Weekly ANB1113_03.txt #7

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

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 13-11-2003      PART #3/6

* Erythrée/Ethiopie. Engagement pour le paix  -  L'Ethiopie et l'Erythrée 
ont réaffirmé leur engagement envers le processus de paix en cours et 
rassuré les Nations unies sur le fait que rien ne sera entrepris pour 
compromettre la stabilité militaire existant entre les deux pays après leur 
guerre frontalière. Les délégations éthiopienne et érythréenne ont fait 
cette promesse à l'occasion de la 20e réunion de la Commission de 
coordination militaire (MCC) organisée le 5 novembre à Nairobi (Kenya). Le 
général Gordon, commandant en chef de la force de la Mission de l'Onu en 
Ethiopie et en Erythrée (MINUEE), a insisté sur l'importance de la 
poursuite du processus de la MCC comme composante essentielle du maintien 
de la stabilité militaire. Il a invité les deux parties à éviter "la guerre 
des mots", considérée comme inutile et potentiellement 
déstabilisatrice.   (PANA, Sénégal, 6 novembre 2003)

* Eritrea/Ethiopia. UN envoy plays down tension  -  The United Nations' 
special envoy to Eritrea and Ethiopia sought to allay fears on 6 November 
that an outbreak of shooting last weekend was a sign of deteriorating 
security along the two countries' disputed border. Legwaila Joseph Legwaila 
was speaking against the background of renewed tension between both parties 
and the United Nations peacekeeping mission, Unmee. On 6 November, Unmee 
officials confirmed that Mr Legwaila's personal pilot had been expelled 
from Eritrea on charges of spying. Ethiopia on 6 November accused Unmee of 
wrongly implicating its forces in the shooting, which occurred last weekend 
inside an UN-patrolled security zone on the disputed border. The incident 
raised concern in the region that brinkmanship on the part of the two 
countries might lead to a fresh outbreak of fighting. UN troops 
investigating the shooting, which left one Eritrean dead, said initial 
reports indicated "uniformed men" from the Ethiopian side had been 
involved. Unmee has so far appeared to be one of the most successful UN 
peacekeeping operations on the continent. Its 4,200 troops police the 
border on which Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a trench war from 1998 to 2000 
at the cost of more than 70,000 lives. However, the peace process has hit 
an impasse in recent months over the physical demarcation of the border 
between the two countries, which separated in 1993 when Eritrea gained 
independence after fighting a 30-year guerrilla war. Mr Legwaila said Unmee 
had lived with plenty of disagreements in the past. These did not add up to 
a "deteriorating situation", he said from Asmara, the Eritrean capital. 
"There has not been any war because all these myriad incidents we have 
dealt with successfully in the past three years," he said.   (Financial 
Times, UK, 7 November 2003)

* Ethiopie/Italie. L'obélisque d'Axoum  -  Le 7 novembre, les opérations de 
démantèlement de l'obélisque d'Axoum ont commencé dans le centre de Rome, 
le gouvernement italien ayant décidé de rendre à l'Ethiopie ce monument 
archéologique enlevé à l'époque par les armées de Mussolini. Vieux de 1.700 
ans, l'obélisque d'Axoum, 24 mètres de haut, est installé à côté du siège 
de la FAO. Cela fait des décennies qu'Addis Abeba réclame le retour de 
cette stèle funéraire de l'antique royaume d'Axoum, symbole du passé 
glorieux éthiopien. Si l'opération de démantèlement devrait être terminée 
d'ici à la fin de l'année, on ne sait en revanche pas exactement quand il 
entreprendra son voyage de retour au pays. Il pèse environ 40 
tonnes.   (AP, 7 novembre 2003)

* Ethiopia/Italy. Obelisk to be returned to Ethiopia  -  8 November: 
Italian workers have detached the top section of an ancient obelisk looted 
from Ethiopia by fascist troops in 1937, in preparation for its return 
home. The granite column, thought to be about 2,000 years old, was taken 
from the holy city of Axum in northern Ethiopia when Italian dictator 
Benito Mussolini invaded the country. Ethiopia has campaigned to get it 
back for more than five decades, but despite three agreements with Italy 
the obelisk remained on a busy roundabout just down the road from the 
Colosseum. Last year, Ethiopia had threatened to sever ties with Italy over 
the obelisk. "We have a heritage and we want to keep that heritage...It is 
not something we can value in terms of money," Ethiopia's ambassador to 
Rome, Mengistu Hulluka, said. A small group of Ethiopians living in Italy 
cheered on the workers as they started the operation. The obelisk was 
originally carved from a single piece of stone, but was transported to 
Italy in several pieces, then reassembled. Experts have to carefully 
disassemble it so it can be shipped home, using jacks and cranes to 
separate the obelisk into three sections. It is thought the operation will 
be over by the end of the year, and if all went according to plan the 
obelisk could arrive in Ethiopia by next spring. The Ethiopian authorities 
plan to re-erect the column in Axum.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 8 November 2003)

* Ethiopia. Major drought averted  -  Good weather has averted a major 
drought in Ethiopia, and the number of people seeking food aid in 2004 is 
expected to drop sharply, a United Nations envoy said. Better rains "have 
produced better harvests, and we expect the number of people taking food 
aid next year will go down to 5 million, from the present 13.2 million," 
said Marti Ahtisaari, special envoy for humanitarian crises.   (New York 
Times, USA, 8 November 2003)

* Guinée. Seuls 2 candidats à la présidentielle  -  Le 11 novembre, le 
président de la Cour suprême a annoncé que son institution a retenu les 
candidatures du général Lansana Conté, président sortant, candidat au titre 
du Parti de l'unité et du progrès (PUP), et du Dr Mamadou Bhoye Barry, 
leader du Parti pour l'union et le développement (PUD), pour le scrutin 
présidentiel du 21 décembre prochain. Plusieurs partis ont refusé de 
participer à l'élection, dont le Front républicain pour l'alternance 
démocratique (FRAD) qui regroupe les principales formations politiques 
guinéennes. La Cour suprême a par ailleurs rejeté six candidatures pour 
"non conformité à la loi". Il n'y aura donc pas de véritable adversaire 
pour Conté. M. Bhoye Barry est l'unique député d'un petit parti 
pratiquement inconnu. Il est chirurgien vétérinaire et un ami très proche 
du président.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 12 novembre 2003)

* Kenya. Universities closed down by strike  -  10 November: All public 
universities have been closed indefinitely, with some 60,000 students 
ordered to leave their campuses by this evening. The government took the 
decision after 3,000 lecturers went on strike. The university teachers are 
demanding huge salary rises which they say they were promised by the 
government. They want the salaries of the lowest-paid lecturers to be 
increased from about $300 to up to $12,000. The government says the strike 
is illegal. President Mwai Kibaki's government promised to increase 
salaries for lecturers early next year after receiving recommendations from 
a task-force it appointed to advise it on the issue. But the lecturers say 
they cannot wait that long.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 10 November 2003)

* Kenya. Fermeture des universités publiques  -  Le lundi soir, 10 
novembre, les autorités kényanes ont ordonné la fermeture pour une durée 
indéterminée de six universités publiques, à la suite d'une grève des 
enseignants qui réclament une hausse de salaire. La plupart des 
universités, situées à Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret et Nakuru, sont devenues 
des cités fantômes. Les enseignants demandent au gouvernement de revoir à 
la hausse leurs salaires, auxquels ils attribuent la fuite des cerveaux au 
Kenya. Les salaires actuels vont de 34.000 shillings (442 dollars) par mois 
pour un assistant à 84.000 shillings (1.092 dollars) pour un 
professeur.   (PANA, Sénégal, 11 novembre 2003)

* Kenya. Mau Mau registered  -  On 11 November, Kenya formally registered 
the Mau Mau movement in a move seen by lawyers as a plus for the surviving 
fighters' efforts to sue Britain for compensation for torture under 
colonial rule. A colonial-era legislation outlawed the Mau Mau and branded 
them "terrorists," accusing them of involvement in secret oaths to kill 
white settlers and their African supporters. Kenya's government said in 
August it had lifted the ban on the group which spearheaded an uprising 
against British colonialists in Kenya in the 1950s. Kenya marks 40 years of 
independence on December 12. "It is a sad fact that it has taken 40 years 
for the government to finally agree to register this group that was not 
afraid of death in order to earn freedom for its countrymen," Kenya's Vice 
President Moody Awori, told the group after handing over the certificate of 
registration to its leaders. Several hundred veterans, many wearing 
dreadlocks, and others toothless and wrinkled, burst into traditional 
freedom songs and shouted "freedom and land!" when Awori presented their 
leaders with the registration certificate.   (CNN, USA, 11 November 2003)

* Liberia. Terrified civilians found  -  The first UN peace missions to 
Liberia's rebel-held far east have found deserted towns emptied of all but 
looting insurgents, and terrorized civilians under rebel grip or lying 
rotting, dead, in the bush. An Associated Press reporter accompanying Gen. 
Daniel Opande, the Kenyan commander of Liberia's 3-month-old UN peace 
force, saw hamlet after hamlet still bloodied by pillaging fighters, or by 
persistent clashes between rebels and government hard-liners. "There is no 
war, no more ground for you to gain,"Opande exhorted rebels in the eastern 
town of Griae --- newly attacked, sacked and burned by the insurgents, four 
months after their leader signed the West African nation's peace deal. 
Playing out in territory under control of the smaller of Liberia's two 
rebel movements, the continuing devastation underscores the difficulty a 
still-fledgling UN peace mission faces in ending rule by AK-47 in Liberia 
after 14 years of bloodletting. So far, only 4,500 armed troops have 
deployed as part of the UN force, due to grow to the world's largest at 
about 15,000 men. Most of the deployed peacekeepers are West Africans, with 
Bangladeshis the next largest contingent. Peacekeepers have been 
concentrated in Monrovia, the capital, calm since August, when West African 
peace troops landed and warlord-president Charles Taylor fled into 
exile.   (CNN, USA, 9 November 2003)

* Liberia. L'Eglise veut s'impliquer  -  10 novembre. Les dirigeants de 
l'Eglise libérienne ont demandé à être représentés dans la Commission de 
Désarmement, démobilisation et réinsertion (DDR) du pays. Dans un 
communiqué publié ce week-end à l'issue d'une réunion du Conseil des 
Eglises du Liberia, ils ont indiqué que l'Eglise pourrait avoir un grand 
impact dans une campagne de sensibilisation du public. Qualifiant de 
"fragile" la paix au Liberia, et soulignant "la nécessité d'améliorer 
rapidement la sécurité dans le pays", ils ont également promis de plaider 
en faveur de "la vérité et la réconciliation", conformément à l'accord de 
paix d'Accra. Ils ont exhorté le gouvernement de transition de Gyude Bryant 
à veiller au respect de l'Etat de droit, des droits humains, de la 
transparence et de la bonne gouvernance. -- 12 novembre. D'autre part, les 
soldats de la force de paix de l'Onu ont dû intervenir pour mettre fin à de 
nouveaux combats entre rebelles libériens et miliciens fidèles à l'ancien 
président Charles Taylor. Ces incidents se sont déroulés à Buchanan, à 90 
km de Monrovia.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 13 novembre 2003)

* Liberia. Spotlight on Charles Taylor  -  7 November: Liberia's former 
president, Charles Taylor, absconded with government money and has tried to 
loot revenues since he went into exile, says a UN panel monitoring 
sanctions against the West African nation. The report was discussed by the 
UN Security Council on 6 November, with members saying the sanctions on 
diamonds, arms, logging and some travel would stay in place for the time 
being, as the panel had recommended. "The situation is such that the 
sanctions will just continue," said Angolan Ambassador Ismael Gaspar 
Martins, this month's council president. The embargoes were imposed after 
Taylor's government was accused of fomenting warfare in the region for 
wealth and power and must be reviewed every six months. An August peace 
deal ended most fighting between rebels and government forces, sent Taylor 
into exile in Nigeria and cleared the way for a transitional government 
under Gyude Bryant. But the panel said the country's commerce was riddled 
with corruption, kickbacks and bribes from foreign concerns that now also 
involve rebel leaders. Liberian consumers, for example, pay more for fuel 
and rice than necessary, the report said. It says attempts to trace illicit 
bank accounts and other illegal Liberian activities by Taylor and others 
met with little response from governments and firms in the United States, 
Britain, Switzerland and China, among others. "Former President Charles 
Taylor has diverted and continues to divert revenues and assets of the 
Government of Liberia," the panel said. The report said that funds taken 
illegally from the Liberian International Shipping and Corporate Registry, 
with a key office in Vienna, Virginia, were invested in real estate. "Even 
from his exile, Charles Taylor has attempted to sell some of those 
properties, including one in South Africa which had been used to house the 
Liberian Embassy," the panel said. 8 November: Security has been tightened 
around the compound in eastern Nigeria of the exiled former Liberian 
leader, Charles Taylor, following rumours the United States has posted a 
$2m bounty for his capture. The Bush administration has said Mr Taylor 
should face trial at a special war crimes court in Sierra Leone, where he 
was indicted in June this year while still president of Liberia. 13 
November: Washington denies it has plans to offer a $2m bounty for the 
capture of Liberia's exiled former leader, Charles Taylor. A bill approving 
an $87bn aid package for Iraq and Afghanistan included a reward for "an 
indictee of the Special Court for Sierra Leone". Nigeria said the offer, 
assumed for Mr Taylor's detainment, verged on state-sponsored terrorism. 
The US says the money could be "an additional tool" if the need arises. "We 
strongly oppose any violent or other illegal actions against Nigerian 
authorities aimed at obtaining custody of Charles Taylor," US State 
Department spokeswoman Susan Pittman said. "Apprehension of indictees 
should be conducted by appropriate authorities."   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 13 
November 2003)

* Liberia/Sierra Leone. Bryant regrets war in Sierra Leone  -  6 November: 
Liberia's interim president has expressed regret for his country's part in 
Sierra Leone's civil war. On a one-day visit to Sierra Leone, Gyude Bryant 
said it was time for the two states to put the past behind them. His 
predecessor Charles Taylor, now living in exile, is currently appealing 
against war crimes charges laid by Sierra Leone's UN-backed court. Mr 
Bryant, speaking in Freetown after talks with Sierra Leone President Ahmed 
Tejan Kabbah, told reporters: "Not all of us endorse what happened. I beg 
you to forgive us, put away the bitterness of the past and let us live and 
work together to move our countries forward," he said.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 
6 November 2003)

* Madagascar. Festival de la danse  -  Du 8 au 15 novembre, la capitale 
malgache accueille la 5e édition des Rencontres chorégraphiques de 
l'Afrique et de l'océan Indien. De l'Egypte à l'Afrique du Sud et du Cap 
Vert à l'Ethiopie, pas moins de onze compagnies représenteront leur pays 
dans cette compétition. Les trois lauréats primés se verront offrir une 
tournée en Allemagne, en France, en Grande-Bretagne, en Espagne et en 
Tunisie au premier semestre 2004. Le premier prix bénéficiera en outre 
d'une tournée en Afrique en 2004 ou 2005 en fonction des disponibilités de 
la compagnie.   (JAI, France, 9-15 novembre 2003)

* Madagascar. Elections municipales  -  Les élections municipales se sont 
déroulées le dimanche 9 novembre, dans les communes rurales de Madagascar 
dans un climat de calme. Elles se poursuivront le 23 novembre dans les 
grandes villes. Le parti du président Marc Ravalomanana part grand favori 
dans ce scrutin.   (La Croix, France, 10 novembre 2003)

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