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Weekly anb10102.txt #7

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 10-10-2002  PART #2/7
* Angola. Government wants dialogue over Cabinda - Separatist rebels in the oil-rich Cabinda enclave remained sceptical on 3 October about the government's recent comments that it was open to negotiations. Following a recent visit to the oil-rich province, Bornito de Sousa, the ruling MPLA member responsible for the enclave said that "the solution for the [conflict in the] territory will be through dialogue and not the use of violence. We hope the government is serious about dialogue. We want to see something concrete happening. We are still concerned about the build-up of soldiers in Cabinda and the continuing offensive against our people", Francoise Xavier Builo, a representative of the separatists FLEC-FAC faction in the Netherlands, said. Builo said that following the signing of the 4 April ceasefire between the government and UNITA, the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) had turned its attention to Cabinda. "Intimidation, day and night ground and aerial reconnaissance, incursions and attacks have become the norm in Cabinda following UNITA's surrender," Builo added. (IRIN, Kenya, 3 October 2002)
* Angola. UNITA camps to remain open - 7 October: A senior UN official says the Angolan government had agreed to keep "quartering areas" for some 300,000 fighters of the former rebel UNITA group and their families beyond an October 15 closure deadline. Quartering areas are camps where the ex-UNITA combatants and their families are residing after emerging from the bush after the end of Angola's 27-year civil war. They are awaiting reintegration into the army or civilian life. "I think there will not be an arbitrary deadline to shut the reception areas and move people out," UN Special Representative for Angola Ibrahim Gambari said. Gambari heads the Joint Commission set up to supervise implementation of peace agreements between the government and UNITA, which collapsed as a military force after the death of its veteran leader Jonas Savimbi in February. UNITA officials had feared the government could close the quartering areas next week -- before completing the process of rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-fighters and their families, a key part of the April ceasefire agreement. (CNN, USA, 7 October 2002)
* Bénin. L'Italie annule ses créances - Le gouvernement italien a renoncé au recouvrement de toutes ses créances, d'un montant de 1,738 milliard de FCFA, que lui devait le Bénin, a-t-on appris le 9 octobre à Cotonou. L'initiative s'inscrit dans le cadre du programme d'annulation de la dette à l'intention des pays pauvres très endettés (PPTE). Lors de la réunion, en octobre 2000, des créanciers du Bénin membres du Club de Paris, il avait été convenu que chaque créancier fixerait lui-même le niveau d'annulation qu'il accorderait. L'Italie, qui est un des promoteurs de l'initiative en faveur des PPTE, a décidé d'annuler à 100% les montants qui lui sont dus. (PANA, Sénégal, 9 octobre 2002)
* Burundi. Army arrests over massacre - Two army officers have been arrested in Burundi in connection with the killing last month of 173 people in Gitega Province. President Pierre Buyoya said the officers -- the second-in-command of a battalion and a junior officer -- had been operating in the area at the time of the killings. "They are in the hands of the law," he told journalists. The Burundian army had earlier admitted that its soldiers were responsible for last month's killings, but tried to transfer responsibility to Hutu rebels; it said the army had warned civilians to leave because an attack was imminent, but the rebels had told them to stay put. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 4 October 2002)
* Burundi. Sommet sous-régional - Le lundi 7 octobre, un 17e sommet sous-régional sur le Burundi a réuni à Dar es-Salaam les chefs d'Etat de la région des Grands Lacs pour examiner le processus de paix. Etaient présents: les présidents de la Tanzanie, du Congo-RDC, du Burundi, de l'Afrique du Sud et de l'Ouganda. Le vice-président sud-africain, co-médiateur, a informé les chefs d'Etat des résultats des derniers pourparlers de paix en août et septembre, qui n'ont donné aucun résultat tangible. Toutefois, deux factions rebelles hutu, les ailes minoritaires du CNDD-FDD de Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye et du PALIPEHUTU-FNL d'Alain Mugabarabona, ont signé ce lundi un accord de cessez-le-feu avec le gouvernement de transition. Mais les deux principales factions, le CNDD-FDD de Peter Nkurunziza et le PALIPEHUTU-FNL d'Agathon Rwasa, ont refusé d'apposer leur signature sur le document. Le sommet a estimé que les parties en conflit qui n'approuveraient pas le cessez-le-feu devraient provoquer des entretiens directs afin de conclure un accord dans les 30 jours. Si aucun accord n'est conclu au bout de cette période, le sommet prendra "les mesures appropriées" contre les parties concernées. Malgré la faible portée de l'accord de lundi, les chefs d'Etat y ont vu un "pas encourageant". (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 7 octobre 2002)
* Burundi. Another summit - 7 October: Another African sub-regional summit, the 17th of its kind devoted to the crisis in Burundi opens today in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with only the 26 August peace agreement signed in Arusha as the tangible result so far. A cease-fire has eluded the Burundi government and the various Hutu armed groups who have been fighting since late 1993 after the assassination of the democratically elected President, Melchior Ndadaye. Fighting has intensified despite the official installation 1 November 2001 of a transitional government drawing legitimacy from the Arusha peace agreements. A transitional parliament and senate are the other state institutions that have been created under the same accord. During today's summit in Dar es Salaam, sub-regional mediators are once again expected to exert pressure on the warring Burundian parties to reach a cease-fire. Attending the summit are Presidents Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Joseph Kabila of Congo RDC, Pierre Buyoya of Burundi, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda who chairs the Great Lakes Peace Initiative on Burundi. The facilitator of the Burundi peace process, retired President Nelson Mandela and South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma who chairs the cease-fire negotiations between the Burundi government and rebels are also present. -- The smaller factions of both Hutu groups still fighting the transitional government sign a formal ceasefire. Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye's National Council for the Defence of Democracy-Force for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) and Alain Mugarabona's Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People-National Force for Freedom (PALIPEHUTU-FNL) formalise their agreements with the transitional government. Two groups yet to sign any agreement -- Pierre Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD and Agathon Rwasa's FNL are instructed to "continue negotiations" with a view to concluding the ceasefire agreement within 30 days. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 7 October 2002)
* Burundi. Retour de réfugiés - Le 9 octobre, plusieurs centaines de personnes sont arrivées dans la ville de Rugomba (province de Cibitoke), à quelques kilomètres de la frontière congolaise. Les réfugiés, des civils pour la plupart, viennent du Congo, de la zone de Luvungi, qui se trouve à mi-chemin entre Uvira et Bukavu. De violents combats ont eu lieu dans cette zone entre Maï-Maï et soldats du RCD-Goma, faisant de nombreux morts. Au Burundi, on craint que les tensions au Congo ne fassent rentrer dans le pays les rebelles qui s'étaient réfugiés dans ce pays voisin. (Misna, Italie, 9 octobre 2002)
* Burundi. Le "Centre Jeunes Kamenge" distingué - Le prix "Right Livelihood", considéré comme le Prix Nobel alternatif, a été attribué cette année à deux personnes et à deux organisations, dont le "Centre Jeunes Kamenge" (CJK) à Bujumbura. Dans son commentaire, Right Livelihood explique que le CJK a été honoré "pour son courage exemplaire, prouvant qu'après neuf ans de guerre civile meurtrière, des jeunes de différents groupes ethniques sont capables d'apprendre à vivre et à bâtir ensemble un avenir de paix et d'harmonie". Le CJK a été voulu par l'évêque Mgr Simon Ntamwana et réalisé par les missionnaires Xavériens. C'est un lieu de rencontre pour les jeunes de 16 à 30 ans de la ville de Bujumbura, en particulier des quartiers nord de la ville. A travers des activités culturelles, religieuses et sportives, de divertissement et d'apprentissage de métiers, les jeunes s'y rencontrent, apprennent à se connaître, à se respecter, à s'accepter et à se pardonner. Actuellement, il y a 20.000 inscrits, et entre 1.500 et 2.000 présences par jour. Les six quartiers du nord comptent environ 200.000 habitants: 40% de Tutsi, 40% de Hutu et 20% d'étrangers. Le centre veut faire comprendre à un pays en guerre civile que les diversités ne sont pas causes de division, mais sources d'espoir pour tous. (Le prix Right Livelihood, créé en 1980, est présenté chaque année au Parlement suédois et veut "honorer et soutenir ceux qui apportent des réponses concrètes et exemplaires aux défis les plus urgents du monde d'aujourd'hui"). (ANB-BIA, Bruxelles, 10 octobre 2002)
* Burundi. Centre Jeunes Kamenge receives award - The 2002 Right Livelihood Awards go to two organisations working for conflict resolution and healing -- the Centre Jeunes Kamenge (Burundi) and Kvinna till Kvinna (Sweden) -- and two individuals --human rights activist Martin Almada (Paraguay) and scientist Martin Green (Australia). The Centre Jeunes Kamenga (the Kamenge Young People's Centre) is honoured for "their exemplary and indomitable courage and compassion, which have proved that, even after nine years of murderous civil war, young people from different ethnic groups can learn to live and build a future together in peace and harmony". The Centre was founded in 1991 by three Italian Xaverian missionaries, as a place where the youth of the neighbourhoods could come and, through shared activity, learn to live together in friendship and mutual respect. The Awards are presented annually in the Swedish Parliament and are usually referred to as "Alternative Nobel Prizes". (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 10 October 2002)
* Burkina Faso. New lakes support rural fisheries - Burkina Faso is benefitting from a total of 2,100 dams in low-lying areas of the country to harvest rain run-off for use during the cropping season and provide fishery resources for local people. The dams have been built over the years since the devastating 1970-'73 Sahelian drought and famine under the Sustainable Fisheries Livelihood Programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization. "Participants [in the programme] learn to think in a more sophisticated, holistic way about all the community's livelihoods assets: skills, infrastructure, savings and so on," the FAO reported on 24 September. "The goal is to let people, in partnership with government, co-manage their own resources," it said. The dams being built should provide a permanent source of water for farmers to cultivate larger fields of grain and vegetables. Rural communities will also have a chance to catch tilapia, catfish and other fish stocked in the dams. (IRIN, Kenya, 3 October 2002)
* Cameroon/Nigeria. Court to rule on border dispute - The governments of Nigeria and Cameroon are braced for a United Nations court decision on Thursday on a border dispute that risks destabilising the surrounding oil-rich Gulf of Guinea region. The office of Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, said UN officials were working to ensure both sides respected a commitment to abide by the judgment. The court decision, which comes after military skirmishes between the two sides over the issue, will be watched for its impact on the security of a region attracting increasing US interest as a potential bulwark against problems with Middle East oil supplies. "We don't know the attitude of the Nigerian government or what the Cameroonians will do," said an executive from an oil multinational operating in Nigeria. The Hague-based International Court of Justice will rule on Cameroon's 1994 claim for ownership of a 1,000 sq km strip of swampy land known as the Bakassi Peninsula. The ruling could affect maritime access to Calabar, the nearest big Nigerian port to the peninsula and the site of an export processing zone. (Financial Times, UK, 10 October 2002)
* Central Afr. Rep. Ex-minister acquitted in coup trial - 7 October: The former defence minister of the Central African Republic, Jean-Jacques Demafouth, has been acquitted of charges of conspiracy against the regime at the time of the attempted coup last year. Thirty of Mr Demafouth's co-defendants, mostly former members of the armed forces, were handed down sentences ranging from one year in prison to 10 years' hard labour. Another 48 were cleared with Mr Demafouth because, the judge said, there was not enough evidence against them. A total of 680 people were put on trial in August, most of them in their absence, in connection with the attempted coup which claimed at least 59 lives. Only 69 of those accused were present when the trial opened. Many people who were called before the tribunal had fled the country, claiming that the trial would not to be fair. Most of the accused were from the same Yakoma tribe as the presumed coup leader, a former president, Andre Kolingba, whose whereabouts are not known. Tens of thousands of Yakoma fled the capital following the coup attempt, after extra-judicial killings of members of their tribe. Mr Kolingba was sentenced to death in August, along with 21 other coup plotters, including three of Kolingba's sons. About 600 other defendants were handed harsh sentences at the time. The court case was a result of a special inquiry committee into the coup established last year by the President Ange-Felix Patasse. The committee, which finished the investigation in December, proved controversial. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 7 October 2002)
* Centrafrique. Verdict modéré - Le 7 octobre, la cour criminelle de Bangui a rendu un verdict modéré dans le procès sur la tentative de coup d'Etat du 28 mai 2001, acquittant l'ancien ministre de la Défense Jean-Jacques Démafouth ainsi que 48 autres prévenus, et condamnant une trentaine d'autres accusés à des peines de un à dix ans. M. Démafouth a été acquitté "au bénéfice du doute". Le 26 août dernier, quelque 615 accusés, jugés par contumace, avaient été condamnés à des lourdes peines, dont 24 condamnations à mort. Mais un grand nombre d'entre eux sont en fuite, dont l'ex-président Kolingba, accusé d'être le véritable instigateur du coup d'Etat. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 8 octobre 2002) 

Weekly anb1010.txt - #2/7