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Weekly anb01304.txt #7

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 30-01-2003      PART #4/7
* Djibouti. Camp Lemonier - Camp Lemonier has been quietly established over the past few months at the end of a dusty road on the outskirts of Djibouti city. Surrounded by coiled barbed wire fences, watchtowers and huge sand-filled defence bags, it provides a desolate home to about 900 US troops, including special forces, army and Marine detachments, airmen and military police. The camp is also the most visible sign of a much upgraded US military presence in a region it considers a haven for al-Qaeda and other terrorists. Djibouti, the tiny fly-blown former French colony at the tip of a turbulent East Africa, once described by the French poet Rimbaud as "this awful, filthy country", is perfectly placed for such an operation. Situated where the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden meet, it is only an hour or so in a fishing vessel or motor-powered dhow across the Bab al-Mandab strait from Yemen, bin Laden's ancestral home and the site of a bomb attack on the USS Cole in 2000 that killed 17 American sailors, and an attack last October on a French oil tanker. Djibouti also has borders with Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, the latter a failed state where the US suspects that al-Qaeda sympathizers planned the 1998 bombing of its embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and a suicide attack that killed 13 people last November at a hotel used by Israeli holidaymakers in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. Last week Britain and several other Western governments warned their citizens about a possible Bali-style terrorist attack in the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, a favourite tourist destination in the Indian Ocean a half-day's ferry ride from Mombasa. Much of the US base's activities are shrouded in secrecy. Humvee military vehicles race up to its entrance in clouds of dust and quickly disappear through raised barriers. Helicopters swoop in and out, ferrying supplies, equipment and personnel to warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden. Visitors, their approach monitored at a distance, are eyed suspiciously and rigorously searched before being allowed to enter. Inside, lines of air-conditioned military tents, many still unoccupied, and MASH-style hospital facilities, occupy areas of the camp's 36 hectares and groups of fatigue-clad soldiers busily go about their duties. (The Times, UK, 24 January 2003)
* Djibouti/USA. Accord de dérogation à la CPI - Washington poursuit sa campagne diplomatique pour se mettre à l'abri d'éventuelles poursuites devant la Cour pénale internationale (CPI). Le 24 janvier, la Maison Blanche a signé avec le gouvernement de Djibouti un accord accordant l'immunité aux ressortissants américains susceptibles d'être jugés par la CPI pour crimes de guerre ou contre l'humanité. Djibouti, qui accueille depuis quelques mois un contingent américain sur son territoire dans le cadre de la lutte internationale contre le terrorisme, est le 18ème pays à signer un tel accord bilatéral avec les Etats-Unis. (Misna, Italie, 25 janvier 2003)
* Djibouti. Nomadic trade under threat - A nomadic salt trade that has been a way of life for centuries is being threatened by the fortunes of war and modern day industry. To the occasional tourist visiting the baking salt pans in the northeast African country of Djibouti, the efforts of a lone figure kneeling in the hot sun scraping salt crystals from the ground with his bare hands may look more like a test of physical and mental endurance than a way to make a living. Hours pass as he toils under the African sun, scooping cup after cup of the crumbling powder into sacks to load onto his two camels for the arduous trek to market. But for the nomads of Djibouti, it is a way of life. "It's my inheritance, my father did it, my son will do the same thing," said Ahmed Tour, 30, pausing from his toil on the plain. "I make whatever profits I can, just so I can avoid dying of hunger." A stone's throw from Tour's camels, metal squeals on metal as a mechanical digger flexes its giant claw, gobbling away at an estimated four billion tonnes of salt deposited by the lake. "I understand that it's hard for them, but they have to do it, there's no other way for them to make money," said the driver, Omar Abdi, 27. "We work for companies, that's why we're well paid." What began many years ago as a trade plied by nomads has been transformed into an industrial scale business, changing the face of Lac Assal and providing tiny Djibouti with one of its biggest export industries. Djibouti, an arid land of 640,000 people that depends on income from its strategic port, salt has become a growing export, alongside seafood from the Red Sea, providing hundreds of welcome jobs. "It's our crude oil," said Mohamed Ambassa, technical director of Selac (Salt), one of the biggest companies around the lake, 70 km west of the capital Djibouti. "We hope the salt industry can uplift the whole Djibouti economy." (CNN, USA, 28 January 2003)
* Egypt. Experience teaches Egypt to keep low profile - The Egyptian authorities took extraordinary measures earlier this week to counteract a demonstration by the Islamist-leaning Labour party outside the US embassy in Cairo. Fewer than 150 demonstrators turned up, but the mobilisation of an estimated 1,000 police indicates the extreme sensitivity with which the regime of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's president, views the prospect of war against Iraq. Cairo is solidly opposed to any military action and is refusing to take part. But Egypt, which likes to portray itself as the leader of the Arab world, has also chosen to adopt a lower profile in this latest confrontation despite evident fears about the effects of any war on domestic public opinion. Hence today's meeting of foreign ministers from five of Iraq's neighbours, plus Egypt, is taking place in Istanbul rather than Cairo. The ministers, whose governments share deep concern about the prospect of war, will try to avert an US-led military attack on Baghdad. (...) It seems that Mr Mubarak, with one eye on anti- US Egyptian opinion and another on Washington, is resigned to leaving the diplomacy, such as it is, to Turkey and Saudi Arabia. It is Riyadh that has been floating the idea of regime change in Iraq and of exile for Mr Hussein and his entourage. Egypt is having little to do with the proposal. (Financial Times, UK, 23 January 2003)
* Egypt. State brutality - By day, Lazoghly Square, Cairo, is a fume-filled circus of honking taxis and frustrated drivers. By night, the heavily guarded entrance to the ministry of the interior is one of the most feared addresses in Egypt. Through a black marble arch lies the headquarters of the state security investigation unit (SSI) where political dissidents and Islamists rounded up in pre-dawn raids are interrogated. Detainees, according to innumerable accounts, are routinely tortured. Punishments reportedly involve prisoners being beaten, suspended over the edge of doors by arms tied behind their backs, subjected to cigarette burns and electric shocks, sexually harassed, deprived of sleep and food, and forced to watch relatives being tortured. In some cases heavy weights are put on inmates' legs or detainees are subjected to extreme cold. "When they come to us after being released they are in post-traumatic stress," says Dr Suzan Fayad, a psychiatrist, who works with Nadeem, an Egyptian organisation which rehabilitates victims of violence. Last November, Egypt was again condemned by the UN's influential committee against torture in Geneva. The committee concluded there was "widespread evidence of torture and ill-treatment in administrative premises" under the control of the SSI. Such denunciations are not new, but after September 11 there is a fresh sense of urgency, because human rights activists are beginning to wonder whether prisons and detention centres such as Lazoghly Square have played a role in transforming Islamist groups into violent extremist organisations such as al-Qaida. (...) Hafiz Abu Sa'eda, the head of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights believes the main reason that another Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, became more extreme was the torture inflicted on its members. (The Guardian, UK, 24 January 2003)
* Egypt. War fears prompt Egypt to float its currency - On 29 January, Egypt moved dramatically to pre-empt the likely disastrous impact of a war against Iraq on its stumbling economy by freeing its currency, the Egyptian pound, to free-float against the dollar. Following an announcement on 28 January by Atef Obaid, the prime minister, of a shift from a fixed peg to a market determined rate, the Egyptian pound promptly depreciated on Wednesday by 16 per cent to trade at $1=5.40 pounds -- slightly below the previous black market rate for the dollar. Analysts in Cairo were taken aback by the timing of Mr Obaid's announcement. A further depreciation had been widely expected ahead of what is viewed in Cairo as probable war in the Gulf -- but not the free-float. The shift was nonetheless widely welcomed. "They (the authorities) wanted to make sure that, if there is a war, the market will determine the effects and not have a parallel rate that is detrimental to the inflows of investment and capital flows. I think it is a very positive move," Hassan Heikal of the local investment bank EFG-Hermes said on 29 January. Egypt has had a decidedly chequered history when it comes to exchange rate management. Formally the pound has lost 36 per cent of its value against the dollar since the autumn of 2000 in a series of devaluations widely viewed as botched. On each occasion the Egyptian government has shied away from using its own central bank reserves, which now stand at just under $14bn, to ease liquidity and maintain supply of hard currency in the market. Instead it has relied on rationing of dollars and maintaining a de facto peg. (Financial Times, UK, 30 January 2003)
* Eritrea. High grade gold discovered - A Canadian mining company has announced the discovery of new high grade gold and base metals at Bisha, some 150 km west of the Eritrean capital Asmara. Nevsun Resources Ltd, which owns 90 percent of the Bisha property, said the discovery was made after an initial phase of exploration drilling, totalling 804 metres in six holes. Prior work, carried out in 1998 and 1999, had defined a significant area of anomalous copper, lead and zinc, as well as the gold. "Similar base metal deposits occur in Eritrea at Dubarwa and Adi Nefas, located near the capital city of Asmara," Nevsun said in a news release issued on 22 January. It noted that the Bisha exploration property covers 49 sq km and has "excellent port facilities on the Red Sea". Nevsun, which describes itself as an Africa-focused mine development and exploration company, has two key projects in Mali and Ghana. "Management believes that the new high-grade discovery at the Bisha property in Eritrea complements Nevsun's advanced Tabakoto and Segala Projects in Mali, West Africa, as they provide for regional projects and corporate growth," the news release said. (IRIN, Kenya, 23 January 2003)
* Erythrée. Menace de famine - Plus des deux tiers de la population érythréenne, soit 2,3 millions de personnes, sont menacés par la famine et la sécheresse, a annoncé le 29 janvier à Genève la ministre érythréenne de l'Emploi, de l'Eau et de l'Environnement. Selon le Programme alimentaire mondial (PAM), les stocks de nourriture dans le pays seront épuisés dans deux mois. (La Croix, France, 30 janvier 2003)
* Eritrea/Ethiopia. Border ruling favours Eritrea - Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that a crucial boundary ruling last year rejected many of Ethiopia's claims to territory after its war with Eritrea. Both countries claimed to have been awarded the symbolic village of Badme where their border war flared up in 1998, after a ruling issued by an international Boundary Commission in April 2002. In its 2003 World Report, HRW says that "the report [by the Boundary Commission] generally rejects Ethiopia's claims including (without mentioning it by name) the claim to the village of Badme where the war had started". But, according to diplomatic sources, Ethiopia is currently preparing a comprehensive legal challenge to the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission's (EEBC) ruling. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 24 January 2003)
* Ethiopia. State of the art airport terminal opens - One of Africa's largest airport passenger terminals opened in Addis Ababa this week ahead of a key summit by the continent's political leaders. The state of the art international terminal is expected to be able to process some 3,000 passengers an hour. The opening comes just two weeks before dozens of African leaders fly into Addis Ababa for a summit hosted by the African Union (AU). Plans for a new terminal and runway were launched six years ago. The new runway can also accommodate the largest planes, like Boeing 747s, which could boost the numbers of tourists flying into Ethiopia. The three-story building also houses a high tech security and baggage handling system built on more than 43,000 square metres of land. The terminal also contains banks and duty free shops. The new terminal at Bole International Airport is one of a number of airport terminal constructions that have been underway in Ethiopia. New terminals have been constructed in Gondar, Lalibela and an international airport in Mekelle, the capital of Tigray region in the north of Ethiopia. (IRIN, Kenya, 22 January 2003) 

Weekly anb0130.txt - #4/7