weekly anb06154.txt #8

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 15-06-2000      PART #4/8

* Erythree/Ethiopie. Perspective de paix  -  9 juin. Alors que
les pourparlers indirects entre les deux pays trainent en
longueur a Alger, l'Erythree fait etat d'une "offensive
generalisee" des forces ethiopiennes sur le front sud, pres du
port erythreen d'Assab sur la mer Rouge. Selon Asmara, l'armee
ethiopienne avait envoye des renforts dans le secteur ces
derniers jours. L'offensive impliquerait trois divisions
ethiopiennes, soit plus de 20.000 hommes. Le 31 mai dernier,
l'Ethiopie avait officiellement declare la fin des hostilites. -
 10 juin. L'Erythree a annonce avoir accepte "une proposition de
l'OUA pour une cessation immediate des hostilites". Cette
proposition implique aussi le retrait des troupes ethiopiennes
apres le deploiement d'une force de maintien de la paix de l'Onu
sous les auspices de l'OUA. L'Ethiopie a egalement donne son
"accord de principe", mais a reclame un delai de reflexion. Le
plan de paix ne devrait donc pas etre signe avant une semaine. -
 11 juin. L'accord a commence a se traduire par une accalmie sur
le terrain. - 14 juin. Dans la nuit, les forces ethiopienne
lancent une offensive pres de la ville erythreenne de Teseney,
qu'elles conquierent a l'aube. Cette offensive, selon le porte-
parole du gouvernement ethiopien, aurait ete suscitee par des
"provocations". Dans la soiree, le Premier ministre ethiopien
Meles Zenawi a declare que son pays acceptait le plan de paix de
l'OUA qui implique la cessation des hostilites et l'instauration
d'une zone tampon de 25 km de profondeur a l'interieur de
l'Erythree le long de la frontiere contestee.   (ANB-BIA, de
sources diverses, 15 juin 2000)

* Eritrea-Ethiopia. Is peace near?  -  8 June: Eritrea says that
Ethiopia continues to launch attacks on the Assab front.
According to the Eritrean foreign ministry, on 7 June, the
Ethiopian forces launched an attack on the left flank of the
Assab front involving two brigades. Hundreds of thousands of
Eritreans now live in displacement camps. With no crops in the
fields and the seasonal rains expected in about two weeks, the
country is now facing what a UN official calls "a crisis in the
making". Every day thousands more refugees show up. They come
from the fertile border region -- the breadbasket of Eritrea. 9
June: Fierce fighting is raging near Assab. Ethiopia has denied
launching an assault for control of the port. 12 June: Ethiopia
and Eritrea appear to be close to a ceasefire, after Ethiopia
agrees in principle to an international peace plan that will put
a UN military force along their disputed border. However, the
Ethiopian Parliament has to approve a cessation of hostilities.
Eritrea has already agreed to the peace plan (9 June) "with deep
reservations". The proposals call for both sides to withdraw to
positions held before hostilities broke out in May 1998 and for
a UN force to be deployed in a buffer zone until international
arbitrators demarcate their common border. 13 June: Ethiopia says
its forces are in full control on three fronts, where fighting
has raged since the weekend, and that an Eritrean fortification,
37 km short of Assab, has fallen into their hands. Western
diplomats are expressing cautious optimism that the two sides are
now close to a ceasefire deal. 14 June: Ethiopia finally accepts
the international peace plan. The peace agreement is expected to
be signed at the weekend.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 15 June 2000)

* Ethiopia. Disposal of pesticides  -  A five-day training course
for agricultural experts to handle the disposal of obsolete
pesticides amounting to 1,360 metric tons, opened on 12 June in
Addis Ababa. The disposal project will be undertaken in four
phases and will last two years at a cost of about 4.5 million US
dollars. The existence of these large stocks of obsolete
pesticides poses a serious health hazard and widespread
environmental damage to the country.   (PANA, Dakar, 13 June
2000)

* Guinee Equatoriale. Elections municipales  -  Le parti au
pouvoir, le Partido Democratico de Guinea Ecuatorial, a remporte
l'ensemble des 30 conseils locaux aux elections municipales du
28 mai dernier, boycottees par la plupart des partis
d'opposition, a rapporte l'AFP. La Commission electorale a
annonce que le PDGE avait remporte 230 sieges sur un total de
244; les 14 sieges restants ont ete remportes par les partis dits
d'opposition moderes, consideres comme proches du PDGE. La
Commission a indique que la participation s'elevait a 91%, ce qui
contredit des informations precedentes selon lesquelles peu de
gens avaient participe au scrutin.   (IRIN, Abidjan, 6 juin 2000)

* Kenya. Mount Kenya Forest under seige from pastoralists  - 
Pressed by the worst drought Kenya has witnessed in 40 years,
Maasai herdsmen have driven thousands of their cattle into a
section of Mt. Kenya Forest. The forest, which provides
vegetation cover for the foot of the mountain and serves as a
catchment area for central Kenya, is the latest area to be
invaded by the cattle herders in a desperate search for pasture
and water. The pastoralists' earlier sojourn on the neighbouring
ranches had caused uproar, with some observers mistaking their
act as part of a wider conspiracy by the locals to invade farms
the way former Zimbabwean war veterans are currently doing on
white-owned farms. The invasion of the forest has generated a lot
of conflict between the herdsmen and the farming community who
live around this mountain area. While the cattlemen claim they
are solely interested in pasture and clean water for their herds,
the farmers complain the marauding cattle are destroying their
crops. Some of the cattle herders are also demanding to be
allowed to cultivate the forest. Last week, the herdsmen entered
the Ontulili southern section of the forest in Meru Central
District prompting protests from leaders and peasants whose crops
had been ruined in the process. Meru's district commissioner,
William Kerario, complained the District Security Committee was
not consulted in advance to allow the herdsmen moved into the
forest. He criticised the decision to move the herdsmen from
Mukogodo area from ranches in Laikipia, 156 miles northwest of
Nairobi to forest. At a meeting 3 June, involving the herdsmen,
leaders, administrators and the ranch owners, the cattle keepers
were persuaded to vacate the area. They were authorised to move
their animals into the Mt. Kenya and Aberdares forests in Meru
and Nyeri districts, respectively. During that meeting, the
government was urged to allow peasants in surrounding areas to
also cultivate in the expansive forest now that herders have been
given permission to move there. Chris Murungaru, a legislator,
said the farming community should also be allowed to grow crops
in the fertile forest so as to prevent the destruction of their
crops by livestock moving into the area.   (Tervil Okoko, PANA,
12 June 2000)

* Kenya. Human rights groups condemn student attack on newspaper 
-  The Kenya Human Rights Commission and MediaWatch have
condemned the attack, on 12 June, on the Nation Centre by
university students, describing the action as a brazen attack on
the press and an affront on the freedom of expression. The Nation
Centre is a complex owned by the East Africa Broadcasting
Network, publishers of Nation Newspapers. A press release signed
by the commission's advocacy programme officer, Mugambi Kiai,
said the attack by students from the Jomo Kenyatta University of
Agriculture infringed on the right to security of person, the
media and property. The students, who were angered by a report
on alleged large-scale drug abuse in the Juja campus of the
university, about 20 km north of Nairobi, destroyed property and
molested individuals at the centre. They destroyed property
estimated at over 10 million shillings and dropped petrol bombs
into the building while looting in the process. The story, "Drugs
Rampant At Varsity", which appeared in the Daily Nation, said
that the use of potent drugs like heroine, cocaine and cannabis
was rampant at the university. The students said the report was
highly inaccurate. They blamed some unnamed forces for using the
Nation to fight their vice-chancellor, Prof. Ratemo Michieka. The
vice chancellor himself dismissed the Nation story as baseless
and totally inaccurate, saying even the picture they used
purporting to be the front view of the university is phoney.
(Editor's note: The Jomo Kenyatta University has now been closed
indefinitely).   (PANA, Dakar, 13 June 2000)

* Kenya. Secheresse et famine  -  Depuis deux ans, le nord du
Kenya n'a pratiquement pas connu de pluies. Le deluge d'El Ni¤o,
fin 1997, a ete suivi d'une periode d'extreme secheresse qui a
detruit les recoltes. Le president Moi a lance un appel
dramatique. Plus de 2 millions de Kenyans ont besoin d'un aide
d'urgence estimee a 148 millions de dollars. La secheresse a
egalement asseche les barrages et plonge tout le pays dans une
crise de l'electricite, qui depend pour 80% de centrales
hydrauliques. Les pasteurs masai emigrent avec leurs troupeaux
a la recherche du dernier brin d'herbe et ont meme penetre jusque
dans la capitale Nairobi.   (D'apres De Standaard, Belgique, 15
juin 2000)

* Liberia. Enseignement primaire gratuit  -  Un plan directeur
pour l'enseignement, approuve recemment par des specialistes
liberiens, prevoit que l'enseignement primaire devienne gratuit
et obligatoire au Liberia d'ici 2005, a annonce l'agence de
presse nationale LINA. Le plan invite le gouvernement a accroitre
de 11 a 32%, d'ici l'an 2010, la part de l'education dans le
budget de l'Etat et note qu'il faudra 52 millions de dollars pour
reorganiser le systeme scolaire. Le plan demande egalement que
l'accent soit mis sur la qualite plutot que sur un enseignement
de masse au niveau superieur, notamment dans les universites.  
(IRIN, Abidjan, 7 juin 2000)

* Liberia. Aide de l'UE bloquee?  -  La Grande-Bretagne souhaite
bloquer une aide de l'Union europeenne au Liberia, parce qu'elle
est convaincue que le president Taylor soutient la campagne
rebelle en Sierra Leone, a signale le 10 juin le quotidien
britannique The Guardian. Le ministre des Affaires etrangeres
Robin Cook devrait demander le gel d'une enveloppe de 35 millions
de livres, lors d'une reunion la semaine prochaine a Luxembourg,
ont indique des responsables du Foreign Office. L'aide s'inscrit
dans un programme de lutte contre la pauvrete.   (IRIN, 12 juin
2000)

Weekly anb0615.txt - End of part 4/8