Weekly anb05307.txt #9

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 30-05-2002  PART #7/9

* Mali. ATT officiellement élu président - Le général à la retraite Amadou 
Toumani Touré (ATT) a été officiellement déclaré vainqueur de l'élection 
présidentielle du 12 mai. Selon un arrêt de la Cour constitutionnelle, 
rendu le 23 mai dans l'après-midi, ATT est sorti vainqueur du second tour 
de l'élection avec 926.243 (65,01%) des 1.424.746 suffrages exprimés. 
Aussitôt après le verdict de la Cour, le chef de l'Etat sortant Alpha Oumar 
Konaré, dans un message radiotélévisé, a félicité le nouveau président. M. 
Touré entrera en fonction le 8 juin prochain. - Le 24 mai, seize formations 
politiques ont signé un protocole d'accord consacrant la naissance de la 
mouvance présidentielle, dénommée "Convergence pour l'alternance et le 
changement" (ACC). La plupart de ces partis avaient soutenu le candidat ATT 
dès le premier tour de la présidentielle. Ils ont "les mêmes vues pour 
oeuvrer au développement du Mali", a affirmé leur porte-parole, M. Ibrahim 
Bocar Bâ. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 24 mai 2002)

* Mali. L'ancien couple présidentiel gracié - Moussa Traoré, ancien 
président du Mali (1968-1991), et son épouse Mariam, condamnés à la peine 
de mort commuée en prison à perpétuité, ont été graciés le 29 mai par le 
président Alpha Oumar Konaré. Renversé par un soulèvement populaire, Traoré 
avait été condamné à mort pour crimes de sang et crimes économiques; sa 
femme pour crimes économiques. Le nouveau président élu, M. Touré, avait 
déjà manifesté son intention de libérer M. Traoré, et cette libération 
avait fait l'unanimité de la classe politique, qui estime que cette mesure 
est de nature à favoriser la réconciliation nationale. (PANA, Sénégal, 29 
mai 2002)

* Mozambique. Foreign debt forgiveness - The year 2002 will go down in 
Mozambique's political and economic history as a period of triumph -- as 
far as foreign debt forgiveness is concerned. In May, this year, Britain, 
Italy and Germany and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Nations Fund 
for International Development announced, separately, the cancellation of 
huge amounts of debt for Mozambique (population 17 million). Debt 
cancellations are being effected, thanks, to the benefits of the Highly 
Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. Mozambique became the third 
African country to qualify under the HIPC Initiative, following Tanzania 
and Uganda. In 1996 Mozambique had an international debt of US $5.6 
billion. Since achieving HIPC status, Mozambique has satisfied donors. An 
Economist Intelligence Unit report in May this year, noted that the country 
has performed well and was in line to receive the remainder of the US$ 4.2 
billion promised under the debt reduction. (Frederico Katerere, ANB-BIA, 
Mozambique, 21 May 2002)

* Mozambique. Makeshift brakes caused train crash - 26 May: Railway 
officials in Mozambique are blaming an extraordinary error of judgement by 
one of their drivers for causing the worst rail disaster in the country's 
history. The driver apparently used four large stones to stop passenger 
carriages from rolling downhill after his train lost power, but the 
makeshift brake gave way sending nearly 200 people to their deaths. The 
crash happened at Muamba on the main rail line between the Mozambique and 
South Africa, about 60 kilometres north of the capital, Maputo. President 
Joachim Chissano has declared three days of national mourning for the 
people who died in the crash. Hundreds more people were injured in the 
accident, and President Chissano urged people to donate blood to help treat 
them. Antonio Libombo of the Mozambican Railway Company said the train had 
experienced mechanical difficulties as it tried to climb a hill on a 
mountainous stretch of the line. The driver therefore disconnected the 
passenger section of the train, which was already half way up the hill, 
from the cargo section, which he took back to the nearest station. The 
driver wedged the four stones under the wheels of the passenger section to 
keep it from sliding backwards before he drove off, Mr Libombo said. 
However, the official said, the stones gave way and the passenger train 
careered down the tracks into the freight train, whose cargo was mainly 
cement. Reports said dozens of passengers were buried alive by choking 
cement dust. "An investigation is still under way," Transport Minister 
Tomas Salomao said. "But at first glance, the crash was caused by a human 
error." 27 May: Health officials in Mozambique have appealed to the 
families of those killed in the train crash to claim the bodies of their 
relatives because of inadequate morgue facilities. The central morgue in 
Maputo, which can normally only handle 50 bodies owing to a faulty cooling 
system, currently has 98 corpses in storage. Health authorities expect 52 
bodies to be recovered on today for burial, but they would like the 
families of the remaining victims to come forward as soon as possible. 
(ANB-BIA, Brussels, 27 May 2002)

* Mozambique. Accident de train: près de 200 morts - Le samedi 25 mai, 192 
personnes ont été tuées et 169 autres blessées dans le déraillement d'un 
train à Pessene, au sud-ouest de Maputo, selon le dernier bilan donné le 
dimache soir par le ministre des Transports. Un deuil national de trois 
jours a été décrété après le déraillement, sur la principale ligne reliant 
le pays à l'Afrique du Sud, d'un train de voyageurs tractant aussi des 
wagons de marchandises. L'accident s'est produit lorsque le train peinait à 
franchir une colline abrupte. Les cheminots ont alors séparé les wagons de 
marchandises et ceux des passagers, ces derniers étant immobilisés sur la 
voie par des pierres censées les caler. Mais ces dernières n'ont 
apparemment pas été suffisantes pour retenir les wagons, qui ont dévalé la 
pente avant de dérailler, selon la version officielle. Cette catastrophe 
ferroviaire est la plus meurtrière que le Mozambique ait jamais connue. (Le 
Figaro, France, 27 mai 2002)

* Nigeria. Adopting Biosafety Guidelines - The Nigerian Government has 
adopted a set of Biosafety Guidelines, joining Egypt, Kenya and South 
Africa, the only other African countries with such Guidelines. The Federal 
Ministry of Environment has acknowledged the International Institute of 
Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for the very active role it played as a member 
of the inter-ministerial committee which developed the Guidelines. The 
committee addressed a number of issues which will promote the rational 
application of biotechnology for development. The committee's submission 
has been deliberated upon by the Federal Executive Council, and forwarded 
to the National Assembly to pass into Law. Biosafety is the assessment of 
the impact and safety of genetically improved organisms. The Biosafety 
Guidelines prescribe appropriate regulatory measures for the establishment 
and maintenance of institutional capacities, that are necessary for safety 
in biotechnology, as well as the development of expert human resources. 
(Taye Babaleye, ANB-BIA, Nigeria, 21 May 2002)

* Nigeria. Violences à Bauchi - Menace de grève - Le 25 mai, des incidents 
violents ont eu lieu entre étudiants chrétiens et musulmans à Bauchi (nord 
du Nigeria), faisant 3 morts et plusieurs blessés, selon la presse locale. 
Les bagarres ont commencé dans une école secondaire publique, avant de 
toucher d'autres parties de la ville. Un couvre-feu a été instauré. Les 
leaders religieux ont adressé un appel à la population pour faire revenir 
le calme. - D'autre part, le National Labour Congress (NLC), principal 
syndicat nigérian, a lancé un ultimatum de six semaines au gouvernement 
pour qu'il augmente de 25% les salaires des travailleurs du secteur public. 
Sinon, une grève générale sera déclenchée le 10 juillet, paralysant le 
pays. En janvier, le président du NLC avait été arrêté deux fois et deux 
mouvements de grève avaient été déclarés illégaux pour n'avoir pas respecté 
les 21 jours de préavis prévus par la loi. (Misna, Italie, 27 mai 2002)

* Nigeria. Obasanjo pledges rights action - 28 May: President Olusegun 
Obasanjo has made his first response to the findings of the Human Rights 
Commission, set up to investigate political crimes committed since the 
first military coup in Nigeria in 1966. Mr Obasanjo praised the members of 
the commission for the work. He said the report's recommendations would be 
faithfully implemented, after the document had been studied in detail. The 
report itself calls for national reconciliation and for the financial 
compensation for victims where appropriate, which remains a key point of 
contention. Speaking at a ceremony to mark the official publication of the 
report, Mr Obasanjo said that the entire process of allowing those that had 
suffered under decades of military rule had brought not only remorse, but 
also reconciliation. The findings of the commission, he said, would be 
carefully studied and acted upon. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 28 May 2002)

* Senegal. Senegal fights to protect fishing industry - 21 May: Senegal has 
said it wants to charge the European Union (EU) for fishing in its waters. 
The minister responsible for the sector said the government was looking to 
charge the EU, 20m euros ($18m) each year. Since the beginning of this year 
the West African country has banned vessels from the EU from fishing in its 
waters after over-fishing led to a crisis for the local industry. Talks 
between Dakar and Brussels have yet to produce an agreement on how 
commercial fishing should continue. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 21 May 2002)

* Sierra Leone. Uphill task for diamond exports - David Momoh, a Sierra 
Leone government mining inspector, polices the Kono diamond fields armed 
with one weapon: a 100-foot-long tape measure. Mr Momoh, whose task is to 
ensure gem-diggers working by the roadside stay within their allocated 
plots, has just had his zone of responsibility doubled because of a 
shortage of personnel. "You see how we are seriously understaffed?" asks 
Francis Kabia, government mine superintendent". There is one warden only to 
cover this entire area." The complaint is common among government officials 
charged with encouraging the legitimate production of diamonds, which all 
but shut down during the country's decade-long civil war. The supervision 
problems raise concerns that smuggling could deprive the nation of 
much-needed revenues and undermine international pressure for higher 
ethical standards in diamond production and export. The government is 
trying to encourage Sierra Leoneans and foreign investors to return to 
diamond mining after peaceful elections this month and this year's official 
declaration of the end of the civil war. The industry collapsed after the 
rebel Revolutionary United Front, which started the war in 1991, drove 
mining companies away from Kono and extracted and sold diamonds illegally 
to fund its activities. The government, which restarted its office in Kono 
in January, says it has issued 30 licences so far to Sierra Leoneans for 
alluvial mining -- the extraction of surface deposits by teams of men 
equipped with shovels. Some foreign companies that operated in Sierra Leone 
have returned for reconnaissance trips, although most will need to invest 
heavily to replace extraction machinery destroyed by the rebels. (Financial 
Times, UK, 24 May 2002)

* Sierra Leone. Companies urged to keep pre-civil war promises - The Sierra 
Leone government has told mining companies with interests in the country 
that it expects them to return to fulfil investment obligations suspended 
during the civil war. But the Ministry of Mineral Resources said it thought 
that a number were unlikely to come back because they would be reluctant to 
re-invest in operations that were damaged or destroyed before the official 
end of the conflict this year. Companies with interests in the gem-rich but 
politically unstable sub-region of west Africa, made up of Sierra Leone, 
Liberia and Guinea, face a difficult decision. Mano River Resources, a 
company publicly traded in Canada and Britain, had already begun 
prospecting in February under the terms of licences to explore for gold and 
diamonds. Mano, which includes the nephew of a former president of Liberia 
among its advisers, is typical of the small and specialised foreign mining 
companies that operate in Sierra Leone. One high-profile company with a 
licence to operate in Sierra Leone is DiamondWorks, which is listed in 
Canada and cropped up during the 1998 UK parliamentary investigation into 
contacts between the British government and the private military company 
Sandline International. Tim Spicer, Sandline's former chief executive, told 
the investigation that Rupert Bowen, DiamondWorks' then country manager, 
had left DiamondWorks to act as a consultant to Sandline, although he said 
there was no "corporate connection" between the two businesses. Another 
significant licence-holder is Rex Diamond Mining Corporation. Serge Muller, 
its president and chief executive, is a member of the Antwerp Diamond 
Bourse and a former marketing agent for Sierra Leone's then 
government-owned National Diamond Mining Company. (Financial Times, UK, 24 
May 2002)

Weekly anb05307.txt - #7/9