Weekly anb12056.txt #6

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 05-12-2002      PART #6/6

* Afrique du Sud. Mouvements xénophobes  -  Le 29 novembre, le gouvernement 
a lancé une vaste opération de police à travers le pays, partie d'une 
enquête plus ample qui a pour objectif d'identifier et de neutraliser le 
réseau de mouvements d'extrême droite qui veulent déstabiliser le pays et 
renverser le gouvernement. 94 maisons et fermes ont été perquisitionnées et 
de nombreuses personnes arrêtées pour port illégal d'armes. Deux jours 
auparavant, une explosion a pratiquement détruit un pont sur la route qui 
relie la province du Cap oriental à celle de KwaZululand. Selon le 
gouvernement, cet énième acte de sabotage est lié aux explosions de bombes 
le 30 octobre à Soweto.   (D'après Misna, Italie, 30 novembre 2002)

* Afrique du Sud. Eclipse boudée  -  Une éclipse totale du soleil aura lieu 
le 4 décembre à 6h18 GMT. Elle durera 80 secondes et balaiera l'Afrique 
australe à 100% sur une bande d'une cinquantaine de kilomètres entre 
l'Afrique du Sud, le Mozambique et le Zimbabwe. En Afrique du Sud, les 
agences de voyages ont cependant noté de très nombreuses annulations de la 
part des visiteurs étrangers. Les agressions, ayant parfois fait des morts, 
intervenues ces dernières semaines contre des touristes dans la province de 
Mpumalanga, ainsi que les attaques terroristes en Indonésie et au Kenya, 
ont découragé les visiteurs étrangers.   (La Croix, France, 3 décembre 2002)

* Sudan. Rebels plan own currency  -  2 December: Sudan's southern rebels 
are planning to introduce their own currency, reports say, in the latest 
manoeuvring following recent peace talks. According to Uganda's state-owned 
New Vision newspaper, the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement has started 
putting up posters showing designs for the "New Sudan Pound", to supplant 
the Sudanese dinar. The new currency will go into circulation in January 
despite protests from the government in Khartoum, the paper says. But 
experts believe that the announcement may be a bargaining ploy -- and would 
be largely symbolic even if notes actually enter circulation.   (ANB-BIA, 
Belgium, 2 December 2002)

* Swaziland. High Court judges down tools  -  2 December: Swaziland's High 
Court judges embark on a work stoppage in protest against the palace's 
alleged refusal to submit to the rule of law. "The judges are asking what 
we are all asking, whether this is a country of laws? If so, respect for 
the law must be complete and absolute," lawyer Lucas Maziya says. Last 
week, six South African judges who made up the country's Court of Appeal, 
resigned en masse after Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini said the government 
would not recognise two court judgements that challenged King Mswati's 
III's right to rule by decree. Last week, the Court of Appeal ruled in 
favour of Maziya's clients, two criminal suspects accused of rape, who 
challenged a royal decree which denies bail to rape suspects. The appeal 
court ruled that Mswati III had no constitutional mandate to override 
parliament by issuing his own decrees. Dlamini also blocked the execution 
of another appeal court ruling, that Police Commissioner Edgar Hillary be 
arrested for contempt of court for ignoring a high court ruling that he 
permit the resettlement of political detainees evicted by Mswati from their 
ancestral lands when the king appointed his brother the new chief of their 
area. The appeal court judges resigned after the prime minister said their 
rulings had been influenced by external forces. 4 December: Amnesty 
International says that "the Swazi government's deliberate and flagrant 
disregard for the rule of law and its attempts to undermine the 
independence of the judiciary, jeopardize the long term protection of human 
rights in Swaziland. -- Swaziland's trade unions have announced a 
nationwide strike on 19-20 December in protest at government interference 
in the judicial system. The Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions and the 
Swaziland Federation of Labour said their action was a show of "mourning 
for the death of the judicial and executive systems in 
Swaziland."   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 4 December 2002)

* Chad. All set for oil production debut  -  29 November: Chad is on track 
to produce its first barrel of oil next year, according to the World Bank. 
Ali Khadr, the World Bank's Chad director, said oil would begin flowing 
from the country's southern Doba oilfield in July 2003. However, with 
transportation and shipping expected to take another three to four months, 
the first barrels of Chadian oil are not expected to reach international 
markets until November next year. The World Bank has partly financed the 
development of the Doba oilfield, and has also helped to pay for a pipeline 
designed to carry oil from landlocked Chad to the port of Kribi in 
neighbouring Cameroon. The project, backed mainly by US oil giants 
ExxonMobil and Chevron and Malaysia's Petronas, cost a total of 
$3.7bn.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 29 November 2002)

* Vatican. "Accueillir les immigrants"  -  Le 2 décembre, à l'occasion de 
la Journée mondiale du migrant et du réfugié, le pape Jean Paul II a appelé 
les catholiques à combattre le racisme, la xénophobie, le "nationalisme 
exacerbé" et le "terrible crime du commerce d'êtres humains", dans un 
message rappelant "le devoir chrétien d'accueillir quiconque frappe à notre 
porte par nécessité". De même, il a invité "les immigrés à reconnaître leur 
devoir d'honorer les pays qui les reçoivent et de respecter les lois, la 
culture et les traditions des peuples qui les ont accueillis". Le pape a 
aussi souligné que "les immigrés sans papiers, les réfugiés, les demandeurs 
d'asile, les personnes déplacées en raison de conflits violents et à l'état 
endémique dans de nombreuses parties du monde, et les victimes (en majorité 
des femmes et des enfants) du terrible crime du commerce d'êtres humains" 
étaient "les plus vulnérables" des étrangers et a souhaité l'élimination de 
"toutes les formes de discrimination, de rejet et de 
marginalisation".   (AP, 2 décembre 2002)

* Zimbabwe. "Mugabe to blame for region's woes"  -  The crisis in Zimbabwe 
is hurting the economies of the region, damaging trade relations and 
undermining efforts to reach closer integration, Pascal Lamy, the European 
Union trade commissioner, said at the weekend. "Southern African countries 
are paying a high price," Mr Lamy said at the end of a trip to southern 
Africa. "They know Zimbabwe is a mess, an absolute shambles. Their 
solidarity has cost them very dear. They have lost a lot of trade." Mr Lamy 
met ministers in all the Southern African Development Community countries, 
including the representative from Harare, to outline EU policy, boost trade 
co-operation talks and explain the benefits of trade liberalisation. Last 
week a meeting between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries 
had to be cancelled when the ACP representatives objected to the EU's 
exclusion of two Zimbabwean officials. The SADC has also criticised EU 
sanctions against Zimbabwe. But despite shows of unity, SADC is deeply 
divided over Zimbabwe. Botswana and Mozambique have been critical of 
President Robert Mugabe's policies, which they believe are undermining 
efforts at promoting good governance, developing their economies and 
attracting investment.   (Financial Times, UK, 2 December 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Successeur de Mugabe en 2006  -  Le 1er décembre, le parti au 
pouvoir au Zimbabwe, la ZANU-PF, a annoncé qu'il allait choisir un 
successeur au président Robert Mugabe en 2006, mettant fin aux spéculations 
sur un éventuel départ à la retraite du dirigeant de 78 ans. Les 
spéculations allaient bon train au Zimbabwe, en prévison d'une conférence 
de la ZANU-PF ce mois-ci, au cours de laquelle le chef de l'Etat devait 
désigner son successeur préféré et annoncer sa retraite. "La question de 
savoir qui va succéder au président Mugabe ne sera abordée que lors du 
Congrès du peuple qui va se tenir dans quatre ans", a déclaré le 
porte-parole du parti. M. Mugabe a été réélu en mars de cette année pour un 
autre mandat de six ans.   (PANA, Sénégal, 2 décembre 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Telecoms monopoly ended  -  4 December: The government has 
broken open its telecoms monopoly by granting a licence to a second fixed 
line telephone company, TeleAccess. "This comes as a great relief and gives 
us the opportunity to demonstrate our ability to offer services to 
subscribers," TeleAccess chief executive Daniel Shumba says. State-owned 
TelOne has previously been the only supplier of fixed-line services, but 
has been unable to keep up with demand. More than 1 million people are 
thought to be on TelOne's waiting list, with many people waiting for 
several months to be connected. Only 2-2.5% of Zimbabwe's population have a 
connection to a fixed line phone, and Mr Shumba said he hoped to raise this 
proportion significantly within two years.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 4 December 
2002)

Weekly anb1205.txt - #6/6 - THE END