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Weekly anb10247.txt #7
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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 24-10-2002 PART #7/7
* Uganda. "The Monitor" issues apology - 18 October: In its first edition
for a week, Uganda's leading independent newspaper, The Monitor, has
apologised for running a story which angered the army but has refused to
retract it. The government only agreed to lift the blockade on The
Monitor's offices if it ran the apology. But the paper's managers argued
that admitting the story was false would prejudice the case of three
journalists, charged with publishing false news and publishing information
prejudicial to national security and likely to assist the enemy in its
operation. The paper was closed down on 11 October after publishing a
story, claiming that an army helicopter had been shot down by rebels. In an
editorial in its "Come-back issue", the Monitor said that police conduct
had been "impeccable" throughout the six-day closure. Press freedom body
Reporters without Borders and United States-based Human Rights Watch have
condemned the Ugandan Government's closure of The Monitor, as a violation
of press freedom. President Yoweri Museveni dismissed these accusations and
said he had fought for press freedom. But he said that the freedom had been
abused and "the police had gone to investigate the dangerous lies they were
telling." (BBC News, UK, 18 October 2002)
* Ouganda. Deux martyrs béatifiés - Le 20 octobre, le pape Jean-Paul II a
béatifié deux jeunes Ougandais, laïcs, catéchistes et martyrs: Daudi Okelo
et Jilro Irwa. Ils ont été tués en 1918 au nord de l'Ouganda, où ils
s'étaient rendus lorsque l'évangélisation y commençait à peine. Agés
respectivement de 12 et 16 ans, ils ont préféré la mort plutôt que de
quitter la région et de renier leur devoir de catéchiste. "Ces deux
courageux témoins sont désormais des modèles et des intercesseurs pour les
catéchistes du monde entier", a souligné le pape. "Puisse l'exemple de ceux
qui ont été béatifiés aujourd'hui nous fortifier tous dans le service des
autres". (D'après Zenith, Vatican, 20 octobre 2002)
* Uganda. Pope beatifies martyrs - 20 October: Pope John Paul II has
beatified two young Ugandan catechists, among the six people added to the
swelling ranks of those on the path to possible sainthood. The Pope praised
the six as role models for Catholics, saying their faith, humbleness and
willingness to die for their religion was a source of strength. The two
were brutally killed for the Faith on 18 October 1918. The beatification
coincided with the Roman Catholic Church's celebration of World Missionary
Day. The ceremony in St. Peter's Square included traditional African and
Indian dancing and music. Among the six elevated on Sunday were Ugandan
teenagers Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa, who worked as missionaries in
northern Uganda and were killed in 1918. The pope said: "They are given to
the entire Christian community as examples of holiness and virtue, and as
models and intercessors for catechists throughout the world, especially in
those places where catechists still suffer for their faith, sometimes
facing social marginalisation and even personal danger". (CNN, USA, 21
October 2002)
* Uganda. Rebels massacre civilians - 22 October: Details are emerging of
the massacre of dozens of people in the north carried out by the rebel
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). According to an Ugandan army spokesman, at
least 34 people were killed when the rebels attacked the villages of Awolo
and Latugitugi, in the Pader district. The Ugandan army says the villagers
were either killed with machetes or clubs. MISNA sources have confirmed the
massacre. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 22 October 2002)
* Ouganda. Massacres par la LRA - Le révérend Wilfred Kalama, 35 ans,
pasteur de l'Eglise de l'Ouganda (de communion anglicane) a été tué dans la
nuit du 16 au 17 octobre par des rebelles de l'Armée de résistance du
Seigneur (LRA), dans la localité de Lalogi, à plus de 50 km à l'est de
Gulu. Son frère et quatre autres personnes ont également été tués dans
l'incursion. - Dans le district de Pader (nord), au moins 35 personnes ont
été tuées avec des lances, matraques et machettes, lors de l'attaque de
deux villages, Awalo et Latugitugi, par des présumés rebelles de la LRA , a
déclaré un porte-parole de l'armée ougandaise. L'attaque a eu lieu mardi 22
octobre à quelque 380 kilomètres au nord-est de Kampala. La LRA se bat
depuis 1988 pour renverser le président Yoweri Museveni et instaurer un
régime basé sur les dix commandements de la Bible. Elle dispose de bases
arrière au Soudan voisin. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 18-23 octobre 2002)
* Zimbabwe. Farmers cross race divide - In the midst of all the stories
of violent confrontation associated with Zimbabwe's land reform, some
farmers -- black and white -- are making it work in Zhombe, 220 km west of
the capital, Harare. White farmer Neville Coetzee agreed to give up 6,000
ha of his 9,000 ha farm to new black settlers. Although he said it was hard
to give up so much of the farm he had built, he is sure he did the right
thing. "In this area, we're very fortunate. We've had dialogue which took
place right at the beginning of the land issue," he said. "I can still be
very viable with what I've got left. I'm very happy to stay in the country
because I've still got a good life," he said. Mr Coetzee's new neighbour,
Tichafa Chitate, is also pleased with the way things have gone. After a
year on his new plot of land, his wheat crop is just as high as Mr
Coetzee's. "There is a lot of money in farming... I'm expecting a profit of
over a million Zimbabwe dollars. Somebody who says we cannot do as good as
the white farmers does not know what he is talking about. Come on the
ground and have a look. I worked as a customs officer for 21 years but I
grew up farming," he said, adding that his father had always encouraged him
to get some land and take up farming. Although Mr Chitate is luckier than
most black farmers in that he had some money to invest in his new land, he
still needs more equipment. He said banks had refused to give him a loan
but at least the government had given them irrigation equipment. (BBC
News, UK, 17 October 2002)
* Zimbabwe. Food aid halted in Insiza District - 18 October: The World
Food Programme (WFP) has suspended food distribution in a district of
Zimbabwe, alleging that supporters of President Robert Mugabe threatened
their workers and seized donated grain. The United Nations agency say
activists from Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party distributed the food from a centre
in Insiza District in an unauthorised manner. The UN action came a day
after a human rights research organisation, the International Crisis Group,
warned that food supplies were being used as a political weapon against
opposition supporters in Zimbabwe where half the population are facing
starvation. The WFP said it would not tolerate the misuse of its resources
for political ends and added that it was seeking urgent assurances from the
Zimbabwean Government that such incidents would not happen again. It issued
a statement saying: "Relief food distributions are not the place for any
kind of political activity. WFP will only distribute its food on the basis
of need without regard to partisan affiliation." Insiza -- about 560
kilometres south-west of Harare -- has been wracked by political violence
ahead of an upcoming by-election which is being contested by Zanu-PF and
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The Zimbabwean
Government has accused Britain's High Commissioner of trying to ensure that
food aid only goes to opposition supporters. But the MDC said aid was being
used against the opposition, with officials deliberately arranging
distributions near MDC rallies to lure away starving voters who were then
forced to chant ruling party slogans and surrender opposition party cards
before being given food. (BBC News, UK, 18 October 2002)
* Zimbabwe. Violation des droits de l'homme - Dans une lettre adressée au
président sud-africain Thabo Mbeki à l'occasion du 16ème anniversaire de la
Charte africaine des droits de l'homme et des peuples (21 octobre 1986),
Amnesty International (AI), a exprimé sa préoccupation pour "la
détérioration de la situation des droits de l'homme au Zimbabwe". Après
avoir relevé en particulier la participation de l'Afrique du Sud à la
troïka du Commonwealth, et son rôle à la présidence actuelle de l'Union
africaine, AI invite les dirigeants africains à intensifier leurs efforts
pour condamner plus fermement la répression et la violence perpétrées par
le gouvernement au Zimbabwe. Par ailleurs, le leader du MDC (Mouvement pour
le changement démocratique), Morgan Tsvangirai, a accusé le gouvernement
d'avoir assassiné le député, Learnmore Jongwe dans le cadre d'un présumé
complot destiné à réduire la force de l'opposition au Parlement et à
permettre au président Mugabe de modifier la Constitution. Jongwe a été
retrouvé mort le 22 octobre dans la cellule de la police où il était en
détention provisoire, accusé d'avoir tué sa femme en juillet après une
dispute conjugale. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 18-23 octobre 2002)
Weekly anb1024.txt - #7/7 - THE END
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Un homme meurt chaque fois que l'un d'entre nous se tait devant la tyrannie
(W. Soyinka, Prix Nobel litterature)
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Everytime somebody keep silent when faced with tyranny, someone else dies
(Wole Syinka, Nobel Prize for Literature) *
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