Weekly anb02017.txt #7

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 01-02-2001      PART #7/7

* Tunisia. Lawyers walk out of court  -  More than 100 lawyers lined up to 
defend Tunisia's only independent human rights group walked out of court on 
29 January to protest against what they called the lack of conditions for a 
proper defense. The lawyers quit after the president of the three-man 
court, Judge Nejib Henana, repeatedly asked the lawyers to stop bringing 
politics into the case. The court is hearing a case brought by four members 
of the Tunisian Human Rights League who allege the organization had broken 
its own rules when it elected its leaders last October. Two of the four are 
known members of the ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally party. The four 
filed the suit in December, asking the court to dismantle the current 
leadership and order a repeat of election, arguing that the league failed 
to distribute membership cards and renew its branches ahead of its congress 
last October, making the leadership election illegal. Diplomats said they 
were monitoring the case closely as it might sour relations between Tunisia 
and its main trade partner, the European Union. The European Parliament 
issued a harsh statement last December urging the government to stop what 
it called the harassment of human rights activists in the North African 
country. The trial has been postponed twice since it first began in 
December. League leaders and their supporters abroad, mainly in Europe, say 
the four members who filed the suit were acting as frontmen for the 
government. They say it is bent on stifling the organization which is 
dedicated to criticizing human rights abuses. The government has denied the 
allegations, saying that the case was a matter for the courts.   (CNN, 29 
January 2001)

* Uganda. Kampala rocked by bomb blasts  -  Three bomb blasts rocked 
Uganda's capital, Kampala, on the night of 28 January, amid growing 
consternation over a possible rise in political violence as the country 
prepares to hold "no-party" elections on March 6. Ugandan police gave no 
indication as to who was responsible for the explosions, which injured 
seven, but John Nagenda, adviser to president Yoweri Museveni, criticised 
inflammatory rhetoric by opposition politicians. "We are not saying this 
was done by a presidential aspirant, but I fear the language they are using 
hasn't helped at all," he said. A previous spate of bombings, which shook 
the capital in 1999, was blamed on the western-based Allied Democratic 
Forces rebel group. Mr Museveni seems almost certain to win the elections, 
but has received international criticism for his controversial "movement" 
system, which does not allow candidates to stand on party platforms. He 
faces noisy challenges from Kizza Besigye -- his former doctor and acolyte, 
who appears recently to have allied himself with the multi-partyists -- and 
Aggrey Awori, the veteran opposition politician. According to Charles 
Onyango-Obbo, editor of the opposition Monitor newspaper, the last 2½ weeks 
of campaigning have already seen "more violence than in the whole campaign 
of 1996", with 65 documented cases since January 11. Most notable have been 
clashes between police and supporters of Nasser Ntege Sebaggala, a 
politician disqualified for insufficient education, and there have been 
reports of shots fired at Dr Besigye's campaigners. Donors are sponsoring a 
group to monitor incidents, but have praised Mr Museveni's efforts to calm 
matters. "My supporters should not cause trouble," he said last week. "If 
my people are doing that, they should stop it, because nobody is allowed to 
under the Elections Act."   (Financial Times, UK, 29 January 2001)

* Ouganda. Attentats à la bombe  -  Le 28 janvier au soir, six personnes 
ont été blessées dans trois attentats à la bombe commis à peu près à la 
même heure dans la capitale ougandaise Kampala. En 1999, 11 personnes 
avaient péri et 73 autres avaient été blessées dans une série d'attentats à 
Kampala, imputés par les autorités au groupe rebelle Forces démocratiques 
alliées (ADF). Ce groupe, dont les bases se trouvent dans les montagnes du 
Ruwenzori, àcheval sur la frontière avec le Congo- Kinshasa, a pris les 
armes en 1996 contre le gouvernement de Museveni.   (La Libre Belgique, 30 
janvier 2001)

* Zambie. Réfugiés  -  Le 24 janvier, le PAM a indiqué qu'il lui manquait 
1.850 tonnes de denrées alimentaires, soit 42% du total nécessaire pour 
mener à bien ses opérations d'urgence, suite à l'afflux récent de réfugiés 
en provenance de l'Angola et de la RD-Congo. Les vivres dont la 
distribution avait été prévue pour 30.000 réfugiés, servent maintenant à 
nourrir 51.000 personnes suite à l'afflux massif de nouveaux réfugiés. Les 
récentes offensives militaires des rebelles congolais au Katanga ont 
entraîné l'afflux de 15.000 réfugiés entrés en Zambie de novembre à 
décembre. Au total, 50.000 réfugiés, dont 74% constitués de femmes et 
d'enfants, ont franchi les frontières zambiennes depuis octobre 1999. La 
Zambie compte actuellement environ 250.000 réfugiés principalement angolais 
et congolais.   (PANA, Sénégal, 25 janvier 2001)

* Zambie. Eglises opposées à un 3e mandat de Chiluba  -  Le 25 janvier, des 
autorités ecclésiastiques zambiennes ont indiqué qu'elles s'opposaient au 
projet visant à amender la Constitution pour permettre au président Chiluba 
de briguer un troisième mandat. Elles ont déclaré que le débat actuel était 
"inconstitutionnel et contraire à la démocratie". Le secrétaire général de 
l'Eglise épiscopale zambienne, le rév. Ignatius Mwebe, a insisté sur la 
nécessité de se conformer aux normes démocratiques fixées avant les 
élections de 1991. Selon lui, l'Eglise a clairement défini sa position lors 
d'une réunion à laquelle ont également participé le Comité chrétien zambien 
et la Congrégation évangéliste zambienne. -Toutefois, selon le Times of 
Zambia du 30 janvier, les évêques des Eglises évangéliques d'Afrique ont 
annoncé qu'ils soutenaient le débat relatif à une troisième candidature du 
président Chiluba.   (PANA, Sénégal, 25 et 30 janvier 2001)

* Zambia. Housing situation in Lusaka  -  Many of Lusaka's low-income 
earners, who cannot afford loans to buy or build their own houses, live in 
rented houses owned by unscrupulous landlords. They include civil servants, 
school- teachers, security guards and domestic servants whose wages average 
US $35 per month. "But a lot of such poor tenants are being exploited by 
their landlords who are taking advantage of the shortage of accommodation 
in Lusaka," says the National Consumers Protection Association. There are 
about 40,000 houses in the city of about 2 million people. Recently, the 
local municipal council sold its 20,000 housing units and is planning to 
build another 12,000 houses within the next few years for sale. This will 
be in addition to the 1,000 houses to be constructed under the Presidential 
Housing Initiative, a brainchild of President Frederick Chiluba. These 
measures --though welcomed by the public- are, however, seen as inadequate 
to meet the high demand for housing in the city.   (Wilcliff Sakala, 
Zambia, 31 January 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Market plunge  -  Money market interest rates in Zimbabwe 
plunged to 10- year lows on 25 January amid warnings from bankers and 
market operators that the government-engineered policy to drive interest 
rates down will backfire. In the last two months, yields on 91-day Treasury 
bills have collapsed from more than 60 per cent to 15.5 per cent on 25 
January. Officials make no secret of the fact that they want to drive 
market rates well below inflation of 55 per cent so that the government can 
issue medium - and long-term stocks at hugely negative real interest rates 
to finance its surging domestic debt. The debt more than doubled last year 
to over Z$160bn (US$2.9bn) and almost half the 2001 budget is earmarked to 
pay interest on debt. Domestic debt now accounts for 50 per cent of GDP. 
Market unhappiness with the government's policy was underlined on 25 
January when the authorities rejected Z$17 bn of applications for a Z$12bn 
one year Treasury bill tender, because the yields were too high. They ended 
up accepting just Z$2bn worth of bids at a yield of over 40 per cent. "This 
means that the market would not subscribe for five year paper at 25 per 
cent, unless forced to by the authorities," one dealer said. While many in 
business are delighted with the interest rate policy, which has forced 
banks to cut their prime lending rates from 55 per cent and above to 40 per 
cent, economists warn that the new strategy will increase pressure on the 
exchange rate, making early devaluation inevitable.   (Financial Times, UK, 
25 January 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Attentat contre un quotidien  -  Le 28 janvier, une bombe a 
explosé dans l'imprimerie du Daily News, un journal privé très critique à 
l'égard du régime du président Mugabe. Il y a d'importants dégâts. En juin 
dernier, un autre attentat à la bombe avait déjà été perpétré juste à côté 
de la rédaction du journal à Harare. Le 23 janvier, des membres du parti 
présidentiel ZANU-PF avaient manifesté contre les informations données par 
le Daily News au sujet de la situation au Congo-RDC, où l'armée 
zimbabwéenne soutient le gouvernement.   (D'après De Standaard, Belgique, 
29 janvier 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Mugabe election move "illegal"  -  Zimbabwe's Supreme Court has 
overturned an amendment to the electoral law passed by President Mugabe in 
December. This clears the way for the opposition to challenge some of the 
results of last year's general elections. The court said the modification 
of the electoral law to prevent any legal challenge to last June's election 
results contravened the constitution. The main opposition party, the 
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), says it will now press ahead with its 
efforts to have the results declared null and void in 38 constituencies 
-two-thirds of the total won by the ruling party. The MDC argues that the 
violence which preceded voting in June rendered the poll unfair. The 
general elections in June were the bloodiest in Zimbabwe's 20 years of 
independence. More than 30 people were killed and an estimated 13,000 fled 
their homes, the vast majority of them opposition supporters. The violence 
will form the basis of the legal challenge to the results in the 38 
constituencies identified by the MDC. Had it won just three of those it 
seeks to challenge, the opposition would have gained a majority of the 
elected seats in parliament. So far, there has been no word from the 
government on the court decision. But ministers are not unwilling to fight 
new by- elections, as the ruling party has won both seats which have been 
contested since last year's general elections.   (BBC News, 30 January 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Canaan Banana libéré  -  L'ancien chef d'Etat du Zimbabwe, 
Canaan Banana, est à nouveau un homme libre depuis sa sortie de prison le 
29 janvier, après avoir purgé une peine d'un an pour délits sexuels. Il a 
quitté la prison de haute sécurité de Chikurubi à Harare. Il a refusé de 
faire une déclaration sur son expérience en prison.   (PANA, Sénégal, 30 
janvier 2001)


Weekly anb0201.txt - End of part 7/7

THE END


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Un homme meurt chaque fois que l'un d'entre nous se tait devant la tyrannie 
(W. Soyinka, Prix Nobel litterature)
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Everytime somebody keep silent when faced with tyranny, someone else dies 
(Wole Syinka, Nobel Prize for Literature) *
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