Weekly ANB0911_07.txt #7

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

_____________________________________________________________
WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 11-09-2003      PART #7/7

* Uganda. Mission looted  -  On the night between 7-8 September, Lord's 
Resistance Army (LRA) rebels raided the Catholic mission of Iceme (50km 
west of Lira). The rebels looted the mission from top to bottom and 
severely beat up the Italian parish priest. MISNA sources specified that 
the raid commenced at around 21:30 on Saturday night and ended at around 
02:00 on Sunday morning. Father Guglielmo Maffeis, 70, a Comboni originally 
from Ponte San Pietro (diocese of Bergamo), suffered numerous back marks 
and bruises due to the beating and is presently hospitalized in Lira where 
the doctors declared that, despite the haematoma's on his back, his spinal 
cord was not damaged and he is out of danger. The "Olum" (as the LRA rebels 
are called in the Acholi language), literally emptied the priest's house, 
stealing all the food, furnishings and fittings and whatever else they 
could find. The rebels then moved towards the Church, destroying a statue 
and stealing the microphone placed on the altar and the 
amplifier.   (MISNA, Italy, 8 September 2003)

* Ouganda. Karamojong contre la LRA  -  Le général Kale Kaihura, conseiller 
militaire spécial du président Museveni, a confirmé le recrutement de 
guerriers karamojong pour lutter contre les rebelles de l'Armée de 
résistance du Seigneur (LRA), précisant que "des milliers de Karamojong 
vont être mobilisés et armés" à cet effet. Cette décision a suscité les 
critiques des organisations qui oeuvrent à la pacification de cette ethnie 
guerrière, affirmant que cette initiative risque de raviver la violence au 
sein de la communauté. Jackson Owine, chef d'Amelok, une organisation 
oeuvrant à la promotion d'un dialogue pacifique entre les clans karamojong, 
estime que ce recrutement "a pour résultat de les remilitariser après les 
considérables efforts que nous avons consentis pour leur inculquer une 
autre façon de vivre". La région de Karamoja est depuis longtemps le 
théâtre de scènes de banditisme et de troubles, les guerriers karamojong 
luttant pour la suprématie par la possession d'importants troupeaux, 
engendrant des vols de bétail et une anarchie généralisée.   (D'après PANA, 
Sénégal, 10 septembre 2003)

* Zambia. Civil servants on strike  -  5 September: Vice-President Nevers 
Mumba has warned striking civil servants that they face being dismissed 
next week if they do not return to work. But Union leaders have defied the 
government's order, accusing the government of intimidation and vowed that 
they will not back down. They have rejected the authorities' call to 
renegotiate the agreed deal on allowances. The general secretary for the 
Civil Servants and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (CSAWUZ), Darrison 
Chaala, has been quoted by a Zambian newspaper, The Post on the web, as 
saying that the workers have to be ready to be fired in order to win their 
battle with the government. "We have the powers to grind government to a 
halt," Mr Chaala said. 8 September: The strike is called off. 9 September: 
Public service workers have begun legal action against the State for 
"breaching the agreement" to pay civil servants housing allowances 
equivalent to up to 80% of their basic salary.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 9 
September 2003)

* Zambia. Cherise wins the African "Big Brother" show  -  8 September: The 
first pan-African version of the TV show, "Big Brother", has been won by 
Cherise Makubale from Zambia. The 24-year-old was declared winner on 7 
September, picking up $100,000 prize money. Although the show, which was 
aired in 46 countries, has proved popular with viewers, politicians and 
religious leaders have been less keen. In Malawi, it was pulled off the air 
after it was deemed immoral, but the High Court overturned the ban.   (BBC 
News, UK, 8 September 2003)

* Zimbabwe. Economic outlook gloomy  -  It is unlikely any significant 
progress will be made in resolving Zimbabwe's political crisis this year, 
says The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which predicts that the 
country's economy will continue to contract. "As a result of the political 
crisis and poor economic policy, we forecast that real GDP will contract by 
13.1 percent in 2003 and 6.1 percent in 2004; inflation will continue to 
soar, averaging 368 percent in 2003 and 444 percent in 2004," the EIU said. 
Although a negotiated end to the political crisis would eventually emerge, 
the process of organising formal talks between the ruling ZANU-PF and the 
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was slow and suffered 
periodic setbacks, the latest of which revolved around attempts to draw up 
an agreed agenda for talks.   (IRIN, Kenya, 4 September 2003)

* Zimbabwe. L'état de santé de Mugabe  -  Le parti au pouvoir au Zimbabwe, 
le ZANU-PF, s'est donné beaucoup de mal cette semaine pour répondre aux 
rumeurs sur le mauvais état de santé du président Robert Mugabe, a indiqué 
le 4 septembre un quotidien sud-africain. Le Sowetan note que M. Mugabe 
gardait un profil bas étonnant ces derniers jours. Mais "les rumeurs sur la 
mauvaise santé du président et les démentis rituels symbolisent souvent le 
malaise profond d'une société qui traverse une crise...". La situation au 
Zimbabwe "devient plus désespérée chaque jour", écrit le journal, citant le 
chômage, la hausse des prix et le niveau élevé de la pauvreté. Le Sowetan 
fait observer que la mauvaise posture de M. Mugabe s'est encore fait sentir 
cette semaine avec le bon score réalisé aux élections municipales par le 
principal parti de l'opposition, le MLC, avec 134 sièges contre 100 pour le 
ZANU-PF.   (D'après PANA, Sénégal, 4 septembre 2003)

* Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe closes UN food offices  -  5 September: United Nations 
officials in Zimbabwe say they have been forced to close several offices 
monitoring the distribution of food aid. They say the government in Harare 
asked the United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) to shut three 
newly-established field offices in rural areas. But UN workers say the 
delivery of relief supplies is unaffected and monitoring has continued. 
There has been no comment from the Zimbabwean Government -- it has 
previously denied allegations of interfering in the distribution of 
emergency relief. Zimbabwe's Government had earlier issued a directive for 
international food aid to be handed over to local authorities for 
distribution. Until now, the major foreign food donors have been 
distributing foreign food aid themselves -- there have been concerns that 
President Robert Mugabe's government has politicised the food assistance 
that it controls.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 5 September 2003)

* Zimbabwe. Mass cull of buffalo  -  Zimbabwe is culling thousands of 
buffalo to "contain" foot-and-mouth disease in a move that has sparked 
protests and been described as "futile and bizarre". Conservationists said 
the order was "stupid" and would kill off what was left of Zimbabwe's 
tourism sector, which has shrunk to 15 per cent of its former level since 
political disturbances began in 2000. Salmon Joubert, a retired executive 
director of the Kruger National Park, which straddles Zimbabwe's borders 
with South Africa and Mozambique, said the decision "ranks as one of the 
most futile and bizarre moves that anyone can imagine". Many other 
cloven-hoofed animals, such as impala and kudu, are carriers of 
foot-and-mouth disease, so Zimbabwe would have to exterminate all of them 
to achieve its goal. Officials from the Department of National Parks and 
Wildlife Management descended on private game parks last week telling 
owners that the government of President Robert Mugabe had decided to 
destroy all buffalo on private land in order to eliminate the 
foot-and-mouth outbreak. Wilfried Pabst, who owns the Save Valley 
Conservancy, said officials told his workers that foot-and-mouth disease 
had cost Zimbabwe its European beef markets. "What is happening in Zimbabwe 
makes the Chinese Cultural revolution look like a picnic," said Mr Pabst, a 
German national and a major investor in the country's tourism sector. The 
National Parks officials indicated that, alternatively, the buffalo in the 
private game parks could be seized and taken to the government's national 
parks to control their movements, Mr Pabst said. However, fences at most 
national game parks were destroyed at the height of farm invasions last 
year, leaving the buffalo there free to mix with cattle in villages. "Any 
sensible government would replace these fences [rather] than resort to the 
outrageous move of killing animals," Mr Pabst said.   (The Independent, UK, 
8 September 2003)

* Zimbabwe. Commercial Farmers' Union split  -  Zimbabwe's white farmers 
union has suffered its first major split, after a breakaway faction left 
the group. Members of the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) in the southern 
area of Matabeleland pulled out, complaining that the union was refusing to 
confront the government over land seizures. The split comes less than a 
konth after a new executive was appointed to run the group. In a statement 
in Bulawayo, Gavin Conolly, Matabeleland Commercial Farmers' Union 
president said: "We do not believe the current leadership will faithfully, 
without fear or favour, represent us". Mr Conolly said they would like the 
CFU to adopt a more active strategy in defending the rights of all farmers, 
including those who have already lost their farms.   (Daily Telegraph, UK, 
10 September 2003)


Weekly anb0911.txt - end of #7/7  - THE END