Weekly anb0410_6.txt #6

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 10-04-2003      PART #6/6

* Afrique du Sud. L'ANC renforce sa majorité  -  Le Congrès national 
africain (ANC, au pouvoir) a obtenu la majorité des deux tiers au 
Parlement, pour la première fois depuis 1994, après le ralliement de neuf 
députés d'autres partis. Le nombre total de ses députés est maintenant de 
275 sur 400, soit 68,75% des sièges. Grâce à cette majorité, l'ANC pourra 
modifier la Constitution. Toutefois, la Cour constitutionnelle a le pouvoir 
de bloquer toute tentative en ce sens.   (D'après PANA, Sénégal, 4 avril 2003)

* South Africa. Apartheid era law suit  -  Diamond giants Anglo American 
and De Beers face a $6.1 billion lawsuit from former mine workers who say 
they were treated like slaves under the racist apartheid regime. The suit 
follows the recent release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 
report, which said that businesses who profited under apartheid should pay 
reparations or face lawsuits from victims.   (CNN, USA, 7 April 2003)

* South Africa. First African SARS case suspected  -  A 62-year-old South 
African man is being treated at a Pretoria hospital as a "probable SARS" 
case, according to officials. If confirmed, this would be the first known 
case of SARS -- or severe acute respiratory syndrome -- on the African 
continent. The man returned to South Africa on a Cathay Pacific flight from 
Hong Kong on March 27. He didn't show signs of an ailment until seven days 
later when he developed flu-like symptoms and a cough. On April 7, he was 
admitted to Pretoria East Hospital with severe respiratory distress, 
hospital officials said, and is being held in isolation. According to 
doctors, the man -- whose name is being withheld -- is on a ventilator, but 
doing well. He had contacts with 17 people, including eight family members, 
who are now being monitored by health officials.   (CNN, USA, 9 April 2003)

* Soudan. Efforts de paix  -  Suite aux menaces des Etats-Unis d'imposer 
des sanctions à Khartoum parce que le processus de paix traîne en longueur, 
le ministre soudanais des Affaires étrangères a déclaré que son pays a 
préparé un rapport énumérant les efforts déployés pour parvenir à un 
compromis avec le Mouvement/Armée de libération du peuple soudanais 
(SPLM/A). L'an dernier, le Congrès américain a voté une loi sur la paix au 
Soudan en menaçant d'infliger des sanctions à Khartoum si aucun effort 
n'était fait pour parvenir à une paix durable. Cette loi ne menace pas 
seulement d'un certain nombre de sanctions économiques, mais prévoit aussi 
une assistance à hauteur de $300 millions au SPLM/A. Le journal 
pro-gouvernemental Al-Anbaa a indiqué, le 4 avril, que le rapport du 
gouvernement contenait des faits et des explications qui devraient 
permettre de dissiper les inquiétudes du Congrès américain. A la suite 
d'une réunion qu'il a eue le 2 avril à Nairobi avec le leader du SPLA John 
Garang, le président soudanais Omar El-Béchir a déclaré que les deux 
parties avaient réaffirmé leur engagement à parvenir à un accord de paix 
dans les deux prochains mois. --D'autre part, le président de la Commission 
de l'Union africaine, Amara Essy, a accueilli avec satisfaction la reprise 
des négociations de paix. Celles-ci reprennent ce 7 avril au Kenya. Après 
avoir conclu une entente sur la fin de la guerre, les deux parties doivent 
évoquer un cessez-le-feu définitif, son contrôle, le désengagement de leurs 
forces, la démobilisation des combattants et le maintien de la paix dans le 
cadre d'une administration intérimaire. Il reste certainement encore à 
résoudre des points délicats. Il s'agit notamment de la gestion des forces 
armées, que le SPLA voudrait voir séparées pendant au moins 6 ans à partir 
de janvier 2004 et jusqu'au référendum sur l'éventuelle sécession du sud 
animiste et chrétien du nord islamique. Des difficultés pourront également 
surgir sur l'avenir de trois territoires riches en pétrole et dont le 
contrôle fait l'objet de contestations.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 7 
avril 2003)

* Sudan. Final push for peace  -  7 April: A team of international 
observers is being sent to report on an area in Sudan where there is still 
fighting, despite a temporary ceasefire being in place. The announcement 
was made as peace talks between the Sudan Government and the rebel Sudan 
People's Liberation Movement (SPLA) resumed in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. 
This latest round of talks will focus on security issues --namely what to 
do with the armies of both sides once a peace accord is in place. Speaking 
at the opening ceremony, Kenyan mediator Lazaro Sumbeiywo said the 
monitoring team would be sent to Bentiu in the Western Upper Nile region, 
where the fighting has been reported.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 7 April 2003)

* Tanzania. Anger over sell-offs  -  3 April: A Tanzanian opposition party 
has attacked the wave of new investment in the country from South Africa. 
Criticism from the Tanzania Labour Party follows a number of high profile 
sales of former state-owned companies to South African investors. The 
latest is the sale of a 49% stake Air Tanzania to South African Airways. 
Others include the National Bank of Commerce, Tanzania Breweries and 
Kilombero Sugar Limited. Opposition MP Thomas Ngawaiya, an outspoken critic 
of the influx of South African companies, said the tendency for some 
companies to import their raw materials is harming the economy. "If South 
Africans make business in Tanzania and they start exporting, I think our 
economy will grow, then our country will become rich," he said. "But if 
they bring in all the materials from South Africa our farmers will not earn 
anything from that end. At the end of the day maybe we are going to be 
another slave to South Africa." And South Africa is not only making its 
presence felt in the newly privatised sector. It has opened the most 
successful mobile telephone operation in Vodacom. And South African 
companies have also moved into tourism, healthcare and the supermarket 
business.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 3 April 2003)

* Tanzania. World Bank praises poverty reduction efforts  -  On 4 April, 
the World Bank praised Tanzania on Friday for making concerted efforts in 
poverty reduction, saying that its push to harmonise donor efforts in the 
country should be seen as a model for other developing nations. "What 
stands out is the strong government leadership in the whole effort," the 
World Bank country director for Tanzania and Uganda, Judy O'Connor, said. 
"The harmonisation between the World Bank and the United Nations system 
here in Tanzania should be seen as a model in terms of poverty reduction," 
she said.   (IRIN, Kenya, 7 April 2003)

* Tchad/Soudan. Frontière fermée  -  Le Tchad a décidé de fermer sa 
frontière avec le Soudan, apparemment pour empêcher les groupes rebelles 
soudanais de se replier sur son territoire, apprend-on à Khartoum de source 
autorisée. Cette décision fait suite aux discussions de la semaine dernière 
entre le ministre soudanais de l'Intérieur et les autorités tchadiennes. 
Quant aux autorités de Khartoum, elles ont lancé, il y a deux jours, une 
opération militaire contre les rebelles des localités occidentales de 
Karwani et Jabal Marrah, qui leur a permis de libérer quatre otages retenus 
depuis six mois.   (PANA, Sénégal, 3 avril 2003)

* Tunisie/Allemagne. Coopération antiterroriste  -  Un accord de 
coopération entre l'Allemagne et la Tunisie sur la lutte contre le 
terrorisme et le crime organisé a été signé par le ministre allemand de 
l'Intérieur, Otto Schilly, et son homologue tunisien Hédi M'henni, le 7 
avril. Cette date marque le premier anniversaire de l'attentat de l'île de 
Djerba, revendiqué par Al-Qaida, qui a fait 21 morts, dont 14 touristes 
allemands.   (Le Figaro, France, 9 avril 2003)

* Uganda. Rebels ambush convoy  -  9 April: The Ugandan Lord's Resistance 
Army (LRA) rebels have ambushed a convoy of vehicles on a "safe" road, 
leaving nine people dead and scores injured. The attack occurred between 
4.30pm and 5.00pm local time at Moroli, about 50 miles west of the northern 
regional town of Gulu. The rebels also burnt a vehicle belonging to 
Uganda's leading pro-government daily newspaper, the New Vision and 
showered others with bullets. The paper's regional marketing officer, 
Jonathan Kibale whose vehicle was leading the convoy was shot dead and his 
body burnt by the rebels. A commanding officer of the Ugandan army, the 
Ugandan Peoples Defence Front (UPDF), Colonel Andrew Guti and a district 
commissioner said that the ambush was a big surprise since the road had 
been safe for the last nine months.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 9 April 2003)

* Zambia. Minister sacked for fraud  -  5 April: President Levy Mwanawasa 
has sacked his deputy information minister, John Mwaimba, for alleged 
fraud, a government spokesman says. Mr Mwaimba is alleged to have used a 
fake title deed as a guarantee in the purchase of $300,000 worth of 
fertilizer. The dismissal follows newspaper reports of a court case between 
Mr Mwaimba and the company who sold the fertilizer. A statement issued by 
Mr Mwanawasa's spokesman said the decision to sack Mr Mwaimba should not 
influence any possible police action against the former 
minister.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 5 April 2003)

* Zimbabwe. Le nº 2 de l'opposition libéré  -  Le 7 avril, Gibson Sibanda, 
vice-président du Mouvement pour le changement démocratique (MDC, 
opposition), a été remis en liberté sous caution, après une semaine de 
détention pour sa participation à l'organisation d'une grève générale 
"illégale". Mais au tribunal, les policiers ont arrêté le porte-parole du 
MDC, Paul Themba Nyathi, venu assister à l'audience. Quelque 200 militants 
du MDC en colère ont été dispersés par la police anti-émeutes. Sibanda peut 
encourir jusqu'à vingt ans de détention pour l'organisation d'une "grève 
illégale".   (D'après Libération, France, 8 avril 2003)

* Zimbabwe. Allegations of political violence  -  4 April: Southern 
Africa's regional body has announced that it is to send a task force to 
Zimbabwe to investigate allegations of political violence. The Southern 
African Development Community (SADC) team will travel next week to speak to 
political parties, farmers' groups, civil rights organisations and 
churches, said Mozambique's foreign minister. 7 April: The deputy leader of 
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Gibson Sibanda, is 
freed on bail after eight days in police custody, but another senior party 
official, Paul Themba Nyathi, is arrested. 9 April: Initially, the police 
accused Paul Nyathi of "attemptiong to overthrow the government by 
unconstitutional means", but now he is being charged with "attemptiong to 
coerce the government".   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 9 April 2003)

* Zimbabwe. Archbishop of Harare dies  -  The Archbishop of Harare, 
Zimbabwe, the Most Rev Patrick Fani Chakaipa, is dead. He died aged 71 on 
the morning of 8 April. His funeral will be on 14 April. Archbishop 
Chakaipa was born on 25 June 25 1932 in Mhondoro, Zimbabwe. He was ordained 
priest in 1965, for the then Salisbury Archdiocese, which was later (June 
1982) renamed the Archdiocese of Harare. He was appointed Auxiliary Bishop 
for Harare in 1972, before his episcopal ordination on January 14, 1973. 
Three years later, on 31 May 1976, Chakaipa was appointed Archbishop of 
Salisbury, following the resignation of Archbishop Francis William Markall. 
During the special synod of African Bishops held in Rome in 1994, he made 
interventions in various aspects of the life of the Church in Africa. "The 
Church," he said in the topic on Justice and Peace, "can only promote 
justice if it makes all efforts to avoid injustice within the Church 
itself." On Evangelization, he said, "Evangelisation must begin in the 
family which is the domestic Church and in which men and women exercise 
their complementary roles. But present ways of contracting marriage are 
excluding vast numbers from the sacraments of the Church. We need a 
reappraisal of the Church's marriage regulations and of Christian family 
life."   (MISNA, Italy, 10 April 2003)

Weekly anb0410.txt - #6/6 - 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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