Re: Weekly anb09195.txt #7

["Fulvio Grimaldi" <bassottovic@tiscalinet.it>]

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Subject: Weekly anb09195.txt #7


> _____________________________________________________________
> 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
>
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>
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