  -  1 June: Armed police force
their way into the home of Chuba Okadigbo -- the Senate's president
and number three in Nigeria's year-old civilian administration --
in search of the Senate mace which has gone missing. A close aid
says there is evidence that Mr Okadigbo has taken it to his house.
"That is a criminal act. Without the mace, the Senate cannot sit".
The ceremonial mace of the Nigerian Senate is at the centre of a
deepening political crisis dividing President Obasanjo and the
National Assembly. The dispute coincides with public anger at a 50%
increase this week in fuel prices and labour union threats of
widespread strike action. 4 June: Okadigbo has backed down on his
decision to adjourn the Senate for one month, saying it will re-
convene on 7 June to deliberate the 2000 Appropriation Act.   (ANB-
BIA, Brussels, 5 June 2000

* Nigeria. Prix de l'essence. Emeutes  -  Le 5 juin, des emeutes
ont eclate dans la plupart des villes de sud-ouest du pays a
l'annonce d'une hausse de 50% du prix de l'essence. Etudiants et
travailleurs se sont opposes a la police a Lagos, a Abeokuta et a
Ibadan. Un oleoduc a ete incendie dans la region du delta du Niger.
Les syndicats ont annonce une greve generale le 8 juin. D'autre
part, au moins 15 personnes ont ete tuees dans des affrontements
entre villageois a Owo, dans l'Etat d'Ondo, a rapporte la presse
nigeriane.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 6 juin 2000)

* Nigeria. Oil price rise  -  Nigerian students rioted in Lagos,
Abeokuta and Ibadan on 5 June, in protest against a 50% rise in the
price of fuel prices, amid rising social tension and threats of a
general strike on 8 June. The riots coincided with a fire on an oil
pipeline supplying the north of the country with refined petroleum
products from the southern oil city of Warri. In south-western
Nigeria, fuel price rises turned violent at several flashpoints as
students erected burning barricades and smashed federal government
vehicles. On 6 May it was reported that the fuel protests have
spread to Abuja. The same day, labour leaders met with government
officials. The talks were deadlocked. On 7 June, the negotiations
continued but are reported to have ended without agreement. The
unions say they will call a strike for 8 June.   (ANB-BIA,
Brussels, 8 June 2000)

* Rwanda. Human Rights Situation  -  The UNHCR's Centre for
Documentation and Research in Geneva, has published a Background
Paper on the Human Rights Situation in Rwanda. Issues covered,
include: A Review of the General Human Rights Situation; the
situation in the North-Western provinces; the national legislative
context; issues regarding the security forces, detention, genocide
trials, political dissidents; freedom of religion, assembly,
association, the Media, movement; vulnerable groups; the
villagisation policy.   (UNHCR, 5 June, 2000)

* Rwanda. Le TPIR et Habyarimana  -  Le Tribunal penal
international pour le Rwanda pourrait ouvrir, avant la fin de
l'annee, une enquete sur l'assassinat du president rwandais Juvenal
Habyarimana en avril 1994. La procureur du tribunal, Carla Del
Ponte, a explique le 2 juin a New York que pour commencer
l'enquete, le TPIR devrait conclure "qu'il existe un lien entre
l'attentat contre l'avion du president et l'organisation du
genocide". Le tribunal avait rejete, plus tot dans la journee, une
demande d'enquete sur les circonstances de l'accident, introduite
par l'ancien general rwandais Gratien Kabiligi inculpe pour
genocide.   (Le Monde, France, 6 juin 2000)

* Senegal/Mauritanie. Regain de tension  -  L'intention affichee du
Senegal de reprendre un projet de developpement du fleuve formant
frontiere avec la Mauritanie, a rencontre de vives critiques a
Nouakchott et declenche une activite diplomatique intense. La
Mauritanie s'insurge contre une declaration du president Wade
annoncant une exploitation unilaterale du fleuve Senegal, parce que
cette exploitation priverait la Mauritanie d'une eau dont elle a
cruellement besoin. Le predecesseur de M. Wade, Abdou Diouf, avait
abandonne le projet apres des protestations similaires de la
Mauritanie. Celle-ci estime que les statuts de l'Organisation pour
le developpement de la vallee du fleuve Senegal (OMVS) imposent aux
membres (Senegal, Mauritanie et Mali) de consulter les autres avant
toute exploitation significative du fleuve. Qualifiant d'arrogantes
les declarations de M. Wade, la Mauritanie a conseille a ses
ressortissants de quitter le Senegal. En 1989, expulsant
mutuellement leurs ressortissants, les deux pays avaient frole la
guerre. Le 5 juin, le Premier ministre senegalais, Moustapha
Niasse, s'est rendu a Nouakchott pour discuter la crise. Le roi
Mohammed VI du Maroc a offert sa mediation si necessaire et a
appele les deux pays a faire montre de retenue. Le 6 juin,
Mauritaniens et Senegalais continuaient d'affluer a la frontiere,
malgre les tentatives d'apaisement. Selon leur association, les
Senegalais de Mauritanie ont recu un delai de quinze jours pour
rentrer chez eux.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 6 juin 2000)

* Sierra Leone. Otages et refugies  -  5 juin. La rebellion
retiendrait en otage un nouveau contingent d'une dizaine de casques
bleus. Selon la Minusil, le RUF aurait intercepte un convoi envoye
le 4 juin dans l'est du pays pour tenter de ravitailler un groupe
de 235 autres soldats de la paix encercle a Kailahun. D'autre part,
des milliers de civils ont fui ces derniers jours les alentours de
Makeni, ont annonce des organisations humanitaires. Et selon le
PAM, plus de 20.000 habitants de la region autour de Port Loko,
controlee par les rebelles, ont fui leur domicile pour echapper aux
combats et aux recrutements de force effectues par le RUF. L'armee
sierra-leonaise affirme progresser vers la frontiere guineenne. -
7 juin. Apres plus d'un mois de crise, la rebellion a donne un
premier signe positif en s'affirmant prete a revenir a l'accord de
paix signe en juillet 1999. L'armee gouvernementale aurait repris
la ville strategique de Lunsar, qui mene aux mines diamantiferes de
l'est du pays controlees par le RUF. D'autre part, a quelques jours
du retrait annonce du contingent militaire britannique, la
population de la capitale se mobilise pour reclamer le maintien du
millier de marines depeches debut mai. Par ailleurs, les
organisations humanitaires sont de plus en plus preoccupees par
l'insecurite du grand nombre de personnes deplacees qui ont besoin
d'assistance; les agences en ont enregistre 220.000, mais on
suppose qu'il y en a bien plus dans des regions inaccessibles.  
(ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 8 juin 2000)

* Sierra Leone. Havoc  -  4 June: Government forces fight rebels
for control of the strategic town of Lunsar. Control of the town,
100 km by road to the east of Freetown, would give the Sierra
Leonean army access to the centre of the country, much of which
remains under the control of the RUF rebels. UN officials are
visiting Sierra Leone to find out what went wrong with their
peacekeeping operation, when over 500 of its soldiers were taken
hostage. 5 June: Human Rights Watch accuses the RUF of routinely
raping women in the town of Makeni, and in other towns under RUF
control. The organisation has interviewed numerous women from
Makeni and other RUF areas who gave detailed accounts of rape,
including cases of gang rape and rape of young children. Medecins
sans Frontieres decries the international community's "neglect of
the plight of the civilians" in Sierra Leone. The UN Mission says
the RUF are blocking supplies to UN peacekeepers. Liberia has
offered to send peacekeepers to help bring peace to that nation. 6
June: Britain calls for an international embargo on the sale of
Sierra Leone diamonds which has fuelled the civil war. 7 June:
Britain's Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, arrives in Sierra Leone,
to review Britain's support for the government there. Government
forces recapture Lunsar. 8 June: Cook will visit Freetown today
having spent the night aboard HMS Ocean. The Independent reports
that weapons are being seized from the Sierra Leone army and
secreted in dumps by a 300-strong militia who are supposedly the
government's allied in the fight against rebels. Senior British and
Sierra Leone officers are increasingly alarmed by the activities of
the paramilitary West Side Boys (WSB), commanded by Johnny Paul
Koroma.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 8 June 2000)

* Sierra Leone. Two ILO Conventions adopted  -  The Government of
Sierra Leone has put before Parliament two International Labour
Organisation (ILO) conventions for ratification. Because of the
precarious security situation, the two conventions, 102 and 151
have not been debated. Convention 102 is concerned with minimal
standards of social security; Convention 151 is concerned with the
right of the individual to organise and the procedures for
determining the conditions of employment in the civil service.
Plans have been made for the implementation of Convention 102. A
committee has been set up to advise the government on the
establishment of a National Social security scheme. It is intended
to alleviate the adverse economic conditions in post-war Sierra
Leone. If the conventions are ratified, they will enable civil
service organisations to benefit substantially from education and
training programmes.   (Alpha Jalloh, ANB-BIA, Sierra Leone, 1 June
2000)

* Soudan. Puits petroliers fermes?  -  Le 6 juin, l'Armee de
liberation des peuples du Soudan (SPLA de John Garang) a affirme
que le gouvernement soudanais a ete contraint de cesser le travail
dans six puits petroliers, dans le sud-ouest du pays, en raison des
combats avec les rebelles sudistes.   (La Libre Belgique, 7 juin
2000)

* Tanzania. From the Press  -  8 May: The European Union plans to
disburse at least US $4.9 million to support next October's general
elections in Tanzania (The Guardian). Another privately-owned bank,
First Adili Bankcorp Limited, closed shop on 7 May and was placed
under the statutory management of the Bank of Tanzania (Daily
News). 11 May: The government has conceded that it was losing
millions of shillings in revenue from sugar, rice and garments
imported through the Zanzibar route (Daily News). 22 May: The
national chairman of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi, President
Benjamin Mkapa, has thanked all Tanzanians for the support they
have given him so far in his resolve to vie for the Union
presidency (Daily News). 25 May: Last month, the Minister for
Energy and Minerals, Dr Abdallah Kigoda, warned oil traders using
unethical and unfair business practices of stern government action
(Daily News).   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 5 June 2000)

Weekly News anb0608.txt - End of part 5/6