Weekly anb02135.txt #7

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 13-02-2003      PART #5/7

* Mali. Promoting holiness throughout Africa  -  "In Africa tormented by 
suffering and death because of war and violence, Africa plunged into total 
discouragement, in a world ever more hostile and indifferent to Christ and 
his Gospel, it is urgently necessary to announce the Good News of Jesus 
Christ." This was said by Archbishop Robert Sarah, Secretary of the 
Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, representing the Prefect 
Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, at the 15th plenary assembly of the 
French-speaking Bishops' Conferences of West Africa (CERAO), in Bamako, 
Mali, 3-9 February. The theme of the assembly was: "Planning and 
Programming Holiness". In his address, Archbishop Sarah encouraged the 
Bishops "not to give in to discouragement, and even less to pessimism which 
is contrary to the Christian experience of which you are 
guarantors."   (Fides, Vatican City, 8 February 2003)

* Mali. Pour un retour des immigrés  -  Le 7 février, le ministre français 
de l'Intérieur, Nicolas Sarkozy, a entamé une visite de trois jours au 
Mali, qui selon un communiqué officiel, devrait "renforcer les projets de 
co-développement engagés par la France dans le cadre d'une politique 
d'immigration positive". "Je voudrais essayer de créer un partenariat pour 
permettre un retour (au Mali) dans de bonnes conditions d'une partie des 
immigrés maliens présents en France", a déclaré M. Sarkozy. La communauté 
malienne est estimée en France à quelque 100.000 personnes, dont environ 
60.000 en situation irrégulière. Plus de 80% viennent de la région de 
Kayes, où la tradition autant que la nécessité pousse les jeunes à partir. 
Les transferts d'épargne des immigrés maliens sont estimés à près de 90 
millions d'euros, alors que l'aide publique au développement de la France 
au Mali s'est élevée à 54,8 millions d'euros en 2001. M. Sarkozy s'est 
notamment rendu dans la région de Kayes où, après avoir rencontré les élus 
locaux et la population, il a visité les chantiers engagés par des Maliens 
de retour de France, avec le soutien du gouvernement français. Il s'est 
engagé à porter à 7.000 euros (contre 3.400 auparavant) l'aide consentie à 
chaque immigré malien qui désire rentrer dans son pays. La France va 
également consentir un appui de 3 millions d'euros pour appuyer les projets 
de co-développement financés par le gouvernement français pour atténuer le 
flux de l'immigration.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 10 février 2003)

* Maroc/Algérie. Rapprochement  -  Le 6 février à Rabat, le chef de la 
diplomatie algérienne Abdelaziz Belkhadem a confirmé que le président 
algérien Bouteflika et le roi Mohammed VI devraient se rencontrer "très 
prochainement". Ni le lieu, ni la date n'ont été précisés, mais la 
rencontre pourrait avoir lieu vers le 15 février. Le ministre algérien a 
ajouté que la question du Sahara occidental y serait abordée "si les amis 
marocains l'évoquent". L'annonce de ce sommet survient au lendemain d'un 
entretien à Paris entre le président français et son homologue algérien, au 
cours duquel cette question a été évoquée. Cet interminable conflit, dans 
lequel Alger soutient le Front Polisario, mine les relations entre les deux 
pays.   (D'après Libération, France, 7 février 2003)

* Mozambique. Thousands starving  -  6 February: Tens of thousands of 
people face severe food shortages in drought-ravaged southern Mozambique 
and more deaths by starvation are reported in the north. Nine people 
starved to death in January in the remote northern province of Tete, where 
floods had driven thousands of people from their homes and hampered food 
relief efforts. The World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF also confirmed the 
deaths after an assessment trip, adding a 10th person had already died in 
November. According to the victims' families, the deaths were due to 
hunger, the agencies said. "On 29 January, three more deaths were reported 
in Chitete. This could not be verified yet," the agencies said in a joint 
statement. Chitete is in Tete province.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 6 February 2003)

* Mozambique. Mozambique poet a national hero  -  Mozambique's greatest 
poet, Jose Craveirinha, has been laid to rest at Maputo's heroes monument. 
The Mozambican cabinet declared 10 February a day of national mourning for 
Craveirinha's funeral. Craveirinha died of cardio-vascular problems at a 
South African clinic last week. He was the first Mozambican citizen who did 
not use a gun to fight for the country's independence, to be declared a 
national hero. Mozambique's greatest painter, Malangatana Valente Nguena, 
sang in memory of one of the country's great poets, Jose Craveirinha, as he 
was being buried at the Maputo monument for national heroes on 10 February. 
Craveirinha inspired many national and foreign citizens because --according 
to most of the messages read out on 10 February --of his works of art, his 
nationalism, his fight against illiteracy, his fight for the country's 
development and his passion for sports. In his message, Mozambican 
President Joaquim Chissano said it would be hard to fill the gap left by 
Craveirinha. "The gap left by Craveirinha will not be filled easily. All 
Mozambican families must join efforts to fill it. Through his pen, 
Craveirinha fought for Mozambique's independence from colonialism, against 
illiteracy and for the spread of Mozambican culture," Mr Chissano 
said.   (BBC News, UK, 10 February 2003)

* Niger. Interconnexion électrique  -  Les travaux d'interconnexion 
électrique de certaines localités du Niger à partir de l'énergie en 
provenance du Nigeria, viennent d'être lancés, rapporte le quotidien Le 
Sahel. D'un coût de 9,5 milliards de FCFA, dont 3 milliards sur fonds 
propres de la Société nigérienne d'électricité (Nigelec), le projet 
consiste dans la connexion de la région de Tahoua (nord) à Maradi (déjà 
connecté au Nigeria), et la construction d'une autre ligne d'interconnexion 
dans l'est du pays, reliant Damassak (Nigeria) à Chétimari (Niger). Le 
programme permettra à la compagnie nigérienne d'arrêter huit centrales 
diesel et de baisser le prix de production du kwh de 170 à 24 FCFA. Pour 
son énergie, le Niger est très dépendante de l'extérieur: en 1999, 84,71% 
de sa consommation électrique provenait du Nigeria. La Nigelec est une des 
13 sociétés et entreprises publiques que le gouvernement envisage de 
privatiser.   (D'après PANA, Sénégal, 11 février 2003)

* Nigeria. Arrests follow Lagos explosion  -  6 February: Eight people are 
arrested following the deadly explosion which ripped through Lagos' 
business district on 2 February. At least 33 were killed in the blast. The 
eight arrested include a bank employee.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 6 February 2003)

* Nigeria. Election fees illegal  -  6 February: A High Court in Nigeria 
has ruled that political parties do not have to pay fees to contest April's 
general elections. The judge accepted a suit filed on behalf of 24 smaller 
parties against the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec). The 
parties had argued that the fees, ordered by Inec last month, were an 
attempt to exclude smaller, poorer parties from the poll. Inec has said 
that it will abide by the court's ruling. President Olusegun Obasanjo is 
standing for re-election under the banner of the ruling People's Democratic 
Party (PDP), while ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari and former foreign 
affairs minister Ike Nwachukwu are presidential flagbearers respectively of 
the All Nigeria People's Party and National Democratic Party. The court 
ruled that the fee, which Inec had said was for "processing" purposes, was 
unconstitutional. "Going through the constitution and the 2002 electoral 
act, I fail to see where Inec was empowered to prescribe and demand such 
processing fees," Judge Binta Murtala-Nyako said in her ruling.   (ANB-BIA, 
Belgium, 6 February 2003)

* Nigeria. Public hearings on corruption  -  Nigeria's national assembly, 
long seen as one of the main centres of graft in a notoriously corrupt 
polity, is expected to begin within weeks public hearings on a document 
that will cause it great embarrassment. A 300-page annual report on 
government spending submitted last month by Vincent Azie, the country's 
auditor-general, reads like an extended charge sheet against parliament, 
the president's office, government ministries and the judiciary. The 
report, which covers the 2001 financial year, amounts to a rare and 
unusually detailed attempt to anatomise the kind of public-sector 
corruption that has enriched elites and deprived ordinary people of 
development in poor countries around the world. Coupled with news last 
month of investigations into a number of Nigeria's politically powerful 
state governors, the audit has raised cautious hopes that a country 
struggling to entrench civilian rule is facing up to one of its most 
serious problems. "It's a step down the road of government accountability," 
says one foreign diplomat in Nigeria. The auditor's report, extracts of 
which have been seen by the Financial Times, sketches a devastating outline 
of a system plagued by invented expenses, apparent attempts at 
influence-buying and the charging of private costs to the public purse. The 
section on parliament, which runs to more than a dozen pages, includes an 
attack on the decision to pay a member N3m ($23,400) to "defray burial 
expenses of his deceased wife". The unnamed man had initially asked for 
N5.5m. The report draws attention to a series of ethically questionable 
payments, including N5m by the protocol officer of the deputy Senate 
president on a "media round table" in December 2001 for journalists from 
the country's Muslim north. The expenses for the 500 attenders comprised 
N1m for accommodation, N1m for dinner, N2m for "gift items" and N1m for an 
"honorarium" of N2,000 per person.   (Financial Times, UK, 7 February 2003)

* Rwanda. Coffee farmers head upmarket  -  Rwanda has launched itself into 
the speciality coffee market to reclaim the revenues of what was once its 
main export earner. A combination of the record low coffee prices and the 
aftermath of the genocide in 1994 -- which claimed the lives of more than 
800,000 people -- have left the country's economy devastated. ""It is 
terrible because some smaller holders have abandoned the plantations 
because they are not sustainable," Rwanda's Commerce Minister Dr Alexandre 
Lyambabaje has said. "The prices they were receiving were reduced by half 
last year and are lower than what it costs to produce." Tea has now 
overtaken coffee as Rwanda's main export. The Abahuzamugambi co-operative 
is pioneering the project to produce speciality coffees -- which became 
popular in the US and Europe in the 1990s -- and to sell them through fair 
trade deals. Last year, Community Coffee of Baton Rouge in the US was its 
biggest customer and Union Coffee Roasters has now launched the 
co-operative's Maraba bourbon coffee variety in Britain. "For the small 
holder, when he produces a kilo of ordinary coffee he receives 28 US cents 
a kilo," Dr Lyambabaje said. "But once he produces specialty coffees he 
receives almost 80 cents." In 1990, Rwanda exported 45,000 tonnes of coffee 
a year, but now only ships only 17,000 tonnes. With competition growing 
from newcomers such as Vietnam, the market is becoming increasingly 
difficult.   (BBC News, UK, 10 February 2003)

* Rwanda. Elections reportées  -  Le référendum sur la nouvelle 
Constitution du Rwanda, initialement prévu pour début mars 2003, ne se 
tiendra pas avant fin mai, ce qui entraînera également le report des 
législatives et de la présidentielle qui étaient prévues pour début 
juillet, a-t-on appris le 12 février de sources proches de la Commission 
électorale nationale. La date précise pour le référendum reste à préciser 
par le Conseil du gouvernement. Ce report est essentiellement dû au retard 
pris par la promulgation du projet de la nouvelle Constitution. 
L'avant-projet n'a pas encore été adopté par le gouvernement, étape 
préalable avant sa transmission au Parlement pour examen et adoption avant 
sa promulgation par le chef de l'Etat. Les dispositions légales stipulent 
que les législatives et la présidentielle doivent avoir lieu dans les six 
mois suivant le référendum sur la nouvelle Constitution.   (PANA, Sénégal, 
13 février 2003)

* Sahara occidental. Prisonniers libérés  -  Le Front Polisario, qui 
réclame l'indépendance du Sahara occidental annexé par le Maroc, a décidé 
de libérer 100 prisonniers de guerre marocains, a rapporté l'agence de 
presse sahraouie SPS. Ces libérations portent à 1.100 le nombre de 
prisonniers marocains libérés par le Polisario depuis 1975.   (Le Soir, 
Belgique, 12 février 2003)

Weekly anb0213.txt - #5/7