weekly anb06294.txt #6

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 29-06-2000      PART #4/6

* Nigeria. Shell fights compensation order  -  26 June:
International oil giant, Royal Dutch/Shell, says it will appeal
against a Nigerian court order requiring it to pay a local
community $40 million in compensation for an oil spill 30 years
ago. The case had been progressing through the Nigerian courts ever
since the Ejamaa Ebubu community, living near Port Harcourt in
Nigeria's Delta region, brought its action nine years ago. They
were seeking redress for the spill which devastated an area in the
Ogoni region, where people have long campaigned against Shell for
what they say is exploitation and widespread environmental damage.
Local people say that the mangrove swamp area where the spill
occurred, has been covered by a thick crust of oil that is now as
hard as asphalt. A Shell spokeswoman in London, said the company
believed it could not be held responsible for the spill because it
was not operating in the area at the time of the civil war.
However, she said: "We have offered to clean up the area and have
paid some compensation to the local community".   (BBC News, 26
June 2000)

* Nigeria. Greve des fonctionnaires a Lagos  -  Le 26 juin, la
greve declenchee par les fonctionnaires de l'Etat de Lagos est
entree dans son 5e jour. Les 47.000 fonctionnaires de cet Etat
reclament un salaire mensuel minimum de 7.500 nairas (100 nairas =
$1) au lieu des 5.500 proposes par le gouvernement qui a reaffirme
qu'il ne pouvait pas aller au-dela de ce montant. La crise a eclate
le 1er mai, suite a l'annonce du gouvernement federal de porter le
salaire minimum de ses travailleurs a 7.500 nairas et celui des
agents des 36 Etats de la federation a 5.500 nairas. Le gouverneur
de l'Etat de Lagos a deplore cette decision unilaterale, mais a
declare qu'il ne pouvait pas consacrer la totalite des ressources
de son Etat au paiement des salaires. Le 28 juin, le gouvernement
federal a decide d'offrir sa mediation. Dans plusieurs autres Etats
du Nigeria, les travailleurs ont adresse un ultimatum aux
gouvernements menacant de se mettre en greve si leurs
revendications n'etaient pas prises en compte.   (D'apres PANA, 26-
28 juin 2000)

* Nigeria. Public sector strike in Lagos  -  The week-old strike in
Lagos has closed down hundreds of schools and hospitals across the
city. Rubbish has been piling up on the streets and patients turned
out of hospitals. There is the threat of an epidemic looming from
the uncleared piles of rubbish in some areas of the city. The Lagos
workers are demanding that they be paid above the minimum wage for
state employees -- they want parity with pay for federal workers. 
 (BBC News, 28 June 2000)

* Rwanda. Proces pour genocide en Belgique  -  Le 27 juin, la
chambre des mises en accusation de Bruxelles a decide le renvoi en
assises des dossiers de quatre Rwandais accuses de participation au
genocide de 1994. Il s'agit de Vincent Ntezimana (professeur
d'universite de Butare), Alphonse Higaniro (ancien ministre et
directeur d'usine) et deux religieuses du couvent de Benedictines
de Sovu, Gertrude et Marie-Nkizito. Les defenseurs des accuses, qui
contestent les accusations, considerent notamment que les temoins
rapportent en realite des rumeurs, voire appartiennent a des
syndicats de delateurs.   (La Libre Belgique, 28 juin 2000)

* Rwanda. Belgium to try four Rwandans for genocide  -  27 June:
State prosecutors say they will try four Rwandans, including two
nuns, on charges of war crimes and murder for their alleged
involvement in the 1994 Rwandan massacres. The state prosecutor's
office has not set a date for the trial and none of the four is in
custody. State Prosecutor Philippe Meire said, however, the cases
would go to court sometime in September. The two indicted nuns,
Sister Gertrude Mukangango and Sister Julienne Kizito, are accused
of preventing a group of Tutsi refugees from fleeing Hutu
extremists, who eventually killed the group. Businessman Alphonse
Higaniro and university professor Vincent Ntzimana were also
indicted for their involvement in massacres of thousands of Tutsis
and moderate Hutus. All four sought refuge in Belgium shortly after
the Rwandan conflict. (...) A Belgian law passed in 1993 made it
possible for prosecutors to seek out foreigners living in Belgium
who are accused of committing war crimes in their own countries and
put them on trial in Belgium. Belgium already has transferred three
Rwandans indicted by the Rwandan war crimes tribunal back to Rwanda
to stand trial there.   (AP, 28 June 2000)

* Western Sahara. Search for an alternative  -  The UN is expected
to put forward an alternative to the much-delayed referendum on the
future of Western Sahara, at a new round of talks between Morocco
and Polisario. There is no formal agenda for the talks, being
hosted in London by the UN's secretary-general's personal envoy to
Western Sahara, James Baker. But international pressure is growing
for an alternative solution after more than ten years of bickering
over who is entitled to vote. Last month, the UN Security Council
called on Morocco and Polisario to consider what it called "other
ways" of achieving an early resolution of the dispute.   (BBC News,
28 June 2000)

* Sahara occidental. L'inde retire sa reconnaissance  -  Le 26
juin, l'Inde a annonce officiellement le retrait de sa
reconnaissance de la Republique arabe saharouie democratique
(RASD). Proclamee en 1976, la RASD, qui revendique avec son bras
arme, le Front Polisario, l'independance du Sahara occidental sous
controle marocain, reste reconnue par une cinquantaine de pays,
notamment africains. Une vingtaine de pays ont recemment retire
leur reconnaissance de la RASD, dont l'admission en 1984 comme
membre de l'OUA avait provoque le depart du Maroc. En fevrier
dernier, le Premier ministre marocain Youssoufi avait effectue une
visite officielle en Inde. Le revirement diplomatique de l'Inde
intervient alors que le referendum d'autodetermination au Sahara
occidental est dans l'impasse. Le 28 juin, le Maroc, le Front
Polisario, l'Algerie et la Mauritanie ont entame a Londres de
nouvelles negociations directes, sous les auspices de M. Baker,
representant du secretaire general de l'Onu. Mais la rencontre
s'est achevee sur un nouvel echec, la delegation du Polisario ayant
fermement rejete l'examen d'une "troisieme voie" prevoyant
l'autonomie du territoire.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 29 juin
2000)

* Sierra Leone. Debut de demilitarisation  -  Des centaines de
combattants issus des milices de chasseurs traditionnels Kamajors
ont quitte Freetown pendant le week-end du 24-25 juin, en
application d'une decision sur la demilitarisation de la capitale
sierra-leonaise. Ce retrait des Kamajors (egalement appeles Force
de defense civile) fait suite a l'interdiction gouvernementale du
port d'armes dans la capitale, sauf autorisation de l'armee ou de
l'Onu. - D'autre part, le 26 juin, les rebelles du RUF ont attaque
et incendie trois villages dans des zones tenues par le
gouvernement dans le centre et le nord-est du pays. Les
associations humanitaires y avaient distribue de la nourriture, or
les hommes du RUF sont a court de vivres, a indique le porte-parole
de l'Onu.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 27 juin 2000)

* Sierra Leone. Loss of confidence in UN troops  -  27 June: The
head of the UN peacekeepers in Sierra Leone is to be replaced after
the collapse of public confidence in his force. UN sources say that
Kofi Annan is seeking to remove Maj.Gen. Vijay Jetley, to try to
restore credibility after hundreds of UN troops surrendered to
rebels in recent weeks. New York is also concerned that Gen. Jetley
is allowing UN policy in Sierra Leone to be held hostage to the
fate of 21 Indian peacekeepers in rebel captivity, similar to the
earlier abductions that paralysed the UN in Freetown.   (ANB-BIA,
Brussels, 27 June 2000)

* Sierra Leone. Loyalists fight each other  -  Rival factions in a
fragile government alliance in Sierra Leone clashed once again
upcountry on 28 June, this time in a key junction town on the main
roads from the capital to rebel bastions in the north and east.
Hirut Befecadu, spokeswoman for the UN peacekeeping force in the
West African country, said that the fighting forced the closure of
the main road at Masiaka, about 80 km east of the capital Freetown.
Military officials called off a trip to Masiaka for journalists,
citing the clashes as the reason. "UNAMSIL has received reports
from Jordanian peacekeepers close to Masiaka that they heard heavy
firing at Masiaka," Befecadu said. "The exchange of fire was
between government forces and former AFRC soldiers," Befecadu said,
adding that the peacekeepers had offered no explanation for the
clash. Similar clashes in mid-June led to the fall of Lunsar, a key
town further north on a road to rebel strongholds and the diamond
fields of the east. The fighting highlights the divided nature of
the unlikely government alliance since the nine-year civil war
flared up again at the start of May. Soldiers of the re-formed
Sierra Leone Army are fighting alongside former soldiers, who
toppled President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in 1997, and the loyalist
Civil Defence Force, a militia made up of traditional Kamajor
hunters. The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), which
installed Johnny Paul Koroma at the head of a military junta,
joined forces with rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF). A West
African intervention force restored Kabbah to power in 1998. Koroma
switched sides after a 1999 peace deal. His battle-hardened
supporters have been fighting for the government since the RUF
breached the peace deal in May.   (Reuters, 28 June 2000)

Weekly anb0629 -  end of part 4/6