Weekly anb02224.txt #7

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 22-02-2001      PART #4/7

* Eritrea-Ethiopia. Pull-back begins  -  18 February: A key part of the 
ceasefire agreement between Eritrea and Ethiopia has been implemented on 
schedule with Eritrean troops beginning their redeployment to create a 
buffer zone. On 17 February, around 800 Eritrean troops left their 
positions in the mountains and canyons around the southern Eritrean town of 
Senafe. The scene is being repeated all along the frontline, as hundreds of 
thousands of soldiers are redeploying in accordance with the June 2000 
ceasefire agreement. 20 February: Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian troops 
start withdrawing from Eritrea as part of the peace agreement. This has 
already been labelled by Ethiopians as the "big return". Ethiopian troops 
will be redeployed, moving back across the disputed 1,000 km border, and 
resuming positions they occupied prior to the war.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 20 
February 2000)

* Ethiopie. Retrait d'Erythrée  -  Le 20 février, les troupes éthiopiennes 
ont commencé à se retirer massivement du sud de l'Erythrée, conformément à 
l'accord de paix signé le 12 décembre. Plus d'un millier de soldats 
éthiopiens ont quitté la zone de Senafe, occupée depuis mai 2000. 
L'Ethiopie a jusqu'au 26 février pour se retirer de l'Erythrée. Le retrait 
doit permettre la mise en place d'une zone tampon de 25 km le long de la 
frontière, dans laquelle ont commencé à se déployer des casques bleus des 
Nations unies.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 21 février 2001)

* Guinea. Refugee crisis  -  Caritas-Spain sources said the international 
organization's network has mobilized its resources to aid the more than 
500,000 refugees and displaced people in Guinea. The refugees' situation 
has worsened in recent months, following the offensive of the Revolutionary 
United Front (RUF), which operates out of neighbouring Sierra Leone. 
Several refugee camps have been destroyed. According to experts and Caritas 
sources, the RUF is supported by Charles Taylor, president of Liberia and 
former guerrilla. In recent years, the entire area has lived in acute 
unrest, because of successive civil wars. Partly at stake is control of the 
region's diamond deposits. The international aid agencies have been 
overwhelmed in Guinea, a country of 7.4 million about the size of Oregon. 
Secours Catholique, the French Caritas, reported on 15 February that the 
resources of the UN High Commission for Refugees in the country cannot meet 
all the refugees' needs. Together with Catholic Relief Service specialists 
and Secours Catholique, Caritas-Guinea is implementing a program which will 
enable at least one-tenth of the Sierra Leone and Liberian refugees to 
receive assistance. The latter's situation is exacerbated by tensions 
between the English-speaking refugees and the local French-speaking 
population. Food rations are now being distributed among refugees heading 
for Conakry, the country's capital, who are hoping to be repatriated by 
ship to their native countries. Caritas-Guinea has set up a refugee camp 
for 1,000 in a Catholic school, which already is overflowing. 
Caritas-Guinea has appealed to Caritas' international network for aid worth 
more than $2 million.   (Zenith, Italy, 17 February 2001)

* Guinée/Libéria/Sierra Leone. Réfugiés  -  Le 15 février, la France a 
annoncé l'octroi de 3 millions de FF pour contribuer à la "rélocalisation" 
des réfugiés en détresse dans le sud-est de la Guinée, qui devraient être 
réinstallés dans trois nouveaux camps. De son côté, le président du 
Libéria, Charles Taylor, s'est engagé à coopérer avec l'Onu pour mettre en 
place un couloir de sécurité permettant le passage des réfugiés pris au 
piège par les combats dans les zones frontalières. Recevant M. Lubbers, 
Haut commissaire des Nations unies pour les réfugiés, il a aussi démenti 
catégoriquement qu'il soutiendrait les rebelles sierra-léonais et s'est 
défendu d'avoir des troupes en Guinée. Il a encore réfuté les accusations 
d'experts de l'Onu sur un trafic de diamants qui serait à la base de ses 
liens avec le RUF. - 19 février. Le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge 
a fait savoir qu'il mettra incessamment en service un avion pour faciliter 
les opérations humanitaires en Sierra Leone, en Guinée et au Libéria; ces 
trois pays en ont donné l'autorisation. Les autorités guinéennes et 
sierra-léonaises, tout comme les dirigeants du RUF, ont également donné 
leur accord au HCR pour créer le corridor de sécurité pour les réfugiés. 
Quelque 200.000 réfugiés isolés auront ainsi bientôt la liberté d'aller et 
venir.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 19 février 2001)

* Kenya/Ethiopie. Dialogue sur la tension frontalière  -  Les gouvernements 
kényan et éthiopien se sont engagés à respecter leurs frontières 
respectives et régler leurs différends par le dialogue, a annoncé, le 15 
février, le ministre kényan de la Sécurité intérieure, M. Madoka, qui a 
reconnu l'existence de "tensions" le long de la frontière. En janvier, des 
miliciens éthiopiens, à la poursuite de rebelles du Front de libération 
Oromo (OLF), ont tué 11 Kényans, dont 8 policiers. Les affrontements entre 
rebelles de l'OLF et forces de l'ordre éthiopiennes ont créé une insécurité 
générale dans la zone frontalière. M. Madoka a annoncé l'organisation de 
patrouilles régulières pour assurer la sécurité et contenir les 
incursions.   (PANA, 15 février 2001)

* Kenya. Graft investigators forced out  -  The United Nations in Nairobi 
says it has withdrawn several members of staff from Kenya for their own 
safety after they received death threats during an investigation into 
corruption within the UN refugee resettlement programme. The UN is looking 
into allegations that a number of UN personnel have been taking bribes in 
order to resettle refugees staying in Kenya to rich countries like the 
United States and Canada. Since beginning its probe in 1999, the UN says it 
has had to redeploy several members of staff who are not under 
investigation because they have received death threats. A spokesman in 
Nairobi said that the threats were being taken very seriously. Two of the 
staff members have received death threats within the last two months. The 
spokesman said the staff had either taken leave or had been temporarily 
redeployed within the region. The bribery investigation centres around 
allegations that personnel from the UN's refugee resettlement programme 
have been extorting bribes in order to resettle refugees being housed in 
Kenya to favoured destinations such as the United States, Canada and 
Australia. Newspaper reports said fees of up to $5,000 had been demanded. 
The UN says that more than one person is under investigation but that 
nobody has been suspended so far. Kenya plays host to nearly 200,000 
refugees -- the majority of these come from Somalia. Many also come from 
Sudan, Ethiopia and the Great Lakes region.   (BBC News, 20 February 2001)

* Kenya. AIDS hospice to import drugs  -  The charismatic Jesuit founder of 
a Nairobi AIDS hospice on 21 February issued a direct challenge to the 
multinational drug trade, announcing he would accept the recent offer by 
Cipla, an Indian manufacturer of generic medicines, to supply cheap 
antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, despite the threat of a confrontation with 
Kenyan patent law. "We've decided to go ahead and order," said Father 
Angelo D'Agostino, a medical doctor from Boston whose Nyumbani hospice 
cares for 70 AIDS orphans, but which can only afford ARV therapy for 12 of 
them. "I am sick and tired of funerals," he said. The move comes amid 
growing pressure by organisations such as Oxfam and Medecins sans 
Frontières (MSF) upon an industry they argue is keeping prices too high, 
while many regions of Africa are being decimated socially and economically 
by AIDS and other diseases. It also comes as the World Bank and IMF are 
discussing with African leaders how the continent can benefit from 
globalisation, and a fortnight ahead of a controversial court battle 
between pharmaceutical companies and the South African government. Earlier 
this month, Cipla offered to provide a triple-combination AIDS therapy to 
MSF for $350 a year per patient, and to governments for $600. Even after 
recent price cuts, MSF said the equivalent cost of branded products in 
Kenya came to $3,617 a year -- well out of reach for people with an average 
income of $270 a year. But two of the three drugs on offer -- Boehringer 
Ingelheim's Nevirapine and GlaxoSmithKline's Lamivudine -- are covered by 
patent law in Kenya until 2010, meaning imports of generic equivalents are 
not allowed.   (Financial Times, UK, 22 February 2001)

* Malawi. Inondations  -  Quelque 60.000 personnes sont déplacées dans la 
Lower Shire Valley (sud du Malawi), à la suite des pluies torrentielles 
enregistrées dans la plupart des régions du pays. Les familles ont dû se 
réfugier sur des petites élévations de terrain ou dans les écoles et 
églises, a déclaré le commissaire à la prévention des catastrophes. Toutes 
les routes de la région ont été détruites et les opérations deviennent 
impossibles, a-t-il ajouté. Si aucun décès n'a été enregistré, la plupart 
des gens de la région ont perdu tous leurs biens.   (PANA, 16 février 2001)

* Malawi. New leaders of Catholic Church  -  The Vatican has announced the 
appointment of Bishop Tarcisius Ziyaye of Lilongwe as Metropolitan 
Archbishop of Blantyre. He succeeds Archbishop James Chiona, whose 
resignation from the pastoral care of the same metropolitan archdiocese, 
the Holy Father accepted, having reached the age limit. This appointment 
comes in the midst of a debate in Malawi about the differences within 
church ranks over the silence of the Church towards government abuses. 
People allege that the Church has be "bought". There is also controversy 
about the formation of a breakaway charismatic ministry. A further church 
appointment is that of Bishop Felix Eugenio Mkhori of Chikwawa, who becomes 
Bishop of Lilongwe.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 16 February 2001)

* Malawi. Nouvel archevêque  -  Le pape Jean-Paul II a nommé Mgr Tarsizio 
Gervazio Ziyaye archevêque de Blantyre, après avoir accepté la démission du 
titulaire Mgr James Chiona, qui avait atteint l'âge limite. Mgr Ziyaye 
était auparavant évêque de Lilongwe, où il est remplacé par Mgr 
Mkhori.   (DIA, Kinshasa, 19 février 2001)

* Morocco. Champion runs into criticism over gift from king  -  Hicham El 
Guerrouj, Morocco's most famous international sportsman, is at the centre 
of an extraordinary wave of popular criticism over royal patronage. El 
Guerrouj was recently given a parcel of land in the north-east of Morocco, 
in recognition of his exploits by the young king, Mohammed VI. But in what 
is seen as the first public display of criticism of such feudal practice, 
thousands of agricultural workers from around Berkane, El Guerrouj's home 
town, took to the streets last month in protest. The 336 hectares in 
question comprise two farms that have been leased for years by the royal 
palace through the national agricultural agency, Sodea, the Société de 
Développement Agricole. They constitute some of the best land around 
Berkane for growing clementines and roses. The area, near the Algerian 
border, provides work for hundreds of people, many of them seasonal 
labourers. Such gifts, to a variety of public servants, from ministers to 
police chiefs, became a tradition under the previous king, Hassan II. "Our 
athlete could well have refused this sort of gift, in order to retain his 
reputation and popularity," a spokesman from the farmworkers' union, FNSA, 
said when the gift was made. The press also took up the issue for the first 
time, with Maroc Hebdo, an independent weekly, criticising "outmoded 
practices", and L'Economiste, another weekly, suggesting that El Guerrouj's 
celebrity was being used to deflect criticism from the ailing 
Sodea.   (Financial Times, UK, 17 February 2001)

Weekly anb0222.txt - End of part 4/7