Weekly anb01305.txt #7

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 30-01-2003      PART #5/7

* Ethiopia. Educated suffer government repression  -  In a 24 January Press 
Release, Human Rights Watch says the Ethiopian government is muzzling 
educators and students with a policy of harsh repression that includes 
extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, and widespread denials of 
freedom of opinion and association. The 52-page report, "Lessons in 
repression: Violations of Academic Freedom in Ethiopia", documents an 
on-going pattern of impunity among federal and state security forces 
accused of using excessive lethal force to disperse protests by unarmed 
high school students and other civilians.   (HRW, 24 January 2003)

* Ethiopia. Nestlé u-turn on Ethiopia debt  -  Nestlé, the world's largest 
coffee company, was forced into a humiliating u-turn last night, after 
public outrage forced it to drop its $6m claim against the famine stricken 
Ethiopian government. After being deluged by 40,000 letters inspired by The 
Guardian's revelation of its demand for compensation over assets seized in 
the 1970s, Nestlé will today announce that it has decided to back down. 
Talks between the company and the Ethiopian government this week resulted 
in Nestlé accepting Addis Ababa's offer of a $1.5m settlement, which will 
be handed straight over to the famine relief effort. The Guardian's editor, 
Alan Rusbridger, said it was a triumph for the power of public opinion. 
"After The Guardian first exposed the company's plans, over 40,000 people 
wrote to Nestlé outraged at their claim on the Ethiopian government," he 
said. "Corporate greed has buckled in the face of adverse publicity and 
direct action." Senior representatives from Nestlé are expected to sign a 
deal today with the Ethiopian government. In a statement last night, the 
giant food and beverages company said it was not interested in taking money 
out of a country confronted with famine and that it was exploring other 
ways it could be of assistance to the Ethiopian government.   (The 
Guardian, UK, 24 January 2003)

* Ethiopie. Accord avec Nestlé  -  Le 24 janvier, Nestlé et le gouvernement 
éthiopien ont signé un accord pour le remboursement à Nestlé de quelque 1,5 
million de dollars, en compensation d'une créance de $6 millions réclamée 
de longue date par Nestlé-Allemagne concernant une entreprise nationalisée 
en 1975 par le gouvernement de l'époque et revendue à un investisseur privé 
en 1998. Sous l'égide d'Oxfam, 40.000 lettres de protestation avaient été 
envoyées à Nestlé à ce sujet. Nestlé a indiqué que le montant reçu serait 
immédiatement alloué à des initiatives visant à combattre la famine en 
Ethiopie. Le groupe suisse a dit aussi examiner de quelle manière il 
pourrait aider le pays à assurer à plus long terme un approvisonnement 
alimentaire et un meilleur accès à l'eau.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 
25 janvier 2003)

* Guinée. La santé du président Conté  -  Le 26 janvier, la télévision 
guinéenne a diffusé une séance de prières à laquelle ont pris part 
récemment, dans la capitale, des membres du gouvernement, des députés et 
d'autres dignitaires du régime pour "un prompt rétablissement" du président 
Lansana Conté. Un haut dignitaire, membre du parti au pouvoir, a indiqué 
que le président était "très fatigué et malade". Il s'est fait soigner d'un 
diabète aigu à l'hôpital militaire de Rabat (Maroc), où il doit retourner à 
la fin de ce mois pour un suivi médical. Plusieurs observateurs disent 
redouter le chaos en Guinée si le président Conté venait à disparaître 
aujourd'hui. Mais dans un entretien avec PANA, le leader de l'Union pour le 
progrès de la Guinée (UPG, opposition) a appelé "l'armée à prendre le 
pouvoir pour une période de 3 à 6 mois avant de nouvelles élections". "Le 
général Conté est gravement malade et donc incapable d'assumer les 
fonctions de chef de l'Etat", a-t-il ajouté, rappelant que le 14 décembre 
prochain est la date butoir de la fin de son second quinquennat.   (D'après 
PANA, Sénégal, 27 janvier 2003)

* Guinée-Bissau. Relance de la filière riz  -  Le Koweït va aider la 
Guinée-Bissau à mettre en oeuvre un plan de relance de la riziculture, a 
déclaré le 26 janvier le ministre de l'Agriculture, M. Mballo. "Notre 
objectif est d'atteindre à terme l'autosuffisance alimentaire", a déclaré 
Mballo. Le montant du financement n'a pas été révélé. Le plan de relance 
prévoit entre autres l'installation de motopompes pour réguler les besoins 
en eau dans les rizières, l'encadrement technique des producteurs et 
l'utilisation de variétés de riz à haut rendement. La Guinée-Bissau est 
actuellement confrontée à un important déficit vivrier à cause d'une longue 
pause pluviométrique. La production de riz a baissé de 40 à 50% cette année 
dans la région de Gabou (est). Plus de 300 villages sont menacés de famine 
dans les régions de Kinara et Tombali dans le sud du pays.   (PANA, 
Sénégal, 27 janvier 2003)

* Kenya. Ministres victimes d'un accident d'avion  -  Le 24 janvier, le 
ministre kényan du Travail, Ahmad Mohamed Khalif, a été tué quand son avion 
s'est écrasé au décollage dans l'ouest du pays, tuant également deux 
pilotes. Deux autres ministres (Martha Karua, ministre des Ressources en 
eau, et Linah Jebii Kilimo, ministre d'Etat rattaché à la vice-présidence) 
et le parlementaire George Khanari ont été blessés. L'avion de tourisme 
s'est écrasé au décollage, après avoir heurté une ligne à haute tension 
dans la région de Busia (ouest), selon la police. Tous revenaient de 
Nairobi après une visite dans la région. Le gouvernement du président Mwai 
Kibaki n'est en fonction que depuis quelques semaines.   (ANB-BIA, de 
sources diverses, 25 janvier 2003)

* Kenya. Labour minister killed in air crash  -  24 January: A light 
aircraft carrying Kenya's Labour Minister, Ahmed Khalif, and other 
government ministers, crashes shortly after taking off in western Kenya. 
The Labour Minister and two pilots are killed in the accident in Busia. 
Several other passengers are injured, some badly. The officials had been 
visiting Busia as part of celebrations for the election victory. President 
Kibaki says an investigation is under way. 25 January: The Government says 
the plane was too heavy. The Gulfstream I twin-propeller plane weighed 16 
tonnes and was taking off from an airstrip designed for aircraft weighing 
less than 5.7 tonnes.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 25 January 2003)

* Kenya. Judge in court for corruption  -  27 January: A Kenyan High Court 
judge has pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud in the first corruption 
case ever filed against a Kenyan judge. The judge, Samuel Oguk, is accused 
of having accepted a bribe worth about $6,700 two years ago. His lawyers 
say the prosecution violates the judicial immunity guaranteed by the 
constitution. One of the main planks in President Mwai Kibaki's election 
campaign was a pledge to eradicate corruption. Mr Oguk was freed on bail 
and police said they intended to bring more charges against him when the 
trial resumes on 10 February. The judge says he is being persecuted and has 
warned he will expose big names in Mr Kibaki's government and some of the 
family members of his predecessor, Daniel arap Moi.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 27 
January 2003)

* Kenya. Children freed from Islamic correctional centre  -  Kenyan police 
have rescued 11 boys from an Islamic correctional centre in the capital, 
Nairobi, where they were kept in chains and tortured. Most of the teenagers 
came from Kenya, but others were from the United Kingdom, Sweden and 
Ethiopia. In a dramatic raid at the Khadija Islamic Institute of Discipline 
and Education, the police were forced to fire in the air to fight off 
residents pelting them with them stones -- before rescuing 10 teenagers who 
were being held at the centre. They were kept in chains and secured by 
padlocks in small rooms with little ventilation or light in Eastleigh, a 
Nairobi suburb inhabited mainly by ethnic Somalis and refugees from the 
Horn of Africa. The raid followed a tip-off from one of the teenagers who 
was himself later rescued from a hospital where he had gone to seek medical 
help. Nairobi police boss Stephen Kimenchu led the late evening raid. "We 
found the children running around in chains. It was some kind of extreme 
confinement you cannot imagine to be happening in this country. We were not 
aware of this until yesterday when we got there." At the Kasarani police 
station, five kilometres from where they had been rescued, the children 
narrated their ordeal at the hands of Islamic teachers bent on turning them 
into good Muslims. Nairobi police boss Mr Kimenchu says the children were 
sent to the centre by their parent who pay $1,500 per child for a two-year 
stay. "I think the parents believed their children were learning the Koran. 
I don't think they were aware of the actual conditions their children were 
living in," he said. In Eastleigh, local councillor Kullow Ibraim Haji also 
condemned the cruel treatment of students: "I support the school and the 
parents who bring their children here to be taught discipline. But I don't 
support torture and chaining of students," he said. "Islam does not allow 
children to be tortured. Teaching and disciplining them is one thing --but 
not torture."   (BBC News, UK, 28 January 2003)

* Liberia. Moving against "blood diamonds"  -  Liberia announced completion 
of its own diamond-certification program on 29 January, saying it aims to 
prove it is doing its part to keep so-called "blood diamonds" off the 
market. Authorities of the West African nation hope the plan will lead to 
lifting international sanctions against it for its alleged gun-and 
diamond-trafficking ring, which has helped finance Liberia's deadly civil 
war. Energy Minister Jenkins Dunbar told journalists Liberia's plan 
includes a tamper-and forgery-resistant certificate in line with 
recommendations of the Kimberley Process. The Kimberley Process, developed 
by the diamond industry, human rights groups and 37 governments, aims at 
squelching the trade of diamonds to fund civil wars in Africa. The process 
is intended to track each diamond from the mine to the jeweler's window, 
blocking the trade of diamonds trafficked illicitly. "Any Liberian diamonds 
that are not accompanied by the certificate should be banned on the world 
market," Dunbar said. The minister said he was optimistic the sanctions 
would "shortly be lifted" so that legal mining can resume in 
Liberia.   (CNN, USA, 29 January 2003)

* Madagascar. Mixing religion and politics  -  Religion is close to the 
hearts of the people of Madagascar. Approximately half of the population 
are Christians. President Marc Ravalomanana is himself the vice-president 
of the Protestant reform movement known here as FJKM. Journalist and 
commentator Jean-Eric Rakotorisoa says that without the support of the 
Church, Ravalomanana would not have become president. "Religion played a 
big role, notably the Christian Churches -- Catholic, Anglican, Reformist 
and Lutheran. They allowed Marc Ravalomanana to take power and get the 
support of the people. The Church allowed him to resolve the political 
crisis here and become president. So these churches had an enormous 
influence. Ravalomanana is the vice- president of the FJKM and he played on 
religion in order to get elected." President Ravalomanana certainly takes 
Christianity seriously and he expects the thousands of people who work for 
him in his private companies to do the same. They have to attend regular 
services and hold prayer meetings before they start work. He also used a 
quotation from the Bible: Mark 5, Chapter 36 -- as a political slogan: 
"Don't be afraid, just have faith." Some commentators and critics though 
are concerned that there has been a blurring of the boundaries between 
Church and state. They say the first article of Madagascar's constitution 
talks of the secularity of government. So they wonder if has this 
independence been lost.   (BBC News, UK, 22 January 2003)

* Malawi. Le 3e mandat de Muluzi  -  En dépit des protestations, M. Henry 
Phoya, ministre de la Justice et procureur général, va demander le 28 
janvier au Parlement de voter l'amendement constitutionnel proposé afin de 
permettre au président Muluzi de briguer un nouveau mandat de cinq ans. Son 
second mandat expire en 2004 et la Constitution lui interdit de se 
représenter. Un projet de loi similaire a déjà été rejeté le 4 juillet 
dernier. "Alors que nous pensions que la question était tranchée pour de 
bon, voilà que le procureur général vient mettre sur la table un nouveau 
projet visant les mêmes objectifs", a déploré un député de l'opposition, 
soulignant que le pays était confronté à des problèmes bien plus 
importants.   (D'après PANA, Sénégal, 27 janvier 2003)

* Malawi. Third-term protests  -  27 January: Police have fired tear gas to 
disperse demonstrators angry at proposals to let President Muluzi run for a 
third term of office. Some 2,000 people march in Blantyre, before the 
protest is broken up. In Lilongwe, Parliament has started an emergency 
debate over a proposed change in the Constitution top let President Muluzi 
contest elections scheduled for 2004. 29 January: The Government has backed 
down in its attempts to allow President Muluzi to stand for a third term of 
office. A bill to change the Constitution has been withdrawn from 
Parliament.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 29 January 2003)

Weekly anb0130.txt - #5/7