Weekly anb03157.txt #8

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 15-03-2001      PART #7/8

* Uganda. Elections  -  9 March: Five opposition presidential candidates 
meet the Electoral Commission amid rumours they will call a boycott if 
their concerns are not immediately addressed. The five believe that 
President Museveni is using a biased state security apparatus to intimidate 
their voter base ahead of the 12 March poll. 10 March: Final campaigning 
for the elections. There are 6 candidates but correspondents say the two 
main contenders are Yoweri Musveni and Kizza Besigye. 11 March: President 
Museveni condemns his political opponents as stooges of terrorists and 
defended an increasing army presence as safe guard against violence. "They 
are like the Rwandan Interahamwe", says Mr Museveni. "They work on the 
criminal front, subversive front, terrorist front and the political front. 
I follow them on the political front, but the army must fight them on other 
fronts". 12 March: Presidential elections. Voting gets off without 
incidents. Turnout at the polls is high. Later on, a number of 
irregularities begin to emerge. Many people believe voter numbers are 
inflated, and there are reports of boxes being filled before polls 
officially opened. However, Grace Kaiso, who heads Uganda's NGO election 
monitoring group, says the process has been "fair" in the country as a 
whole. The first round of elections closes on schedule at 5 P.M. According 
to representatives of civil society contacted by the press agency MISNA, 
President Museveni has been defeated by his main rival, Kizza Besigye, in 
the city of Gulu. This is based on a survey conducted in a dozen polling 
stations in the city.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 13 March 2001)

* Ouganda. Election présidentielle  -  12 mars. Onze millions d'électeurs 
sont appelés aux urnes pour la deuxième présidentielle au suffrage 
universel en Ouganda. Six candidats se présentent, dont le président 
sortant Yoweri Museveni. Pour la première fois, celui-ci n'est pas sûr 
d'emporter la majorité absolue au premier tour, face à son principal 
adversaire, le Dr Kizza Besigye. Au cours des dernières semaines, la 
campagne électorale a enregistré une vague d'attaques personnelles, d'actes 
d'intimidation et de violences. Le lundi 12 mars, les Ougandais ont voté 
massivement et dans le calme. Cependant, des témoins et l'opposition ont 
dénoncé des irrégularités dans des bureaux de vote. M. Besigye s'est plaint 
de violences et d'irrégularités dans le scrutin, dans un texte de deux 
pages adressé à la commission électorale. Celle-ci dispose de 48 heures 
pour annoncer les résultats. -14 mars. La Commission nationale électorale a 
proclamé Museveni vainqueur du scrutin avec 69,3% des voix. Kizza Besigye 
n'en a recueilli que 27,8%, beaucoup moins qu'attendu; il contestera les 
résultats devant la Cour constitutionnelle.   (ANB-BIA, de sources 
diverses, 15 mars 2001)

* Uganda. Easy win for Museveni  -  Yoweri Museveni, Uganda's president, 
was on Wednesday declared the winner of the east African nation's most 
keenly fought elections since he took power in 1986, following a process 
that local non- governmental monitors described as flawed but reflecting 
the people's wishes. According to a statement issued by Uganda's electoral 
commission at midday on Wednesday, Mr Museveni won 69.3 per cent of the 
vote, while Kizza Besigye, his main challenger, took 27.8 per cent. 
According to Uganda's non-governmental election monitoring group, Nemgroup, 
there were serious irregularities in eight of Uganda's 56 districts, mostly 
in favour of the incumbent -- including multiple voting, pre-ticked ballot 
papers, attacks on the candidates' agents and the sale of voter cards. 
Robert Sentamu, a Nemgroup analyst, said that 5-15 per cent of the votes 
might have been compromised by intimidation and other malpractice. 
Nevertheless, the group concluded that the polling day irregularities, 
alongside maladministration by the electoral commission and government bias 
in the pre- election campaign, had not affected the final result. But 
observers and international donors are still concerned by an election whose 
run-up was marred by violence and intimidation, and which has posed 
questions about a country that has become the darling of the aid world. On 
Wednesday night at least one person died and eight people were injured 
after a home-made bomb exploded at a mini-bus terminal in Kampala, the 
capital, police said. A second bomb went off inside a mini-bus taxi on a 
road south of Kampala. There were no reports of casualties. The bombings 
were the first since late January when six people were injured in three 
separate attacks in the capital.   (Financial Time, UK, 15 March 2001)

* Western Sahara. The idea of autonomy for Western Sahara  -  Two weeks 
after the UN's ultimatum, the idea of autonomy for the Sahara is beginning 
to be publicly raised in Morocco. Khalihenna ould Rachid, a pro-Moroccan 
Saharawi notable, deputy mayor of El Ayoun, is multiplying meetings and 
statements in an effort to make himself a spokesperson for the Saharawis 
under Moroccan occupation. He is singing the praises of the autonomy 
solution which is favoured by the big powers and the UN and which is 
beginning to gain ground in Morocco. Driven to decolonisation, Spain had 
counted in 1974 on him to preserve their interests. Khalihenna had thus 
created PUNS, a pseudo-nationalist party, and should have become the first 
president of an "independent" Sahara. The invasion and integration of the 
territory with Morocco changed the deal, Khalihenna became the Moroccan 
Minister for Saharan affairs. In his recent statements, Khalihenna presents 
himself anew as leader of the national Saharawi tendency and claims: "I say 
to you that it is the time to say to the world that we exist and that we 
must implement the regionalist option -- in Spain they call it autonomist" 
for our territory." (El Pais, 26.02.01). He doesn't hesitate to say, in 
another interview, that the economic and social situation in the Sahara is 
serious, catastrophic, even explosive. "The events [of October 1999] could 
happen again, and worse.... These last weeks, things nearly exploded 
again." He wants to channel discontent in the Sahara, where, he recognises, 
the problem has a political basis. In his opinion, the one responsible is 
Basri, his bad management of the issue, the Houston agreements, "which 
Morocco was not obliged to sign". His successor as Minister of the Interior 
is no better, he only camouflages the real situation. For nothing has been 
done. The consultative Council for Saharan Affairs, announced in 1999 by 
the King, has remained a dead letter, Khalihenna stated. (Maroc Hebdo 
International, 09.03.01).   (Western Sahara Ref. Support Ass., 10 March 2001)

* Zambia. Chiluba's third term controversy worries World Bank  -  To 
pre-empt any troubles that might compromise the country's economic gains 
this far, the World Bank has urged Zambians to quickly decide on whether 
President Chiluba could run for a third term in elections due this year. 
World Bank resident representative in Zambia Lawrence Clarke, who dropped 
the advice Friday, expressed worry over rumours that instability was 
simmering in Zambia with the potential for a civil strife over the issue. 
"Politics is something that our clients will have to define and deal with 
for themselves," Clarke noted, adding "at the World Bank, what we would 
like to see is Zambians deciding the issue of the third term in their own 
interest." Members of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) 
are currently split on whether to amend the Republican Constitution to 
allow President Frederick Chiluba seek a third term of office. Already four 
cabinet ministers have openly opposed the idea of amending the constitution 
to allow Chiluba to run for a third term. Chiluba himself has said that he 
would make his position known once the debate has been exhausted   (PANA, 
Dakar, 10 March 2001)

* Zambie. Le 3ème mandat de Chiluba  -  Afin de prévenir toute crise 
susceptible de compromettre les acquis de la Zambie au plan économique, la 
Banque mondiale a invité les Zambiens à décider rapidement si le président 
Chiluba peut ou non briguer cette année un troisième mandat à la tête de 
l'Etat. Le représentant résident de la Banque mondiale en Zambie, M. 
Lawrence Clarke, qui a donné ce conseil le 9 mars, s'est dit préoccupé par 
un possible conflit civil sur cette question. Les membres du Mouvement pour 
la démocratie multipartite (MMD, au pouvoir) sont actuellement divisés sur 
le fait de savoir s'il faut amender la Constitution pour permettre à M. 
Chiluba de briguer un 3ème mandat. M. Chiluba lui-même a déclaré qu'il fera 
connaître sa position une fois que le débat sera terminé.   (PANA, 10 mars 
2001)

* Zambia. Revisiting currency woes  -  Zambian copper miners feel they are 
being unfairly blamed for the collapse late last year of the local 
currency, the kwacha. In the three months to mid-January it lost 20 per 
cent of its value, bringing the loss for the previous 12 months up to 40 
per cent. One factor cited in connection with the collapse is the change in 
the copper miners' foreign exchange tactics after the industry was 
privatised early last year. The dollar revenue earned by the copper mines 
is so substantial in relation to the size of the local foreign exchange 
market that the miners can effectively dictate the rate when they change 
dollars into kwacha to pay wages and local suppliers. Before privatisation, 
when the mines were run by the state-owned Zambian Consolidated Copper 
Mines, its auctions distributed the dollars across a broad range of banks. 
After privatisation, the new copper miners adopted a far more aggressive 
auction system. They would only deal with the banks which offered the 
keenest rates, tactics that encouraged bidding wars. The two most important 
new copper miners are Konkola Copper Mines, owned by a consortium headed by 
South African-based, UK-listed Anglo American, and Mopani Copper Mines, a 
joint venture between the Swiss metal trader Glencore and Canadian-listed 
First Quantum. (Financial Times, 12 March 2001)

Weekly, ANB0315.txt - End of part 7/8