Weekly anb11141.txt #7

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 14-11-2002      PART #1/7

* Afrique. UA: lutte contre le terrorisme  -  La Convention sur la 
prévention et lutte contre le terrorisme, adoptée en juillet 1999 par 
l'Union africaine, entrera officiellement en vigueur le 6 décembre. Elle 
interdit aux Etats membres de fournir "tout soutien aux terroristes, y 
compris sous la forme de délivrance de visas". Quinze Etats africains ont 
déjà signé la Convention.   (La Croix, France, 8 novembre 2002)

* Africa. Doha trade deal unravelling  -  10 November: One year after a new 
round of world trade talks began, there has been little progress in their 
central objective of shaping trade to help the world's poor. Instead, the 
rich countries have been arguing among themselves about who is to blame for 
the failure to make progress on agricultural reform. Next week, 25 key 
countries will gather in Sydney, Australia to review progress towards the 
free trade goals, while thousands of protesters are expected to demonstrate 
outside the meeting. It will be a key test of whether the World Trade 
Organisation (WTO) can meet its deadlines to liberalise trade in 
agriculture and provide cheaper medicines for developing countries. 
Meanwhile the US and the EU are involved in an acrimonious battle over 
steel tariffs, with the US using the "anti-dumping" clause to block imports 
of cheap steel from abroad. Agriculture is crucial to developing countries, 
yet in the past year the United States has increased subsidies to its 
farmers, while the EU has still to agree plans to reform its bloated system 
of agricultural subsidies known as CAP. The new trade round, called the 
Doha Development Agenda, was agreed after arduous negotiations on 9-13 
November 2001 in Qatar. It was supposed to lead to further reductions in 
trade barriers for agriculture, services, and textile imports, as well as 
ensuring that trade agreements did not damage the environment. But Stuart 
Harbinson, the chair of the meeting and Hong Kong's trade ambassador, who 
now chairs the agricultural negotiations, said: "I think it's difficult to 
envisage a substantive outcome to the Doha Development Agenda as a whole 
without a significant result on agriculture because of the importance of 
trade in agriculture to so many countries." The agriculture negotiations 
are stalled, with the United States the only major country to have tabled a 
proposal to open markets for developing country produce.   (BBC News, UK, 
10 November 2002)

* Africa. Action against the Media  -  Sudan: On 11 November, Reporters 
sans Frontières (RSF) condemned the arrest by state security officials of 
Sidiahmed Khalifa, editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Al-Watan, and his 
son, Adil Sidahmed Khalifa, a journalist from the same newspaper. Togo: RSF 
has protested against the arrest on 5 November of Siliadin Kodjo, managing 
editor if the weekly La Tribune du Peuple. He has been accused of 
publishing an article, one month earlier, that denounced the suppression of 
an opposition demonstration by security forces. -- On 8 November, the 
Writers in Prison Committee expressed their deep concern over the continued 
imprisonment of Claude Améganvi, editor of the journal Nwayo, currently 
serving a four-month sentence. Zambia: On 8 November, Zambia's Minister of 
Information and Broadcasting Services told Parliament he was deferring the 
presentation of the government's media bills until later this 
month.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 11 November 2002)

* Africa. Bleak outlook for education  -  A new United Nations report has 
painted a grim picture of education in many countries, saying much more 
sustained investment is needed to help millions of children. The report by 
UNESCO published on 13 November says 57 countries are unlikely to meet 
internationally agreed targets for providing adequate education for all 
children by the year 2015. "Some Central and East European nations have 
even been moving backwards," the report says. Most of the countries listed 
are in Africa - countries plagued by conflicts and the cost of fighting 
HIV/AIDS. The report says an extra $5.6bn will be needed annually to 
achieve the universal primary education and gender parity goals set by the 
World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, in 2000. The report says total 
bilateral aid to education - which accounts for 70% of all such financial 
support - fell by 16% between 1990 and 2001. Some 35 million extra teachers 
are needed throughout the world -- three million for sub-Saharan Africa 
alone, the report says. The report says 28 countries - accounting for 26% 
of the world's population -- might not meet any of the three measurable 
goals set at the Dakar forum: universal primary education, gender equality 
and the halving of illiteracy rates. A total of 78 countries -- including 
Bangladesh, China, India and Pakistan -- will not be able to halve their 
rate of illiteracy by 2015 unless a much greater effort is made, Unesco 
says. The report says 83 countries are on track to deliver by 2015 the 
Education For All target set in Dakar.   (BBC News, UK, 13 November 2002)

* Afrique. Commerce de l'ivoire réautorisé  -  Le 12 novembre à Santiago du 
Chili, la Convention sur le commerce international des espèces de faune et 
de flore sauvage menacées d'extinction (Cites) a autorisé trois pays 
africains (Afrique du Sud, Botswana et Namibie) à vendre leurs stocks 
d'ivoire sur le marché international. Cette décision a provoqué la 
désapprobation des associations de protection de la nature et d'autres 
pays, comme l'Inde et le Kenya, qui craignent une relance du commerce et 
donc du braconnage. Les ventes d'ivoire ont été interdites en 1989, afin de 
mettre un terme aux massacres d'éléphants qui menaçaient l'espèce. Les pays 
qui ont obtenu l'autorisation affirment que les 60 tonnes d'ivoire mises en 
vente proviennent d'animaux morts naturellement et qu'ils doivent 
aujourd'hui faire face à une surpopulation des pachydermes. L'accord de 
vente doit être approuvé, le 15 novembre, par l'assemblée plénière du 
Cites.   (Le Monde, France, 14 novembre 2002)

* Afrique australe. Aide européenne  -  Lors d'une réunion à Maputo 
(Mozambique) qui se déroule actuellement, l'Union européenne et les 
quatorze membres de la Communauté de développement de l'Afrique australe 
(SADC) ont trouvé un accord sur l'octroi d'aides de la valeur de 101 
millions d'euros. Les aides européennes seront destinées à des secteurs 
cruciaux tels que l'intégration économique et commerciale, les transports, 
la communication et la lutte contre le sida. L'accord aura une durée de 
cinq ans.   (Misna, Italie, 7 novembre 2002)

* Afrique australe. Nouvelle stratégie britannique  -  Le 12 novembre à 
Pretoria, le Département pour le développement international (DFID) du 
Royaume-Uni a lancé sa nouvelle stratégie de développement pour l'Afrique 
australe. Le DFID dépensera un total de 45 millions de livres sterling par 
an pour financer la nouvelle stratégie en Afrique du Sud, au Botswana, au 
Lesotho, en Namibie et au Swaziland, ainsi que des projets régionaux dans 
le cadre de la SADC. Le DFID continuera à appuyer l'offre de services 
d'éducation, de santé et d'approvisionnement en eau pour les zones les plus 
pauvres, mais dans le futur, la priorité sera accordée à la lutte contre le 
VIH/SIDA, à la promotion de l'emploi et de la croissance, ainsi qu'à des 
questions régionales telles que les conflits, le commerce et la sécurité 
alimentaire. En outre, le DFID a offert 81 millions de livres pour des 
secours d'urgence.   (PANA, Sénégal, 12 novembre 2002)

* Afrique de l'Ouest. Campagne anti-polio  -  Le 12 novembre, l'Unicef a 
annoncé le lancement d'une campagne destinée à immuniser contre la polio 
quelque 60 millions d'enfants de 16 pays de l'Afrique de l'Ouest. La 
campagne vise les enfants de moins de cinq ans. Des campagnes de 
vaccination analogues menées les deux dernières années ont permis de 
ramener le nombre des pays africains touchés par ce fléau de 20 en 1999 à 
trois cette année. L'Unicef attribue le succès de cette campagne à son 
partenariat avec le plus important fabriquant de vaccin anti-polio, 
Adventis Pasteur, qui a offert la semaine dernière 30 millions de doses de 
vaccin.   (Centre nouvelles Onu, 12 novembre 2002)

* Horn of Africa. US Marines for Horn of Africa  -  On 7 November, Defense 
officials said that the amphibious command ship USS Mount Whitney -- to be 
used as a floating headquarters off the coast of Djibouti -- will leave its 
Norfolk, Virginia, homeport with a contingent of Marines who will 
coordinate future military operations in the region. "This is... focused on 
looking for al Qaeda, looking for terrorist cells and dealing with them 
expeditiously, and directly," said Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James 
Jones. The Americans will join a multinational force of thousands already 
in Africa -- including some who have been trying to catch terrorists there 
since al Qaeda began fleeing Afghanistan a year ago. Several months ago 700 
to 800 Americans were deployed to a French military base in Djibouti for 
what defense officials would describe only as "training and contingencies." 
Countries and waterways in and around the Horn of Africa have long been 
teeming with terrorist activity -- al Qaeda and others hide, pass through, 
train, organize, ship weapons, plot and launch attacks there, US 
intelligence and defense officials say. Defense officials have been 
unwilling or unable to name all the countries or the numbers of terrorists 
they believe may be there. Officials no longer assert there are terrorist 
training camps in Somalia, as feared after the September 11 attacks on the 
United States. But the region is still regarded as a potential haven for 
terrorists with its porous borders, as well as harsh terrain and lack of 
resources that make it difficult for even willing governments to tackle a 
terrorist problem.   CNN, USA, 7 November 2002)

* Afrique/USA. Subventions à l'exportation  -  Les Etats-Unis 
envisageraient d'éliminer les subventions à l'exportation aux produits 
agricoles à la suite des plaintes formulées par les pays africains qui 
parlent de concurrence déloyale sur le marché international. S'exprimant le 
13 novembre à Accra, le secrétaire américain au Commerce, M. Donald Evans, 
a affirmé que les Etats-Unis ont déjà initié un programme hardi pour 
préparer la voie à l'élimination des subventions aux produits 
d'exportation. Il a fait savoir que ce programme, qui devrait être en place 
pour cinq ans, cherche également à réduire les tarifs douaniers élevés 
appliqués aux importations américaines en provenance du continent 
africain.   (PANA, Sénégal, 13 novembre 2002)

* Algérie. L'autodéfense des villages  -  Le 10 novembre, le ministre 
algérien de l'Intérieur, Norredine Yazid Zerhouni, a reconnu que les 
familles habitant des villages isolés devaient prendre en charge leur 
propre défense contre les attaques des groupes armés islamistes. "L'Etat a 
mis au service de la lutte antiterroriste tous ses moyens. Pour les zones 
qui sont difficilement accessibles, il appartient aux populations qui y 
habitent d'organiser leur autodéfense", a déclaré le ministre sur les ondes 
de la station francophone de la radio algérienne. M. Zerhouni a toutefois 
estimé que les groupes armés "ont définitivement perdu; ils n'ont plus 
d'autre choix que celui de se rendre aux forces de sécurité ou de se 
suicider". Les propos de M. Zerhouni interviennent à la suite d'une série 
de massacres perpétrés ces dernières semaines par des groupes armés dans la 
région de Chlef (un département à 250 km à l'ouest d'Alger) réputée pour 
être un des fiefs du GIA (Groupe islamiste armé).   (AP, 10 novembre 2002)

* Angola. Angolans celebrate peace dividend  -  12 November: Youth groups 
and women's organisations paraded past President Jose Eduardo dos Santos at 
Angola's Independence Day celebrations on 11 November. It was the first 
time that this celebration has been held in peace time, since the country 
gained independence from Portugal 27 years ago and the messages over the PA 
system are about peace and reconciliation. In his address to the nation, 
the president said that this year, 11 November was not only a celebration 
of independence, but of a new era of history which was brought about by 
peace. He even suggested that the Angolan people should be awarded the 
Nobel Peace Prize -- something that is unheard of, since the prize is only 
awarded to individuals. It is probably true to say that President dos 
Santos would not object to collecting the peace prize himself. At the 
celebrations, one of the T-shirt slogans was "Dos Santos -- architect of 
peace", and the whole occasion looked more like a rally of the ruling MPLA 
party than anything else.   (BBC News, UK, 12 November 2002)

* Angola. Gunmen seize, kill 17 on north Angola road  -  Angolan police are 
searching for gunmen who bound and killed 17 travellers on a highway in 
northern Angola, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reported on 13 November. 
Police found the bodies of the victims, most of them refugees from the 
Democratic Republic of Congo, on a road near the city of Malange, about 400 
kilometres east of the capital Luanda. The incident was the most deadly 
reported in Angola since an April ceasefire halted the 27-year civil war in 
the oil-producing southwest African nation. Alberto Joaquim, a survivor, 
said that a group of armed men stopped a truck carrying passengers on the 
highway near Malange on 11 November.   (CNN, USA, 13 November 2002)

Weekly News - anb1114.txt - #1/7