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Subject: News September 18, 2000
To: Will Cusack <[log in to unmask]>
From: Will Cusack <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 11:09:12 -0400
From Washington Post
U.N. Worker Shot to Death In Guinea
Upheavals Undermining W. Africa
From NY Times
Congo's War Triumphs Over Peace Accord
UN Staffer Dead in Guinea Raid
Growing Tensions on Ivory Coast
From LA Times
Attackers Kill U.N. Agency Official
From Baltimore Sun
U.N. refugee agency worker killed, second missing in Guinea
From Various African Sources
Ivory Coast ruler escapes death
Kassim Climbs Ring to Fight Uzbekistan Foe
South Africa Upset Brazil 3-1
Trade Policy Will Give Momentum for Africa's Growth -Gana
Media Independents Account for 40% of National AdvertisingBudget in 1999
Central Bank Holds Debt Conversion Programme Auction Sept. 29
Central Bank Lists Gains of Agreement With IMF
Federal Government Sets Up Six Sector Committees
Presidency, US Firm Meet On Proposed Mambilla Power Plant
Connect Communities to Your Facilities, FG Tells Shell
Oil Firms Asked to Embark On Developmental Projects in Ilaje
From CNN
U.N. staff member killed in Guinea; another missing
Ivorian leader, Gen. Guei, escapes assassination attempt
S.African labor hits Mbeki on AIDS, economy
Sudan government to get tough with protesters
S.Africa's Mbeki seeks unity, economy restructure
U.N. court set to try Rwanda journalists for genocide
U.N. envoy assessing needs of drought-hit Africa
South African police block area hit by foot-and-mouth disease
U.N. approves 4,200 member peacekeeping force for Eritrea-Ethiopia
U.N. relief workers race to feed starving Angola
Case charging oil companies with murdering activist to go forward
From Washington Post
U.N. Worker Shot to Death In Guinea
Associated Press Monday, September 18, 2000; Page A15
GENEVA, Sept. 17 -- Gunmen killed an employee of the U.N. refugee agency
in the West African country of Guinea, and a second employee is missing,
the organization said today.
The motive for the attack was not clear. It came nearly two weeks after
three workers for the same agency, the office of the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees, were slain in Indonesian-controlled western
Timor.
Mensah Kpognon, 50, of Togo, was slain at his home in the southeastern
town of Macenta near the border with Liberia, the refugee agency said.
The agency said it had heard that the attackers abducted another
employee.
The agency said in a statement from its headquarters here that Kpognon
had contacted its offices in the Guinean capital, Conakry, early this
morning to report unrest in Macenta and to say that attackers had burned
the town's military garrison. Refugee agency officials sent to check on
Kpognon found his body and said his house had been burned.
Guinea hosts more than 460,000 refugees, one of the largest refugee
populations in Africa. About 330,000 are from Sierra Leone, and about
126,000 are from Liberia. Most of the refugees in the Macenta area are
Liberian. Border clashes between Guinea and Liberia have left dozens
dead in the past two weeks.
Upheavals Undermining W. Africa
By Douglas Farah Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, September 17,
2000; Page A28
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- With a spate of border clashes, rebellions and
political upheavals, West Africa is turning from a region that offered a
glimmer of hope for stability a year ago to a new crisis center.
Ivory Coast, the most prosperous and stable country on Africa's Atlantic
crescent, has suffered its first coup. The peace process has collapsed
violently in nearby Sierra Leone, where an international peacekeeping
mission is in disarray. And border clashes have erupted between Liberia
and Guinea, killing dozens in the past two weeks.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed concern in a statement
Tuesday,about the growing tension in the region. Alpha Oumar Konare, the
president of Mali and chairman of the Economic Community of West African
States, has begun a round of shuttle diplomacy to keep the crisis from
escalating.
Diplomats and intelligence analysts attribute the new round of conflicts
to a variety of factors. The Ivory Coast coup last December sent shock
waves through weak civilian governments in the region and emboldened
militaries. The indecisive response of the United Nations and other
international groups to the crisis in Sierra Leone created a sense of
impunity. And government officials in Liberia and Burkina Faso, along
with rebels in Sierra Leone, have acted to protect their lucrative
diamond trade, which would be jeopardized by ending the regional
conflicts.
"There are competing tendencies, with some governments wanting to play
by the rules, which means democracy, dialogue and cutting off the arms
flow to other nations," said a senior U.S. official. "There is a
competing tendency of countries who don't like elected governments and,
when there is tension with their neighbors, they arm the opposition. It
is old school versus new school, and it is a very difficult fight."
Compounding the problem, according to diplomats and intelligence
analysts, is the growing influence of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi,
whose country remains on the U.S. list of those accused of sponsoring
international terrorism.
Gadhafi has long-standing ties to Presidents Charles Taylor of Liberia
and Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso and to the Revolutionary United
Front rebels in Sierra Leone. Ivory Coast's ruler, Gen. Robert Guei, has
visited Libya twice in the nine months since the military took power.
Intelligence analysts said Gadhafi wields influence by giving oil and
money to governments whose policies have largely cut them off from
international lending institutions. That means, said one source, that
"if you are Guei or Taylor or Compaore, and you have an agenda to
violate the democratic rules of the game, then you have a sponsor."
One of the few bright spots in the region is Nigeria, the largest and
most influential country in West Africa, where military dictatorship has
given way to an elected government. President Clinton visited Nigeria
last month to bolster its fragile democratic transition.
The senior U.S. official said it is important for Nigeria to project its
influence in the region to counter the consolidation of military rule in
Ivory Coast. The official said it would be "grossly irresponsible" to
ignore the simmering conflicts in West Africa because all the groups
involved "have access to arms, and they are moving against each other in
a situation that is already volatile because of Sierra Leone. We take it
very seriously."
Ivory Coast shows few signs of holding credible elections to return
civilians to power and is suffering its worst ethnic clashes in a
decade.
Christopher Fomunyoh, the West African director for the Washington-based
National Democratic Institute, said that Guei's decision to run in
presidential elections scheduled for Oct. 22, along with the military's
recent beating of a prominent journalist, attempts to disqualify other
popular presidential candidates and renewed ethnic strife, were causes
for deep concern.
"What Guei is doing is destructive to the Ivory Coast and the entire
region," Fomunyoh said. "So much effort went into getting the military
to stay out of politics, and the message was beginning to register. But
Guei is taking the entire subregion back to the 1970s and '80s, when
military interference was acceptable. It is extremely unfortunate and is
having a huge negative impact."
The recent attack on Joachim Beugre, a prominent political journalist
for the newspaper Le Jour, has caused an angry public reaction in Ivory
Coast. Beugre was leaving a meeting with Guei, who had complained about
his reporting, when three presidential guards accosted him, drove him to
a remote area, beat him with rifle butts, kicked him and punched him,
leaving him hospitalized for several days. While such abuses are common
in other countries in the region, they are rare in Ivory Coast.
According to diplomatic sources, Guei defaulted on several important
international loans this month to pay bonuses of several hundred dollars
to each member of the army, his main base of support. As a result, major
creditors have cut off all new loans, the sources said.
In addition, ethnic clashes in the southwestern corner of the country
have left at least 13 dead in the past two weeks.
Along the border between Liberia and Guinea, other clashes--in violation
of a nonaggression pact signed a year ago--have left dozens dead in the
past two weeks. Taylor publicly accused Guinea of harboring rebels who
oppose him who have fought a series of running battles with Liberian
troops on the Guinean border.
Guinea's president, Lansana Conte, in turn accused Taylor, along with
the RUF in Sierra Leone and the Compaore government in Burkina Faso, of
seeking to destabilize Guinea.
Taylor and Compaore are long-time allies of the RUF, which carried out a
series of raids into Guinea last week, abducting two Italian Roman
Catholic priests in one. Conte went on national television and radio to
accuse Liberian and Sierra Leonean refugees living in Guinea of
fomenting war against the government. Thousands were rounded up by
soldiers and civilian militia groups, beaten and forced to leave the
country.
Guinea harbors some 330,000 refugees from Sierra Leone's civil war and
125,000 from Liberia, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees. New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Conte of "inciting
armed attacks" against the refugees, saying his "inflammatory public
statement . . . provoked widespread attacks by Guinean police, soldiers
and civilian militias." The organization said that many women were raped
in roundups.
"All of these factors increase tension and don't make things easier,"
said the U.S. official. "It is all potentially very dangerous."
From NY Times
Congo's War Triumphs Over Peace Accord
By IAN FISHER
ONGO, Congo, Sept. 13 - It takes nearly nine hours to get here from the
next big town, in a boat that leaks its slow way through swampland and
walls of jungle with few hints of human life. But then, there it is: a
war rarely seen up close, and getting worse.
Dogs gnaw through new graves. Rebel soldiers, the winners of a battle
here just days ago, hold up shredded posters of Congo's pudgy president,
Laurent Kabila. They seem surprised - even a little afraid - at the
amount of weaponry they captured after five days of fighting: hundreds
of machine guns, mortars, rocket launchers, mounds of newly bought
ammunition that showed, with little doubt, that Mr. Kabila meant
business.
"If we knew all these guns were here we would never have dared to attack
them," said Rugaza Ndayisenga, who at only 28 is a commander here for
the rebel group, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo.
For more than two years, a complicated war has been fought in hidden
places like this. In Congo, the third-largest country in area in Africa,
it is a scramble for political power as much as for its bounteous
diamonds, gold, timber and coffee. It is sometimes called Africa's World
War I because the troops of at least seven nations are battling here,
along with three fractious rebel groups and countless militias.
The fighting has gone on despite a peace accord signed in August 1999 by
all the major parties - even though that accord has checked the war's
intensity. But in recent months violence has surged, here in the
northwest along the Ubangi River, as well as in Congo's far eastern
reaches next to Rwanda and Uganda. The number of refugees is soaring.
United Nations officials say Mr. Kabila is attacking more by air, and
rebel officials say his ground attacks involve far more weaponry, like
the large cache captured here.
Soon the stakes may grow yet greater, in a way that could unravel the
few surviving strands of the peace accord and make the United Nations'
hope of stationing peacekeepers in Congo even less likely.
A few days ago, Jean-Pierre Bemba, the rebel leader in Équateur
Province, issued a challenge to Mr. Kabila and major Western nations
that pushed the accord with more vigor than any of those who signed it.
He wants Mr. Kabila to declare whether he will abide by the peace
accord, signed in Lusaka, Zambia. If not, he says he will not feel
constrained by it either.
"We are at a turning point," Mr. Bemba, a 38-year-old businessman-
turned-rebel, said this week in Gbadolite, his headquarters. "Is Lusaka
alive still or not? That is the question."
Mr. Bemba's target is specific, and gaining it would probably intensify
the fighting: He wants to close down the airport at Mbandaka, the last
major city along the Congo River before the capital, Kinshasa. He
contends that Mr. Kabila is using the airport there to initiate bombing
raids, a violation of the Lusaka accord, even as Mr. Kabila says he will
honor other parts of the accord.
"Lusaka is a package," Mr. Bemba insisted. "You must take all of Lusaka.
You can't say to a woman, `I take your head; I leave your heart.' "
It is not certain whether Mr. Bemba is capable militarily of closing the
airport. Nor is it clear if his major sponsor, President Yoweri Museveni
of Uganda, would give his approval given that Mr. Museveni's own
friends, the United States and many European nations, would probably
hold him responsible for such a departure from the Lusaka accord.
But, at a minimum, Mr. Bemba's challenge may finally add some clarity to
the status of the accord signed in Lusaka.
On paper, the accord calls for a cease-fire, disarmament of militias,
negotiations among Congolese political leaders and a withdrawal of all
foreign forces. Uganda and Rwanda are fighting on the side of the
rebels; Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia on Mr. Kabila's side. Burundi has
had troops there, though only to protect its border, it says.
Almost none of the agreement has been fulfilled. So no one with a stake
in Congo - warring parties or outside nations eager for stability in
central Africa - can say whether it is moving toward peace or further
from it.
Aid agency officials say the confusion has made their job especially
hard because rich nations are reluctant to give money without the
guarantee of a peace accord. And suffering has grown with the uptick in
fighting.
Along the Ubangi, an estimated 30,000 to 80,000 people have fled their
homes. In eastern Congo, where an ethnic war tied tightly to the larger
war is growing worse, relief officials estimate that there are 750,000
refugees, compared with at most 200,000 a year ago.
"Humanitarian needs and suffering of the people will continue whether
Lusaka works or not," Charles Petrie, the top United Nations aid
official in Congo, said this week in a visit to Gbadolite. Without the
accord in place, he said, "it does make it a lot more difficult because
we are in a logic of greater conflict."
Experts say all sides have violated the accord in one way or another.
For example, Rwanda and Uganda, nominally allies, fought three times in
Kisangani, most recently this summer, killing hundreds of civilians.
Rwanda has since pledged to pull back about 125 miles from the front
lines. Uganda recalled about 5,000 soldiers, roughly half its Congo
force, this summer.
Each nation had its own reasons for moving closer to the spirit of the
Lusaka accord. Like Mr. Bemba with his ultimatum, Rwanda and Uganda seem
to want their behavior to highlight what they say are Mr. Kabila's
greater violations.
Many experts blame Mr. Kabila for violating the accord in an almost
systematically confusing way. He has rejected the internationally
appointed mediator to the conflict.
He agreed only last month, under great pressure, to allow peacekeepers
to be stationed on territory he holds. In July, he made no pretense
about beginning an offensive against Mr. Bemba, aimed at pushing him
beyond the positions all sides agreed on last year. United Nations
officials and other experts, however, do not hold Mr. Bemba blameless in
various rounds of fighting in Équateur Province.
Mr. Kabila's offensive started well for him, deep in the jungles around
the Ubangi River along the border of the neighboring country to the
west, the Congo Republic. He pushed Mr. Bemba's forces from Imese, 50
miles south of here on the Ubangi, to just outside Libenge, 125 miles
north of here. That put Mr. Kabila within striking range of Mr. Bemba's
base, Gbadolite (also the hometown of Mobutu Sese Seko, the longtime
dictator whom Mr. Kabila overthrew in 1997).
But the fighting turned on Aug. 10, when Mr. Bemba's forces blew up a
hulking ferry fitted with big guns on the Ubangi near the village of
Mawiya. He says the attack killed 800 government soldiers. There is no
way to verify whether the number, though the smell of charred flesh is
still strong inside the battered ship's hull.
The battle for Dongo - a strategic town on the route to Gbadolite -
began the week of Sept. 3. After five days of fighting, Mr. Kabila's
soldiers fled, leaving behind more weapons than the rebels had expected.
Mr. Bemba said more than 30 of his soldiers were killed, and more than
50 of Mr. Kabila's.
People in Dongo said that as government soldiers fled, they rounded up
civilians suspected of collaborating with the rebels and executed them -
mostly by slashing their throats in a small house where the floor is
still covered with blood. Papulu Wenda, 42, said he found the body of
his older brother, Jano, 46, in a pile of bodies. The dead, 47 in all,
were buried in two mass graves.
"Kabila's soldiers came, and they wanted to kill the people of Dongo,"
Mr. Wenda said. "I don't understand it."
Even though they won the battle, the rebel soldiers here said government
MIG fighter jets still drop bombs on them once a day. The bombs, they
said, toppled several houses - including one with a caved- in roof and
crumbling walls aside one of many piles of captured ammunition. One
commander, Luc Murhunzi, 33, sat next to the ammunition and contemplated
the war's near future. He said he did not think Mr. Kabila's plans
included observing the Lusaka accord.
"He's using warships," he said. "He's using planes. He's arming himself.
This shows he is looking for a military solution."
UN Staffer Dead in Guinea Raid
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 12:08 a.m. ET
GENEVA (AP) -- A U.N. refugee worker was killed and a second was
kidnapped in a raid Sunday in West Africa, officials said. The motive
for the attack was not immediately clear.
Mensah Kpognon, 50, of Togo, was slain at his home by unknown gunmen in
the southeastern Guinea town of Macenta, near the border with Liberia,
the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.
UNHCR said it had heard that the attackers abducted another of its staff
members, Sapeu Laurence Djeya of the Ivory Coast.
The raid was a new blow to the UNHCR two weeks after the slaying of
three U.N. staff members in Indonesian-controlled West Timor. Kpognon's
killing came in a region rife with tensions over refugees from Liberia
and Sierra Leone and cross-border attacks.
``Yet another humanitarian has been savagely killed trying to help
refugees,'' said Frederick Barton, deputy high commissioner, at the
agency's Geneva headquarters. ``We haven't even buried our three other
colleagues murdered in West Timor 10 days ago, and now we have lost
another friend and co-worker.''
A statement by UNHCR headquarters said Kpognon had contacted the
agency's offices in the Guinean capital, Conakry, at 6:30 a.m. Sunday to
report unrest in the Macenta and to say that attackers had burned the
town's military garrison two hours earlier.
UNHCR officials in Macenta were sent to check on Kpognon after he lost
contact with Conakry, and found his body at his house, the agency said.
``He had apparently been shot by the retreating gunmen,'' the statement
said. ``His house had been burned, as well as a UNHCR vehicle parked
outside.'' It said several bodies were seen in the streets of the town.
The agency said it had issued an urgent appeal to governments in the
region to join in the effort to obtain the release of Djeya, the female
staffer.
It was unclear what led to the attack that killed Kpognon, who studied
at the University of Iowa in 1984-85.
Guinea hosts more than 460,000 refugees, one of the largest refugee
populations in Africa. Some 330,000 are from Sierra Leone and 126,000
from Liberia.
Most of the refugees in the Macenta area are Liberian, but some Sierra
Leonean refugees have fled into the area recently following attacks by
Sierra Leonean rebels.
There have been several cross-border raids into Guinea recently. UNHCR
noted that the government has said at least 80 people were killed by
anti-Guinean dissidents in attacks on several Guinean villages near the
borders of Sierra Leone and Liberia.
It said some 50 people were killed Sept. 1 in an attack on Massadou
village, about 15 miles from Macenta. The Guinean government blamed the
attack on gunmen from Liberia. Liberia has accused Guinea of harboring
rebels who crossed into northern Liberia in July and have been fighting
government forces there ever since.
Tensions have been high toward refugees in Guinea recently. There have
been a number of attacks on refugees in Conakry and elsewhere in the
past week since President Lansana Conte accused them in a television
broadcast of harboring anti-Guinean dissidents.
Tensions mounted Sunday amid allegations that Guinea's military launched
artillery attacks on Sierra Leone border villages.
A top Sierra Leonean official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
accused Guinea of firing mortars in recent days on three villages in
northwestern Sierra Leone. The official said Guinea was trying to create
a ``buffer zone'' against Sierra Leonean and Guinean rebel groups based
across the border.
Patrick Coker, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Sierra
Leone confirmed an upsurge of fighting in the region, which is dominated
by Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front rebels.
Growing Tensions on Ivory Coast
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 7:33 a.m. ET
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) -- Machine-gun fire echoed through the streets
near the home of Ivory Coast's junta leader Monday, amid growing
tensions in the military over pay disputes and deep political and ethnic
divisions.
The shooting stopped shortly after dawn and civilians began venturing
into the streets. Government officials said Gen. Robert Guei was safe
and remained in control.
In a state radio broadcast, Information Minister Henri Cesar Sama said
Guei's home in an upscale residential neighborhood on the edge of
downtown Abidjan came under fire before dawn by armed men, who were
driven back by loyalist forces. Other officials said the attackers wore
civilian clothing.
Sporadic shooting was also heard in the pre-dawn hours in other
neighborhoods around Abidjan, the main city in this West African nation.
``The counterattack was fatal, swift and hard,'' Sama said, accusing
``opportunists'' of trying to destabilize Ivory Coast.
Reinforcements were sent to Guei's home to help defend it, the officials
said. Heavily armed soldiers in armored personnel carriers set up
barricades outside the residence.
One person was killed and four others were badly injured, authorities
said. The casualties could not be independently confirmed.
The attackers fled after expressing anger at Guei for declaring his
candidacy in upcoming presidential elections, according to a senior
military official.
Conflict has been growing among Ivorian soldiers, who were promised
large bonuses in exchange for supporting the Dec. 24 coup that toppled
the government of former President Henri Konan Bedie and brought Guei to
power. The bonuses have only been partially paid and different amounts
were given to different units, increasing ill-feeling among the security
forces.
Tensions have also been flaring in recent days over the question of
whether Alassane Dramane Ouattara, a popular opposition leader, will be
allowed to run in elections set for Oct. 22.
The issue came into question after a new constitution was adopted
following a referendum in early August. A last-minute amendment
stipulates that both parents of presidential candidates be ``of Ivorian
origin'' -- a change widely believed to be aimed at excluding Ouattara.
Ouattara says both his parents were Ivorian. His opponents insist they
were from Burkina Faso. Ouattara is a former prime minister and
International Monetary Fund official who has been a popular advocate for
Ivory Coast's marginalized northern Muslims and large immigrant
community.
There have been two military mutinies since the Christmas Eve coup, as
the junta's initial burst of popularity waned. During the last mutiny,
in early July, mutinous soldiers demanded housing bonuses worth $9,000
but eventually agreed to a sum of $1,600. Only a fraction of that amount
has been paid.
Southern Ivorians, mainly Christian, also have grown increasingly
resentful of the growing flood of northern ethnic groups, mostly Muslim,
seeking farm homesteads and jobs in the agriculturally rich south. Last
week, one village in southwestern Ivory Coast was burned down and
another abandoned in fighting between various native and migrant ethnic
groups.
From LA Times
Attackers Kill U.N. Agency Official
From Times Wire Reports
A United Nations refugee agency official was killed and another
abducted during an attack on the town of Macenta in the southern part of
Guinea, local residents and the agency said. Residents who had fled to
the town of Nzerekore, farther south, told a reporter by phone that the
unidentified attackers had crossed the border from Liberia. The dead man
was identified as Mensah Kpognon, a Togolese national who was head of
the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Macenta.
Another agency staff member was reported abducted.
From Baltimore Sun
U.N. refugee agency worker killed, second missing in Guinea
Associated Press Originally published Sep 18 2000
GENEVA - A United Nations refugee agency employee was killed in a raid
in the West African country of Guinea and a second was missing, the
organization said yesterday.
The attack followed by nearly two weeks the killing of three U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees staff members in West Timor.
The agency said the latest victim, whose identity was not released
pending notification of relatives, was killed at his home by unknown
gunmen in the southeastern town of Macenta, near the border with
Liberia.
The staff member had contacted UNHCR offices in the Guinean capital,
Conakry, yesterday to report that attackers had burned Macenta's
military garrison, the agency said in a statement from its Geneva
headquarters.
Other UNHCR staff members in Macenta were sent to investigate after the
staff member lost contact with Conakry, and they found his body, the
agency said.
"He had apparently been shot by the retreating gunmen," the UNHCR said.
"His house had been burned, as well as a UNHCR vehicle parked outside."
It said several bodies were seen in the streets of the town.
"Yet another humanitarian has been savagely killed trying to help
refugees," said UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner Frederick Barton. "We
haven't even buried our three other colleagues murdered in West Timor 10
days ago, and now we have lost another friend and co-worker."
From Various African Sources
Ivory Coast ruler escapes death
Ivory Coast military ruler General Robert Guei has said that the attack
on his home early on Monday was an attempt on his life.
Two of his bodyguards were killed in the attack, which began shortly
before dawn when men in civilian clothing opened fire on the residence
in the commercial capital, Abidjan.
The attack ended after about two hours, but sporadic shooting has been
heard in the city.
Members of the military junta have suggested the attack was ordered by
opponents of General Guei in next month's presidential elections - a
claim vehemently denied by the general's main opponent.
Tensions have been increasing over the elections
Shooting began around the presidential residence in the Plateau part of
the city shortly before dawn.
General Guei told a news conference: "Some young military people were
more or less invited by certain people who are known to me to make an
attempt on my life."
He said he had had prior knowledge of the attack.
Military and paramilitary forces were on the streets in large numbers on
Monday morning, checking identity papers.
Sporadic bursts of gunfire could be heard in mid-morning in the Cocody
district near General Guei's residence and one person in a home in the
area was wounded by a stray bullet.
Two loud explosions were heard at one point.
Tension has been rising in Ivory Coast because of moves to prevent
former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, General Guei's main opponent,
from standing in the election.
Mr Ouattara's opponents say he is a national of neighbouring Burkina
Faso and so ineligible to stand, but he maintains he is Ivorian.
Angry response
On Sunday General Guei gave a speech threatening to take action against
Mr Ouattara.
Divisions have also been growing among Ivorian soldiers, who were
promised large bonuses in exchange for supporting the coup that toppled
the government of former President Henri Konan Bedie and brought General
Guei to power.
There have been two military mutinies since the coup, as the junta's
initial burst of popularity waned.
During the last mutiny, in early July, soldiers demanded housing bonuses
worth $9,000 but eventually agreed to a sum of $1,600. Only a fraction
of that amount has been paid.
Kassim Climbs Ring to Fight Uzbekistan Foe
New Vision September 18, 2000 Kenneth A. Matovu in Sydney, Australia
With two of his teammates already out, featherweight Adam Kassim comes
up against the biggest opponent of his career this evening when he faces
Uzbekistan's Tulkunbay Turgunov, ranked fourth in the world, in the
first round of the boxing competition here.
The All Africa Games gold medallists bantamweight Abdu Tebazalwa and
light flyweight Sande Kizito were both first round losers at the weekend
prompting coach Dick Katende to say: "These guys are in another league;
African boxing has a long way to go."
Now Kassim, who won silver at the All Africa Games, faces Turgunov, one
of the medal favourites here.
The fighter put on a brave face after the draw was released last week,
saying he was ready for combat.
"This is a major championship and everybody must be in with a chance,"
Kassim said. "It does not matter who the opponent is, I have to go out
and do my job."
But after the Tebazalwa and Kizito bouts, Katende was left baffled by
the scoring system.
"Many of our punches were on target but they did not score," he said.
"This is something we have to study and find a solution."
Jackson Asiku meets Philippino Arian Lerio in the flyweight category
tomorrow.
South Africa Upset Brazil 3-1
Vanguard Daily September 18, 2000
South Africa scored an upset 3-1 victory over gold medal favourites
Brazil yesterday to leave the Brazilians' place in the last eight of the
Olympic soccer competition - and Wanderley Luxembourgo's position as
coach - seriously in doubt.
Goals from Manchester United's Quinton Fortune after 10 minutes, and
substitutes Siyabonga Nomvethe (74) and Steve Lekoelea (90), gave South
Africa victory. At the same time it raised more question marks about the
future of Luxemburgo whose job is already under threat because of
Brazil's indifferent start to their World Cup campaign .
The result - coupled with Japan's 2-1 victory over Slovakia in the other
Group D match in Canberra - means Japan top the group with a maximum of
six points followed by Brazil and South Africa on three and Slovakia
with none.
Brazil now have to play Japan, who have won their last 19 straight
matches, in their final group match in Brisbane on Wednesday while South
Africa play the Slovaks in Canberra on the same night.
Trade Policy Will Give Momentum for Africa's Growth -Gana
Vanguard Daily September 18, 2000
The first-ever American Trade Policy on Africa, the African Growth and
Opportunity Act (AGOA), recently passed, will give a new momentum for
Africa's growth similar to the U.S. marshall plan for Europe after the
Second World War, the Minister of Information and National Orientation,
Prof. Jerry Gana, has stated.
In an interview with the North America correspondent of the News Agency
of Nigeria (NAN) in New York, Gana said that Agoa will create for Africa
the kind of relationship that allowed for increased flow of goods and
services between the U.S. and the "Asian Tigers", such as Korea,
Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia.
"This is Africa's time," the minister said, adding that Nigeria must
take advantage of the act, along with other African countries.
He noted that it was in pursuit of such a goal that the U.S.-Nigeria
development Institute was recently launched to take a proactive role in
ensuring that Nigeria increases its exports to the US market.
The institute, an independent body comprising businessmen and government
officials, will link viable American investors with Nigerian partners
and also link Nigerian exporters with U.S. distributors, the minister
said.
"It is clear now that in addition to government agencies, private-sector
oriented businesses must be involved in trade and investment promotion,"
the minister said.
He pointed out that the institute is the first of such private
initiative aimed at promoting nigerian trade with foreign countries,
adding that emerging economies such as China, India, Mexico and Brazil,
among others, have several of such independent trade promotion bodies.
Although himself and some state governors are members of the group, the
minister said, their role is mainly to facilitate the activities of the
institute.
He said one critical function that the institute will be in providing
useful market information for Nigerian exporters so that they can
produce to meet American specifications.
He stated that the institute will have offices in both Nigeria and the
u.s. And will create a database for businesses seeking to penetrate the
American market.
Media Independents Account for 40% of National AdvertisingBudget in 1999
Vanguard Daily September 18, 2000
About 40 percent of the country's total expenditure on advertising
estimated at N4.5 billion in 1999, is said to have been accounted for by
Media Independent organisations.
Similarly, about 75 per cent of total advertising budget was contributed
by the media specialist sub-sector of the advertising industry in South
Africa.
Further research by Media Monitoring Group have also shown that Media
Independent practitioners accounted for more than 70 per cent of total
advertising investment in United Kingdom as well as U.S.A. in the period
spanning the last two decades.
According to Dr Osaren Emokpae who spoke in a recent interview with
Vanguard in Lagos, Media Independent practice has not only been accepted
worldwide as a net contributor to GDP Growth, but also, as a hallmark of
modern and future advertising practice.
According to him, the organization, which commenced business in Nigeria
in 1998, has in just two years contributed immensely and brought about
modern innovations in specialised media planning and the creative
process.
Through in-depth media research, MIPAN has continually evolved
innovative services in advertising practice such as analysis of media
trends, monitoring competitive activities, media investment strategies
as well as negotiating for possible benefits in terms of availability,
rates and positions.
Ten global conditions he enumerated were necessary in driving the birth
and growth of media specialisation.
These include among others, complexity of media, multinationalism,
creative need convergence as well as clients need for media information
simplification.
Under the initiative of MIPAN, Emokpae who also doubles as managing
director and chief executive of Peapco Integrative disclosed that the
organization had constituted a media research foundation to look into
various aspects of media research, design, application, funding as well
as monitoring programming in order to elevate media planning practice in
the industry.
Also, a working committee comprising of heads of advertising sectorial
groups had been constituted to monitor activities of the research
foundation .
Meanwhile, a joint committee of MIPAN and the AAPN met recently to
fashion out and to specify operational guidelines for mutual and
complimentary relationship between both association and their member
agencies. Part of the recommendations stipulates that services of
advertising agencies and the media independent shall be complimentary to
one another and under no circumstance should they compete in their
operational services to clients.
Central Bank Holds Debt Conversion Programme Auction Sept. 29
Vanguard Daily September 18, 2000
The 116th auction session under the Debt Conversion Programme will take
place on Friday, 29th September, 2000 at 11.00 a.m. in the Bankers
Committee Room, Central Bank of Nigeria, Lagos.
Foreign currency denominated debts, the discounted value of which will
be the equivalent of N500 million will be offered for redemption. All
applicants who have received approval-in principle are eligible to
participate in the auction. Bid and Registration Forms for the auction
are obtainable either at the Debt Conversion Committee Secretariat,
located at the 2nd floor, NACB Building, Central Area, Abuja or its
Liaison Office (9th floor, Main building) at the Central Bank of
Nigeria, Lagos.
Bids will be received at the auction venue as from 10.00 a.m. on the day
of the auction.
Central Bank Lists Gains of Agreement With IMF
Vanguard Daily September 18, 2000
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has explained that a successful
implementation of the Stand-by Agreement (SBA) which the country
recently entered into with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will
pave the way for a successful debt negotiation with the Paris Club.
The agreement will also assist the country to attract quality foreign
investors if well implemented.
CBN Director of Research, Dr. Michael Ojo said this in a paper presented
at the pre-2000 World Bank/IMF annual meetings/workshop organised by the
Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in conjunction with
Benneen and Tokel Consultants in Lagos last week.
Ojo pointed out that the SBA agreement would also make the country win
the sympathy and goodwill for the government: a necessary element for
the achievement of a meaningful debt forgiveness or reduction.
"It is only through the successful implementation of the SBA programme
that the economy can be efficiently restructured and faster sustainable
growth achieved", Ojo added.
According to him, Nigeria under the SBA programme, could borrow SDR
788.9 million (approximately $1.01 billion) which is equivalent to 45
per cent of its IMF quota.
He said the objectives which the CBN in collaboration with the
Presidency under the programme was expected to achieve, include a
significant reduction of the external current account deficit to less
than seven per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), containing
inflation to a single digit by limiting growth in broad money and
expansion in net domestic assets.
Other objectives include: to significantly increase the growth in real
non-oil GDP to contain the overall deficit of the consolidated
government budget to 0.5 per cent of GDP (a balanced budget). removal of
petroleum subsidy
The CBN Director of Research stated that the SBA programme also contains
a conditionality on structural benchmarks which encompass privatization,
trade liberalisation, port and legislative reforms, good governance
especially the elimination of bribery and corruption and the
enthronement of judicial democracy.
He further pointed out that as at end of June 2000, the performance
benchmarks under the direct surveillance of the CBN such as those on
external reserves, net domestic assets, and borrowing by the Federal
Government from the apex bank had been met.
Federal Government Sets Up Six Sector Committees
Vanguard Daily September 18, 2000 Emma Ujah Abuja
The Vice President and Chairman, National Council on Privatisation
(NCP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has set up six sector steering committees
to reform and restructure public enterprises awaiting privatisation.
The steering committees are in hospitality/tourism, agriculture/water
resources, industry, insurance and transport sectors.
A release issued by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) in Abuja at
the weekend said that the committees, which will be inaugurated by the
Vice President Friday, are crucial to the government's privatisation
programme.
The restructuring and reform of the enterprises in the six sector
constitute a major agenda of the government's economic policy.
According to the release signed by the BPE spokesman, Mr. Joe Anichebe,
the sector requires policy formulation and legal/regulatory reform
before privatisation.
"The National Council on Privatisation emphasises the importance of
specific reform steering committees as it begins the implementation of
the second phase of the privatisation programme," it said.
Specifically, the committees will be charged with: Formulating sector
reform proposals for the approval of the council, to create conditions
for sustainable development of the sector.
Advising council on policies and programmes to promote competition,
efficiency, and transparency in the restructuring and privatisation
within the sector.
Formulating proposals for the approval of council, for reducing
government expenditure, and attracting increased private financing and
investment in the sector.
Advising council on steps taken, while undertaking the reform of the
sector, to improve the efficiency, quality and availability of goods and
services throughout Nigeria.
Overseeing the activities of various government agencies, parastatals,
operators in the sector, and consultants to council leading to the
restructuring, and privatisation of enterprises under the sector as
required by law.
Co-ordinating all sector activities and brief council on a regular
basis, drawing attention to progress and constraints.
Providing information briefs and guidance to all appointed consultants
of council on the execution of their assignments.
Sector reform committees in power, telecom, aviation, oil and gas have
already been inaugurated.
Presidency, US Firm Meet On Proposed Mambilla Power Plant
Vanguard Daily September 18, 2000 Wole Mosadomi Abuja
The presidency is to hold a meeting tomorrow with officials of a U.S.
based firm, which has indicated its intention to build a $4 billion
hydro-electric power plant on the Mambilla plateau in Taraba State.
The meeting would be chaired by President Olusegun Obasanjo, with Vice
President Atiku Abubakar, Secretary to the Government of the Federation
(SGF), Mr. Ufot Ekaette, and Minister of Power and Steel, Dr. Olusegun
Agagu, attending.
Others expected at the meeting are the Minister of State for Power and
Steel, Alhaji Danjuma Goje, the chairman of NEPA's Technical Board,
Senator Liyel Imoke, and its managing director, Mr. Joseph Majoku, as
well as other Nigerian and U.S. officials.
"The meeting is convened to afford both parties the opportunity to reach
concrete arrangements for the take-off of the new power station, so as
to boost electricity supply in the country,'' the source said.
It was gathered that the meeting would formalise agreements for the
development of the new power plant, which has the capacity of generating
3,600 mega watts of electricity.
Recently, Goje said in Abuja that a U.S.-based company, had indicated
interest to invest in the development of the proposed power station on
the Mambilla plateau and that they were expected in the country this
month to formalise necessary agreements for the commencement of the
project.
It would be recalled that Agagu, Goje and other officials of the
ministry and NEPA also held series of meetings with the U.S. Secretary
for Energy, Mr. Bill Richardson, and other officials, on areas of
co-operation and support for the Nigeria's energy sector for the growth
and development of the country.
It was envisaged that the new power projects currently been undertaken
by some foreign and local firms would boost electricity generation in
the country and enhance its availability to Nigerians and other citizens
of the sub-region, under the West African power pool project.
The companies involved in the development of the power generation
plants, include Shell, Agip, Mobil-Exxon, Chevron and other indigenous
firms, who have set in motion machinery f or the establishment of
gas-powered stations to utilise the enormous "associated" gas being
flared in the country.
NAN also learnt that under the federal government Emergency Power
Programme (EPP), some foreign investors would be engaged in the
rehabilitation of NEPA's power plants.
One of such investor is South Africa's Eskom, which is expected to enter
into agreements on the rehabilitation of power systems, management of
and safeguarding of NEPA facilities.
Connect Communities to Your Facilities, FG Tells Shell
Vanguard Daily September 18, 2000
SpecialL Projects Minister in the Presidency, Mr. Dan Chuke, has called
on Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to connect their host
communities to their own facilities such as electricity and water
system, rather than providing them with generators and boreholes.
Speaking after inspecting Shell's facilities at Forcados in Delta and
after inspecting some community projects it executed, Chuke said that
connecting the communities to Shell's facilities would ensure constant
and adequate supply of these amenities.
He said that providing the host communities with generators and
boreholes was creating more problems for them because of the cost of
running and maintaining such facilities.
The minister said that connecting the communities to Shell's facilities
would further enhance their relationship and would reduce the frequency
of vandalisation of the company's facilities.
Chuke advised oil companies to evolve impact assessment mechanism to
allow them gauge the impact of the community projects in their host
community.
The minister of special projects, Mr. Dan Chuke, also said that the
federal government would not tolerate the siting of unsustainable
community development projects in the Niger Delta region.
Speaking at Forcados in Delta soon after inspecting the Forcados oil
terminal owned by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Chuke
also cautioned oil companies against the lopsided development of their
various host communities.
He said, "the federal government wants a sustainable development that
encompasses all the communities," and urged the oil companies to focus
on the priorities of their host communities when executing projects.
The minister said that the establishment of the Niger Delta Development
Commission (NDDC) would among other things help to co-ordinate the
thoughts, programmes and projects of the stakeholders to ensure that the
priorities of the host communities were properly executed.
He commended Shell Petroleum Development Company for providing some
facilities to its more than 400 host communities, but appealed to the
management of the company to "do more".
Oil Firms Asked to Embark On Developmental Projects in Ilaje
Vanguard Daily September 18, 2000 Dayo Johnson Akure
oil producing communities in the Ilaje riverine area of Ondo state over
the weekend called on the federal government to compel all oil companies
operating in their areas to embark on developmental projects so as to
stem the restiveness of the youths.
The call was contained in a statement made available to newsmen in Akure
by the coastal communities consisting of Mahin, Aleri and Etikan
Kingdoms of Ilaje area of the state.
Signed by Hon. Oyedele Oguntibeju - (Mahin Kingdom), Dr. J.I. Omojuwa
(Aleri Kingdom) the communities expressed concern over neglect by the
oil companies in the past years.
According to the communities, they have not as individuals or group
benefitted in terms of development projects, scholarship, and employment
opportunities from the oil companies operating in their areas.
"We are peace loving people, who do not want to partake in any action
that could sabotage our economy but we are no cowards, we believe much
in dialogue rather than violence."
Describing, the operation of some oil companies in their areas as
illegal, the communities pointed out that they failed to carry out the
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as directed by federal government
in the EIA decree.
The oil companies according to them, "have violated international law as
regard Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) because none of them
produced the EIA before they started oil exploration in our territorial
waters."
While regretting the damaging effects of oil exploration and
exploitation in their areas without any single project and other
benefits, the communities submitted that their environment has witnessed
wanton destruction of the pristine, delicate mangrove and adjoining rain
forests, pollution of the inland water among others.
They accused the oil companies of operating a divide- and-rule system in
the area by inciting one section against the other sections thereby
causing youth and adults restiveness in the communities.
"We therefore call on the oil companies to meet with the representatives
of the various oil associations as recognised by the royal fathers and
the Petroleum Resources Unit (PRU) of the governor's office for dialogue
and negotiation.
"We are peace loving people, we have been restraining ourselves from any
act that might affect smooth operation of oil exploitation and
exploration activities in our domain or sabotaging our fragile
democracy", they said.
From CNN
U.N. staff member killed in Guinea; another missing
September 17, 2000 Web posted at: 2:25 PM EDT (1825 GMT)
GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- Gunmen killed a United Nations employee in
the West African country of Guinea on Sunday and another staff member
was missing, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.
The agency said the staff member, whose identity was not released
pending notification of relatives, was slain at his home by unknown
gunmen in the southeastern town of Macenta, near the border with
Liberia.
The staff member had contacted the UNHCR offices in the Guinean capital,
Conakry, on Sunday morning to report that armed attackers had burned
Macenta's military garrison two hours earlier, the agency said in a
statement released at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Other UNHCR staff members in Macenta were sent to investigate after the
staffer lost contact with Conakry, and they found his body at his house,
the agency said.
"He had apparently been shot by the retreating gunmen," the UNHCR said.
"His house had been burned, as well as a UNHCR vehicle parked outside."
It said several bodies were seen in the streets of the town.
The attack comes nearly two weeks after the slaying of three UNHCR staff
members in West Timor.
"Yet another humanitarian has been savagely killed trying to help
refugees," said UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner Frederick Barton. "We
haven't even buried our three other colleagues murdered in West Timor 10
days ago, and now we have lost another friend and co-worker."
It was unclear who carried out the raid.
Guinea hosts more than 460,000 refugees, one of the largest refugee
populations in Africa. Some 330,000 are from Sierra Leone and 126,000
from Liberia. Most of the refugees in the Macenta area are Liberian, but
some Sierra Leonean refugees have fled into the area recently following
attacks by Sierra Leonean rebels.
UNHCR said it had heard that another staff member had been abducted in
the southwestern part of the country. The agency said it had issued an
urgent appeal to governments in the region to join in the effort to
obtain the staff member's release.
Ivorian leader, Gen. Guei, escapes assassination attempt
September 18, 2000 Web posted at: 10:09 AM EDT (1409 GMT)
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (Reuters) -- Ivory Coast's military ruler, General
Robert Guei, said Monday he had escaped an assassination attempt at his
residence during the night but that two of his bodyguards had been
killed.
"Some young military people were more or less invited by certain people
who are known to me to make an attempt on my life," Guei told a news
conference.
He declined to say who these "certain people" were.
Guei, who came to power after a coup last December, said that a
presidential election -- the first in a series to restore civilian rule
-- would go ahead as planned on October 22.
He said the shooting at his residence had begun at about 1 a.m. (0100
GMT) Monday.
Witnesses had reported sustained firing from about 3 a.m. (0300 GMT)
from the vicinity of Guei's house just outside the central Plateau
business and administrative district.
Continuous firing was heard for around 45 minutes and short bursts of
occasionally heavy firing could still be heard from near Guei's
residence until at least 5 a.m. (0500 GMT).
"There were a couple of big bangs, mortars or grenades or something,"
one man who lives nearby said of the initial attack. "The firing was
quite concentrated."
Gates of residence broken open
A senior military source said the assailants had forced the driver of an
armored vehicle guarding the residence to break down the gates and had
gone inside.
Communication Minister Henri Cesar Sama confirmed on state radio that
armed assailants had managed to get inside Guei's residence in the early
hours but added: "Fortunately, loyalist forces quickly got the upper
hand."
Guei said two of his personal guard had been killed in the attack. Army
sources said as many as 10 people had been killed from the two sides.
Workers at the PISAM private clinic in Abidjan said five wounded
soldiers had been brought in. Their wounds were not life-threatening.
There were some reports of gunshots in other parts of Abidjan, including
near the president's office in the Plateau district and near the
headquarters of state television, but witnesses said they had not heard
heavy gunfire.
Sama told state radio that armed elements were still at large in the
city. He vowed that they would be shown no mercy.
Sporadic bursts of gunfire could still be heard at mid-morning in the
Cocody district near the area of Guei's residence and one person in a
home in the area was wounded by a stray bullet. Two loud explosions were
heard at one point.
Paramilitary gendarmes were seen halting traffic for periods and firing
at targets off the main road circling the lagoon on which Abidjan sits.
Calm restored
By midday (1200 GMT) calm had returned.
Sama advised citizens to be cautious if they went outdoors. Although
many people had started traveling to work as normal at first light,
around 5:30 a.m. (0530 GMT), the city was much quieter than usual by the
afternoon.
Military and paramilitary forces were on the streets in large numbers,
checking identity papers.
Abidjan is the main city in the West African country, which is the
world's biggest cocoa producer.
All the ministries and embassies are located in Abidjan. The United
States, British and Dutch embassies warned their citizens to stay
indoors.
Guei took power in a military coup in December 1999, which followed a
pay mutiny. There have been bouts of military unrest since then, often
over pay, although Guei has also suggested political motives.
He said in December that he was not interested in power but just wanted
to "sweep the house clean" after the corruption and ethnic division that
characterized the ousted government of President Henri Konan Bedie.
However, he has since decided to stand as a candidate in the
presidential election and some members of the military are known to be
unhappy with that.
At least six members of Guei's personal bodyguard have been arrested in
the past two weeks and charged with threats to the security of the
state, although those charges have since been reduced, diplomats said.
S.African labor hits Mbeki on AIDS, economy
September 18, 2000 Web posted at: 10:05 AM EDT (1405 GMT)
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- South Africa's biggest labor
federation COSATU hit out on Monday at President Thabo Mbeki's economic
policies and urged him to back down on his controversial stand on
HIV/AIDS.
In a tough speech to the annual meeting of the Congress of South African
Trade Unions, its leader Willie Madisha told Mbeki and delegates that
the president's policies on privatization had failed and challenged him
to acknowledge that the HIV virus causes AIDS.
Madisha called for a review of reforms set out in the government's
Growth, Employment and Redistribution strategy (GEAR), set out in 1996.
The strategy -- praised in business circles -- focuses on boosting
growth by lowering inflation, interest rates, the budget deficit and
government spending.
"A major setback was the adopting after 1996 of conservative economic
policies incorporated in the GEAR," he said.
Madisha also said COSATU wanted a rethink on the privatization of state
enterprises, saying it limited services to the poor and threatened jobs.
"We are concerned by the proposed privatization of state utilities,"
Madisha said to loud applause from some 2,000 delegates.
Tough words on HIV/AIDS
But Madisha saved his harshest criticism for the government's AIDS
policy. Madisha said Mbeki was wasting time on scientific speculation
and hindering the fight against the disease.
"The current public debate on the causal link between HIV and AIDS is
confusing. For COSATU, the link between HIV and AIDS is irrefutable and
any other approach is unscientific and unfortunately likely to confuse
people," Madisha said.
Mbeki sat stony-faced throughout Madisha's speech and he avoided the
issue when he took to the podium to address the congress.
The 1.8 million-strong COSATU and the South African Communist Party are
alliance partners with Mbeki's ruling African National Congress (ANC).
Mbeki's policies on HIV/AIDS, which afflicts 10 percent of South
Africa's population of 43 million, have been steeped in controversy
since he cited personal Internet research in remarks last year
questioning the predominant view that AIDS is caused by the HIV virus.
In the clearest explanation of his position to date, Mbeki told Time
Magazine last week that HIV could be a cause of AIDS, but that it was
not the sole origin of the disease.
But Madisha said Mbeki should spend time finding urgent ways of
providing cheap medicines to AIDS sufferers.
"We need to put the current controversies behind us and develop
strategies to obtain cheap drugs," he said.
Mbeki urges allies not to be sidetracked
In his speech Mbeki sought to deflect COSATU's and the South African
Communist Party's anger with the government's GEAR strategy, which aims
to boost growth by curbing spending.
COSATU feels that GEAR is responsible for job losses and is becoming
increasingly disgruntled with Mbeki's controversial stand on AIDS.
But Mbeki made only a passing reference to AIDS when he listed diseases
afflicting his people. Instead he concentrated on slamming the
"beneficiaries of our racist past" for the rift in the alliance, and
urged it to "intensify the struggle against racism."
"They want us to become a house divided against itself, concentrating on
a campaign to destroy one another," he said.
Sudan government to get tough with protesters
September 18, 2000 Web posted at: 9:59 AM EDT (1359 GMT)
KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- Sudan's Islamist-led government has decided
to prosecute protesters who have staged sometimes violent demonstrations
in several towns in the past week, an independent newspaper reported on
Monday.
Al-Rai al-Aam said President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had called a cabinet
meeting to hear a report by Interior Minister al-Hadi Abdalla on riots
in al-Fasher and Port Sudan.
"The council of ministers directed the concerned quarters to take
decisive measures to ensure the stability and safety of citizens and
their belongings," the daily said.
It gave no details of the measures, but quoted Culture and Information
Minister Ghazi Salah al-Din as saying legal action would be taken
against "any person found to have been involved in the recent riots and
sabotage in some of the states."
On Sunday, a secondary school pupil died and 15 people were hurt,
including five policemen, in Kosti, 270 km (170 miles) south of
Khartoum, in clashes between police and demonstrators, the
pro-government Akhbar al-Youm newspaper reported.
Kosti Province Commissioner al-Tayeb Abdel-Rahman Mukhtar told the paper
that demonstrators, mostly students, had burnt at least six vehicles and
an Agriculture Ministry store, and had attacked the Agricultural Bank of
Sudan and the Bank of Khartoum.
He said the protests had been planned because they began in six places
at once after "plotters" spread rumors that compulsory national service
personnel had killed four students. He said 15 people had been arrested.
Protests about school fees and shortages of water and electricity have
swept several towns, including al-Fasher, Port Sudan, Nyala and
el-Obeid, in the past eight days.
The government has blamed the opposition Popular National Congress
party, headed by former Parliament Speaker Hassan al-Turabi, for
instigating the unrest.
Turabi's party has denied any involvement and accuses the government of
arresting 63 of its members across the country.
S.Africa's Mbeki seeks unity, economy restructure
September 18, 2000 Web posted at: 9:58 AM EDT (1358 GMT)
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- South African President Thabo
Mbeki sought on Monday to paper over the cracks in his party's alliance
with unions and communists, blaming recent rifts on racism.
He told the annual congress of the 1.8-million-member Congress of South
African Trade Unions (COSATU) that the economy needed to be restructured
to boost growth and acknowledged that it had legitimate concerns over
job losses.
"It's going to require that we make further fundamental and necessary
changes to restructure the economy," he said.
"But it is worth noting that despite differences over the transformation
process in the economy as well as other sectors of our society, our
alliance, contrary to the wishes of some, is endurable. Although we have
our ups and downs our objectives have made us more cohesive and
focused," he said.
In his speech Mbeki sought to deflect COSATU and the South African
Communist Party's anger with the government's Growth, Employment and
Redistribution (GEAR) strategy, which aims to boost growth by curbing
spending.
Unionists feel that GEAR is responsible for the loss of nearly one
million jobs since Mbeki's African National Congress became South
Africa's first post-apartheid rulers in 1994.
The umbrella union body is also becoming increasingly disgruntled with
Mbeki's controversial stand on AIDS, which questions the predominant
view that AIDS is caused by the HIV virus. AIDS afflicts 10 percent of
South Africa's 43 million people.
Mbeki made only a passing reference to AIDS when he listed diseases
afflicting the country, instead concentrating on slamming the
"beneficiaries of our racist past," for the rift in the alliance, and
urging it to "intensify the struggle against racism."
"They want us to become a house divided against itself concentrating on
a campaign to destroy one another," he said.
"It is clear why they try to weaken us and strengthen themselves. These
forces of privilege want to determine the national agenda. They want us
to be weak," he said.
He promised that the government's social programmes to build more houses
and increase health benefits would continue.
"These programs, none of them will contract, or shrink. We will expand
all of them. There will be more housing, more health," he said.
U.N. court set to try Rwanda journalists for genocide
September 17, 2000 Web posted at: 5:51 PM EDT (2151 GMT)
NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) -- Three Rwandan journalists are due to go on
trial before a U.N. court on Monday, accused of inciting the genocide of
up to 800,000 people in Rwanda in 1994.
Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza was director of public affairs in the Rwandan
Foreign Affairs ministry in 1994, Hassan Ngeze was editor of Kangura, a
Hutu extremist newspaper while Ferdinand Nahimana was the director of
the "hate-radio," Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM).
The three men face charges of conspiracy and incitement to commit
genocide and crimes against humanity.
But their lawyers said at the weekend they were not sure the
long-awaited trial would start at the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, northern Tanzania.
The independent Hirondelle news agency quoted Ngeze and Barayagwiza's
lawyers as saying the case should be postponed to settle various issues,
including Barayagwiza's demand that two of the ICTR judges exclude
themselves from the case after recently visiting Rwanda, where they were
received by President Paul Kagame.
Barayagwiza is also contesting the decision to try him together with
Ngeze and Nahimana.
"We don't know what is going to happen on Monday," John Floyd, Ngeze's
American lawyer was quoted as saying. "We will have to wait and see."
Hirondelle reports on the activities of the ICTR, funded by the
European, Dutch and Swiss governments.
Rwanda's media played a large part in the 100-day killing orgy that
stunned the world between April and June 1994.
RTLM journalists preached hatred and exhorted Hutus, who make up about
85 percent of the population, to kill Tutsis, the minority who ruled
Rwanda for centuries before independence in 1962.
The ICTR in June jailed Belgian journalist Georges Ruggiu for 12 years
after he pleaded guilty to direct and public incitement to commit
genocide.
Ruggiu worked for RTLM -- which Barayagwiza helped establish -- at the
time of the genocide and became an infamous voice behind what came to be
known as "hate radio."
Ruggiu is expected to testify against the three men.
Some 120,000 genocide suspects are rotting in Rwanda's overcrowded
jails, many in appalling conditions, a recent Organization of African
Unity report said. It estimated that it would take up to four centuries
to try them all at the present rate of prosecutions.
In Rwanda itself, rights groups say 3,000 suspects have been tried since
genocide trials began there in late 1996.
About 400 people have been sentenced to death while 500 others have been
acquitted. Twenty-two were executed in 1998.
The ICTR's biggest conviction to-date is that of former Prime Minister
Jean Kambanda, who was found guilty of involvement in the genocide in
1998.
U.N. envoy assessing needs of drought-hit Africa
September 17, 2000 Web posted at: 5:46 PM EDT (2146 GMT)
NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) -- Catherine Bertini, the United Nations
secretary-general's special envoy, arrived in Nairobi on Sunday for an
updated assessment of the drought now threatening 14 million people in
the greater Horn of Africa region.
Bertini, executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), is
visiting Kenya and Ethiopia, the two worst-affected countries in the
region.
"This is a follow-up to her tour of the Horn of Africa in April, and
part of an on-going review of the drought crisis," a U.N. spokesperson
said in Nairobi.
Large areas of Kenya and Ethiopia have had little rain for the past
three years, creating serious food shortages. The WFP is already
spearheading the import of relief food supplies to the region, but
experts say more assistance is needed to counter famine.
On Monday, Bertini is due to visit Kajiado district, south of Nairobi,
to assess the famine situation there. She will also meet government and
aid officials before flying to Ethiopia on Wednesday.
South African police block area hit by foot-and-mouth disease
September 17, 2000 Web posted at: 6:14 PM EDT (2214 GMT)
CAMPERDOWN, South Africa (AP) -- Police and members of the defense force
on Sunday began closing off roads near a farm that has been infected
with foot-and-mouth disease.
The outbreak has killed 70 pigs, and about 600 cattle in the area are
expected to be killed to prevent the disease from spreading.
Foot-and-mouth disease is highly communicable and can kill carrier
animals and ruin entire beef and milk-cow herds. But unlike mad cow
disease, which is believed to cause a brain-wasting ailment in humans,
it cannot be passed on to people.
The virus, identified as Type O, is usually found in the Middle East,
Thailand and India, veterinary officials said.
The area within a 10-kilometer (6-mile) radius of the farm, located 40
kilometers (25 miles) west of Durban, was closed off at the request of
the Department of Agriculture.
The outbreak is believed to have been caused by infected pig swill
supplied to a farmer by a contractor who had bought it from a ship.
U.N. approves 4,200 member peacekeeping force for Eritrea-Ethiopia
September 15, 2000 Web posted at: 11:53 p.m. EDT (0353 GMT)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The Security Council voted unanimously Friday to
authorize a 4,200-strong U.N. peacekeeping force to monitor a cease-fire
agreement between Eritrea and Ethiopia and oversee the redeployment of
troops from their disputed border.
The vote came as Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said negotiations
on reaching an overall peace settlement with Eritrea will start at the
end of September or in early October.
"We are now in the second phase of tying up loose ends" leading to "a
final and comprehensive agreement," Meles told reporters at the National
Press Club in Washington D.C.
The United States drafted the resolution, which would authorize the
force to be deployed in a 15-mile buffer zone on the Eritrean side of
the 620-mile contested border while independent experts conduct the
demarcation of the frontier.
The beefed-up force would bolster a U.N. mission of 100 military
observers approved by the council July 31. The first troops of that
smaller force arrived in the region Wednesday.
The two-year border war flared after Ethiopia launched a sweeping
offensive into Eritrean territory on May 12, forcing some 1 million
Eritreans to flee at a time when a regional drought threatened hundreds
of thousands of lives.
An agreement to end the hostilities was signed June 18.
The U.N. force is to monitor the agreement and verify the redeployment
of Ethiopian troops that were not under Ethiopian administration before
the war began. The observers are also to monitor the positions of
Eritrean forces which must remain 16 miles from the redeployed Ethiopian
troops.
The resolution was ready to be approved weeks ago, but the vote was held
up while the United Nations contacted potential troop contributors to
determine who would be willing to provide units. Diplomats said some
industrialized countries, possibly including Canada, might contribute to
the mission.
The mission is to be a "classic" peacekeeping operation, in which U.N.
troops occupy a demilitarized zone between two countries.
In other recent conflicts, such as Sierra Leone and Congo, the United
Nations has been called on to monitor peace deals between government and
rebel groups within a single country. Such missions are more complicated
and dangerous than the one envisaged for Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Under the resolution, an arms embargo imposed on both countries would
not apply to U.N. peacekeepers or U.N.-organized mine-clearing
operations.
U.N. relief workers race to feed starving Angola
September 15, 2000 Web posted at: 11:26 PM EDT (0326 GMT)
KUITO, Angola (AP) -- Dozens of U.N. World Food Program flights crammed
with aid have been landing on an airstrip dotted with potholes in this
crippled Angolan city in a race to prepare 130,000 desperate locals for
the approaching rainy season.
Angola's two-decade civil war has diminished in intensity since the army
routed the UNITA rebels from their strongholds last year, but an
estimated 3.7 million civilians remain in peril in this Southwest
African country from an acute shortage of food and medicine.
With the weeks-long rains liable to start any day, aid officials are
racing to stock the city with food before the battered airstrip becomes
inundated with water. Intensified WFP flights began several days ago,
with 15 on Friday.
"With the rains, we're going to have problems," said Pedrinho Tamosi, a
Roman Catholic missionary who works in Kuito, one of Angola's main
cities. "UNITA is attacking a lot more, but the worst is that the runway
won't take the weight of the WFP planes."
Annual rains in Angola devastate the country, knocking out
infrastructure and sparking water-borne epidemics, such as malaria. The
WFP says the problem is the same across this country of 12 million
people.
Recalling the filth and disease that came with the last annual downpour,
Bishop Jose Nambi lamented what the homeless will face. "When the rains
come, it will be like last year," he said.
The Kuito airstrip, like the city's roads and buildings, is pocked with
bomb craters and likely will crumble in the rains. Sporadic guerrilla
attacks along rural roads make it unsafe to bring in aid by truck.
Some families living in clay huts at six camps ringing this central
highland city have been here for years, driven from their homes by
fighting. Kuito's houses, public buildings and churches are almost all
pocked with bullet holes.
Old schools have no roofs or walls and the bare hospital where dozens of
landmine victims are cared for has no running water. At one school, a
130 mm shell casing is used as the bell.
From schools to feeding kitchens and demining operations, everything is
run by aid agencies and the church.
The continuing hit-and-run attacks by Jonas Savimbi's UNITA troops and
the laying of land mines by both sides prevent the locals -- mostly
subsistence farmers with large families -- from working their fields and
make them dependent on international aid.
Last week, the rebels staged a night attack on Cunhinga, a town 30
kilometers (20 miles) from Kuito, sending another batch of civilians
scurrying into the city and placing further strain on its meager
resources.
Kuito, 580 kilometers (360 miles) southeast of the capital, Luanda, has
become an emblem of Angola's civil war, which began after the country's
1975 independence from Portugal.
First, the Marxist government, aided by Cuba, staged a Cold War proxy
battle against South African-backed rebels. Since the fall of the Berlin
Wall, the government has enticed foreign companies with its huge oil
reserves, which it uses to pay for its war effort. Meanwhile, Savimbi
has used illegal diamond mines to equip his army in the bush.
Kuito was heavily bombarded by UNITA in 1992 after the rebels rejected
their defeat in the country's first-ever democratic elections, which
followed a peace deal the previous year.
Two years later, the United Nations brokered a fresh deal and spent $1.5
billion implementing it, but Savimbi was secretly rearming and the
accord unraveled. Kuito again took the brunt of Savimbi's offensive, but
the city held out until the army drove UNITA -- a Portuguese-language
acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola --
from its nearby bases.
There is no sign of an end to the war. Fearing that many could starve or
die from malnutrition-related illnesses, the WFP is hurriedly stocking
its warehouses to the ceiling with 50-kilogram (110-pound) bags of
maize.
Case charging oil companies with murdering activist to go forward
September 14, 2000 Web posted at: 10:56 PM EDT (0256 GMT)
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A federal appeals court on Thursday reinstated a
lawsuit against Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. (RD.AS) and sister company
Shell Transport and Trading Co. Plc (SHEL.L) alleging they instigated
the torture and murder of environmental activists by the Nigerian
government.
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals said a trial court erred in dismissing
the suit on grounds that the case should be tried in Britain, where
Shell Transport is based.
The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court in 1996, was brought by the
families of executed activists Ken Saro-Wiwa and John Kpuinen, who led
opposition to Royal Dutch/Shell's oil exploration activities in the
Ogoni region of Nigeria.
Critics of the group alleged that its Nigerian affiliate took land for
oil development without paying adequate compensation and then polluted
the region's air and water.
The suit alleged that Royal Dutch and Shell Transport helped to
fabricate evidence to support murder charges against Saro-Wiwa and
Kpuinen, who were hanged in 1995.
The case was filed under a U.S. law that allows suits against companies
accused of involvement in human rights violations anywhere in the world.
The appeals court wrote that two of the plaintiffs were U.S. citizens
and that federal law dictated that the plaintiffs' choice of a forum
should be given deference whenever possible.
The appeals panel said the district court should have also considered
the financial hardship the plaintiffs would suffer if the case were
moved to Britain.
The court held that the oil companies offered only "minimal
considerations" to support efforts to move the case to Britain. It said
the cost of shipping documents to the United States or flying witnesses
to New York instead of London would not be excessively burdensome for
the companies in view of their "vast resources."
The appeals panel sent the case back to district court for further
proceedings that include other defence arguments seeking the suit's
dismissal.
The companies, which have an investor relations office in New York,
control the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, an international integrated network
of affiliated but formally independent oil and gas companies.
Among the affiliated companies is the Shell Petroleum Development Co. of
Nigeria that conducts oil exploration in the Ogoni region.
The suit alleged that Shell Nigeria recruited the Nigerian police and
military to attack local villages and suppress opposition to its
development activity.
Saro-Wiwa and Kpuinen were repeatedly arrested and tortured by the
government because of their leadership roles in the protest movement.
They were eventually hanged along with other Ogoni leaders after being
convicted of murder by a special military tribunal.
The complaint further alleged that members of Saro-Wiwa's family
including his 74-year-old mother were beaten by Nigerian officials and
that another plaintiff, whose real name was not given to protect her
identity, was shot and wounded by the Nigerian military.
The suit alleged the abuses were instigated by Shell Nigeria under the
direction of the defendants. Royal Dutch/Shell allegedly provided the
money, weapons, and other support to the military for the attacks.
The defendants allegedly participated in the fabrication of murder
charges against Saro-Wiwa and Kpuinen and bribed witnesses to testify
against them.
<<News September18, 2000.doc>>
Will Cusack
Legislative Advocacy and National Outreach
National Summit on Africa
1819 H Street, NW, Suite 810
Washington, DC 20006
(800) 934-3418 phone
(202) 861-8645 fax
[log in to unmask]
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