Weekly anb0430_03.txt #5

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 30-04-2003      PART #3/5

* Ghana. Curfew ordered in Tamale  -  24 April: A dusk-to-dawn curfew has 
been imposed on the Dagbon traditional area of Tamale in northern Ghana. 
Four people have died there during two days of pitched battles between 
government and opposition supporters. Several houses belonging to 
supporters of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) were vandalised and 
party billboards and flags were also destroyed. A number of motorbikes and 
bicycles were burned. Several people including a soldier were wounded. More 
than 100 people have been arrested by joint operations between the military 
and police which are continuing. There has been simmering tension in the 
region since the killing of the Dagbon king last year. The disturbances 
appear to have flared up again this week following the lifting and then 
re-imposition of the state of emergency which began after the king's death. 
On 24 April, armed soldiers cordoned off the Tamale abattoir as members of 
the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), who had taken part took 
part in the violence, gathered to take their meat to market. Some were 
arrested, beaten up and made to remove their shirts. They were forced to 
lie on their backs and face the sun with eyes open in temperatures of about 
35C. The security forces, with reinforcements from other parts of the 
country, have now been able to bring the situation under control. Some 
semblance of calm has slowly returned to the municipality with armed 
soldiers and police patrolling the town. The banks and some shops have 
re-opened. The northern regional security committee met the leadership of 
all political parties in Tamale on 23 April to try to find a solution to 
the disturbances. They all condemned the violence and political leaders 
went to the two local radio stations in Tamale to appeal for 
calm.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 24 April 2003)

* Ghana. Couvre-feu dans le nord  -  Un couvre-feu, valable du coucher au 
lever du soleil, a été imposé dans la région de Dagbon, nord du Ghana, 
suite aux affrontements survenus à Tamale, la capitale régionale. Le 22 
avril, des violences entre jeunes du Nouveau parti patriotique (NPP) et du 
Congrès national démocratique (NDC) y ont fait un mort, un jeune homme de 
18 ans. La police a dit avoir arrêté 88 personnes soupçonnées d'être 
impliquées dans les violences, au cours desquelles plusieurs maisons ont 
été incendiées. Les activités commerciales à Tamale sont presque 
paralysées.   (Misna, Italie, 24 avril 2003)

* Ghana. Jail sentences for rice fraud  -  29 April: Two former Ghanaian 
ministers and a senior civil servant have been sent to prison for their 
part in a failed scheme to set up a rice plantation. Former Finance 
Minister Kwame Peprah was sentenced to a total of four years in prison, 
while former Agriculture Minister Ibrahim Adam and a former finance 
ministry official, George Sikpah-Yankee, got two years each. Two other 
officials were cleared. All three Ghanaians had pleaded not guilty of 
"causing financial loss to the state".   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 29 April 2003)

* Guinea-Bissau. Changing a capital city  -  23 April: President Kumba Yala 
of Guinea-Bissau has said he is changing the country's capital from Bissau 
to a small town with only a few thousand residents. He says the new capital 
will be Buba, about 200 kilometres south-east of Bissau. The change will 
become effective after the construction of a deep-water port in Buba and 
when a railway line linking it to Mali's capital, Bamako, is completed. 
President Yala says Bissau will remain the commercial capital of the former 
Portuguese colony. But opposition leaders have condemned the plan as a 
political gimmick. The proposal comes ahead of the twice-postponed 
legislative election now scheduled for 6 July. Francisco Fadul, leader of 
the United Party for Social Democracy of Guinea-Bissau, said the planned 
capital switch was an electoral ploy designed to distract attention from 
the country's economic problems.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 23 April 2003)

* Kenya. Increasing AIDS drugs availability  -  On 25 April, Kenya 
announced plans to sharply increase the availability of key anti-AIDS drugs 
by 2005 to try to curb the spread of the disease and ease pressure on 
crowded hospitals. Kenya has about 2.2 million people with HIV/AIDS but 
only 7,000 currently receive anti-retroviral drugs, an expensive, 
life-prolonging treatment. The government has asked the health ministry to 
raise that number to 40,000 by mid-2005, said Kenneth Chebet, director of 
the ministry's National AIDS and STDs Control Programme. "We went through a 
period of advocacy (of safe sex), but we have realized that hospital beds 
(with AIDS patients) are getting to 50 to 60 percent (of hospital 
capacity)," Chebet told a news conference. "So we are now looking at issues 
of treatment and access to therapy," he said, adding the treatment would be 
subsidized. With nearly half of Kenya's 30 million people living off less 
than a dollar a day, most patients cannot afford the drugs. "The lowest 
price of triple combination therapy we have in Kenya is costing about 3,000 
shillings ($40) per month," said Christa Cepuch, a pharmacist with the 
medical charity Medecins sans Frontières.   (CNN, USA, 25 April 2003)

* Kenya. Vers une nouvelle Constitution - Désaccord interreligieux  -  Le 
Kenya va se doter d'une nouvelle Constitution. Les 629 membres de la 
conférence nationale constitutionnelle doivent se réunir ce lundi 28 avril, 
pour préciser l'avant-projet de la loi fondamentale publié en septembre 
dernier par une commission à partir des propositions émises par les 
citoyens kényans. Les membres de la conférence, où siègent des délégués 
élus dans les districts du pays et des représentants des minorités et des 
Eglises, transmettront le texte au Parlement qui devra l'adopter avec une 
majorité des deux-tiers. Le président Kibaki avait promis de faire adopter 
une nouvelle Constitution et de démocratiser le pays. La Constitution 
actuelle a été rédigée juste avant l'indépendance en 1963, mais le texte a 
été plusieurs fois amendé pour créer un Etat fort, doté d'un président 
puissant. -- Les musulmans et les chrétiens qui jusqu'à présent avaient 
travaillé ensemble pour la révision de cette Constitution, sont en 
désaccord. Les chrétiens refusent qu'elle puisse accorder un système légal 
spécifique pour les musulmans, a indiqué l'agence catholique Cisa le 23 
avril. L'Eglise catholique rejette toutes les sections du projet ayant 
trait aux tribunaux islamiques. Certaines Eglises pentecôtistes et 
évangéliques vont plus loin et demandent que la nouvelle Constitution 
déclare le Kenya un Etat chrétien. Pour marquer leur désaccord, les 
musulmans se sont retirés, le 22 avril, de l'Ufungamano, organisation 
interreligieuse qui a conduit le processus de révision constitutionnelle et 
dont faisaient partie toutes les Eglises, les musulmans et les hindous, 
ainsi que les organisations civiques du pays.   (ANB-BIA, de sources 
diverses, 28 avril 2003)

* Kenya. Tackling the new Constitution  -  29 April: In Kenya, more than 
600 delegates are expected to begin debate on a draft constitutional 
document today. President Mwai Kibaki is expected to officially open the 
session in the capital, Nairobi. The debate, which will last for several 
weeks, finally kicks off after several legal attempts to scuttle a process 
which began early last year. The draft calls for radical changes on issues 
of governance and accountability, and is a reflection of the persistent 
clamour for change in the country. The document was drawn up by the 
Constitutional Review Commission under chairman Yash Pal Ghai after a 
consultation exercise involving members of the Kenyan public. The delegates 
include the 223 members of parliament and representatives from political 
parties, religious groups and members of the civil society. There has been 
a heated public debate on some of the contentious issues in the draft even 
before the conference kicks off. The creation of the post of a prime 
minister and the entrenchment of the Islamic Kadhi courts into the new 
constitution are some of the key issues likely to be debated intensively by 
delegates. The issue of putting a maximum age limit on presidential 
candidates has also created a storm, because its adoption would 
automatically rekindle a succession debate in the country. President Mwai 
Kibaki is 71 years old and he would be barred from seeking a second term if 
the clause were adopted. There has been intense lobbying among ruling party 
members of parliament and those from the Kanu opposition, especially on the 
issue of whether there should be an executive prime minister. The Christian 
and Muslim religious groups have also differed over whether the Islamic 
Kadhi courts should have their jurisdiction expanded. At the moment, the 
Kadhi courts deal with domestic issues such marriage and divorce.   (BBC 
News, UK, 29 April 2003)

* Kenya. Des milliards détournés  -  De gros pillards de l'ancienne 
administration du Kenya auraient mis en lieu sûr 160 milliards de shillings 
kényans (2,1 milliards de dollars) de fonds publics dans des banques 
étrangères, a révélé Kiratu Murungi, le ministre des Affaires 
constitutionnelles. Une réunion de cabinet sur la corruption a porté sur la 
nécessité de retrouver des comptes secrets appartenant à 10 milliardaires 
kényans. M. Murungi a assuré que le gouvernement ferait en sorte que tous 
ceux qui sont impliqués dans des affaires de corruption soient poursuivis, 
ajoutant que le président Kibaki a donné l'autorisation de poursuivre tout 
le monde, y compris les actuels ministres, s'ils sont impliqués dans des 
mauvaises pratiques financières.   (PANA, Sénégal, 29 avril 2003)

* Liberia. New rebel group approaches capital  -  A new rebel group, the 
Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) on 26 April attacked the 
strategic southeast coastal town of Greenville, provincial headquarters of 
Sinoe County. Several armed groups are reported to be operating in eastern 
Liberia and western Côte d'Ivoire: forces loyal to the Ivorian government; 
Ivorian rebels; forces opposed to Liberia's President Charles Taylor; armed 
groups which work for one or other of the belligerents or for themselves. 
MODEL comprises former supporters of the late President Samuel 
Doe.   (IRIN, Kenya, 28 April 2003)

* Libya. Libya says it will pay families of Lockerbie victims  -  Libya is 
willing to pay close to $3 billion to the families of victims of Pan Am 
Flight 103 after accepting "civil responsibility" for the 1988 explosion 
over Lockerbie, Scotland, its foreign minister said on 29 April. The payout 
was agreed to during negotiations last month between lawyers representing 
the families and Libya, and is conditional on the lifting of sanctions, 
Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam told The Associated Press. The family 
of each of the 270 victims will receive $10 million in three instalments, 
he said. After the first payment of $4 million to each family, UN sanctions 
on Libya would be lifted, he said. After the second $4 million payment, US 
sanctions would go, and after the final payment, Washington would remove 
Libya from its list of states that sponsor terrorism, he said in a 
telephone interview. In London, the British foreign office said it had 
received no confirmation from Libya about a final agreement on paying the 
Lockerbie victims. There was no immediate comment from Washington.   (CNN, 
USA, 29 April 2003)

* Libye. Lockerbie: responsabilité civile acceptée  -  Le 29 avril, le 
ministre libyen des Affaires étrangères, Abdel Rahmane Chalgham, a déclaré 
que son pays acceptait de prendre la responsabilité civile des actions de 
ses fonctionnaires dans l'affaire de Lockerbie. L'attentat perpétré le 21 
décembre 1988 au-dessus de la ville écossaise avait fait 270 morts. La 
justice écossaise a condamné un ancien agent secret libyen à la prison à 
vie. La Libye versera 10 millions de dollars aux familles de chacune des 
victimes.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 30 avril 2003)

* Madagascar. Ravalomanana à Paris  -  Le dimanche 27 avril, le président 
malgache Marc Ravalomanana est arrivé à Paris pour une visite de travail de 
quatre jours en France. Au cours de son séjour, il rencontrera les plus 
hautes personnalités françaises. Accompagné d'une délégation d'une 
quinzaine de personnes, parmi lesquelles de nombreux ministres, il 
s'adressera en outre aux investisseurs publics et privés français auxquels 
il exposera les potentialités économiques de Madagascar. La visite devrait 
permettre de parachever la normalisation des relations franco-malgaches. On 
rappelle que durant les démêlés politiques de 2002, la France avait d'abord 
pris fait et cause pour le président sortant Didier Ratsiraka, actuellement 
réfugié à Paris. Après avoir ensuite reconnu le président "auto-proclamé", 
Paris plaide aujourd'hui pour une reconnaissance du régime d'Antananarivo 
par l'Union africaine.   (D'après PANA, Sénégal, 27 avril 2003)

* Mali. Prêt de la BADEA  -  La Banque arabe pour le développement 
économique en Afrique (BADEA) vient d'octroyer un prêt de 2,4 millions de 
dollars au Mali pour le financement du projet de routes urbaines à Bamako. 
Le prêt est remboursable sur une période de 26 ans, avec un taux d'intérêt 
annuel de 2%. Le projet tend à résoudre les problèmes de transport dans la 
capitale malienne, et aura aussi des effets indirects sur les activités 
commerciales et sur l'environnement.   (PANA, Sénégal, 29 avril 2003)

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