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Weekly anb08305.txt #8

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 30-08-2001      PART #5/8
* Libya. Meeting opens in Tripoli to discuss peace in Sudan - Experts involved in the Libyan-Egyptian initiative for peace in Sudan started meeting on 27 August in Tripoli under the chairmanship of the move's co-ordinator, Soleiman Chhoumi and the Egyptian deputy foreign minister, Rafik Khalil. Sources close to the conference said the experts are examining the different clauses of the initiative sponsored by Cairo and Tripoli, as well as the basis and principles for its implementation. According to a Libyan diplomatic source, the meeting will draw a timetable for holding a national reconciliation conference under the initiative. The meeting also reviewed the reactions of different Sudanese parties towards the initiative. Informed sources said that the committee will submit its conclusions to the next ministerial meeting to be held in Cairo on 9 September. That meeting would be attended by the Libyan Secretary of the People's Committee for the African Union (minister), Dr Ali Triki as well as the Egyptian and Sudanese foreign ministers, Ahmed Maher and Mustapha Othman Ismail, respectively. On 26 August, members of the special committee had met with Dr Ali Triki, who reiterated the need to accelerate the implementation of the initiative so as to end the bloodshed in Sudan and pave the way for development and progress in that country. Triki welcomed the endorsement of the initiative by both the Sudanese government and the opposition, saying this would expedite its implementation. (PANA, Senegal, 27 August 2001)
* Malawi. SADC summit - Some reflections on the recent Southern African heads of state summit which ended on 14 August: -- At the close of the summit there was a unanimous resolve to impose sanctions against the rebel movement of Jonas Savimbi fighting the Angolan government. President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania hadn't any kind words for UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi. He said: "Savimbi should have been arraigned in the Hague, rather than Milosevic. The SADC needs responsible leaders." Another issue discussed was the ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo RDC). President Muluzi who took over as the SADC's chairperson told the summit members that he due to meet Congo RDC's President Joseph Kabila who arrives in Malawi today. Angola's president, Eduardo dos Santos, is also invited. President Frederick Chiluba of Zambia bemoaned the slow pace of withdrawing troops from Congo. He said that although there was some progress since the signing of the Lusaka Peace Agreement, movement to withdraw foreign troops from Congo was still slow. Malawi's Vice-President Justin Malewezi pleased with SADC leaders to do their utmost to work towards ending conflicts in the region. (Hobbs Gama, Malawi, 24 August 2001)
* Maroc/Espagne. Clandestins - L'interpellation sur les côtes espagnoles de 800 immigrés clandestins en provenance du Maroc, le week-end dernier, a provoqué de nouvelles frictions diplomatiques entre les deux pays. Le mercredi 22 août, le gouvernement espagnol a convoqué le chargé d'affaires du Maroc, jugeant "insuffisante" la collaboration marocaine contre l'immigration. Le 23 août, le ministère marocain des Affaires étrangères a reçu à son tour le représentant diplomatique espagnol à Rabat et qualifié de "réductrice" la position de l'Espagne. Rabat a assuré qu'entre le 1er janvier 2000 et le 30 juin 2001, les services marocains ont refoulé plus de 15.000 personnes s'apprêtant à traverser le détroit de Gibraltar. - Le 23 août, au moins neuf Africains se sont noyés alors qu'ils tentaient d'atteindre à la nage l'île de Fuerteventura aux Canaries. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 24 août 2001)
* Maroc. Boukhari condamné - Le 28 août, l'ancien agent secret marocain Ahmed Boukhari, auteur de récentes révélations explosives sur l'affaire Ben Barka, mais inculpé pour l'émission de chèques sans provision, a été condamné à un an de prison ferme par le tribunal de première instance de Casablanca. La cour n'a pas retenu les arguments de la défense, qui assurait que M. Boukhari avait déjà été condamné en 1998 pour deux de ces chèques et avait purgé sa peine. Son avocat, Me Abderrahim Jamaï, qui a décidé de faire appel, a estimé que l'emprisonnement de son client visait "à éviter qu'il ne puisse faire d'autres révélations". Plusieurs associations des droits de l'homme ont également dénoncé le procès. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 29 août 2001)
* Mozambique. Smelter seen as driving economy forward - Visitors to the "pot room" of the Mozal aluminium smelter are asked to declare whether they are fitted with pacemakers and to remove their watches. The electro-magnetic field that encircles the hub of the aluminium smelting process is so powerful it knocks out time pieces, weak hearts and the electronics of passing vehicles. The gentle warning is a sign that the $1.3bn smelter, which is the standard-bearer of industrial development and foreign investment in Mozambique, may not reflect at its core the human face of the warm smiling children that beam out of its social responsibility brochures. Mozal is one of the most modern smelters in the world, relying on only 750 people to operate its advanced technology. But the sense of modernity stops abruptly at its boundary fence. The suburbs of Maputo and scrubland small holdings leave little doubt that this is one of the world's poorest countries. The smelter has increased Mozambique's investment earnings by 150 per cent, or $400m, much to the government's delight, and given it the opportunity of boasting global competitiveness. It is hard to imagine that in a country starved of investment and wallowing in unemployment that labour issues could have jeopardised the decision finally taken in June to go ahead with a $1bn expansion of Mozal. Yet a half-day strike over salaries in February set investors thinking that the human part of the project might be its Achilles' heel. "We have a peaceful workforce. That is not to say that we don't have arguments over salaries. We are over what was a crisis and we have a much better understanding between management and labour. But it was one of the factors holding up the decision [to invest]," says Rob Barbour, the chairman of Mozal. (Financial Times, UK, 28 August 2001)
* Namibia. NNFU denounces lack of cooperation - The Namibia National Farmers Union (NNFU) has denounced the lack of co-operation of commercial farmers with the government, with land reform and resettlement. The Namibian newspaper says the NNFU has underlined that any attempts to derail government plans to redistribute land, could face a serious legal onslaught. The Union also urged all its members to explore legal means to help the government make land available for redistribution. (MISNA, Italy, 22 August 2001)
* Nigeria. Chevron venture to end gas flaring - Nigeria's National Petroleum Corporation has struck a blow against climate change by finalising a joint venture with Chevron of the US that will help the west African country end gas flaring by 2008. This gives the go-ahead to the third stage of the Chevron-led projects at Escravos to gather waste gas from western Niger delta oilfields and pipe it to Lagos and to convert waste gas into liquid fuels for domestic use and export. Gas often comes out of the ground along with oil and has to be flared or burnt off when it cannot be stored or used. Lacking a developed pipeline network and industrial base, Nigeria accounts for a quarter of all gas flared in the world, and is under pressure to reduce this atmospheric pollution and resource waste. Until the Chevron projects were finalised there were doubts that the 2008 deadline for an end to flaring could be met. The Escravos projects will cost a total of $2bn - $800m for gas gathering and $1.2bn for the gas-to-liquids plant. The latter will use technology developed by Chevron in a joint venture with Sasol of South Africa, which, during the apartheid era, produced synthetic fuel to get around international oil sanctions. It will convert some 300m cubic feet of gas a day that is currently being flared into 33,000 barrels a day of clean liquid fuels. (Financial Times, UK, 24 August 2001)
* Nigeria. Bus carnage mounts - A bus has plunged into a river in northern Nigeria, killing 49 people and injuring 23, eyewitnesses told the French news agency AFP. The agency said the accident occurred at Dakatsalle Bridge, around 50 km south of the northern city of Kano, at around 1400 local time (1300GMT) on 26 August. The bus was an overnight service from the capital, Lagos. It was the latest, and deadliest, bus crash in Nigeria in the space of a few days. One survivor among the 72 passengers, Garba Mohammed, told AFP that the bus had been speeding when it blew a tyre as it started across the bridge. Twenty-three people were rescued, 10 bodies recovered and the remaining 39 are still trapped inside the submerged bus, staff at the Murtala Mohammed hospital in Kano said. Mr Mohammed said that local fishermen had helped pull out many of the survivors as well as 10 of the bodies. Nigeria has earned a grim reputation for its road accidents. Only on 25 August, 12 people were killed when a mini-bus hit a trailer and plunged into a canal in Lagos. And on 22 August two buses collided head-on near the central town of Lokoja, killing 13 and injuring about 30. (BBC News, 27 August 2001)
* Nigeria. Pétrole: otages libérés - * 99 employés d'un groupe pétrolier, dont 19 étrangers, pris en otage depuis le 23 août sur une plate-forme au large du sud du Nigeria, ont été relâchés, a annoncé le 27 août un porte-parole de la société Shell. La plate-forme, gérée par Trans-Ocean Sedco, un sous-traitant de Shell, a été envahie le 23 août par de jeunes Nigérians de la région. Depuis plusieurs années, les violences se multiplient, en protestation contre la spoliation des populations locales, qui ne recueillent de l'exploitation de l'or noir que... la pollution. (La Libre Belgique, 28 août 2001)
* Nigeria. "Restore hope to people on the brink of despair" - To "restore hope to people on the brink of despair". This call was launched by the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, in a Message to the Bishops of English-speaking West Africa (AECAWA), holding their 9th Plenary Assembly at Enugu, Nigeria, 25-31 August. The Assembly's theme was: "The Church as an Agent of Reconciliation and Social Transformation". The Cardinal encouraged the Bishops to promote the very much cherished African values of unity, solidarity, co-responsibility, fraternity, mutual trust. On 26 August, Bishop Peter Sarpong, Bishop of Kumasi in Ghana and Chairman of AECAWA, led 53 other Bishops in a solemn Eucharistic celebration. In his homily, the Bishop challenged that if the Church is the Sacrament of the risen Lord's presence in the world, then the Church's task is to demonstrate this truth to the world in a convincing manner. In her keynote address, Professor Joy Ogwu, Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs said that the Church in West Africa is challenged by a myriad of problems centring around war and conflict, post-conflict reconstruction, social economic crises, deepening poverty, democratic consolidation, and the pace and content of regional integration. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 28 August 2001)
* Nigeria. Signs of unrest - 25 August: The leader of a banned vigilante group in Nigeria has been charged with murder, robbery, firearms offenses and incitement. Ganiyu Adams was arrested on 22 August a year after a warrant had been issued for his detention. He appeared in court in Lagos with three other members of the Odua People's Congress (OPC), all accused of orchestrating ethnic violence and the murder of a police man last year. They pleaded not guilty and were remanded in custody until next month. On 23 August, members of the OPC had brought the main market in Lagos to a standstill, demanding the release of their leader. As leader of the OPC, Gani Adams had been taunting police in Lagos for many months, appearing at public meetings and speaking openly to the press despite being wanted on murder charges. 28 August: Almost 100 oil workers held captive since 23 August on an oil rig in southern Nigeria have been released. Nineteen of the workers - including at least five Britons and five Americans -- are foreign nationals. The group had been held captive by a group of militant youths on a rig almost 100km off Nigeria's coast. News of the incident was only released after the incident was resolved. The BBC correspondent in Nigeria, Dan Isaacs, says incidents such as this are not uncommon in the country's troubled oil-producing region, but oil companies rarely provide details of kidnap situations such as this until they have been resolved, for fear of jeopardising negotiations. He says it is now clear that the gang required motor boats to travel the substantial distance out to sea. Once there, they took control for three days while oil industry officials negotiated for the release of those on board. The offshore rig, Trident, is owned by Houston-based Transocean Sedco Forex. It was drilling on behalf of oil giant Shell. According to the Reuters news agency, the situation was resolved when community elders were called in by Shell to ask the youths to leave. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 28 August 2001) 

Weekly news anb0830.txt End of #5/8