Weekly anb12274.txt #6

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 21-12-2000      PART #4/6

* Kenya. Moi underlines telecoms sale  -  Kenya's faltering reform process 
appeared to have suffered yet another setback on 14 December when Daniel 
arap Moi, the president, said the government was "not in a hurry" to sell 
the decrepit state-owned telecommunications company and that privatisation 
should not be allowed to go too far. The sale of 49 per cent of Telkom 
Kenya -- slated for this year -- is seen as crucial to Kenya's reform 
programme, and its failure would add to growing discontent among donors, 
who agreed to reinstate International Monetary Fund lending in July after a 
three-year freeze. This year's budget had factored in Telkom's sale but the 
cabinet, which cancelled the expected announcement of a winner last week, 
was said not be not happy with the size of three bids on offer. The 
highest, $240m, came from Mt Kenya Communications, a multinational 
consortium including Zimbabwe's Econet. Insiders say the government had 
expected double that amount but that it is unlikely that offers would be 
raised. Despite the rejection and persistent disagreements over management 
control, there had been hopes until this week that a deal could still be 
salvaged. Donors, who only six months ago claimed to be optimistic about 
Kenyan reform, are profoundly gloomy. "This raises the question of whether 
this is a country where you can have a programme," said one western 
diplomat. But Mr Moi's comments have thrown doubt over the whole process -- 
although Kitili Mbathi, who heads the privatisation unit, says negotiations 
are continuing. Scarcely a day passes without a new challenge to Kenyan 
reform, in a year when many expect the economy to shrink. A newly assertive 
parliament recently introduced controls on bank interest rates -- thereby 
threatening the expected privatisation of Kenya Commercial Bank -- and is 
pushing for controls on fuel and electricity prices. It has thrown back 
anti-corruption and ethics legislation, central to the IMF deal, and 
resisted civil service retrenchment. A much-touted civil service reform 
team, headed by Richard Leakey, is under constant attack. Political life is 
in turmoil. Competing constitutional review processes are at loggerheads, 
there is regular police harassment of opposition politicians, and the 
ruling party is riven as MPs jockey for position ahead of elections in 
2002.   (Financial Times, UK, 15 December 2000)

* Kenya. New hope to end constitutional review stalemate  -  After about 
two years of acrimony, confusion and mutual mistrust over Kenya's 
constitutional reform exercise, there seems to be a flicker of light at the 
end of the tunnel. The two parallel reform initiatives are drifting towards 
a common front, if only just. On the one hand, is the parliamentary reform 
committee fronted by the ruling KANU party and headed by Raila Odinga, the 
chairman of the opposition National Development Party, which is in 
operational co-operation with the government. This initiative would like 
the reform exercise carried out by Parliament. On the other is the 
Ufungamano initiative, which is fronted by the opposition and the religious 
organisations. This initiative is rooting for what they term a 
"people-driven process", which seeks to have recommendations collected and 
collated from the people at the grassroots before being presented to 
Parliament for ratification. For the past two or so years, the two 
diametrically opposed initiatives have refused to forge a common front, 
each holding the other in suspicion. Preliminary inter-party parliamentary 
group talks had decided for the people-driven process, but President Daniel 
arap Moi read too much into this and vetoed it. The Ufungamano, too, is 
reading too much into the parliament-driven initiative, arguing that the 
government has high- jacked the initiative for its own good, and not for 
the common weal. In particular, the Ufungamano, under the aegis of the 
People Commission of Kenya (PCK), believes Moi wants to manipulate the 
initiative to reverse the gains so far made during the inter-party talks. 
The Ufungamano team includes the leader of the official opposition, former 
Vice-President Mwai Kibaki, and several key opposition figures and Church 
and Muslim leaders. One of the major constitutional changes made at the 
inter-party deliberations is the restriction of presidential tenure to two, 
five-year terms.   (PANA, Dakar, 17 December 2000)

* Liberia. Main hospital shuts down  -  Liberia's crisis-ridden hospital, 
John F Kennedy, has closed down due to a lack of drugs and equipment. 
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official at the hospital confirmed 
the closure, saying even emergency cases had been stopped. "The closure 
will remain in effect until all necessary conditions are met," said a bone 
surgeon, as the government appealed for help from Taiwan, which has 
reportedly offered the hospital a cash boost. The hospital has been plagued 
with drugs and equipment shortages since President Charles Taylor took 
power in Liberia three years ago. Two months ago, staff at the hospital 
began a go-slow to protest at the poor conditions under which they were 
working. As a result of the closure, all patients have been forced to 
leave, including some 150 Liberian soldiers who were wounded in a recent 
conflict with dissidents in northern Lofa county. The Tubman National 
Institute of Medical Arts (TNIMA) -- the training arm of the hospital -- 
has also been closed down. And even the hospital's mortuary has shut. Until 
recently, it was used mainly to preserve bodies brought in by the 
government. But a senior official said: "In the absence of regular power 
supply, we cannot run the mortuary effectively." The situation at the 
hospital poses a serious embarrassment to the government of President 
Taylor. Taiwan has reportedly offered about $2m to meet the hospital's 
emergency needs and to finance renovation of the hospital's 600-bed 
complex. The problem at the hospital, commonly referred to as JFK, is more 
than just lack of basic drugs and equipment. There is a serious management 
problem, with doctors and nurses complaining of severe delays in the 
payment of their salaries and incentives. Recently the United Nations 
reportedly gave the hospital $34,900 for services it rendered to UN troops 
who had been released from captivity in Sierra Leone. But a source at the 
hospital said that, instead of spending the money on the hospital's 
pressing needs, some senior managers and a few doctors had distributed it 
amongst themselves.   (BBC News, 18 December 2000)

* Liberia. Liberia slammed over diamond trade  -  The United Nations says 
Liberia is systematically breaking arms and diamond embargoes on Sierra 
Leone, and is directly fuelling the conflict there. The strong condemnation 
of Liberia is contained in a new report on sanctions violations throughout 
West Africa, a draft summary of which has been obtained by the BBC. The 
report, by a UN panel of experts, calls for a complete ban on diamond 
exports from Liberia and say importing countries in the West must do much 
more to clarify exactly where their diamonds are coming from. According to 
the report, the current certification system for Sierra Leone's diamonds is 
largely ineffective because so many of them are being smuggled out through 
Liberia. The money is going straight into the pockets of the rebel 
Revolutionary United Front, who use it to buy arms and fuel. Liberia and 
its president, Charles Taylor, are named as the chief culprits when it 
comes to sanctions violations. The report says that Liberian-registered 
aircraft are being used by unscrupulous arms dealers from around the world 
to stoke the fires of conflict in West Africa. It suggests that Mr Taylor 
and his officials should be subject to an international travel ban. The 
report calls for importing countries to be far more vigilant about where 
their diamonds were originally mined -since they may have come through a 
third country. Burkina Faso also comes in for criticism because of its 
alleged role in supplying arms to Sierra Leone.   (BBC News, 19 December 2000)

* Malawi. Un prêtre défie la hiérarchie  -  L'Eglise catholique du Malawi a 
condamné les enseignements d'un prêtre rebelle qui a fondé son propre ordre 
après son exclusion de l'Eglise l'année dernière. Mgr. T. Zizaya, président 
de la Conférence épiscopale, a déclaré que les enseignements et les 
pratiques du père Mark Kambalazaza étaient contraires aux préceptes de 
l'Eglise et a menacé ses adeptes de refus des sacrements et 
d'excommunication. Ceux-ci cependant accusent l'Eglise d'être trop 
conservatrice.   (PANA, 18 décembre 2000)

* Mali. Sommet de la CEDEAO  -  Le 15 décembre s'est ouvert à Bamako le 24e 
sommet des chefs d'Etat de la Communauté économique des Etats de l'Afrique 
de l'Ouest. La nécessité de "la préservation de la paix" a marqué le 
discours d'ouverture du chef d'Etat malien, Alpha Oumar Konaré, également 
président en exercice de l'organisation. Le sommet a pris fin le 16 
décembre. L'une des grandes décisions a été le déploiement d'une force 
d'interposition le long de la frontière entre la Guinée, le Libéria et la 
Sierra Leone. Au plan économique, le sommet a aussi jeté les bases d'une 
intégration par la monnaie. La création d'une zone monétaire entre six pays 
doit préfigurer la naissance d'une monnaie unique ouest-africaine en 
2004.   (Le Monde, France, 17 décembre 2000)

* Nigeria. General attacks Obasanjo "vendetta"  -  Nigeria's former army 
chief under dictator General Sani Abacha has accused the government of 
pursuing an ethnic vendetta in its investigations of human rights abuses in 
the country. Petitioning the human rights commission in Lagos, 
Lieutenant-General Ishaya Bamaiyi, said there was one law for 
ethnic-Yorubas and another for ethnic- Hausas. And he said President 
Olusegun Obasanjo, himself a Yoruba, was avenging wrongs committed against 
Yorubas during the rule of the former military leader, General Abacha. He 
cited the case of the Yoruba militia leader, Frederick Fasehun, who was 
last month acquitted of murder after police failed to substantiate the 
charges. Mr Fasehun was involved in ethnic clashes in which more than 100 
people died. General Bamaiyi and some other former army officers face 
criminal charges over acts of state terrorism. Some northern Hausa 
politicians say President Obasanjo is targeting aides of General Abacha in 
his anti-corruption drive and human rights crusade to avenge his own arrest 
and imprisonment in 1985 for alleged coup plotting. But President Obasanjo 
told the commission when he appeared before them in early November that he 
had forgiven all those responsible for his three years in detention. 
Correspondents say that circumstances make the government an easy target to 
accusations of ethnic bias because nearly all the security personnel around 
General Abacha were northerners, whilst most of the victims of alleged 
state terrorism were Yoruba people from the south-west.   (BBC News, 14 
December 2000)

* Nigeria. No human rights progress in Niger Delta  -  In a backgrounder 
released on 14 December, Human Rights Watch says the restoration of 
civilian rule in Nigeria has not seen a reduction of human rights 
violations in the country's oil producing regions. Soldiers, naval 
personnel, and paramilitary Mobile Police deployed across the Niger Delta 
carry out summary executions, assaults and other abuses on an on-going 
basis. Nor have security forces been punished for the deeds of the 
past.   (Human Rights Watch, 14 December 2000)

* Nigeria. Chevron wins Nigeria prize  -  Chevron, the large US oil 
company, won the prize oil block in Nigeria's deep offshore waters in a 
long-awaited round of exploration licensing announced on 19 December. Eight 
oil blocks on and offshore have been divided among 14 companies including 
existing multinational operators in Nigeria, Exxon-Mobil, Royal Dutch 
Shell, Chevron and Agip, said Rilwanu Lukman, Opec secretary-general and 
President Olusegun Obasanjo's petroleum adviser. "Based on the estimates of 
premium payments expected from the companies to which the offers are made, 
a total of about $900m is expected to accrue to government," he said, 
adding that separate contracts for the development of the blocks were still 
to be negotiated. Malaysia's Petronas and Brazil's Petrobras were among 
successful bidders entering the Nigerian industry for the first time. Among 
other winners were a mixture of both established and hitherto little-known 
indigenous companies. Africa's leading oil producer aims to increase its 
reserves from 25bn to 40bn barrels in the next few years, with production 
targets rising from 2.2m to 4m b/d. The expansion programme has been helped 
by technological advances. Companies are able to move deeper into West 
Africa's oil-rich offshore waters where drilling was previously 
unprofitable, and away from the swamps of the Niger delta where community 
unrest and crime have hampered development. The awards were made following 
a competitive bidding process intended to mark a break with murky past 
practices in which former ruling generals farmed out licences to themselves 
and cronies on a discretionary basis. But among oil industry officials on 
19 December, there were allegations of continuing political interference as 
well as some unease at the manner in which separate bidders had been lumped 
together in joint ventures.   (Financial Times, UK, 19 December 2000)

Weekly anb1221.txt - #4/6