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Weekly anb01236.txt #7

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 23-01-2003      PART #6/7
* Sénégal. Naufrages en série - Dans la nuit du jeudi au vendredi 18 janvier, une pirogue a chaviré à Mbour, dans la région de Thiès, provoquant la mort de six pêcheurs, alors que trois autres en ont réchappé. - Le vendredi matin, dans le port de Dakar, quatre personnes ont trouvé la mort et deux sont portées disparues à la suite du naufrage d'un bateau de pêche italien, vingt personnes ayant pu être sauvées. - Et le samedi, lors d'un nouveau naufrage d'un navire sénégalais dans les eaux mauritaniennes, huit personnes sont portées disparues et onze autres ont pu être sauvées. (D'après AFP, France, 18-19 janvier 2003)
* Senegal. Agreement with Switzerland signed - Less than two months after voters rejected an initiative that would have given Switzerland the most restrictive asylum laws in Europe, the Swiss government has signed an agreement aimed at curbing frivolous applications for political asylum. The agreement with Senegal, signed recently in Dakar, Senegal's capital, allows Switzerland to deport to Senegal any West African whose asylum application has been rejected and whose country of origin is not clear. Nearly all the 3,402 refugees from West Africa who arrived here in 2002 -- more than twice the 1,627 who came in 2000 -- have been denied political asylum, but fewer than 1 percent are thought to have given the authorities their true identities. The Swiss authorities believe most West Africans come to Switzerland for economic reasons: to work or to take advantage of the nation's generous welfare benefits. They say the agreement is a first step in combating human traffickers operating out of West Africa, by signalling that those with no legitimate reason for claiming asylum will not be allowed to stay. Switzerland, with a population of 7.3 million, has the largest number of asylum seekers, per capita, in the developed world, according to UN statistics, and the number is rising. (Int. Herald Tribune, USA, 20 January 2003)
* Sierra Leone. Former ruler flees - 18 January: Former military ruler, Johnny Paul Koroma, has gone into hiding following a police raid on his house in the west of the capital Freetown. Mr Koroma -- who led a junta which came to power briefly in 1997 -- has accused the Sierra Leonean Government of "trying to eliminate" him. Eighteen people were arrested today's raid, which the authorities say is part of an investigation into an attack on an army barracks in Freetown. Mr Koroma denies any involvement in the attack, but said he might give himself up to international peacekeeping troops. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 18 January 2002)
* Sierra Leone. Calme après une fusillade - Le lundi 20 janvier, le calme est revenu peu à peu dans la capitale Freetown, bien que de nombreuses boutiques soient restées fermées, suite à la fusillade survenue la semaine dernière dans une base militaire, que les autorités ont qualifiée de complot visant à déstabiliser le gouvernement. La police et d'autres agents de sécurité ont effectué un raid au domicile de Johnny Paul Koroma, l'ex-chef de la junte militaire, qui aurait pu être impliqué dans ce complot. 18 personnes ont été arrêtées. Koroma, qui est maintenant député au Parlement, est recherché par la police. (PANA, Sénégal, 21 janvier 2003)
* Somalia. 2003 -- make or break year for the TNG - In its review of Somalia for 2002, IRIN says that the high hopes inspired by the convening of the Eldoret peace conference have yet to be brought to fruition and the general mood is one of pessimism. Some of the important warlords have left Eldoret and those still there are bickering among themselves and accusing IGAD of mismanagement. The ceasefire agreement has already been violated in Puntland and Baidoa, and in the absence of any means of enforcing the ceasefire, there is little chance of it holding. The Mogadishu warlords and the Transitional National Government (TNG) have signed an agreement to open the Mogadishu seaport and airport and to cooperate in fighting crime in the city. If the agreement is implemented, this could herald peace for the city. For the TNG, 2003 will be a make-or-break year. If it expands its sphere of influence by entering into agreements with the Juba Valley Alliance and all or at least most of the Mogadishu faction leaders, then this will be the year when the TNG will have turned the corner and Somalis will be able to see light at the end of the tunnel. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 17 January 2003)
* Somalia. Somalis are smuggling children overseas - 17 January: A United Nations investigation has revealed that Somali parents are paying up to $10,000 to have their children smuggled abroad. Some 250 children a month are reported to be sent via well-established routes. Families send them away believing they will have a better future in the rich, Western countries. However, the investigation revealed many of the children suffer trauma, while some may face physical abuse, or become involved in prostitution. The report says many Somali parents see no future for their children at home. They smuggle them abroad, believing it to be an escape from poverty and conflict. Agents are paid to take children to countries such as Britain or Sweden. Once there, the children are often abandoned at police stations or airports and left to make their own way. Although immigration procedures were tightened up after the 11 September attacks in the United States, the smugglers have simply opened up new routes. They use fake passports and give the children new identities. One smuggler boasts that he has a 100% success rate. The report says many of the children suffer psychological trauma. They are vulnerable to exploitation. Some may become involved in prostitution or benefit fraud. Most parents send their children away because they want them to have a better education, but only a handful succeed. Some of the children -- regarded as failures -- end up back their homeland. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 17 January 2003)
* Somalie. Crimes contre des lycéens - Le 17 janvier, les Nations unies ont condamné une série de meurtres et d'enlèvements de lycéens commis en Somalie par des miliciens. Plusieurs lycéens ont été tués le 24 décembre 2002 et d'autres blessés par des hommes armés qui ont attaqué leur bus à Mogadiscio. "Nous exhortons les dirigeants somaliens à respecter les règles de protection de l'enfant", a déclaré Maxwel Gaylard, coordinateur humanitaire de l'Onu pour la Somalie. (Le Figaro, France, 18 janvier 2003)
* Somalia. Peace talks in chaos - The peace talks unfolding here aimed at ending Somalia's long civil war have turned as chaotic as the country itself. Warlords are trying to remove the mediator. Hotels are threatening to evict delegates over unpaid bills. The police were recently ordered to expel the many Somalis who arrived without invitations. The negotiations, now in their fourth month, were troubled from the start. Hundreds of extra delegates showed up in October, prompting a brisk sale in bogus credentials. There have been walkouts, shouting matches and a protest by an unpaid hotel during Ramadan that left delegates from the largely Muslim country who had been fasting all day unfed. "The tragedy of it all is that it's probably better positioned than any conference in the past to accomplish something," said one of the handful of Western diplomats tracking the negotiations. "I wouldn't say it's hopeless, although it certainly looks hopeless when you're there." Somalia looks just as troubled. It has no national government to speak of, a state of limbo that has existed for a dozen years. Instead, heavily armed warlords rule by brute force, a throwback to medieval times. Although most Somalis are desperate for an end to more than a decade of anarchy, they still associate more with clan than country. (On 20 January, Kenya's newly elected government appointed a new special envoy for the Somali peace talks. He is retired Ambassador Bethwel Kiplagat, to replace Elijah Mwangale). (Int. Herald Tribune, USA, 20 January 2003)
* Somalie. Nouveau négociateur - Elijah Mwangale, chef des négociateurs aux colloques de paix pour la Somalie en cours à Eldoret (Kenya), a été officiellement remplacé par Betrhuel Kiplagat, ex-ambassadeur de Nairobi à Londres. La nouvelle a été confirmée le 21 janvier. La gestion des négociations par Mwangale provoquait de plus en plus de mécontentements. Après être parvenus le 28 octobre dernier à un cessez-le-feu entre les différentes factions, les colloques étaient entrés dans une phase de blocage. Une grande partie des "Seigneurs de guerre" avait accusé Mwangale de mal conduire les travaux et avait abandonné ces derniers jours la table des négociations. (Misna, Italie, 21 janvier 2003)
* Afrique du Sud. Accords sur la main d'oeuvre étrangère - Le 17 janvier, le ministre sud-africain du Travail, M. Mdladlana, et son homologue mozambicain, M. Seven, ont signé un accord destiné à améliorer le bon fonctionnement du marché du travail, notamment grâce à la protection et la sécurité des travailleurs immigrés des deux pays. Cette réglementation devrait empêcher l'emploi illégal de Mozambicains en Afrique du Sud et leur exploitation par des employeurs sans scrupules, a indiqué M. Mdladlana. Actuellement, 72.000 Mozambicains travaillent légalement en Afrique du Sud, dont 12.000 dans les fermes, le reste dans les mines. L'accord signé avec le Mozambique intervient une semaine après la visite de Mdladlana au Zimbabwe, où il a fait des concessions pour "régulariser le statut" des Zimbabwéens qui sont entrés illégalement en Afrique du Sud pour chercher du travail dans les fermes situées dans la zone frontalière. Environ 10.000 Zimbabwéens travaillent actuellement comme ouvriers agricoles dans la province du Limpopo. (PANA, Sénégal, 17 janvier 2003)
* Afrique du Sud. Massacre dans un sauna - Le 20 janvier, au Cap, des inconnus armés ont mené une véritable descente militaire dans un sauna fréquenté par des homosexuels, tuant huit personnes et blessant grièvement deux autres. La police s'interroge sur l'implication du crime organisé dans ce massacre visant directement la communauté homosexuelle. (La Croix, France, 21 janvier 2003)
* South Africa. Assassins blamed for Cape killings - 21 January: Those who carried out the brutal murder of eight members of staff in a gay massage parlour in Cape Town on 20 January may belong to a Johannesburg gang brought in as hired guns. Police are understood to be investigating whether run-ins with drug dealers or gangs may have led to the attack, in which two other men were injured, the Cape Times reports. Police have appealed for help to catch the perpetrators and said they want to question four white men seen in a BMW. Ten men were shot in the head at close range on 21 January. One of the two survivors is in a critical condition. Some of the victims had their throats slit. The gang in question, the Fast Guns, is a powerful Johannesburg gang created 15 years ago, with strong links with another Cape Town gang. The Cape Times says that the Fast Guns have reportedly been recruited in the past to carry out "hits" in Cape Town, 1,600 km away, to throw local investigators off track. Police sources told the newspaper that investigations were centred on drugs, protection racket or possible business dealings gone wrong. (BBC News, UK, 21 January 2003)
* South Africa. AIDS hits population - The HIV/AIDS pandemic sweeping South Africa is forecast to reduce the country's potential population growth by 12m people over the next 12 years, a study by the Pretoria-based University of South Africa said on 20 January. The study estimated that without HIV/AIDS South Africa's population would have grown to 61m by 2015. But the effects of the disease would leave it with 49m. Life expectancy in the worst hit provinces, such as KwaZulu-Natal, would fall to 33 years in eight years. South Africa has a population of about 45m of which about 11 per cent have the disease. The country has one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates. About 25 per cent of adults are HIV positive. (Financial Times, UK, 21 January 2003)
* South Africa. Land reform progressing well - In a bid to prevent widespread land invasions South Africa has sped-up its land reform process, with the Land Claims Commission having validated 95 percent of claims submitted since 2001. News reports quoted Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza as saying that government was "trying to fast-track the land redistribution process" in order to meet President Thabo Mbeki's 2005 deadline for completion of the reform programme. Mbeki's deadline followed what Chief Land Claims Commissioner Wallace Mgoqi had termed "tremendous claimant and public pressure to speed up the process" in November last year. An extra R1.7-billion (about US $192 million) over the next three years had been specially allocated to the department of land affairs -- before the 2003/2004 budget -- as a demonstration by the government of "how serious it is about delivery in land restitution", he was quoted as saying. Land Affairs spokeswoman Nana Zenani confirmed reports that 35,294 of the 37,838 claims had so far been validated. (IRIN, Kenya, 21 January 2003)
* Afrique du Sud. Déficit démographique - La population de l'Afrique du Sud, actuellement de l'ordre de 43 millions, devrait connaître un déficit démographique de 12 millions de personnes d'ici 2015, en raison de la pandémie du VIH-sida, selon une étude conjointe de l'université de Pretoria et de l'Institut indépendant de recherche BMR. (La Libre Belgique, 22 janvier 2003) 

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