Weekly anb03232.txt #7

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 23-03-2000      PART #2/7

* Angola. Children "crucified"  -  UNITA rebels are reported to have stoned, then crucified six children for allegedly giving information to the government armed forces. A spokesman for the Angolan Christian Churches Council, Jaime Paulo, said the children were killed on 21 March during an attack on the town of Beu in the north of the country close to the border with Congo RDC. The spokesman added that UNITA have killed more than 80 Christians on suspicion of providing the army with information so far this year.   (BBC News, 22 March 2000)

* Burundi. Peace Talks continue  -  17 March: From South Africa, Nelson Mandela is continuing his mediation efforts in the Burundi peace talks. In the next few days he is meeting in Johannesburg with representatives of those involved in the civil war, including Burundi's Defence Minister, Colonel Cyrille Ndayirukiye and various representatives of the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD). (Editor's note: The Arusha Peace Talks are set to resume on 27 March).   (MISNA, Rome, 17 March 2000)

* Burundi. Buyoya sollicite l'aide de Chissano  -  Le president Buyoya a indique, le 17 mars, qu'il esperait beneficier de l'assistance de son homologue mozambicain Joaquim Chissano dans le processus de paix burundais, et "apprendre de l'experience de reconciliation du Mozambique" apres sa guerre civile. Buyoya a par ailleurs estime que M. Nelson Mandela etait "un bon mediateur" et que "tout le monde pense qu'il est en mesure de propulser le processus de paix vers l'avant", en depit de critiques emises par certaines parties. M. Mandela, lui, a repris sa mediation en rencontrant, le 16 mars a Johannesburg, le ministre burundais de la Defense. Il devrait se rendre en avril a Arusha ou au Burundi pour une nouvelle session de pourparlers.   (D'apres l'Agence burundaise de Presse, 18 mars 2000)

* Burundi. Rebelles aux negociations  -  Le 20 mars, Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye, chef de l'organisation rebelle FDD (Forces pour la defense de la democratie), s'est dit pret a participer aux negociations de paix. Il a fait cette declaration lors d'une conference de presse en presence du mediateur Nelson Mandela. Il a toutefois souligne des conditions a sa participation, dont le demantelement des camps de regroupement et la liberation des prisonniers, ajoutant que "si la situation actuelle au Burundi perdure et qu'on ne trouve pas de solution, nous ne pourrons que continuer notre combat pour la liberte". M. Mandela devrait rencontrer cette semaine a Johannesburg les representants d'autres groupes armes burundais; la semaine derniere, il a rencontre le ministre burundais de la Defense et quatre officiers superieurs de l'armee. M. Mandela sera a Arusha du 27 mars au 1er avril pour la reprise des negociations. Une premiere rencontre visera a "galvaniser les questions pendantes", notamment la reforme de l'armee, la gestion de la transition, le futur systeme electoral et la question de l'amnistie. Ensuite, une nouvelle commission, dont feront partie les chefs des 18 delegations et qui sera chargee de l'application et des garanties de l'accord de paix, se reunira pour etudier son ordre du jour et sa methodologie de travail.   (ANB- BIA, de sources diverses, 21 mars 2000)

* Burundi. War draws in Rwandan combatants  -  In a report published on 23 March, Human Rights Watch said that the brutal war in Burundi is increasingly involving other countries in Central Africa, and the United Nations tribunal for Rwanda should be expanded to include serious crimes being committed in Burundi. The report offers the first detailed evidence of Rwandan Hutu participating in the insurgency in Burundi, and suggests that they represent almost half the combatants in some rebel units operating around Bujumbura. Many of them are soldiers of the former Rwandan government responsible for the 1994 genocide of Tutsi in Rwanda. The previously close collaboration recently fell apart in some units, however: the report describes how one hundred Rwandans were slaughtered by their comrades in the FNL (Forces Nationales de Liberation). The report also describes the slaughter of more than two hundred civilians by the Burundian armed forces, the FNL, and the CNDD-FDD (Conseil National pour la Defense de la Democratie- Forces pour la Defense de la Democratie; now more commonly called the FDD). The report gives evidence of two recent insurgent attacks on humanitarian agencies. In the most recent round of negotiations to end the Burundian war, negotiators and foreign observers for the first time talked openly of an amnesty for such crimes and for other killings of tens of thousands of civilians during the six- year old war. "An amnesty in Burundi is exactly the wrong direction to take," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa division of Human Rights Watch. "Many of the killings in Burundi, whether perpetrated by Tutsi or by Hutu, were crimes against humanity. A U.N. Commission has described some of them as genocide. How can there be any hope of justice and order in Burundi if crimes of this magnitude are left unpunished?" Human Rights Watch urged the creation of a new division of the existing International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to prosecute crimes committed in Burundi. It also recommended using foreign jurists within Burundian courts to speed judging the thousands of persons accused of ethnic killings and other attacks since 1993.   (HRW, 23 March 2000)

* Cameroun. Les ministres en charge de la securite limoges  -  Le president camerounais Paul Biya a procede le samedi 18 mars a un remaniement ministeriel de son 22e gouvernement, en fonction depuis deux ans et un mois. Le fait saillant est le limogeage des ministres en charge des questions de securite (gendarmerie, police et interieur). Ils ont ete remplaces par des septuagenaires sortis de la retraite (cas de Koungou Edima Ferdinand pour l'Interieur, et de Milo'o Medjo pour la police). Reputes pour leur poigne, leur principale mission pense-t-on a Yaounde, est d'endiguer la vague d'insecurite qui deferle sur le Cameroun. La presse camerounaise desapprouve ces choix. "Le Messager" qualifie ces vieux de "revenants", tandis que "Mutations" les qualifie des "fossiles" et "La Nouvelle Expression" les assimile a des "morts ressuscites".   (JDM, Report. Associes Cameroun, 23 mars 2000)

* Comores. Putsch avorte  -  La 19e tentative de coup d'Etat militaire aux Comores -- en comptant celles reussies ou non -- depuis que l'archipel a pris son independance en 1975, a ete dejouee par la junte militaire au pouvoir. Deux fils de l'ancien president Ahmed Abdallah, assassine en 1989, ainsi qu'un Francais originaire de l'ile de la Reunion ont ete arretes, accuses d'avoir fomente la tentative de putsch. On ignore encore si ces combats ont fait des victimes.   (Liberation, France, 23 mars 2000)

* Comoros. Coup attempt fails  -  21 March: The army says it has prevented another coup attempt -- the 19th such attempt since independence 25 years ago. Officials say they believed the attempted coup has been led by two sons of the islands first president, Ahmed Abdallah, who was himself assassinated in a coup in 1989. A number of people have been arrested including one of the sons, former agriculture minister Mahmoud Ahmed Abdallah. "This is just a manoeuvre to destabilise the country", Comorian Prime Minister Bianrifi Tarmidi", said. 22 March: The army arrests more people, including Captain Abderemane Ahmed Abdallah, the second son of the former president.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 23 March 2000)

* Congo-Brazza. Economic growth forecast  -  The Congolese government has forecast a restoration of economic growth this year, saying that its oil has favourable prospects in the international market. In a statement, the national credit committee said that the continuous steadiness of crude oil prices and the on-going normalisation of the political situation were some of the factors expected to jump-start economic recovery. The future resumption of railway traffic on the Congo-Ocean railway line linking Pointe- Noire to Brazzaville was also cited as a major factor expected to contribute to the restoration of economic growth. According to the projections, the gross domestic product should amount to 1,603.3 billion CFA francs. The projections put the growth rate in real terms to 6.5 percent while the real income per capita would increase by 3.9 percent, the statement said. It added that inflation should be under control with only a 2-percent increase due to the effect of consumer prices. It said the Congolese economy had quasi-stagnated during 1999 in spite of increase in the world price of crude oil, realising the current gross domestic product of 1,384 billion francs with a growth rate amounting to less than 0.7 percent against 3.6 percent in 1998. But inflation had remained moderate in spite of the increase of consumer prices while the monetary situation had slightly improved. The monetary market has remained active with regards to the activities of the central bank, the statement noted.   (PANA, Dakar, 16 March 2000)

* Congo-Brazza. Espoirs economiques  -  Apres un an de quasi- stagnation economique en 1999, le gouvernement prevoit un retour a la croissance cette annee, en raison des perspectives favorables sur le front petrolier, de la reprise totale du trafic ferroviaire et de la normalisation de la situation politique dans le pays, indiquait le 16 mars l'agence PANA. Parallelement, l'unite de renseignement economique Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) indiquait dans un rapport, la semaine derniere, que malgre les destructions dues a la guerre civile, les performances economiques du Congo seraient meilleures grace a l'augmentation des revenus du secteur petrolier, qui a ete relativement peu affecte par le conflit. Toutefois, l'EIU estime que l'accord de cessez-le-feu signe par les dirigeants des milices, en decembre dernier, ne represente qu'un reglement partiel du conflit, puisqu'il n'inclut pas l'ancien president Lissouba et l'ancien Premier ministre Kolelas. "Il est probable qu'un certain niveau d'activite militaire se poursuivra", indique le rapport.   (D'apres IRIN , Nairobi, 19 mars 2000)


weekly news anb0323 - End of Part 2/7