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Weekly anb04055.txt #6
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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 05-04-2001 PART #5/6
* Sierra Leone. Minusil prolongée et renforcée - Le 30 mars, le Conseil de
sécurité de l'Onu a voté l'envoi de troupes supplémentaires en Sierra Leone
afin d'aider le gouvernement à rétablir son autorité à travers le pays,
ravagé par la guerre. Les membres du Conseil ont décidé à l'unanimité de
proroger de six mois, jusqu'au 30 septembre, le mandat des casques bleus
basés en Sierra Leone et de renforcer leur présence. Actuellement 9.500,
ils seront bientôt 17.500. (AP, 31 mars 2001)
* Sierra Leone. Is it really peace? - 30 March: The High Command of the
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) endorses all six members of the RUF's
newly formed Political and Peace Council. The Council's objective is to
start "formal dialogue" with the government and the international community
to resume the peace process ruptured in May 2000 when the RUF detained over
500 UN troops. 2 April: Rebel forces in Sierra Leone say the decade-long
war is over and that they want to engage in purely political struggle. In
an exclusive BBC interview, senior rebel commander Jibril Massaquoi says
the United Nations, which has its largest peacekeeping force in the world
in Sierra Leone is now welcome to deploy throughout the country. Senior
commanders of the Revolutionary United Front tell the BBC correspondent,
that if elections due to be held at the end of this year are fair and
monitored by the international community, they will transform themselves
into a political party and compete peacefully. The British presence appears
to have been a critical factor in bringing them to the negotiating table.
The British army has several hundred soldiers in Sierra Leone. But they are
working outside the UN mandate, training the army of the internationally
recognised government to face up to the rebels. The rebels will not admit
it in public, but there's no doubt that the large British military presence
on the Sierra Leone government's side has been critical in bringing about
this change in attitude. Many Sierra Leoneans will be deeply sceptical of
the rebels' call for peace and will judge them on their actions not their
words. This is hardly surprising after a decade of war atrocities, most
committed by the rebel side. Nevertheless, the message the rebel commanders
gave the BBC is clear -- they are tired of the war and they also perhaps
realise that, thanks to the British presence, they can no longer win it. 3
April: Human Rights Watch says rebels in Sierra Leone are killing, raping
and robbing refugees trying to return home to escape fighting in Guinea.
"The findings raise serious questions about the viability of so-called
"safe passage" or humanitarian corridors through rebel territory for
returning refugees as proposed in February by the UNHCR", says the human
rights organisation. 4 April: A critical UN peace-deployment into
rebel-held areas of Sierra Leone has been delayed, in what is seen by most
Sierra Leoneans as yet another example of UN disorganisation. (ANB-BIA,
Brussels, 5 April 2001)
* Somalie. Otages libérés - Le 30 mars au matin, deux des quatre otages
européens détenus depuis le 27 mars par des miliciens à Mogadiscio ont été
libérés. Il s'agit du Français Mohammed Mohamedi de l'OMS et du Belge
Pierre Lamotte de l'Unicef. Les Britanniques Bill Condie et Roger Carter,
tous deux responsables de la sécurité de l'Onu, déténus par la milice du
chef de guerre Muse Sudi Yalahow, ont été libéré le 4 avril et sont arrivés
en bonne santé à Nairobi. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 5 avril 2001)
* South Africa. Diamond Board to go this year - South Africa's Diamond
Board will be abolished before the end of the year, Abbey Chikane, its
president, said on 29 March. "All its powers, assets, rights, duties and
obligations shall vest in the minister of minerals and in the state." The
change will become effective when the minerals development bill, sweeping
legislation which seeks to radically change the relationship between the
South African government and the country's mining industry, becomes law.
The Board, which oversees the trade and valuation of diamond exports from
producers, has long been dogged by controversy. De Beers, the world's
largest diamond producer, called openly for an overhaul of the Board last
year after disputes over prices with the government valuator delayed the
export of several shipments of rough diamonds for weeks. The valuator,
Claude Nobels, was then dismissed and sued the government. Mr Chikane,
formally appointed in January with a mandate to improve relations with the
industry, said on Thursday that the dispute between the Board and Mr Nobels
had been settled out of court. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the minister of
minerals, said the Board suffered from "poor corporate governance" and last
year she launched an investigation into allegations that Board inspectors
were involved in illegally importing diamonds. The latest controversy
concerns the fact that four members of the Board are also De Beers
sightholders, diamond dealers allowed to buy directly from the
company. (Financial Times, UK, 30 March 2001)
* South Africa. Indigenous groups demand their rights - Abraham Koopman was
just 21 when apartheid drove his people off their land and destroyed his
Griqua community's nomadic, pastoral lifestyle. Sixty-five years later, "we
have nothing," Koopman said. Slaughtered by colonists, oppressed by the
apartheid regime and marginalized under the country's young democracy,
South Africa's indigenous people, once derisively known as Bushman and
Hottentots, say they have had enough. Leaders from nearly all the nation's
major indigenous groups gathered at a conference that ended on 1 April to
demand redress for past wrongs, the return of stolen land and official
recognition as South Africa's first indigenous nation. "The people are fed
up," said Abraham Andrew Stockenstrom le Fleur II, chief of the Griqua
National Conference, one of 36 indigenous groups gathering in Oudtshoorn,
about 270 miles east of Cape Town. South Africa's first inhabitants were
nomads -- Khoikhoi cattle farmers and San hunter-gatherers. They are now
collectively known as Khoisan. Under South Africa's culture of colonialism
and apartheid, many Khoisan became ashamed of their heritage and
assimilated into mixed-race communities. An estimated 1 million of South
Africa's 45 million people are thought to have some Khoisan ancestry, but
few maintain allegiance to their roots and still speak the ancient
languages. Only a handful of communities in remote rural areas continue to
live traditionally. (CNN, 1 April 2001)
* South Africa. Govt. hits back at EU criticism of AIDS policy - On 3
April, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, South Africa's minister of health, lashed
out at the European Union for criticising the country's AIDS policy at a
time when it is fighting to contain its own epidemic of foot-and-mouth
disease. In an open letter to Miet Smet, head of an European Parliament
delegation that visited South Africa last month, the minister complains
that people coming to the country should "acclimatise themselves about the
nature and size of the AIDS problem before making sweeping statements about
the country's national and multi-sectoral response to the
epidemic". (Financial Times, UK, 4 April 2001)
* South Africa. The Bafokeng defend their rights - Africa's wealthiest
tribespeople, the Royal Bafokeng, who have grown rich on platinum reserves
discovered beneath their ancestral land north-west of Johannesburg,
launched a campaign on 1 April against a South African government move to
nationalise mineral rights. In full-page advertisements in the South
African media, the tribe denounced a draft Mineral Development Bill aimed
at taking the ownership of mineral rights out of private hands as
"devastating" for the Bafokeng and comparable to the tactics of
"expropriation without compensation" used by the apartheid regime. South
Africa has some of the world's richest mineral reserves including diamonds,
gold and manganese and, through deft negotiations throughout the 20th
century, the Bafokeng secured royalties worth at least £12m a year from the
world's second biggest reserve of platinum near Rustenburg. Platinum is
used in catalytic converters for cars and its price has soared in recent
years. But the Bafokeng who have built schools, a civic centre and
impressive health facilities are the exception to the rule in a country
whose black majority 42 million population has not benefited from the
wealth of its subsoil.The South African government wants mining rights to
rest with the state, which is common practice internationally. Last week,
South Africa's Minister of Minerals and Energy, Phumzile Mlambo-Necguka,
bowed to industry pressure for a rethink and agreed to redraft the Bill and
appoint an advisory panel of international experts. (The Independent, UK,
2 April 2001)
* Afrique du Sud. Rencontre avec les leaders religieux - Lors d'une
rencontre pour discuter des différentes manières de promouvoir les
questions non raciales et autres, mardi 3 avril, le président sud-africain
Thabo Mbeki Sud a appelé les leaders des 30 principales communautés
religieuses de son pays à accélérer le processus de construction d'une
société non raciale. M. Mbeki les a également encouragés à renforcer les
programmes pour l'éradication de la pauvreté, à restaurer les valeurs
morales et à participer à la renaissance de l'Afrique. Tous les différants
groupes religieux -- chrétien, musulman, hindou, juif, baha'ie et les
croyances traditionnelles africaines -- étaient représentés. Ils ont pris
l'engagement d'oeuvrer à la transformation sociale et spirituelle de la
nation au-delà des clivages politiques et confessionnels. Malgré
l'existence de différends et de difficultés au sein de la communauté
religieuse qu'ils ont ouvertement reconnue, ils ont admis que des activités
communes de soutien pourraient être menées, notamment au sujet de
l'établissement d'une communication plus rapprochée entre le gouvernement
et les communautés religieuses sur des questions spécifiques relatives à la
transformation de notre pays.
(ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 4 avril 2001)
* South Africa. Long-awaited AIDS report - The Government has released a
long-awaited report on AIDS in South Africa. More than 4 million South
Africans are now thought to be HIV-positive. But the findings show a deep
and almost unbridgeable divide between panel members. Many will be left
wondering why the government had to call a panel of experts together to
make this conclusion. Also, an inspecting judge, Johannes Fagan, has
reported to Parliament that natural deaths in South Africa's overcrowded
prisons have rocketed by 584% in the past five years, mostly as a result of
HIV/AIDS. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 5 April 2001)
* Sudan. Famine warning - Sudan is facing the prospect of a serious famine
in the coming months. The warning comes from the UN World Food Programme
who have been unable to raise the funds they need to feed three million
people who are now under threat in the North African state. People are on
the move trying to find food and they have already eaten the seeds which
they need to plant the next harvest. The UN's World Food Programme first
sounded an alert for Sudan last November. They appealed for $135m worth of
food, but the civil war between the Islamist government in Khartoum and its
opposition in the south has gone on too long for donor countries to care.
Only 1% of the money was raised and now the WFP is warning of a famine
which could kill more people than any disaster in the country since the
mid-1980s. The head of the WFP in Sudan, Massood Haider, in London to try
to raise money, said it is not just the war which is making life difficult
but the weather. A prolonged drought has left major reservoirs empty, in a
worse state than at any time in more than 50 years. Mr Haider said the
clock is ticking. His food warehouses are empty and people will die on a
large scale by July unless there is a swift response by rich
countries. (BBC News, 29 March 2001)
* Soudan. Combats - Dans un communiqué divulgué le 30 mars, l'Alliance
démocratique nationale (NDA) a affirmé avoir repoussé le quatrième assaut
des milices gouvernementales qui tentaient de reconquérir la zone de Menza
(Etat soudanais du Nil Bleu). Selon le NDA, l'attaque a été donnée à l'arme
lourde dans le but de paniquer la population locale. La note n'indique pas
le nombre de morts ou de blessés. La zone de Menza est contrôlée par
l'Alliance depuis 1997 et l'armée a déjà tenté de la reprendre
militairement à trois reprises. Elle se situe non loin de Damazin, où se
dressent un grand barrage et une centrale hydroélectrique qui fournit
l'énergie à la capitale Khartoum. (Misna, Italie, 30 mars 2001)
* Soudan. Le conseil du Nil - Au cours de sa réunion du 28 au 30 mars à
Khartoum, le conseil des ministres de l'hydraulique des Etats du bassin du
Nil a approuvé les projets de développement des ressources en eau, des
ressources hydroélectriques et écologiques de la région. Les projets
devraient être présentés lors d'un forum international de donateurs à
Genève en juin prochain. Selon le ministre soudanais de l'irrigation et des
ressources en eau, Kamal Ali, les projets visent à développer les capacités
d'irrigation de la région ainsi que la production d'énergie
hydroélectrique. Ils sont aussi destinés à mettre fin à la dégradation de
l'environnement, à concevoir des programmes de protection des ressources en
eau et développer les capacités en matière de recherche scientifique dans
le domaine de l'eau. (PANA, Sénégal, 2 avril 2001)
* Sudan. Leader of the struggle to free the Nuba dies - Yousif Kuwa, the
teacher who turned to armed struggle to get recognition for the Nuba people
of central Sudan, has died at the age of 56 after a year-long struggle with
bone cancer. His death strips the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army of a man
who was the very embodiment of the "New Sudan" it is pledged to create.
Kuwa died on 31 March in a Norwich (UK) hospital, while writing an open
letter to the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, deploring the UN's failure
to deliver relief to the Numba mountains three years after Khartoum
promised to end its 12-year blockade. (The Guardian, UK, 3 April 2001)
* Sudan. US Bishops' Conference visits war torn Southern Sudan - A
delegation from the United States Catholic Conference (USCC) completed an
extensive tour of Sudan's non-government-controlled territory, in a move
that could impact greatly on the relations between the USA and Khartoum.
Having first spent a week in Khartoum, the US delegation divided themselves
into two groups in order to be able to cover as much ground as possible in
their two-day tour. One group led by Bishop Edward Braxton of Lake Charles
in Louisiana, first visited the Diocese of Tambura Yambio in Western
Equatoria, then proceeded to Rumbek in Bahr el Ghazal, Kauda in the Nuba
Mountains in Central Sudan and finally to Narus on the eastern bank of the
River Nile. Other members of the group were Fr. Mike Perry, the USCC's
Policy Advisor on African Affairs, Mr. Ken Hackett, the Executive Director,
of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Mr. Paul Townsend, who is the Country
Representative for the CRS Sudan Programme. At hand to receive the USCC
team at the different stations, were Bishops Joseph Gasi of Tambura Yambio,
Paride Taban of Torit, Max Macram Gasis of El Obeid (Nuba Mountains) and
Caesar Mazzolari of Rumbek. The second group comprised Bishop John Ricard
of Tallahassee-Pensacola and Chairman of the CRS Board of Directors, and
Kevin Appleby, USCC Director, Office of Migration and Refugee Policy. The
Auxiliary Bishop of Torit, Rev Johnson Akio Mutek, accompanied the group
that visited the Adjumani Refugee camp in northern Uganda, Nimule in
Eastern Equatoria and Kakuma Refugee Camp in northern Kenya. The two
refugee camps are homes to tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees, while
Nimule hosts the internally displaced. (Fides, Vatican City, 3 April 2001)
Weekly News - anb0405.txt - End of part 5/6