Weekly anb12145.txt #6

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 14-12-2000  PART #5/6

* Rwanda. Le TPIR poursuivra les soldats du FPR - Le procureur du Tribunal 
pénal international pour le Rwanda (TPIR), Carla del Ponte, a annoncé, le 
13 décembre, que son bureau préparait des actes d'accusation contre des 
soldats du Front patriotique rwandais (FPR, l'actuelle armée rwandaise) 
suspectés d'avoir commis des atrocités pendant la guerre de 1994 au Rwanda. 
Carla del Ponte a signalé qu'elle a eu récemment des entretiens avec le 
président Kagamé et qu'ils en ont discuté. "Je suis entièrement satisfaite 
des résultats de ce colloque dans le sens qu'on a pu obtenir pleine 
collaboration même pour ces enquêtes", a déclaré Mme del Ponte. Le TPIR 
avait jusqu'ici poursuivi des suspects de génocide liés à l'ancien régime 
hutu au Rwanda, mais n'a arrêté personne du FPR à dominante tutsi, qui a 
gagné la guerre. Son mandat couvre également les crimes contre l'humanité 
et les crimes de guerre commis en 1994. (Agence Hirondelle, Arusha, 13 
décembre 2000)

* Rwanda. UN to charge Tutsis for war crimes - The United Nations war 
crimes tribunal says it is planning to charge Tutsi army officers in the 
Rwandan Patriotic Front with alleged atrocities during the Rwandan civil 
war. Chief prosecutor Carla del Ponti said it is the first time members of 
the victorious side in the civil war will be charged for crimes allegedly 
committed during 1994, the year of the Rwandan genocide. Speaking in 
Arusha, Tanzania, where the international court on Rwanda sits, Ms del 
Ponti said she had discussed this with the Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, 
who had offered full co- operation. Mr Kagame was leader of the 
mainly-Tutsi rebel force, which came to power in Rwanda following the 
genocide, when up to a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered by 
Hutu extremists. So far, only suspects supporting the ousted mainly Hutu 
regime have been tried in Arusha. After the war, the Tutsi-led Rwandan 
Patriotic Front (RPF) came to power in Kigali. Ms del Ponti says two 
African countries have been sheltering the most wanted suspects. While the 
prosecutor did not name the countries, official tribunal sources said Kenya 
and the Democratic Republic of Congo were the chief suspects. "I depend on 
the goodwill of the governments in the search, arrest and transfer of these 
subjects", Ms del Ponte said. She said some of the suspects have been 
allowed to travel freely to certain countries and have been issued 
passports with new identities and nationalities. Ms del Ponte said the 
tribunal may soon issue indictments against RPF soldiers who allegedly took 
revenge in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide, or while attempting to stop 
it. The BBC's correspondent, Liz Blunt, says there has been a long history 
of suspicion between the Rwandan Government and the international war 
crimes tribunal, which has, so far, only convicted seven people. On one 
occasion, it let a major suspect slip through its fingers because it had 
not followed correct legal procedures. The Rwandans were so incensed that 
for a time they would not let Ms del Ponte into the country. (BBC News, 13 
December 2000)

* Sahara occidental. Arrestations en Algérie - Dans la nuit du 7 au 8 
décembre, douze membres du front Polisario ont été arrêtés près de la 
frontière algéro-marocaine par une patrouille de l'armée algérienne, 
rapportait l'agence marocaine MAP le 12 décembre. Selon des "témoignages 
concordants", les douze hommes auraient déserté une caserne militaire 
algérienne dans la wilaya de Tlemcen, où ils effectuaient un stage de 
perfectionnement, et se rendaient à pied vers le village de 
Laghlalis-Angad, en territoire marocain. (D'après PANA, 13 décembre 2000)

* Senegal. Children demand peace in Casamance - Reports from the southern 
Senegalese province of Casamance say thousands of schoolchildren have held 
a demonstration calling for peace. The French news agency reported that 
four thousand pupils marched through the streets of the province's capital, 
Ziguinchor, and visited the separatist leader Father Augustin Diamacoune. 
The agency said several children had pleaded with Father Diamacoune for 
peace to enable them to study. Father Diamacoune heads the Casamance 
Movement of Democratic Forces, which has led the fight for independence 
from the rest of Senegal for nearly two decades. He will be taking part in 
a new round of peace talks with the Dakar government which begins on 17 
December. There've been several recent rebel attacks in Casamance which 
observers say could be the work of a faction opposed to peace talks. (BBC 
News, 13 December 2000)

* Sierra Leone. Koroma rend des armes - Le 8 décembre, l'ancien leader de 
la junte militaire, Johnny Paul Koroma, a rendu des armes et d'autres 
équipements militaires à la Minusil. Il a été rejoint par 90 anciens 
soldats de son Conseil des forces armées révolutionnaires (désormais 
dissout) qui avait dirigé le pays de mai 1997 à février 1998. M. Koroma a 
appelé d'autres groupes, tels que le RUF et les forces de défense civile 
pro-gouvernementales, à suivre son exemple. - D'autre part, le Comité 
international de la Croix-Rouge a annoncé qu'il fournira à la Sierra Leone 
une aide humanitaire et pour le développement, dans les secteurs agricoles 
et sanitaires, d'une valeur de 20 millions de dollars en 2001. (IRIN, 
Abidjan, 11 décembre 2000)

* Somalie. Menace de déchets toxiques - Deux bateaux dérivent actuellement 
le long des côtes de la Somalie, chargés de ce qui seraient des déchets 
toxiques, selon des informations reprises le 10 décembre par un journal de 
Nairobi. Selon un quotidien de Mogadiscio, les deux navires dérivent et 
s'approchent du littoral. Le contenu des cargos est un mystère. Mais les 
habitants de la côte expliquent leur préoccupation par le fait que les 
navires ressemblent à ceux utilisés dans le passé par certaines firmes 
spécialisées dans l'élimination des déchets industriels et chimiques. La 
population a demandé une intervention rapide des autorités. Une semaine 
auparavant, un groupe de travail mis en place par le Parlement italien pour 
enquêter sur les déchets en Somalie, a publié un rapport qui rend des 
groupes mafieux responsables de l'entreposage non autorisé des déchets en 
Somalie. (PANA, 11 décembre 2000)

* South Africa. Opposition attacks ANC - South Africa's main opposition 
party on 7 December accused the ruling African National Congress (ANC) of 
"desperate and immoral tactics" after a senior ANC official threatened to 
discriminate against people who voted against the government in this week's 
local elections. S'bu Ndebele, ANC chairman in the eastern province of 
KwaZulu-Natal, told cheering supporters in Durban that black South Africans 
who had voted for the Democratic Alliance (DA) had wasted their efforts 
because their councillors would still have to turn to the ANC for 
resources. Across the country, about 59 per cent of voters chose the ANC 
and 23 per cent the DA. "To all the Africans, coloureds [people of mixed 
race] and Indians who voted DA, be warned that there are going to be 
consequences for not voting for the ANC," Mr Ndebele was quoted as saying 
in The Mercury, a Durban newspaper. "When it comes to service delivery, we 
will start with the people who voted for us and you will be last." Mr 
Ndebele is notorious for his belligerent style of politics, but he is not 
the only ANC leader to regard vigorous opposition to the government as a 
form of treachery rather than an inevitable and desirable part of 
democratic politics. (Financial Times, UK, 7 December 2000)

* South Africa. Fighting AIDS with prayer and compassion - At a rare 
appearance together on 6 December, South Africa's three Nobel peace 
prizewinners -- Nelson Mandela, F.W De Klerk and Archbishop Desmond Tutu 
launched a "prayer for HIV/AIDS" and called for an end to the silence and 
stigmatisation surrounding the disease. The prayer service at St Mary's 
Anglican Cathedral in Johannesburg represented the strongest commitment yet 
by prominent personalities to address Aids in South Africa, where 4.2 
million people (10 per cent of the population) are estimated to be infected 
with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Eighty-two-year-old Mandela, 
who was helped up the pulpit steps, said South Africa lagged behind other 
African countries in coming to terms with Acquired Immune Deficiency 
Syndrome (AIDS). He called on South Africans to draw inspiration from the 
late Diana, Princess of Wales, urging them to follow her example, to "hold 
hands, embrace, give love because the spirit of life is sometimes more 
important than medicine". Wearing an AIDS pin in the centre of his 
trademark bright shirt, the former South African president called on South 
Africans to draw on the "human capacity our culture blessed us with" in the 
struggle against apartheid and use it to vanquish AIDS, "which is killing 
more people than the wars of the past and the famines put together". 
(Ecumenical News International, 8 December 2000)

* Afrique du Sud. Elections municipales - Le Congrès national africain 
(ANC, parti au pouvoir) a obtenu 59,38% des voix aux élections municipales 
du 5 décembre, selon les résultats finaux publiés dans la nuit du 9 au 10 
décembre. Ces résultats confirment la percée de l'opposition. Le parti au 
pouvoir a remporté 170 (70%) des 237 municipalités ayant participé aux 
élections, le parti zoulou Inkatha (IFP) 36, l'Alliance démocratique (DA) 
18 et le petit Mouvement démocratique uni, un. Le scrutin dans 47 autres 
conseils de districts doit se tenir la semaine prochaine. (ANB-BIA, de 
sources diverses, 11 décembre 2000)

* South Africa. "Pops" banned - A landmark treaty to phase out and 
eliminate some of the world's most dangerous chemicals was agreed by 122 
countries on 10 December. After an all-night negotiating session in 
Johannesburg, 600 delegates agreed to ban 12 highly toxic, long-lasting 
chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants, or Pops. These include 
pesticides, industrial chemicals and by-products of combustion. DDT, the 
pollutant used in the fight against malaria, has been exempted until a 
cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative can be found. It is 
the first time the world has acted to ban toxic chemicals. The conference's 
success, which came after five negotiating rounds, was particularly welcome 
following the failure of climate change talks in The Hague late last month. 
"Not only do we have a treaty," said John Buccini, chairman of the 
conference, "but we have a very good treaty". Delegates from rich and 
developing countries, environmental groups and non-governmental 
organisations all seemed to agree. "A very good balance was struck between 
contrasting interests and opinions," said Brooks Yaeger, head of the US 
delegation. "Environmentalists like this treaty, industry can work with it 
and the people of the world need it." Developed countries have pledged to 
provide financial and technical assistance to developing nations to assist 
in the elimination of toxic chemicals. The existing Global Environment 
Facility will be used to channel the funds, but it will be strengthened 
once the treaty is ratified. (Editor's note: South Africa has been chosen 
to host the 2002 United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development). 
(Financial Times, 11 December 2000)

* Sudan. Opposition charged with sedition - The authorities in Sudan have 
arrested at least six opposition figures and accused them of plotting an 
armed uprising with an American diplomat. The diplomat, Glenn Warren, who 
was observing a meeting of the opposition National Democratic Alliance 
(NDA) when police arrested the Alliance members, has been ordered to leave 
the country. The men have been accused of planning a popular uprising, 
backed by military action, and of trying to capture towns and sabotage 
installations with US help. The action comes just days before the country 
is due to vote in presidential and parliamentary elections. The NDA, an 
umbrella organisation for southern and northern opposition groups, has 
denounced the action, saying it was an ordinary meeting. Foreign Minister 
Mustafa Osman Ismail, said the US diplomat was "caught in a meeting with 
leaders of non-registered political organisations and was discussing with 
them issues related to Sudanese security and stability." There was no 
immediate comment from the US embassy in Khartoum. A BBC correspondent in 
the region says relations between Sudan and the US are at an extremely low 
point. (BBC News, 7 December 2000)

Weekly anb1214.txt - end of part 5/6