Weekly anb07046.txt #6

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 04-07-2002      PART #6/6

* Togo. Nouveau Premier ministre  -  Le 27 juin, le président togolais 
Eyadéma a limogé son Premier ministre afin, selon lui, de préparer la tenue 
d'élections législatives, initialement prévues en mars, avant d'être 
reportées sine die. L'ancien ministre de l'Education Koffi Sama a été nommé 
en remplacement de Gabriel Agbeyome Kodjo. Kodjo, qui dirigeait le 
gouvernement depuis deux ans, est un fidèle d'Eyadéma, mais il est impliqué 
dans une dispute qui a éclaté récemment au sein de son parti concernant des 
violations des droits de l'homme commises par ses militants. - Le 
lendemain, M. Kodjo s'est lancé dans une diatribe d'une rare violence 
contre le chef d'Etat et son régime, dénonçant notamment des "menaces de 
mort" proférées contre lui par le fils aîné du président Eyadéma, qu'il 
accuse au passage de faire torturer des prisonniers dans un camp du nord du 
pays. Il a lancé un appel pour empêcher le président de modifier la 
Constitution en vue d'effectuer un nouveau mandat dès 2003. Quelques jours 
plus tard, on apprenait que M. Kodjo avait quitté le Togo, sans vouloir 
révéler où il se trouvait.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 2 juillet 2002)

* Tunisie. Grève de la faim  -  L'avocate Radia Nasraoui, épouse de 
l'opposant tunisien Hamma Hammani, a annoncé avoir entamé, le 26 juin, "une 
grève de la faim illimitée" à son domicile à Tunis pour réclamer la 
libération de son mari, chef d'une formation d'extrême gauche interdite. 
Hamma Hammani a été condamné en appel en mars dernier à trois ans et deux 
mois de prison ferme. Me Nasraoui a dénoncé les limitations au droit de 
visite de sa famille et les conditions "inhumaines" qui l'entourent, selon 
elle.   (Le Soir, Belgique, 28 juin 2002)

* Ouganda. Attaques de la LRA  -  Lors d'une attaque menée le 29 juin 
contre un camp de civils déplacés près de Gulu, dans le nord de l'Ouganda, 
les guérilleros ougandais de l'Armée de résistance du Seigneur (LRA) ont 
massacré dix personnes, blessé onze autres et pris cinquante otages. Le 
même jour, à 3h. du matin, ils avaient aussi attaqué Namokora, pillant le 
village et la mission avoisinante. La veille, ils avaient fait incursion 
dans un village dit "protégé", dans la zone de Guruguru, à l'ouest de Gulu. 
Les civils avaient eu le temps de fuir, mais les rebelles ont mis le feu 
aux maisons, laissant 6.000 personnes sans abri.   (ANB-BIA, de sources 
diverses, 1er juillet 2002)

* Uganda. Food prices push inflation down  -  3 July: Good harvests pushed 
Uganda's annual inflation rate to minus 2.6% in June, as food prices 
continued to fall. "This [negative inflation] is still due to lower price 
levels of staple foods, new clothing materials and household fuel," the 
country's statistics bureau (UBOS) said. There is a continued growth of the 
economy in the past year at 5.6%, and the currency has also remained 
stable. Food makes up 45.2% of the index which has now recorded 10 
consecutive months of negative inflation. In May, the inflation rate was 
minus 2.4%. "The production level has considerably gone up of food 
commodities like bananas," Mukund Rao, managing director of Uganda's Crane 
Bank in Kampala said. "But there is a negative inflation rate because of 
deflation in the commodities market." Despite the ongoing deflation, the 
Ugandan economy has performed well over the past 12 months. "There is 
continued growth of the economy in the past year at 5.6%, and the currency 
has also remained stable," Mr Rao said. The annual underlying inflation 
rate in June, excluding food, dropped to 0.1%, with prices of new clothing 
and household fuel lower. The cost of alcoholic beverages, water, health 
and education charges rose slightly.   (BBC News, UK, 3 July 2002)

* Zambie. $75 millions disparus  -  Le président Mwanawasa a ordonné 
l'ouverture d'une enquête sur la fermeture de la mine de Luanshya et la 
disparition de 75 millions de dollars provenant de la vente de 
l'entreprise. Une firme indienne a acheté la mine il y a quatre ans pour 
$245 millions, mais elle a été fermée il y a deux ans à cause de problèmes 
de fonctionnement, envoyant quelque 5.000 employés au chômage. M. 
Mwanawasa, actuellement en visite dans la région du Copperbelt, a également 
ordonné des investigations sur la Copperbelt Energy Corporation, où 23 
millions de dollars auraient disparu.   (PANA, Sénégal, 30 juin 2002)

* Zambia. Kaunda fears for Zambia's stability  -  1 July: The former 
President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, has warned that the political 
situation in the country is "volatile". Mr Kaunda made his comments after 
the incumbent head of state, Levy Mwanawasa, said that he had uncovered a 
plot to assassinate him and other key leaders. Mr Kaunda urged President 
Mwanawasa to take action against the alleged coup plotters. Mr Mwanawasa 
said that some people were planning to kill him because of his 
determination to fight corruption in the country. He did not identify the 
people he suspects of planning a coup, but he said the security forces were 
now watching them closely. "The nation should not be surprised that I will 
ask my officers to arrest a few people and prosecute them in court on 
charges of treason," he was quoted as saying by a Zambian newspaper, The 
Post. He repeated that the fight against corruption in the country was one 
of his top priorities.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 1 July 2002)

* Zambia. AIDS is a severe problem  -  The 2 July UN Aids report, which 
shows that almost 30 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are already 
infected with HIV or Aids, has a particularly chilling relevance to Zambia. 
The country has one of the world's highest rates of HIV/Aids infection, 
with nearly 20% of the adult population infected. Livingstone, a tourist 
centre perched above Victoria Falls, has the country's highest infection 
rate: 31% of adults, according to government statistics. Despite the 
desperate statistics, the town offers glimpses of hope. A project to train 
taxi drivers to act as safe sex teachers and mentors is one of several 
reaching out to groups exposed to the threat of the virus. Fishermen, army 
soldiers, truck drivers, teenagers and prostitutes are all targeted in 
programmes designed at Livingstone's Sepo centre, which receives funding 
and training from the Brighton-based International HIV/Aids Alliance. The 
taxi drivers attended a two-day weekend workshop two months ago and now 
they are enthusiastic sex counsellors. The taxi drivers hope to expand 
their programme. They are talking about setting up an outdoor screening of 
sex education videos near their ranks. "People would come to see the videos 
and then we could have group discussions," says Wilson Mvula, 28. A key 
part of the community programmes is the promotion of voluntary testing and 
counselling. "Everyone is a winner in the testing," says nurse Precious 
Mafo, who runs the Maramba clinic's testing centre. "Those who are negative 
are obviously happy and are encouraged to take steps to avoid infection. 
Those who are positive are counselled to live as positively as possible, to 
have good diets and habits, and this also helps many people."   (The 
Guardian, UK, 3 July 2002)

* Zambia. Pressure on for arrest of Chiluba  -  3 July: Pressure is 
mounting for the government in Zambia to have former President Frederick 
Chiluba arrested and prosecuted for corruption. The Oasis Forum, a body 
representing religious, legal and civil society organisations, says the 
special national assembly convened by the incumbent President, Levy 
Mwanawasa, should lift Mr Chiluba's immunity, which he enjoys as a former 
head of state. Meanwhile, police say they will soon be carrying out arrests 
in connection with an alleged plot which Mr Mwanawasa said he had uncovered 
to overthrow him. The announcement of the alleged coup comes as the ruling 
Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) is facing serious internal 
divisions, with one faction supporting President Mwanawasa, and the other 
loyal to Frederick Chiluba. Mr Mwanawasa has angered supporters of Mr 
Chiluba by calling for an investigation into corruption charges against 
former leaders in Mr Chiluba's government.   (BBC News, UK, 3 July 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Aide britannique  -  Bien qu'en désaccord avec le Zimbabwe à 
propos de sa réforme agraire, la Grande-Bretagne a annoncé l'octroi d'une 
aide de 22 millions de livres sterling à ce pays pour l'achat de vivres et 
d'intrants agricoles. Londres a précisé que le Zimbabwe recevra £22 
millions sur un fonds de £45 millions que le gouvernement britannique a 
réservé pour une aide alimentaire à l'Afrique australe, qui est confrontée 
à des pénuries alimentaires en raison de la sécheresse. L'argent sera 
débloqué par le biais des agences d'aide internationales comme le PAM, pour 
éviter toute ingérence des milieux politiques locaux. Il a récemment été 
fait état du refus du gouvernement de Harare de distribuer l'aide 
alimentaire aux opposants au régime. - Le Zimbabwe, ancien "grenier" de 
l'Afrique australe, est frappé par la pénurie alimentaire, ses habitants 
faisant la queue parfois durant des jours pour recevoir de la farine de 
maïs. Le PAM estime que près de la moitié des 13 millions de Zimbabwéens 
auront besoin d'aide. Le pays devra importer 1,8 million de tonnes de 
céréales pour passer simplement l'année. Cinq autres pays de la région 
connaissent également une grave pénurie, mais c'est au Zimbabwe que la 
situation est la pire.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 28 juin 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Mugabe threatens to seize firm's assets  -  Robert Mugabe has 
accused the giant mining company Anglo American of "sabotaging" his 
government by hoarding salt to create shortages, and has threatened to 
seize its assets, Zimbabwe's state media reported on 30 June. The President 
spoke as the Commonwealth secretary general, Don McKinnon, admitted that 
his organisation, which suspended Zimbabwe for a year in March, had failed 
to help the country. "All the things that any international organisation 
has done have not had any impact," he said. "We [the Commonwealth] have 
done more than anyone, but I cannot say that anything we have done has had 
any effect on putting the government on another course of action. It is sad 
that nothing is improving in that nation... I am not at all hopeful that 
anything is going to change." Mr Mugabe's threat to implement a new policy 
of company seizures, starting with an important local food firm partly 
owned by the London-based Anglo American plc, came after reports that his 
government had found about 200 tonnes of salt in raids on warehouses owned 
by National Foods around the country. "I want to say this to National 
Foods, an Anglo American company of Nicky Oppenheimer," Mr Mugabe said at a 
meeting of his central committee on 29 June. "Tell this nation why they 
have been hoarding salt? Do they still want to operate in partnership with 
our government? With our people? If not, we will take over their 
enterprises." Mr Mugabe accused National Foods of hoarding salt to fuel 
disaffection against his government. "They want people on the streets 
against our government. What kind of behaviour is this? What kind of 
mischief is this?"   (The Independent, UK, 2 July 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Un Américain assassiné  -  Chirurgien à la retraite, Roy Raub, 
79 ans, originaire de Virginie et propriétaire d'une ferme près de 
Bulawayo, a été tué le samedi soir 29 juin, au bord d'une route reliant 
Bulawayo à Hwange (sud-ouest), ont annoncé la police et des responsables 
d'un syndicat de fermiers blancs. Sa voiture a disparu, elle a probablement 
été volée.   (La Croix, France, 2 juillet 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Repression continues  -  Almost four months after Zimbabwean 
President Robert Mugabe's disputed reelection to a fourth term, any hope 
that the 78-year-old former guerrilla leader would relax his crackdown 
against political opponents has all but evaporated. Since turning back the 
toughest political challenge of his career in a campaign marked by violence 
and allegations of fraud, Mugabe has put restrictions on white farmers at a 
time when nearly half of Zimbabwe's population faces starvation. He has 
also continued repression of dissidents and journalists and, most recently, 
threatened to nationalize one of the country's largest companies. The UN 
World Food Program estimates that nearly half of Zimbabwe's 11 million 
people urgently need international assistance to avert starvation as a 
result of famine. Donor nations blame the famine on bad weather and the 
government's policy of seizing the country's most productive farms, owned 
by whites, and handing them over to poor blacks. Relief agencies say that 
Mugabe's ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front 
(ZANU-PF), has used food donations from abroad to reward its supporters and 
punish members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). 
Tawanda Hondora, chairman of Zimbabwe's Human Rights Forum, said the 
government has required peasants to show ZANU-PF membership cards to 
receive food rations and has stopped organizations thought to be 
sympathetic to or aligned with the MDC from distributing food. On 29 June, 
however, Mugabe blamed the nation's food shortage on National Foods, a 
multinational subsidiary of Anglo American, a South African mining firm. In 
remarks published in a state-owned newspaper, Mugabe accused National Foods 
of hoarding such basic commodities as salt.   (Washington Post, USA, 3 July 
2002)

Weekly anb07046.txt - #6/6 - 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)
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Everytime somebody keep silent when faced with tyranny, someone else dies 
(Wole Syinka, Nobel Prize for Literature) *
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