Weekly anb03303.txt #7

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 30-03-2000      PART #3/7

* Congo (RDC). Masasu amnistie  -  Selon le journal d'opposition Le
Potentiel, le commandant Masasu Nindaga, 31 ans, a ete libere le 25
mars de sa prison katangaise de Buluwo (Likasi). Masasu etait un
des quatre fondateurs de l'AFDL, l'alliance a la tete de laquelle
Laurent Kabila a pris le pouvoir en mai 1997. Accuse d'atteinte a
la securite de l'Etat pour avoir, selon l'accusation, fomente un
complot pour renverser Kabila, il avait ete condamne, en mai 1998,
a 20 ans de prison. Plus de 100 prisonniers auraient ete liberes de
la prison de Buluwo les 24 et 25 mars, a la suite de l'amnistie
decretee par le president Kabila en fevrier dernier.   (ANB-BIA, de
sources diverses, 29 mars 2000)

* Cote d'Ivoire. Soldats mecontents, un mort  -  Un sous-officier
a ete tue dans une caserne de l'ouest de la Cote d'Ivoire ou un
groupe de soldats s'est insurge pour reclamer une augmentation des
soldes, a-t-on appris de sources militaires. L'incident s'est
produit le 28 mars a Daloa. La victime, un sergent, a ete tue alors
qu'il tentait de retablir l'ordre. Quatre soldats insurges ont ete
mis aux arrets; les autres se sont enfuis avec leurs armes. C'est
la premiere fois depuis le coup d'Etat du 24 decembre dernier qu'un
affrontement entre militaires fait un mort en Cote d'Ivoire. Mais
plusieurs incidents ont ete signales ces derniers temps, temoignant
d'une insatisfaction croissante dans les rangs de l'armee, a
l'origine du renversement du president Bedie.   (Reuters, 29 mars
2000)

* Djibouti. Retour d'exil  -  Le 29 mars, le leader de l'opposition
djiboutienne, Ahmed Dini, ancien Premier ministre de l'ethnie Afar,
est rentre dans son pays apres neuf ans d'exil. Son retour fait
suite a l'accord de reconciliation signe le 7 fevrier a Paris entre
le gouvernement et le Front pour la restauration de l'unite et de
la democratie (Frud). Cet accord incluait une amnistie generale.
Selon le Frud, dont une fraction moderee avait deja abandonne la
lutte armee des 1994, une quinzaine de ses partisans detenus
n'auraient cependant pas encore recouvre la liberte.   (Liberation,
France, 30 mars 2000)

* Egypt. Treasures in danger  -  Egypt is calling for a major
salvage operation for the ancient monuments of the northern
agricultural region known as the Nile Delta. Antiquities officials
say the archaeological treasures of what was Egypt's gateway to the
Mediterranean and Africa are threatened by new building works and
rising ground levels. The call is being made as archaeologists from
around the world gather in Cairo for a key event in the study of
ancient Egypt -- the International Congress of Egyptologists. the
Congress is held every four years.   (BBC News, 28 March 2000)

* Eritrea. USA to deliver food aid  -  The USA will deliver food
aid to Eritrea for the first time since July 1998, when the
government seized US food aid destined for Ethiopia. The US Agency
for International development says it will provide Eritrea with
41,000 tons of food this year.   (AP, 27 March, 2000)

* Ethiopia. Challenges facing Ethiopia and Eritrea  -  Whether we
like it or not there is one national issue that we are all deeply
concerned about -- the peace process. In the last few weeks, there
was a glimmer of hope that Ethiopia and Eritrea will sign the peace
accord. In fact, representatives of the two countries were to meet
in Algeria this weekend to clinch a deal. While this was being
anticipated, a statement was released by Eritrean cabinet ministers
on the peace process on March 21. Ethiopia has responded to the
statement. Without going into details of the statements, this has
dampened our hope. It was only last week that members of the
Security Council, the European Union and other international
organizations called on Eritrea and Ethiopia to cooperate "fully
and urgently" with the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and to
participate constructively in its efforts to settle the dispute
between the two nations. Let us not be naive. In this day of
challenge and change, the United Nations, the OAU, the EU and other
international organizations are more important than ever before
because the world is equally more interdependent today. March 25 is
an important date to be used constructively by leaders of Ethiopia
and Eritrea. The challenge is twofold: to seize the opportunities
provided by it to agree on the peace processes that are in the
interests of the two nations and to make a solemn pledge not to
engage in war again by deciding in favour of burying the hatchet. 
 (T. Bekele, Addis Tribune, Ethiopia, 24 March 2000)

* Great Lakes/USA. Statement by Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney  - 
US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney delivered a statement via
satellite at the meeting of the Parliamentarians for Global Action,
Lusaka, Zambia, on 21 March. The following is an extract,
concerning the Great Lakes region: "...we all must assume
responsibility for the crisis in the Great Lakes Region. Developed
nations have flooded the area with arms for decades while ignoring
the repression of millions at the hands of a chosen few.
Politicians here and there bought into Cold War agendas over a
people's agenda. We've worn the diamonds without asking ourselves
the troubling question about their source. We've watch my own
country persuade others to go to war for oil so I can have the
luxury of pumping cheap gasoline into my car while not worrying
about the human cost of how it arrived in my tank".   (ANB-BIA,
Brussels, 25 March 2000)

* Guinea. Refugee conference  -  28 March: Senior aid workers and
government officials are meeting in Conakry to try and improve the
plight of eight million African refugees. The venue of the three-
day meeting, which was opened by the Guinean prime minister, is
significant, because Guinea hosts about half a million refugees
from conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The aim of the meeting
is to encourage greater respect for the Africa-wide Refugee
Convention, which was agreed by African presidents in 1969.   (ANB-
BIA, Brussels, 28 March 2000)

* Guinee. Proces d'Alpha Conde  -  Le proces de l'opposant Alpha
Conde, president du Rassemblement du peuple de Guinee (RPG), detenu
sans jugement depuis le 16 decembre 1998, aura lieu le 12 avril,
selon Yves William Aboly, procureur general pres de la Cour de
surete de l'Etat. M. Conde sera juge avec 47 autres personnes, dont
deux militaires. Poursuivi pour "atteinte a la securite de l'Etat,
emploi de la force armee et complicite", M. Conde avait ete arrete
au lendemain de l'election presidentielle a laquelle il etait
candidat.   (Le Monde, France, 29 mars 2000)

* Guinea-Bissau. Former rebels in government  -  Guinea-Bissau's
former rebel leaders who ousted the country's president almost a
year ago, have been named ministers of state in the new
democratically-elected government. The move, which follows a
diplomatic mission by Gambia's Foreign Minister, Sedat Jobe,
apparently was aimed at quelling tensions between the former rebels
and the present President, Kumba Yala. On 22 March, Jobe mediated
talks between Yala and Brig. Ansumane Mane, who led a breakaway
military faction that toppled former President Vieira in May last
year. There was no information on what caused the friction between
the current President and the military.   (Washington Post, 23
March 2000)

* Kenya. Collision frontale: 100 morts  -  Le 29 mars, au moins 100
personnes ont ete tuees dans la collision frontale de deux bus dans
l'est du Kenya. L'accident a eu lieu vers midi, pres de la ville de
Kericho, a 225 km au nord-ouest de Nairobi. Apres la collision les
deux bus ont pris feu. Selon un policier present sur les lieux,
l'un des bus roulait a grande vitesse quand il a fait un ecart pour
eviter un nid-de-poule; c'est alors qu'il a heurte frontalement un
autre bus arrivant en face. (NB - Une depeche de la BBC, datee du
30 mars, informe que le decompte total des victimes confirme par la
police est de 74 morts. anb-bia)   (AP, 29 mars 2000)

* Kenya. Bus collision horror  -  29 March: A senior Kenyan police
officer has told reporters than more than 100 people were killed
when two buses collided head-on near the western town of Kericho on
29 March. The officer said the exact number of people killed could
not be established immediately, because some bodies were still
trapped in the burnt out buses. He said the accident happened when
one of the drivers tried to avert a pothole and verred straight
into the parth of the other bus. 30 March: Police in Kenya have
revised the number of people killed from 101 to 74)   (BBC News,
29-30 March 2000)
* Liberia. Radio Veritas reprend  -  Le 22 mars, le ministere
liberien de l'Information a annonce que la suspension de la radio
catholique Radio Veritas avait ete levee avec "effet immediat",
suite a une reunion entre le gouvernement et le conseil
d'administration de la radio, ou il a ete convenu que les deux
parties seraient "disponibles pour des echanges de vues afin de
garantir une diffusion d'informations equilibrees et basees sur les
faits". Selon le ministere, la question de Star Radio, dont le
gouvernement avait impose la fermeture la semaine passee en meme
temps que la suspension de Radio Veritas, serait resolue par "des
voies diplomatiques".   IRIN, Abidjan, 23 mars 2000)

* Libye/USA. Detente  -  Le 21 mars, Washington s'est felicite de
la reduction du soutien libyen au terrorisme, a la veille de
l'envoi a Tripoli d'une mission chargee d'evaluer si les citoyens
americains peuvent desormais se rendre dans ce pays. La Libye, mise
a l'index par les Etats-Unis depuis plus de vingt ans, a "pris
d'importantes dispositions pour reduire son soutien au terrorisme",
a declare le sous-secretaire d'Etat charge du Proche-Orient. Edward
Walker a toutefois tenu a moderer de precedentes declarations d'un
haut responsable du departement d'Etat qui avait parle de
"cessation de soutien" libyen aux groupes extremistes.   (La Croix,
France, 23 mars 2000)

WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 30-03-2000  END OF PART #3/7