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Weekly anb10034.txt #7

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 04-10-2001      PART #4/7
* Eritrea. Italian ambassador expelled - Eritrea has asked Italy's ambassador to leave the country after he and other European ambassadors protested over alleged human rights violations in the country. Italy's Foreign Ministry said it appeared that Ambassador Antonio Bandini was singled out because he also acts as the dean of the European Union diplomatic corps in Asmara. The EU ambassadors had protested the Eritrean Government's crackdown on the opposition ahead of the elections scheduled for December. At least 11 opposition politicians and seven journalists working for independent newspapers have been arrested. A number of university student leaders were also detained. The 11 opposition figures were among 15 former senior officials of the ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice party, who openly criticised President Isaias Eferwerki's government in May. They signed a public letter calling on the government to institute democratic reforms and accountability and they criticised his handling of the devastating war with neighbouring Ethiopia. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 1 October 2001)
* Erythrée. Représentant de l'UE expulsé - L'ambassadeur italien en Erythrée Antonio Bandini, qui assure la représentation diplomatique de l'Union européenne dans ce pays, a été invité à quitter le pays lundi soir 1er octobre. Les autorités érythréennes n'ont avancé aucune justification officielle. Mais selon des sources diplomatiques occidentales à Asmara, l'ordre d'expulsion a été pris à la suite d'une démarche des chefs de mission de l'UE auprès des autorités érythréennes, exprimant leurs inquiétudes après l'arrestation récente de dissidents et la suspension de la presse privée. Les capitales européennes se sont concertées pour convoquer en même temps les ambassadeurs d'Erythrée pour protester contre cette décision d'expulsion de leur représentant. L'Italie a donné trois jours à l'ambassadeur d'Erythrée pour quitter le pays. L'UE remet désormais en cause les accords de coopération qui la lient à l'Erythrée. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 4 octobre 2001)
* Ethiopia. Industrial and urban development - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on 28 September that although the country would not abandon its agriculture-led development plan, the Ethiopian government would in future attach more importance to industrial and urban development than it had done in previous years. He said one of Ethiopia's main priorities for achieving this goal would be to promote the inflow of foreign investment while sourcing new markets for Ethiopian exports, the pro-government Walta Information Centre reported on 28 September. Meles admitted to local journalists that it had become evident that the government was not functioning as required, and announced a series of reform measures designed to correct these faults. (IRIN, 1 October 2001)
* Guinée. Le retour d'Alpha Condé - L'opposant Alpha Condé a retrouvé son siège de député à l'Assemblée nationale après plus de quatre ans d'absence. Leader du Rassemblement du peuple de Guinée et candidat à l'élection présidentielle de 1998, M. Condé avait été arrêté en décembre de la même année et condamné, en septembre 2000, à cinq ans de réclusion pour atteinte à la sécurité de l'Etat. Il a bénéficié d'une grâce présidentielle après trente mois de prison. (Le Monde, France, 28 septembre 2001)
* Kenya. Bleak picture of country's progress - Kenya was one of the worst economic performers in the world last year, says the World Bank. The latest statistics in the World Bank's World Development Report, showed that Zimbabwe, which is facing a political crisis, Eritrea which was at war with Ethiopia, and Côte d'Ivoire, where there was a coup last year, had worse records. Last year, Kenya's GDP fell by -2.4%. It is now one of the only 10 countries in the world, seven of which are in Africa, two in Latin America and one in Asia, with negative growth rates that are higher than 1.5%. (Daily Nation, Kenya, 19 September 2001)
* Kenya. Christian churches burnt down - Two wooden Christian churches have been burnt down in north-eastern Kenya. It is suspected that Muslim youths were behind the attacks in the town of Isiolo, but no arrests had been made. Witnesses said phrases had been carved in the charred remains, including "God is Great" and "We Condemn America". Religious leaders in the predominantly Muslim area have met to try to defuse tensions and reassure Christians about their security. Sheikh Hussein Ibrahim of the Isiolo mosque told Reuters news agency: "Somebody is trying to exploit the difficult relationship between the civilised world and Muslims to try and tarnish the name of Islam". Local police have downplayed the arson attack, suggesting there are no religious overtones. "Those churches have stood here for the past five years. This was a normal arson attack," Isiolo police chief James Shile. Earlier this week, the Kenyan Government announced that it was tightening security controls on Kenyans of Asian and Arab decent in response to the suicide attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon two weeks ago. A directive from the immigration office in the coastal city of Mombasa, host to a large Muslim population, said applicants for birth certificates or passports must include their grandparents' national documents with their applications. Similar restrictions were imposed two months ago but streets demonstrations by thousands of Muslims forced the government to rethink the policy. The Council of Imams and Preachers condemned the new action. Secretary General Sheikh Mohammed Dor accused the government of provoking Kenyan Muslims by imposing "outrageous restrictions on them in time of crisis." (BBC News, UK, 27 September 2001)
* Kenya. Illegal school fees responsible for high drop-out rates - President Daniel arap Moi said on 28 september that charging school children illegal fees was partly responsible for the high dropout rates in Kenya's public schools, the Daily Nation reported. Moi directed the Ministry of Education to carry out a proper audit of school funds to ensure that illegal fees and "other unnecessary levies" were not charged. He called on Education Minister Henry Kosgey to make sure that no primary school pupils were charged fees, and that an "adequate budgetary provision" be made for secondary schools to enable them to make uniform charges. According to Kosgey, primary school enrolment across Kenya had fallen from 100 percent to 87 percent over the last 10 years. In North Eastern Province, enrolment in primary education only reached 26 percent of the school age population, he added. (IRIN, 1 October 2001)
* Kenya. Sugar market turns sour - Kenya's hard-hit sugar industry is facing an increasing glut thanks to a likely bumper sugar cane harvest in the coming months. Sugar producers are already sitting on thousands of tons of unsold sugar -- because their home market is being undercut by an unrestricted flood of imports. Kenya and other sugar producers are also facing a slowdown in global demand for their product. Emmanuelle Rossi of Sucre Export told World Business Report that world prices have been dropping rapidly over the last three weeks. Part of the reason is the volume of exports from Brazil. Last year the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), of which Kenya is a member, removed its barriers to regional trade. Kenya charges an 18% value added tax and a 7% sugar development levy on all sugar imports from COMESA members. This is less than the tax imposed upon local sugar producers. The industry has been asking for the Kenyan government to rethink its policy and bring in duties of around 30-40% on all imports across the region. (BBC News, UK, 2 October 2001)
* Kenya. Kenyan police "negligent" - Three suspects awaiting murder trials have appeared in a Nairobi court charged with the murders of six fellow suspects. The six, who were being held at the police station for various offences, were found brutally killed in police cells in the town of Thika, 50 kilometres north of Nairobi on the morning of 1 October. In the same court, six policemen, among them the Thika police station officer in charge, Inspector Joseph Njoroge Ndungu, were charged with negligence on duty which allegedly led to the deaths. The court was very congested and the police had to throw some people out. Security was extremely tight. The three suspects were not allowed to plead to the murder charges because the necessary documents had not been received from the Attorney-General's office. The policemen however denied the negligence charges before Nairobi Chief Magistrate Boaz Olao and applied to be released on bail. The prosecutor, Inspector Joseph Kundu, opposed bail saying the policemen would interfere with the witnesses in Thika. The magistrate said he would make a ruling on the officers bail application on 4 October. The six prisoners were found dead in police cells on Monday morning with swellings and cuts all over their bodies. Relatives of the deceased and human rights groups condemned the killings of the six, arguing that there were too many people dying in police custody in the country. This incident comes exactly a year after six prisoners were killed in what the police called an unsuccessful escape attempt at the Kingongo Maximum Prison in central Kenya. (BBC News, UK, 3 October 2001)
* Libéria. Réouverture des frontières - Le 28 septembre, le président Taylor a annoncé la réouverture de la frontière libérienne avec la Sierra Leone et la Guinée, dans le cadre des efforts de restauration des relations normales entre ces trois pays. La frontière avec la Sierra Leone était fermée depuis mars dernier, celle avec la Guinée depuis 1999. Taylor a également fait savoir que le gouvernement levait les restrictions qu'il avait imposées depuis quelques mois aux déplacements des diplomates étrangers, qui avaient vu leurs mouvements limités dans un rayon de 50 km à l'extérieur de Monrovia. Le mois dernier, le Libéria avait déjà pris une initiative susceptible de favoriser la réconciliation en revenant sur sa décision de déclarer "personna non grata" les ambassadeurs de la Guinée et de la Sierra Leone. - D'autre part, selon un communiqué conjoint publié à Monrovia le 28 septembre, les Etats membres de l'Union du Fleuve Mano (Libéria, Guinée et Sierra Leone) ont adopté un plan pour lutter contre la prolifération des armes et des munitions dans la zone. Les trois pays vont déployer des forces conjointes de sécurité aux frontières afin de restaurer la confiance au sein des populations. (PANA, Sénégal, 28-29 septembre 2001)
* Libéria. Conflit entre députés et barreau - La bataille entre les avocats libériens et la Chambre basse du Parlement a pris une nouvelle tournure le dimanche 30 septembre, lorsque les avocats ont convergé vers le Capitole pour assister à l'audition de deux de leurs collègues poursuivis pour outrage après avoir appelé à la libération du président du barreau national, J. Emmanuel Wureh, arrêté lundi dernier. Celui-ci avait été envoyé en prison pour avoir déclaré, au sujet d'un député, qu'il ne "méritait pas de représenter le peuple libérien". La Chambre basse avait estimé que cette "insulte" rejaillissait sur toute l'institution et que Wureh devait être condamné à trois mois de prison et une amende de quelque 5.000 dollars libériens. Les associations d'avocats avaient alors demandé à leurs membres de ne plus plaider, appelant ainsi à un boycott qui a provoqué, depuis le semaine dernière, la paralysie de la justice libérienne. - Le 2 octobre, la Chambre basse a ordonné la libération de Me Wureh. (D'après PANA, Sénégal, 2 octobre 2001)
* Madagascar. Religion et politique - Les Malgaches se rendront aux urnes, le 16 décembre, pour élire leur président. En cette période pré-électorale, c'est la mobilisation des candidats, des partis politiques et... des Eglises chrétiennes. "Je n'ai peur de personne, sauf de Dieu", déclarait récemment le président Ratsiraka. En effet, l'électorat chrétien est particulièrement important à Madagascar. Les responsables des Eglises chrétiennes sont réunis depuis plusieurs années au sein d'un conseil oecuménique, le FFKM. Au courant du mois d'août, celui-ci a appelé tous les fidèles à aller voter et aussi à remplir un rôle d'observateur. En cette période, il est de bon ton chez les candidats d'afficher leurs affinités religieuses. Dernier exemple: dimanche dernier, 30 septembre, plusieurs dizaines de milliers de chrétiens étaient rassemblés pour une messe dans le stade de football de la capitale. Plusieurs candidats se sont installés à la tribune officielle, sous les flashs des photographes et sous les yeux des fidèles. Tout est bon pour être élu, mais Dieu reconnaîtra les siens! (D'après RFI, France, 1er octobre 2001)
* Malawi. Leader d'opposition arrêté - Le 28 septembre, la police malawite a procédé à l'arrestation du millionnaire James Makhumula, président de l'Alliance nationale démocratique (NDA, opposition) pour complot et possession illégale d'armes à feu. Il est maintenu en détention dans une cellule de la police de Zomba. Un autre leader de la NDA, Brown Mpinganjira, a expliqué que cette arrestation s'inscrit dans le cadre de la tentative du gouvernement de neutraliser l'opposition. "Ils veulent nous occuper à répondre à des chefs d'inculpation stupides", dit-il. Mpinganjira, impliqué dans le procès pour trahison en cours dans lequel quatre personnes sont accusées d'avoir comploté en vue de renverser le gouvernement, dit qu'il s'attend lui aussi à être arrêté à tout moment. (PANA, Sénégal, 28 septembre 2001) 

Weekly anb1003.txt - End of part 4/7