Weekly anb09195.txt #7

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 19-09-2002      PART #5/7

* Libya. Gadaffi's caravan treks south of the Sahara  -  On a visit to 
Tripoli this year, South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki received a gift of 
a Mercedes armoured limousine from his Libyan host. A little overwhelmed by 
President Muammer Gadaffi's generosity, South African officials said the 
gift would find a discreet home in the government car pool. A month later, 
Mr Gadaffi arrived in South Africa for the launch of the African Union 
(AU), the rejuvenated Organisation of African Unity. He brought with him 40 
limousines, a stash of small arms, an entourage of bodyguards and ambitions 
for a United States of Africa. Over the years Mr Gadaffi has lent his 
notoriously volatile patronage to African independence and rebel movements. 
He backed Uganda's President Idi Amin and the rebel movements of Charles 
Taylor in Liberia and Foday Sankoh in Sierra Leone. More recently, he has 
lost interest in plans for a federation of Arab states and turned 
peacemaker, promoting initiatives in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia and Congo. 
"Libya can no longer depend on the Arabs," said Mr Gadaffi. "Africa, not 
oil, is now the hope of Libya." Mr Gadaffi vies for leadership of Africa 
with Mr Mbeki. At the launch of the African Union (AU) in July, he bowed to 
the South African president's promotion of the New Partnership for Africa's 
Development (Nepad), a plan to build democracy and good governance in 
return for greater aid and investment from the developed world. He is 
expected to join the steering committee on Nepad, despite telling the AU's 
founding meeting: "Those who want to give us assistance are welcome, but 
those who want to impose conditions on us, this will be seen as a 
humiliation."   (Financial Times, UK, 17 September 2002)

* Libya. Libya denies US allegations over weapons  -  Libya has denied that 
it was developing weapons of mass destruction and challenged the US to back 
up its accusations with proof. Hassouna Chaouch, foreign ministry 
spokesman, also warned the US stance would undermine the global war against 
terrorism. He was responding to comments by John Bolton, US undersecretary 
of state, who this week accused Libya, Syria and Cuba of developing 
chemical and biological weapons and sponsoring international terrorism. Mr 
Bolton said that "following the suspension of UN sanctions in April 1999, 
Libya has re-established contacts with illicit foreign sources of 
expertise, parts and precursor chemicals in the Middle East, Asia and 
western Europe". Mr Chaouch insisted that Libya had signed all accords and 
international treaties banning deadly weapons. "We defy this American 
official to show any document to back his allegations on Libya's possession 
of such weapons or its intent to acquire them," said Mr Chaouch. The 
inclusion of Libya on a list of countries of increasing concern to the US 
appears to be part of a hardening US attitude towards the regime of Muammer 
Gadaffi. It dashes the maverick leader's hopes of a resumption of 
diplomatic relations with the US following Libyan attempts to co-operate in 
the post-September 11 investigation. Col Gadaffi strongly condemned the 
attacks on the US and portrayed himself as supportive by providing 
information about groups linked with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda 
organisation.   (Financial Times, UK, 17 September 2002)

* Malawi. Funds for vital railway repairs  -  Britain and Canada are 
donating $5.6m for repairs to a railway that provides a vital link from 
Malawi to the Indian Ocean. The repairs will allow faster transport of 
emergency aid to the country which is facing a major food shortage. The 
Nacala rail link runs from land-locked Malawi through Mozambique to the sea 
and is the shortest and cheapest route for imports to reach the country. 
Damage to the track during Mozambique's civil war means trains are forced 
to slow to 10km an hour on a 77km section of the line, delaying the arrival 
of vital supplies. The line also links Zambia to Malawi and Mozambique. 
Mozambique and Malawi are also considering further development along the 
route of the railway and neighbouring Zambia has expressed interest in 
becoming involved in the project. Several mining and tourism projects have 
already been identified for development along the Nacala corridor. But 
transporting food to the population is the priority at the moment.   (BBC 
News, UK, 13 September 2002)

* Malawi. New bill for Muluzi third term  -  16 September: The Malawian 
government has drafted a bill to give President Muluzi a third term in 
office. Despite the recent defeat in parliament of the bill to allow him to 
run for a third term in office, Malawi's ruling United Democratic Front is 
still adamant that it will field Mr Muluzi as its candidate in the 2004 
election. The new bill is due to be debated in parliament in October. 
Malawi's major Christian and civil society leaders have condemned the move 
as undemocratic. Today, representatives of the main aid donors to Malawi 
add their criticisms. President Muluzi has rejected the criticisms and 
instructed the army to halt any demonstrations against his third term 
bid.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 16 September 2002)

* Morocco. Local Catholics help start Cultural Centre  -  Beni Mallal, a 
town in Morocco, will soon have a new Cultural Centre, thanks also to 
collaboration from the local Catholic community. The Centre will have a 
library of more than 40,000 volumes including a copy of the first French 
version of the Muslim holy book the Koran. It will also have a picture 
gallery with 150 works by Moroccan artists. Fr Jaques Levrat, for 20 years 
the director of the La Source Catholic Library in Rabat has agreed to 
oversee the project. For some time now the Franciscan Sisters in Beni 
Mallal have kept a library which is very popular with local students. The 
library was started by Fr Jean Delacommune, the local Catholic parish 
priest between 1973 and 1992 who began by encouraging students to borrow 
books from his own well stocked library.   (Fides, Vatican City, 12 
September 2002)

* Maroc. Pas d'islamistes aux législatives  -  Les islamistes ne 
participeront pas aux élections législatives du 27 septembre. La principale 
organisation islamiste Al Adl Wal Ihssane (Justice et bienfaisance) a 
affirmé, le 12 septembre, que sa non-participation aux législatives vise à 
éviter au Maroc un raz de marée islamiste et la répétition du "scénario 
algérien".   (La Croix, France, 13 septembre 2002)

* Morocco. Election campaign opens  -  14 September: Campaigning has begun 
in Morocco for parliamentary elections to be held in two weeks time. A 
dizzying array of 26 parties will be standing, ranging from former Marxist 
revolutionaries to the one legal Islamist party. The authorities know their 
biggest challenge will be to combat voter apathy in a country where 
parliament has little power. The king appoints the most important 
government ministers, and the king and his advisors still make all the 
major decisions in the country. These will be the first general elections 
since King Mohammed VI came to the throne in 1999, bringing a new era of 
openness and democracy to the country. Elections in Morocco do not have a 
very good reputation. Most people here believe that results have always 
been falsified by a combination of local level corruption and high level 
interference.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 14 September 2002)

* Maurice. Maurice réclame ses îles  -  Le Premier ministre mauricien, Sir 
Anerood Jugnauth, qui est intervenu à la tribune des Nations unies le 13 
septembre, en a profité pour prendre l'opinion à témoin et réclamer une 
nouvelle fois à la Grande-Bretagne et à la France, puissances coloniales, 
certaines des îles mauriciennes que ces deux pays continuent de soustraire 
impunément à sa souveraineté. Il a rappelé la souveraineté de Maurice sur 
l'archipel des Chagos, amputé du territoire mauricien par la 
Grande-Bretagne avant l'accession du pays à l'indépendance en 1968. Il a 
également lancé un appel à la France, l'invitant à trouver une solution à 
la souveraineté de Maurice sur l'île Tromelin, au nord de Maurice, toujours 
occupée par les Français.   (PANA, Sénégal, 13 septembre 2002)

* Mauritanie. Pénurie alimentaire  -  Pas moins de 60.000 Mauritaniens sont 
menacés par d'imminentes pénuries alimentaires, a rapporté le 12 septembre 
le Réseau des systèmes d'alerte rapide sur la famine (FEWS-Net). Le 
problème est particulièrement aigu dans l'enclave d'Aftout, au sud du pays, 
qui a souffert de six mauvaises récoltes successives. La Mauritanie est 
confrontée à un déficit céréalier de 205.000 tonnes, surtout à cause de 
l'absence de pluie. Mais d'autre part, des pluies torrentielles en janvier 
ont occasionné la mort de 120.000 têtes de bétail, la destruction de 25% 
des cultures déjà récoltées, et des pertes humaines et matérielles, indique 
FEWS-Net.   (IRIN, Abidjan, 13 septembre 2002)

* Nigeria. Voter registration hiccups  -  12 September: As voter 
registration gets underway, today, in Nigeria ahead of forthcoming national 
elections, President Olusegun Obasanjo has released a statement strongly 
defending his record in power. It comes in response to a list of charges 
made by members of his own party in parliament, the People's Democratic 
Party (PDP). They have threatened to support impeachment proceedings 
against him unless he can provide satisfactory answers to their accusations 
of abuse of power and misappropriation of public funds. President Obasanjo 
is fighting for his political life. Before he even gets the chance to 
contest next year's presidential elections, he must first fend off a 
threatened impeachment debate, driven by members of his own party within 
parliament. Now Mr Obasanjo has launched his defence, making public a 
detailed response to a list of impeachable offenses drawn up by his own 
party. In it, he firmly denies any wrongdoing. He rebuts charges of riding 
roughshod over parliament and of spending millions of dollars of public 
money without approval. He also defends the actions of the military during 
his presidency, in particular, two operations by the army, in which many 
hundreds of unarmed civilians were killed by soldiers. Mr Obasanjo said in 
his statement that "such situations demand urgent and decisive action to 
maintain law and order and save lives and property." Whether his 
parliamentary party will accept his explanations remains uncertain. 17 
September: Widespread inefficiency and fraud are putting Nigeria's voter 
registration at risk, according to opposition parties. The Alliance for 
Democracy reported "irregularities which can mar the entire exercise and 
defeat its very purpose". Among the reported problems were the moving of 
registration stations without notice, a lack of registration forms and the 
registration of "ghost voters", who were either under-age or had already 
been registered. The electoral commission itself reported problems in 
Plateau State where officials were unwilling to ask Muslim women to remove 
their veils, even when they suspected they were not old enough to register, 
according to the Guardian newspaper. The massive task of registering voters 
in preparation for state and national elections began on 12 September and 
will continue to 10 days. Election officials said on the first day of the 
process that registration started smoothly at 120,000 centres and they were 
confident of enfranchising the country's 60 million voters. -- The leader 
of a Nigerian parliamentary attempt to impeach President Olusegun Obasanjo 
is to be investigated over alleged misuse of public money. The Independent 
Corrupt Practices Commission, a body set up by Mr Obasanjo after his 
election in 1999, says that it plans to probe Ghali Na'Abba, speaker of the 
House of Representatives. The announcement deepens the political conflict 
between parliament and the president, who is standing for re-election next 
year but is threatened with removal over allegations of economic 
mismanagement and human rights abuses. The anti-corruption commission says 
it will question Mr Na'Abba over allegations of financial impropriety made 
against him by another house member. The commission denies its probe is 
politically motivated, saying that the complaint against Mr Na'Abba 
pre-dated an impeachment threat issued by the house last month. "There 
exists sufficient reason to interrogate the speaker," the commission says. 
"Grounds exist for him to be confronted with the issues." The office of Mr 
Na'Abba denounces the anti-corruption commission's "choice of insinuations, 
innuendoes and foul language" and says the speaker is waiting to be 
"interrogated and confronted". 18 September: The Independent Electoral 
Commission has released an additional four million registration 
forms.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 18 September 2002)

* Nigeria. Factory fire kills dozens  -  17 September: A factory fire has 
killed at least 20 people near the Nigerian city of Lagos -- sparking 
rioting amid rumours that locked doors had prevented workers from escaping. 
Correspondents say about 200 workers who were on duty at the time of the 
fire have not been accounted for and may have died. Witnesses said Asian 
owners of the plastic factory -- West African Rubber Products Company -- 
took refuge in their residence when rioters tried to break down the factory 
gates. The fire follows a massive armoury fire at a barracks which claimed 
more than 1,000 lives in January.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 17 September 2002)

* Rwanda. Un génocidaire arrêté au Congo  -  Un ancien maire rwandais 
soupçonné d'être impliqué dans le génocide de 1994 a été arrêté, le 8 
septembre, au nord du Congo-Brazzaville, ont indiqué hier les autorités. Il 
s'agit de Jean-Baptiste Gatete, ancien bourgmestre de la commune de Murambi 
(région de Byumba, nord-ouest), installé au Congo depuis 1997. C'est la 
première fois que les autorités locales arrêtent un Rwandais soupçonné 
d'implication dans le génocide. Il devrait être prochainement transféré 
vers le Tribunal pénal international d'Arusha. Gatete est considéré comme 
un des tueurs les plus cruels, indique MF Cros dans La Libre Belgique. Dès 
avant le génocide, il s'était fait connaître par son extrémisme et aurait 
été un des membres du "Réseau Zéro", sorte d'escadron de la mort lié au 
pouvoir du président Habyarimana.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 13 
septembre 2002)

* Rwanda. Rebelles hutu en visite  -  La Mission de l'Onu au Congo (Monuc) 
va accompagner au Rwanda cent militaires du Front démocratique pour la 
libération du Rwanda (FDLR) désarmés. 1.800 de ces hommes, qui servaient de 
troupes au gouvernement de Kinshasa, ont été désarmés en 2001. Le FDLR est 
formé de (présumés) ex-génocidaires et de jeunes Hutu en rébellion contre 
le gouvernement rwandais. Les cent hommes qui partiront au Rwanda sont des 
éclaireurs, chargés d'évaluer les conditions d'accueil pour en informer 
leurs compagnons d'armes, avant de prendre la décision d'un retour 
définitif ou non, a indiqué la Monuc.   (La Libre Belgique, 13 septembre 2002)

* Rwanda. Hate media trial goes ahead  -  17 September: The UN war crimes 
tribunal for Rwanda has ordered three high profile genocide suspects to 
begin their defence case. rejecting a defence petition calling for them to 
be acquitted. The defence had wanted the International Criminal Tribunal 
for Rwanda (ICTR) to acquit Ferdinand Nahimana, Hassan Ngeze and Jean-Bosco 
Barayagwiza on the grounds of insufficient evidence. All three have pleaded 
not guilty to charges that they used the media to fuel the 1994 genocide in 
Rwanda which left up to one million people dead. However, the court dropped 
three of the nine charges against Mr Barayagwiza and one of the seven 
charges against Mr Nahimana. The tribunal -- sitting in Tanzania's northern 
town of Arusha -- ordered them to begin their defence after the prosecution 
closed its case in July.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 17 September 2002)

Weekly anb0919.txt - #5/7