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Weekly anb10176.txt #7
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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 17-10-2002 PART #6/7
* Sao Tome e Principe. US-backed oil boom - The new prime minister of Sao
Tome and Principe, a small island-state off the West African coast, has
pinned her economic hopes on future oil riches and a US naval base. Prime
Minister Maria das Neves told Portuguese newspaper Expresso that she hopes
to clean up the finances of what is one of the world's poorest countries
and restore its international reputation. She supports continuing austere
budget measures, "even if it causes pain and is unpopular", to adhere to
the World Bank's debt forgiveness programme. Ms das Neves is from the
Movement for the Liberation of Sao Tome and Principe, the largest party in
the parliament, and leads a "national unity" government. The former
Portuguese colony is made up of two islands in the Gulf of Guinea, has a
population of roughly 165,000 and large unexploited oil reserves. Future
oil revenues will not be included in current budget because contracts are
still being negotiated. The prime minister has promised to "guarantee
available resources are allocated for sustainable development and improving
the living conditions of most of the population, which lives in absolute
poverty". (BBC News, UK, 14 October 2002)
* Senegal. More woes for Casamance - 11 October: The sinking of the Joola
ferry last month is the latest in a number of misfortunes to hit Senegal's
troubled southern Casamance region. Many of the more than 1,000 people who
died were from Casamance as the ferry was the region's main link to the
capital, Dakar. The tragedy came just ahead of the end of school holidays,
and many of those who died were the best and brightest of Casamance's
students and schoolchildren. Some are already talking about a "lost
generation". Casamance is the most fertile part of Senegal but has been
plagued by a low-level guerrilla war for the last 20 years. The Movement of
Democratic Casamance Forces (MFDC), led by charismatic Catholic priest
Father Diamacoune-Senghor, wants independence for the region. While
casualty figures are relatively low for an independence war -- maybe a few
thousand people have been killed in two decades -- the tragedy is that what
should be a rich region remains mired in poverty. Tens of thousands have
had to flee their homes and abandon their fields. (BBC News, UK, 11 October
2002)
* Sénégal. Funérailles nationales - Le 11 octobre, le Sénégal a rendu
hommage aux quelque mille victimes du naufrage du navire Joola, la pire
catastrophe jamais vécue par le pays, lors de funérailles nationales
présidées à Dakar, au bord de l'océan, par le chef d'Etat, Abdoulaye Wade.
-- Le 14 octobre, le président Wade a relevé de ses fonctions le chef
d'état-major de la marine nationale, le colonel Ousseynou Kombo, dans le
cadre des sanctions prises après le naufrage. Il a promis d'autres
sanctions au fur et à mesure de l'avancée de l'enquête en cours. (ANB-BIA,
de sources diverses, 14 octobre 2002)
* Senegal. Aftermath of ferry tragedy - 11 October: A remembrance ceremony
is held in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, to pay tribute to almost 1,000
people who died in Africa's worst-ever maritime disaster. Senegalese
President Abdoulaye Wade leads a commemoration service with prayers said by
leaders of various religious denominations for the victims of the Joola
ferry tragedy. The vessel capsized off the coast of The Gambia with an
official count of 1,034 people on board. There were only 64 survivors.
Wreaths of flowers were laid at the site near Dakar's port, where the
government is planning to build a memorial. The ceremony was attended by
relatives of the victims, ministers and diplomats. 15 October: President
Abdoulaye Wade, has dismissed the head of the navy in response to last
month's ferry disaster in which more than 1,000 people died. Mr Wade says
he is sacking Colonel Ousseynou Kombo following the completion of
investigations into the accident. The navy was responsible for managing the
ferry which was packed to at least twice its capacity when it sank. The
official investigation accused the crew of failing to observe proper safety
procedures. Navy officials initially blamed bad weather for the disaster.
(ANB-BIA, Belgium, 15 October 2002)
* Senegal. Mixing community and PCs - Telecentres seem the epitome of
Western life, a place electro-nomads can use to maintain their ties to
friends and family. But such communication centres are starting to appear
in Senegal in increasing numbers and are proving just as valuable, albeit
for different reasons. The centres are helping workers in traditional
professions and are also providing ways for people to get to grips with new
technologies, ideas and occupations. One centre is even helping a community
fight off threats to evict it off land it has occupied for years by giving
residents a chance to voice protests that would otherwise go unheard. The
cybercafe in the Khadimou Rassoul suburb of Senegal's capital Dakar is more
than just a place people go to use a computer. It has become a vital
information hub for the whole community that sometimes offers a literal
lifeline for some local residents. Many local businesses use the computers
to store information about customers and their accounts. Some are using the
net access to get more up to date information about their trade to help
them do a better job. "Now we have the chance to bill people properly,"
says Ibrahim Fall, a car mechanic who runs a repair shop near the
telecentre. "We also do a lot of training," he says"but the manuals were
too expensive so we adapt stuff from the internet." Daba Ndaw, manager of
the Khadimou Rassoul cybercafe, says it has the only telephone in the area
and many people call in just to use that. When they call in they find out
about the other things that computers and communication can do for them and
get more involved. (BBC News, UK, 16 October 2002)
* Somalia. A hospital comes back to life - 9 October: The situation is
improving in the troubled southern port town of Kismayo, 500km south of
Mogadishu, with the restoration of some vital social services. The Jubba
Valley Alliance (JVA), which controls the town, has reopened the main
hospital. MSF-Belgium, which used to run the hospital, left three years ago
as several factions fought for the control of the town. "When MSF left, the
hospital accommodated more than 200 patients suffering mainly from gunshot
wounds as a result of gun-battle," Abdurahman Haji Ahmed Waldireh, a JVA
spokesman, said. The JVA has managed to reopen the main hospital of the
town with the little money it has been collecting as tax from the port, the
airport and the main market. The hospital now has 25 health workers
including a new director, while the other 25 members of staff are policemen
working full time for the security of the hospital. (BBC News, UK, 9
October 2002)
* Somalie. Pourparlers de paix - Plusieurs centaines de délégués venus de
Somalie se sont réunis le 15 octobre à Eldoret, au centre du Kenya, pour
des pourparlers de paix destinés à mettre un terme à plus d'une décennie de
violences et de chaos dans leur pays. Ces discussions doivent leur
permettre d'aborder de vastes sujets, comme l'établissement d'un
gouvernement représentatif et la construction d'une économie en friches. Il
s'agit de la 14e rencontre de cette nature depuis le renversement de
Mohamed Siad Barre en 1991. Après avoir menacé de ne pas assister aux
pourparlers, en raison d'un désaccord au sujet de leur nombre de délégués,
de nombreux chefs de guerre influents prendront finalement part aux
discussions. Le secrétaire général de l'Onu a salué l'ouverture de la
conférence et appelé tous les partis et les leaders somaliens à coopérer
pour mettre fin à une décennie de conflits et de souffrances dans le pays.
(AP, 16 octobre 2002)
* Somalia. Reconciliation talks - 15 October: Today, the various sides in
the Somali conflict open reconciliation talks in the Kenyan town of
Eldoret, in a bid to establish an all-inclusive new interim administration
that will govern the country until democratic elections can be held.
However, the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA) faction of Shaykh Aden Madobe
and Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade, whose forces are in control of the
southwestern town of Baidoa, will not attend the Eldoret peace conference
unless they are given all the delegates assigned to the RRA. Ali Margus, a
close ally of Shaykh Adan Madobe, says: "There is only one RRA and we
represent it. We will not accept two RRA lists. Margus said the
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) technical committee had
allotted the RRA 28 seats in the conference, and divided those up into two,
"giving us 14 and the RRA Chairman, Col Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud 14".
Opening the talks, Kenya's President Moi urges delegates to make them the
last. 16 October: Four Somali faction leaders have changed their minds and
announced that they will attend the peace talks in Kenya. The four, who
control parts of the capital, Mogadishu, say they will travel to Eldoret
later this week. If the four -- Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, Osman Ali Atto,
Mowlid Ma'ani and Omar Finish -- do travel to Kenya, it will become the
biggest Somali peace conference for a decade. In Eldoret, European Union
diplomats have told journalists that sanctions were being considered
against anyone seen as an obstacle to peace. These are reported to include
travel restrictions, charges of war crimes and the freezing of bank
accounts. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 16 October 2002)
* South Africa. South Africans to get AIDS drugs from the state - The South
African government announced yesterday that it will investigate ways of
providing the anti-retroviral drugs that keep people with HIV/AIDS alive
through its public health system: a dramatic reversal of policy. An
estimated 4.7 million people are HIV positive in South Africa but until now
campaigners have fought in vain to persuade the government to begin
treatment for them, despite the severe economic and social consequences of
the deaths of so many parents, teachers and wage earners. Until relatively
recently President Thabo Mbeki was publicly opposed to the provision of
AIDS drugs in South Africa, arguing that they were dangerously toxic and
questioning whether HIV or poverty was the true cause of AIDS. But the
government now insists that it accepts the link with HIV. In April the
cabinet said that it endorsed the use of anti-retroviral drugs, although
they were too expensive to buy and the health infrastructure to let them be
used did not exist. The announcement on 10 October, after a cabinet meeting
on the night of 9 October, said the government wanted to tackle those
problems. It said the cabinet was "actively engaged in addressing these
challenges, in order to create the conditions that would make it feasible
and effective to use anti-retrovirals in the public health sector". (The
Guardian, UK, 11 October 2002)
* Sudan. US Congress passes Sudan sanctions bill - 11 October: The United
States Congress passes a bill which could lead to sanctions against Sudan,
if it fails to make progress in ending its 19-year civil war or is found to
be obstructing humanitarian efforts. The bill accuses the Sudanese
Government of using what it describes as low-intensity ethnic cleansing
against various groups such as the Dinka, Nuer and Nuba peoples. It
requires President George W Bush to decide every six months if Sudan is
negotiating with its rebels in good faith. The sanctions might involve the
White House downgrading diplomatic relations with Sudan, opposing new
international loans or backing a United Nations sponsored arms embargo.
(BBC News, UK, 11 October 2002)
* Soudan. Plainte contre l'Erythrée - Le Soudan a décidé de porter plainte
pour "agression" contre l'Erythrée devant le Conseil de sécurité de l'Onu,
a annoncé l'ambassade soudanaise à Paris le 11 octobre. Khartoum reproche
en outre au régime d'Asmara d'apporter un soutien actif aux rebelles du
SPLA. Khartoum a fait prisonniers des soldats érythréens qui combattaient
dans l'est du pays, a déclaré le 13 octobre l'ambassadeur du Soudan en
Egypte, Ahmad Abdel Halim. "C'est une preuve de la participation de
l'Erythrée à l'agression contre notre pays" et de son soutien à la
rébellion sudiste, a ajouté l'ambassadeur, à l'issue d'une rencontre avec
le chef de la diplomatie égyptienne, Ahmed Maher. ( ANB-BIA, de sources
diverses, 14 octobre 2002)
* Sudan. Peace talks - 14 October: Sudanese government officials and rebels
are due to renew their peace talks in an effort to cease hostilities and
end the two-decade civil war. Lt. Gen. Lazaro Sumbeiywo (Kenya) says the
talks in Machakos, 50 kms southeast of Nairobi, are unlikely to result in a
formal peace deal because of continuing disagreement between the government
and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). But he says a
temporary ceasefire to end fighting in the south -- a government condition
for renewing the full talks -- is expected to be worked out. 15 October: At
first, the government and the rebels fail to reach agreement on the terms
of a temporary ceasefire agreement, to be signed before the official
resumption of peace talks. The bone of contention concerns the eastern
front, along the Eritrean border, which the government delegation is keen
to see excluded from the agreement. Later on, the Government and rebels
agree to observe a truce while their peace talks continue in Machakos. The
agreement covers all areas of Sudan. Both sides have come under intense
international pressure to sign their first truce after 19 years of civil
war. 16 October: Peace talks in Machakos have resumed. (ANB-BIA, Belgium,
16 October 2002)
* Soudan. Négociations - Le 14 octobre, les négociations entre le
gouvernement soudanais et les rebelles du SPLA, interrompues le 2
septembre, ont repris à Machakos sous l'égide de l'IGAD (Autorité
intergouvernementale pour le développement de l'Afrique de l'Est). Mais la
signature d'un cessez-le-feu, qui devait inaugurer la nouvelle tournée de
tractations, risquait de ne pas se réaliser. Les représentants du
gouvernement de Khartoum ont mis des conditions qui ont provoqué le
raidissement des rebelles. D'après Khartoum, la trêve ne doit concerner que
le Sud-Soudan, en excluant notamment la région sur la frontière avec
l'Erythrée, théâtre de combats depuis la semaine dernière. - 15 octobre.
Malgré cela, les deux parties ont signé un accord de cessez-le-feu
temporaire pendant les pourparlers, a annoncé un représentant de la
rébellion. Cette trêve doit entrer en vigueur le 17 octobre, alors que les
pourparlers doivent reprendre le 16. Ces nouvelles négociations devraient
durer cinq semaines et visent à mettre fin à une guerre de près de vingt
ans. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 16 octobre 2002)
Weekly anb1017.txt - #6/7