Weekly anb09146.txt #6

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 14-09-2000      PART #6/6

* Uganda-Congo (RDC). Joint Commission for Uganda army and Bemba 
rebels  -  Ugandan military sources say the Ugandan army (UPDF) and the 
Congolese rebel movement operating in north-west Congo RDC have formed a 
Joint Military Commission (JMC) aimed at coordinating their military 
campaign against the government of President Kabila in Congo RDC. Ugandan 
army sources say that the 10-man JMC is chaired by Brigadier Katumba-Wamala 
who is presently in Gbadolite in Equateur Province, north-west Congo. Six 
officers are from the Ugandan army (UPDF) while four are from Jean-Pierre 
Bemba's Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC). Military sources say the JMC 
will be charged with defending this area from Kabila's forces, and both the 
UPDF and the MLC forces will secure both the River Congo which runs through 
the middle of the province, and the Ubangui River that runs along the Congo 
RDC border with Central African Republic. (Editor's note: The MLC, backed 
by Uganda, is one of the three main rebel groups fighting Kabila and has 
been the most active in recent months).   (Crespo Sebunya, ANB-BIA, Uganda, 
1 September 2000)

* Uganda. Talking tough to rebels  -  President Museveni has promised to 
improve security in the west of the country following a series of attacks 
by anti-government forces in recent months. The deteriorating security 
situation in the region forced him to cancel a scheduled trip to the UN 
Millennium Summit in New York in order to carry out a tour of the region. 
He visited the western district of Hoima, which has seen an upsurge of 
activity by Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels. The ADF forces, who 
operate from dense forest areas in the Ruwenzori Mountains on the Congo RDC 
border, have been fighting since 1996 in an attempt to overthrow the 
Museveni government.   (BBC News, 9 September 2000)

* Ouganda. Menace rebelle, fuite des habitants  -  Des centaines 
d'habitants du sous- comté de Nkooko et du district voisin de Kibale, à 
l'ouest de l'Ouganda, ont pris la fuite après que les rebelles des Forces 
démocratiques alliées (ADF) avaient menacé de lancer de nouvelles attaques 
sur la région. Plus de 100 familles se sont réfugiées dans le district de 
Kiboga et d'autres arrivaient en grand nombre. Le président Museveni a 
lancé un nouvel appel aux rebelles pour qu'ils se rendent aux autorités, 
rappelant qu'ils bénéficieraient de l'amnistie du gouvernement.   (IRIN, 
Nairobi, 12 septembre 2000)

* Uganda. Paris Club cancels debt  -  International donors meeting in Paris 
have agreed to cancel US $145 million of Uganda's foreign debt. The Paris 
Club said the money represented its share of a programme to reduce the 
country's debt level by a total of US $650 million. The donors praised the 
Ugandan Government for its commitment to economic and structural 
reforms.   (BBC News, 12 September 2000)

* Uganda. Stringent measures to control AIDS in senior military 
ranks  -  President Museveni has said that all army personnel going for 
further training will have to be checked medically first of all, to see if 
they are sero-positive. Uganda's army must be equipped with skilled 
personnel, but it is pointless to train soldiers or officers at a high 
cost, only to see them have to withdraw from army ranks because of AIDS. It 
could be that the President's decision is the result of pressure from the 
USA which is increasingly getting involved in training Uganda's 
military.   (Crespo Sebunya, ANB-BIA, Uganda, 13 September 2000)

* Zambia. COMESA Free Trade Area  -  Zambia is preparing to join the COMESA 
Free Trade Area (FTA), scheduled for its official launch on 31 October 
2000. The programme involves the elimination of export and import 
licensing, foreign exchange allocations, exchange controls and quotas. It 
also calls for the removal of technical standards, discriminatory exchange 
rates and the elimination of singe channel marketing. According to Zambia's 
Finance Minister, Zambia will lose an estimate Zambian Kwacha 1.2 billion 
in revenue as a result of the full implementation of the FTA, but these 
losses are being viewed against future benefits.   (Wilcliff Sakala, 
ANB-BIA, Zambia, 7 September 2000)

* Zambia. Chiluba vows to fire tourism minister  -  On 8 September, 
Zambia's independent newspaper The Post carried a report that President 
Chiluba has vowed to fire the tourism minister, Anoshi Chipawa, for 
allegedly having bought an opposition Republican Party membership card. 
Reverend Chipawa has accused the Minister without Portfolio, Michael Sata, 
of having reported him to President Chiluba over the membership card 
incident with the intention that he should be fired.   (The Post, Zambia, 8 
September 2000)

* Zambia. Medical, traditional doctors unite against AIDS  -  Desperate to 
stem the onslaught of AIDS and frustrated with the high cost of Western 
medicine, Zambia has launched an ambitious research programme that will 
unite the country's traditional and Western-trained doctors, Health 
Minister David Mpamba said on 11 September. Mpamba said the government and 
some donor agencies, including the Norwegian International Development 
Agency (NORAD), have started promoting the programme that includes the 
Traditional Health Practitioners Association of Zambia (THAPZ) and the 
Central Board of Health, which runs the government-sponsored health 
services. "We (traditional healers) cannot test blood for AIDS, inject or 
conduct blood transfusion. That is done by Western-trained medical 
doctors," said Rodwell Vongo, president of the traditional healers group in 
an interview. "But they (Western doctors) don't understand voodoo, 
spiritualism or fortune telling which is best done by traditional healers," 
he said. Traditional healers often use herbal remedies and are often better 
suited to conduct AIDS-awareness education than their Western-trained 
counterparts because they are grounded in traditional culture. With an 
estimated 200 new infections a day, the immuno- deficiency disease has 
reduced the life expectancy in this southern African country from nearly 49 
years in 1991 to 37 years at present, country statistics show. An estimated 
73 per cent of Zambian families are keeping more than one orphan whose 
parents have died of AIDS, said Moses Sichone, coordinator of the newly 
formed National AIDS Council, which falls under the Central Board of 
Health.   (Africa Press Bureau, Johannesburg, 12 September 2000)

* Zimbabwe. Land issues always to the forefront  -  7 September: The annual 
Congress of Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers Union ends in confusion after the 
Minister for Land and Agriculture fails to attend to deliver his 
traditional address. Nearly 700 delegates who had gathered for the meeting 
in Harare appeared surprised and disappointed that the minister, Joseph 
Made, did not turn up. The Union president, Tim Henwood, says it is the 
first time in living memory that the relevant minister has failed to speak 
to the conference. 8 September: The Government says it plans to seize 
another 150 white-owned farms. Owners and other interested parties are 
given one month to register their objections with the land, agriculture and 
rural resettlement ministry.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 9 September 2000)

* Zimbabwe. Explosion outside MDC headquarters  -  11 September: There has 
been an explosion in Harare, outside the headquarters of the main 
opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). An opposition 
spokesman said the explosion was caused by a grenade and accused the 
Government of being behind the attack.   (BBC News, 12 September 2000)


Weekly anb0914.txt - End of part 6/6

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