[Prec. per data] [Succ. per data] [Prec. per argomento] [Succ. per argomento] [Indice per data] [Indice per argomento]

Weekly anb04115.txt #6

_____________________________________________________________
WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 11-04-2001      PART #5/6
* Sénégal. Habré sommé de quitter Dakar - Le 8 avril, le président sénégalais Abdoulaye Wade a demandé à Hissène Habré de quitter le Sénégal, où les tribunaux se sont déclarés incompétents pour le juger de "complicité de torture" commise pendant ses huit années au pouvoir au Tchad. L'ancien dictateur, âgé de 58 ans, aurait un mois pour quitter Dakar, où il vit en exil depuis dix ans, mais il n'a pas été précisé à partir de quand courait ce délai. (Le Figaro, France, 9 avril 2001)
* Sénégal. Campagne électorale - 6 avril. Le président sénégalais Abdouaye Wade a fait part de son intention de battre campagne en faveur de la liste de la "Coalition SOPI" regroupée autour du Parti démocratique sénégalais (PDS) dont il demeure le secrétaire général national. "Je vais soutenir ceux qui veulent me donner une majorité", a-t-il indiqué, signalant qu'il fera le tour du Sénégal avec ses propres moyens, comme il l'a toujours fait. - La campagne pour les législatives anticipées du 29 avril s'est ouverte officiellement le 7 avril à minuit. 25 formations politiques et quelque 3.000 candidats brigueront les suffrages. Les élections se dérouleront selon deux modes de scrutin: majoritaire sur liste départementale pour 65 députés, et proportionnel sur liste nationale pour les 55 autres. - 10 avril. L'ancien Premier ministre Moustapha Niasse, tête de liste de son parti, l'Alliance des forces de progrès, a invité les Sénégalais à la vigilance, estimant que le rêve suscité par l'alternance, intervenue le 19 mars 2000, "est en train de devenir une vaste déception". Il accuse aussi son ancien allié, le PDS du président Wade, de vouloir instaurer un parti-Etat. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 10 avril 2001)
* Senegal. Insecurity persists in Casamance - One person was killed on 6 April when armed men ambushed cars travelling on a major road in Casamance, southern Senegal, 'Le Soleil' daily reported. On the following day, three cars were hijacked and their passengers robbed of their belongings on a road north of Ziguinchor, Casamance's main city. Both attacks have been blamed on dissident members of the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC). The 6 April casualty was the first since 23 March, when the Senegalese government and the MFDC signed the second part of a two-tiered peace accord. The first part was signed on 16 March. Soon after the agreements were signed, government soldiers and MFDC fighters clashed near the Gambian border, leaving one soldier wounded. The renewed insecurity does not come as a surprise to Dieudonne Pandare of RADDHO, a Dakar-based human rights organisation which closely monitors the Casamance crisis. The treaty was a move to satisfy the international community, Pandare told IRIN on 9 April. In order to achieve sustainable peace, "all the major actors have to be implicated" through discussions and a give-and-take approach, he added, referring to the fact that some of the MFDC's political and military leaders were not involved in the negotiations. (IRIN, West Africa, 10 April 2001)
* Sierra Leone. Aide de l'UE - L'Union européenne a décidé d'accorder un nouveau programme d'aide humanitaire de 11 millions d'euros aux populations victimes du conflit en Sierra Leone. Selon les ONG, le conflit armé en Sierra Leone a entraîné le déplacement de quelque 450.000 personnes à l'intérieur du pays. Le nouveau programme d'aide de l'UE vise trois obbjectifs: l'assistance intégrée aux déplacés; l'aide aux enfants, aux femmes et aux personnes ayant subi une amputation; et l'assistance logistique aux organisations humanitaires. (PANA, Sénégal, 5 avril 2001)
* Sierra Leone. Le RUF prêt à coopérer - Le mouvement rebelle sierra-léonais, le Front révolutionnaire uni (RUF), a assuré l'Onu de son désir de coopérer avec sa mission en Sierra Leone. Cette déclaration, publiée le 9 avril, fait suite à une entrevue à Lansar de la secrétaire générale adjointe des Nations unies, Mme Frechette, avec des responsables du RUF. Pour montrer leur engagement, les rebelles ont démantelé trois postes de contrôle entre Rogberi et Lansar. A Lansar, Mme Frechette a fait une tournée des zones de déploiement de la Minusil. Durant son séjour en Sierra Leone, elle a également rencontré le président Kabbah. (PANA, Sénégal, 10 avril 2001)
* Somalie. Réconciliation des factions - Le 8 avril, les leaders des principales factions somaliennes ont annoncé leur intention de convoquer une conférence de réconciliation "sans exclusive" dans six semaines en Somalie. La conférence est destinée à "établir un gouvernement d'union nationale représentatif et légitime de transition". "Nous voulons préparer le terrain en vue de la mise en place d'un nouveau gouvernement avec le soutien des masses", a déclaré Hussein Aïdid, président du Conseil somalien de réconciliation et de restaruration (SRRC). Le SRRC a été formé le mois dernier en Ethiopie par les leaders de 17 factions et le président du Puntland. (PANA, Sénégal, 9 avril 2001)
* Somalia. Leaders to hold conference - Somali faction leaders opposed to the transitional government of President Abdekassim Salat Hassan said on 8 April they will hold a reconciliation conference in the fragmented Horn of Africa nation. Hussein Aidid, speaking on behalf of the recently formed Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council, said the conference will be held in Somalia but gave no date. Hassan's government will be invited, he added. Hussein said 14 of 17 faction leaders who formed the council had already left Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, to organize the conference. The council, formed two weeks ago, is led by Abdullahi Yusuf, the self-proclaimed president of the northeastern Puntland region, and 16 other faction leaders. "The faction leaders and the Puntland president now control nearly all the country," Aidid said. Somalia has had no functioning central government since the 1991 ouster of the late dictator Mohamed Siad Barre by a coalition of rebels in which Aidid's father, the late Farah, was a key player. After ousting Siad Bare, the factions turned against one another and the country disintegrated into fiefs controlled by clan militias. (InfoBeat, USA, 9 April 2001)
* South Africa. Police fire at court protesters - South African police fired rubber bullets at angry black demonstrators on 5 April after a court abandoned a bail hearing for a nine white rugby players accused of beating a black teenager to death. "The court proceedings were disrupted by the crowds who got a bit rowdy," police Captain Ronel Otto told Reuters. The South African Press Association said about 1,500 people sang protest songs and did the "toyi-toyi" protest dance outside the Pietersburg courthouse before the hearing was due to start. Magistrate Rassie du Toit ordered the courtroom doors opened to allow spectators in but chaos erupted when hundreds of people poured in and could not find seats. Du Toit abandoned the hearing and ordered the Noordelikes Rugby Club members detained overnight for a new hearing on 6 April. Witnesses said the suspects were led from the courthouse with towels over their heads and taken to an armoured truck that sped away past a yelling throng. Otto said blacks demanding the whites should be denied bail threw stones at private and police vehicles, smashed shop windows and marched on a filling station owned by one of the accused. "The police fired a few rubber bullets, but we have not had any reports of anyone being injured," she said. Rocks and half bricks rained down on another police riot control truck as officers tried to disperse the crowd. The hearing will be on again tomorrow and there will be much tighter security," Otto said. The nine accused, aged between 19 and 34, are alleged to have beaten 19-year-old Tshepho Matloga to death two weeks ago after they found him and two friends hunting rabbits on a farm. One of the survivors was shot in the leg but managed to escape. Five dogs used in the hunt were found shot near Matloga's body. Officials and witnesses said police were called to the scene and found Matloga's body but the body disappeared when police left it unattended. It was later found in a farm reservoir about 200 km away, weighed down with a gatepost. The demonstration in Pietersburg was the latest in a series of protests against apparent racial attacks in South Africa's rural areas. In a separate case on 5 April, about 50 white farmers demonstrated outside a court in Warmbaths, demanding that two black men accused of attacking and robbing a former white politician and his wife be denied bail. South Africa's biggest farming body, Agri SA, says at least 30 white farmers were killed in January and February, allegedly by black attackers. (CNN, USA, 5 April 2001)
* South Africa. Arms fraud probe gathers pace - South African officials said on 5 April they were investigating at least 24 individuals and 68 statutory bodies in connection with allegations of fraud and corruption in the country's biggest post-apartheid arms deal. "This may well end up in court... At this stage, it seems to us that there might very well be some criminal prosecutions," National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka told editors at a briefing. Ngcuka, Auditor General Shauket Fakie and Public Protector Selby Baqwa are heading an inquiry into the award of a 43 billion rand ($5.35 billion) arms contract to companies in Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, France and South Africa. Pressed to say whether the possibility of prosecutions meant the award process was flawed, Ngcuka said: "At this stage, we are not in a position to say all is not well." Fakie said 30 full-time staff helped by outside auditors were probing allegations of conflict of interest, bribery and process violations in the purchase of ships, submarines, helicopters and fighters. Ngcuka said investigators had seized bank and other records of 68 statutory bodies and 24 individuals under investigation in connection with the deal but that it was too soon to say whether any crime had been committed. Fakie said a critical issue was to establish a link between gifts received and the allocation of contracts, adding that investigators hoped to publish a substantive report by the end of July. He said criminal corruption and unethical behaviour would be covered in the report. Fakie said investigators had started looking into the controversial acquisition of a luxury car by the parliamentary head of the ruling African National Congress, Tony Yengeni, weeks before the issue was raised in the media. (CNN, USA, 5 April 2001)
* Afrique du Sud. Attaques contre les fermes - Rien que pour cette année, l'Afrique du Sud a enregistré 19 meurtres et 128 raids contre les fermes d'après l'organisation Agriculture South Africa. La récente série de raids et ceux de l'année dernière, dont le nombre serait supérieur à 800, ont suscité l'ire des partis politiques. Le ministre de la Sécurité, Steve Tshwete, a qualifié les fermiers de "colonne vertébrale de l'économie" et indiqué qu'ils devaient être protégés. Un comité a aussi été chargé d'enquêter sur les causes et les mobiles de ces attaques. (PANA, Sénégal, 6 avril 2001)
* Sudan. US Bishops and Sudan - Following a two week fact finding mission to North and South Sudan, a delegation of US Bishops said on 6 April that the United States must take bold steps to bring about a just and lasting peace in war torn Sudan. A peace in Sudan can no longer go unattended by the international community, said Bishop John Ricard, President and Chairman of the Board of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), who led the delegation. The judgement of history will be determined by the courage and determination of the international community to take bold steps now to help bring this cruel war to an end. The delegation, consisting of US Bishops, various advisors from the US Catholic Conference (USCC) and the Executive Director of Catholic Relief Services, met with senior government and religious leaders in Khartoum before travelling to South Sudan to see firsthand the effects of the war there. (USCC, 6 April 2001)
* Sudan. Rebels threaten oil workers - Sudanese rebels have threatened to attack international oil workers operating in the wartorn south of the country. The SPLA rebels, who are fighting for autonomy or independence in the south, said the Sudanese Government was using money from oil exports to finance its military operations. A number of foreign companies, including Britain's Rolls Royce, have been brought in by the Sudanese Government to help exploit the country's vast new oil reserves. The rebels have targeted oil installations since Sudan began exporting oil in 1999. International human rights organisations have accused foreign oil companies of fuelling the conflict in which an estimated two million people have been killed. The rebels accuse government troops of waging a brutal scorched earth policy to drive civilians from the oilfields. In the flat, parched plains of southern Sudan, the talk is of famine and oil. Gaunt men emerge from their mud huts to search for berries. Last year's drought means food stocks are now dangerously low. Oil has been discovered in the region, enough oil to re-energise a tired civil war that has dragged on for almost two decades. Government troops have already secured some of the oilfields, driving thousands of civilians out in the process. (BBC News, UK, 8 April 2001)
* Soudan. Au Sud, le massacre continue - Pour s'assurer le contrôle de régions pétrolifères au sud du Soudan, le régime de Khartoum en chasse les populations d'origine et y installe des colons venus du nord. La responsable de la section Afrique d'Eglise en détresse, Christine du Coudray, revenue d'un voyage de trois semaines dans le Sud-Soudan, a dit notamment au journal La Croix: "Les compagnies internationales nord-américaines, chinoises, malaisiennes, britanniques et françaises qui se sont vu concéder des droits d'exploitation tentent de mettre en avant leur contribution au développement économique de ces régions. En fait, elles contribuent indirectement à financer la politique du Front national islamique au pouvoir à Khartoum qui consiste à exterminer ou à contraindre au déplacement les populations du sud et à installer des migrants du nord disposant d'une autorisation gouvernementale. Selon des sources ecclésiales à Nairobi, les bombardements de l'aviation gouvernementale contre les civils se sont intensifiés depuis l'été dernier sur toutes les zones d'exploitation pétrolifère du sud-ouest et du sud-est. Sur le terrain, les maisons et les cultures sont brûlées, les hommes massacrés, les femmes violées et les enfants emmenés en esclavage par les milices progouvernementales. Dans la seule région de Bahr-el-Ghazal, depuis janvier, on estime que 55.000 Nuers ont été chassés". (La Croix, France, 9 avril 2001) 

Weekly anb0411.txt - #5/6