Weekly anb05175.txt #8

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 17-05-2001      PART #5/8

* Morocco. Activists jailed  -  A court in Morocco has given jail sentences 
of three months to 36 human rights activists for organising unauthorised 
public protests against torture and arbitrary arrests. The activists from 
the Moroccan Association for Human Rights held their protests last year in 
the capital, Rabat on International Human Rights Day. The verdict comes 
less than two months after the organisation released its annual report 
which stated that -despite promises of reform - the human rights situation 
remained alarming, with journalists continuing to face regular intimidation 
-several having been given prison sentences this year.   (BBC News, UK, 17 
May 2001)

* Niger. Le Premier ministre à Bruxelles  -  Le 11 mai, le Premier ministre 
nigérien Hama Amadou, accompagné de ses ministres des Finances et du Plan, 
entame une visite d'une semaine à Bruxelles, pour faire le point sur la 
coopération entre l'Union européenne et le Niger. La Commission européenne 
est très satisfaite du niveau atteint par la coopération entre Bruxelles et 
Niamey depuis le rétablissement de celle-ci en mai 2000. L'UE avait gelé sa 
coopération avec le Niger à la suite du coup d'Etat sanglant d'avril 1999. 
Dans le cadre du 9e Fonds européen de développement, l'UE a mis à la 
disposition de Niamey un montant global de 345 millions d'euros, ce qui 
représente un des engagements les plus importants de Bruxelles en faveur 
d'un pays ACP. Le Niger a aussi bénéficié d'une aide financière de 5 
millions d'euros pour lui permettre de faire face au déficit alimentaire 
consécutif à une baisse des récoltes.   (D'après PANA, Sénégal, 10 mai 2001)

* Niger. Recensement de la population  -  Un recensement général de la 
population et de l'habitat débutera officiellement le 20 mai sur toute 
l'étendue du territoire national, annonce-t-on de source officielle à 
Niamey. L'opération devrait durer 20 jours. Quelque 11.600 agents ont été 
recrutés et formés et 1.100 véhicules seront mobilisés pour l'opération. Le 
dernier recensement général estimait la population nigérienne à un peu plus 
de 8 millions d'habitants. L'opération vise notamment à renforcer la prise 
en compte des questions de population dans les plans et stratégies de 
développement. Dans l'immédiat, elle fournira l'effectif et la structure de 
la population, sa répartition géographique et par sexe, ainsi que les 
caractéristiques de l'habitat.   (PANA, Sénégal, 12 mai 2001)

* Niger. Students switch tactics  -  Students in Niger have held a peaceful 
demonstration in the capital, Niamey, after abandoning an 11-day hunger 
strike at the parliament building. The students are protesting against the 
continuing detention of 16 colleagues, charged with killing a police 
officer during a demonstration at Niamey University in February. The leader 
of the Niger students, Tasiu Dan Lamso, told the BBC they had decided to 
change their tactics and would now just use marches and demonstrations to 
make their point. But Mr Lamso said the 16 students in detention remained 
on their own hunger strike.   (BBC News, UK, 13 May 2001)

* Niger. Grève des enseignants  -  Les 17.000 enseignants du secteur public 
se sont mis en grève de 72 heures, du 16 au 18 mai, en dépit de l'appel à 
la modération lancé par le ministre de l'Education nationale. Les grévistes 
réclament la satisfaction de leur plate-forme revendicative, mais selon le 
ministre, 6 des 9 points de cette plate-forme ont déjà trouvé solution. 
Pour les observateurs, ce mouvement de grève participe à une stratégie 
classique: mettre à profit la période très sensilble des examens scolaires 
pour faire aboutir des revendications.   (PANA, Sénégal, 16 mai 2001)

* Nigeria. Seeking closer ties with USA  -  President Olusegun Obasanjo is 
on a diplomatic mission to the United States in order to build up relations 
with President George Bush. The United States has extensive interests in 
Nigeria's oil industry and the American government has described Nigeria's 
transition to democracy as crucial for all of Africa's future. This is the 
first time the two leaders will have met and President Obasanjo will hope 
to build the same personal bond with President Bush that he enjoyed with 
the previous American leader Bill Clinton. Most of Nigeria's elite were 
disappointed that George Bush won the American election. They would have 
preferred a Democrat as that party is generally perceived to have more 
sympathy for African concerns. But President Obasanjo needs American 
support in his campaigns for debt relief and for more foreign investment in 
Nigeria's struggling economy. President Bush will want to be seen as 
helpful. This is because he is sensitive to the interests of oil companies 
like Chevron, Texaco and Exxon Mobil, all of which have big investments in 
Nigeria. The two men are likely to discuss America's controversial military 
assistance to Nigeria. The Americans say they would like Nigeria to 
consolidate its role as a regional peacekeeper. But some Nigerian soldiers 
and politicians have criticised an American training programme that they 
believe has threatened Nigerian sovereignty.   (BBC News, UK, 10 May 2001)

* Nigeria. Bombe à retardement  -  Donald Boham, porte-parole de la 
compagnie pétrolière Shell, a prévenu les autorités nigérianes que les 
puits de pétrole abandonnés depuis 1993 dans l'Etat de Delta pourraient 
exploser du jour au lendemain. Sur quatorze forages, deux seulement ont été 
correctement scellés avec du béton. Des fuites ont été repérées sur l'un 
des douzes autres. Le gaz qui s'exhale des fissures pourrait provoquer un 
terrible incendie. La Shell s'inquiète d'éventuels actes de sabotage de la 
part des Ogonis, les habitants de la région, particulièrement actifs dans 
la lutte contre les multinationales qui exploitent les hydrocarbures sans 
en partager équitablement les bénéfices.   (J.A./L'Intelligent, France, 
8-14 mai 2001)

* Nigeria. Nigeria rejects foreign debt claims  -  Nigeria says it has 
rejected foreign debt demands worth two-hundred-and-forty million dollars. 
The head of the Nigeria's Debt Management Office, Akin Arikawe, said after 
talks with members of the international credit regulatory organisation, the 
Paris Club, that it emerged that creditors had no proper documentation for 
one-hundred-and-fifty million dollars. He said Nigeria also rejected a 
claim from Brazil for ninety-million dollars. Mr Arikawe said at the end of 
March that Nigeria's external debt stock stood at twenty-eight billion 
dollars.   (BBC News, UK, 15 May 2001)

* Nigeria. Kaduna: tribunaux différents  -  En raison des affrontements 
confessionnels meurtriers de juin dernier, musulmans et non musulmans 
seront jugés, dès novembre, par des tribunaux différents dans l'Etat de 
Kaduna (nord), où la sharia est en application depuis mai 2000. Des 
tribunaux islamiques seront chargés de juger les musulmans; les non 
musulmans comparaîtront devant des cours de droit coutumier ou civil.   (La 
Croix, France, 15 mai 2001)

* Nigeria. "Power for the people"  -  After decades of living in darkness, 
Nigeria expects to be able to generate enough electricity to supply its 
citizens with light by the end of the year, government officials said on 15 
May. Power and steel ministry spokesman Clinton Adebolu Oni said the 
government aims to increase the supply of electricity to 4,000 megawatts 
from 1,500 MW by the end of the year. "We have signed contracts with some 
companies and the refurbishment of the Shiroro, Kainji, Egbin, Ughelli, 
Jebba and Afam power plants, among others, which have been idle over the 
years, due to official neglect, has commenced and will soon be completed," 
Adebolu Oni said. "The contractors have started work and it is planned that 
by the end of December the contractors would have completed the job and 
power generation would have been improved to about 4,000 MW," he said. 
Africa's most populous country with more than 110 million people, needs 
about 3,400 MW daily but the state-run National Electric Power Authority 
(NEPA) generates only 1,500 MW because of the poor state of its facilities 
after 15 years of neglect during military rule. Industry in Lagos, the 
commercial capital, is running at only 30 percent of its installed capacity 
due largely to the lack of power supply, according to the Lagos state 
government.   (CNN, USA, 15 May 2001)

* Rwanda. Church members in the dock for role in genocide  -  Earlier this 
month, an Anglican Bishop appeared before the International Criminal 
Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) accused of committing genocide and crimes 
against humanity in Rwanda in 1994. In Belgium, four Rwandans including two 
Benedictine nuns are currently on trial for their alleged role in the mass 
murder of Tutsis. Coming after the trial and acquittal last year in Rwanda 
of Catholic Bishop Augustin Misago, these events are reopening debate about 
what role the Church played in Rwanda during the genocide, and how it 
should respond in the aftermath. Such events also raise questions about the 
relationship between the church, the state and the judicial system, 
especially in a country like Rwanda which has one of the highest rates of 
church membership in the world. While reliable figures are hard to come by, 
at least two-thirds of Rwanda's population are Christian and about half are 
Roman Catholic. In Rwanda, the Catholic Church in particular has come under 
fire for involvement in the genocide. (...) Anglican Bishop Samuel 
Musabyimana is the second churchman now in the ICTR's custody along with 
Seventh Day Adventist Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana. Appearing before the 
court in full ecclesiastical robes, Bishop Musabyimana on May 2nd pleaded 
not-guilty to four charges including genocide, conspiracy to commit 
genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity. He said he wished 
to protest his innocence to the Christian community and his colleagues in 
the Anglican church, including the Archbishop of Canterbury. "They should 
be assured that there is no blood on my hands," he said. "My conscience is 
quiet." During the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Musabyimana was bishop of the 
Shyogwe diocese in central Rwanda. The Prosecutor alleges that he ordered 
refugees who fled to Shyogwe to be registered according to their ethnic 
group, and that soldiers and militia used these lists, with his knowledge, 
to single out Tutsi refugees and take them to their deaths. (...) 
Musabyimana's indictment says he held meetings with the Rwandan interim 
government that presided over the genocide, and that he carried out 
missions abroad on behalf of that government. Reacting to Musabyimana's 
arrest, the Archbishop of Canterbury's office said that Archbishop George 
Carey (head of the Anglican church) "has supported and encouraged the 
setting up of an independent inquiry into the role of the Church in the 
genocide. The legal process now in train should be allowed to run its 
course. Any decision on a Church investigation would need to be taken after 
appropriate consultation in the Anglican Communion and in the light of the 
outcome of the legal process". (...)   (Hirondelle, Arusha, 14 May 2001)

* Rwanda. Tribunal "racism" row  -  A leaked letter reveals why seven 
prosecutors at the UN tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha have controversially 
not been reappointed. The letter obtained by journalists, written by chief 
prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, was a response to a complaint made by the seven 
lawyers to the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The six African and one 
Indian lawyer attributed Ms Del Ponte's decision not to renew their 
contracts beyond May to racism. Rebuffing the charge, Ms Del Ponte said the 
lawyers were not suited as prosecutors. Her letter, obtained by the AP news 
agency, said the lawyers' complaint to the secretary-general reinforced her 
decision about their professionalism."The memorandum is symptomatic of 
professional incompetence of each of the signatories... instead of 
directing their energy toward the ends of international justice, they are 
absorbed in their own narrow self-interest," the letter said. A spokesman 
for the tribunal in Arusha would not comment on the letter or the 
accusations. The Rwandan Government has criticised the Rwanda tribunal in 
the past for their slow work rate. Very few genocide suspects have been 
successfully prosecuted since it was set up. More than 750,000 Tutsis and 
moderate Hutus were killed in the genocide.   (BBC News, UK, 15 May 2001)

weekly anb0517.txt - #5/8