Weekly anb0612-3.txt #6

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 12-06-2003      PART #3/6

* Egypte. Frères musulmans arrêtés  -  Le 5 juin, tard dans la soirée, la 
police égyptienne a arrêté 12 membres présumés de la confrérie des Frères 
musulmans dans la ville de Menoufia (quelque 60 km au nord du Caire) pour 
avoir tenu des "réunions d'organisation" illégales. Parmi eux figurent des 
médecins, des ingénieurs, des professeurs d'université, des pharmaciens, 
ainsi qu'Ashraf Badri-Din, candidat aux élections législatives de 2000. Le 
6 juin, ils ont été emmenés au bureau du procureur du Caire pour être 
interrogés. Officiellement interdit, le mouvement des Frères musulmans a 
forgé des alliances avec des partis légaux, qui leur ont permis d'avoir une 
influence sur la vie politique égyptienne. La confrérie compte actuellement 
17 proches qui siègent au Parlement et ses militants dominent la plupart 
des syndicats.   (AP, 6 juin 2003)

* Eritrea. Alarm bells sounded as malnutrition rates rise  -  UN Deputy 
Emergency Relief Coordinator Carolyn McAskie was due to arrive in Eritrea 
on 9 June to assess the situation in the drought-affected country amid a 
warning from the UN World Food Programme (WFP that the rate of malnutrition 
is rising "alarmingly". McAskie is to participate in the launch of the 2003 
mid-year review of the Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for Eritrea, the UN 
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. According 
to OCHA, the appeal, launched in November 2002, aimed to raise US $163 
million for emergency humanitarian relief in response to Eritrea's worst 
drought in a decade. A total of $69.2 million has been pledged so far, with 
a shortfall of $90.7 million remaining. On 6 June, WFP spokesperson 
Christiane Berthiaume said that the rate of malnutrition in Eritrea is 
rising alarmingly with "more than one in five children not getting enough 
to eat". According to WFP, 21.7 percent of children are suffering from 
malnutrition, while a hunger rate of 13-14 percent is normally considered 
alarming.   (IRIN, Kenya. 9 June 2003)

* Erythrée. Crise alimentaire  -  Plus de 2 millions d'Erythréens sont 
menacés par une grave crise alimentaire. En cause, la sécheresse et la 
dernière guerre contre l'Ethiopie. La famine n'est pas encore installée, 
mais faute de mobilisation des donateurs, les stocks de nourriture seront 
épuisés d'ici juillet ou août, selon les agences de l'Onu.   (La Libre 
Belgique, 12 juin 2003)

* Ethiopie. Fermeture de l'ambassade USA  -  L'ambassade des Etats-Unis à 
Addis-Abeba a fermé ses portes du 5 au 7 juin pour "raison de sécurité". 
Washington a mis en garde ses ressortissants présents dans la Corne de 
l'Afrique contre "des menaces terroristes précises" contre des intérêts 
américains dans cette région. Il a été fortement recommandé au personnel 
américain opérant dans la mission diplomatique d'éviter les lieux publics 
dans la capitale.   (Le Figaro, France, 6 juin 2003)

* Ethiopie. Découverte d'anciens crânes  -  Une équipe internationale a mis 
au jour en Ethiopie les restes de trois crânes âgés de 154.000 à 160.000 
ans, qui seraient les plus anciens fossiles connus -et les mieux préservés 
- du prédécesseur immédiat de l'homme moderne dans l'évolution. Découverts 
dans la région d'Afar, les ossements se distinguent par des traits 
modernes. Deux crânes, ceux d'un adulte et d'un enfant, sont quasi 
complets, et le troisième, celui d'un adulte, est partiel. Ils semblent 
représenter une étape cruciale dans l'évolution humaine, celui où les 
traits faciaux de l'homme moderne sont apparus. Auparavant, les fossiles 
les plus anciens d'homo sapiens exhumés en Afrique avaient été datés à 
environ 100.000 à 130.000 ans, mais étaient moins complets.   (AP, 11 juin 
2003)

* Ethiopia. Oldest human skulls found  -  Three fossilised skulls unearthed 
in Ethiopia are said by scientists to be among the most important 
discoveries ever made in the search for the origin of humans. The crania of 
two adults and a child, all dated to be around 160,000 years old, were 
pulled out of sediments near a village called Herto in the Afar region in 
the east of the country. They are described as the oldest known fossils of 
modern humans, or Homo sapiens. What excites scientists so much is that the 
specimens fit neatly with the genetic studies that have suggested this time 
and part of Africa for the emergence of mankind. "All the genetics have 
pointed to a geologically recent origin for humans in Africa --and now we 
have the fossils," said Professor Tim White, one of the co-leaders on the 
research team that found the skulls. "These specimens are critical because 
they bridge the gap between the earlier more archaic forms in Africa and 
the fully modern humans that we see 100,000 years ago," the University of 
California at Berkeley, USA, paleoanthropologist said.   (BBC News, UK, 11 
June 2003)

* Ghana. On a wing and a prayer  -  The staff of Ghana Airways have now 
turned to God to keep the airline in the skies after trying every 
management trick in the MBA curriculum. Last week, the management and staff 
held a three-hour prayer session where they sought heavenly intervention in 
the desperate affairs of one of Africa's first national carriers. They 
sang, prayed and read the scriptures under the direction of a Ghanaian 
evengelist who flew in from Lndon. Ghana Airways owes more than $160 
million to a variety of creditors. It is unable to keep up with payments, 
and the government which wholly owns it, says it cannot bail the airline 
out. Ghana Airways owns five aircraft but only one, a DC 10, is actually 
flying. This does the long-haul flights to Europe and America. The airline 
has a stronger presence in West Africa where a lease aircraft hops to 
national capitals -- from Lagos to Dakar. It employs nearly 1,500 people. 
It has more drivers than it has vehicles and more typists than keyboards. 
Every few months there is a new management and a board chairman, but none 
of them have managed to keep Ghana Airways from its free fall. Now that it 
has run out of options, Ghana Airways hopes to take off on a wing and a 
prayer.   (BBC News, UK, 10 June 2003)

* Ghana. Police question Rawlings  -  11 June: Former President Jerry 
Rawlings has been interviewed by police after claiming to know the 
identities of cabinet ministers, he accused of being linked to serial 
killings. Mr Rawlings told a rally of the opposition National Democratic 
Congress last week that he could name 15 men in President John Kufuor's 
cabinet who were involved with the serial killings which plagued Ghana 
between 1997-2000. The more than 30 victims, most of them women, appeared 
to have been strangled. Police at the time said that the crime could have 
been the work of one person or group. Mr Rawlings, who was president when 
the murders were committed, said at the rally that the crime was 
politically motivated. One person has so far been charged for the murder of 
eight of the victims.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 11 June 2003)

* Guinea. Expulsions defended  -  11 June: Guinea's Minister of Territorial 
Administration, Moussa Solano, says that last Sunday's expulsion of foreign 
politicians was meant to forestall a potentially explosive situation. "The 
foreign dignitaries who arrived had no proper documents to come across our 
borders, that is why we denied them entry," he said. The foreign 
politicians -- who accompanied Guinean opposition leader Alpha Conde -- 
were rounded up by immigration officials on arrival at the airport and 
declared persona non grata. They were scheduled to attend a conference on 
the role of political parties. "The government was not fully informed about 
this conference, and we had not authorised its organisation on Guinean 
territory," Mr Solano said in a television statement. The politicians 
included former Senegalese Prime Minister, Mustapha Nyass, Paulo George 
from Angola's MPLA, and Useful Alamode from Niger. Their expulsion resulted 
in clashes between the police and hundreds of supporters of Mr Conde's 
Rally for Guinean People (RPG) who had thronged the airport to welcome the 
party leader and his guests.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 11 June 2003)

* Liberia. Peace talks in Accra  -  5 June: The peace talks continue in 
Accra, Ghana. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) 
express the hope that all sides to the Liberian peace talks will 
demonstrate "moderation and compromise". ECOWAS's executive secretary, 
Mohamed Ibn Chambas, says ECOWAS is encouraged by a statement in which 
Liberia's President Charles Taylor affirms he will not seek a second term 
of office when his current term ends in January 2004. 6 June: The peace 
talks are suspended until 9 June. --LURD combatants have been instructed by 
their head of delegation to the peace talks in Accra to stop fighting. 9 
June: Ghana is still hopeful that the negotiations will resume following 
arrival of representatives from another rebel group, the MODEL faction. -- 
Facilitators at the Accra peace talks announce the suspension of the talks 
until 11 June.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 9 June 2003)

* Liberia. Child soldiers are back on the frontline  -  As Liberian 
President Charles Taylor fights for his very survival, child soldiers, many 
of them orphans of the conflict, are back at the forefront of the fighting. 
Every day they can be seen riding around the streets of the capital 
Monrovia in pick-up trucks proudly toting their automatic rifles. Relief 
workers in Monrovia said that on several occasions this year forces loyal 
to President Charles Taylor had raided schools and camps of displaced 
people in search of young recruits to fight two rebel movements. These now 
control over two thirds of the country and are fighting their way into the 
outskirts of the capital. The Liberian government has repeatedly denied 
conscripting children by force, but relief workers have documented several 
cases of this occurring. One attempt to press gang school kids into the 
militia in the northern town of Ganta on 6 March sparked off protest riots, 
they said. Some of the child soldiers fighting in Taylor's rag-tag army are 
as young as nine-years old. But not all were press-ganged into service. 
Many joined the government militias as volunteers eager to avenge the 
killing of their parents by rebel fighters.   (IRIN, Kenya, 9 June 2003)

* Liberia. Monrovia encircled by rebels  -  5 June: Liberia's President 
Charles Taylor says a coup attempt was foiled on 4 June whilst he was in 
Ghana for the start of peace talks to end the country's civil war. Speaking 
on national radio, Mr Taylor said: "Certain actions has been instigated" in 
his absence involving top officials and foreign diplomats, but the army 
chief had remained firm. Mr Taylor said the Vice-President has resigned and 
the entire cabinet will be asked to go to pave the way for a government of 
national unity once the peace talks had ended. -- Rebels in Liberia are 
reported to have entered the suburbs of the capital, Monrovia, as President 
Charles Taylor struggles to hold on to power. At the same time, aid workers 
said thousands of refugees had fled in terror from camps on the outskirts 
of the city. The refugees were trying to reach the centre of Monrovia 
despite the army trying to block them, said Ramin Rafirasme, West African 
spokesman for the World Food Programme. "People are in the street, in the 
rain. The situation remains very tense in Monrovia. We are very worried by 
the situation of these people," he said. Witnesses contacted by reporters 
by phone also tell of fighting near the town of Duala, four kilometres from 
Monrovia, where rebels were trying to capture a bridge leading directly to 
the city. 7 June: Fighting between rebel and government troops is 
intensifying on the outskirts of the capital, Monrovia. Tens of thousands 
of civilians fled as gunfire and explosions rocked the northern suburbs of 
the city yesterday. LURD rebels are reported to be within less than 10 
kilometres from the centre of Monrovia. The United States has told 
non-essential diplomats to leave the country, and has again called on 
President Charles Taylor to stand down. 8 June: Rebel forces attacking the 
Liberian capital, Monrovia, have issued an ultimatum to President Charles 
Taylor to resign within 72 hours. LURD fighters appear to have halted their 
advance on Sunday less than six kilometres from the city centre although 
fighting continues in places. More government troops move up to the front 
line as aid workers reported that hundreds of thousands of people in the 
capital had been made homeless by the fighting. 9 June: Military 
helicopters have started to evacuate Europeans and US citizens from 
Monrovia. Heavily armed French troops emerge from the helicopters as they 
land in the EU compound, before taking westerners to a French ship waiting 
off the coast. 10 June: A further evacuation of foreign nationals from 
Liberia is to take place amid intense fighting for the capital, Monrovia. 
Ghana has announced that it is sending a warship and several aircraft to 
remove its citizens after French military helicopters flew more than 500 
Europeans, Lebanese and United States citizens from the city. Rebels are 
closing in on the centre of Monrovia in their campaign against President 
Charles Taylor. The United Nations Security Council has expressed deep 
concern, and called on all sides to cease hostilities. A UN spokesman said 
Secretary General Kofi Annan was "alarmed at the severe impact which 
intensified fighting between rebels and government forces in Liberia is 
having on Monrovia's one million inhabitants". A team of West African 
mediators is going to Monrovia in an effort to agree a ceasefire, and 
enable stalled peace talks in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, to resume. Aid 
organisations say thousands of Liberians are sleeping rough in the capital 
after fleeing their homes in the face of the rebel advance on the city, 
which is being supported by artillery bombardments. -- The government has 
distributed its dwindling stocks of rice and has appealed for more 
international aid. --President Taylor holds crisis talks with the US 
ambassador about calling an immediate ceasefire. 11 June: President Taylor 
agrees to halt hostilities against rebels, paving the way for peace talks 
to start in earnest and possibly prevent a bloody showdown in the capital, 
reports say. The rebels have also promised West African mediators they will 
halt their advance so talks can start properly.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 11 
June 2003)

Weekly ANB0612.txt #3/6