Weekly anb07057.txt #7

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 05-07-2001      PART #7/7

* Zambie. Fin de grève  -  Près de 150.000 enployés du secteur public ont 
cessé la grève qu'ils menaient depuis six semaines. Le gouvernement a cédé 
en leur promettant une augmentation de salaire, qui dans certains cas 
devrait dépasser les 90%. Les autorités ont dû trouver un compromis pour 
éviter que le pays se retrouve partiellement paralysé à l'occasion du 
sommet de l'OUA qui se tiendra la semaine prochaine.   (Misna, Italie, 3 
juillet 2001)

* Zambia. Civil servants end strike before OAU summit  -  Zambian civil 
servants ended a six-week strike on 2 July after the government agreed to 
hefty pay rises to avert a stand-off during an Organisation of African 
Unity (OAU) summit in Lusaka next week. Nearly 150,000 public sector 
employees, including teachers, local council and court employees, will 
receive pay hikes ranging from 81 to 91 percent. "The strike has been 
called off with immediate effect," Civil Servants' Union leader Leonard 
Hikaumba told Reuters. But he also warned the government not to renege on 
its agreement after the OAU summit, which begins with a ministerial session 
on July 7. The heads of state converge on the Zambian capital on July 9. 
The unions had demanded salary increases of between 100 and 250 percent, 
but union leaders said they would probably call for further adjustments 
later in the year. Zambia is one of the poorest countries in the world and 
civil service salaries average between $50 and $71 a month. An average 
monthly bill for water and electricity is $60. The strike had hit public 
services hard, with hospitals manned by skeleton staff, court cases 
postponed and teachers staying away from schools. The Civil Servants Union, 
National Union of Public Workers, Teachers' Union and local council workers 
said the breakthrough had come over the weekend. The deal took effect on 
July 1. Senior OAU officials said they had urged Zambian President 
Frederick Chiluba to resolve the strike because it posed a security threat 
to the summit. A government-backed group called the National Organisation 
for Civil Education said in comments published on 2 July in local 
newspapers that some non-government organisations and opposition parties 
had planned to disrupt the OAU summit.   (CNN, USA, 3 July 2001)

* Zambia. OAU summit  -  3 July: All treaties and conventions adopted by 
the policy organs of the OAU but pending entry into force, are to be 
reviewed to bring them in line with changes attendant to the new 
dispensation of the African Union. African ambassadors accredited to the 
OAU approved the move, today at their 13th ordinary session in Lusaka, 
Zambia. Since its inception in 1963, the OAU's policy organs have adopted 
22 treaties and conventions, out of which 14 have entered into force, one 
of them provisionally. Eight others have not come into force for lack of 
the necessary instruments of ratification. These would now be reviewed by 
the OAU Secretariat in tune with the Constitutive Act of the African Union, 
which African leaders are expected to formally launch at their 37th regular 
summit in Lusaka 9-11 July. The ambassadors also approved a proposal 
imposing penalties on member states that owe arrears of assessed 
contributions for two years. They also approved the Secretary-General's 
report calling for the extension of the OAU's drug control project in 
Africa, which is being implemented in collaboration with the UN Drug 
Control Programme (UNDPC). 4 July: The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, 
will proclaim the African Union at the summit. (PANA, Senegal, 3-4 July 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Nouvelles violences politiques  -  La tension monte dans la 
province du Mashonaland central (nord-est) à l'approche du nouveau scrutin 
électoral prévu les 28 et 29 juillet. Il faut en effet revoter pour 
remplacer le ministre de la Jeunesse, Border Gezi, décédé il y a un mois 
dans un accident de voiture. La situation est particulièrement critique au 
sein du collège électoral du chef-lieu Bindura. La semaine dernière, des 
sympathisants du parti au pouvoir, le ZANU-PF, ont mis le feu et pillé des 
villages prenant pour cible les partisans de l'opposition. La presse locale 
rapporte qu'au moins une personne a été grièvement blessée, d'autres plus 
légèrement. De nombreux paysans de la province, craignant une recrudescence 
de la violence politique, ont préféré quitter leurs maisons, désertant 
quasiment des villages entiers.   (Misna, Italie, 27 juin 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Réforme agraire  -  Le président Mugabe vient d'annoncer qu'il 
compte saisir 2.030 fermes supplémentaires pour les octroyer à des fermiers 
noirs pauvres, dans le cadre de sa réforme agraire controversée. Le 
Zimbabwe compte près de 5.500 fermes commerciales, dont 95% sont désormais 
sur les listes d'expropriation.   (Le Figaro, France, 2 juillet 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Armed War Vets terrorise villagers  -  Armed bands of former 
Zipra combatants have caused panic among the civilian population on the new 
resettlement areas in the Nyamandlovu area, north-west of Bulawayo. The war 
veterans are said to be harassing suspected supporters of the Movement for 
Democratic Change, and sexually abusing women settlers. According to some 
settlers at one resettlement scheme near Deli, groups of rowdy war 
veterans, some clutching Kalashnikov combat rifles, roam the resettlement 
areas on a daily basis, intimidating those who do not possess Zanu PF 
membership cards. Seven settlers were reported to have abandoned the new 
homes after war veterans kept on harassing and threatening to kill them. 
"Nobody feels safe in this place because of harassment by war veterans. 
Whenever we make reports to the Nyamandlovu police, they tell us they can't 
touch war vets," one villager told The Standard during a recent visit. 
"There is complete lawlessness in this country and something must be done 
to stop the harassment of civilians by these war veterans," said Kabelo 
Mlothswa, who claimed to have been tortured by three war veterans. 
Sometimes, the war veterans invade white-owned farms and ranches in the 
district and demand fresh milk and amasi (a dairy product). If the farmers 
refuse to give them the milk and game meat, they are severely assaulted. 
Police in Nyamandlovu refused to speak to The Standard saying they were 
instructed not to talk to journalists from the independent media. The 
officer who answered the phone told the paper to send questions to 
Harare.   (Zimbabwe Standard, 2 July 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Grève générale  -  La Centrale syndicale zimbabwéenne (ZCTU) a 
lancé un appel à la grève générale les 3 et 4 juillet pour protester contre 
une augmentation massive (70%) du prix de l'essence, contre la mauvaise 
gestion de l'économie et pour le respect des droits de l'homme, malgré 
l'interdiction qui lui a été faite par le gouvernement. L'armée est 
mobilisée toute la semaine pour éviter que les manifestations ne tournent 
au chaos. - Le 3 juillet, dans tout le pays la plupart des magasins, des 
banques et des usines sont restés fermés. Selon les leaders syndicaux, la 
grève a paralysé les trois quarts de l'économie du pays. Le 4 juillet, la 
grève s'est poursuivie dans le calme. Trois journalistes photographes mis 
en garde à vue, accusés d'avoir entravé l'action de la police, ont été 
libérés.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 5 juillet 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Government faces opposition  -  2 June: Zimbabwean riot police 
have been patrolling Harare's poor townships, today, ahead of a two-day 
national strike over soaring fuel prices. But union leaders said there was 
no danger of violence from their members. The main labour movement has 
called the strike for 3-4 July after President Robert Mugabe's government 
refused to reverse a nearly 70% rise in fuel prices announced on 12 June. 
The government has declared the strike illegal and promised to protect 
workers who ignore the call by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions 
(ZCTU), which has 1.2 million members. In a joint statement the 
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries and the Employers Confederation of 
Zimbabwe said the strike would further hurt the country's struggling 
economy. The statement said the ZCTU must talk to the government ahead of 
the strike. In Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, police said they were 
ready to deal with violence. 3 June: Police mounted extra patrols and 
road-blocks in the country's main cities, today, as the two-day national 
strike begins to protest fuel price hikes. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade 
Unions says all 32 of its affiliate unions have endorsed the action in 
protest against last month's 73 per cent increase in fuel prices. 4 June: 
Many businesses, especially in industrial areas have been shut down by the 
strike. -- Opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, says he has secured 
pledges from Europe and the USA to provide independent observers for next 
years presidential election when he will stand against President 
Mugabe.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 5 July 2001)

Weekly anb0705.txt - Part 7/7
THE END

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Un homme meurt chaque fois que l'un d'entre nous se tait devant la tyrannie 
(W. Soyinka, Prix Nobel litterature) - Everytime somebody keep silent when 
faced with tyranny, someone else dies (Wole Syinka, Nobel Prize for 
Literature) *
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