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Weekly ANB1113_03.txt #7

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 13-11-2003      PART #3/6
* Erythrée/Ethiopie. Engagement pour le paix - L'Ethiopie et l'Erythrée ont réaffirmé leur engagement envers le processus de paix en cours et rassuré les Nations unies sur le fait que rien ne sera entrepris pour compromettre la stabilité militaire existant entre les deux pays après leur guerre frontalière. Les délégations éthiopienne et érythréenne ont fait cette promesse à l'occasion de la 20e réunion de la Commission de coordination militaire (MCC) organisée le 5 novembre à Nairobi (Kenya). Le général Gordon, commandant en chef de la force de la Mission de l'Onu en Ethiopie et en Erythrée (MINUEE), a insisté sur l'importance de la poursuite du processus de la MCC comme composante essentielle du maintien de la stabilité militaire. Il a invité les deux parties à éviter "la guerre des mots", considérée comme inutile et potentiellement déstabilisatrice. (PANA, Sénégal, 6 novembre 2003)
* Eritrea/Ethiopia. UN envoy plays down tension - The United Nations' special envoy to Eritrea and Ethiopia sought to allay fears on 6 November that an outbreak of shooting last weekend was a sign of deteriorating security along the two countries' disputed border. Legwaila Joseph Legwaila was speaking against the background of renewed tension between both parties and the United Nations peacekeeping mission, Unmee. On 6 November, Unmee officials confirmed that Mr Legwaila's personal pilot had been expelled from Eritrea on charges of spying. Ethiopia on 6 November accused Unmee of wrongly implicating its forces in the shooting, which occurred last weekend inside an UN-patrolled security zone on the disputed border. The incident raised concern in the region that brinkmanship on the part of the two countries might lead to a fresh outbreak of fighting. UN troops investigating the shooting, which left one Eritrean dead, said initial reports indicated "uniformed men" from the Ethiopian side had been involved. Unmee has so far appeared to be one of the most successful UN peacekeeping operations on the continent. Its 4,200 troops police the border on which Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a trench war from 1998 to 2000 at the cost of more than 70,000 lives. However, the peace process has hit an impasse in recent months over the physical demarcation of the border between the two countries, which separated in 1993 when Eritrea gained independence after fighting a 30-year guerrilla war. Mr Legwaila said Unmee had lived with plenty of disagreements in the past. These did not add up to a "deteriorating situation", he said from Asmara, the Eritrean capital. "There has not been any war because all these myriad incidents we have dealt with successfully in the past three years," he said. (Financial Times, UK, 7 November 2003)
* Ethiopie/Italie. L'obélisque d'Axoum - Le 7 novembre, les opérations de démantèlement de l'obélisque d'Axoum ont commencé dans le centre de Rome, le gouvernement italien ayant décidé de rendre à l'Ethiopie ce monument archéologique enlevé à l'époque par les armées de Mussolini. Vieux de 1.700 ans, l'obélisque d'Axoum, 24 mètres de haut, est installé à côté du siège de la FAO. Cela fait des décennies qu'Addis Abeba réclame le retour de cette stèle funéraire de l'antique royaume d'Axoum, symbole du passé glorieux éthiopien. Si l'opération de démantèlement devrait être terminée d'ici à la fin de l'année, on ne sait en revanche pas exactement quand il entreprendra son voyage de retour au pays. Il pèse environ 40 tonnes. (AP, 7 novembre 2003)
* Ethiopia/Italy. Obelisk to be returned to Ethiopia - 8 November: Italian workers have detached the top section of an ancient obelisk looted from Ethiopia by fascist troops in 1937, in preparation for its return home. The granite column, thought to be about 2,000 years old, was taken from the holy city of Axum in northern Ethiopia when Italian dictator Benito Mussolini invaded the country. Ethiopia has campaigned to get it back for more than five decades, but despite three agreements with Italy the obelisk remained on a busy roundabout just down the road from the Colosseum. Last year, Ethiopia had threatened to sever ties with Italy over the obelisk. "We have a heritage and we want to keep that heritage...It is not something we can value in terms of money," Ethiopia's ambassador to Rome, Mengistu Hulluka, said. A small group of Ethiopians living in Italy cheered on the workers as they started the operation. The obelisk was originally carved from a single piece of stone, but was transported to Italy in several pieces, then reassembled. Experts have to carefully disassemble it so it can be shipped home, using jacks and cranes to separate the obelisk into three sections. It is thought the operation will be over by the end of the year, and if all went according to plan the obelisk could arrive in Ethiopia by next spring. The Ethiopian authorities plan to re-erect the column in Axum. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 8 November 2003)
* Ethiopia. Major drought averted - Good weather has averted a major drought in Ethiopia, and the number of people seeking food aid in 2004 is expected to drop sharply, a United Nations envoy said. Better rains "have produced better harvests, and we expect the number of people taking food aid next year will go down to 5 million, from the present 13.2 million," said Marti Ahtisaari, special envoy for humanitarian crises. (New York Times, USA, 8 November 2003)
* Guinée. Seuls 2 candidats à la présidentielle - Le 11 novembre, le président de la Cour suprême a annoncé que son institution a retenu les candidatures du général Lansana Conté, président sortant, candidat au titre du Parti de l'unité et du progrès (PUP), et du Dr Mamadou Bhoye Barry, leader du Parti pour l'union et le développement (PUD), pour le scrutin présidentiel du 21 décembre prochain. Plusieurs partis ont refusé de participer à l'élection, dont le Front républicain pour l'alternance démocratique (FRAD) qui regroupe les principales formations politiques guinéennes. La Cour suprême a par ailleurs rejeté six candidatures pour "non conformité à la loi". Il n'y aura donc pas de véritable adversaire pour Conté. M. Bhoye Barry est l'unique député d'un petit parti pratiquement inconnu. Il est chirurgien vétérinaire et un ami très proche du président. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 12 novembre 2003)
* Kenya. Universities closed down by strike - 10 November: All public universities have been closed indefinitely, with some 60,000 students ordered to leave their campuses by this evening. The government took the decision after 3,000 lecturers went on strike. The university teachers are demanding huge salary rises which they say they were promised by the government. They want the salaries of the lowest-paid lecturers to be increased from about $300 to up to $12,000. The government says the strike is illegal. President Mwai Kibaki's government promised to increase salaries for lecturers early next year after receiving recommendations from a task-force it appointed to advise it on the issue. But the lecturers say they cannot wait that long. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 10 November 2003)
* Kenya. Fermeture des universités publiques - Le lundi soir, 10 novembre, les autorités kényanes ont ordonné la fermeture pour une durée indéterminée de six universités publiques, à la suite d'une grève des enseignants qui réclament une hausse de salaire. La plupart des universités, situées à Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret et Nakuru, sont devenues des cités fantômes. Les enseignants demandent au gouvernement de revoir à la hausse leurs salaires, auxquels ils attribuent la fuite des cerveaux au Kenya. Les salaires actuels vont de 34.000 shillings (442 dollars) par mois pour un assistant à 84.000 shillings (1.092 dollars) pour un professeur. (PANA, Sénégal, 11 novembre 2003)
* Kenya. Mau Mau registered - On 11 November, Kenya formally registered the Mau Mau movement in a move seen by lawyers as a plus for the surviving fighters' efforts to sue Britain for compensation for torture under colonial rule. A colonial-era legislation outlawed the Mau Mau and branded them "terrorists," accusing them of involvement in secret oaths to kill white settlers and their African supporters. Kenya's government said in August it had lifted the ban on the group which spearheaded an uprising against British colonialists in Kenya in the 1950s. Kenya marks 40 years of independence on December 12. "It is a sad fact that it has taken 40 years for the government to finally agree to register this group that was not afraid of death in order to earn freedom for its countrymen," Kenya's Vice President Moody Awori, told the group after handing over the certificate of registration to its leaders. Several hundred veterans, many wearing dreadlocks, and others toothless and wrinkled, burst into traditional freedom songs and shouted "freedom and land!" when Awori presented their leaders with the registration certificate. (CNN, USA, 11 November 2003)
* Liberia. Terrified civilians found - The first UN peace missions to Liberia's rebel-held far east have found deserted towns emptied of all but looting insurgents, and terrorized civilians under rebel grip or lying rotting, dead, in the bush. An Associated Press reporter accompanying Gen. Daniel Opande, the Kenyan commander of Liberia's 3-month-old UN peace force, saw hamlet after hamlet still bloodied by pillaging fighters, or by persistent clashes between rebels and government hard-liners. "There is no war, no more ground for you to gain,"Opande exhorted rebels in the eastern town of Griae --- newly attacked, sacked and burned by the insurgents, four months after their leader signed the West African nation's peace deal. Playing out in territory under control of the smaller of Liberia's two rebel movements, the continuing devastation underscores the difficulty a still-fledgling UN peace mission faces in ending rule by AK-47 in Liberia after 14 years of bloodletting. So far, only 4,500 armed troops have deployed as part of the UN force, due to grow to the world's largest at about 15,000 men. Most of the deployed peacekeepers are West Africans, with Bangladeshis the next largest contingent. Peacekeepers have been concentrated in Monrovia, the capital, calm since August, when West African peace troops landed and warlord-president Charles Taylor fled into exile. (CNN, USA, 9 November 2003)
* Liberia. L'Eglise veut s'impliquer - 10 novembre. Les dirigeants de l'Eglise libérienne ont demandé à être représentés dans la Commission de Désarmement, démobilisation et réinsertion (DDR) du pays. Dans un communiqué publié ce week-end à l'issue d'une réunion du Conseil des Eglises du Liberia, ils ont indiqué que l'Eglise pourrait avoir un grand impact dans une campagne de sensibilisation du public. Qualifiant de "fragile" la paix au Liberia, et soulignant "la nécessité d'améliorer rapidement la sécurité dans le pays", ils ont également promis de plaider en faveur de "la vérité et la réconciliation", conformément à l'accord de paix d'Accra. Ils ont exhorté le gouvernement de transition de Gyude Bryant à veiller au respect de l'Etat de droit, des droits humains, de la transparence et de la bonne gouvernance. -- 12 novembre. D'autre part, les soldats de la force de paix de l'Onu ont dû intervenir pour mettre fin à de nouveaux combats entre rebelles libériens et miliciens fidèles à l'ancien président Charles Taylor. Ces incidents se sont déroulés à Buchanan, à 90 km de Monrovia. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 13 novembre 2003)
* Liberia. Spotlight on Charles Taylor - 7 November: Liberia's former president, Charles Taylor, absconded with government money and has tried to loot revenues since he went into exile, says a UN panel monitoring sanctions against the West African nation. The report was discussed by the UN Security Council on 6 November, with members saying the sanctions on diamonds, arms, logging and some travel would stay in place for the time being, as the panel had recommended. "The situation is such that the sanctions will just continue," said Angolan Ambassador Ismael Gaspar Martins, this month's council president. The embargoes were imposed after Taylor's government was accused of fomenting warfare in the region for wealth and power and must be reviewed every six months. An August peace deal ended most fighting between rebels and government forces, sent Taylor into exile in Nigeria and cleared the way for a transitional government under Gyude Bryant. But the panel said the country's commerce was riddled with corruption, kickbacks and bribes from foreign concerns that now also involve rebel leaders. Liberian consumers, for example, pay more for fuel and rice than necessary, the report said. It says attempts to trace illicit bank accounts and other illegal Liberian activities by Taylor and others met with little response from governments and firms in the United States, Britain, Switzerland and China, among others. "Former President Charles Taylor has diverted and continues to divert revenues and assets of the Government of Liberia," the panel said. The report said that funds taken illegally from the Liberian International Shipping and Corporate Registry, with a key office in Vienna, Virginia, were invested in real estate. "Even from his exile, Charles Taylor has attempted to sell some of those properties, including one in South Africa which had been used to house the Liberian Embassy," the panel said. 8 November: Security has been tightened around the compound in eastern Nigeria of the exiled former Liberian leader, Charles Taylor, following rumours the United States has posted a $2m bounty for his capture. The Bush administration has said Mr Taylor should face trial at a special war crimes court in Sierra Leone, where he was indicted in June this year while still president of Liberia. 13 November: Washington denies it has plans to offer a $2m bounty for the capture of Liberia's exiled former leader, Charles Taylor. A bill approving an $87bn aid package for Iraq and Afghanistan included a reward for "an indictee of the Special Court for Sierra Leone". Nigeria said the offer, assumed for Mr Taylor's detainment, verged on state-sponsored terrorism. The US says the money could be "an additional tool" if the need arises. "We strongly oppose any violent or other illegal actions against Nigerian authorities aimed at obtaining custody of Charles Taylor," US State Department spokeswoman Susan Pittman said. "Apprehension of indictees should be conducted by appropriate authorities." (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 13 November 2003)
* Liberia/Sierra Leone. Bryant regrets war in Sierra Leone - 6 November: Liberia's interim president has expressed regret for his country's part in Sierra Leone's civil war. On a one-day visit to Sierra Leone, Gyude Bryant said it was time for the two states to put the past behind them. His predecessor Charles Taylor, now living in exile, is currently appealing against war crimes charges laid by Sierra Leone's UN-backed court. Mr Bryant, speaking in Freetown after talks with Sierra Leone President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, told reporters: "Not all of us endorse what happened. I beg you to forgive us, put away the bitterness of the past and let us live and work together to move our countries forward," he said. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 6 November 2003)
* Madagascar. Festival de la danse - Du 8 au 15 novembre, la capitale malgache accueille la 5e édition des Rencontres chorégraphiques de l'Afrique et de l'océan Indien. De l'Egypte à l'Afrique du Sud et du Cap Vert à l'Ethiopie, pas moins de onze compagnies représenteront leur pays dans cette compétition. Les trois lauréats primés se verront offrir une tournée en Allemagne, en France, en Grande-Bretagne, en Espagne et en Tunisie au premier semestre 2004. Le premier prix bénéficiera en outre d'une tournée en Afrique en 2004 ou 2005 en fonction des disponibilités de la compagnie. (JAI, France, 9-15 novembre 2003)
* Madagascar. Elections municipales - Les élections municipales se sont déroulées le dimanche 9 novembre, dans les communes rurales de Madagascar dans un climat de calme. Elles se poursuivront le 23 novembre dans les grandes villes. Le parti du président Marc Ravalomanana part grand favori dans ce scrutin. (La Croix, France, 10 novembre 2003) 

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