Weekly anb09056.txt #6

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 05-09-2002      PART #6/6

* Uganda. Pressing on against rebels  -  The Ugandan army will continue its 
offensive against rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), President 
Yoweri Museveni has said. In a statement published in the state-owned New 
Vision newspaper, Mr Museveni said he would only accept a ceasefire 
declared by the rebels if they assemble in designated areas near the 
Uganda-Sudan border. The newspaper also reported that the Uganda People's 
Defence Force (UPDF) had started a "massive operation" against rebels in 
the Lira district of northern Uganda.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 29 August 2002)

* Ouganda. Les missionnaires libérés  -  Les trois missionnaires 
comboniens, dont le directeur de l'agence Misna, arrêtés le 28 août alors 
qu'ils poursuivaient des pourparlers avec l'Armée de résistance du Seigneur 
(LRA) dans le nord de l'Ouganda, ont été libérés. "Je me trouve à Kampala 
et me porte bien, mais le drame de la population perdure", faisait savoir 
le père Giulio Albanese de Misna, le 31 août. Les missionnaires avaient été 
incarcérés dans une caserne de Kitgum, avant d'être libérés vingt-quatre 
heures plus tard. Le porte-parole de l'armée a justifié l'arrestation et 
l'interrogatoire musclé des religieux en affirmant que l'armée ne savait 
pas ce qu'ils faisaient avec les rebelles. En réalité, ces négociations de 
paix avaient été annoncées par la presse nationale. L'arrestation semble 
donc motivée avant tout par le souci du gouvernement de faire taire toute 
opposition aux opérations militaires en cours.   (Misna, It., et La Croix, 
Fr., 31/8-3/9 2002)

* Uganda. Director of MISNA arrested  -  29 August: A series of reports 
coming from the agency MISNA, indicates that its Director Father Giulio 
Albanese and two other Cobonian missionaries have been held in custody by 
the Ugandan armed forces since yesterday. Father Albanese had travelled to 
Uganda to gather first-hand accounts about the latest developments 
concerning a possible truce between the Ugandan authorities and the Lords 
Resistance Army (LRA) rebels. On 28 August, while the three Religious were 
meeting with a rebel delegation in the bush, the Ugandan army carried out a 
surprise attack. It should be remembered that the military authorities were 
previously informed about the missionaries' initiative and had given their 
consent. According to military sources, the three Religious are being held 
in Kitgum accused of having distributed medicine to the rebels. They were 
detained for 24 hours. 4 September: In a message to MISNA readers, its 
Director, now back in Italy, re-affirms that: "We were all three engaged in 
talks with rebels of the LRA, as part of the long-awaited difficult peace 
process, when a sudden attack by government forces caused the Olum 
("grass", as the rebels are called in the Acholi language) to flee the 
area, leaving us under a shower of bullets and grenades"...At the moment in 
northern Uganda, the only sign of hope is epresented by the Acholi 
Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative, a cartel of religious communities 
present in the Acholi districts. It is a group of people headed by Gulu's 
Archbishop John Baptist Odama, that firmly believes in a non-violent 
solution to the armed crisis".   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 5 September 2002)

* Uganda/Congo RDC. Pulls out troops from Congo RDC  -  Uganda has 
officially withdrawn all its forces from the Democratic Republic of the 
Congo, except for two battalions which would remain to safeguard civilian 
security in the troubled city of Bunia, official Radio Uganda reported. 
Ugandan army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza told the radio the battalions 
would stay in Bunia pending the arrival of the UN peacekeeping mission. The 
Ugandan government-owned New Vision newspaper reported that a total of 
1,138 troops had returned from Congo.   (IRIN, Kenya, 4 September, 2002)

* Zambia. Spending cuts  -  Zambia has angered unions by suspending food 
and travel expenses paid to some government staff. The spending cuts are in 
response to criticism from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). IMF 
officials raised concerns about a gap in the country's budget during a 
recent visit to the country. The payments to low and middle-ranking civil 
servants will stop for a period of three months from the beginning of 
September. But unions have voiced their strong opposition to the move. In 
July, President Levy Mwanawasa expressed concern over "lavish 
spending".   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 29 August 2002)

* Zambie. Levée de l'immunité de Chiluba  -  Le 30 août, un tribunal 
zambien a autorisé la levée de l'immunité de l'ancien président Frederick 
Chiluba, afin qu'il puisse être poursuivi pour corruption. Chiluba est 
accusé de corruption et de vol des deniers de l'Etat, à hauteur de 
plusieurs millions de dollars, lors de la période où il était au pouvoir 
(1991-2001). Les avocats de Chiluba ont immédiatement annoncé qu'ils 
feraient appel à cette décision devant la Cour suprême.   (Le Figaro, 
France, 31 août 2002)

* Zambia. Zambia refuses GM "poison"  -  Zambia's president has refused to 
overturn his ban on genetically modified (GM) food aid despite the food 
crisis which is threatening up to 2.4 million people. Levy Mwanawasa said 
he would not allow Zambians to eat "poison". Up to 13 million people face 
famine across southern Africa, aid agencies have warned. But much of the 
food aid delivered so far has been GM maize from the United States. 
Zimbabwe has also banned GM aid in case it contaminates local crops. A deal 
was done with Zimbabwe, whereby GM food was milled before being 
distributed, so that it could not be planted. Similar arrangements have 
placated fears over GM food aid in Malawi and Mozambique.   (ANB-BIA, 
Brussels, 3 September 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Radio building blown up  -  A building housing an independent 
radio station in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, has been destroyed in an 
explosion. The building's roof caved in after the blast. Staff at the Voice 
of the People station said they suspected that the building had been bombed 
-- there has been no confirmation of this from the police. The incident 
occurs against a background of government action to control the independent 
media and criticisms by ministers that the media is conducting a campaign 
against the government. Journalists in Zimbabwe accuse the government of 
trying to muzzle the media. The Reuters news agency reported that a bomb 
had caused the blast. It says that two armed men confronted the security 
guard on duty at the privately-run radio station shortly after midnight and 
told him to leave. The agency says Takura Zhangasha, an advocate with the 
Media Institute of Southern Africa told them that the men "then hurled an 
explosive device into the one-storey building". The French agency, AFP, 
also reported that a bomb exploded early on the morning of 29 August at the 
Voice of the People offices. New media laws introduced in Zimbabwe in March 
restricted the activities of private radio stations. The Voice of the 
People recorded radio material which was sent to the Netherlands from where 
it was broadcast on short-wave to avoid breaking the media 
curbs.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 29 August 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Mugabe se défend à Johannesburg  -  Le président zimbabwéen 
Robert Mugabe, de plus en plus contesté pour sa réforme agraire et ses 
atteintes aux droits de l'homme, a profité du Sommet de la Terre à 
Johannesburg pour justifier sa politique au nom du développement durable. 
Son discours a été applaudi par de nombreux délégués de pays du Sud. "Nous, 
au Zimbabwe, comprenons trop bien que le développement durable n'est pas 
possible sans réforme agraire", a-t-il affirmé. Les violences contre les 
fermiers et leurs ouvriers noirs ont fortement perturbé la production et 
contribué à l'aggravation de la situation économique du Zimbabwe, où la 
moitié de la population est menacée de famine dans les mois à venir. Le 
Premier ministre britannique, Tony Blair, a vivement réagi, dénonçant "ces 
foutaises sur le néocolonialisme" qui servent "à camoufler un régime 
corrompu et désastreux".   (Libération, France, 4 septembre 2002)

* Zimbabwe. "We must help Zimbabwe's hungry"  -  Clare Short, the UK's 
minister for international development, on 4 September appealed to the 
donor community not to let misgivings about President Robert Mugabe's 
regime blunt the generosity of food relief efforts for Zimbabwe. Only 23 
per cent of the 450,000 tonnes of food aid needed in the country have so 
far been pledged by international donors, and Ms Short's call followed a 
sharp divergence of views this week between Mr Mugabe and Tony Blair, UK 
prime minister, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 
Johannesburg. About 6m people face severe food shortages in Zimbabwe as a 
result of a drought. But a controversial land reform scheme to resettle 
landless blacks on white-owned land, which has disrupted farming, has 
intensified the threat of widespread starvation. A dispute over genetically 
modified (GM) food aid from the US has meanwhile left maize stranded in the 
region's ports. "We can't allow the people of Zimbabwe to starve because 
the government is misbehaving," said Ms Short.   (Financial Times, UK, 5 
September 2002)

* Zimbabawe/Mozambique. Zimbabwe's loss, Mozambique's gain  -  The chaos in 
Zimbabwe's farm sector is exacerbating the effects of drought in the 
region. The consequences are still unfolding but could be catastrophic. And 
the region is losing one of Africa's scarcest resources: a group of people 
who, whatever their shortcomings in terms of vision and tact, are 
technically qualified, experienced and dedicated. The reality, however, is 
that Mr Blair still has cards he could play. The problem is that he may not 
realise he holds them in his hand. For a start, in Joaquim Chissano, 
president of Mozambique, and Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's leader, Mr Blair 
has two important allies in southern Africa. He should draw on the respect 
and influence they command in the region. But he should not ask them to 
apply sanctions: Zimbabwe's tourism, once the leading foreign exchange 
earner, has dwindled to near insignificance, agriculture is in rapid 
decline, inflation is in three figures and the currency is grossly 
overvalued. These problems are pushing Zimbabwe ever closer to collapse and 
the two men fear that any additional measures could precipitate the crisis 
they want to avoid. Over the border in Mozambique, there is land available 
and, more importantly, the government has a pragmatism born of experience: 
it is still coming to terms with the economic effects of the exodus of its 
white minority in the tumultuous months that marked independence from 
Portugal in 1975. One result of that pragmatism is that the government has 
made land available for purchase, or long-term lease, to the commercial 
farmers of Zimbabwe. So far, no more than a handful of them have taken it 
up. Most of the 3,000 who are being evicted do not have the capital; what 
they have is tied up in Zimbabwe, in the near-worthless local currency. And 
even if they do have the capital, life is tough in Mozambique: there is 
only rudimentary infrastructure in much of the country. (Ironically, that 
was destroyed in the 1970s by white Rhodesia's armed forces and their local 
allies, but that is another story.)   (Financial Times, UK, 5 September 2002)


Weekly anb0905.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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