Weekly anb03064.txt #7

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 06-03-2003      PART #4/7

* Egypte. Verdict léger pour la tuerie d'Al-Kocheh  -  Le 27 février, la 
cour criminelle de Sohag, dans le sud de l'Egypte, a condamné deux 
personnes à des peines de quinze et trois ans de prison pour l'assassinat 
de 20 chrétiens et un musulman en 2000, et a acquitté les 93 autres 
accusés. Lors des troubles interconfessionnels d'Al-Kocheh, qui avaient 
éclaté en janvier 2000 à la suite d'un simple différend entre deux 
commerçants, la minorité copte (chrétiens) avait été prise pour cible 
pendant plusieurs jours par des émeutiers musulmans. Un premier verdict, en 
février 2001, avait provoqué un tollé chez les chrétiens qui le jugeaient 
trop clément. Il avait été annulé par la Cour de cassation.   (Libération, 
France, 28 février 2003)

* Egypt. Call for Coptic Christians' human rights  -  Rifaat Said, a member 
of the Egyptian Parliament from a small liberal party, has for years called 
for a restoration of constitutional rights, a more open electoral system 
and greater freedoms for the country's Coptic Christians. He spent 14 years 
in prison under Gamal Abdel Nasser for uttering the word "democracy." He 
now lives under armed guard, having criticized Islamic extremists. When 
President George W. Bush argues that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein could 
spread the seeds of democracy across the Arab world, Said scoffs, naming 
autocratic Arab countries the United States has long supported as strategic 
allies, including Egypt. "Why do they continue to support Saudi Arabia?" 
Said said in his office in the centre of Cairo. "Why do they support the 
prince of Qatar? Why did they support Saddam Hussein in the past? Why do 
they believe that democracy will create a paradise in Egypt?" Even those 
who might benefit most from democracy in Egypt -- people like Said or Essam 
Erian, whose political organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, is officially 
banned -- argued that the imposition of democracy by force in Iraq would be 
viewed as American repression, not liberation. "By destroying Iraq," said 
Erian, a pathologist who has spent six years in prison under Egypt's 
emergency laws, "you are opening the door not to democracy, but to 
hell."   (International Herald Tribune, USA, 1 March 2003)

* Egypte. Manifestation pro-irakienne  -  Le 27 février au Caire, plus de 
100.000 Egyptiens ont manifesté leur soutien à l'Irak et aux Palestiniens à 
l'appel d'un collectif regroupant les partis d'opposition légale et les 
syndicats officiels. Le rassemblement s'est tenu au stade du Caire avec la 
bénédiction des autorités, visant à calmer les esprits "en ouvrant 
légèrement une valve de décompression". Elle avait aussi pour objectif de 
démontrer à Washington le risque encouru par le régime du président 
Moubarak en cas de décision unilatérale américaine à déclencher les 
hostilités contre l'Irak.   (D'après Le Monde, France, 1er mars 2003)

* Egypt. Arab League meets in Egypt  -  28 February: Arab governments 
reject a plea by the US for them to press Saddam Hussein to go into exile. 
Colin Powell, US secretary of state, urges Arab rulers meeting in the 
Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh to issue a strong statement demanding 
that Iraq complies with UN disarmament requirements or suggest that it 
might be in Mr Hussein's best interest to step down to avoid a war. The 
hope that the Iraqi leader could be persuaded to go into exile hangs 
heavily over the meeting intended to forge a common Arab position against 
war on Iraq. Yet leaders can ill afford to tackle the subject in an 
official Arab League forum. As Ahmad Maher, the Egyptian foreign minister, 
says, the League has no business changing leaders. Naji Sabri, the Iraqi 
foreign minister, says it is President George W. Bush who should step down 
to avoid a war that the world opposed. 1 March: The United Arab Emirates 
make a dramatic intervention at the Arab summit on Iraq, suggesting 
publicly in a letter that Arabs adopt an initiative calling on the Iraqi 
leadership to step down. The letter was sent to the summit by the ailing 
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, president of a confederation of seven 
wealthy Gulf states. It forces the highly controversial issue of Saddam 
Hussein's exile onto the discussions between heads of states a day after 
Arab League officials insisted that it would not be included on the agenda. 
However, the proposal does not form part of the meeting's final declaration 
which "totally rejected any attack on Iraq". Most Arabic press hail the 
outcome of the Arab League Summit.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 1 March 2003)

* Egypt. Fire hits Alexandria library  -  2 March: A fire breaks out in 
Egypt's newly-opened Alexandria library, and 29 people are rushed to local 
hospitals suffering from smoke inhalation. The fire is blamed on a short 
circuit. The extent of damage at Bibliotheca Alexandrina has yet to be 
determined, but the fire appears to be restricted to fourth-floor 
administrative offices. Sixteen fire engines rushed to the scene and put 
out the blaze in about 45 minutes. Fifteen ambulances were seen outside the 
evacuated library.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 2 March 2003)

* Egypte. Incendie à la bibliothèque d'Alexandrie  -  Le 2 mars, un 
incendie s'est déclaré à la nouvelle bibliothèque d'Alexandrie, inaugurée 
en octobre dernier sur le site du célèbre joyau de l'Antiquité, disparu il 
y a 16 siècles. L'incendie, déclenché par un court-circuit, a été 
circonscrit au bout d'une heure. Au moins 35 personnes ont été intoxiquées 
par les émanations de la fumée, deux autres ont souffert de brûlures 
graves. Le système d'alarme a fonctionné et le bâtiment a été évacué avant 
que la fumée se répande à travers le système de climatisation. Le feu s'est 
déclenché au 4ème étage abritant les bureaux de l'administration. La 
section comprenant les livres et les documents historiques n'a pas été 
atteinte par le feu.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 3 mars 2003)

* Egypt. Egypt requests aid as currency slides  -  3 March: Egypt's prime 
minister Atef Obeid is to meet World Bank officials to ask for a $1.5bn 
loan to prop up the pound. The government floated the pound in January, a 
move which effectively devalued the pound, to increase its foreign currency 
reserves. But despite falling 20% in value since the float, Egypt is still 
experiencing shortages of foreign currencies. Economists expect some of the 
World Bank money would be used to add liquidity into the banking system and 
underwrite the pound. While the pound is officially trading at a rate of 
5.57 to $1, the black market exchange rate is about 6.75 pounds to $1, and 
has reportedly touched 7 to $1 recently. Egypt originally requested the 
loan after the tourism revenues slumped in the aftermath of the September 
11 attacks. Talks were postponed after the tourist industry and foreign 
currency revenues picked up again. Any World Bank loan will be tied to 
further free-market reforms.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 3 March 2003)

* Egypt. Egyptian rights group yearns for break with emergency law  -  On 3 
March, a local human rights group lamented that "a whole generation of 
Egyptians has been brought up in an exceptional judicial environment that 
grants law-enforcement officials very broad and powers of arrest". 
Launching the body's 5th Annual Report on Detention and Detainees in Egypt 
Mohamed Zarei, head of the Human Rights Centre for Assistance to Prisoners 
(HRCAP) said nothing justifies the renewal of the Emergency Law -- not even 
the war the US is about to wage against Iraq." He was reacting to the 
recent renewal in Parliament for another three years, of a 22-year old 
Emergency Law that restricts basic rights and gives large prerogatives to 
security forces to crackdown on dissent.   (PANA, Senegal, 3 March 2003)

* The Gambia. Foreigner tax imposed  -  25 February: The introduction of a 
new "foreigners tax" in The Gambia has led to many foreigners fleeing the 
country. Every foreigner resident in The Gambia now has to pay 1,000 dalasi 
($40) every year for an "Alien Certificate". Sources close to the 
government say the new tax is necessary because out of 1.5 million people 
living in The Gambia, about 700,000 are foreign nationals and their numbers 
are increasing. They also say the new tax will help the authorities improve 
social services for the entire population. One senior government official 
who backed the new tax said it is unfair to tax Gambians alone, while many 
expatriate workers are accumulating large sums of money at the expense of 
Gambian tax payers. The issue is so controversial that the cabinet is 
reportedly split over the tax. Since the introduction of this new alien tax 
many foreigners mostly from Guinea, Senegal and Sierra Leone have left the 
country.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 25 February 2003)

* Guinea. Presidency of the UN Security Council  -  1 March: The west 
African state of Guinea comes under an unfamiliar spotlight, today, as it 
assumes the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council. The 
former French colony is taking over the presidency for one month, the 
period that all members of the council serve. But by chance it will be a 
month in which crunch decisions could be taken on Iraq, and activities 
around the horseshoe-shaped table of the Security Council will be under 
unprecedented scrutiny.   ANB-BIA, Belgium, 1 March 2003)

* Kenya. Bank scandal spreads  -  27 February: The collapse of a bank with 
close links to the previous Kenyan regime is causing a widening political 
storm. Euro Bank, a small but ambitious Nairobi bank, was liquidated last 
week after admitting being insolvent. Now, the management of the bank have 
been detained by the police for questioning, and politicians are starting 
to point to government members and other officials who were involved in the 
scandal. The country's attorney general and the heads of the central bank 
and revenue authority have all been urged to resign, and members of 
parliament claim more allegations will come out over the next few weeks. 
President Mwai Kibaki, who led the opposition National Rainbow Coalition to 
power in December, has promised to rid Kenya of corruption.   (ANB-BIA, 
Belgium, 27 February 2003)

* Kenya. Flower firms blossom  -  Kenya's horticultural industry is 
attracting major foreign investment again following the election of a new 
government, a leading export body has said. "We're looking at between $200m 
to $300m coming in the next eight to 10 months," said Hasmit Shah, chairman 
of the Association of Fresh Produce Exporters (AFPE). Growing fresh 
vegetables, fruit and flowers for export to European supermarkets is one of 
Kenya's biggest industries and a major earner of foreign exchange.   (BBC 
News, UK, 28 February 2003)

* Kenya/Tanzanie/USA. Nouvelles ambassades  -  Les Etats-Unis ont ouvert 
leur nouvelle ambassade à Nairobi, au Kenya. Ils font de même, le 4 mars, 
en Tanzanie. Le 7 août 1998, les deux bâtiments avaient été détruits dans 
un attentat attribué à Al-Qaïda. 229 personnes y avaient perdu la 
vie.   (De Standaard, Belgique, 4 mars 2003)

* Kenya. Inheriting wives  -  When a Kenyan woman loses her husband, she 
also frequently loses her home, her land, her cows and all her other 
household property. What the widow gains, whether she likes it or not, is a 
new husband, frequently her brother-in-law. Human Rights Watch issued a 
report on 4 March condemning the traditional African practice of wife 
inheritance, in which a widow is transferred to a male relative of her 
deceased husband. Typically the new husband takes control of the property 
with or without the consent of the widow. The custom, common throughout 
Kenya, extends far and wide in sub-Saharan Africa. Traditionally, elders 
say, the practice ensured that the extended family would take care of 
widows. But critics maintain that it strips women of their property rights 
and exposes them to sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS. "Wife 
inheritance is often portrayed as an act of generosity in that the widow 
will have a man to "look after" her and confer the legitimacy of being in a 
male-headed household," the report said. "But men clearly benefit not just 
from their inherited wife's labour and childbearing potential but also from 
the property the deceased husband leaves behind." The report called on the 
government of President Mwai Kibaki, which has pledged better treatment of 
women, to overhaul the legal system so that women have the same rights to 
property as men. The report recommends that judges and police officers 
undergo training on the issue and that a legal aid system be set up to 
assist destitute victims.   (New York Times, USA, 5 March 2003)

* Kenya. Mombasa's port is bursting at the seams  -  Kenya's principal port 
of Mombasa is falling behind its competitors because outdated equipment is 
causing delays to shipments, the port's managing director has told the BBC. 
The Port of Mombasa needs to invest about $28.8m to modernise its container 
terminal, Brown Ondego, managing director of Kenya Ports Authority has told 
the BBC. The congestion means that goods arriving in Durban, in South 
Africa, may reach destinations in Kenya's neighbouring state of Uganda 
faster than those shipped through Mombasa, he said. "That is an 
embarrassment,"said Mr Ondego. "The only competition that we should be 
talking about truly is Dar es Salaam," in neighbouring Tanzania, he added. 
Mombasa's container terminal is doing brisk business but is being stretched 
beyond its capacity. It is handling about 300,000 containers a year, though 
it only has capacity for 250,000. Dar-es-Salaam, which is also on the 
Indian Ocean, can cater for 230,000 containers annually. Both ports are 
dwarfed by Durban, which handles more than one million containers a year. 
The port of Mombasa plans to find the bulk of the $28.8m it needs for new 
equipment from its profits. However, Mr Ondego said he was "hoping that we 
will be allowed to do some borrowing" to speed the process.   (BBC News, 
UK, 5 March 2003)

Weekly anb0306.txt - 4/7