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Weekly anb0626_1.txt #6

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 26-06-2003      PART #1/6
* Africa. Hunt for stolen Boeing - 19 June: The United States says it is working with African governments to try to find a stolen passenger jet that it fears may end up being used by terrorists. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer admitted the US had few leads over who was behind the theft of the plane, from an airport in Angola last month, but was keen to gather any information available. "We don't have any reliable assessments about what this portends, what it could be, who may be behind it. But it is an issue that is being worked on," he said. His comments follow a report in the Washington Post newspaper on 18 June that the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department had joined a continent wide hunt for the aircraft. The paper quoted American officials as saying that -- in the worst case scenario -- the plane could be used in an 11 September-style attack. Angolan state radio said shortly after its disappearance that the jet had been chartered by an Angolan airline but was grounded after a number of irregularities. The Boeing 727 took off from the Angolan capital on 25 May after being at the airport for 14 months. When it started taxiing down the runway, the radio control tower tried to make contact with the pilot, but there was no response and nothing has been seen of the plane since. Since then, US spy satellites have taken pictures of remote airstrips throughout Africa and US diplomats have been seeking the aircraft. Originally owned by American Airlines, when the 727 was the world's best selling passenger jet, the plane was subsequently leased and subleased by a number of people and companies. A company called Miami-based Aerospace Sales and Leasing Co. is reported to be its current owner. African airports are littered with old planes that have proved too costly to maintain and keep in the air. (BBC News, UK, 19 June 2003)@
* Afrique. Voyage du président Bush - Le 20 juin, la Maison Blanche a annoncé officiellement que le président George W. Bush se rendra en Afrique du 7 au 12 juillet prochain. Il s'agit de son premier voyage officiel sur ce continent. Si l'on ne connaît pas encore l'agenda exact des cinq jours de voyage, M. Bush devrait commencer sa visite au Sénégal, passer en Afrique du Sud, puis au Botswana; il s'arrêtera en Ouganda, puis au Nigeria, pour retourner ensuite à Washington. Le communiqué précise que la visite a pour but de souligner l'engagement de l'administration des Etats-Unis à oeuvrer pour "une Afrique libre, prospère et pacifique". (Misna, Italie, 21 juin 2003)
* Afrique. Les médicaments génériques - Le 22 juin, les 29 ministres du Commerce réunis depuis deux jours à Charm el-Cheikh, en Egypte, se sont séparés sur une étincelle d'espoir des pays pauvres aux médicaments. Les Etats-Unis ont fait une concession importante en acceptant que l'importation par les pays pauvres de médicaments génériques (copies), moins chers, ne soit plus limitée à une liste précise de maladies. "L'approche d'une liste spécifique a montré qu'elle ne fonctionnait pas, donc nous n'insistons plus là-dessus pour le moment", a déclaré un haut responsable américain du commerce. Actuellement, l'Organisation mondiale du commerce autorise les pays confrontés à une crise de la santé publique à acheter des médicaments génériques, mais uniquement à des fabricants nationaux, or beaucoup de pays pauvres ne disposent pas d'industrie pharmaceutique. Un accord sur l'importation sous certaine conditions avait échoué l'année dernière, Washington l'ayant rejeté sous la pression de son industrie. Le responsable américain a précisé que son gouvernement continuait à négocier avec les laboratoires et qu'il espérait que la question serait réglée d'ici au sommet des 146 membres de l'OMC à Cancun (Mexique) en septembre. (AP, 22 juin 2003)
* Afrique. La bataille des OGM - Le président américain a exhorté l'Union européenne à renoncer à son moratoire sur les importations d'OGM (organismes génétiquement modifiés). "Dans l'intérêt du continent africain menacé de famine, je demande aux gouvernements européens de cesser de s'opposer à la biotechnologie", a déclaré M. Bush le 23 juin. L'Europe n'a pas apprécié la leçon. "Les insinuations américaines sont erronées", a déclaré un porte-parole de la Commission européenne. L'argument sur la famine en Afrique a fait bondir la Commission: "L'Europe accorde sept fois plus d'aide à l'Afrique que les Etats-Unis, dont l'aide à l'Afrique se résume à des exportations de produits américains comportant des OGM". En fait, la plupart des experts des questions alimentaires assurent que nourrir 820 millions de personnes qui souffrent de la faim dans le monde, passe d'abord par une meilleure distribution. "Nous n'avons pas besoin d'OGM", a dit Jacques Diouf, directeur général de la FAO, en 2002. "A court terme, la priorité, ce ne sont pas les semences, mais l'eau, les infrastructures, les routes, le stockage et les capacités de conditionnement des denrées". Le dossier agricole sera évoqué ce 25 juin à Washington lors d'un bref sommet Europe-Etats-Unis. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 25 juin 2003)
* Afrique. Soutien au NEPAD - Le 25 juin, les 49 pays les moins avancés (PMA), réunis à Rabat (Maroc), ont appelé la communauté internationale à soutenir le Nouveau partenariat pour le développement de l'Afrique (NEPAD). Au terme de deux jours de travaux, les participants invitent les membres du groupe de 77 et la Chine à prendre des mesures en faveur des PMA dans le secteur du commerce afin de concrétiser la coopération Sud-Sud. - Le même jour, plusieurs chefs d'Etat africains présents au Forum Afrique/Etats-Unis des affaires, ont mis l'accent sur le rôle des communautés économiques régionales dans la réalisation des objectifs du NEPAD. Ils ont souligné que le continent peut devenir un important marché pour les investissements américains si une assistance est fournie aux groupements économiques existants. Par ailleurs, le Premier ministre ougandais en a appelé au gouvernement américain pour qu'il mette un terme aux subventions agricoles et permette ainsi une concurrence loyale entre agriculteurs africains et américains. (PANA, Sénégal, 25 juin 2003)
* Africa. Action against the Media - Djibouti: On 25 June, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said that on 23 June, Le Renouveau's newspaper editor Daher Ahmed Farah was released at the end of a hearing in Djibouti after the presiding judge ruled that no crime had been committed and that the defendant was therefore not guilty. Farah, who also heads an opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Renewal and Development (MRD), had been accused of libel by the army chief of staff, Gen. Zakaria Cheik Ibrahim, and of "undermining the army's morale" by the defence ministry. He was arrested on 20 April, released provisionally on 3 June, and re-arrested two days later. Liberia: On 18 June, RSF said it was "very worried" about the plight of reporter Stanley McGill, of the independent paper The News, who fled his home near Monrovia on 10 June for fear of being attacked by members of President Taylor's Anti-Terrorist Unit personal security guard who have already targeted him several times. Malawi: On 25 June, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said that on 24 June 2003, President Bakili Muluzi threatened to deal with media outlets that probe into the way he distributes maize to his supporters during political rallies. President Muluzi was apparently incensed by a lead article in the Weekend Nation of 21-22 June that questioned the source of the food the president doles out at his rallies. Morocco: On 18 June, Human Rights Watch said that the affirmation of a 3-year prison term for journalist Ali Lamrabet is a grave blow to press freedom in Morocco. A Rabat appeals court upheld a lower court verdict that also banned the independent weeklies that Lamrabet directs, Demain and its Arabic sister Douman. -- On 20 June, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it is extremely alarmed about the detention of three Moroccan journalists, bringing the total number of journalists currently in custody there to five. Journalists Mohamed Al Herd and Abdel Majid Taher, editors at the local weekly newspaper Al-Sharq, and Mustapha Qashnini, editor of the local weekly Al-Hayat Al-Maghribiya, have been in detention since June 12, according to one of their lawyers, Mohamed Ziyyan. Both newspapers are published and distributed in Oujda, a city in northwestern Morocco along the Algerian border. The journalists, who have been detained for questioning under Morocco's new anti-terrorism law, were charged with "extolling the actions that comprise terrorist crimes," said Ziyyan in a phone interview with CPJ. If convicted, the journalists face up to six years in prison. Togo: On 25 June, the CPJ said it is deeply concerned about the continued imprisonment of three Togolese journalists on charges of "publishing false information and disturbing public order." Dimas Dzikodo and Philip Evégnon, editor-in-chief and publication director, respectively, of the private weekly L'Evenement, and Jean de Dieu Kpakpabia, journalist at the private weekly Nouvel Echo, were formally charged and transferred yesterday to Lomé Central Prison from the National Security Services headquarters, where the three journalists had spent more than a week in detention. Zimbabwe: The CPJ said that on 2 June, Shorai Katiwa and Martin Chimenya, journalists for Voice of the People, a private news production company, were assaulted by Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front supporters. On 3 June, police harassed Luke Tamborinyoka and Precious Shumba, chief news editor and senior news reporter, respectively, for the independent Daily News. Police detained Tamborinyoka and Shumba while the two were on their way home from the newspaper's offices and made them crawl on the ground before releasing them. On 6 June, men in police uniform raided the offices and home of Edwina and Newton Spicer of Spicer Productions, an independent documentary production company. On 9 June, police returned to the Spicers' offices and home, this time bearing a warrant allowing them to search for "subversive materials." On 11 June, Dolores Cortes Meldrum, wife of deported Guardian correspondent Andrew Meldrum, fled the country after being summoned to the offices of the Immigration Department. The CPJ condemns the ongoing harassment of journalists in Zimbabwe. Ruling-party supporters and police frequently attack and threaten journalists with impunity. This has created a climate of fear and intimidation, and has increased the dangers for journalists reporting on matters of legitimate public concern. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 26 June 2003)
* North Africa/Europe. Odyssey of despair - 16 June: Another disaster has struck the desperate "clandestini" (illegal immigrants to Europe), as the Italians call them, who pack tiny wooden craft in the Tunisian ports of Kelibia and Nabeul and set off for the southernmost rock of Europe, less than 300 km away. Recovering in hospital in Palermo, three survivors report that the boat gave a "sudden shudder". It was no more than 15 metres long, and crammed so tight with about 70 passengers, that the gunwale was barely above the water line. Then a hole opened up in the side and within minutes it sank. It happened some time during the night of 16 June in the treacherous Sicily Channel, graveyard for hundreds of immigrants. A Tunisian fishing boat, the Almahdia, picked up the survivors, they were 32 km south of their destination, Lampedusa. An air and sea rescue operation has been launched, but the results are meagre: seven corpses recovered so far. 18 June: At 1a.m. another 42 people roll into Lampedusa; a few hours later, seven North Africans in a rubber dinghy clamber ashore at Marettimo in the Egadi islands, off Sicily's west coast. The Italian government says fewer than 6,000 "clandestini" have arrived this year, about half the total for the same period last year. But recent calm seas have encouraged an armada of desperate vessels, and over the past three weeks more than 1,000 have arrived. 20 June: As many as 250 illegal immigrants are feared dead after their boat capsized off the coast of Tunisia on its way to Italy. The Tunisian coast guard has rescued 41 people and recovered 20 bodies, but rough seas have hampered the rescue operation. Survivors said the boat had been carrying about 250 people. It is at least the second boat to go down in the area this week. The cause of the sinking is not known. It may have been because the boat was overcrowded or in poor condition, or because of the bad weather -- or a combination of all three. A fishing boat raised the alarm at dawn when its crew saw the sinking ship. The Tunisian national guard and navy responded, as did four civilian ships nearby and a pair of boats from offshore oil rigs in the area. Officials would not say where the boat came from but it is widely believed to have originated in Libya. 22 June: Rescuers off the Tunisian coast have now scaled down their search operations. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 22 June 2003)
* Algérie. Peste bubonique - Le 19 juin, la radio algérienne a annoncé qu'un enfant de 11 ans atteint de la peste est décédé le 4 juin à l'hôpital d'Oran, juste après son admission au service des maladies infectieuses. Neuf autres personnes y ont été admises pour les mêmes symptômes depuis le 9 juin. Ils sont atteints de la peste bubonique, considérée comme moins dangereuse que la peste septicémique ou pulmonaire et plus facile à soigner. Une cellule de crise a été mise sur pied pour éviter la propagation de la maladie. Une fois la maladie identifiée, après le décès de l'enfant, les autres malades ont reçu les soins adéquats. La localité de Kehailia, à une trentaine de kilomètres d'Oran, dont neuf malades sont originaires, a été mise en quarantaine. Il s'agit des premiers cas de peste enregistrés en Algérie depuis l'indépendance en 1962. -- 25 juin. La mise en quarantaine imposée à Kehailia a été levée après que la localité ait subi d'importantes opérations de désinfectation et de désinsectisation. Aucun nouveau cas de peste n'ayant été recensé depuis le 19 juin, les autorités sanitaires ont affirmé que la situation etait maîtrisée. (AP, 19-25 juin 2003)
* Algérie. Alerte aux criquets - Des essaims de criquets ont été localisés, en début de semaine, près de Béni Ourtilane, dans la région de Sétif, à 300 km à l'est d'Alger. Les criquets constituent une menace permanente pour de nombreux pays. Alors qu'on n'avait connu aucune grande infestation acridienne au cours des années 1990, on constate aujourd'hui une recrudescence du phénomène dans certains pays en raison d'une moindre vigilance sur la prévention. (Le Figaro, France, 26 juin 2003) 

Weekly anb0626.txt #1/6