Weekly anb03141.txt #7

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 14-03-2002      PART #1/7

* Africa. Action against the Media  -  Cameroon: In a letter to the Justice 
Minister (6 March), Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) expressed its concern 
following the arrest of Peter William Mandio, publications director of the 
weekly Le Front Indépendant who was arrested on 1 March in Yaounde. He was 
released on 4 March but ordered to remain accessible to the judiciary. 
Also, La Nouvelle Presse publications director, Jacques Blaise Mvié is 
currently being sought by the security forces. Congo RDC: In a memorandum 
(12 March) to the parties in the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, Amnesty 
International calls for a binding commitment that justice and human rights 
will be at the heart of all agreements reached. Egypt: On 6 March, RSF 
protested to the Egyptian government about the arrest on 5 March of two 
journalists from the Qatari TV station Al-Jazeera. Kenya: On 8 March, in a 
report on Kenya, Amnesty International said that the Kenyan government has 
failed in its human rights obligations towards one half of its citizens and 
should urgently reform its laws and practices to end the impunity of those 
who commit violence against women. Madagascar: On 5 March, the 
International Freedom of Expression (IFEX) reported that four radio 
stations have been attacked following an eruption of violence over the 
disputed presidential election results. Morocco: On 5 March, IFEX said that 
journalists in Morocco can still be thrown into jail for up to five years 
if they commit press offenses, and foreign publications can still be 
banned. Zambia: On 24 February, Thomas Nsama, a photographer working for 
the privately-owned Post newspaper, was beaten by ruling Movement for 
Multiparty Democracy (MMD) supporters. Zimbabwe: On 6 March, it was 
reported that an International Federation of Journalists monitoring 
mission, has been blocked from the country. -- On 11 March, RSF said it 
vigorously opposes the decision made by the authorities to deny journalists 
access to the country's vote-counting sited.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 13 March 
2002)

* Africa. Human rights  -  West Africa: On 8 March, a United Nations 
investigation into the sex-for-aid scandal headed for Sierra Leone, after 
visiting refugee camps in Guinea. The team from the UN's Refugee Agency, 
UNHCR, is trying to find out the extent of the abuse of women and children 
by aid-workers. A study by the UNHCR and a UK charity made public last 
month found that some aid agency employees were exchanging food and other 
supplies for sex. The leader of the UNHCR team said on 7 March that those 
named in the report would be moved, while in future more women would be 
hired. Central African Republic: In its Country Reports on Human Rights 
Practices released on 4 March, the US State Department says the CAR's poor 
human rights record worsened in some areas in 2001. Sudan: On 7 March, 
Zenit reported that the Sudanese government has amputated a Christian's 
right hand for alleged theft. Church and family sources have now affirmed 
that Anthony James Ladou Wani, a member of the Kakwa tribe from southern 
Sudan, had his right hand amputated on 24 January. He had been convicted 
and sentenced for allegedly stealing spare car parts. --In its Country 
Reports on Human Rights Practices, the US State Department says the 
Sudanese government's record on human rights practices remained a serious 
concern last year. Tanzania: In its country report for 2001 on human rights 
practices, the US government has expressed disappointment at what it 
regards as a general deterioration of human rights in Tanzania, last year, 
despite notable government efforts to engage in dialogue with the 
Opposition. Tunisia: On 9 March, the Appeal Court in Tunis started hearing 
an appeal against prison terms imposed on a prominent opposition figure, 
Hamma Hammami and two colleagues. The men have been sentenced to over nine 
years for being members of the outlawed Tunisian Communist Workers Party. 
Zimbabwe: On 8 March, Human Rights Watch said that the fast track land 
reform programme in Zimbabwe has been accompanied by significant human 
rights abuses that harm the very people it was designed to assist. -- On 12 
March, Amnesty International demanded that the government immediately and 
unconditionally releases more than 1,400 people, most of them polling 
agents and civil society election observers.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 13 March 
2002)

* Algeria. Suspected rebels kill six  -  Suspected Islamic militants have 
shot dead six people outside a town near Algiers. The six were killed at 
the entrance to El Affroun, 50 km south-west of the capital on 7 March, and 
the taxi they were travelling in set on fire, Algerian state radio 
reported. Security forces immediately began a major search for the 
attacker. Rebels from the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) have been active around 
El Affroun since Algeria's bloody civil war erupted in 1992. Algerian 
officials said the six, whose identities have not been given, had been 
stopped at a bogus road block.   (BBC News, UK, 8 March 2002)

* Algérie. Le berbère, langue nationale  -  Le 12 mars, dans un discours à 
la nation, le chef de l'Etat Abdelaziz Bouteflika a annoncé que la langue 
tamazight (berbère) deviendra langue nationale et officielle. Cela sera 
inscrit dans la Constitution. La reconnaissance du tamazight est l'une des 
principales revendications du mouvement de protestation kabyle. L'arabe est 
actuellement la seule langue officielle en Algérie. Le président Bouteflika 
a aussi annoncé des sanctions contre les gendarmes, accusés d'être 
responsables du déclenchement et de la répression des émeutes du printemps 
dernier en Kabylie, qui ont fait une soixantaine de morts et quelque 2.000 
blessés, selon un bilan officiel (107 morts et 6.000 blessés selon la 
coordination des villages kabyles). Le 11 mars, des affrontements entre 
manifestants et forces de l'ordre avaient à nouveau éclaté à Tizi-Ouzou, la 
capitale de la Grande Kabylie. Et le 13 mars, ces affrontements ont repris 
à Tizi-Ouzou et à El Kseur.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 13 mars 2002)

* Algeria. Campaigning starts for parliamentary poll  -  7 March: Algeria's 
political parties have started their campaign for the parliamentary polls 
scheduled for 30 May. On the eve of Women's Day on 8 March, several parties 
staged rallies in Algiers to mobilise their rank and files and gear them up 
for the forthcoming polls. The National Liberation Front (FLN) held a 
meeting presided over by its secretary general and Prime minister, Ali 
Benflis. The associations of women and female students turned out in great 
numbers in anticipation of the 8 March celebrations. Benflis said that his 
party has decided to increase women's representation on its lists of 
candidates. None of the FLN's female candidate won a parliamentary seat 
during the last polls. Considered as a favourite of the upcoming polls, the 
FLN intends to follow the example of the National Democratic Rally (RND), 
currently holding the majority in parliament, which has decided that one of 
every five candidates on its lists will be a woman. 10 March: The Berber 
protest movement in Algeria has called for a boycott of the parliamentary 
elections. Leaders of Berber councils in Kabylie in the east of Algeria 
described the forthcoming elections as little more than a show of strength 
by the government; they would do nothing to improve daily life. The 
predominantly Berber region has been at the centre of anti-government 
protests for the last year. Later this week, the main political parties in 
the Berber region -- the RCD and the FFS -- will decide whether or not they 
too will boycott of the elections. 12 March: The language spoken by 
Algeria's main ethnic minority, the Berbers of Kabylie, is finally to be 
given recognition by the state. Tamazight will be recognised as a national 
language, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announces in a speech to the 
nation. "I have decided in total freedom and with total conviction to 
include Tamazight in the constitution as a national language," he says. 
"The national character of Tamazight cannot be questioned, whether the 
issue relates to Tamazight as a language or to Tamazight as a 
culture."   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 13 March 2002)

* Angola. Appel de l'Unita Renovada  -  Le 12 mars, l'Unita Renovada, la 
formation politique issue de l'Unita dont elle se détacha en 1998, a lancé 
un appel pour que soit organisé au plus vite un congrès pour élire de 
nouveaux dirigeants susceptibles de prendre les rênes de l'opposition en 
Angola. Il s'agit de la première déclaration officielle du parti depuis la 
mort du leader historique Jonas Savimbi. La réorganisation de l'Unita 
semble en effet être un élément essentiel après le tournant que représente 
cette mort. Les modérés qui quittèrent le maquis il y a trois ans pour 
entrer au Parlement, pourront certainement contribuer à convaincre leurs 
anciens compagnons d'armes à choisir la voie de la négociation, estiment 
des observateurs. Par ailleurs, dans une dépêche du 14 mars, l'agence AFP 
informait que mercredi 13 le gouvernement angolais avait ordonné à l'armée 
de cesser le feu contre les rebelles de l'Unita et qu'il était prêt à 
décréter une amnistie en faveur des combattants et leaders de la 
rébellion.   (Misna, Italie, et AFP, 13-14 mars 2002)

* Angola. A weakened UNITA may agree to cease hostilities  -  6 March: The 
possible death of the new UNITA leader, General Antonio Dembo, could lead 
to a cessation of hostilities between the rebel movement and the 
government's armed forces, UNITA spokesman Jaka Jamba has said. Dembo's 
death so soon after that of longtime UNITA commander, Dr Jonas Savimbi in 
February, would further weaken UNITA remaining on the battlefield and could 
serve as a catalyst to the peace process. Jamba was speaking as a mission 
of the Angolan Armed Forces visited the eastern Moxico province to 
investigate a captured UNITA rebel's claims that he had buried Dembo after 
he died from injuries in the same battle in which Savimbi was killed. The 
mission is expected back in Luanda on 7 March. 7 March: Oxfam International 
urges UNITA and the Angolan government to accept responsibility for 
providing for people in areas they control. 13 March: The Government has 
ordered its armed forces to halt all offensive action against 
UNITA.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 14 March 2002)

* Angola. Life after Savimbi  -  The words "Savimbi Jonas" are scratched 
roughly into the bark of a tree. Apart from that, there is nothing to 
indicate who lies beneath the fresh mound of earth in the cemetery on the 
edge of the town of Luena in eastern Angola. The graveyard has its own 
resident madman worthy of Hamlet, dressed in rags and hung about with 
crucifixes, who told me that Johannesburg is the capital of South Africa, 
and Nairobi is a city in Uganda. But there were also three young men 
hanging about who were able to give a more coherent account of events. "The 
coffin was closed when it arrived. But everybody wanted to see, so they 
took the lid off the coffin," one eyewitness to the burial said. "It was 
Savimbi, we knew what he looked like, and it was Savimbi himself." Many in 
the town are still convinced that the grave under the tree is empty, and 
that Savimbi's body was secretly taken away lest the grave become a shrine 
for his followers. One thing is certain though: Luena has suddenly gone 
very quiet. A few months ago, the helicopter traffic above the town was 
almost constant as the Angolan armed forces flew soldiers to the front, or 
brought displaced people into the town. Now only one or two aircraft go 
overhead each day. United Nations staff say the army now feels it has 
broken the back of the Unita rebels in Moxico, and is turning its attention 
to the northern Angolan province of Uige -- the area which has the next 
highest concentration of Unita guerrillas.   (BBC News, UK, 12 March 2002)

* Benin. Disabled get financial assistance  -  Benin's minister of Family 
Affairs, Social Protection and Solidarity, Claire Houngan-Ayemona, has 
presented donations worth over US $23,000 to 100 disabled people. The 
package, which included 50 bicycles, 54 tricycles, a scooter, wheelchairs 
and an organ, is aimed at improving the living and working conditions of 
the disabled. "It is a good thing to have the means to move around, and it 
is a responsible attitude to maintain it," the minister said at the 
ceremony. She added that the equipment, while facilitating the mobility of 
disabled people, would enable them to increase their autonomy and help them 
take an active part in the process of national development.   (PANA, 
Senegal, 12 March 2002)

* Burkina Faso. Epidémie de méningite  -  Une poussée épidémique de 
méningite a tué 36 personnes entre le 4 et le 10 février, sur 201 cas 
diagnostiqués, a rapporté l'Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS le 7 
mars. Une campagne massive de vaccination a commencé dans le district de 
Dédougou. Le Burkina Faso se trouve dans la "ceinture de la méningite" en 
Afrique subsaharienne, qui s'étend de l'Ethiopie jusqu'au Sénégal. C'est 
l'un des pays de la "ceinture" les plus affectés, avec le Nigeria, le Mali, 
le Niger, le Tchad et le Cameroun.   (IRIN, Abidjan, 8 mars 002)

* Burundi. Candidats au rapatriement  -  Une délégation de six personnes 
représentant les réfugiés burundais vivant dans des camps en Tanzanie, est 
arrivée le 9 mars dans la province de Makamba pour une visite qui s'inscrit 
dans le cadre des préparatifs de rapatriements massifs de ces réfugiés. La 
délégation a visité le site de transit du camp de Mabaro, près de Makamba. 
Elle s'est également entretenue avec les autorités, tant civiles que 
militaires, sur des questions relatives à la sécurité. Les six personnes 
ont ensuite passé la nuit dans leurs communes d'origine respectives. Cette 
visite intervient au moment où des réfugiés continuent à se rapatrier 
volontairement. Depuis janvier, la province de Makamba a déjà accueilli 
près de 900 personnes, en grande partie originaires de Nyanza-Lac. La 
province s'apprête à accueillir près de 64.000 rapatriés, et à réinstaller 
près de 102.000 déplacés. Par ailleurs, des rebelles s'infiltrent encore 
dans la région à partir du Congo.   (Infoaza, Burundi, 11 mars 2002)

Weekly anb0314.txt -  End of part 1/7