Weekly anb05105.txt #7

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 10-05-2001      PART #5/7

* Malawi. Traditional healers research HIV/AIDS  -  Traditional healers in 
Malawi are working together to determine of they really have found a cure 
for AIDS. Their research is targeting 100 AIDS patients who will be 
receiving treatment under their direction. The Herbal AIDS Drug Research 
Project (HADREP) will then inform the government about the results of their 
work. Speaking at a meeting held at the Malawi College of Medicine in 
Blantyre, HADREP's president, Christopher Kadzamira, said that his 
treatment had already cured a number of patients and it is unfortunate the 
government does not heed the traditional healers' claims. The government 
has accused traditional healers of "doing things in a hurry" and rushing 
into making conclusions even before testing their drugs in laboratories. 
Kadzamira said that after an initial period of six months, the patients 
will be taken to hospital to be tested for a second time by medical 
personnel there. The results of the research being conducted in 15 herbal 
clinics, will be published one the patients have finished taking their 
prescribed dosages.   (Frank Jomo, ANB-BIA, Malawi, 30 April 2001)

* Malawi. Churches criticise President Bakili Muluzi's third term 
bid  -  Christian Churches in Malawi have joined together and agreed to 
strongly oppose and block the political manoeuvres by the ruling United 
Democratic Front (UDF) to amend the Constitution to allow President Bakili 
Muluzi stand for a third term. The Churches agreed to meet on 4 May in 
Lilongwe, to jointly express their opposition to what is happening. 
Reverend Daniel Gunya, General Secretary of the Blantyre Synod of the 
Church of Central African Presbyterian (CCAP) said that the meeting would 
allow Christians in Malawi to show support for the pastoral letters the 
Catholic bishops and the Church of Central African Presbyterian have 
recently published. Both letters urged Muluzi to abandon contemplating to 
run for a third mandate against the Constitution. "As church leaders we 
think it's high time we meet and discuss the two pastoral letters," he 
said. There's been a mixed reaction from government to the hard-hitting 
CCAP pastoral letter read out in over 10,000 prayer houses on 22 April. 
While the Justice Minister Peter Fachi has criticised the clergy, branding 
them as acting for opposition politicians, President Muluzi has asked for 
dialogue with the church leaders. "We are all not perfect," President 
Muluzi told the congregation of at a Roman Catholic Church service in the 
southern town of Balaka on 29 April. "We should accept criticism and avoid 
being confrontational," he added. The government has said the political 
politburo of the ruling United Democratic Front has never discussed the 
third term issue.   (Brian Ligomeka, ANB-BIA, Malawi, 2 May 2001)

* Malawi. Govt. cutbacks  -  Malawi's government ministers should say 
goodbye to first-class flights, long trips at government expense and 
joyriding in their official cars, Finance Minister Mathews Chikaonda said 
on 8 May. The cutbacks are aimed at trying to get control of finances in 
this small southeast African nation that is one of the poorest countries in 
the world. Chikaonda told a meeting of economists, civil rights activists 
and journalists that he was going to clamp down on wasteful spending in his 
new budget plan. Under intense pressure from donors, President Bakili 
Muluzi fired his entire Cabinet in November after Parliament's Public 
Accounts Committee published a report detailing high levels of corruption 
and fraud in the government, the first to be democratically elected here. 
Chikaonda, a former economics professor at Canada's Memorial University of 
Newfoundland, was reappointed to the new Cabinet.   (InfoBeat, USA, 9 May 2001)

* Maroc. Nouvel archevêque de Rabat  -  Le 5 mai, le pape a accepté la 
démission de Mgr Hubert Michon, archevêque de Rabat depuis 1983. Pour lui 
succéder, Jean-Paul II a nommé Mgr Vincent Landel, déjà coadjuteur. Mgr 
Landel, 56 ans, est originaire de Meknès. Le Maroc, pays musulman à 99%, 
compte quelque 25.000 catholiques répartis dans les archevêchés de Rabat et 
de Tanger.   (La Croix, France, 7 mai 2001)

* Morocco. Prison abuses "rampant"  -  Morocco's 44 prisons are overcrowded 
with unhealthy conditions belonging to another age, according to a 
hard-hitting report. The Moroccan Prison Observatory, an umbrella 
organisation which incorporates a number of local human-rights groups, 
speaks of a prison regime that is immersed in corruption, violence, disease 
and the sexual abuse of children as young as 12. They say the country's 
prisons house anything up to 80,000 detainees in a system designed for less 
than half that number. What makes the overcrowding worse is that, while 
some prisons are half-empty, in others the only place left to sleep for 
some prisoners are the toilets. Hygiene is minimal, medical care normally 
non-existent and disease rife. One of the most alarming aspects of the 
report deals with evidence that children as young as 12 are being kept in 
the prisons and are regularly falling victim to sexual abuse including 
rape, even though legally nobody under 16 years old is allowed to be in 
prison. This is said to be just one aspect of a comprehensive climate of 
corruption in which, for instance, the only food available to prisoners is 
that which is brought in by family members who must first pay a bribe to 
prison warders. The Observatory report is a damning indictment of the 
country's prison system at a time when the talk is of general reform and 
judicial improvement under the new king, Mohammed VI.   (BBC News, UK, 8 
May 2001)

* Mozambique. Bilan des inondations  -  Le nombre des victimes des 
inondations qui ont touché, au mois de mars, les régions de Manica, Sofala, 
Tete et Zambésia, s'accroît: d'après les données du gouvernement, 113 
personnes auraient péri dans la catastrophe. Le nombre de déplacés, environ 
223.000, semble en revanche diminuer (il y a quinze jours, on signalait 
300.000 sans abri). Les inondations ont endommagé 2.800 km de routes, dont 
1.240 ont été réparées. La voie navigable sur le fleuve Zambèse, qui 
dessert la ville de Caia, n'est toujours pas praticable à cause de la 
hauteur des eaux. On dénombre 150 écoles détruites et 82.500 hectares de 
récoltes perdus. Le gouvernemement indique que la réparation des routes est 
sa priorité.   (Misna, Italie, 3 mai 2001)

* Mozambique. No third term for President  -  The Mozambican president, 
Joaquim Chissano, has told his party he does not intend to run for a third 
term. Mr Chissano told his ruling party's central committee his decision 
was taken out of respect for the democratic process. His statement comes 
amid a spate of possible third term bids which has led to political crises 
in several African countries. Opposition leaders in Mozambique said the 
move could be a ploy by Mr Chissano to provoke calls for him to stand for 
re-election in 2004. In the last elections, the governing party called on 
Mr Chissano to stand after he announced he would not take part in the poll. 
A party spokesman, Bernado Chirinda, said they could call on Mr Chissano to 
stand again, if a credible successor is not found.   (BBC News, UK, 10 May 
2001)

* Namibia. Over 20,000 refugees face starvation  -  More than 20,000 
refugees at the Osire Refugee Camp in Namibia are facing starvation, the 
World Food Programme (WFP) office in Namibia has confirmed. WPF Programme 
Officer, Penelope Howarth said on 6 May that the world body has only 
received 30 percent of the funds required to supply food to the refugees in 
the camp for this year. Howarth said most of the refugees are Angolans who 
have fled the ongoing civil war in that country. The shortfall in funding 
has forced the UN agency to reduce monthly food allocations of 2,100 
kilocalories by 20 percent, the sources said. WFP Namibia has appealed to 
international donors to help minimise the situation of hunger that is 
facing the refugees at Osire. Refugees fleeing to Namibia arrive weak and 
exhausted due to malaria and gastric disorders combined with low food 
intake, she said. "This leaves many refugees, especially children under the 
age of five, suffering from malnutrition," Howarth stated. She said health 
conditions could also deteriorate further if supplementary feeding 
programmes for the refugees are suspended due to lack of funding.   (PANA, 
Senegal, 7 May 2001)

* Niger. Luxembourg offers food assistance  -  The Grand Duchy of 
Luxembourg has granted food relief amounting to 420 tonnes of millet to 53 
famine-stricken villages in Niger, official sources in Niamey said on 3 
May. The gesture followed an appeal launched by Niger as famine threatens 
some 4 million people following a cereal deficit of 163,000 tonnes at the 
end of the last agricultural season. Prime Minister Hama Amadou launched an 
urgent appeal to the international community in April for at least 60,000 
tonnes of cereal for the period May-August. He mentioned the exhaustion of 
farmers' stocks in 12 administrative areas and rural depopulation sometimes 
combined with the displacement of entire families from the north to the 
south. According to statistics issued by the Trade ministry, a 100 kg bag 
of millet that sold at an average of 13,000 CFA francs in January has shot 
up to 20,000 CFA francs.   (PANA, Senegal, 3 May 2001)

* Niger. Etudiants en grève de la faim  -  Le maire de Niamey a interdit un 
meeting et une marche qu'envisageaient d'organiser les partis d'opposition 
et la société civile en soutien aux étudiants incarcérés qui observent une 
grève de la faim pour protester contre leur détention après des 
manifestations estudiantines. 15 étudiants incarcérés à la prison civile de 
Kollo ont entamé une grève de la faim depuis 11 jours. Ils sont soutenus 
depuis huit jours par une centaine de leurs camarades qui observent le même 
mouvement devant l'Assemblée nationale. Selon l'opposition, les étudiants 
grévistes sont totalement affaiblis et cinq d'entre eux sont déjà 
hospitalisés. La crise qui secoue l'université de Niamey dure depuis trois 
mois.   (D'après PANA, Sénégal, 7 mai 2001)

* Nigeria. Leaking oil well  -  3 May: The oil company Royal Dutch Shell 
says that 14 of its abandoned oil wells in Nigeria could blow up without 
warning. The company made the announcement after investigations into an oil 
spill in Ogoniland in southern Nigeria showed that one of the wells was 
leaking. Company spokesman Donald Boham Company spokesman Donald Boham said 
that the wells are "potential time bombs". Shell was forced to abandon 
production in Ogoniland in 1993 as a result of the campaign by the writer 
Ken Saro-Wiwa, who accused it of responsibility for widespread pollution. 
The company says that only two wells were properly sealed. Mr Boham now 
says that the remaining 14 must be sealed with cement and other materials 
before disaster strikes. 6 May: Shell says engineers have capped the broken 
well that has been pouring out oil and gas in the Ogoni region of southern 
Nigeria. Villagers had complained that farm land and fish stocks had been 
destroyed by the spill. The clean-up operation has not yet begun and Shell 
has not given details of the extent of the pollution. Shell believes the 
spill from the abandoned well was caused by sabotage. The company said 
pipes at the well appeared to have been sawn through, and that nuts and 
bolts had been removed. But the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni 
People (MOSOP) denied the sabotage claim.   (BBC News, UK, 3&6 May 2001)

* Nigeria. Abacha's family challenge UK probe  -  The UK government is 
facing a legal challenge over a decision to help Nigerian officials trace 
more than $2bn allegedly looted from the country's public funds by General 
Sani Abacha, the country's former leader who died in June 1998. The 
decision by Jack Straw, home secretary [interior affairs minister], 
announced on 8 May, gave the go-ahead for the UK authorities to co-operate 
with Nigeria's investigators by freezing London bank accounts and seizing 
documents that would allow them to recover the funds. However, lawyers 
acting for Mohammed Abacha --the late dictator's son who is detained in 
Nigeria facing murder and other charges -- and his associates say they will 
apply to the court for a judicial review of the decision. The lawyers are 
expected to argue that the matters were settled by the Nigerian government 
before it began the current proceedings.   (Financial Times, UK, 10 May 2001)

* Rwanda/Belgium. The Brussels trial  -  3 May: The trial of the four 
accused continues in Brussels. More evidence is heard against Alphonse 
Higaniro, especially regarding the massacre of the Rwamanywa family who 
were neighbours of Higaniro. Olivier Rwamanywa who escaped tells the court 
that "Alphonse Higaniro killed my parents. I never dreamt that one day I 
would be able to unmask him before others. Now I'm in your presence to tell 
you that my parents died because of Higaniro". Meanwhile, the first group 
of witnesses have already returned to Rwanda; a second is presently in 
Brussels; a third group will arrive in a few days. 4 May: The two 
Benedictine nuns, Sisters Gertrude and Kizito, take the stand. They are 
accused of having delivered refugees into the hands of their killers. 
Sister Gertrude denies that neither she nor the other nun provided petrol 
to burn the refugees. They both plead "not guilty". They affirm that they 
were unable to prevent the massacres because they, themselves were 
threatened by extremist Hutus. They were innocent bystanders. Sister 
Gertrude, who was Superior of their convent at that time says: "I never 
wanted anybody to die. I suffered with the population. I am not a racist". 
Sister Kizito says she is "neither Hutu nor Tutsi, but a child of God". 7 
May: A member of the Benedictine community of Sovu, Sister Marie-Bernard 
Kayitesi, gives her testimony. She accuses Sisters Gertrude and Kizito of 
being involved in the massacres.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 5 May 2001)

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