Weekly anb10247.txt #7

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 24-10-2002      PART #7/7

* Uganda. "The Monitor" issues apology  -  18 October: In its first edition 
for a week, Uganda's leading independent newspaper, The Monitor, has 
apologised for running a story which angered the army but has refused to 
retract it. The government only agreed to lift the blockade on The 
Monitor's offices if it ran the apology. But the paper's managers argued 
that admitting the story was false would prejudice the case of three 
journalists, charged with publishing false news and publishing information 
prejudicial to national security and likely to assist the enemy in its 
operation. The paper was closed down on 11 October after publishing a 
story, claiming that an army helicopter had been shot down by rebels. In an 
editorial in its "Come-back issue", the Monitor said that police conduct 
had been "impeccable" throughout the six-day closure. Press freedom body 
Reporters without Borders and United States-based Human Rights Watch have 
condemned the Ugandan Government's closure of The Monitor, as a violation 
of press freedom. President Yoweri Museveni dismissed these accusations and 
said he had fought for press freedom. But he said that the freedom had been 
abused and "the police had gone to investigate the dangerous lies they were 
telling."   (BBC News, UK, 18 October 2002)

* Ouganda. Deux martyrs béatifiés  -  Le 20 octobre, le pape Jean-Paul II a 
béatifié deux jeunes Ougandais, laïcs, catéchistes et martyrs: Daudi Okelo 
et Jilro Irwa. Ils ont été tués en 1918 au nord de l'Ouganda, où ils 
s'étaient rendus lorsque l'évangélisation y commençait à peine. Agés 
respectivement de 12 et 16 ans, ils ont préféré la mort plutôt que de 
quitter la région et de renier leur devoir de catéchiste. "Ces deux 
courageux témoins sont désormais des modèles et des intercesseurs pour les 
catéchistes du monde entier", a souligné le pape. "Puisse l'exemple de ceux 
qui ont été béatifiés aujourd'hui nous fortifier tous dans le service des 
autres".   (D'après Zenith, Vatican, 20 octobre 2002)

* Uganda. Pope beatifies martyrs  -  20 October: Pope John Paul II has 
beatified two young Ugandan catechists, among the six people added to the 
swelling ranks of those on the path to possible sainthood. The Pope praised 
the six as role models for Catholics, saying their faith, humbleness and 
willingness to die for their religion was a source of strength. The two 
were brutally killed for the Faith on 18 October 1918. The beatification 
coincided with the Roman Catholic Church's celebration of World Missionary 
Day. The ceremony in St. Peter's Square included traditional African and 
Indian dancing and music. Among the six elevated on Sunday were Ugandan 
teenagers Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa, who worked as missionaries in 
northern Uganda and were killed in 1918. The pope said: "They are given to 
the entire Christian community as examples of holiness and virtue, and as 
models and intercessors for catechists throughout the world, especially in 
those places where catechists still suffer for their faith, sometimes 
facing social marginalisation and even personal danger".   (CNN, USA, 21 
October 2002)

* Uganda. Rebels massacre civilians  -  22 October: Details are emerging of 
the massacre of dozens of people in the north carried out by the rebel 
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). According to an Ugandan army spokesman, at 
least 34 people were killed when the rebels attacked the villages of Awolo 
and Latugitugi, in the Pader district. The Ugandan army says the villagers 
were either killed with machetes or clubs. MISNA sources have confirmed the 
massacre.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 22 October 2002)

* Ouganda. Massacres par la LRA  -  Le révérend Wilfred Kalama, 35 ans, 
pasteur de l'Eglise de l'Ouganda (de communion anglicane) a été tué dans la 
nuit du 16 au 17 octobre par des rebelles de l'Armée de résistance du 
Seigneur (LRA), dans la localité de Lalogi, à plus de 50 km à l'est de 
Gulu. Son frère et quatre autres personnes ont également été tués dans 
l'incursion. - Dans le district de Pader (nord), au moins 35 personnes ont 
été tuées avec des lances, matraques et machettes, lors de l'attaque de 
deux villages, Awalo et Latugitugi, par des présumés rebelles de la LRA , a 
déclaré un porte-parole de l'armée ougandaise. L'attaque a eu lieu mardi 22 
octobre à quelque 380 kilomètres au nord-est de Kampala. La LRA se bat 
depuis 1988 pour renverser le président Yoweri Museveni et instaurer un 
régime basé sur les dix commandements de la Bible. Elle dispose de bases 
arrière au Soudan voisin.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 18-23 octobre 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Farmers cross race divide  -  In the midst of all the stories 
of violent confrontation associated with Zimbabwe's land reform, some 
farmers -- black and white -- are making it work in Zhombe, 220 km west of 
the capital, Harare. White farmer Neville Coetzee agreed to give up 6,000 
ha of his 9,000 ha farm to new black settlers. Although he said it was hard 
to give up so much of the farm he had built, he is sure he did the right 
thing. "In this area, we're very fortunate. We've had dialogue which took 
place right at the beginning of the land issue," he said. "I can still be 
very viable with what I've got left. I'm very happy to stay in the country 
because I've still got a good life," he said. Mr Coetzee's new neighbour, 
Tichafa Chitate, is also pleased with the way things have gone. After a 
year on his new plot of land, his wheat crop is just as high as Mr 
Coetzee's. "There is a lot of money in farming... I'm expecting a profit of 
over a million Zimbabwe dollars. Somebody who says we cannot do as good as 
the white farmers does not know what he is talking about. Come on the 
ground and have a look. I worked as a customs officer for 21 years but I 
grew up farming," he said, adding that his father had always encouraged him 
to get some land and take up farming. Although Mr Chitate is luckier than 
most black farmers in that he had some money to invest in his new land, he 
still needs more equipment. He said banks had refused to give him a loan 
but at least the government had given them irrigation equipment.   (BBC 
News, UK, 17 October 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Food aid halted in Insiza District  -  18 October: The World 
Food Programme (WFP) has suspended food distribution in a district of 
Zimbabwe, alleging that supporters of President Robert Mugabe threatened 
their workers and seized donated grain. The United Nations agency say 
activists from Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party distributed the food from a centre 
in Insiza District in an unauthorised manner. The UN action came a day 
after a human rights research organisation, the International Crisis Group, 
warned that food supplies were being used as a political weapon against 
opposition supporters in Zimbabwe where half the population are facing 
starvation. The WFP said it would not tolerate the misuse of its resources 
for political ends and added that it was seeking urgent assurances from the 
Zimbabwean Government that such incidents would not happen again. It issued 
a statement saying: "Relief food distributions are not the place for any 
kind of political activity. WFP will only distribute its food on the basis 
of need without regard to partisan affiliation." Insiza -- about 560 
kilometres south-west of Harare -- has been wracked by political violence 
ahead of an upcoming by-election which is being contested by Zanu-PF and 
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The Zimbabwean 
Government has accused Britain's High Commissioner of trying to ensure that 
food aid only goes to opposition supporters. But the MDC said aid was being 
used against the opposition, with officials deliberately arranging 
distributions near MDC rallies to lure away starving voters who were then 
forced to chant ruling party slogans and surrender opposition party cards 
before being given food.   (BBC News, UK, 18 October 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Violation des droits de l'homme  -  Dans une lettre adressée au 
président sud-africain Thabo Mbeki à l'occasion du 16ème anniversaire de la 
Charte africaine des droits de l'homme et des peuples (21 octobre 1986), 
Amnesty International (AI), a exprimé sa préoccupation pour "la 
détérioration de la situation des droits de l'homme au Zimbabwe". Après 
avoir relevé en particulier la participation de l'Afrique du Sud à la 
troïka du Commonwealth, et son rôle à la présidence actuelle de l'Union 
africaine, AI invite les dirigeants africains à intensifier leurs efforts 
pour condamner plus fermement la répression et la violence perpétrées par 
le gouvernement au Zimbabwe. Par ailleurs, le leader du MDC (Mouvement pour 
le changement démocratique), Morgan Tsvangirai, a accusé le gouvernement 
d'avoir assassiné le député, Learnmore Jongwe dans le cadre d'un présumé 
complot destiné à réduire la force de l'opposition au Parlement et à 
permettre au président Mugabe de modifier la Constitution. Jongwe a été 
retrouvé mort le 22 octobre dans la cellule de la police où il était en 
détention provisoire, accusé d'avoir tué sa femme en juillet après une 
dispute conjugale.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 18-23 octobre 2002)

Weekly anb1024.txt - #7/7 - 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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