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Weekly anb06217.txt #8

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 21-06-2001      PART #7/8
* Sudan. Civil war situation worsens - 14 June: CISA (Kenya) reports that intense military activity in Western Bahr el Ghazal since May has displaced an estimated 57,000 people who are now in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, the Sudan Catholic Information Office has said. Speaking on 13 June on arrival from Raja, which the SPLA/M captured from the government on 2 June, the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Rumbek, Ceasar Mazzolari, described as "very desperate" the humanitarian situation in the affected area. "Mt first appeal is for food to be dropped at Raga to help attract the desperate civilians now scattered in the surrounding areas to return to their homes (in Raga" said Bishop Mazzolari. 19 June: A report from AP in Nairobi says that the UN and other aid agencies have evacuated the key southern Sudanese town of Wau, ahead of a SPLA advance. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 19 June 2001)
* Soudan. Insécurité à Wau - Le Programme alimentaire mondial (PAM) a annoncé le 19 juin que vingt-quatre expatriés des Nations unies et d'organisations non gouvernementales ont été évacués de Wau, dans le sud-ouest du Soudan, pour des raisons de sécurité. Wau est une ville clef de la région du Bahr el-Ghazal, contrôlée en grande partie par l'Armée de libération des peuples du Soudan (SPLA), la rébellion sudiste de John Garang. Le PAM a précisé que sur place il reste suffisamment de nourriture pour deux ou trois semaines. Médecins sans frontières (MSF) a évacué certains de ses employés, mais plusieurs de ses travailleurs soudanais sont restés sur place. MSF essaye de revenir à Wau pour continuer son travail humanitaire à l'hôpital. Le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR), au contraire, "est en train de renforcer ses activités à Wau", a déclaré son porte-parole à Nairobi. Ces retraits ont irrité Khartoum qui les estime injustifiés et les interprète comme un soutien des humanitaires à la SPLA. De son côté, le porte-parole de la SPLA Samson Kwaje, a affirmé que les rebelles encerclent la ville, à une dizaine de kilomètres, et contrôlent le chemin de fer et les routes d'accès. Le président soudanais Omar al-Béchir, en visite à Wau lundi 18 juin, a déclaré que "la bataille pour nettoyer le Bahr al-Ghazal de la rébellion a déjà commencé". Il a aussi accusé les Etats-Unis d'inciter la SPLA a exiger la fin de l'exploitation pétrolière en échange d'un cessez-le-feu. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 20 juin 2001)
* Sudan/USA. "Sudan Peace Act" sails through the House - Condemning Sudan's genocidal war against its people in southern Sudan, Ed Royce voted on 13 June for the Sudan Peace Act, which cleared the House by an overwhelming vote of 422-2. Royce, who chairs the House Africa subcommittee, managed the bill on the floor. "Sudan is suffering through the longest running civil war in the world. The fighting between the radical government in the north and forces in the south has led to human suffering on a massive scale. It is estimated that more than 2 million Sudanese have died of war-related causes since 1983. An estimated 4 million Sudanese are internally displaced, with 2 million living in squatter areas of Khartoum. Over 3 million Sudanese will require emergency food aid this year. Famine is a constant. At a March hearing of the International Relations Committee, Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested that Sudan is one of the greatest tragedies on the face of the earth. The Secretary is right," Royce said. The Sudan Peace Act does several things. Among them: It requires companies wishing to raise capital in the US for operations in Sudan to enhance their reporting requirements. This disclosure includes the nature of those operations and their relationship to violations of religious freedom and other human rights in Sudan. This report will be a valuable tool in alerting American investors to the nature of their potential investment. This should serve as a deterrent to foreign companies raising money on US markets for oil development activities in Sudan -- activities that unquestionably are intensifying the fighting and human suffering in Sudan. It urges the Administration to make available to the National Democratic Alliance $10 million dollars in previously appropriated funds. This funding can be used to help build the civil society that has been devastated in the South. It requires the Administration to develop a contingency plan to operate outside of Operation Lifeline Sudan, the humanitarian relief effort that has been manipulated by the government of Sudan. (US House of Representatives, 14 June 2001)
* Soudan/USA. Une loi américaine pro-rébellion - Le 13 juin, les députés américains ont approuvé avec une large majorité le "Sudan Peace Act", une loi qui veut soutenir économiquement la rébellion sud-soudanaise, écrit l'agence Misna. Cette réglementation impose en outre aux sociétés opérant au Soudan de divulguer toutes leurs activités pour être quotées en bourse. De cette manière, elles finissent dans la sphère de compétence de la loi, qui interdit expressément aux compagnies présentes sur le marché actionnaire américain de mener des affaires liées à l'exploitation des ressources pétrolières soudanaises. S'il est également approuvé par le Sénat américain, le Sudan Peace Act permettra aux rebelles du Sud-Soudan d'accéder dans de très brefs délais à un financement d'environ 10 millions de dollars. - D'autre part, le 17 juin, John Garang, le chef des rebelles du SPLA, a affirmé que les compagnies pétrolières étrangères qui opèrent dans le sud du pays, étaient des "cibles légitimes". Selon lui, le gouvernement est "responsable des pertes que pourraient subir les ouvriers et les compagnies". Le Soudan, devenu exportateur de pétrole depuis 1999, grâce notamment à des sociétés chinoise, canadienne, malaisienne et suédoise, produit 205.000 barils/jour, dont 145.000 sont exportés. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 18 juin 2001)
* Sudan/USA. US business gears up to derail Sudan delisting law - US business groups and the Bush administration are gearing up to try to derail legislation that would for the first time deprive some foreign companies of access to US stock markets if they run foul of US foreign policy. The heightened concern comes after Talisman Energy, the Canadian oil company, warned this week it would sell its controversial stake in a Sudan oil project if the US Congress pushed forward with threats to de-list the company from the New York Stock Exchange. Jim Buckee, Talisman chief executive, said in Calgary on 18 June that the Sudan Peace Act, passed by the House of Representatives last week on a 422-2 vote, could force the company to pull out of Sudan rather than risk losing access to US capital markets. Mr Buckee said the bill was "dangerous" and would "send a big chill through all other foreign investors who potentially want to list in the US". US companies are barred from Sudan, and there is growing support in Congress for measures that would in effect block foreign companies as well. US legislators hope that depriving the Khartoum government of oil revenues would end the civil war in Sudan, which has claimed about 2m lives during two decades. (Financial Times, UK, 21 June 2001)
* Tanzania. Illiteracy, poverty cited as causes of child labour - They work in commercial agriculture, in mines and in quarries. They are also in domestic service where some are easily lured into drug trafficking and at times, premature sex. Some engage in absolute prostitution while others wait in restaurants or work in garages. Whatever their preoccupation, child labourers do not pay pension contributions, income tax or health insurance. Official figures show that more than 450,000 such children are engaged in various commercial activities and may ironically be contributing millions of shillings to the informal economy. They are among a record 4.1 million out of an estimated 10.2 million children aged between five and 14 who are not attending school, according to preliminary data from the country's 2000-2001 Child Labour Survey. Instead of learning, most of them are engaged in economic activities or in housekeeping. Often putting in long hours with little return, the children turn to this kind of employment as a last resort, a survival strategy against life's daunting problems. According to a survey by the regional office of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Dar es Salaam, declining household income is among the chief motivating reasons behind Tanzania's child labour situation. This makes it difficult for parents to meet their basic family obligations. Poverty levels have increased sharply in Tanzania since the 1990s, from 48 percent to 56 percent now. The ILO says HIV/AIDS pandemic has also impacted negatively on life expectancy and mortality rates, and which when combined with a low level of income and population increase has reduced overall human welfare. (PANA, Senegal, 21 June 2001)
* Tchad. Difficile contestation - Le 15 juin, le Comité politique d'action et de liaison (CPAL), qui regroupe quatre mouvements d'opposition tchadiens, a estimé dans un communiqué "nulles et non avenues" les dernières élections tchadiennes qui ont vu la réélection du président sortant Idriss Déby. Au même moment, une "grève d'avertissement", lancée à l'encontre du pouvoir par les candidats de l'opposition, devait se dérouler dans la capitale tchadienne, mais elle a été peu suivie. Le lundi 18 juin, qui avait été décrété "journée pays mort" par l'opposition, l'activité était quasiment normale au Tchad: l'ensemble des commerces, marchés et banques étaient ouverts comme à l'accoutumée et les taxis et bus roulaient normalement. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 18 juin 2001)
* Chad. Finance secured for pipeline - ABN Amro has completed arrangements for a $600m project financing agreement to enable work to begin on the controversial oil pipeline from land-locked Chad to the Atlantic coast off Cameroon. It has taken ABN Amro and Crédit Agricole Indosuez 31/2 years to conclude the complex deal, which brings together the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, and the US and French export credit agencies as well as the three oil multinationals with equity in the development. A syndicate of 16 other banks is also contributing. The agreement should finally enable Chad, one of Africa's poorest countries, to exploit oil first discovered in the Doba basin more than three decades ago. The 1,080km pipeline will transport this from Doba down through the Cameroonian rainforest to an offshore storage and export facility in the Atlantic. It is due to be completed by 2003, with production at Doba estimated at 225,000 b/d and potential earnings for Chad of around $2bn during a 25-year production period. Until now, the project has faced numerous setbacks and delays. Environmentalists mounted stiff opposition, raising questions about the potential impact on Cameroon's diminishing rainforests and their remote pygmy inhabitants. There were also concerns about Chad's stability, with an upsurge of rebel opposition to the entrenched regime of President Idriss Deby in recent years in the northern, desert part of the country. Inhabitants of the southern region around Doba had meanwhile taken a cue from local activists in Nigeria's impoverished oil-producing Niger Delta, demanding that they be fairly compensated for hosting the development. (Financial Times, UK, 21 June 2001)
* Tunisie. Grèves de la faim en série - Quatre militants tunisiens de défense des droits de l'homme et de RAID (Attac-Tunisie, non reconnu) ont annoncé qu'ils entament, le 14 juin, une grève de la faim illimitée pour obtenir la restitution de leurs passeports "arbitrairement confisqués" par le ministère de l'Intérieur, indique le journal Le Monde. Parmi eux, l'artiste-peintre Sadri Khiari, membre fondateur du Conseil national pour les libertés en Tunisie (non reconnu). Dans les prisons, pendant ce temps, les grèves de la faim se multiplient, avec comme objectif principal une amnistie générale (notamment la libération des prisonniers d'opinion et l'annulation des poursuites à l'encontre des défenseurs des droits humains). Ali Larayedh, ex-porte-parole du mouvement islamiste interdit Ennahda, emprisonné depuis plus de dix ans dans une cellule individuelle, refuse de s'alimenter depuis le 7 juin. 200 autres sympathisants d'Ennahda observeraient en ce moment un mouvement identique. - D'autre part, le 19 juin, l'opposant tunisien Mohamed Mouada, du Mouvement des démocrates socialistes, a été arrêté suite à l'annulation d'une liberté conditionnelle accordée après sa condamnation à onze ans de prison en 1996. Il se verrait reprocher une alliance avec le mouvement islamiste Ennahda. Par ailleurs, le défenseur des droits de l'homme Moncef Marzouki, condamné en 2000 à un an de prison mais laissé en liberté, doit comparaître le 23 juin devant la cour d'appel de Tunis. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 21 juin 2001)
* Uganda. Deteriorating situation in camps - MISNA reports that 14 Catholic priests from Katakwi District in Eastern Uganda have petitioned President Mugabe over the plight of people living in camps organised for internally displaced people. There are over 50,000 people displaced in Katakwi District alone, living in 37 camps. The priests say the people have been there since 1986 when the National Resistance Army took power. The commissioner for the Ugandan Human Rights who visited the camps described the situation as pathetic. People look desperate and are facing serious food shortages and a looming health epidemic. (MISNA, Italy, 18 June 2001) 

Weekly anb0621.txt - #7/8