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Weekly anb05174.txt #8

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 17-05-2001      PART #4/8
* Eritrea/Ethiopia. Arms embargo to expire - A year-long arms embargo against Ethiopia and Eritrea expired on 16 May but the Security Council has warned the Horn of Africa neighbours that it will take "appropriate measures" if their border war erupts again. The Council imposed the embargo on May 17, 2000, to pressure the warring neighbours to make peace. A month later, they agreed and on December 12 their presidents signed a formal peace agreement in Algeria to end the 2 1/2-year conflict. In a statement on 15 May,, the Security Council emphasized the countries' commitments to peace and said that "under the current circumstances" the arms embargo was not being extended. The UN sanctions barred all countries and individuals from selling or supplying weapons, ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, and spare parts to both countries. Military-related training and technical assistance also were prohibited. The Council urged both countries "to ensure that efforts are redirected from weapons procurement and other military activities and toward the reconstruction of development of both economies, and regional reconciliation, with a view to achieving stability in the Horn of Africa." (CNN, USA, 15 May 2001)
* Ethiopie. Droits de l'homme - Le 9 mai, un tribunal d'Addis-Abeba a refusé la mise en liberté sous caution de deux éminents universitaires et militants des droits de l'homme qui sont en détention pour, dit-on, avoir incité le mois dernier les étudiants à la violence et à l'émeute. Il a accédé à la requête du ministère public, mais a ordonné à la police d'achever son enquête et de produire des preuves écrites et des témoignages d'ici le 18 mai. Le Pr Mesfin Wolde-Mariam, fondateur et premier président du Conseil éthiopien des droits de l'homme, et Berhanu Nega, assistant à l'université d'Addis-Abeba, ont été placés en détention le 8 mai. Le boycott des étudiants, qui revendiquaient des infrastructures minimales sur le campus, a conduit les 17 et 18 avril à de nombreux troubles qui se sont soldés par plusieurs morts et blessés. L'organisation des droits humains Human Rights Watch a affirmé que les forces de sécurité ont fait usage d'une "force excessive" pour contenir ces manifestations et que le gouvernement a profité du mouvement pour réprimer des opposants. Ces méthodes brutales ont envenimé ce qui avait commencé comme une marche pacifique des étudiants, affirme l'organisation. La détention des deux professeurs fait suite à celle de plusieurs douzaines de militants d'organisations de défense des droits civiques et de groupes politiques qui se montrent critiques envers le gouvernement, indique encore HRW. (PANA, Sénégal, 10 mai 2001)
* Ethiopia. Security chief shot - An army officer shot dead Ethiopia's security chief as the official, an ally of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, entered an officers' club in Addis-Ababa. Kinfe Gebre-Medhin was killed early on 12 May by an army major as he entered the armed forces officers' club in Addis Ababa. One man was arrested. (The Guardian, UK, 14 May 2001)
* Ethiopie. Chef de la sécurité assassiné - Le chef des services éthiopiens de sécurité, Kinfe Gebre-Medhin, a été tué le 12 mai à Addis Abeba, par un commandant de l'armée. Proche du Premier ministre Meles Zenawi, il était membre du bureau politique et du comité central du Front de libération des peuples du Tigré (TPLF), au pouvoir depuis 1991. (Libération, France, 14 mai 2001)
* Ghana. Deuil après la tragédie - Le 10 mai, au lendemain de la tragique bousculade au stade de football d'Accra qui a fait 126 morts, le président ghanéen John Kufuor a annoncé un deuil national de trois jours et la mise en place d'une enquête. Le 11 mai, des incidents ont éclaté lors des funérailles des premières victimes. Des jeunes ont attaqué la police à coups de pierres et brûlé pneus et kiosques. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 12 mai 2001)
* Ghana. Country shaken by stadium disaster - 10 May: Thousands of desperate relatives besiege a mortuary in Accra to search for victims of a stampede that killed at least 126 people in Africa's worst football tragedy. Authorities have promised an inquiry into the disaster, which spectators said was triggered by police firing teargas after fans hurled missiles at the end of a 9 May game between Ghana's two leading teams, arch-rivals Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko. President John Kufuor calls an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the tragedy, one of the worst in football's history. Fights between rival fans broke out towards the end of the game, and police responded with tear gas. 11 May: In an address to the nation, President Kufuor says that this is "no time to seek scapegoats. Let us not rush to judgement. I am aware of the anger that many of you feel about the conduct of the police", he says. Hundreds of youths attack police stations in Accra and set fire to kiosks and tires in protest at what they say is the police role in the 9 May disaster. 13 May: A memorial service is held in Accra for the victims of the diaster. President Kufuor says his country must never allow a repetition of disasters like that at the stadium. He says: "This is a time for the healing process to begin. We owe it to the memory of those departed". (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 14 May 2001)
* Ghana. Police detain suspect serial killer - Police in Ghana said they had detained a 36-year-old man in connection with the murder of more than 30 women over the past three years. Charles Quansah, a mechanic and two-time rape convict, had been in custody since February and had confessed to strangling eight women since 1993, the police said in a statement released on 15 May. A police source said a second person was also being held in connection with the murders. Women in Accra, the capital of Ghana, have been terrified by the killings of at least 33 women since 1998. (CNN, USA, 16 May 2001)
* Kenya. Police launch swoop to combat city killings - Police in the Kenyan capital Nairobi said they launched an all-out swoop on 13 May to round up suspected criminals after a series of armed raids in the city. Two Asian businessmen were shot dead in their clothing store in central Nairobi on Saturday in an attack lasting only a few minutes. On the night of 12 May, a police intelligence officer was shot dead in a car hijacking and another businessman was killed in an unrelated shooting, local TV stations reported on 13 May. "All available police officers have been mobilized to pick up known criminals in the city," Nairobi police commander Godfrey Mwale told a news conference after an urgent meeting of Nairobi police chiefs on 13 May. "This operation is going to inconvenience a few innocent people but that cannot be avoided." (CNN, USA, 13 May 2001)
* Kenya. Hundreds flee deadly clashes - Hundreds of Kenyans fled their homes on 15 May after four people were killed in the latest fighting between rival ethnic groups in the southwest of the country, police and witnesses said. Fresh clashes between members of the Kisii and Masai communities on Monday brought the death toll in two months of sporadic fighting to at least 20, police said. "We are still assessing the situation. It is very tense," District Police Commissioner Hassan Noor Hassan told Reuters. He said police had drafted in reinforcements to quell the conflict which was triggered by a land dispute. Ten people from the Kisii group were admitted to hospital with bullet wounds on Monday night in the town of Kisii, about 240 kms (150 miles) west of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, medical sources said. The Kisii area was hit hard by inter-tribal land clashes in the build-up to Kenya's last general elections in 1997 and at the time of its first multi-party polls in 1992. Kenya's next general elections are due before the end of 2002. (CNN, USA, 15 May 2001)
* Liberia. Liberia's President blames Guinea for cross border attacks - The BBC has obtained the first independently verified information about the widespread nature of the rebel war in northern Liberia. Independent medical sources say that in the last few months of fighting hundreds of Liberian Government soldiers have been wounded. It is likely that a similar number of combatants were wounded or killed on the rebel side as fighting has raged between rebel forces reportedly backed by neighbouring Guinea and Liberian Government troops. The war in northern Liberia is the latest flare up in one of the world's most unstable regions, where most of the battles are for control of diamonds. Until now the only publicly available information about the war in northern Liberia was unverifiable military claims by the Liberian Government or the rebels. Liberia recently had UN sanctions imposed because of its role in diamond smuggling and support for rebels in neighbouring Sierre Leone, so some sources opposed to the Liberian regime had claimed it was exaggerating the war in the north to get international sympathy and have the sanctions lifted. (BBC News, UK, 10 May 2001)
* Liberia. Fresh war threat - Five years after Liberia's long-running civil war ended, United Nations officials say they are worried the country could be returning to war. UN relief co-ordinator Carolyn McAskie told a meeting of the UN Security Council that the political and military situation in Liberia is deteriorating rapidly. She said she had found a growing despair there on a recent visit to West Africa, and this contrasted with moves towards ending the civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone. "There was a nervousness in the air, and the sense was that the political and military situation was rapidly deteriorating," she said. Fighting along the borders of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia broke out late last year, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and refugee camps. Both Guinea and Liberia accuse the other of being behind rebel attacks into their countries. Ms McAskie emphasised that peace could only be restored to the region if the instability in the three neighbouring countries was tackled together. A ban on Liberia's diamond experts and travel by top officials took effect last week after the Security Council decided Liberia had not completely cut ties with the rebels in Sierra Leone. The Council has accused Liberian President Charles Taylor of selling guns to Sierra Leone's rebels in exchange for an illegal diamond trade. But Ms McAskie said the sanctions only increased Liberia's isolation and make it more difficult for the country to receive aid. (BBC News, UK, 15 May 2001)
* Libye. "Aveux" contestés de Kadhafi - Le dirigeant libyen Mouammar Kadhafi aurait reconnu devant un haut responsable allemand la responsabilité de la Libye dans un attentat anti-américain en 1986 à Berlin et dans l'attentat contre l'appareil de la PanAm à Lockerbie, affirmait le 15 mai le quotidien Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Kadhafi aurait concédé ces "aveux" lors d'un entretien avec le conseiller politique du chancelier Schröder, Michael Steiner. Le gouvernement allemand a répliqué que Kadhafi et Steiner n'ont discuté que du terrorisme en général et non de "cas particuliers". Tripoli a dénoncé ces aveux présumés comme "un complot suspect". (D'après La Libre Belgique, 16 mai 2001)
* Malawi. Lilongwe water supply "cut off" - There were running battles in the Malawian capital, Lilongwe, on 11 May as armed police officers in riot gear chased striking workers of the Lilongwe Water Board out of their premises. The workers have been on strike since 10 May after talks with management to improve their working conditions broke down. As part of the strike the workers have cut off the water supply into Lilongwe. The workers are demanding an immediate 100% pay increase and improvements in their working conditions. Workers have fired their union leaders because after a year of negotiation they have failed to convince the management to improve their conditions of service. The workers accuse board members, who are mostly politicians appointed by Malawi's president, of plundering company resources by allocating themselves expensive cars and hefty perks. Things turned acrimonious when, after the talks broke down, the irate workers locked up senior management and board members in their offices. To seal their anger they deflated tires of a top-of-the-range Toyota Prado belonging to board chair Greenwell Mponela. They also did the same to vehicles of senior management. (BBC News, UK, 12 May 2001) 

weekly anb0517.txt - #4/8