Weekly ANB0911_06.txt #7

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 11-09-2003      PART #6/7

* South Africa. Rugby racism probe to open  -  Today, a retired South 
African judge, Edwin King, begins an inquiry into allegations of racism in 
the national rugby team. The investigation was prompted by the resignation 
of the team's media spokesman, Mark Keohane, who said an earlier, internal 
investigation amounted to a cover-up. The row has received saturation 
coverage in the South African media, and has prompted the intervention of 
the former President, Nelson Mandela. South Africans are passionate about 
sport and many had hoped that it could provide a unifying force in a 
country still struggling to overcome the legacy of apartheid. But far from 
bringing South Africans together, the dispute over the national rugby team, 
the Springboks, is proving deeply divisive. The row began when it emerged 
that a white player, Geo Cronje, had initially refused to share 
accommodation at a training camp with a black player. An inquiry by the 
rugby authorities failed to find evidence to back up allegations of racism. 
But just as the scandal seemed to be fading away, it returned with a 
vengeance. The team's media spokesman said he would not be part of an 
organisation which tolerated prejudice. A seven-page document he produced 
to back up his accusations will form the basis of the new, independent 
inquiry by Mr King. The retired judge has considerable credibility -- he 
chaired the investigation three years ago into the match-fixing scandal 
involving one of South Africa's greatest sporting heroes, the cricketer, 
Hansie Cronje. In an effort to restore a degree of unity, Mr Mandela has 
spoken to the Springboks' coach, and is expected to meet members of the 
team as they prepare for next month's Rugby World Cup in Australia.   (BBC 
News, UK, 8 September 2003)

* South Africa. African cleric breaks ranks on gay issue  -  On 7 
September, One of Africa's most senior churchmen broke ranks with fellow 
African and developing world archbishops yesterday to denounce their 
arrogance and intolerance over homosexuality, the issue that threatens to 
split the worldwide Anglican communion. In an interview with the Guardian, 
the Most Reverend Winston Njongonkulu Ndungane, Archbishop of Cape Town and 
Primate of Southern Africa, implicitly criticised his colleagues for 
undermining the 70 million strong communion with their denunciations of the 
election in the US of an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, and the earlier 
aborted appointment of Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading. His remarks 
appeared directly aimed at Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria, head of 
the largest single church in the Anglican world, who has claimed that 
homosexuals are lower than beasts and who has called for the American and 
Canadian Episcopal churches to be thrown out of the communion. Those views 
have been backed by other bishops and archbishops, mainly from South 
America, the West Indies, other parts of Africa, the Far East and 
Australia. They are also supported by many British evangelicals. Both 
Archbishop Ndungane and Archbishop Akinola are among the 38 primates 
summoned to Lambeth Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, 
next month to discuss the threats of schism caused by the gay issue. 
Opponents are claiming more than half of the archbishops will take a hard 
line on the issue and may attempt to force the US church out of the 
communion. But Archbishop Ndungane said: "There is an attempt to divert us 
from the major life and death issues in the world. There is a woman waiting 
to be stoned to death for adultery in Nigeria and yet we are not hearing 
any fuss from the leadership of the church there about that. People are 
going hungry across the world, the Israelis are building a fence around the 
Palestinians, HIV/AIDS is a global emergency... these are major, urgent, 
issues which should be a priority for the Church and we must not lose our 
focus on that."   (The Guardian, UK, 8 September 2003)

* South Africa. General elections in 2004  -  In its Briefing Paper number 
98, The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference's Parliamentary 
Liaison Office offers its assessment of the various parties' chances in 
next year's general election (sometime before the end of June). The Paper 
states: "There can be few genuinely democratic countries where the outcome 
of a free and fair vote is so certain, at least as far as "who will win" is 
concerned. The question is clearly not whether the African National 
Congress (ANC) will win, but rather, what will its majority be? As far as 
the ANC is concerned, the Nelson Mandela factor cannot be ignored. He still 
embodies most people's sense of nationhood and never tires of stating his 
own commitment to the ANC, indeed, his identity with it". However, the 
Briefing Paper pinpoints areas where the ANC's share of the vote may be 
reduced: Extremely high unemployment; landlessness; lack of adequate 
housing; general poverty; apathy among youth; evidence of 
corruption.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 8 September 2003)

* Sudan. Delicate peace process  -  3 September: MISNA reports that in 
Chad, the Sudanese government and rebels in Darfur have agreed to a 
six-week ceasefire. 4 September: Rebel leader John Garang has warned that 
the peace process, aimed at ending the 20-year war in Sudan, is in danger 
of collapsing. Speaking after arriving for what is been billed as a make or 
break meeting in Kenya, Mr Garang said he had come to Kenya ready to 
negotiate and take tough decisions. The civil war in Sudan, between the 
mainly Christian rebels in the south and the Islamic government of the 
north, has cost the lives of hundred of thousands of ordinary Sudanese. A 
ceasefire has more or less been holding on the ground in south Sudan, but 
the Sudan People's Liberation Army are making it clear there remains a big 
gulf between the two sides. "The issues of the presidency, the issues of 
wealth sharing, the issue of security arrangements, the issues of power 
sharing, and the issue of the three conflict areas are the major issues 
that are outstanding," Mr Garang said. The meeting in Nairobi will be the 
first face to face talks between John Garang and the Sudanese Vice 
President Ali Osman Taha and are being seen as critical. Mr Taha is a 
powerful political figure in Khartoum, the power behind the throne, is how 
one observer described him. He is also seen as a hardliner, someone not 
instinctively supportive of the peace process. If the two men do not manage 
to narrow their differences, reaching a final settlement to this civil war 
will be more difficult than ever. Meanwhile, a different rebel group, 
fighting the government in Darfur in the west of Sudan, has just announced 
a ceasefire. The Darfur rebels are said to believe that a settlement 
between the southern SPLA and Khartoum could open the way for them to press 
their claims for land rights and an end to the rivalry between African and 
Arabic communities in the region. 5 September: The peace talks begin. They 
are being held in the town of Naivasha, Kenya. 10 September: Sudan's 
Minister of Defence, General Bakri Hasan Salih, has arrived in Kenya to 
join the peace talks. Security issues are now under discussion and progress 
has been good. Observers say that is very encouraging that the talks have 
gone on so long at such a high level, although key issues are still 
outstanding. These include power-sharing, wealth-sharing --especially of 
Sudan's oil resources -- and the composition of a national army during a 
transitional period.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 10 September 2003)

* Soudan. La paix au Darfour - Négociations  -  Le mercredi soir, 3 
septembre, le gouvernement soudanais et les rebelles du Mouvement de 
libération du Soudan (MLS), actifs au Darfour, une région semi-désertique 
frontalière du Tchad, ont signé un accord portant sur un cessez-le-feu pour 
une durée d'un mois et demi, au terme duquel sont prévus "des pourparlers 
afin de parvenir à une paix globale". L'accord exige aussi la libération 
des prisonniers de guerre. Cet accord devrait permettre au gouvernement de 
se consacrer plus aisément aux prochaines négociations de paix avec l'Armée 
populaire de libération du Soudan (SPLA), principale force rebelle du pays. 
-- Le chef du SPLA, le colonel Garang, est arrivé le jeudi 4 septembre au 
Kenya, pour des négociations avec le premier vice-président soudanais, Ali 
Osman Mohammed Taha. La rencontre entre les deux responsables devrait 
ouvrir la voie au prochain round de négociations de paix prévu au Kenya le 
10 septembre. Le 8 septembre, les autorités soudanaises indiquaient que les 
négociations entre MM. Taha et Garang avaient achoppé sur les principaux 
sujets de discorde. Les deux parties tentent de sortir de l'impasse sur le 
partage du pouvoir et des richesses durant une période intérimaire, mais 
les deux personnalités "n'ont pas encore progressé au cours de leurs 
entretiens". Le SPLA réclame notamment 60% des recettes pétrolières et 40% 
des postes de gouvernement durant cette période. Toutefois, le 10 
septembre, l'agence officielle de presse SUNA rapportait que les 
pourparlers enregistraient des avancées. Les deux parties sont en train de 
mettre au point les derniers détails de l'accord, au moment où le ministre 
de la Défense et d'autres responsables militaires arrivent dans la ville 
kényane de Naivasha pour prendre part aux négociations.   (ANB-BIA, de 
sources diverses, 10 septembre 2003)

* Tanzania/Rwanda. Last Hutu refugees leave Tanzania  -  4 September: The 
last group of Rwandan Hutu refugees in Tanzania are now settling in at a 
makeshift camp in Rwanda some 80 km from the border. Some 900 were 
forcefully kicked out of Tanzania on 3 September after their claims for 
asylum were rejected. More than one million Rwandans fled the civil war 
that followed the genocide in 1994 to neighbouring countries with nearly 
half of them going to Tanzania. The group of 900 were the last of a rump 
group of 28,000 refugees that had remained in Tanzania since 1994, fearing 
reprisals over the genocide. Rwandan regional commissioner in Kibungo, 
James Kimonyo, said that the Rwandan government would not screen the 
returnees because they posed no security threat. "These are our people 
returning home and we have nothing to worry about," Mr Kimonyo said. "They 
will remain at the Kiyanzi camp until such time that they are able to 
return to their original homes".   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 4 September 2003)

* Tchad. Réfugiés soudanais  -  Quelque 65.000 réfugiés soudanais ayant 
récemment fui au Tchad, vivent dans des conditions misérables dans le nord 
et le nord-est de ce pays, a indiqué le Haut Commisariat des Nations unies 
pour les réfugiés (HCR). Cet exode a commencé en avril, mais le 
gouvernement tchadien n'a alerté l'agence onusienne que très récemment sur 
le sort de ces personnes. Les réfugiés ont fui les combats entre rebelles 
et forces gouvernementales dans la région du Darfour, dans l'ouest du 
Soudan. La plupart d'entre eux sont très jeunes, mais on y compte également 
des femmes et des vieillards. Tous sont sans abri et à la merci des 
intempéries. Les infrastructures sanitaires sur place ont du mal à faire 
face aux besoins de ces réfugiés qui arrivent chaque jour par vagues. Selon 
une évaluation du HCR et du PAM, il leur faudra 1.200 tonnes de nourriture 
par mois.   (D'après PANA, Sénégal, 9 septembre 2003)

* Chad. Government denies rebels' claims  -  10 September: The government 
of Chad has denied claims by the main rebel group to have captured the 
airport at the northern town of Bardai. The rebel Movement for Democracy 
and Justice (MDJT) said earlier its forces had taken the airport, 
surrounded the town and killed at least 35 government troops. But a 
government spokesman says that Bardai remains entirely under government 
control and that the airport has never been in rebel hands. The MDJT rebels 
have been fighting in northern Chad since 1998 to depose President Idriss 
Deby, who they accuse of corruption, despite a peace deal signed in January 
2002 between the two warring sides.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 10 September 2003)

* Tchad. Action rebelle  -  Les rebelles du Mouvement pour la démocratie et 
la justice au Tchad (MDJT) ont annoncé avoir pris, le mardi 9 septembre, le 
contrôle de l'aéroport de Bardaï (extrême nord, frontalier avec la Libye) 
"à la suite d'un combat d'une rare violence". Un communiqué du mouvement 
fait état de 35 morts du côté des forces gouvernementales. Bardaï est l'une 
des garnisons les plus avancées et les plus importantes des forces 
gouvernementales dans leur combat contre le MDJT, rébellion armée opérant 
dans la région depuis 1998. D'abord, le gouvernement tchadien n'a pas réagi 
à la nouvelle, mais un avion Antonov qui devait ravitailler mardi la 
palmeraie de Bardaï, a "essuyé des tirs" au-dessus de l'aéroport, a indiqué 
une source indépendante à N'Djamena. Toutefois, le mercredi, le 
gouvernement a démenti la prise de l'aérodrome et affirmé que "toute la 
localité de Bardaï est bel et bien sous le contrôle de l'armée". - Notons 
que quelque 200 anciens éléments du MDJT ont choisi récemment de "retourner 
à la légalité" en réintégrant les forces armées tchadiennes. Depuis le 
décès, en septembre 2002, de son président Youssouf Toumi, le MDJT est 
ballotté entre trois leaders et le Haut commandement militaire.   (ANB-BIA, 
de sources diverses, 11 septembre 2003)

* Tunisie. Mines antipersonnel  -  Le 4 septembre, l'armée tunisienne a 
procédé à la destruction du dernier lot de mines antipersonnel encore en sa 
possession, en application du traité d'Ottawa. L'opération, qui s'est 
déroulée dans un champ de tir situé à Cap Angela, à environ 60 km au nord 
de Tunis, a consisté à détruire par explosion 2.331 engins, près de quatre 
mois avant l'échéance fixée par le traité au 31 décembre 2003. C'est la 
quatrième opération du genre effectuée en Tunisie depuis 1999. Au total, 
17.575 unités ont été détruites, 500 mines seulement ayant été conservées à 
des fins d'entraînement. Dans une étape ultérieure, la Tunisie envisage la 
neutralisation des champs de mines datant de la seconde guerre mondiale, 
notamment dans la région du sud. Selon un document, environ 40 millions de 
mines antipersonnel ont été détruites jusqu'ici par les Etats signataires 
du traité d'Ottawa. Il reste à en détruire 7 millions d'autres. De même, il 
existe actuellement 100 millions de mines antipersonnel actives disséminées 
dans plusieurs régions du monde, faisant en moyenne une victime toutes les 
vingt minutes (mort ou mutiliation).   (AP, 4 septembre 2003)


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