Weekly anb05071.txt #6

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 08-05-2003      PART #1/6

* Afrique. Médias: rapport annuel de RSF  -  Dans son rapport annuel de 
2002, présenté à l'occasion de la Journée mondiale de la liberté de la 
presse, le 3 mai, Reporters sans frontières dénonce les atteintes toujours 
plus nombreuses à la liberté de presse sur les cinq continents. En Afrique, 
quelque "180 professionnels de la presse ont été, à un moment ou un autre, 
privés de leur liberté", autant ont été menacés, tandis que plus de 80 
médias ont subi la censure. Seuls pays à respecter, dans une certaine 
mesure, la liberté de la presse: l'Afrique du Sud, le Botswana, le 
Cap-Vert, le Mali et Maurice. A l'inverse, la Corne de l'Afrique est 
qualifiée de "pire région" du continent pour les journalistes. Longtemps 
citée comme modèle, l'Afrique australe accentue aussi la répression, 
Zimbabwe et Swaziland en tête. En revanche, en Angola, la fin de la guerre 
a eu des répercursions positives sur l'indépendance des médias. Outre les 
pressions des régimes en place, la presse est en butte à une violence 
privée en Afrique subsaharienne: mouvements rebelles, groupes armés ou 
organisations confessionnelles, en particulier au Congo-RDC et au 
Nigeria.   (J.A.I., France, 4-10 mai 2003)

* Afrique. Coton: l'OMC saisie  -  Le 2 mai, quatre pays africains 
producteurs de coton, le Bénin, le Burkina Faso, le Mali et le Tchad, ont 
annoncé avoir saisi l'Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) pour 
protester contre les subventions allouées par les Etats-Unis et l'Union 
européenne à leurs producteurs, qu'ils jugent "anticoncurrentielles". Selon 
Oxfam, une ONG britannique, les subventions font perdre aux producteurs 
africains 300 millions de dollars chaque année.   (Libération, France, 5 
mai 2003)

* East Africa. Hit by flooding  -  8 May: Floods are wreaking havoc in 
large areas of eastern Africa, ending a harsh drought. The floods have 
killed at least 40 people in southern Ethiopia, officials say. Tens of 
thousands of people across the region have fled their homes. Ethiopia's 
Mines Minister Mohamoud Dirir Gheddi says his government is unable to cope. 
"For the last two years people have been praying for rain...Very 
unfortunately according to what I have seen... villages have been virtually 
submerged," he says. "Houses have been destroyed...People have fled to the 
mountains...they have been left with virtually nothing." A United Nations 
report says at least 20,000 people in western Kenya and along the Tana 
River have been affected. Refugee camps in north-eastern Kenya have been 
particularly severely hit. In Somalia, the lower Jubba River and the middle 
Shebelle regions have been affected, but few details are yet available. In 
Ethiopia, about 96,000 were forced to flee their homes after the Shebelle 
river burst its banks, flooding lowland areas of the country's Somali 
region. Rescue workers are operating in the area, providing the people with 
medical supplies, plastic shelters and cooking equipment.   (ANB-BIA, 
Belgium, 8 May 2003)

* Algérie. Nouveau gouvernement  -  Le 5 mai, le président Bouteflika a 
limogé son Premier ministre, Ali Benflis. A plusieurs reprises, au cours 
des dernières semaines, les deux hommes s'étaient opposés sur des questions 
politiques majeures avec, en toile de fond, un conflit de pouvoir. Des 
rumeurs attribuent à M. Benflis l'intention de se présenter, lors de 
l'élection présidentielle de 2004, contre une nouvelle candidature de 
Bouteflika. Pour remplacer M. Benflis, le président a nommé Ahmed Ouyahia, 
qui avait déjà dirigé le gouvernement algérien de décembre 1995 à décembre 
1998. Celui-ci "va entamer incessamment ses consultations pour la 
composition de son équipe gouvernementale, qu'il soumettra dès que 
possible".   (Libération, France, 6 mai 2003)

* Algeria. Prime Minister sacked  -  6 May: The President of Algeria, 
Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has announced he is replacing his prime minister and 
will shortly name a new government. The move comes after several weeks of 
reported differences between the two men on political and economic issues. 
The president has named a former Prime Minister, Ahmed Ouyahia, as his 
favoured candidate to replace Ali Benflis. But this must be approved by 
parliament, where Mr Ouyahia has a reputation as a hardliner against 
Islamist militants. The Algerian press has been speculating for some days 
now about a growing split between the president and Prime Minister Ali 
Benflis -- his one-time close friend. Now their row has broken out into the 
open. Both men worked together to bolster civilian government against the 
impact of a decade of Islamist insurgency, and against the old guard in the 
military, much of which has sought to undermine them. But they became 
increasingly divided over issues of political and economic reform. Mr 
Benflis wanted a lot of it -- including dialogue with the Islamists and the 
Berbers -- Mr Bouteflika was much more cautious, fearing it would incite 
military rebellion. The last straw came in March, when the prime minister 
scuppered President Bouteflika's strategy to win an early endorsement from 
the main party, the FLN, ahead of presidential elections next year. Mr 
Benflis, who is the FLN's secretary general and is rumoured to be 
considering running for president himself, would have none of it, and said 
so publicly.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 6 May 2003)

* Algérie. Violences  -  Le 6 mai dans l'après-midi, six militaires 
algériens ont été tués dans une embuscade tendue par un groupe terroriste à 
une patrouille de l'armée près de la localité de Kaddara, dans la région de 
Boumerdès (50 km à l'est d'Alger), rapporte le quotidien Liberté. 
L'attentat a été perpétré avec une bombe artisanale de forte puissance 
dissimulée à proximité de la route qui a explosé au passage du véhicule des 
soldats. Les islamistes ont ensuite fait usage de leurs armes pour achever 
les blessés. Une opération de recherche a été déclenchée pour tenter de 
retrouver les auteurs du massacre. - D'autre part, les corps décomposés de 
40 personnes, apparemment victimes de règlement de comptes au sein des 
maquis islamistes, ont été découverts par l'armée dans la région orientale 
de Tebessa, non loin de la frontière tunisienne, a annoncé la radio 
nationale, sans dire à quand remonte leur mort.   (ANB-BIA, de sources 
diverses, 7 mai 2003)

* Algeria. The missing tourists  -  4 May: Talks are reported to be 
underway to secure the freedom of 31 European tourists who are being held 
in the Sahara desert, the Algerian Government is reported to have said. 
"Contacts are taking place at the moment on the liberation of the 
tourists," Tourism Minister Lakhdar Dorbani told the national parliament's 
tourism commission, Algerian state radio reports. His statement was the 
first confirmation by an Algerian official that talks to secure the release 
of the hostages were being held. The minister declined to specify with whom 
the talks were being held. Some of the 31 tourists -- 15 Germans, 10 
Austrians, four Swiss nationals, a Dutchman and a Swede -- have been 
missing since February. El Watan newspaper quotes Algerian security 
officials as saying that a gang of bandits had kidnapped the tourists in 
return for a ransom, and that talks on securing their release had been 
under way for three weeks. The paper said the tourists had been located in 
the Tamelrik mountain range, about 1,500 kilometres south-east of Algiers. 
Earlier reports speculated that the tourists had been kidnapped by the 
militant Islamic Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), linked to 
Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. 5 May: The Tourism Minister's statement 
is categorically denied by his ministry. 6 May: The fate of the tourists 
grows murkier after the Algerian government denies that talks are underway. 
The Interior Minister says: "I can tell you there are no negotiations, 
there is no contact with anyone".   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 6 May 2003)

* Algérie. Otages en vie?  -  4 mai. Les 31 touristes européens, disparus 
depuis plusieurs semaines dans le Sahara, sont toujours en vie. Des 
négociations seraient en cours pour leur libération, a annoncé le ministre 
algérien du Tourisme, Lakdhar Dorbani, sans préciser l'identité des 
ravisseurs, ni la nature des tractations. Selon l'armée, les touristes sont 
entre les mains d'islamistes, plus précisément d'un émir local du Groupe 
salafiste pour la prédication et le combat. Des notables touaregs 
privilégient cependant l'hypothèse de voleurs ou de contrebandiers. -- 6 
mai. Les autorités algériennes renforcent le doute sur le sort des 
touristes. "Nous n'avons pas de négociations, pas de contacts avec qui que 
ce soit. Nous n'excluons aucune éventualité", a affirmé le ministre de 
l'Intérieur, Nourédine Zerhouni.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 7 mai 2003)

* Angola. IMF probes Angola's oil sales  -  30 April: International 
Monetary Fund (IMF) investigators are arriving in Angola today, on the 
trail of almost $1bn which the IMF believes vanished from state coffers in 
2001 alone. The money, an internal report alleged late last year, came from 
oil sales, the cornerstone of Angola's foreign trade. But instead of going 
to fund the country's development, more than $900m disappeared. Angola has 
insisted accounting problems, not theft, is responsible for the mismatch. 
The IMF report -- leaked in October 2002 -- pointed to a total of $4bn 
which had gone missing over five years, and was scathing about what it saw 
as pervasive corruption and mismanagement at the top of Angolan society. 
Angola has been in the IMF's bad books for some years, but is keen to 
return to the fold to ease a reliance on expensive short term loans to fund 
a ballooning budget deficit of more than 8% of the country's gross domestic 
product.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 30 April 2003)

* Angola. USA lifts sanctions  -  On 7 May, President George W. Bush lifted 
all sanctions against the former rebel movement UNITA in Angola, one of the 
countries in Bush's so-called coalition of the willing supporting the war 
in Iraq. Angola was in the limelight as a UN Security Council member during 
the heated debate over Iraq. The country's support was courted by the 
United States, as well as by the leading opponent of the war, France. The 
White House lists Angola as one of 49 countries "publicly committed" to the 
coalition to disarm Iraq. Several have been rewarded by Washington for 
their support. In a message to the US Congress, Bush said continuing the 
sanctions would have a "prejudicial effect on the development of UNITA as 
an opposition political party, and therefore, on democratization in 
Angola."   (CNN, USA, 7 May 2003)

* Benin. Concert stampede  -  4 May: Police in Benin are investigating 
reports that a pop concert went ahead despite the deaths of at least 15 
fans from crushing. The incident happened before the Congolese musician 
Kofi Olomide was due to appear at the Friendship Stadium in Benin's main 
city Cotonou. The crush was caused by the capacity crowd surging forward to 
be closer to the musician, said one source. Local police were not informed 
of the deaths -- possibly because organisers feared the highly publicised 
concert might be cancelled. After the 3 May event, Mr Olomide told a local 
radio station he was not made aware of the incident when he arrived at 
midnight for his performance. He said everything appeared normal and he had 
gone ahead with the concert. A source at Hubert Maga hospital in Cotonou 
told the French news agency AFP that "overexcited spectators were involved 
in jostling at the entrance -- several of them were trampled in the 
crush".   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 4 May 2003)

* Bénin. 16 morts dans un stade  -  Le 3 mai à Cotonou, seize personnes ont 
trouvé la mort lors d'une bousculade avant le concert du chanteur congolais 
Koffi Olomidé. Selon le témoignage d'un médecin, le drame aurait été 
provoqué par "des spectateurs surexcités qui se sont bousculés à l'entrée". 
Le gouvernement a décrété un deuil national de trois jours, et a promis de 
faire la lumière sur cette tragédie. D'après les premiers éléments de 
l'enquête, la Société de gestion du stade de l'Amitié aurait organisé le 
concert en dépit de l'interdiction décrétée, il y a plusieurs mois, 
d'ulitiser l'enceinte. Des travaux de réfection avaient été entamés. Les 
organisateurs auraient aussi tenté de cacher le drame aux autorités, de 
peur que le concert ne soit annulé. Olomidé, qui n'avait pas été mis au 
courant des incidents, a entamé son concert sur le coup de 
minuit.   (D'après Libération, France, 6 mai 2003)

Weekly News - anb0507.txt - #1/6