[Prec. per data] [Succ. per data] [Prec. per argomento] [Succ. per argomento] [Indice per data] [Indice per argomento]

Weekly ANB0918_04.txt #7

_____________________________________________________________
WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 18-09-2003      PART #4/7
* Guinée. Lansana Conté candidat - Le 12 septembre, la Convention nationale du Parti de l'unité et du progrès (PUP, au pouvoir) a désigné le général Lansana Conté comme son candidat à la présidentielle du 14 décembre prochain. Cela fera grincer des dents au sein de l'opposition, qui a toujours soutenu que cette candidature serait illégale. En novembre 2001, la Constitution a été révisée, permettant à Conté de briguer un autre mandat au-delà des deux premiers. La candidature annoncée de Conté pose aussi problème en raison de son état de santé (il souffre de diabète aigu). Le chef de l'Etat ne participe plus aux conseils de ministres depuis décembre 2002. (D'après PANA, Sénégal, 12 septembre 2003)
* Guinée-Bissau. L'armée reprend le pouvoir - Le dimanche 14 septembre au matin, les militaires se sont à nouveau emparés du pouvoir en Guinée-Bissau. Le putsch s'est apparemment déroulé sans violence. Le chef de l'état-major, le général Verissimo Seabra Correia, a annoncé qu'il assurerait la présidence du pays "par intérim". Un comité militaire a été mis en place jusqu'à la tenue d'élections générales, mais aucune date n'a été fixée. Le président démis, Kumba Yala, et son Premier ministre ont été placés en résidence surveillée. Des législatives, quatre fois reportées, devaient avoir lieu le 12 octobre, mais vendredi, la commission électorale avait fait savoir qu'elle n'était "techniquement" pas prête. Entre juin 1998 et mai 1999, la Guinée-Bissau avait connu une crise politico-militaire qui l'a laissée exsangue. L'arrivée au pouvoir de Kumba Yala en janvier 2000 avait soulevé un grand espoir, mais les promesses du gouvernement se sont vite perdues dans l'agitation sociale et les limogeages répétés de ministres. Les opposants accusaient Yala de favoriser son clan. Les ONG s'étaient récemment émues du départ forcé de hauts magistrats et du harcèlement dont était victime la presse indépendante. Les putschistes disent vouloir "préserver la démocratie". -Plusieurs pays de la région ont condamné le coup d'Etat. La CEDEAO a annoncé qu'elle enverra dans le pays une mission composée de ministres des Affaires étrangères. --15 septembre. Les putschistes ont entamé des consultations sur la façon de rétablir la démocratie. Les partis politiques et la société civile se sont empressés d'apporter leur soutien au nouveau régime. L'évêque catholique de Bissau a été nommé à la tête d'un comité chargé de proposer les premières mesures susceptibles de mener à la création d'un gouvernement de transition. Les soldats qui patrouillaient dimanche dans les rues, ont pratiquement disparu ce lundi. L'aéroport a été rouvert et la circulation a presque repris son cours normal dans la capitale. Une délégation de cinq pays de l'Afrique de l'Ouest a commencé des entretiens avec le général Seabra Correia. Elle a aussi rendu visite au chef d'Etat déchu, M. Yala, qui, selon le général Seabrea, est llbre de rester ou non dans le pays. -- 17 septembre. Le président Kumba Yala a accepté de quitter le pouvoir "dans l'intérêt supérieur de la nation, au nom de l'unité nationale et pour la paix", a-t-il annoncé ans une déclaration aux médias d'Etat. Plus tôt dans la journée, quelque 5.000 personnes avaient manifesté dans les rues de Bissau pour témoigner leur soutien aux putschistes. Ceux-ci se sont entendus avec la mission de la CEDEAO sur lee moyens de rétablir la démocratie dans le pays, déclarant qu'"ils n'avaient aucune envie de rester en place et partiraient au plus vite". (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 17 septembre 2003)
* Guinea-Bissau. Coup d'etat - 14 September: General Verissimo Correia Seabre has declared himself president of Guinea-Bissau after seizing power in a coup. The army chief of staff says he will remain leader until elections are organised in the West African state. Soldiers have announced they are setting up a transitional government to include "all national political orientations". They are holding President Kumba Yalla in detention, although they have promised to release him later. A curfew is imposed during the night in the capital, Bissau, with soldiers patrolling the streets, but the city is reported to be calm. All government ministers have been ordered to report to a public building in the capital of the former Portuguese colony. President Yalla dissolved the government last November, promising new elections but they have been postponed four times since. The coup came at dawn, following an announcement on 13 September that the president would have to cancel them again. Radio stations broadcast a message from the army saying it had seized power because President Yalla had failed to resolve the country's problems. "I am going to assume the presidency of the republic until there are elections," General Seabre told Portuguese state television. "As a person, I have nothing against Kumba Yalla," he said. "He can stay in Guinea-Bissau as well as leave the country." The fate of Prime Minister Mario Pires, who is in the south of the country, was not clear with reports that the army was seeking to detain him. Portugal condemned the coup and called on the army to allow long-delayed elections to go forward in its former colony. -- The coup makers name a 25-member Military Ruling Council for the Restoration of Constitutional Democratic Order (CMROD). -- ECOWAS is sending a fact-finding mission to Guinea-Bissau. -- The Nigerian Govt. calls on the military in Guinea-Bissau to immediately "reconsider the overthrow of President Yalla and to return the country to constitutional order". 15 September: Bissau is reported to be calm with traffic returning to the streets. Soldiers have been heading back to their barracks and the international airport is expected to re-open soon. General Seabre is holding talks with political parties and other groups. 16 September: Guinea-Bissau's President, Kumba Yalla, will not be allowed to return to office. Commander Zamora Induta, a spokesman for coup leader General Verissimo Correia Seabre, said that visiting West African envoys are "putting pressure on us to let him come back. But it's out of the question. It's irreversible". The army says that Mr Alley will remain under house arrest until a new transitional government takes over which could be within days. West African officials led by Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio had held talks 15-16 September with members of the military committee which is now running the country. At an earlier meeting between the military and members of political parties, civil society and the judiciary, Archbishop Camnate Na Bsim was appointed to head a team and given 48 hours to draw up a plan for Guinea-Bissau's transition. This is intended to lead to the establishment of an interim government which can guide the country to elections. 17 September: MISNA reports that ECOWAS has managed to negotiate an agreement between the military junta and the toppled President, Kumba Yalla. Mediators have persuaded the Head of State to read out a letter of resignation. In a recorded resignation speech, Mr Yalla says he is resigning "in the name of national unity, and in the interest of resolving our problems peacefully". (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 17 September 2003)
* Kenya. Moi resigns as party chairman - Former president Daniel arap Moi of Kenya has relinquished the chairmanship of the former ruling party but has shocked many by failing to name a successor. Mr Moi made the announcement today at a meeting attended by all the MPs of Kenya's official opposition party, the Kenya African National Union (Kanu). Mr Moi is now expected to dedicate more of his time to the Moi Foundation, whose main aim is broker regional peace. Mr Moi astounded party followers gathered outside the meeting's venue by not naming a successor. Kanu ruled Kenya from independence in 1963 to 2002 when it lost in hotly contested general elections to an opposition alliance led by Mwai Kibaki -- the current president. Since the December 2002 vote, many of the party functions have been overseen by Uhuru Kenyatta. Mr Kenyatta is one of Kanu's two vice-chairmen and was Mr Moi's controversial choice to be the party's presidential candidate. The party has been hit by internal wrangling in recent days and this is probably why Mr Moi failed to name Mr Kenyatta as his successor, preferring instead to wait until party elections are held. A section of MP's from Mr Moi's Rift Valley province is said to be opposed to Mr Kenyatta taking over from Mr Moi. Prior to the 2002 elections a number of influential Kanu officials, including several former cabinet ministers in Mr Moi's government, quit the party after Mr Moi chose Mr Kenyatta as his successor. (BBC News, UK, 11 September 2003)
* Kenya. Départ d'Arap Moi - Le 11 septembre, l'ex-chef d'Etat du Kenya, Daniel arap Moi, a abandonné la charge de président de la KANU (Kenya African National Union), le parti qui a conduit le pays de 1963 à 2002. Mais à la grande surprise de tous, il n'a pas nommé de successeur. L'absence d'indication quant à un possible successeur à la direction du parti aurait pour origine, selon certaines sources, des divisions qui se sont créées au sein de la KANU. Aux élections de décembre 2002, Uhuru Kenyatta, le "dauphin" choisi par M. Moi comme candidat à la présidence, a connu un échec face à Mwai Kibaki, l'actuel chef d'Etat. Kenyatta semble ne pas être apprécié par une partie de sa propre coalition politique. Son choix pour les présidentielles avait déjà provoqué un exode des cadres de la KANU, dont certains sont passés dans le camp adverse et siègent aujourd'hui dans le gouvernement de Kibaki. (Misna, Italie, 11 septembre 2003)
* Kenya. Key official in Constitutional Review Talks shot dead - On 14 September, Dr. Odhiambo Mbai, chairman of the Devolution Committee of the National Constitutional Conference, was killed in an attack at his Nairobi home. The raid was described as an "assassination" by minister Raila Odinga, who was among the first to arrive at Nairobi Hospital, where Dr Mbai was taken by neighbours. A shocked Constitutional Review chairman, Professor Yash Pal Ghai, also said he suspected the killers were hired gunmen. "The Committee had made great progress and it is possible that there were some people who were not happy with its work and wanted to slow it down", he told The Nation. (The Nation, Kenya, 15 September 2003)
* Lesotho. Culture undermines efforts to prevent HIV/AIDS - Social and cultural norms and traditions in Lesotho are hampering efforts to combat the rising HIV/AIDS epidemic, government officials told IRIN. Mathoriso Monaheng, Director of Administration at the Lesotho AIDS Programme Co-ordinating Agency (LAPCA), said the first case of HIV/AIDS was detected in Lesotho in 1986, when "a medical practitioner from East Africa, working in the Mokhotlong district, about 8 hours drive from [the capital] Maseru," was diagnosed as HIV-positive. "As a result, everybody concluded that it was a disease for the foreigner. It was perceived to be a disease for Makwerekwere [a derogative term for foreign Africans]." Ignorance about HIV/AIDS has been a major stumbling block for efforts at halting the spread of the disease, she said. Monaheng used as an example of this the belief among some that condom's were responsible for the spread of the disease. The government has committed itself to disbursing 2 percent of its budget -- an estimated Maloti 53.2 million (about US $5.6 million) -- to various ministries for their HIV programmes in a bid to improve knowledge of the disease and boost prevention efforts. (IRIN, Kenya, 16 September 2003)
* Liberia. The challenge of rebuilding - Inside Liberia's parliament, the large chamber used for joint sittings of the upper and lower houses is a wreck. Only a handful of yellow chairs remain fixed in rows, on strips of red carpet. The other 150 or so seats have been ripped from their moorings and scattered over the auditorium's bare floor, the victims of nocturnal theft and destruction thought likely to have been carried out by forces loyal to Charles Taylor, the departed president. The damage highlights the challenge facing the transitional government that is due to take office next month with the job of rebuilding a country whose institutions have been all but destroyed by tyranny and conflict. "I don't think that the task is impossible," says Jacques Paul Klein, special representative of the United Nations secretary-general in Liberia. "We have a limited population, we have resources here -- we have to find out, however, who owns them." For him the question is: "How quickly can we generate international investment and employment for the population in a country that has really been totally destroyed over the past 14 years?" The government of Mr Taylor, a former warlord who last month bowed to international pressure and went into exile, is widely seen as having left a legacy of corruption and waste. Among the documents scattered in the corridors and side-rooms of the looted parliament is the annual report for last year of the ministry of state for presidential affairs, with details of how the department spent its budget for 2002-03. The department's staff of 1,261 included a 127-member choir while the Executive Air-Wing is reported to have taken delivery of five helicopters, with Ukrainian pilots and engineers. (Financial Times, UK, 16 September 2003)
* Liberia. Annan urges UN force - 16 September: The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has proposed that a force of 15,000 UN peacekeepers be sent to Liberia. The Security Council is due to consider the proposal later today. The force would begin to be deployed at the start of October but would not be expected to reach full strength until next year. In a report to the Security Council, Mr Annan said one of the most important tasks would be the disarmament of armed groups, including child soldiers. Mr Annan is clearly aware of the scale of the task a UN peacekeeping force will face once it is operational in Liberia. For that reason he is proposing a force which would operate under a Chapter Seven mandate -- a technical term that would give them the most robust mode of operation available under the UN charter. In his report to the UN Security Council, Mr Annan says that despite positive political developments in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, the country as a whole remains highly unstable. More than 30,000 members of militia groups, armed forces and paramilitary personnel are still active in the countryside. Among these are large numbers of child soldiers. Mr Annan says that the disarmament and demobilisation of these armed groups is one of the greatest challenges in Liberia. While UN agencies working in co-ordination with peacekeepers will be expected to assist in this task Mr Annan says that, ultimately, the success or failure of the disarmament and demobilisation process rests in the hands of the warring parties themselves. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 16 September 2003) 

Weekly anb0918.txt - End of #4/7