Weekly anb11215.txt #7

[anb-bia <anb-bia@village.uunet.be>]

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 21-11-2002      PART #5/7

* Liberia. Church strike  -  18 November: The Liberia Council of Churches 
(LCC) has backed a Roman Catholic bishop in his row with an MP from 
President Charles Taylor's ruling party. Activities at all church-related 
health and learning institutions throughout the country were seriously 
disrupted. Sando Johnson, a member of the governing National Patriotic 
Party, had accused Archbishop Michael Francis of Monrovia of being immoral 
and involvement in the killings of five Catholic nuns in 1992. The Catholic 
Church shut down all its institutions on 15 November in protest of the 
allegations. Students who tested the effectiveness of the strike action, 
returned home when they found all school doors shut. Education Minister 
Evelyn Kandakai has described the situation as "unfortunate" but says the 
ministry alone cannot resolve the matter. Archbishop Michael Francis has 
often criticised the government of President Charles Taylor, saying it has 
a poor human rights record. Calling on all Christians across the nation to 
join the solidarity action, the Liberia Council of Churches said: "The 
malicious attack on the renowned bishop is tantamount to attacking the body 
of Christ which is the Church. 19 November: The Catholic Church calls off 
the strike. The secretary-general of the LCC says President Taylor has 
promised to resolve the dispute between the Church and state 
officials.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 19 November 2002)

* Liberia. Archevêque contre gouvernement  -  Un bras de fer est en cours 
entre l'archevêque de Monrovia et le gouvernement. Mgr Michael Francis a 
ordonné la fermeture de tous les hôpitaux et écoles catholiques du Liberia. 
Il proteste ainsi contre le parti du président Taylor, qu'il accuse d'être 
à l'origine de l'assassinat de cinq religieuses en 1992. Solidaires, les 
Eglises protestantes suivent le mouvement.   (La Croix, France, 21 novembre 
2002)

* Madagascar/La Réunion. Accord de partenariat  -  Le 16 novembre à 
Saint-Denis, les rencontres bilatérales Madagascar-La Réunion se sont 
achevées par la signature d'une déclaration finale et d'un accord cadre de 
partenariat entre les deux pays. Les deux parties ont signé une déclaration 
finale engageant leurs pays sur des pistes proposées lors des deux jours 
qu'ont duré les rencontres. La coopération envisagée incluera notamment les 
infrastructures routières, l'équipement, le logement, le domaine de la 
pêche et l'artisanat touristique. Quelques préalables ont été soulevés afin 
de faciliter la circulation des personnes et des capitaux.   (D'après PANA, 
Sénégal, 18 novembre 2002)

* Madagascar. "Front du refus"  -  Des opposants au président Marc 
Ravalomanana, dont un ancien président de la République, Albert Zafy, et 
plusieurs dirigeants du parti de l'ex-président Didier Ratsiraka, ont 
annoncé, dans un communiqué publié au cours du week-end, la création d'un 
"Front du refus" contre les élections législatives anticipées du 15 
décembre. Les signataires du texte appellent "le peuple malgache à ne pas 
participer à ces élections" et réclament au préalable une "conférence 
nationale en vue d'une réconciliation nationale".   (Le Monde, France, 19 
novembre 2002)

* Malawi. Police clash with traders  -  14 November: Riot police in 
Malawi's commercial capital, Blantyre, have used teargas to disperse scores 
of street vendors who are refusing to move to the city's new market. 
Blantyre's shopping district came to a stand-still, today, after several 
hours of running battles between traders and the city authorities backed by 
armed police officers. The 2,000 street vendors are refusing to enter the 
newly-built 40-million kwacha ($500,000) flea market, saying it was not 
built at a strategic location and they would lose business. They also say 
the market is too small to accommodate all the vendors. The flea market, 
which was inaugurated earlier this week, is located in the heart of the 
city but the vendors say they do brisk business selling their wares on the 
streets and from shop fronts. Blantyre city assembly officials cleared the 
streets of the vendors and forced them into the market.   (ANB-BIA, 
Belgium, 14 November 2002)

* Malawi. Project to improve agricultural production  -  An ambitious 
project hopes to transform drought-hit Malawi into a possible food exporter 
in the next three years. The Agricultural Input Markets Development (AIMS) 
project aims to address constraints to sustainable agricultural development 
and improve smallholder farmers access to seed variants, fertiliser and 
crop protection products in Malawi. Herschel Weeks, of the International 
Fertiliser Development Centre (IFDC) said: "It's the most exciting project 
that I've ever been involved in. It'll have more positive impact maybe more 
than any other project currently going on in Malawi." IFDC said the project 
was working to establish a "vibrant private sector-led agricultural-inputs 
supply and marketing system". This would strengthen the institutional 
capacity of the government with regard to policy reforms, regulatory system 
design and implementation, and information collection, analysis and 
dissemination. "It will develop and implement a program to "marketise" 
donor-funded input distribution programmes. The project will design and 
operate a market information system on agricultural input market 
conditions. The project will provide direct technical assistance to 
entrepreneurs and bankers through training programmes, workshops and study 
tours; design and assist in implementation of a regulatory system; and 
conduct policy analysis to deepen the policy reforms", an IFDC statement 
said.   (IRIN, Kenya, 18 November 2002)

* Mali. Rapatriements de la Côte d'Ivoire  -  Le Mali a lancé une opération 
de rapatriement d'une dizaine de milliers de ses ressortissants établis en 
Côte d'Ivoire, soumis à des exactions et qui voudraient rentrer 
"volontairement" au pays. Dans un communiqué diffusé le 14 novembre, le 
gouvernement malien indique que ce rapatriement, d'un coût de 400 millions 
de FCFA, concerne essentiellement des Maliens de Daloa (ouest de la Côte 
d'Ivoire). De nombreux Maliens ont déjà commencé à quitter Daloa par la 
route, transitant par le Ghana et le Burkina Faso. La plupart ont laissé 
tous leurs biens en Côte d'Ivoire. Selon les estimations, environ 2 
millions de Maliens, travaillant le plus souvent dans les plantations de 
café et de cacao, vivent en Côte d'Ivoire.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 
16 novembre 2002)

* Mozambique. Murder trial begins  -  18 November: The trial of six men for 
the murder of a leading Mozambican journalist, Carlos Cardoso, is due to 
begin in the capital, Maputo, One man was reported two months ago to have 
escaped from prison and will be tried in his absence. The five other 
defendants will stand trial inside prison. The authorities say this is for 
security reasons, but lawyers for the accused are threatening to boycott 
the trial unless it is moved to a regular court. The murder, and the 
subsequent investigation, have highlighted the growing corruption in one of 
Africa's best performing economies. Carlos Cardoso dominated the small 
world of Mozambican journalism, and led the struggle for press freedom as 
Mozambique abandoned Marxism and became a multi-party democracy. A 
courageous reporter, he was investigating banking scandals two years ago 
when he was gunned down on a Maputo street. 20 November: President Chissano 
urges judges to carry on as normal in the trial which has linked his son to 
Carlos Cardoso's killing.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 20 November 2002)

* Namibia. Halting diamond licences  -  15 November: Namibia is planning to 
change the way it hands out diamond licences because people are using them 
as a way to "get rich quick". The Namibian newspaper reported that the 
government would stop giving the licences to formerly disadvantaged people 
after it was found that many were selling their concessions to rich 
investors. The minister of mines and energy Dr Nickey Iyambo said: "I'm not 
entirely happy with the way the previously disadvantaged are going about 
with EPLs (exclusive prospecting licences)". He said that because many 
previously disadvantaged Namibians did not have money they were selling 
their licences to rich people who would offer them "one million dollars or 
half a million".   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 15 November 2002)

* Nigeria. 25-year timetable  -  14 November: The Nigerian Government has 
announced plans to modernise and expand its ageing railway network -- at a 
cost of $60bn. The plan, which will run over the next 25 years, was 
unveiled by Transport Minister Ojo Maduekwe. He said 80% of the money would 
come from both local and foreign investors with the government providing 
the rest. Nigeria's railways were built by the British over 100 years ago 
with two lines running from the north of the country to the coastal south. 
But successive governments have, since independence in 1960, deprived the 
railways of much needed investment, resulting in lack of capacity and 
under-use. The announcement comes at a time when rail workers are on strike 
and have just rejected a government pay offer, vowing instead to continue 
with their industrial action.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 14 November 2002)

* Nigeria. Amnesty criticises Nigeria over stoning appeal  -  On 14 
November, Amnesty International criticised Nigeria for failing to set a 
date for the appeal of a Muslim woman sentenced under Islamic law to death 
by stoning for bearing a child out of wedlock. The case of Amina Lawal, 31, 
has provoked international protest and prompted some beauty queens to 
threaten a boycott of the next month's Miss World pageant in Abuja. In 
August, Lawal filed an appeal to her conviction but has not yet been given 
a trial date. The court told Lawal's lawyer it would hear the appeal after 
Ramadan ends next month. President Olusegun Obasanjo promised in October 
that the country's higher appeal court would quash death-by-stoning 
sentences for adultery passed by Islamic sharia courts. But Amnesty 
criticised the government for failing to take more concrete steps. "Despite 
reassurances by President Obasanjo, the government is still failing to take 
effective measures to ensure that the new sharia penal legislation is in 
line with the Nigerian constitution," the group said. "The federal 
government seems to deliberately deliver two contradictory speeches for 
internal and international audiences," Amnesty said.   (CNN, USA, 14 
November 2002)

* Nigeria. Party rights  -  The Nigerian government has warned that new 
political parties have no automatic right to compete in landmark elections 
next year, even though the supreme court has quashed laws used to bar more 
than 20 organisations from the polls. Kanu Godwin Agabi, justice minister, 
said the government was comfortable with the idea of more parties but added 
that electoral regulators had the right to redraw rules declared null and 
void by the supreme court last week. His comments are likely to add to the 
controversy over party access to the elections.   (Financial Times, UK, 15 
November 2002)

* Nigeria. Rolling out the red carpet for Miss World  -  The Nigerian 
climate is not gentle. Carefully coiffured hair is difficult to maintain in 
the clawing humidity, and temperatures in the high 30s are a severe 
challenge for the make-up artist. But, somehow, few of the newly arrived 
beauty queens on the tarmac of Abuja airport last week looked anything less 
than immaculate. The promoters of Miss World have chosen to bring this 
year's contest to the tropical and malarial rain forest belt of west 
Africa, and the Nigerian authorities are falling over themselves with 
delight. "Welcome to Nigeria, welcome to God's own country," beamed the 
information minister, Jerry Gana. The contestants, sitting patiently in 
rows of chairs on the tarmac, clapped their manicured hands and smiled 
brightly back as live television brought this publicity coup into Nigerian 
homes. Just a few miles down the road, at the house of her lawyer, another 
woman sat quietly on the grass. She is 31, her name is Amina Lawal and, for 
the crime of adultery, she has been sentenced to death by stoning. Already 
she has lost one appeal, but remains composed about her plight. "I believe 
in the justice of God," she said, her head shrouded. "If justice is not 
done to me on earth, it will be done in the life after. We are all mortal." 
(...) Amina is not alone: there are at least three other stoning 
convictions awaiting appeal. But Nigeria's junior foreign minister, Dubem 
Onyia, shouted above the music of the airport welcome ceremony: "No one has 
ever been stoned to death in this country. The sentence will never be 
carried out, because the constitution does not allow it." Much to Nigeria's 
dismay, the controversy over Amina had threatened to disrupt the pageant. 
But only a handful of Miss World contestants have stayed away. 
(...)   (Independent, UK, 17 November 2002)

* Nigeria. Miss Monde: journal incendié  -  Le 20 novembre, des musulmans 
en colère ont incendié les locaux d'un quotidien après la parution d'un 
article laissant entendre que le prophète Mahomet aurait très bien pu 
épouser l'une des participantes du prochain concours Miss World qui se 
déroulera le 8 décembre à Abuja, la capitale nigériane. Les bureaux du 
journal This Day à Kaduna (nord) ont été dévastés par l'incendie. Par 
chance, personne ne se trouvait à l'intérieur. L'Oumma musulmane du 
Nigeria, un groupe rassemblant des oulémas, a demandé au président Obasanjo 
d'annuler la cérémonie et de "sanctionner" le quotidien. "Personne ne peut 
dire ce qui arrivera" si le concours est maintenu, a-t-il menacé.   (AP, 20 
novembre 2002)

* Nigeria. Islamists riot over Miss World report  -  20 November: Muslim 
radicals have burnt down the premises of a newspaper in the northern 
Nigerian city of Kaduna after it published an article referring to the 
Prophet Mohammed in a report on the Miss World contest, which is currently 
taking place in Nigeria. Hundreds of people chanting "Allahu Akbar" (God is 
great) attacked the Kaduna office of the Lagos-based newspaper This Day on 
the second day of demonstrations sparked by the report. Correspondents say 
Kaduna state is regarded as one of Nigeria's most volatile regions because 
of its large Christian as well as Muslim population. The riot started after 
the paper published an article on 16 November which said that the Prophet 
Mohammed would have married one of the beauty queens. The fire brigade has 
put down the fire in This Day's offices, but in Kaduna the atmosphere is 
chaotic.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 20 November 2002)

Weekly anb1121.txt - #5/7