Weekly anb08224.txt #5

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 22-08-2002      PART #4/5

* Malawi. World ignoring food crisis  -  The head of the United Nations 
Children's Fund (Unicef) says the world is ignoring the food crisis in 
southern Africa. Carol Bellamy, Unicef's executive director, appealed for 
$30m in aid for the region when she visited Malawi, where three million 
people face starvation. "Without help from the international community, 
things will get out of hand," she said at a feeding centre in the shanty 
town of Ndirande on the outskirts of Blantyre, Malawi's commercial capital. 
Malawi's national co-ordinator for nutrition, Thereza Banda, told Ms 
Bellamy that 7,000 Malawian children were on the verge of death. Another 
65,000 children in the country were suffering from malnutrition, Ms Banda 
added. Malawi declared a state of disaster in February over a severe food 
shortage. The Unicef director said that the food crisis had also hit 
schools in the country, with more than 500,000 students dropping out. 
Malawi's school enrolment had tripled in 1994 to 3.2 million when free 
primary education was introduced. Unicef has set aside $3.5m for Malawi's 
malnourished children and lactating mothers, Ms Bellamy said. A spokeswoman 
for the World Food Programme, Thigo Mtegha, said that many families in 
Malawi were at the end of their resources. "What you are seeing are 
households that have a little bit of food that are saying that this food 
will last for a period of a month after which they will have no coping 
strategy whatsoever," she said.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 20 August 2002)

* Mali. Recherche d'une majorité parlementaire  -  Le 10 août, le Conseil 
constitutionnel malien a inversé le résultat des élections législatives qui 
avaient donné la victoire en juillet dernier à l'Alliance pour la 
démocratie (ADEMA), le parti de l'ancien président Alpha Oumar Konaré. Des 
dizaines de milliers de suffrages ayant été invalidés en raison 
d'irrégularités diverses, la victoire revient désormais à la coalition 
regroupée autour de l'ex-Premier ministre Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, le 
candidat du Rassemblement pour le Mali (RPM). La coalition Espoir 2002 
dispose désormais de 66 des 147 sièges à l'Assemblée nationale contre 51 à 
l'ADEMA, selon le Conseil. M. Keita a fait savoir qu'il était prêt à 
travailler avec le président Amadou Toumani Touré, élu en mai dernier et 
qui n'avait pas donné de consigne de vote pour ces législatives. -- 21 
août. A une dizaine de jours de la proclamation des résultats définitifs 
des législatives, la classe politique malienne n'a pas encore réussi à 
dégager une majorité absolue et élire, pour les cinq prochaines années, le 
nouveau président du Parlement. Ces derniers jours, des rumeurs 
persistantes font cas de défections de députés de leur formation politique 
vers d'autres partis ou groupements, ce qui rend très complexe la situation 
actuelle du paysage politique. Huit sièges d'ailleurs ne sont pas encore 
pourvus; des élections partielles seront organisées entre octobre et 
novembre.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 21 août 2002)

* Maroc. 26 naufragés  -  Vingt-six Marocains, dont deux jeunes filles, ont 
été portés disparus en mer, dans des circonstances non encore élucidées, 
alors qu'ils tentaient de rallier les côtes espagnoles. Les informations 
sur cette disparition ont été recueillies auprès de l'unique rescapé, 
retrouvé le 17 août au matin au large des côtes algériennes, à bord d'une 
embarcation pneumatique de sept mètres sur laquelle voyageait le 
groupe.   (Libération, France, 19 août 2002)

* Morocco. King pardons hundreds of prisoners  -  20 August: Morocco's King 
Mohammed today pardons 465 prisoners on the occasion of his 39th birthday. 
21 August: Morocco celebrates the birthday of the monarch who was enthroned 
after the death of his father, King Hassan, in July 1999. In July, the 
monarch granted an amnesty to more than 8,000 prisoners during his wedding 
ceremony. They included two Islamists. Moroccan jails have a capacity of 
40,000 but hold about 57,000 inmates, according to the latest available 
official figures.   (CNN, USA, 20 August 2002)

* Mauritania/Senegal. Hundreds of thousands threatened by 
drought  -  Hundreds of thousands of people, especially children and women 
are threatened by "a record breaking drought" in the Sahel region of West 
Africa. In Mauritania and Senegal, livestock were already dying and crops 
has been lost. Mauritania is the worst hit. Cattle are dying due to lack of 
water and pasture while herdsmen are moving remaining stock to the southern 
border where some feed still exists, leaving part of the population with 
little or no access to fresh meat and milk. Even if a short rainfall does 
occur in Mauritania, the best case scenario is a 40 per cent loss in crop 
production. If no rains fall, that could [mean] 90 per cent of crops 
destroyed. In Senegal, Mauritania's southern neighbour, areas that usually 
received 24 inches of rain per year, had received only five inches as at 12 
August.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 14 August 2002)

* Mauritanie-Sénégal. Sécheresse  -  Des centaines de milliers de 
personnes, surtout des enfants et des femmes, sont menacées par "une 
sécheresse sans précédent" dans la région du Sahel, en Afrique de l'Ouest, 
a rapporté World Vision International. En Mauritanie et au Sénégal, le 
bétail est en train de périr et les cultures sont perdues, a signalé l'ONG. 
La Mauritanie est la plus durement frappée. Le bétail meurt à cause du 
manque d'eau, tandis que les pasteurs déplacent le reste du cheptel vers la 
frontière sud où il y a encore un peu de pâturage, ce qui laisse une partie 
de la population avec peu ou aucun accès à la viande fraîche et à du lait. 
"Même s'il y avait une courte saison de pluies en Mauritanie, le meilleur 
scénario sera de 40% de perte dans la production agricole. S'il ne pleut 
pas du tout, ce chiffre pourrait grimper à 90%". Au Sénégal, des régions 
qui recevaient d'habitude 24 pouces d'eau de pluie par an, n'en ont eu que 
5 à la date du 12 août. "Même s'il se met à pleuvoir maintenant, la 
situation restera catastrophique", a remarqué le directeur de WVI. Des 
plans de réponse d'urgence à la sécheresse sont en préparation.   (IRIN, 
Abidjan, 14 août 2002)

* Mozambique. Train crew in the dock  -  State prosecutors have demanded 
stiff penalties for four railway workers accused of causing the crash which 
killed 195 people in May. They pleaded not guilty and said they were 
following the instructions of their managers. If convicted of involuntary 
homicide, they could face up to 24 years in prison and be made to pay 
compensation to the victims' families. The crash occurred after a train 
travelling from the South African border to the capital, Maputo, 
encountered problems going down a hill. The train was stopped and rocks 
were used to wedge passenger carriages, while the crew went for help. But 
the rocks came loose and the wagons rolled down the hill into the freight 
sections of the train, near the town of Muamba. "Those who will be found 
guilty should be given an exemplary sentence," state attorney Arone Nhaca 
said at the start of the trial before a Maputo magistrate. Prosecutors 
accused the crew of negligence for not verifying the mechanical state of 
the train before leaving Ressano Garcia, on the South African border. 
During the journey the passenger carriages became decoupled from the rest 
of the train on three occasions but the prosecution said the crew carried 
on regardless. Around 150 people, including crash survivors and victims' 
relatives were in court. Many of those killed were women traders on their 
way to market.   (BBC News, UK, 21 August 2002)

* Namibia. Rare impala threatened by conservationists  -  The endangered 
black-faced impala of Namibia are facing extinction because of misguided 
conservation efforts, zoologists have warned. The sub-species -- found only 
in northern Namibia and southern Angola, and numbering some 3,200 -- is 
under threat after the short-sighted introduction of common impala into 
commercial game reserves around Etosha, one of Africa's biggest game parks. 
In Namibia, the black-faced impala narrowly escaped extinction during the 
liberation war of the 1970s, when they were poached by warring forces from 
South Africa and the South West African People's Organisation in Koakaland. 
The soldiers shot everything and their poaching might have reduced the 
sub-species' population from tens of thousands. Far-sighted government 
conservationists moved 260 of the black-faced impala to Etosha, one of the 
world's top game parks covering 22,270 sq km in northern Namibia which, 
despite being mostly arid, teems with game. Tammie Matson, an Australian 
zoologist who has studied the black impala for two years, said: "They 
thrived here in five populations that have today grown to between 1,500 and 
2,000." The sub-species also exists in limited numbers outside the park and 
in private reserves, where small populations were moved from Etosha to 
increase their range and abundance. A black-faced impala costs up to 
Nam$9,000 while a common impala costs only about a ninth of this sum. The 
problem is that impala move easily through game fences and black-faced 
impala have begun breeding with common impala imported from South Africa 
and the Caprivi Strip.   (The Independent, UK, 15 August 2002)

* Nigeria. Oil firm angry at Nigerian protest  -  The oil company Chevron 
has reacted angrily to the invasion of one of its oil platforms in Nigeria 
by a group of around 30 members of a local community, many of them women. 
During a series of similar incidents in the area in recent weeks, 
protesters have been demanding jobs and development assistance for the 
surrounding villages. But a statement issued by Chevron has made it clear 
that a generous deal was struck just last week with other nearby 
communities. It says Chevron is not responsible for the livelihoods of 
these latest protesters as well. The protesters arrived in boats and took 
over this latest platform in the swamps of the Niger Delta without 
resistance. Chevron had already evacuated its staff and shut down 
production so as to prevent what it described as a potential hostage 
situation. It is the latest in a series of protests over the past few 
weeks, largely by women, which have severely disrupted the company's 
output. Chevron's reaction to this latest incident is a clear measure of 
their deep frustration. It says these protesters are not entitled to 
support as they are not from a recognised host community. Only last week, 
Chevron says, it signed a generous deal with its long-standing community 
partners in the area, addressing employment and development concerns. Oil 
companies such as Chevron operating in the Niger Delta find themselves in 
an impossible situation, largely of their own making. In selecting one 
community to assist in this way, they create frustrations and jealousies in 
the others not receiving benefits.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 18 August 2002)

* Nigeria. Fronde contre Obasanjo  -  Le 13 août, la Chambre basse du 
Parlement nigérian a adopté à une écrasante majorité une motion de censure 
enjoignant au président Obasanjo de se "démettre honorablement" dans les 
quinze jours, sous peine de destitution, voire de poursuites judiciaires. 
Les parlementaires -- dont la grande partie appartient au parti 
présidentiel, le PDP -- ont voté un texte condamnant "les insuffisances, 
l'inaptitude et le mépris pour les règles de droit" du chef de l'Etat, 
ainsi que "la corruption évidente pratiquée au sein de la présidence". La 
présidence nigériane, qui a été prise de court par la fronde des 
parlementaires, s'est refusée à tout commentaire. -- 16 août. Selon 
l'agence PANA, une rencontre entre les responsables du PDP et les membres 
de la Chambre de représentants, pour étudier la menace de mise en 
accusation du président Obasanjo, n'a pas pu se poursuivre comme prévu le 
vendredi. Aucune raison officielle n'a été avancée. Le président Obasanjo 
refuse de démissionner. L'opinion nigériane est divisée sur cette affaire. 
-- 20 août. Obasanjo, note PANA, bénéficie d'une vague de soutien 
exceptionnelle, notamment dans son fief du sud-ouest du pays. Les Yoruba, 
qui ne l'avaient pourtant pas soutenu au cours de sa campagne 
présidentielle, ont même menacé de faire sécession si jamais M. Obasanjo 
était invalidé. D'autres réactions, en majorité favorables à Obasanjo, 
viennent d'organisations de travailleurs et d'étudiants, d'hommes 
politiques et de membres de la société civile. Le 21 août, pour la seconde 
fois en l'espace d'une semaine, les militaires nigérians ont réaffirmé leur 
loyauté à leur commandant en chef, le président Obasanjo.   (ANB-BIA, de 
sources diverses, 21 août 2002)

* Nigeria. Stoning appeal fails  -  19 August: An Islamic appeal court has 
upheld a sentence of death by stoning for adultery against a Nigerian 
woman. Amina Lawal, 30, was found guilty by a court in Katsina state in 
March after bearing a child outside marriage. The court's ruling can only 
serve to heighten tensions between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria. 
Today's ruling has come as a surprise and human rights groups have promised 
to take the case to a higher court. They have 30 days to lodge an appeal. 
This case could now end up in the supreme court in Abuja, where central 
government has declared such harsh Sharia judgement unconstitutional. The 
largely-male crowd in the courtroom reacted to the judgement of judge Aliyu 
Abdullahi with shouts of "Allahu Akbar" (God is great). "We uphold your 
conviction of death by stoning as prescribed by the Sharia. This judgement 
will be carried out as soon as your baby is weaned," the judge said, as 
Amina cradled her eight-month-old daughter Wasila. She was led away in 
tears. "I'm not happy at all. We thought they were going to discharge her," 
said Clara Obazele, a spokeswoman for Aisha Ismail, the federal 
government's minister for women's affairs. "We're going to appeal the 
judgement." No one has yet been stoned to death for adultery in Nigeria. A 
woman convicted under very similar circumstances last year won her appeal a 
few months ago. 20 August: The European Commission expresses concern over 
the sentence. The Commission says it will lobby the Nigerian government to 
win a reprieve for Amina Lawal. -- Human Rights Watch says "Nigeria's legal 
system is being used to punish adult women for consensual sex. The death 
penalty is never an appropriate punishment for a crime, and, in this 
instance, the very nature of the crime is in doubt".   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 
21 August 2002)

* Nigeria. Lapidation confirmée  -  Le 19 août, la cour d'appel islamique 
de Funtua (nord) a confirmé la condamnation à mort par lapidation d'une 
jeune femme, pour avoir conçu un enfant en dehors du mariage. Suivant le 
jugement en première instance, le juge a ordonné que Amina Lawal, 30 ans, 
soit exécutée à partir de 2004, une fois qu'elle aura sevré sa fillette de 
huit mois. Ses avocats ont annoncé qu'ils déposeront un nouvel appel devant 
la cour d'appel de la charia de l'Etat de Katsina; en cas d'échec, ils 
peuvent saisir la Cour suprême nigériane, où l'affaire risque d'entraîner 
un bras de fer entre les autorités constitutionnelles et religieuses du 
pays. Amina Lawal avait été condamnée à mort en mars par un tribunal 
religieux de l'Etat de Katsina, où est appliquée la loi islamique. Si la 
sentence était appliquée, Amina serait la première Nigériane exécutée par 
lapidation depuis l'introduction de la charia dans douze Etats du nord du 
Nigeria ces trois dernières années. - La nouvelle de la condamnation a 
soulevé un tollé dans le monde. Le 20 août, la Commission européenne a fait 
part de sa "préoccupation", alors que Javier Solana, représentant de l'UE 
pour la politique étrangère, a dénoncé le caractère "sadique" du jugement. 
En France, le ministère des Affaires étrangères a appelé les autorités 
nigérianes à la "clémence". Human Rights Watch et Amnesty International ont 
dénoncé la condamnation. Même un conseiller du président nigérian a estimé: 
"La charia est préjudiciable aux femmes et les punit 
injustement".   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 21 août 2002)

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