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Weekly ANB0911_07.txt #7

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 11-09-2003      PART #7/7
* Uganda. Mission looted - On the night between 7-8 September, Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels raided the Catholic mission of Iceme (50km west of Lira). The rebels looted the mission from top to bottom and severely beat up the Italian parish priest. MISNA sources specified that the raid commenced at around 21:30 on Saturday night and ended at around 02:00 on Sunday morning. Father Guglielmo Maffeis, 70, a Comboni originally from Ponte San Pietro (diocese of Bergamo), suffered numerous back marks and bruises due to the beating and is presently hospitalized in Lira where the doctors declared that, despite the haematoma's on his back, his spinal cord was not damaged and he is out of danger. The "Olum" (as the LRA rebels are called in the Acholi language), literally emptied the priest's house, stealing all the food, furnishings and fittings and whatever else they could find. The rebels then moved towards the Church, destroying a statue and stealing the microphone placed on the altar and the amplifier. (MISNA, Italy, 8 September 2003)
* Ouganda. Karamojong contre la LRA - Le général Kale Kaihura, conseiller militaire spécial du président Museveni, a confirmé le recrutement de guerriers karamojong pour lutter contre les rebelles de l'Armée de résistance du Seigneur (LRA), précisant que "des milliers de Karamojong vont être mobilisés et armés" à cet effet. Cette décision a suscité les critiques des organisations qui oeuvrent à la pacification de cette ethnie guerrière, affirmant que cette initiative risque de raviver la violence au sein de la communauté. Jackson Owine, chef d'Amelok, une organisation oeuvrant à la promotion d'un dialogue pacifique entre les clans karamojong, estime que ce recrutement "a pour résultat de les remilitariser après les considérables efforts que nous avons consentis pour leur inculquer une autre façon de vivre". La région de Karamoja est depuis longtemps le théâtre de scènes de banditisme et de troubles, les guerriers karamojong luttant pour la suprématie par la possession d'importants troupeaux, engendrant des vols de bétail et une anarchie généralisée. (D'après PANA, Sénégal, 10 septembre 2003)
* Zambia. Civil servants on strike - 5 September: Vice-President Nevers Mumba has warned striking civil servants that they face being dismissed next week if they do not return to work. But Union leaders have defied the government's order, accusing the government of intimidation and vowed that they will not back down. They have rejected the authorities' call to renegotiate the agreed deal on allowances. The general secretary for the Civil Servants and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (CSAWUZ), Darrison Chaala, has been quoted by a Zambian newspaper, The Post on the web, as saying that the workers have to be ready to be fired in order to win their battle with the government. "We have the powers to grind government to a halt," Mr Chaala said. 8 September: The strike is called off. 9 September: Public service workers have begun legal action against the State for "breaching the agreement" to pay civil servants housing allowances equivalent to up to 80% of their basic salary. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 9 September 2003)
* Zambia. Cherise wins the African "Big Brother" show - 8 September: The first pan-African version of the TV show, "Big Brother", has been won by Cherise Makubale from Zambia. The 24-year-old was declared winner on 7 September, picking up $100,000 prize money. Although the show, which was aired in 46 countries, has proved popular with viewers, politicians and religious leaders have been less keen. In Malawi, it was pulled off the air after it was deemed immoral, but the High Court overturned the ban. (BBC News, UK, 8 September 2003)
* Zimbabwe. Economic outlook gloomy - It is unlikely any significant progress will be made in resolving Zimbabwe's political crisis this year, says The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which predicts that the country's economy will continue to contract. "As a result of the political crisis and poor economic policy, we forecast that real GDP will contract by 13.1 percent in 2003 and 6.1 percent in 2004; inflation will continue to soar, averaging 368 percent in 2003 and 444 percent in 2004," the EIU said. Although a negotiated end to the political crisis would eventually emerge, the process of organising formal talks between the ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was slow and suffered periodic setbacks, the latest of which revolved around attempts to draw up an agreed agenda for talks. (IRIN, Kenya, 4 September 2003)
* Zimbabwe. L'état de santé de Mugabe - Le parti au pouvoir au Zimbabwe, le ZANU-PF, s'est donné beaucoup de mal cette semaine pour répondre aux rumeurs sur le mauvais état de santé du président Robert Mugabe, a indiqué le 4 septembre un quotidien sud-africain. Le Sowetan note que M. Mugabe gardait un profil bas étonnant ces derniers jours. Mais "les rumeurs sur la mauvaise santé du président et les démentis rituels symbolisent souvent le malaise profond d'une société qui traverse une crise...". La situation au Zimbabwe "devient plus désespérée chaque jour", écrit le journal, citant le chômage, la hausse des prix et le niveau élevé de la pauvreté. Le Sowetan fait observer que la mauvaise posture de M. Mugabe s'est encore fait sentir cette semaine avec le bon score réalisé aux élections municipales par le principal parti de l'opposition, le MLC, avec 134 sièges contre 100 pour le ZANU-PF. (D'après PANA, Sénégal, 4 septembre 2003)
* Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe closes UN food offices - 5 September: United Nations officials in Zimbabwe say they have been forced to close several offices monitoring the distribution of food aid. They say the government in Harare asked the United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) to shut three newly-established field offices in rural areas. But UN workers say the delivery of relief supplies is unaffected and monitoring has continued. There has been no comment from the Zimbabwean Government -- it has previously denied allegations of interfering in the distribution of emergency relief. Zimbabwe's Government had earlier issued a directive for international food aid to be handed over to local authorities for distribution. Until now, the major foreign food donors have been distributing foreign food aid themselves -- there have been concerns that President Robert Mugabe's government has politicised the food assistance that it controls. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 5 September 2003)
* Zimbabwe. Mass cull of buffalo - Zimbabwe is culling thousands of buffalo to "contain" foot-and-mouth disease in a move that has sparked protests and been described as "futile and bizarre". Conservationists said the order was "stupid" and would kill off what was left of Zimbabwe's tourism sector, which has shrunk to 15 per cent of its former level since political disturbances began in 2000. Salmon Joubert, a retired executive director of the Kruger National Park, which straddles Zimbabwe's borders with South Africa and Mozambique, said the decision "ranks as one of the most futile and bizarre moves that anyone can imagine". Many other cloven-hoofed animals, such as impala and kudu, are carriers of foot-and-mouth disease, so Zimbabwe would have to exterminate all of them to achieve its goal. Officials from the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management descended on private game parks last week telling owners that the government of President Robert Mugabe had decided to destroy all buffalo on private land in order to eliminate the foot-and-mouth outbreak. Wilfried Pabst, who owns the Save Valley Conservancy, said officials told his workers that foot-and-mouth disease had cost Zimbabwe its European beef markets. "What is happening in Zimbabwe makes the Chinese Cultural revolution look like a picnic," said Mr Pabst, a German national and a major investor in the country's tourism sector. The National Parks officials indicated that, alternatively, the buffalo in the private game parks could be seized and taken to the government's national parks to control their movements, Mr Pabst said. However, fences at most national game parks were destroyed at the height of farm invasions last year, leaving the buffalo there free to mix with cattle in villages. "Any sensible government would replace these fences [rather] than resort to the outrageous move of killing animals," Mr Pabst said. (The Independent, UK, 8 September 2003)
* Zimbabwe. Commercial Farmers' Union split - Zimbabwe's white farmers union has suffered its first major split, after a breakaway faction left the group. Members of the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) in the southern area of Matabeleland pulled out, complaining that the union was refusing to confront the government over land seizures. The split comes less than a konth after a new executive was appointed to run the group. In a statement in Bulawayo, Gavin Conolly, Matabeleland Commercial Farmers' Union president said: "We do not believe the current leadership will faithfully, without fear or favour, represent us". Mr Conolly said they would like the CFU to adopt a more active strategy in defending the rights of all farmers, including those who have already lost their farms. (Daily Telegraph, UK, 10 September 2003) 


Weekly anb0911.txt - end of #7/7  - THE END