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Weekly anb10102.txt #7
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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 10-10-2002 PART #2/7
* Angola. Government wants dialogue over Cabinda - Separatist rebels in the
oil-rich Cabinda enclave remained sceptical on 3 October about the
government's recent comments that it was open to negotiations. Following a
recent visit to the oil-rich province, Bornito de Sousa, the ruling MPLA
member responsible for the enclave said that "the solution for the
[conflict in the] territory will be through dialogue and not the use of
violence. We hope the government is serious about dialogue. We want to see
something concrete happening. We are still concerned about the build-up of
soldiers in Cabinda and the continuing offensive against our people",
Francoise Xavier Builo, a representative of the separatists FLEC-FAC
faction in the Netherlands, said. Builo said that following the signing of
the 4 April ceasefire between the government and UNITA, the Angolan Armed
Forces (FAA) had turned its attention to Cabinda. "Intimidation, day and
night ground and aerial reconnaissance, incursions and attacks have become
the norm in Cabinda following UNITA's surrender," Builo added. (IRIN,
Kenya, 3 October 2002)
* Angola. UNITA camps to remain open - 7 October: A senior UN official says
the Angolan government had agreed to keep "quartering areas" for some
300,000 fighters of the former rebel UNITA group and their families beyond
an October 15 closure deadline. Quartering areas are camps where the
ex-UNITA combatants and their families are residing after emerging from the
bush after the end of Angola's 27-year civil war. They are awaiting
reintegration into the army or civilian life. "I think there will not be an
arbitrary deadline to shut the reception areas and move people out," UN
Special Representative for Angola Ibrahim Gambari said. Gambari heads the
Joint Commission set up to supervise implementation of peace agreements
between the government and UNITA, which collapsed as a military force after
the death of its veteran leader Jonas Savimbi in February. UNITA officials
had feared the government could close the quartering areas next week --
before completing the process of rehabilitation and reintegration of
ex-fighters and their families, a key part of the April ceasefire
agreement. (CNN, USA, 7 October 2002)
* Bénin. L'Italie annule ses créances - Le gouvernement italien a renoncé
au recouvrement de toutes ses créances, d'un montant de 1,738 milliard de
FCFA, que lui devait le Bénin, a-t-on appris le 9 octobre à Cotonou.
L'initiative s'inscrit dans le cadre du programme d'annulation de la dette
à l'intention des pays pauvres très endettés (PPTE). Lors de la réunion, en
octobre 2000, des créanciers du Bénin membres du Club de Paris, il avait
été convenu que chaque créancier fixerait lui-même le niveau d'annulation
qu'il accorderait. L'Italie, qui est un des promoteurs de l'initiative en
faveur des PPTE, a décidé d'annuler à 100% les montants qui lui sont dus.
(PANA, Sénégal, 9 octobre 2002)
* Burundi. Army arrests over massacre - Two army officers have been
arrested in Burundi in connection with the killing last month of 173 people
in Gitega Province. President Pierre Buyoya said the officers -- the
second-in-command of a battalion and a junior officer -- had been operating
in the area at the time of the killings. "They are in the hands of the
law," he told journalists. The Burundian army had earlier admitted that its
soldiers were responsible for last month's killings, but tried to transfer
responsibility to Hutu rebels; it said the army had warned civilians to
leave because an attack was imminent, but the rebels had told them to stay
put. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 4 October 2002)
* Burundi. Sommet sous-régional - Le lundi 7 octobre, un 17e sommet
sous-régional sur le Burundi a réuni à Dar es-Salaam les chefs d'Etat de la
région des Grands Lacs pour examiner le processus de paix. Etaient
présents: les présidents de la Tanzanie, du Congo-RDC, du Burundi, de
l'Afrique du Sud et de l'Ouganda. Le vice-président sud-africain,
co-médiateur, a informé les chefs d'Etat des résultats des derniers
pourparlers de paix en août et septembre, qui n'ont donné aucun résultat
tangible. Toutefois, deux factions rebelles hutu, les ailes minoritaires du
CNDD-FDD de Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye et du PALIPEHUTU-FNL d'Alain
Mugabarabona, ont signé ce lundi un accord de cessez-le-feu avec le
gouvernement de transition. Mais les deux principales factions, le CNDD-FDD
de Peter Nkurunziza et le PALIPEHUTU-FNL d'Agathon Rwasa, ont refusé
d'apposer leur signature sur le document. Le sommet a estimé que les
parties en conflit qui n'approuveraient pas le cessez-le-feu devraient
provoquer des entretiens directs afin de conclure un accord dans les 30
jours. Si aucun accord n'est conclu au bout de cette période, le sommet
prendra "les mesures appropriées" contre les parties concernées. Malgré la
faible portée de l'accord de lundi, les chefs d'Etat y ont vu un "pas
encourageant". (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 7 octobre 2002)
* Burundi. Another summit - 7 October: Another African sub-regional summit,
the 17th of its kind devoted to the crisis in Burundi opens today in Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania, with only the 26 August peace agreement signed in Arusha
as the tangible result so far. A cease-fire has eluded the Burundi
government and the various Hutu armed groups who have been fighting since
late 1993 after the assassination of the democratically elected President,
Melchior Ndadaye. Fighting has intensified despite the official
installation 1 November 2001 of a transitional government drawing
legitimacy from the Arusha peace agreements. A transitional parliament and
senate are the other state institutions that have been created under the
same accord. During today's summit in Dar es Salaam, sub-regional mediators
are once again expected to exert pressure on the warring Burundian parties
to reach a cease-fire. Attending the summit are Presidents Benjamin Mkapa
of Tanzania, Joseph Kabila of Congo RDC, Pierre Buyoya of Burundi, Thabo
Mbeki of South Africa and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda who chairs the Great
Lakes Peace Initiative on Burundi. The facilitator of the Burundi peace
process, retired President Nelson Mandela and South African Deputy
President Jacob Zuma who chairs the cease-fire negotiations between the
Burundi government and rebels are also present. -- The smaller factions of
both Hutu groups still fighting the transitional government sign a formal
ceasefire. Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye's National Council for the Defence
of Democracy-Force for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) and Alain
Mugarabona's Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People-National Force for
Freedom (PALIPEHUTU-FNL) formalise their agreements with the transitional
government. Two groups yet to sign any agreement -- Pierre Nkurunziza's
CNDD-FDD and Agathon Rwasa's FNL are instructed to "continue negotiations"
with a view to concluding the ceasefire agreement within 30 days. (ANB-BIA,
Belgium, 7 October 2002)
* Burundi. Retour de réfugiés - Le 9 octobre, plusieurs centaines de
personnes sont arrivées dans la ville de Rugomba (province de Cibitoke), à
quelques kilomètres de la frontière congolaise. Les réfugiés, des civils
pour la plupart, viennent du Congo, de la zone de Luvungi, qui se trouve à
mi-chemin entre Uvira et Bukavu. De violents combats ont eu lieu dans cette
zone entre Maï-Maï et soldats du RCD-Goma, faisant de nombreux morts. Au
Burundi, on craint que les tensions au Congo ne fassent rentrer dans le
pays les rebelles qui s'étaient réfugiés dans ce pays voisin. (Misna,
Italie, 9 octobre 2002)
* Burundi. Le "Centre Jeunes Kamenge" distingué - Le prix "Right
Livelihood", considéré comme le Prix Nobel alternatif, a été attribué cette
année à deux personnes et à deux organisations, dont le "Centre Jeunes
Kamenge" (CJK) à Bujumbura. Dans son commentaire, Right Livelihood explique
que le CJK a été honoré "pour son courage exemplaire, prouvant qu'après
neuf ans de guerre civile meurtrière, des jeunes de différents groupes
ethniques sont capables d'apprendre à vivre et à bâtir ensemble un avenir
de paix et d'harmonie". Le CJK a été voulu par l'évêque Mgr Simon Ntamwana
et réalisé par les missionnaires Xavériens. C'est un lieu de rencontre pour
les jeunes de 16 à 30 ans de la ville de Bujumbura, en particulier des
quartiers nord de la ville. A travers des activités culturelles,
religieuses et sportives, de divertissement et d'apprentissage de métiers,
les jeunes s'y rencontrent, apprennent à se connaître, à se respecter, à
s'accepter et à se pardonner. Actuellement, il y a 20.000 inscrits, et
entre 1.500 et 2.000 présences par jour. Les six quartiers du nord comptent
environ 200.000 habitants: 40% de Tutsi, 40% de Hutu et 20% d'étrangers. Le
centre veut faire comprendre à un pays en guerre civile que les diversités
ne sont pas causes de division, mais sources d'espoir pour tous. (Le prix
Right Livelihood, créé en 1980, est présenté chaque année au Parlement
suédois et veut "honorer et soutenir ceux qui apportent des réponses
concrètes et exemplaires aux défis les plus urgents du monde
d'aujourd'hui"). (ANB-BIA, Bruxelles, 10 octobre 2002)
* Burundi. Centre Jeunes Kamenge receives award - The 2002 Right Livelihood
Awards go to two organisations working for conflict resolution and healing
-- the Centre Jeunes Kamenge (Burundi) and Kvinna till Kvinna (Sweden) --
and two individuals --human rights activist Martin Almada (Paraguay) and
scientist Martin Green (Australia). The Centre Jeunes Kamenga (the Kamenge
Young People's Centre) is honoured for "their exemplary and indomitable
courage and compassion, which have proved that, even after nine years of
murderous civil war, young people from different ethnic groups can learn to
live and build a future together in peace and harmony". The Centre was
founded in 1991 by three Italian Xaverian missionaries, as a place where
the youth of the neighbourhoods could come and, through shared activity,
learn to live together in friendship and mutual respect. The Awards are
presented annually in the Swedish Parliament and are usually referred to as
"Alternative Nobel Prizes". (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 10 October 2002)
* Burkina Faso. New lakes support rural fisheries - Burkina Faso is
benefitting from a total of 2,100 dams in low-lying areas of the country to
harvest rain run-off for use during the cropping season and provide fishery
resources for local people. The dams have been built over the years since
the devastating 1970-'73 Sahelian drought and famine under the Sustainable
Fisheries Livelihood Programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
"Participants [in the programme] learn to think in a more sophisticated,
holistic way about all the community's livelihoods assets: skills,
infrastructure, savings and so on," the FAO reported on 24 September. "The
goal is to let people, in partnership with government, co-manage their own
resources," it said. The dams being built should provide a permanent source
of water for farmers to cultivate larger fields of grain and vegetables.
Rural communities will also have a chance to catch tilapia, catfish and
other fish stocked in the dams. (IRIN, Kenya, 3 October 2002)
* Cameroon/Nigeria. Court to rule on border dispute - The governments of
Nigeria and Cameroon are braced for a United Nations court decision on
Thursday on a border dispute that risks destabilising the surrounding
oil-rich Gulf of Guinea region. The office of Kofi Annan, UN
secretary-general, said UN officials were working to ensure both sides
respected a commitment to abide by the judgment. The court decision, which
comes after military skirmishes between the two sides over the issue, will
be watched for its impact on the security of a region attracting increasing
US interest as a potential bulwark against problems with Middle East oil
supplies. "We don't know the attitude of the Nigerian government or what
the Cameroonians will do," said an executive from an oil multinational
operating in Nigeria. The Hague-based International Court of Justice will
rule on Cameroon's 1994 claim for ownership of a 1,000 sq km strip of
swampy land known as the Bakassi Peninsula. The ruling could affect
maritime access to Calabar, the nearest big Nigerian port to the peninsula
and the site of an export processing zone. (Financial Times, UK, 10 October
2002)
* Central Afr. Rep. Ex-minister acquitted in coup trial - 7 October: The
former defence minister of the Central African Republic, Jean-Jacques
Demafouth, has been acquitted of charges of conspiracy against the regime
at the time of the attempted coup last year. Thirty of Mr Demafouth's
co-defendants, mostly former members of the armed forces, were handed down
sentences ranging from one year in prison to 10 years' hard labour. Another
48 were cleared with Mr Demafouth because, the judge said, there was not
enough evidence against them. A total of 680 people were put on trial in
August, most of them in their absence, in connection with the attempted
coup which claimed at least 59 lives. Only 69 of those accused were present
when the trial opened. Many people who were called before the tribunal had
fled the country, claiming that the trial would not to be fair. Most of the
accused were from the same Yakoma tribe as the presumed coup leader, a
former president, Andre Kolingba, whose whereabouts are not known. Tens of
thousands of Yakoma fled the capital following the coup attempt, after
extra-judicial killings of members of their tribe. Mr Kolingba was
sentenced to death in August, along with 21 other coup plotters, including
three of Kolingba's sons. About 600 other defendants were handed harsh
sentences at the time. The court case was a result of a special inquiry
committee into the coup established last year by the President Ange-Felix
Patasse. The committee, which finished the investigation in December,
proved controversial. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 7 October 2002)
* Centrafrique. Verdict modéré - Le 7 octobre, la cour criminelle de Bangui
a rendu un verdict modéré dans le procès sur la tentative de coup d'Etat du
28 mai 2001, acquittant l'ancien ministre de la Défense Jean-Jacques
Démafouth ainsi que 48 autres prévenus, et condamnant une trentaine
d'autres accusés à des peines de un à dix ans. M. Démafouth a été acquitté
"au bénéfice du doute". Le 26 août dernier, quelque 615 accusés, jugés par
contumace, avaient été condamnés à des lourdes peines, dont 24
condamnations à mort. Mais un grand nombre d'entre eux sont en fuite, dont
l'ex-président Kolingba, accusé d'être le véritable instigateur du coup
d'Etat. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 8 octobre 2002)
Weekly anb1010.txt - #2/7