Weekly ANB1127_06.txt #6

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 27-11-2003      PART #6/6

* Sudan. Garang hopes for peace deal  -  22 November: Sudanese rebel leader 
John Garang says there is a good chance of reaching a peace deal by the end 
of the year. Mr Garang -- leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army 
(SPLA) -- was speaking after talks with US Secretary of State Colin Powell. 
The US wants a deal to be reached by the end of December. Mr Garang said he 
considered that date more of an expression of hope than a formal deadline 
for the peace talks resuming in Kenya on 30 November. The talks, aimed at 
ending two decades of civil war, were adjourned for the Muslim holy month 
of Ramadan. The 20 years of fighting pitting rebels from the Christian and 
animist south against the Islamic government has left more than 1.5 million 
people dead. "We hope that we will reach a final, just and comprehensive 
agreement before the end of the year," Mr Garang said after a meeting Mr 
Powell in Washington. Outstanding issues are: Whether Islamic law will 
apply in the capital, Khartoum; How oil revenue is shared out; What type of 
international supervision will take place; The status of three central 
areas: Abyei; Blue Nile State and Nuba Mountains   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 22 
November 2003)

* Sudan. Rebels in western Sudan  -  22 November: Rebels in western Sudan 
have accused the government of violating a truce with airstrikes and 
militia raids that killed 30 people, mostly civilians. The government said 
it knew nothing of the attacks in the arid Darfur area, where the rebels of 
the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) emerged as a fighting force in 
February, saying Khartoum had marginalized the impoverished region. "It's 
been very bad. Attacks by government militias and the air raid have killed 
30 people and lots of livestock," SLM/A Secretary-General Minni Arcua 
Minnawi told Reuters by phone from western Sudan. Minnawi said 24 of the 
dead were civilians and the rest rebel fighters. He said the attacks had 
started on 20 November and continued into 22 November in the west of 
Northern Darfur state, about 850 kilometres west of the capital, Khartoum. 
"They used an Antonov airplane to bomb civilians areas today (22 
November)," he said. In Khartoum, Internal Affairs Minister Major General 
Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein said he had not heard of any attacks in the 
area. 24 November: Rebels in the west of Sudan have released four aid 
workers, and a Sudan government employee they said they rescued from 
another militia who kidnapped them. An official from MEDAIR, a Swiss-based 
aid agency, confirmed four of its Sudanese workers and the government 
employee had been handed over on the night of 22 November, on the border 
with neighbouring Chad, and were now in good health in Chad. President of 
the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, Khalil Ibrahim, told Reuters from 
the Netherlands: "We released the workers in the town of Tina to officials 
from Médécins Sans Frontières, witnessed by the Chadian government." He 
said his group had rescued the workers after they were captured in the 
western Darfur region by Arab militias. His group did not release them 
immediately for fear they would be kidnapped again, he said. The Khartoum 
government had accused the SLM/A of abducting the workers and killing two 
of them, a charge that group denied.   (CNN, USA, 23/24 November 2003)

* Soudan. HRW dénonce les exactions  -  Un nouveau rapport de Human Rights 
Watch (HRW) dénonce les violations des droits de l'homme au Soudan et 
épingle le rôle trouble des compagnies pétrolières. "Le gouvernement 
soudanais a utilisé l'argent du pétrole pour conduire ses campagnes de 
terre brûlée, destinées à évincer des centaines de milliers de fermiers et 
pasteurs de leurs terres, qui renferment du pétrole", écrit l'ONG. Et "les 
compagnies pétrolières opérant au Soudan étaient informées des tueries et 
pillages", mais ont "continué à opérer et à gagner de l'argent". HRW 
demande que le retour des déplacés des zones pétrolières du Haut Nil sur 
leurs terres, "avec garanties pour leur sécurité et compensation des pertes 
subies", soit placé au centre des négociations de paix, qui se déroulent 
actuellement au Kenya entre le gouvernement et les rebelles du 
Sud.   (D'après La Libre Belgique, 25 novembre 2003)

* Sudan. Oil companies and human rights abuses  -  "The Sudanese 
government's efforts to control oilfields in the war-torn south have 
resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians, Human 
Rights Watch said in a report released today. Foreign oil companies 
operating in Sudan have been complicit in this displacement, and the death 
and destruction that have accompanied it. The report, "Sudan, Oil, and 
Human Rights," investigates the role that oil has played in Sudan's civil 
war. This 754-page report is the most comprehensive examination yet 
published of the links between natural-resource exploitation and human 
rights abuses. "Oil development in southern Sudan should have been a cause 
of rejoicing for Sudan's people," said Jemera Rone, Sudan researcher for 
Human Rights Watch. "Instead, it has brought them nothing but woe." The 
report documents how the government has used the roads, bridges and 
airfields built by the oil companies as a means for it to launch attacks on 
civilians in the southern oil region of Western Upper Nile (also known as 
Unity state). In addition to its regular army, the government has deployed 
militant Islamist militias to prosecute the war, and has armed southern 
factions in a policy of ethnic manipulation and destabilization. Human 
Rights Watch urged that the current peace negotiations deal comprehensively 
with the legacy of Sudan's oil war, particularly the ethnic divisions that 
persist in oilfields of the south and threaten the long-term peace.   (HRW, 
25 November 2003)

* Uganda. MPs walk out over conflict  -  20 November: MPs from north and 
east Uganda, worst hit by a 17-year brutal rebellion, are boycotting 
parliament until the security situation improves. The 34 MPs accuse the 
government of not taking the conflict seriously. Last week, a senior United 
Nations said the humanitarian situation in northern Uganda was worse than 
anywhere in the world, even Iraq. Lord's Resistance Army rebels are 
notorious for abducting children to be sex slaves and fighters. Cecilia 
Ogwal, MP for Lira, scene of several recent attacks, said President Yoweri 
Museveni should call for international help or resign. Another MP accuses 
the army of sending soldiers to Congo RDC instead of protecting civilians 
in the north and east.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 20 November 2003)

* Ouganda. Massacres sans fin  -  Ces huit derniers jours, aux alentours de 
Lira (nord du pays), des "dizaines" de civils ont encore été tués lors des 
attaques menées contre des villages par les rebelles de l'Armée de 
résistance du Seigneur (LRA) et leurs combats contre l'armée. L'armée a tué 
dix rebelles de la LRA dans le même secteur, un soldat a été tué et trois 
autres blessés.   (Le Figaro, France, 25 novembre 2003)

* Zambia. Bishops and constitutional review  -  On 20 November, Zambia's 
Roman Catholic bishops released a Pastoral Letter entitled: "Let My People 
Go", asking President Levy Mwanawasa to submit amendments to the 
Constitution, to a constituent assembly. The bishops want the government to 
address four main issues in the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, 
to which the Catholic Church wants economic and social rights added. They 
also asked for the right to employment, labour relations, housing, 
education, health, culture to have "a clear place in the Zambian 
government's priorities and the Constitution." They also insist that the 
new Constitution be very clear about the protection of the electoral 
process to "ensure free and fair elections." They called for an end to the 
discrimination against presidential candidates whose parents were not born 
in Zambia -- a clause that was specifically inserted by former president 
Frederick Chiluba. They also want a return to the requirement that a 
presidential candidate be declared winner only if he attains the minimum of 
51 percent of the vote.   (PANA, Senegal, 20 November 2003)

* Zambia. Free land offer  -  On 21 November, Zambia's central bank 
governor tried to woo foreign farmers, including white landowners forced to 
leave Zimbabwe, to the country with an offer of free land in a bid to 
revive the agricultural sector. Food shortages have affected a number of 
countries across southern Africa in the past two years, increasing 
governments' eagerness to attract commercial farmers with access to the 
capital needed to create large, productive farms. "There are two areas 
where a total of 200,000 hectares of farmland is ready for occupation," 
central bank governor Caleb Fundanga told journalists. "The government is 
ready to give farmers from 50 hectares to 2,000 hectares depending on the 
size of the land they want." He hopes crops such as vegetables and roses 
will reduce Zambia's dependence on copper and cobalt mining. Treasury data 
shows that 70 percent of Zambia's arable land is not being used. Fundanga 
said some established farms were also up for sale or lease to interested 
investors, but gave no further details. He said Zambia had invited over 100 
foreign and local farmers to an agricultural investment conference starting 
on 24 November in a bid to boost the agricultural sector. Growing numbers 
of white farmers have already settled in Zambia, bringing more than $100 
million in investments with them, a Zambia Investments Centre official said 
last month.   (CNN, USA, 21 November 2003)

* Zambie. Naufrage: 26 morts  -  Un bateau de passagers surchargé a chaviré 
sur le lac Mweru en Zambie, faisant 26 morts et 14 disparus, a-t-on appris 
auprès des autorités. L'accident s'est produit par mauvais temps dans 
l'après-midi du lundi 24 novembre, selon le porte-parole de la police. 51 
passagers et leurs bagages se trouvaient à bord du navire, d'une capacité 
de 36 personnes. Onze personnes ont survécu. Les efforts de secours ont été 
retardés, les autorités n'ayant été averties que mardi.   (AP, 26 novembre 
2003)

* Zimbabwe. Grim budget unveiled  -  On 20 November, Finance Minister 
Herbert Murerwa presented a grim national budget for 2004 in Parliament, in 
which inflation is projected to top 700 percent in the first half of the 
year, among other worrying macro-economic indicators. He told MPs the 
economy, steeped in its worst crisis since independence from Britain in 
1980 declined by 30 percent this year, surpassing even the most pessimistic 
projections. This is the fourth year running that Zimbabwe's economy has 
registered negative growth, and the registered 12.4 percent slump in growth 
is the steepest year-on-year fall yet. Murerwa blamed the crippling 
depression on rising inflation, lack of fiscal restraint and widespread 
corruption. He pledged an invigorated government-led recovery plan with 
tight control on spending, anti-graft campaigns and the development of 
agriculture. "Inflation remains our number one enemy whose containment 
requires concerted efforts," he urged. The minister said inflation would 
top 600 percent at the end of the year, and rise further to around 700 
percent in the first quarter of next year before a variety of planned 
fiscal and monetary measures hopefully begin to bring it down. He said weak 
fiscal controls were largely responsible for the inflation spiral, adding 
that in the new budget, "unbudgeted spending would be limited to national 
emergencies."   (PANA, Senegal, 20 November 2003)

* Zimbabwe. Budget inflationniste  -  Le 20 novembre, le ministre 
zimbabwéen des Finances, Herbert Murerwa, a présenté au Parlement un budget 
2004 aux sombres perspectives, dans lequel il est prévu un taux d'inflation 
de 700% dans la première moitié de cette année, en plus d'autres 
indicateurs macro-économiques alarmants. Il a déclaré devant les 
parlementaires que l'économie, plongée dans sa crise la plus grave depuis 
l'indépendance, a régressé de 30% au cours de l'année 2003, dépassant même 
les prévisions les plus pessimistes. Il a préconisé un plan de redressement 
rigoureux, avec un contrôle strict sur les dépenses, des campagnes de lutte 
contre la corruption et le développement de l'agriculture. M. Murerwa s'en 
est pris au gouvernement et au secteur privé, précisant que "l'éthique et 
la déontologie dans le travail et les affaires sont en train de 
disparaître", laissant placé à "une économie fantôme créée par des 
personnes avides au détriment du pays tout entier".   (PANA, Sénégal, 20 
novembre 2003)

* Zimbabwe. No invitation for Mugabe  -  25 November: President Mugabe has 
not been invited to the Commonwealth Summit to be held in Abuja, Nigeria, 
5-8 December. Nigeria's President Obasanjo who is hosting the summit says: 
"He will not have an invitation. If there is no invitation, they (Zimbabwe) 
will not come".   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 25 November 2003)

<$TSpAbove=75>* Zimbabwe. Patchy strike  -  20 November: A two-day general 
strike has not shut down Zimbabwe, as unions had hoped. Reports say that 
the centre of the capital, Harare, is as normal, although some factories 
and industries are closed in the second city, Bulawayo. There is a heavy 
police presence in both cities. The strike was called after the arrest of 
more than 80 people during protests on 18 November. Unions are upset about 
the economic crisis and called the strike to coincide with today's budget. 
The slow start to the strike illustrates the trouble non-government bodies 
have in reaching the general public. The government controls all radio and 
TV stations and has shut the only privately-owned daily newspaper. 21 
November: A court has released 52 activists and union leaders. Among those 
freed is the head of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Lovemore 
Matombo. They are due to return to court to face charges of organising 
illegal demonstrations. 24 November: The police say that trade unionists 
and pro-democracy leaders arrested during the strike, have all been 
released.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 24 November 2003)

Weekly anb1127.txt - 6/6 -  THE END




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Un homme meurt chaque fois que l'un d'entre nous se tait devant la tyrannie 
(W. Soyinka, Prix Nobel litterature)
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Everytime somebody keep silent when faced with tyranny, someone else dies 
(Wole Syinka, Nobel Prize for Literature) *
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