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Weekly anb11297.txt #7
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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 29-11-2001 PART #7/7
* Zambia. Presidential candidates - Zambians are expected to go to the
polls this year, but the government has not yet announced the date of
elections. Major opposition parties has described the government stance as
a political gimmick. Whilst many Zambians are speculating when the
elections will be held, the government has started campaigning by
distributing fertiliser to small-scale farmers. It has also released Kwacha
6 billion to pay the defunct Zambia Airways employees. The following
candidates are presently listed as vying for the presidency. They are: Levy
Mwanawasa; General Christon Tembo; Brig.Gen. Godfrey Miyanda; Michael Sata;
Ben Mwila; Anderson Mazoka; Dr. Nevers Mumba. The Electoral Commission has
completed compiling the voters' register, and voters are collecting their
voters' cards. (Justin Mupundu, ANB-BIA, Zambia, 19 November 2001
* Zambie. Elections le 27 décembre - Après plusieurs mois d'incertitude,
le président Chiluba a finalement annoncé la date des élections générales;
elles auront lieu le 27 décembre prochain. Les électeurs seront appelés à
choisir leur chef d'Etat, leurs députés et leurs administrateurs locaux. Le
président Chiluba quittera le pouvoir au terme de deux mandats de cinq ans.
Quelque dix candidats rivalisent dans la course à l'élection
présidentielle. En décidant de convoquer les élections avec un préavis d'un
peu plus d'un mois, M. Chiluba compte probablement exploiter les divisions
existant à l'intérieur de l'opposition pour favoriser le candidat de son
parti, Levy Mwanawasa. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 22 novembre 2001)
* Zambia. Post-Christmas poll for Zambia - 22 November: Zambia's
long-awaited general elections are to be held on 27 December, President
Frederick Chiluba has announced. President Chiluba, who is expected to
retire after the poll after serving two terms of five years, has also
dissolved parliament to pave the way for the elections. Three of Mr
Chiluba's four former vice presidents are seeking to replace him as
president, running for different parties. There will also be parliamentary
and municipal polls. Zambia has been gripped by election fever for months,
with everyone aware that the president was due to stand down by the end of
the year --after he failed to push through constitutional changes enabling
him to stand again. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 22 November 2001)
* Zambia. Zambian troops kill 10 Angolans - Zambian soldiers patrolling
the border in Western Province have killed 10 Angolans, Zambian President
Frederick Chiluba said. Speaking during a campaign tour of the Copperbelt
region on 22 November, Mr Chiluba did not say exactly where and when the
incident took place. But he stressed that the two countries were not at war
and that patient negotiations would resolve the crisis. The latest
revelations came as Angola's special envoy, the deputy foreign minister,
George Chikoti, announced the holding next week in Lusaka of a meeting to
discuss the border crisis. He had been sent here to pass on the condolences
of Angola's president over the killing of seven Zambians a fortnight ago.
Fighting between government forces and Unita rebels had recently
intensified in eastern Angola, the envoy said, adding that it was possible
that the Zambian civilians, including a teacher and two village headmen,
had been caught in crossfire. He also took the opportunity to refute recent
media reports that Angolans were demanding, or had indeed seized, any
Zambian territory. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 23 November 2001)
* Zambie/Angola. Résoudre le conflit frontalier - Le lundi 26 novembre,
la Zambie a envoyé à Luanda une délégation de quatre officiers supérieurs,
conduite par le commandant Henry Nkweto, pour discuter avec les autorités
angolaises du conflit frontalier qui couve entre les deux pays. La réunion
de 48 heures, qui commence le mardi, intervient à la suite de récentes
attaques des deux côtés durant lesquelles sept civils zambiens et dix
soldats angolais ont trouvé la mort. La rencontre est destinée à empêcher
de nouvelles attaques, a commenté le ministre angolais de la
Défense. (PANA, Sénégal, 26 novembre 2001)
* Zambia. Moves to shore up currency - Zambia's central bank has
introduced urgent measures to defend the value of the national currency,
the kwacha. A spokesman for the bank said it would raise the proportion of
deposits commercial banks must keep with the central bank and tighten up
compliance with foreign exchange laws. The kwacha has lost almost a quarter
of its value in the nine months since Lusaka relaxed monetary policy, and
the bank is concerned that the fall could lead to
higher-inflation. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 27 November 2001)
* Zambia. Voter apathy in rural Zambia - Mporokoso in Zambia's Northern
Province is home to about 5,000 people, and is one of the country's many
remote communities. Days after outgoing President Frederick Chiluba finally
announced an election date of 27 December -- right in the middle of the
Christmas holiday and the rainy season, people are beginning to hear the
news. Here, even tuning into a radio station is a hit-and-miss affair so
news inevitably trickles through slowly. Mporokoso is 200 km from the
nearest large town, Kasama, where daily newspapers are sold -- albeit a day
after publication -- and people can listen to radio and television
stations. But the road is in terrible condition, and most locals, market
traders and subsistence farmers, have little reason to travel. They remain
cut off from the political goings-on in the capital, Lusaka, and many do
not seem to mind. Mporokoso has been without a MP since June, when the
local one bailed out of the ruling party Movement for Multi-Party Democracy
into the opposition Forum for Development and Democracy. (BBC News, UK,
28 November 2001)
* Zimbabwe. Priorities all wrong - HIV/AIDS is the number one killer in
Africa, and is robbing the continent of skilled and productive young
people. One would expect the regional media to prioritise matters related
to HIV/AIDS. In Zimbabwe, we are talking of a country where 17% of its 12
million people are infected with the AIDS virus. This means Zimbabwe will
have a zero per cent population growth rate next year, mainly because of
the AIDS pandemic. But media interests seem centred on such news items as
the bombing in Afghanistan; and within Zimbabwe --political violence and
the land conflict. Also, the Government's priorities seem to be elsewhere,
as well. The 1 November 2001 budget, earmarked Z$4 billion for the land
resettlement programme, and Z$34 billion will go to the defence
budget. (Dum. Khumalo, ANB-BIA, Zimbabwe, 7 November 2001)
* Zimbabwe. Mesures répressives - L'atmosphère s'aigrit de jour en jour
au Zimbabwe. Le 20 novembre, le leader de l'opposition Morgan Tsvangirai
(qui avait déclaré l'année dernière que le président Mugabe courait le
risque d'être chassé du pouvoir s'il ne s'en allait pas de lui-même) a été
acquitté par la Cour suprême, car la loi sur laquelle se basait
l'accusation a été retenue comme inconstitutionnelle. Mais le 21 novembre,
on apprenait que Mugabe avait donné son accord à un nouveau projet de loi
contre le terrorisme. Selon le journal officiel The Herald, une personne
condamnée pour avoir tenté de renverser le gouvernement risque la prison à
vie ou la peine de mort. Et les journalistes qui publient des déclarations
encourageant "l'hostilité au président" risquent un an de prison. Le 22
novembre, The Herald annonçait aussi que bientôt les Zimbabwéens devront
avoir sur eux une carte d'identité, un passeport ou un permis de conduire,
sous peine d'un an de prison. "Le gouvernement crée une atmosphère
répressive avec toutes ces mesures draconiennes", a déclaré un porte-parole
de la Commission Justice et Paix. Un récent sondage avait indiqué que M.
Tsvangirai l'emporterait sur Mugabe aux élections présidentielles de l'an
prochain, si elles étaient libres et honnêtes. Ce dernier semble maintenant
introduire des lois qui permettraient la mise hors la loi du parti de
Tsvangirai, le MDC, ou de le condamner lui-même. Ces derniers mois, M.
Mugabe a aussi nommé des juges qui lui sont tributaires. Par ailleurs, le
23 novembre, le gouvernement a rendu publique une liste de six noms de
correspondants étrangers (4 de journaux britanniques, un d'AP et un
Sud-Africain) accusés d'aider les activités "terroristes" dans le pays. Un
activiste sud-africain des droits de l'homme figure également sur cette
liste. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 23 novembre 2001)
* Zimbabwe. Getting tough on ID cards - The Zimbabwean government has
announced plans to introduce legislation allowing it to jail or fine people
who move about without identity cards. The projected legislation, reported
by the official Herald newspaper, is the latest in a string of restrictions
which critics say are designed to hamper the political opposition ahead of
presidential elections early next year. Four years ago, the Supreme Court
ruled that such a measure would be unconstitutional, but the paper quoted
the government as saying it was designed to combat increasing crime and
terrorism. It has recently accused the opposition of carrying out acts of
terrorism. On 21 November, the government said it would introduce tough new
security laws making a wide range of offenses punishable with life
imprisonment or death. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 23 November 2001)
* Zimbabwe/UE. Le torchon brûle - Le 23 novembre, un entretien entre le
président Mugabe et une délégation de l'Union européenne, conduite par le
ministre belge des Affaires étrangères M. Michel, a tourné à l'affrontement
verbal. Les divisions euro-zimbabwéennes portent notamment sur la réforme
agraire engagée par Mugabe. Mais le ton a surtout monté lorsque la
délégation a évoqué le rapport de l'Onu sur les pillages des ressources du
Congo-RDC, et lorsque les Quinze ont laissé entendre qu'ils ne
reconnaîtront pas le vainqueur de la prochaine élection présidentielle si
l'organisation du scrutin et le climat qui entoure la campagne n'étaient
pas modifiés. Faute d'accepter des normes minimales pour la tenue du
scrutin et l'envoi d'observateurs indépendants, l'Union européenne a déjà
agité la menace de sanctions à l'encontre du Zimbabwe dans les soixante
jours. (D'après Le Soir, Belgique, 24 novembre 2001)
* Zimbabwe. Unrest spirals - 26 November: More than 10,000 employees of
Zimbabwe's state-owned National Railways went on strike, today, forcing the
suspension of services and causing further chaos in the troubled country.
The rail workers are protesting against the state company's decision to
spread their annual bonus over three payments instead of paying it in a
single lump sum. The National Railways management said it had appealed to
former employees to return to work on a contract basis and hoped to resume
some services within 48 hours. The strike had disrupted caused disruptions
around the country. Businesses in Bulawayo, where the railway headquarters
are situated, said filling stations were running out of fuel and motorists
had formed long queues. 27 November: Riot police in Harare have used
teargas to break up a student protest over the killing of another student
by a soldier. US State Department Correspondents say hundreds of students
had gathered at the University of Zimbabwe planning to march to parliament
and hand in a petition. But before they could set off, riot police sealed
off the campus and started to beat them up. Students said they had wanted
to march peacefully to hand in their petition, which denounced army
indiscipline and called for the resignation of President Robert Mugabe. The
latest violence came as the United States joined the chorus of
international condemnation of Mr Mugabe's government. The student protest
came in response to the death over the weekend of student Lameck Chemvura,
who was thrown from a train by a soldier. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 28 November
2001)
* Zimbabwe. Churches defy Mugabe - Faced with increasing reports of
deaths from malnutrition in Zimbabwe, churches are openly defying an edict
from President Robert Mugabe that only ruling-party officials may
distribute food aid. The churches' defiance comes as an independent
newspaper, the Financial Gazette, reveals today that the 77-year-old leader
has ordered bomb-proof underground bunkers to be dug around his home and
offices, as well as the delivery of 86 army trucks believed to come from
Austria -- although there is an EU embargo on defence equipment to
Zimbabwe. The underground chambers, to be built of reinforced concrete, are
being planned to allow Mr Mugabe to prepare for unrest or civil war, in the
event of his losing next year's elections, according to the paper. In
Bulawayo and rural districts in the south of the country, Mr Mugabe's
campaign to stay in power has already translated into hunger among
thousands of people, according to the prominent Roman Catholic Archbishop
Pius Ncube. He said: "The hunger is caused by the government's hypocrisy.
It wants to distribute food assistance itself, so as to buy votes. It does
not care how many people die as long as it can stay in power." The looming
crisis comes after Mr Mugabe earlier this month banned hundreds of the
country's commercial farmers from working their land and told their
properties had, in effect, been nationalised. (...) In Masase, a village of
some 2,000 people in the Midlands, it is the Lutherans who are defying the
ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, and covertly
supplying food. It is to people like Reverend Anders Berglund, from the
Swedish Church, that Zimbabwe's Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, refers
when he claims foreigners "might try to smuggle election monitors into
Zimbabwe using the guise of food aid". Rev Anders said: "Children are
fainting in class and the school day has had to be shortened because kids
do not have the energy to concentrate." (The Independent, UK, 29 November
2001)
Weekly anb1129.txt - End of #7/7 - THE END
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Un homme meurt chaque fois que l'un d'entre nous se tait devant la tyrannie
(W. Soyinka, Prix Nobel litterature) - Everytime somebody keep silent when
faced with tyranny, someone else dies (Wole Syinka, Nobel Prize for
Literature) *
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