Weekly anb02215.txt #7

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 21-02-2002      PART #5/7

* Rwanda/Uganda. Meeting again  -  14 February: Rwanda's President Paul 
Kagame and his Ugandan counterpart, Yoweri Museveni, will meet today on the 
border between their two countries. The talks, mediated by Britain's 
International Development Minister Clare Short, are aimed at further 
patching up relations after a summit meeting in London three months ago. It 
had seemed in November as if Rwanda and Uganda were on the brink of war. 
Now that the risk of conflict has subsided, it is hoped that this meeting 
will reduce tensions still further. In concrete terms, the two former 
allies will discuss measures taken to dispel mutual distrust, notably 
Rwanda's suspicions that Uganda was training and arming Rwandan 
dissidents.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 14 February 2002)

* Rwanda/Ouganda. Décrispation  -  La rencontre cordiale, le 14 février, 
entre le président rwandais Paul Kagame et son homologue ougandais Yoweri 
Museveni, concrétise la décrispation de leurs relations et laisse entrevoir 
une possible issue à la "querelle de famille" entre dirigeants des deux 
pays. Un proche collaborateur de Kagame a parlé de "retrouvailles" entre 
les anciens frères d'armes. Les deux présidents se sont dits satisfaits des 
progrès dans la mise en oeuvre de l'accord obtenu lors de leur dernière 
rencontre le 6 novembre à Londres, sous médiation britannique, qui a 
contribué à "une réduction significative de la tension". Les deux hommes 
ont aussi exprimé leur volonté de "résoudre directement tout éventuel 
malentendu par un contact bilatéral, plutôt que par voie de déclarations 
publiques ou d'articles de presse".   (La Libre Belgique, 16 février 2002)

* Rwanda. Ntezimana remis en liberté  -  Le théologien rwandais Laurien 
Ntezimana, un Hutu qui avait réussi à sauver 120 orphelins tutsi durant le 
génocide de 1994, a été remis en liberté le 20 février par la cour d'appel 
de Nyanza. M. Ntezimana avait été arrêté fin janvier en tant que directeur 
de la revue "Ubuntu", qui prône la réconciliation entre les deux ethnies, 
avec un rédacteur tutsi, Didace Muremangingo, survivant du génocide. Selon 
les amis des deux Rwandais, le dossier du premier était vide et le second 
ne contenait qu'un plainte l'accusant... d'avoir vendu la revue.   (MFC, La 
Libre Belgique, 21 février 2002)

* Sahara occidental. Quatre options  -  Le 19 février, le secrétaire 
général des Nations unies, Kofi Annan, a proposé au Conseil de sécurité 
quatre options pour l'avenir du Sahara occidental: l'organisation d'un 
référendum d'autodétermination, une autonomie sous souveraineté marocaine, 
une partition du territoire ou le désengagement total de l'Onu. Dans un 
rapport "pessimiste mais réaliste", Kofi Annan prend acte du blocage dans 
lequel se trouvent actuellement les négociations de son représentant, James 
Baker. Il constate notamment "l'inutilité" de poursuivre la médiation entre 
le Maroc, les indépendantistes du Polisario et leur allié historique 
l'Algérie, sur une solution négociée ouvrant la voie à un statut 
d'autonomie. Kofi Annan suggère à M. Baker de définir lui-même un statut 
d'autonomie à présenter comme "une base non-négociable". Autre possibilité, 
la remise en route de l'organisation d'un référendum d'autodétermination. 
M. Annan évoque par ailleurs la solution d'un "désengagement" pur et simple 
de l'Onu d'un réglement engagé il y a 11 ans et qui a coûté près d'un demi 
milliard de dollars à la communauté internationale. Enfin, pour la première 
fois, Kofi Annan a demandé au Conseil de sécurité de réfléchir à 
l'hypothèse d'une "division" du territoire entre le Maroc et le Polisario, 
une partition qui a toujours été catégoriquement rejetée par le Maroc. Le 
Conseil de sécurité devrait se prononcer sur ce rapport à la fin 
février.   (AP, USA, 20 février 2002)

* Western Sahara. UN may end W. Sahara mission  -  Frustrated at an 11-year 
United Nations bid to solve the Western Sahara dispute, Secretary-General 
Kofi Annan has put forward four options. One of them is withdrawing UN 
personnel from the conflict entirely. In a report to the Security Council 
on 19 February, Annan said, "We are currently faced with a rather bleak 
situation with regard to the future of the peace process in Western 
Sahara." Perhaps, he said, after 11 years and the expenditure of some $500 
million, the United Nations should terminate its peacekeeping mission and 
acknowledge "it is not going to solve the problem." (...) The report was 
drafted by former US Secretary of State James Baker, who has spent the last 
five years as a special UN envoy trying to solve the dispute. Since 
November he has met both Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and King 
Mohammed VI of Morocco in an effort to find common ground. But Annan said 
the "high level of animosity" between Morocco and the Polisario, 
accompanied by a "winner-take-all mentality" had made it impossible to hold 
the referendum both sides once wanted the United Nations to organize. 
Specifically, Annan's four proposals were: -- Resumption of trying to 
implement the referendum plan, which would involve settling more than 
48,000 pending voter registration appeals. -- Revising a plan suggested 
earlier by Baker for Western Sahara autonomy within Morocco, which the 
Polisario rejects. The Security Council would present the plan to both 
sides "on a non-negotiable basis." -- Baker could explore a partition of 
the Western Sahara. If the parties could not negotiate an agreement, the 
council would present a take-it-or-leave-it proposal to them, giving each 
side "some but not all of what it wants." -- The 260-strong peacekeeping 
operation, known as the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara or 
MINURSO, would end in recognition that the world body could not solve the 
problem. In the interim, Annan recommended extending MINURSO's mandate 
until April to give the 15-member Security Council time to reach a 
decision.   (CNN, USA, 20 February 2002)

* Sierra Leone/Belgium. Key African arms dealer arrested  -  One of 
Africa's most notorious arms dealers, a man who has been banned from 
entering Britain and been described by the government as "odious" for his 
alleged role in illegally supplying weapons to rebel forces in Sierra 
Leone, has been arrested in Belgium. Sanjivan Ruprah, a Kenyan national of 
Indian extraction, was charged in Brussels with criminal association and 
travelling on a false British passport; other more serious charges are 
expected to follow. Mr Ruprah was named by the UN two years ago as one of 
four men who sold arms to the now defunct Revolutionary United Front (RUF) 
in Sierra Leone in clear breach of international sanctions, fuelling a 
bloody decade-long civil war against the government that claimed at least 
50,000 lives. Last month, the UN declared the civil war officially over as 
the last of 47,000 combatants laid down their arms. The world body has 
moved to establish a war crimes tribunal to try those responsible for 
atrocities in a conflict noted for horrific treatment of civilians, 
particularly children. British paratroopers were sent to Sierra Leone to 
ensure the safety of British nationals in the capital, Freetown, and 
clashed on numerous occasions with rebel forces only to find themselves 
fighting rebels armed by Mr Ruprah and his associates. The UN says that Mr 
Ruprah worked closely with Victor Bout, a Russian arms dealer known as 
"Africa's merchant of death", who supplied weapons to the rebels from 
eastern Europe in exchange for diamonds. The arrest follows a lengthy 
surveillance operation by the Belgian secret service. They have been 
watching Mr Ruprah since the middle of last year when he arrived in a 
Brussels suburb to be with his wife. Like many said to have been involved 
in the "blood-for-diamonds trade" during Sierra Leone's civil war, Mr 
Ruprah operated out of neighbouring Liberia, where the government backed 
the RUF. (...) Mr Bout remains at large and is reported to be in either the 
Congo or Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates.   (The Guardian, UK, 16 
February 2002)

* Somalia. New cabinet without key warlords  -  The prime minister of 
Somalia's transitional government has named a cabinet but failed to obtain 
the participation of rival warlords widely seen as vital to help end a 
decade of anarchy. Prime Minister Hassan Abshir Farah has decided on his 
list and will shortly submit the names to the 245-seat parliament for 
approval. None of the warlords opposed to the Transitional National 
Government are included in the 31 posts, reflecting their rejection of 
painstaking attempts by Farah in the three moths since his appointment to 
persuade them to take part.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 18 February 2002)


Weekly anb0221.txt - #5/7