Weekly anb08305.txt #8

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 30-08-2001      PART #5/8

* Libya. Meeting opens in Tripoli to discuss peace in Sudan  -  Experts 
involved in the Libyan-Egyptian initiative for peace in Sudan started 
meeting on 27 August in Tripoli under the chairmanship of the move's 
co-ordinator, Soleiman Chhoumi and the Egyptian deputy foreign minister, 
Rafik Khalil. Sources close to the conference said the experts are 
examining the different clauses of the initiative sponsored by Cairo and 
Tripoli, as well as the basis and principles for its implementation. 
According to a Libyan diplomatic source, the meeting will draw a timetable 
for holding a national reconciliation conference under the initiative. The 
meeting also reviewed the reactions of different Sudanese parties towards 
the initiative. Informed sources said that the committee will submit its 
conclusions to the next ministerial meeting to be held in Cairo on 9 
September. That meeting would be attended by the Libyan Secretary of the 
People's Committee for the African Union (minister), Dr Ali Triki as well 
as the Egyptian and Sudanese foreign ministers, Ahmed Maher and Mustapha 
Othman Ismail, respectively. On 26 August, members of the special committee 
had met with Dr Ali Triki, who reiterated the need to accelerate the 
implementation of the initiative so as to end the bloodshed in Sudan and 
pave the way for development and progress in that country. Triki welcomed 
the endorsement of the initiative by both the Sudanese government and the 
opposition, saying this would expedite its implementation.   (PANA, 
Senegal, 27 August 2001)

* Malawi. SADC summit  -  Some reflections on the recent Southern African 
heads of state summit which ended on 14 August: -- At the close of the 
summit there was a unanimous resolve to impose sanctions against the rebel 
movement of Jonas Savimbi fighting the Angolan government. President 
Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania hadn't any kind words for UNITA leader Jonas 
Savimbi. He said: "Savimbi should have been arraigned in the Hague, rather 
than Milosevic. The SADC needs responsible leaders." Another issue 
discussed was the ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo 
RDC). President Muluzi who took over as the SADC's chairperson told the 
summit members that he due to meet Congo RDC's President Joseph Kabila who 
arrives in Malawi today. Angola's president, Eduardo dos Santos, is also 
invited. President Frederick Chiluba of Zambia bemoaned the slow pace of 
withdrawing troops from Congo. He said that although there was some 
progress since the signing of the Lusaka Peace Agreement, movement to 
withdraw foreign troops from Congo was still slow. Malawi's Vice-President 
Justin Malewezi pleased with SADC leaders to do their utmost to work 
towards ending conflicts in the region.   (Hobbs Gama, Malawi, 24 August 2001)

* Maroc/Espagne. Clandestins  -  L'interpellation sur les côtes espagnoles 
de 800 immigrés clandestins en provenance du Maroc, le week-end dernier, a 
provoqué de nouvelles frictions diplomatiques entre les deux pays. Le 
mercredi 22 août, le gouvernement espagnol a convoqué le chargé d'affaires 
du Maroc, jugeant "insuffisante" la collaboration marocaine contre 
l'immigration. Le 23 août, le ministère marocain des Affaires étrangères a 
reçu à son tour le représentant diplomatique espagnol à Rabat et qualifié 
de "réductrice" la position de l'Espagne. Rabat a assuré qu'entre le 1er 
janvier 2000 et le 30 juin 2001, les services marocains ont refoulé plus de 
15.000 personnes s'apprêtant à traverser le détroit de Gibraltar. - Le 23 
août, au moins neuf Africains se sont noyés alors qu'ils tentaient 
d'atteindre à la nage l'île de Fuerteventura aux Canaries.   (ANB-BIA, de 
sources diverses, 24 août 2001)

* Maroc. Boukhari condamné  -  Le 28 août, l'ancien agent secret marocain 
Ahmed Boukhari, auteur de récentes révélations explosives sur l'affaire Ben 
Barka, mais inculpé pour l'émission de chèques sans provision, a été 
condamné à un an de prison ferme par le tribunal de première instance de 
Casablanca. La cour n'a pas retenu les arguments de la défense, qui 
assurait que M. Boukhari avait déjà été condamné en 1998 pour deux de ces 
chèques et avait purgé sa peine. Son avocat, Me Abderrahim Jamaï, qui a 
décidé de faire appel, a estimé que l'emprisonnement de son client visait 
"à éviter qu'il ne puisse faire d'autres révélations". Plusieurs 
associations des droits de l'homme ont également dénoncé le 
procès.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 29 août 2001)

* Mozambique. Smelter seen as driving economy forward  -  Visitors to the 
"pot room" of the Mozal aluminium smelter are asked to declare whether they 
are fitted with pacemakers and to remove their watches. The 
electro-magnetic field that encircles the hub of the aluminium smelting 
process is so powerful it knocks out time pieces, weak hearts and the 
electronics of passing vehicles. The gentle warning is a sign that the 
$1.3bn smelter, which is the standard-bearer of industrial development and 
foreign investment in Mozambique, may not reflect at its core the human 
face of the warm smiling children that beam out of its social 
responsibility brochures. Mozal is one of the most modern smelters in the 
world, relying on only 750 people to operate its advanced technology. But 
the sense of modernity stops abruptly at its boundary fence. The suburbs of 
Maputo and scrubland small holdings leave little doubt that this is one of 
the world's poorest countries. The smelter has increased Mozambique's 
investment earnings by 150 per cent, or $400m, much to the government's 
delight, and given it the opportunity of boasting global competitiveness. 
It is hard to imagine that in a country starved of investment and wallowing 
in unemployment that labour issues could have jeopardised the decision 
finally taken in June to go ahead with a $1bn expansion of Mozal. Yet a 
half-day strike over salaries in February set investors thinking that the 
human part of the project might be its Achilles' heel. "We have a peaceful 
workforce. That is not to say that we don't have arguments over salaries. 
We are over what was a crisis and we have a much better understanding 
between management and labour. But it was one of the factors holding up the 
decision [to invest]," says Rob Barbour, the chairman of 
Mozal.   (Financial Times, UK, 28 August 2001)

* Namibia. NNFU denounces lack of cooperation  -  The Namibia National 
Farmers Union (NNFU) has denounced the lack of co-operation of commercial 
farmers with the government, with land reform and resettlement. The 
Namibian newspaper says the NNFU has underlined that any attempts to derail 
government plans to redistribute land, could face a serious legal 
onslaught. The Union also urged all its members to explore legal means to 
help the government make land available for redistribution.   (MISNA, 
Italy, 22 August 2001)

* Nigeria. Chevron venture to end gas flaring  -  Nigeria's National 
Petroleum Corporation has struck a blow against climate change by 
finalising a joint venture with Chevron of the US that will help the west 
African country end gas flaring by 2008. This gives the go-ahead to the 
third stage of the Chevron-led projects at Escravos to gather waste gas 
from western Niger delta oilfields and pipe it to Lagos and to convert 
waste gas into liquid fuels for domestic use and export. Gas often comes 
out of the ground along with oil and has to be flared or burnt off when it 
cannot be stored or used. Lacking a developed pipeline network and 
industrial base, Nigeria accounts for a quarter of all gas flared in the 
world, and is under pressure to reduce this atmospheric pollution and 
resource waste. Until the Chevron projects were finalised there were doubts 
that the 2008 deadline for an end to flaring could be met. The Escravos 
projects will cost a total of $2bn - $800m for gas gathering and $1.2bn for 
the gas-to-liquids plant. The latter will use technology developed by 
Chevron in a joint venture with Sasol of South Africa, which, during the 
apartheid era, produced synthetic fuel to get around international oil 
sanctions. It will convert some 300m cubic feet of gas a day that is 
currently being flared into 33,000 barrels a day of clean liquid 
fuels.   (Financial Times, UK, 24 August 2001)

* Nigeria. Bus carnage mounts  -  A bus has plunged into a river in 
northern Nigeria, killing 49 people and injuring 23, eyewitnesses told the 
French news agency AFP. The agency said the accident occurred at Dakatsalle 
Bridge, around 50 km south of the northern city of Kano, at around 1400 
local time (1300GMT) on 26 August. The bus was an overnight service from 
the capital, Lagos. It was the latest, and deadliest, bus crash in Nigeria 
in the space of a few days. One survivor among the 72 passengers, Garba 
Mohammed, told AFP that the bus had been speeding when it blew a tyre as it 
started across the bridge. Twenty-three people were rescued, 10 bodies 
recovered and the remaining 39 are still trapped inside the submerged bus, 
staff at the Murtala Mohammed hospital in Kano said. Mr Mohammed said that 
local fishermen had helped pull out many of the survivors as well as 10 of 
the bodies. Nigeria has earned a grim reputation for its road accidents. 
Only on 25 August, 12 people were killed when a mini-bus hit a trailer and 
plunged into a canal in Lagos. And on 22 August two buses collided head-on 
near the central town of Lokoja, killing 13 and injuring about 30.   (BBC 
News, 27 August 2001)

* Nigeria. Pétrole: otages libérés  -  * 99 employés d'un groupe pétrolier, 
dont 19 étrangers, pris en otage depuis le 23 août sur une plate-forme au 
large du sud du Nigeria, ont été relâchés, a annoncé le 27 août un 
porte-parole de la société Shell. La plate-forme, gérée par Trans-Ocean 
Sedco, un sous-traitant de Shell, a été envahie le 23 août par de jeunes 
Nigérians de la région. Depuis plusieurs années, les violences se 
multiplient, en protestation contre la spoliation des populations locales, 
qui ne recueillent de l'exploitation de l'or noir que... la 
pollution.   (La Libre Belgique, 28 août 2001)

* Nigeria. "Restore hope to people on the brink of despair"  -  To "restore 
hope to people on the brink of despair". This call was launched by the new 
Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal 
Crescenzio Sepe, in a Message to the Bishops of English-speaking West 
Africa (AECAWA), holding their 9th Plenary Assembly at Enugu, Nigeria, 
25-31 August. The Assembly's theme was: "The Church as an Agent of 
Reconciliation and Social Transformation". The Cardinal encouraged the 
Bishops to promote the very much cherished African values of unity, 
solidarity, co-responsibility, fraternity, mutual trust. On 26 August, 
Bishop Peter Sarpong, Bishop of Kumasi in Ghana and Chairman of AECAWA, led 
53 other Bishops in a solemn Eucharistic celebration. In his homily, the 
Bishop challenged that if the Church is the Sacrament of the risen Lord's 
presence in the world, then the Church's task is to demonstrate this truth 
to the world in a convincing manner. In her keynote address, Professor Joy 
Ogwu, Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs 
said that the Church in West Africa is challenged by a myriad of problems 
centring around war and conflict, post-conflict reconstruction, social 
economic crises, deepening poverty, democratic consolidation, and the pace 
and content of regional integration.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 28 August 2001)

* Nigeria. Signs of unrest  -  25 August: The leader of a banned vigilante 
group in Nigeria has been charged with murder, robbery, firearms offenses 
and incitement. Ganiyu Adams was arrested on 22 August a year after a 
warrant had been issued for his detention. He appeared in court in Lagos 
with three other members of the Odua People's Congress (OPC), all accused 
of orchestrating ethnic violence and the murder of a police man last year. 
They pleaded not guilty and were remanded in custody until next month. On 
23 August, members of the OPC had brought the main market in Lagos to a 
standstill, demanding the release of their leader. As leader of the OPC, 
Gani Adams had been taunting police in Lagos for many months, appearing at 
public meetings and speaking openly to the press despite being wanted on 
murder charges. 28 August: Almost 100 oil workers held captive since 23 
August on an oil rig in southern Nigeria have been released. Nineteen of 
the workers - including at least five Britons and five Americans -- are 
foreign nationals. The group had been held captive by a group of militant 
youths on a rig almost 100km off Nigeria's coast. News of the incident was 
only released after the incident was resolved. The BBC correspondent in 
Nigeria, Dan Isaacs, says incidents such as this are not uncommon in the 
country's troubled oil-producing region, but oil companies rarely provide 
details of kidnap situations such as this until they have been resolved, 
for fear of jeopardising negotiations. He says it is now clear that the 
gang required motor boats to travel the substantial distance out to sea. 
Once there, they took control for three days while oil industry officials 
negotiated for the release of those on board. The offshore rig, Trident, is 
owned by Houston-based Transocean Sedco Forex. It was drilling on behalf of 
oil giant Shell. According to the Reuters news agency, the situation was 
resolved when community elders were called in by Shell to ask the youths to 
leave.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 28 August 2001)

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