Weekly anb02284.txt #7

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 28-02-2002      PART #4/7

* Ethiopia/Eritrea. Religions build reconciliation  -  "Meetings between 
Ethiopian and Eritrean religious leaders are important for promoting 
reconciliation among the two countries", Fides was told by the Papal 
Representative Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Nuncio to Ethiopia and Eritrea. 
He was commenting an ecumenical interreligious exchange of visits and 
prayers between representatives of Muslims and Christians, (Orthodox, 
Catholics, Protestants) of both countries. As an act of peace, on February 
13 an Ethiopian delegation of religious leaders visited Asmara and on 
February 14 an Eritrean religious delegation made a return visit to Addis 
Ababa. The leaders were joined by thousands of faithful for peace prayer 
services, the Christians in church and the Muslims at the mosque. 
Archbishop Tomasi says the meetings "show that religions have a leading 
role to play in promoting reconciliation among the two countries, divided 
by a bloody war over borders from 1998 to 2000"   (Fides, Vatican City, 21 
February 2002)

* Ethiopie/Erythré. Les religieux pour la paix  -  "La rencontre des chefs 
religieux d'Ethiopie et d'Erythrée est un pas très important pour la 
réconciliation entre les deux pays", a déclaré à Fides Mgr Silvano M. 
Tomasi, nonce apostolique en Ethiopie et en Erythrée, à propos de la visite 
en Erythrée, le 13 février, des représentants religieux éthiopiens 
(orthodoxes, catholiques, protestants et musulmans). Le 14 février, les 
chefs religieux érythréens ont rendu la visite en allant à Addis-Abeba. Mgr 
Tomasi considère que les rencontres entre les dirigeants religieux ont non 
seulement une grande valeur symbolique, mais "montrent que les Eglises et 
les groupes religieux veulent avoir un rôle d'avant-garde pour la 
réconciliation entre les deux pays", divisés par un conflit sanglant, pour 
une dispute de frontières qui a duré de 1998 à 2000. Les rencontres entre 
les chefs religieux d'Ethiopie et d'Erythrée ont été préparées par l'oeuvre 
norvégienne "Church Aid" qui a organisé 6 réunions entre 1998 et 2001: 3 à 
Oslo, une à Francfort, une à New York, une à Nairobi.   (Fides, Cité du 
Vatican, 21 février 2002)

* Ethiopia. Somali region sacks officials  -  The government of Ethiopia's 
Somali region has sacked seven of its top officials on charges of 
corruption. The decision was taken by an executive meeting of the governing 
Democratic Peoples Party. The seven ministers, which include the vice 
president Adam Abdulahi, were suspended last month after being accused of 
self-interest and nepotism. The authorities are to convene a special 
regional congress to discuss the issue.   (BBC News, UK, 27 February 2002)

* Ghana. Cacao: augmentation du prix à la production  -  Au Ghana, depuis 
le 22 février, est entré en vigueur une augmentation de 41% du prix à la 
production du cacao, la plus grande source de recettes d'exportation du 
pays. Dans sa présentation du budget au Parlement à Accra, le ministre des 
Finances, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, a annoncé que le cacao rapporterait désormais 
6,2 millions de cédis (environ 815 dollars) la tonne, contre 4,384 millions 
de cédis auparavant.   (PANA, Sénégal, 24 février 2002)

* Guinée/Liberia/Sierra Leone. Sommet au Maroc  -  Les 26 et 27 février à 
Rabat, les présidents de la Sierra Leone, du Liberia et de la Guinée ont 
participé à un sommet sur la paix, organisé à l'initiative du Maroc. Les 
trois chefs d'Etat s'accusent mutuellement de soutenir les mouvements 
rebelles qui sévissent dans leur pays respectif. La rencontre intervient 
alors que le Liberia connaît depuis plusieurs semaines une flambée de 
violence alimentée par les rebelles du LURD (Libériens unis pour la 
réconciliation et la démocratie) que le président Taylor accuse d'être 
soutenus par la Guinée. Taylor à son tour est accusé d'avoir soutenu en 
Sierra Leone les rebelles du Front révolutionnaire uni (RUF) pour profiter 
du trafic régional de diamants. - Le 27 février, le sommet de Rabat s'est 
achevé par une déclaration commune, qui se limite à une déclaration de 
bonnes intentions. Les trois chefs d'Etat ont réaffirmé la nécessité de "la 
sécurité totale le long de leurs frontières communes, le rapatriement des 
réfugiés et l'asssistance aux personnes déplacées, et la réactivation du 
secrétariat de l'Union du fleuve Mano". Ils ont aussi "expressément 
condamné les activités des groupes armés non gouvernementaux dans leur 
région".   (AP, 26-27 février 2002)

* Kenya. Halting land allocation  -  Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi has 
frozen the allocation of publicly-owned land to private individuals or 
businesses, in an effort to end illegal land grabbing. A decision to resume 
the programme will be taken after a land commission set up three years ago 
submits its final report, probably in October. The president acknowledged 
that current practices had resulted in grave irregularities and raised 
serious concerns. President Moi said the situation had led to the serious 
depletion of forests, wildlife corridors and amenity land. Correspondents 
say members of the government have been regularly accused of giving 
government land to party supporters and sympathizers. Town and city 
councillors throughout the country are also regularly accused of grabbing 
public land to sell for profit. The 78-year-old president, who has been in 
power for 23 years, said in some instances land had been allocated 
illegally. The commission of inquiry into the land law system which he 
appointed in November 1999 was, among other things, given the task of 
undertaking a broad view of land issues in the country and recommending the 
main principles of land policy framework.   (BBC News, UK, 21 February 2002)

* Kenya. Regional Conference on Street Children  -  The Civil Society Forum 
for East and Southern Africa on Promoting and Protecting the Rights of 
Street Children, was held in Nairobi from 11-13 February. The conference 
was jointly organised by the British Consortium for Street Children, and 
Street Child Africa, as well as Kenya's Undugu Society of Kenya, founded by 
the late Father Arnold Grol, Missionary of Africa, a pioneer in the work 
with street children in Nairobi. Participants listed poverty, the HIV/AIDS 
pandemic, and the high cost of education as the main causes for the 
increasing number of street children all over the continent. They pledged 
to lobby their national governments and international organisations, ahead 
of the Special UN Session on the Rights of the Child, in May this year, to 
adopt measures to improve the life of street children.   (ANB-BIA, 
Brussels, 24 April 2002)

* Kenya. Controversial sale of Seed Company shares  -  The Kenya Seed 
Company has concluded a controversial sale of 3.36 million shares of the 
parastatal to selected private investors for $1.7 million, despite the 
rejection of the deal by the government. At stake is the country's food 
security, since seed multiplication is a strategic exercise which the 
government is not ready to hand over entirely to the private sector. The 
private placement will see the government ownership through the 
Agricultural Development Corporation fall from 53% to about 40% as private 
interests gain control at 50.6%.   (The East African, Kenya, 18-24 February 
2002)

* Kenya. Policeman victim of crime wave  -  Kenyan police are investigating 
the killing of one of the country's most senior officers, Njiru Kianda, in 
a shooting in Nairobi early on the morning of 25 February. Mr Kianda, who 
was a senior deputy police commissioner, was attacked by a group of gunmen 
as he sat in his car after dropping a colleague off at his home. A police 
spokesman says: "A few people have been detained in connection with the 
murder but none has yet been charged". Just two weeks ago, another senior 
police officer was killed in Nairobi. Correspondents say the murder of 
Kenya's third most senior police officer will increase Nairobi residents' 
security concerns.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 25 February 2002)

* Kenya. Mayor scrapes through exam  -  The mayor of Mombasa, who sat high 
school exams to bring himself into line with proposed new laws in Kenya, 
has scraped through with the lowest grade. A city education official told 
the AFP news agency that Mwalimu Masoud Mwahima managed only a grade E, the 
lowest in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examinations (KCSE), which he 
sat last year. Local Government Minister Uhuru Kenyatta Mr Mwahima and 
other civic leaders have sat the examinations because a parliamentary bill 
currently being debated would require all councillors to be educated to at 
least high school level. But Mr Mwahima may need to study even harder -- 
the proposed law would require all mayors to have a degree. The mayor was 
not available for comment and an aide declined to answer questions, saying 
it was a "private affair".   (BBC News, UK, 26 February 2002)

* Lesotho. Dissolution du Parlement  -  Le Parlement du Lesotho a été 
dissous, par décision du roi Letsie III, le 25 février. Les quelque 2 
millions d'habitants seront appelés aux urnes pour des élections 
législatives au mois de mai. Une date exacte doit encore être fixée. Par 
cette décision, le roi a fait démentir ses détracteurs qui craignaient 
l'annulation de l'échéance électorale.   (Misna, Italie, 27 février 2002)

* Liberia. Liberians flee rebel attack  -  21 February: More than 10,000 
people are reported to have fled the latest attack in north-eastern Liberia 
by rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Development 
(Lurd). A wave of refugees have been heading towards the town of Kakata, 
some 35 km from the capital, Monrovia, after clashes in Bong Mines, an old 
iron ore mining town, on 19 February. The Liberian government says it has 
now regained control of the town but the fighting triggered a wave of 
looting by rebels and troops loyal to President Charles Taylor. Soldiers 
manning checkpoints on the stretch of road leading to the provincial town 
of Kakata have been ordered to stop their colleagues passing with 
suspicious items. One of the places targeted in the looting was the 
Taiwanese Agriculture Technical Mission which has been teaching thousands 
of farmers modern rice production methods. Armed men broke into the 
compound during the attack -- and made away with cash, televisions, 
refrigerators and mattresses. 22 February: President Taylor weeps openly 
before thousands of people and prostrates himself in a call for divine 
help. In front of a crowd gathered for a three-day fast and prayer service 
at Monrovia's main stadium, the President says: "I am not the president, 
Jesus is the president. We did not come here because we wanted to look 
good. We came here because we realized there is a higher 
authority."   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 23 February 2002)

* Liberia/Côte d'Ivoire. Afflux de réfugiés  -  Près d'un millier de 
réfugiés libériens, fuyant la reprise des combats dans leur pays, sont 
arrivés cette semaine en Côte d'Ivoire à Danané (650 km à l'ouest 
d'Abidjan), a-t-on constaté le 22 février. Les réfugiés, qui arrivent par 
petites vagues, font état d'intenses combats entre forces gouvernementales 
et "dissidents" aux portes de Monrovia. Un peu plus au sud, dans la région 
du Bas-Sassandra, sont arrivés quelque 200 personnes. La plupart de ces 
réfugiés sont accueillis par leurs compatriotes qui sont restés en Côte 
d'Ivoire depuis le début de la guerre au Liberia en décembre 1989. Les 
agences humanitaires s'apprêtent toutefois à ouvrir des centres d'accueil. 
"La situation, dit un responsable de Caritas, empire au Liberia et le 
nombre de réfugiés s'accroît de jour en jour".   (D'après PANA, Sénégal, 
22-23 février 2002)

* Liberia. Activists target ship in campaign to save forests  -  On 25 
February, environmental activists prevented a ship from unloading a cargo 
of West African timber in France, at the start of what they said was a 
global campaign of disruption to stop rich nations conniving in the 
destruction of forests. Greenpeace, the international environmental group, 
said a dozen of its supporters boarded the Agia Irene from inflatable boats 
off the Mediterranean port of Se'te on the morning of 25 February, chaining 
themselves to cranes and other parts of the ship. The vessel, anchored off 
Se'te, is loaded with Liberian timber. "This is one of many actions we're 
taking in Europe and around the world," said Tim Birch, Greenpeace forest 
campaigner, speaking from the organisation's ship, Rainbow Warrior, near 
the Agia Irene. "We're going to be hitting very hard the companies and 
governments that enable this trade to continue." Greenpeace and other 
pressure groups such as Global Witness acknowledge that importing Liberian 
timber is legal, since there are as yet no United Nations sanctions on the 
trade. However, they say the uncontrolled harvesting of timber from Liberia 
is not only destroying ancient forests -- and thus endangering forest 
elephants, chimpanzees and other rare animals -- but also financing the 
civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone.   (Financial Times, UK, 26 February 
2002)

Weekly anb0228.txt - #4/7