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Weekly ANB0821_5.txt #6

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 21-08-2003      PART #5/6
* Mozambique. Police trial farce - 14 August: The trial of the seven policemen charged with facilitating the escape of Anibal dos Santos Junior from the Maputo top security prison was suspended on 13 August, only one day after it started. Anibal, best known as Anibalzinho, is one of the six men found guilty of assassinating prominent Mozambican investigative journalist, Carlos Cardoso. The suspension of the trial follows a discovery by the court that the defence lawyer for two of the seven policemen is not registered with the Mozambique Bar Association. The complaint over the defence lawyer's credentials was raised by the chairman of the association Carlos Cauio. The defence lawyer, Alberto Igrejas, told me that while he did not dispute the court's decision, he should have been given a chance to legalise his position. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 14 August 2003)
* Mozambique. Aiming for titanium wealth - Mozambique could become a major producer of the rare metal titanium as the result of a mining project that has just won $20m backing from the World Bank. For Mozambique to take its place among the world's key world mineral producers would be a massive step forward given that it is one of the poorest countries in Africa. An Irish mining company, Kenmare Resources, is putting the finishing touches to a $200m mineral sands project in one of its poorest regions, Nampula Province in the north-east of the country. Mineral sands comprise mainly rare titanium, rutile and zirconium. All three metals are in demand in many industries, but especially in electronics. Titanium is used for many purposes ranging from coating aircraft, turning paper and paint white, to helping women with untreatable ovarian cancer. It is stronger and lighter than steel and is particularly popular in aviation. Kenmare Resources' project is called Moma. It has received a $20m guarantee from the World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. The hope is that when it is fully developed, it should establish Mozambique as one of the world's foremost producers of titanium. It should also bring much needed infrastructural development to this impoverished region, and should create around 2,000 jobs, directly and indirectly, when it is up and running. (BBC, UK, 20 August 2003)
* Nigeria. Affrontements à Warri - Le samedi 16 août, les autorités nigérianes ont imposé un couvre-feu dans la ville méridionale de Warri, au coeur de la région pétrolière du Delta du Niger, à la suite de violents combats interethniques qui ont fait au moins un mort dans les rangs de l'armée. Des maisons ont été incendiées, des milliers de civils ont pris la fuite, emportant à la hâte quelques effets personnels. Dans un seul quartier touché par les combats, au moins 30 maisons ont été détruites. Les affrontements ont éclaté vendredi soir et se sont poursuivis samedi matin entre les membres des ethnies Ijaw et Itsekiri, qui s'affrontent depuis des années dans la région. Le conflit interethnique porte sur les terres et le pouvoir politique, mais il a été aggravé par la concurrence que se livrent les communautés depuis le boom pétrolier des années 1970. Les ONG dans la région estiment qu'entre 200.000 et 300.000 barrils par jour sont volés par des gangs qui font percer les oléoducs. Les revenus servent à financer des achats d'armes. Les combats entre Ijaw et Itsekiri ont repris de manière sporadique à la mi-juillet, après une accalmie consécutive à la vague d'affrontements de mars dernier. -- 18 août. Les affrontements se sont poursuivis pour la quatrième journée. Dans la nuit du dimanche au lundi, au moins dix personnes ont été tuées, selon un officier supérieur de la police. Les combats ont fait au moins 20 morts au total, d'après les témoignages recueillis. L'armée a déployé des véhicules blindés et des renforts de troupes dans la zone. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 19 août 2003)
* Nigeria. Clashes in Niger Delta - 17 August: The authorities in Nigeria have imposed a night-time curfew in the city of Warri, in the Niger Delta, after clashes between rival Ijaw and Itsekiri ethnic groups. In March, dozens of people were killed in ethnic violence and three oil companies shut down about 40% of oil output. The latest fighting began on 15 August and continued overnight into 16 August. It was not clear how the violence started, with both sides blaming the other. Residents fled the clashes, carrying mattresses and boxes of belongings on their heads. Army spokesman Emeka Onwuamaegbu said: "We lost one soldier in the course of maintaining law and order." 18 August: Street battles have continued for a fourth day in the southern Nigerian town of Warri between heavily armed gangs from two rival communities. Scores of buildings have been burnt and more than 30 people are now known to have died since the fighting began on 15 August. The army is being deployed on the streets, but local residents say there are parts of the town where the clashes have continued without intervention from the security forces. Despite assurances from the army that the clashes have been brought under control it is clear that the situation in some districts of the town remains extremely volatile. 19 August: Clashes in Warri continue. But with a heavy army presence on the streets, the pockets of violence appear to be more localised and gunfire only sporadic. Since the unrest began, at least 30 people have died in street battles between local militia groups, and many thousands have fled their homes. With a tight security presence now in place in Warri town, much of the chaotic and explosive violence of the past few days appears to have abated. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 19 August 2003)
* Nigeria. Stoning verdict quashed - 19 August: An Islamic court of appeal in northern Nigeria has overturned the conviction of a man sentenced to death by stoning for the rape of a nine-year-old girl. Salimu Mohammed Baranda won his appeal by pleading insanity and has been ordered by the court to an asylum for psychiatric evaluation. The punishment of stoning to death has been introduced into the law in Nigeria's majority Muslim northern states over the past three years but as yet no sentence has been carried out. Salimu Mohammed has never denied he carried out the rape. In fact he pleaded guilty at his trial last year and initially refused to appeal the sentence. But family members intervened and persuaded him to change his mind. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 19 August 2003)
* Nigeria. Une lapidation annulée - 18 août. Un tribunal islamique nigérian devrait rendre son verdict après le pourvoi en appel d'un homme condamné à mort par lapidation en août 2002 pour le viol d'une fillette de 9 ans. Si cette condamnation était confirmée par la Cour, Samiru Mohammed, 54 ans, pourrait devenir le premier Nigérian exécuté par lapidation depuis que douze Etats du nord du pays ont décidé la réintroduction de la charia (loi islamique) il y a trois ans. Le condamné étant décrit comme mentalement attardé, la défense comme l'accusation escomptent néanmoins un verdict de clémence. -- 19 août. La Cour islamique d'appel de la ville de Dutse a en effet annulé la condamnation à mort de Samiru Mohammed. Elle a suivi la défense qui plaidait la folie, et a ordonné son placement dans un établissement psychiatrique. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 20 août 2003)
* Nigeria. Closing in on missing cash - 20 August: A long-running legal battle to return billions of dollars which went missing from Nigeria's central bank when the late military ruler Sani Abacha was in power could at last be making some progress. A lot of the money is believed to be in Swiss bank accounts, and Switzerland has now said it will help to send the money back. Earlier this week, Switzerland's Federal Office of Justice said it had temporarily lifted the lid on the country's banking secrecy and handed over bank documents concerning relatives of the former dictator. In return, Nigeria assured the Swiss that the human rights of any Abacha family member would be respected in the event that they would be tried before a court or face criminal proceedings. During Mr Abacha's rein, from 1994 to 1998, a huge sum of money went missing from Nigeria's central bank. Some reports put the total amount at several billion dollars. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 20 August 2003)
* Rwanda. Towards the presidential elections - 13 August: Rwanda's election authorities have accused the main opposition candidate in this month's presidential poll, Faustin Twagiramungu, of promoting ethnic divisions. The deputy head of the national election commission said that the opposition leader had been summoned to explain himself on 14 August. Mr Twagiramungu -- a former prime minister who returned from exile earlier this year -- denies the accusations. He says his campaign leaflets had been impounded by the authorities although they contained nothing discriminatory. He also questions impartiality of the president of the national electoral commission, accusing him of being the campaign manager for the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front party. 16 August: The Dutch government has withheld aid intended to ensure the smooth running of Rwandan's first presidential election since the 1994 genocide, a sign of unease over the disappearance of opposition politicians in the run-up to the poll on August 25. The Netherlands says the Kigali government has failed to explain satisfactorily the disappearance of five opponents of Paul Kagame, Rwandan president. It has frozen $283,000 in aid. It is the first western government to express openly unease over human rights in Rwanda during the election campaign. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 16 August 2003)
* Rwanda. Campagne électorale - La campagne électorale pour le scrutin présidentiel du 25 août s'est ouverte le 1er août et s'achèvera le 24 août au matin. L'actuel président Paul Kagamé y affronte Faustin Twagiramungu, Jean Népomuscène Nayinzira et Alvéra Mukabaramba. Twagiramungu s'est vu accusé de "divisionnisme" et un de ses dépliants de campagne a été saisi. Le 16 août, la radio nationale a aussi fait état de la "défection" de cinq de ses agents de campagne qui l'accusent d'appeler au vote ethnique en sa faveur. En privé, il leur aurait donné comme directive de "faire comprendre aux Hutu qu'ils ne doivent voter que pour leur frère Twagiramungu". M. Twagiramungu a indiqué ne pas connaître ces personnes et dénonce une manipulation. -- D'autre part, le 18 août, Reporters sans frontières a demandé aux candidats de prendre des engagements en faveur de la liberté de presse. "Nous vous demandons de prendre position publiquement sur cette question et de proposer des mesures concrètes pour faire progresser la liberté de presse", écrit l'organisation. Déplorant que le Rwanda soit aujourd'hui l'un des derniers pays de la région et du continent africain à ne disposer d'aucun média audiovisuel privé, RSF ajoute que "l'information est toujours monocolore au Rwanda et les rares journaux indépendants paraissent dans des conditions difficiles". (D'après PANA, Sénégal, 16-18 août 2003)
* Rwanda. Kagame thrusts aside fears over poll - Paul Kagame, Rwanda's president, is "unapologetic" about the role his troops have played in the war in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. He would send them straight back if his country's security were at stake. But in an interview with the Financial Times before next week's presidential election in Rwanda -- the first since the 1994 genocide -- Gen Kagame said he had asked the country's prosecutor-general to investigate United Nations reports that his army orchestrated the plunder of resources during its four-year occupation of eastern Congo. Under international pressure, Rwanda withdrew its troops from Congo last year. But reports persist that it continues to arm rebel proxies, undermining prospects for a new power-sharing government in Kinshasa set up to end the war. International concern is also mounting about the manner in which Gen Kagame is running his own country. Last week the Netherlands said it had frozen aid to help pay for the elections because of concerns about the disappearance of opposition politicians ahead of the vote. Dogged as ever in his avowed determination to restore stability to Rwanda, the 46-year-old general, appears unmoved. "We are not responsible for the problems of the Congo," he says, insisting that turmoil and dictatorship there had been claiming lives long before his troops marched over the border in 1998, sparking a war that has led to at least 3m deaths. "We would not shy away from moving back to Congo if anything threatened our security here. We are not even apologetic about it." Nor is Gen Kagame concerned that by punching well beyond its weight in the region, tiny Rwanda may have made more new enemies in Congo than it has eliminated old ones. The region's problems go back decades, he says, underlining that parts of Congo were ruled from Rwanda before Africa's borders were drawn by colonial powers. "I don't see why you even think it is important that Congolese hate Rwandans. Maybe we shall hate them also," he says. "Or why did part of Rwanda have to be carved out and taken to Congo? I am not responsible for that." (Financial Times, UK, 19 August 2003)
* Somalia. Mogadishu insecurity worsens - 15 August: The security situation in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, has reportedly been deteriorating, with a wave of killings, abductions and car hijackings. Two heavily armed groups exchanged fire, on 14 August, killing at least eight people and wounding six more, in the busy Taleh neighbourhood of South Mogadishu. The incident took place when gunmen from one Somali faction dominating north Mogadishu used a bus to ambush members of another faction in a busy street. The attack was in retaliation for an earlier incident, but the wife of one of those who was killed said they had hit the wrong target. The constant fighting and the inability to deal with famine and disease have led to the death of nearly a million people in the country. Former interim president Abdikassim Salat Hassan, who pulled out of the talks on forging a new government just weeks before his term of office ended, has been accused of failing to secure Mogadishu. Gunmen rule the roads, forcing drivers to pay extortionate amounts of money. Regular car-jacking attacks have forced the closure of the capital's major roads paralysing public transport as buses are refusing to use key routes. Meanwhile, the Kenyan Ambassador to Somalia, Mohammed Affey, left Mogadishu, today, for Kismaio in an attempt to revitalise the crumbling Somali conference in Kenya. The mandate of the three-year old Transitional National Government (TNG) expired on 13 August and Mr Salat announced that his government would not stand down until a new government and parliament were formed. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 15 August 2003)
* Somalia. Refugees call for a new administration - 18 August: Somali refugees in Kenya have accused the committee in charge of talks on setting up a new administration of delaying the process. Hundreds of refugees demonstrated outside the venue in Mbagathi, in the suburbs of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, calling for the formation of a new government. The talks had been adjourned to allow the president of Somalia's Transitional National Government (TNG), Abdikassim Salat Hassan and the Juba valley alliance re-join the discussions. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 18 August 2003)
* Somalia. Somaliland floods - Heavy flooding has killed one person and destroyed more than 60 farms in Somalia's breakaway enclave Somaliland, officials said. Regional governor Abdillahi Irro said that one person had drowned after the recent heavy rains and appealed to donors for help in saving wells supplying water to Hargeisa, Somaliland's main city, which has faced water shortages in the past. Abdillahi said in a statement that 13 water pumping machines were swept away by the floods and almost all the wells on the river banks were sunk in the mud. The rains have also destroyed buildings in the border village of Wajale, where new warehouses are being built in preparation for a planned corridor linking landlocked Ethiopia with Somaliland's Berbera port in a bid to boost trade. (CNN, USA, 20 August 2003) 

Weekly anb0821.txt - #5/6