Weekly anb08316.txt #8

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 31-08-2000      PART #6/7

* Somalia. New President  -  26 August: Somalia's transitional parliament 
has elected a new President -- the first since the collapse of the central 
government nearly 10 years ago. Abdulkasim Salad Hass, 58, beat his closest 
rival, Abdullah Ahmed Addow by 145 votes to 92. The winner needed a simple 
majority of 123 votes in the 245-seat assembly. Mr Hassan is a veteran 
politician who served as cabinet minister in several Somali governments 
before the collapse of President Siad Barre's regime on 1991. 27 August: 
The new President is sworn in at a ceremony in Djibouti. Several regional 
leaders who helped Djibouti negotiate ta deal that led to the election of a 
new administration for Somalia, were in Arta for the occasion. Mr Hassan 
took the Oath of Office in front of Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles 
Zenaawi, Sudan's President al-Bashir and Eritrea's President Afewerki. 
Members of the Somali transitional assembly and several thousand people 
also gathered in front of the white tent where the ceremony took 
place.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 28 August 2000)

* Somalie. Nouveau président  -  Dans la nuit du 25 au 26 août, 
Abdoulkassim Salat Hassan a été élu nouveau président de la Somalie par le 
Parlement de transition réuni à Arta (Djibouti). Le dimanche 27, il a prêté 
serment en présence des présidents du Yémen, du Soudan et de l'Erythrée et 
du Premier ministre éthiopien. Agé de 58 ans, appartenant au sous-clan Habr 
Gedir (Hawiye), il est le premier président depuis la chute de Siad Barre 
en 1991. Il aura la lourde tâche de tenter de mettre fin à l'anarchie qui 
règne en Somalie. Le processus de paix d'Arta s'appuie sur les chefs 
traditionnels. Mais ses adversaires, les chefs de guerre somaliens, 
affirment qu'il ne servira qu'à créer un gouvernement en exil et que les 
institutions qui y seront désignées ne pourront entrer en Somalie. -- Par 
ailleurs, le 27 août, au moins 18 personnes ont trouvé la mort dans des 
combats ayant opposé, au moment de la cérémonie d'investiture du nouveau 
président, des milices somaliennes rivales dans la ville de Jowhar, à 90 
kilomètres au nord de Mogadiscio. Les combattants appartenaient à deux 
sous-clans rivaux, Hawadle et Galjal, du clan Hawiye. - Le 30 août, le 
nouveau président est entré triomphalement dans Mogadiscio, depuis près de 
dix ans la capitale déchirée des "seigneurs de la guerre". Des milliers de 
personnes ont acclamé son cortège. M. Salat a promis la "résurrection" de 
la Somalie. Toutefois, son coup d'éclat a réussi en l'absence des deux 
principaux seigneurs de guerre, appelés "en consultation" au Yémen, un pays 
qui apporte son soutien au nouveau président.   (ANB-BIA, de sources 
diverses, 31 août 2000)

* Somalia-Djibouti. Peace delegates preparing to return home  -  29 August: 
Delegates attending the Somali reconciliation conference in neighbouring 
Djibouti are preparing to return home, after a ceremony last night formally 
ended the four months of talks. About 2,000 Somalis had gathered at the 
peace conference by the time it elected a transitional parliament earlier 
this month. At the weekend, the parliament elected an interim president for 
Somalia -- Abdulkassim Salat Hassan of the powerful Hawiye clan. But 
several faction leaders, as well as the leaders of the northern regions of 
Puntland and Somaliland, have said they do not recognise him. 30 August: 
President Hassan arrives in Mogadishu, escorted by dozens of armoured 
vehicles. His visit is seen as a crucial test as he attempts to stamp his 
authority on the country. On arrival, he received a huge welcome from tens 
of thousands of people who gathered at a football stadium   (ANB-BIA, 
Brussels, 30 August 2000)

* South Africa. Racism "pervasive" in the Media  -  The South African Human 
Rights Commission has issued a report recommending large-scale reforms to 
address racism in the Media. the report is the culmination of a highly 
controversial two-year investigation into allegations of racism in the 
South African media which polarised views between black and white 
journalists. The Human Rights Commission has concluded that many newspapers 
and broadcasters in South Africa can be characterised as racist 
institutions, and measures should be taken to address the problem. the 
Commission says it has found racism continues to pervade both the style of 
reporting and attitudes within newspapers and broadcasting 
companies.   (BBC News, 24 August 2000)

* Afrique du Sud. Explosion au Cap  -  Une explosion d'origine inconnue 
près du consulat des Etats-Unis au Cap a fait quelques blessés. Elle est 
survenue à 300 mètres du bâtiment consulaire, où se trouvent aussi de 
nombreux immeubles de bureaux, mais "les opérations du consulat n'ont pas 
été affectées", a tenu à préciser un porte-parole. Depuis juin 1998, la 
ville du Cap a souvent été la cible d'attentats à la bombe qui ont fait 
deux morts et au moins 100 blessés. La police suspecte notamment une milice 
musulmane locale appelée "Le peuple contre le gangstérisme et la 
drogue".   (AP, 29 août 2000)

* Afrique du Sud. Conférence nationale sur le racisme  -  Le 30 août, à 
l'ouverture d'une conférence nationale sur le racisme, première du genre, 
le président Thabo Mbeki a accusé les Blancs sud-africains de nier 
l'existence du racisme qui empêche toujours la construction d'une société 
mixte, six ans après la fin de l'apartheid. "Ce à quoi nous avons affaire 
est un racisme blanc, anti- noir", a-t-il déclaré. L'Alliance démocratique 
a qualifié le discours de destructeur et a accusé Thabo Mbeki de tenter de 
détourner l'attention de ce qu'elle appelle l'incapacité de son parti à 
distribuer les fruits de la démocratie. Une enquête d'opinion, publiée le 
même jour, montre que seulement 3 Blancs sur 10 trouvent que les relations 
inerraciales sont en voie d'amélioration.   (La Libre Belgique, 31 août 2000)

* South Africa. National debate on racism re-opens  -  30 August: South 
Africa's carefully nurtured image as the Rainbow Nation may be severely 
tested at a national conference on racism that could put abuses by whites 
against blacks sharply into focus. Today, President Mbeki opens the 
four-day conference convened by the country's top human rights watchdogs to 
tackle racism six years into the country's democracy. In his opening 
speech, President Mbeki tells white South Africans to recognise the reality 
of racism and join their fellow black citizens in creating a non-racial 
society. He appeals for unfettered debate on the prejudice that festers in 
South Africa six years after the fall of the racist apartheid regime. 
(Editor's note: The complete text of President Mbeki's speech can be found 
on the South African Government's address: www.gov.za). (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 
31 August 2000)

* Sudan. Children die in Nile accident  -  50 Sudanese schoolchildren have 
died after a wooden ferry boat capsized in the fast-flowing Blue Nile river 
in the east of the country. The accident happened near the central town of 
Singa, about 320 km south of Khartoum. The overloaded ferry capsized on 23 
August, killing 50 pupils aged 10 to 17 who were crossing from the east 
bank to the west bank of the swollen river. The boys and girls from primary 
and Koranic schools in villages on the east bank, were crossing the river 
to visit their families on the west bank.   (BBC News, 25 August 2000)

* Soudan. Les évêques demandent des couloirs humanitaires  -  Dans un 
document exprimant sa profonde inquiétude au sujet des bombardements par 
l'armée gouvernementale sur des objectifs civils, la conférence épiscopale 
catholique soudanaise a demandé l'instauration immédiate de couloirs 
humanitaires et des aires d'interdiction de vols aériens ("no fly zones"), 
ainsi que la libre circulation des aides humanitaires dans le Soudan 
méridional. La conférence estime que la reconnaissance par le gouvernement 
des opérations humanitaires est déterminante. Elle demande en outre que les 
multinationales interrompent immédiatement leurs activités relatives à 
l'extraction de pétrole au Soudan, parce que la majorité des profits est 
utilisée pour la poursuite de la guerre qui anéantira les peuples du Sud 
Soudan.   (D'après Misna, Italie, 29 août 2000)

* Sudan. Reports about Chinese troops pouring into Sudan denied by 
China  -  28 August: Canada's National Post publishes the following report: 
Tens of thousands of Chinese have moved into Sudan in preparation for a 
major offensive against southern rebels to try to end one of Africa's 
longest-running conflicts, according to Western counter-terrorism 
officials. The Chinese, a mixture of prisoners and soldiers, have been 
brought in by aircraft and ship, ostensibly to guard Sudan's increasingly 
productive oilfields in which the China National Petroleum Corp. is a 
leading partner. Col. John Garang's Sudan people's Liberation Army (SPLA) 
has managed in recent weeks to advance within 16 kilometres of the 
oilfields in the Upper Nile Region, causing the country's Islamic regime to 
activate emergency plans drawn up with allies whose interests in the oil 
project are directly under threat...The SPLA captured a group of Chinese in 
an attack last week. An internal document from the Sudanese military said 
that as many as 700,000 Chinese security personnel were available for 
action. 29 August: CNN reports: On 29 August, Beijing rejected reports that 
hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers were helping Sudan defend oil 
fields in which a major Chinese petroleum company has a financial interest. 
Chinese officials told CNN in a faxed statement that the recent reports 
were false. "This report is a purposeful lie intended to harm, and is 
furthermore completely ridiculous".   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 30 August 2000)

* Swaziland. Political reform  -  Swaziland will edge closer to 
constitutional rule next month when a government body completes work on a 
report that pro- democracy groups hope will lead to a return to plural 
politics. However, the country's banned opposition has poured scorn on the 
work of the constitutional review commission and dismissed its activities 
as "political window dressing". The constitutional review commission said 
it would submit a report on public submissions on political reform to King 
Mswati III in September -- a month before the deadline he set early this 
year. King Mswati ordered the commission, headed by Prince Mangaliso, to 
give him the report before he went into seclusion at the end of October 
ahead of the Incwala, an annual spiritual pageant on which the monarchy's 
traditional authority lies.   (IRIN, Southern Africa, 21 August 2000)

* Swaziland. King Mswati declines to take new wife  -  On 29 August, 
Swaziland returned to work from the kingdom's most sacred annual holiday, 
the Umhlanga Reed Dance, with news that absolute monarch, King Mswati III 
would not be taking an eighth wife this year. the Reed Dance, an annual 
fertility pageant at which the king is expected to pick a new bride, saw an 
estimated 20,000 bare-breasted maidens, thousands of tourists, and African 
royalists converge at the king's royal capital of Lobamba starting on 23 
August. King Mswati III did not pick a new bride because, as 
traditionalists said, he wed a seventh wife earlier this month. The 
32-year-old king picked the new Queen, Senteni Masango, as his seventh wife 
at last year's dance.   (Afr. Eye News Service, South Africa, 29 August 2000)

* Togo. PM loses confidence vote  -  Parliament has past a vote of 
no-confidence in the 14-month government of Prime Minister Eugene Koffi 
Adoboli. The vote was passed overwhelmingly, being opposed by only one 
member of the Assembly -- which is dominated by President Gnassingbe 
Eyadema's Rally of the Togolese People. (BBC News, 25 August 2000)

Weekly anb0831.txt - End of part 6/7