Tracking current news on genocide and items related to past and present ethnic, national, racial and religious violence.
For abbreviated news sources (ie: AP, BBC) see below

Angola

Namibian (Windhoek) 20 Aug 2002 NDF Denies Involvement in Angolan Atrocities By Chrispin Inambao THE Ministry of Defence yesterday denied allegations that members of the Namibia Defence Force (NDF) committed human rights abuses inside Angola. "Claims by the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) that Namibian Defence Force (NDF) members committed atrocities inside Angola are completely misleading and well crafted to suit the NSHR strategy of tarnishing the good name and reputation of the NDF and the Namibian Government," a Ministry statement charged. The statement was issued a week after The Namibian first approached the Ministry for comment over NSHR's claims. Said the Ministry: "Our mission was to conduct hot pursuit operations in southern Angola against Unita bandits who committed crimes in the north-eastern part of our country. Our operations were conducted with a clear mission which prohibited NDF members from being involved in any atrocity against innocent civilians or engage themselves in plundering activities." "Our records do not correspond with alleged cases of rape, execution of innocent civilians and all other alleged atrocities ... therefore the Ministry of Defence strongly condemns those allegations and dismisses them with the contempt they deserve," it added. In its statement, the NSHR accused the NDF and the Angolan armed forces (FAA) of committing summary executions, torture, rape and other brutalities against civilians in the Cuando Cubango province. It quoted villagers and members of the security forces in the Cuando Cubango Province as having said the atrocities and other brutalities were committed between November 1999 and February 2002, although a number of atrocities also took place after April 4 this year when the warring parties in Angola signed a ceasefire. According to the Defence Ministry, many of the places mentioned in the NSHR's claims were beyond the NDF's "area of responsibilities". The statement also said that the NDF had not conducted joint operations with the FAA during hot pursuit operations inside Angola.

Internews (Arusha) NEWS 13 Aug 2002 ICTR/Former Kigali Army Chief Arrested in Angola By Sheenah Kaliisa Arusha Angola government security officers and those from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) yesterday arrested General Augustin Bizimungu, former Rwandan army chief of staff, at a demobilization camp. Bizimungu was among UNITA forces gathered at the demobilization camp. According to a news report by the Associated Press, the Angolan government will hand over Bizimungu to the ICTR. Efforts by 'Internews' to confirm Bizimungu's arrest from ICTR officials failed. "I can only confirm that he is located in Angola but I can't confirm his arrest at this time," an ICTR official said. The ICTR Office of the Prosecutor issued a warrant of arrest for the former army chief in April this year. Bizimungu faces 10 counts of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity, crimes he allegedly committed in Rwanda in 1994. Bizimungu was appointed chief of staff in the Rwandan army on 16 April 1994 and promoted to the rank of major general at the same time. Prior to this appointment, he was commander of military operations in Ruhengeri province. Bizimungu is jointly indicted with General Augustin Ndindiliyimana, former chief of Gendarmerie Nationale (National Police), Major Protais Mpiranya, commander of the presidential guard battalion, Major François-Xavier Nzuwonemeye, commander of the reconnaissance battalion in the Rwandan army and Captain Innocent Sagahutu, second in command in the reconnaissance battalion. Sagahutu and Ndindiliyimana are already in the custody of the ICTR in Arusha. Their trials are yet to begin. The prosecutor alleges that Bizimungu conspired with the four army officers to plan the extermination of the civilian Tutsi population and members of the opposition, so they could remain in power. According to the prosecution, several army officers in the Rwandan army, including Bizimungu, publicly stated before the genocide that the extermination of ethnic Tutsi would be the inevitable consequence of resumption of hostilities between government forces and the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), or the implementation of the Arusha peace accords signed in August 1993. In February 1994, Bizimungu allegedly stated that if the RPF attacked again, he would not want to see any Tutsi alive in his sector of operations. The prosecution claims that as early as 1992, Bizimungu personally supervised the training of 'Interahamwe' militiamen in Ruhengeri Province, in collaboration with local authorities. The Interahamwe was the youth wing of the Movement for the Republic of National Democracy (MRND), the party that led a coalition government during the April-June 1994 genocide that claimed more than 800,000 lives. Bizimungu allegedly distributed weapons to militiamen directly and through his subordinates. If Bizimungu will be transferred to Arusha, the total number of detainees arrested by the tribunal would be 60. Currently, trials are in progress for 22 detainees, 29 others are awaiting trial. Since its inception in 1995, the tribunal has handed down nine judgments -- eight convictions and one acquittal.

Burundi

Voa News 2 Aug 2002 24 Civilians Killed in Burundi Attacks on Rebels At least 24 civilians have been killed in Burundi following a government offensive against rebels, just north of the capital, Bujumbura. Reports say among the dead are women and children. The attack took place Wednesday, an apparent retaliation against ethnic Hutu rebels who had shelled the capital the day before, killing at least three people. Earlier Thursday, the U.N. Security Council condemned the latest violence and urged the rebels to lay down their arms and join peace talks due to resume in August. More than 200,000 people, mostly civilians, have died since Burundi's civil war between ethnic Tutsis and Hutus began in 1993. Peace talks led to a government power-sharing agreement between Hutus and Tutsis last November. But rebel groups refused to sign a cease-fire, saying the army remains dominated by Tutsis. Talks are set to resume in neighboring Tanzania in August.

Reuters 10 Aug 2002 Burundi talks to begin in Tanzania NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) -- Peace talks to tackle the roots of a nine-year civil war in the central African country of Burundi are due to start in Tanzania on Monday, but observers hold out little hope of a breakthrough to end the fighting. Burundi's war, a key strand in a web of conflicts entangling central Africa, pits rebels from the ethnic Hutu majority against the Tutsi-led army, and has killed about 200,000 people. "Everything is on track and the formal cease-fire talks will start on Monday morning as scheduled," Tanzanian Foreign Minister Jakaya Kikwete told Reuters. "Many of the key rebel and government delegations are already in Dar es Salaam," he said. Mediators hope to bring the main rebel groups to the table for three weeks of talks with the government, seeking the elusive prize of a cease-fire deal that satisfies all the factions fighting in the tiny country. But Tanzanian officials say that only one of the two main rebel groups active in Burundi -- the FDD -- has confirmed it will attend, suggesting the talks in Dar es Salaam are likely to serve mainly as a stepping stone to further discussions. "These negotiations are going to be very difficult because they really touch the root causes of the conflict," Francois Grignon, Central Africa Project Director for the International Crisis Group think-tank, told Reuters. "It would be very surprising if after only a month of negotiations you have a comprehensive agreement," he said. Grignon said mediators were hoping to broach key areas such as reforming the ethnic composition of the army and demobilising the rebels -- among the trickiest issues. Burundi's rebels trace their origins to a series of massacres of Hutus since independence in 1962, but the most recent rebellion was triggered by the assassination of Hutu president Melchior Ndadaye by Tutsi extremists in 1993. The ethnic divide in the country of seven million mirrors that of neighbouring Rwanda, where an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates were butchered in the 1994 genocide. South African diplomats charged with mediating the Burundi talks may draw encouragement from a peace deal signed last month in Pretoria that might eventually help end four years of war between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But fighting has intensified in Burundi in the past month, and observers warn that any future peace in the Congo could even force Burundian rebels based there back into their own country, pouring more fuel on the conflict. Hopes rose that the FNL rebels -- the other main rebel force active in Burundi alongside the FDD -- might drop their long-standing opposition to talks with the government and attend after the group announced a change of leadership on Thursday. But Kikwete said he could not confirm the FNL would join in, denting hopes of a cease-fire involving all rebel factions. South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who is steering Burundi peace efforts, was due in Dar es Salaam on Sunday. Burundi's war has worn on despite the inauguration of a power-sharing government between Hutus and Tutsis last November, set up under an accord mediated by former South African President Nelson Mandela. Rebels reject the new administration.

DR Congo

AP 13 Aug 2002 Congo, Uganda Discuss Troop Pullout EDDY ISANGO KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - Officials from Uganda and neighboring war-ravaged Congo met in the capital of Angola on Tuesday to discuss a withdrawal of Ugandan troops from Congo. The talks come after more than 100 people were killed last week in the northeastern town of Bunia as Ugandan soldiers and tribal fighters captured the town from Congolese rebels. On Monday, Uganda's deputy defense minister, Ruth Nankabirwa, said Uganda was withdrawing hundreds of its troops from resource-rich Congo, which has been devastated by a four-year conflict that has embroiled local rebels and armies of fellow African nations. "We hope to arrive at a legal framework that will allow the withdrawal of these troops, which have occupied our country for more than four years," Congolese government spokesman Kikaya Bin Karubi told The Associated Press in Kinshasa, Congo's capital, on Tuesday. Military experts from Uganda and Congo opened the Luanda talks on Monday, and talks between ministerial delegations began Tuesday. The Congolese delegation is headed by Congo's presidential representative, Katumba Mwanke. Congo's ruinous war began in 1998 when Congolese rebels, backed by Uganda and Rwanda, launched a campaign to overthrow then-President Laurent Kabila, accusing him of sheltering militias that threatened their own security. Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia sent troops to back Kabila. Peace efforts have gathered momentum since Kabila was assassinated last year and succeeded by his son, Joseph. Last month, Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame signed a deal to clear the way for the withdrawal of Rwandan troops. Under the accord, Rwanda has agreed to withdraw its troops from eastern Congo in exchange for the government's commitment to round up, disarm and repatriate thousands of former Rwandan soldiers and militiamen who have used the country since 1994 as a base for attacks on Rwanda. The Rwandans fled to Congo, then known as Zaire, after spearheading the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which more than half a million people, most of them minority Tutsis, were slaughtered.

Reuters 11 Aug. 2002 More Mutilated Bodies Take Congo Clash Toll to 90 BY FINBARR O'REILLY Reuters KINSHASA - U.N. observers found more mutilated bodies in northeastern Congo Sunday, bringing the death toll from fighting to at least 90, including women and children hacked to death. Clashes in the town of Bunia involving tribal militias, a rebel faction and the Ugandan army exploded last week in a local turf war that has been inflamed by a devastating four-year conflict in Africa's third biggest country. Another rebel faction said Sunday a separate battle was raging northwest of Bunia and dozens of people had been killed. Coming after last month's peace deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, the fighting has highlighted the difficulty of ending a many-sided conflict that has left an estimated two million dead in the mineral-rich former Zaire . U.N. observers in Bunia found a pit where 38 hacked up bodies had been dumped Friday, a day after finding 37 bodies -- including many women and children. Fifteen more corpses were discovered at the governor's residence Sunday. "They are mostly unidentified combatants killed with machetes," U.N. spokesman Hamadoun Toure told Reuters in Kinshasa. He said the governor appeared to have fled and the observers had no idea where he was. As an observer mission, the U.N. force has neither the mandate, the weapons nor the troops to stop eruptions of killing of a type that has become all too common in Congo's lawless east. Residents of Bunia told Reuters by satellite telephone that the town was calmer after Ugandan troops took control on Saturday, but that fears remained strong of more clashes. Bunia is less than 50 km (30 miles) from the Ugandan border. A senior intelligence official in Uganda denied reports that 11 Ugandan soldiers were killed in the fighting and said five combatants had been arrested. MANY-SIDED STRUGGLE The fighting at Bunia pits rebels of the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement (RCD-ML) and militias from the Lendu ethnic group against ethnic Hemas and the Ugandan army, which at one time backed the RCD-ML. Thousands of people have been killed in fighting in recent years between the Hema and the Lendu, whose clashes over land have often been fought with bows and arrows, spears and machetes. The RCD-ML, led by Mbusa Nyamwisi, broke away from the main RCD, Congo's biggest rebel faction backed by Rwanda. Another breakaway group, RCD-National, accused the RCD-ML of attacking its positions about 250 km (160 miles) northwest of Bunia last week. There was no independent confirmation of clashes or the group's claim to have killed dozens of attackers. "Mr. Nyamwisi's forces came and they died," the group's leader Roger Lumbala told British Broadcasting Corporation radio from Uganda. He did not say whether his forces suffered casualties. Congo's war erupted in 1998 when Rwanda and Uganda invaded to support rebels fighting the Kinshasa government. Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia sent troops to back the Congolese army. Last week, the presidents of Congo and Rwanda signed a peace agreement, but the number of other factions involved has increased doubts whether it will be decisive in ending the war. Uganda said last year it had pulled out most of its troops from northeastern Congo, leaving a power vacuum which helped trigger local violence like that at Bunia. The U.N. spokesman said the head of the mission and its military chief of staff had flown to Uganda from Kinshasa on Sunday to discuss the security situation with the authorities there.

BBC 10 August, 2002 Second mass grave found in DR Congo DR Congo's war has left an estimated two million dead United Nations peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo say they have discovered a mass grave containing 38 bodies near the north-eastern town of Bunia. About half of the dead were women and children, said the chief of staff of the UN force, Colonel Tim Watts. There are bound to be more dead Colonel Tim Watts UN mission The bodies were found on Friday in a village outside the town of Bunia, headquarters of a rebel faction and scene this week of clashes involving rival militias. It follows the discovery by the UN on Thursday of a mass grave on a farm outside Bunia. It held 37 corpses, all but three of them women and children. Most had machete wounds. An unknown number of people have been killed in the fighting in the area, which has also involved the Ugandan army, but it is feared that the majority of the victims are civilians. The UN says the area is now quiet with Ugandan troops patrolling the streets of Bunia, after they and their tribal allies seized the important trading town from another Congolese rebel faction, the Congolese Rally for Democracy Liberation Movement. "Our observers have counted 75 bodies so far, but there are bound to be more dead," said Colonel Watts. "The situation in Bunia is still pretty tense and our observers are unarmed, so it's difficult for them to go out and check." Mineral wealth Congo's war, which has left an estimated two million dead, broke out in 1998. The continuing fighting comes in spite of moves to work out a lasting peace agreement. Less than two weeks ago, a peace deal was signed in South Africa between the Congolese President, Joseph Kabila, and one of the key players in the four-year old war, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda. Mr Kagame has pledged to withdraw the thousands of troops he sent over the border in pursuit of Hutu rebels involved in the 1994 genocide of up to one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus. But correspondents say the number of other factions involved make it doubtful whether a peace deal with Rwanda alone will be decisive in ending the war. Thousands of other foreign troops remain in DR Congo - motivated primarily by Congo's vast mineral deposits. Uganda and Burundi have long supported rebel groups. At various times, Angola, Chad, Namibia and Zimbabwe - despite all having problems at home - have sent forces to back the government in Kinshasa.

Sapa AFP 18 Aug 2002 Rwandan troops sweep through eastern DRC Kigali - Troops of the Rwandan army are conducting a major sweep against ethnic Hutu rebels in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), military sources said on Sunday. In the mountainous bush country, about 200km south of the eastern DRC town of Bukavu facing the Rwandan border, Rwandan forces had taken control of the four settlements during the past three weeks, said military sources. On Friday, Rwandan forces captured the settlement of Nzovu, 150km west of Bukavu, the sources said. Rwanda and its chief ally in one of the most troubled regions of the vast central African nation, the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), have repeatedly claimed that the locations west of lakes Tanganyika and Kivu were used by the RCD government to provide airborne supplies to Hutu rebels operating in the area. The sources said the army sweep was aimed at cutting off the supply lines serving the Hutu Interahamwe (we kill together) rebels and former Rwandan Hutu soldiers who fled to eastern DRC after Africa's worst genocide in living memory. They are widely held responsible for the 1994 genocide which claimed up to a million lives in Rwanda. On July 30, the DRC and Rwanda signed a peace accord providing for the disarmament and regrouping of the ethnic Hutu fighters. Under a 90-day plan they are supposed to be repatriated in exchange for the withdrawal Rwandan army forces from the DRC. - Sapa-AFP

HRW 20 Aug 2002 Congo: War Crimes in Kisangani, Implicated Commanders Named Human Rights Watch (Washington, DC) PRESS RELEASE Washington, DC In a new report, Human Rights Watch identifies top commanders of the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) rebel movement implicated in the May massacres in Kisangani, and calls for their prosecution for war crimes. The report finds the rebels responsible for widespread killings, summary executions, rapes, and pillage during the put-down of a mutiny beginning on May 14, 2002. The commanders responsible for these war crimes should be promptly arrested and prosecuted, said Suliman Baldo, senior researcher in the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. Baldo welcomed the recent signing of a peace accord by Congolese President Kabila and Rwandan President Kagame. The agreement called for the disarming of the former Rwandan Armed Forces (ex-FAR) and Interahamwe militia in Congo implicated in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, and a withdrawal of Rwandan forces from Congo. However, Human Rights Watch said that war crimes and crimes against humanity continue to be committed daily by all parties to the war in the Congo, including the Rwandan army and its proxy force, the RCD-Goma. Impunity plagues the Great Lakes region, and until the belligerents and the international community show resolve in uprooting it, innocent civilians will continue to be massacred by lawless forces, said Baldo. The 30-page report, titled War Crimes in Kisangani: The Response of Rwandan-backed Rebels to the May 2002 Mutiny, is based on a three-week research trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Human Rights Watch research team established that Congolese military and police elements attempted a mutiny against Rwandan elements within RCD-Goma in Kisangani on May 14, briefly occupying the local radio station and killing several persons believed to be Rwandans. The attempted mutiny soon ended, but RCD-Goma flew in from Goma the top commanders of its army to coordinate a brutal repression campaign afterwards. Human Rights Watch research documented the killing of dozens of civilians in the Mangobo area of Kisangani in the course of the repression, as well as numerous rapes, beatings, and widespread looting. In addition, the loyalist RCD-Goma elements executed a large number of detained police and military personnel, many of them at the Tshopo Bridge, and threw their mutilated bodies in the river. Many of the bodies later resurfaced. Human Rights Watch also documented killings at other locations, including an abandoned brewery, the military barracks at Camp Ketele and at the Mangobo airport. A final death toll remains to be determined, but Human Rights Watch established that at least 80 persons, and probably many more, died during the mutiny and the repression that followed. Directly implicated in the killings were: Gabriel Amisi, also known as Tango Fort, the assistant chief of staff for logistics of the RCD-Goma army; Bernard Biamungu, commander of the Fifth Brigade headquartered in Goma; Laurent Nkunda, the commander of the Seventh Brigade based in Kisangani, and other senior officers of the Fifth and Seventh Brigades. Biamungu was seen giving commands to soldiers to go to Mangobo soon before civilians began to be killed there, and was personally at the scene of some of the killings. Biamungu, Amisi, and Nkunda were all seen at the Tshopo Bridge shortly before summary executions took place there on the night of the 14th. Human Rights Watch questioned whether the U.N. Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) failed to carry out its mandate to protect civilians "under imminent threat of physical violence." The U.N. Mission had more than a thousand soldiers in Kisangani and were clearly aware of the killings. However, Human Rights Watch commended the detailed investigation into the Kisangani events by MONUC and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that contributed to the establishment of an accurate record of the abuses. The Security Council in July issued a strong call for accountability for the killings. We welcome the U.N. Security Council’s call for accountability in Kisangani, said Baldo. But the Security Council needs to provide MONUC with the means to protect civilians within areas of their deployment, and to increase the number of human rights officers attached to the mission Sapa-AFP

IRIN 12 Aug 2002 Bunia calm but tense following ethnic bloodbath NAIROBI, 12 Aug 2002 (IRIN) - The city of Bunia in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was reported to be calm but tense on Monday following several days of intense fighting among ethnic groups, rebel militias and the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF). "Although the centre of town is a bit more calm than last week, the population is still very frightened and markets are still closed," a Bunia resident told IRIN on Monday morning. "Despite promises by the UPDF to control the [ethnic] Hema militias and move them away from town, they continue to harass the population in certain areas of Bunia." Bunia, with a population of about 300,000 people, is less than 50 km from the Ugandan border. At least 100 people, including a large number of civilians, are reported to have been killed since the latest regional clashes erupted on 6 August, when Hema militias supported by the UPDF and a dissident faction of the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-K-ML) called Union of Congolese Patriots seized control of most of Bunia and took charge of local government, according to news reports. Mbusa Nyamwisi's RCD-K-ML, which was reportedly supporting the Lendu ethnic community, fled the city, as did the rebel governor of region, Jean-Pierre Molondo. Uganda originally backed Nyamwisi's RCD-K-ML, but reportedly switched their support to Hema fighters last week. The death toll thus far includes a mass grave containing 38 mutilated bodies, including women and children, found on 9 August by UN officials; another 37 bodies found on 8 August, all but three of which were those of women and children, and most with machete wounds, according to the Ugandan independent daily newspaper, the Monitor; 15 corpses found at the Ituri provincial governor's residence on Sunday, though it was not clear if the dead had been combatants or civilians; and 11 UPDF soldiers. Many businesses and homes were pillaged and/or destroyed. A regional humanitarian source told IRIN on Monday that these most recent displacements of Bunia residents was "bound to aggravate an already serious humanitarian situation", which already included 4,000 displaced families "in need of urgent humanitarian assistance following last month's attacks". The source noted that the humanitarian community was already facing shortages in their assistance for this group of displaced. Although humanitarian organisations in the region have temporarily halted their activities, most still believe that the situation has not deteriorated to a point at which their evacuation would be necessary. Ambassador Amos Ngongi, the Special Representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the DRC, is currently in Kampala to hold talks with Ugandan authorities over the peace process as a whole, Ngongi's spokesman, Hamadoun Toure, told IRIN on Monday. "He will certainly raise, among other things, the Bunia issue, and remind the Ugandans of their international responsibilities in the town," Toure said. "As occupying forces, they have to provide security for the civilian population. This is not a demand from MONUC [the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC], but it is a rule of international law." Jean-Baptiste Dhetchuvi, a spokesman for the Hema community, told the Associated Press on Sunday that the move on Bunia was to protect Hema civilians who were being attacked by DRC-based Rwandan and Ugandan rebels. [A useful background document produced by Human Rights Watch on conflict in Ituri can be found at: http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/hemabckg.htm]

Ethiopia

IRINnews 8 Aug 2002 ETHIOPIA: Ethnic clashes worsening effects of drought ADDIS ABABA, - Ethnic clashes have erupted between rival groups fighting over scarce water sources in Ethiopia's Afar Region and surrounding areas, the UN Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia (EUE) has warned. The Afar and the Issas have clashed near the Awash River that runs through their territory while searching for water, according to a report published by the EUE. The report states that some 400 cattle were stolen by the Afar who launched the attack on the Issas from Shinille zone in Somali Region. Many clashes between the groups are being sparked because of the drought which has had a "devastating" impact on the pastoralists in the region. Children are also begging for water at the side of roads, according to the report by the EUE, whose mission was carried out in mid-July. The clashes are worsening the impact of the drought which has hit Afar Region and surrounding areas including parts of Oromiya and Somali Regions. Issa community leaders told the EUE team that they would have to return to the water points regardless of the risks if their cattle are to survive. Conflict has also meant that traditional watering holes have been left empty because it is too dangerous to return to the Awash River and refill them. "Following clashes, many Somali pastoralists were forced to leave their traditional water and grazing areas," the report said. "Without secure access to water, the very survival of the pastoral community’s livestock is threatened." "Immediate political solutions are essential to negotiate conflict resolution between Afar and Issa communities over water and grazing lands," it stressed. The EUE also called on regional governments in the Afar and Somali Regions to set up peace talks between clan elders. Often the clashes between ethnic groups – who are all nomadic pastoralists – are triggered because they wander into each other’s territory in search of water or pasture. The condition of livestock in the region has also declined over the years. The EUE said that camels, which could go for 15 to 20 days without water, would now need to drink every three days.

Kenya

The Nation (Nairobi) 14 Aug 2002 What NEP Leaders Should Have Told Moi OPINION Abdule. H. Kore North Eastern Province (NEP) is the third largest in Kenya. It has a total area of 126,902 square miles and covers 22.5 per cent of Kenya's total land surface. It has a population of more than 900,000 people of whom over 220,000 are registered voters. Independent Kenya's successive governments, just like the colonial government, have always marginalised the area's population. As a result, the province has been touted as a hardship area. Only its semi-arid conditions and stigmatic insecurity have received any publicity. The province becomes politically significant only in terms of the five-province clause requirement during presidential elections. Which is why the current succession debate has only gained relevance in the province just four months to the General Elections. President Moi, in his characteristic style of visiting the province only when elections are around the corner, took NEP by storm between August 5 and 7, touring Mandera, Wajir and Garissa districts. As expected, North Eastern MPs, who claim to be diehard Kanu supporters gave the President blind support for his post-Moi agenda - the Uhuru Project. These leaders assumed the support of the Somali community was automatic and unquestionable. Goodwill not reciprocated both in 1992 and 1997, voters overwhelmingly voted for Kanu, fearing that anything to the contrary might bring them more suffering. However, in both cases, the political goodwill was not reciprocated. Many, therefore, wonder: If we did not benefit under Moi, what guarantee is there that we shall benefit under his chosen successor? President Moi was on a working tour of the province. This would have been a perfect time to explain to him what NEP people want. However, to the disappointment of many, the leaders stuck to their tradition of hero-worship and sycophancy. They were short of ideas and they only tried and outdo one another in shouting loud support for Uhuru just because he is Moi's choice. The important issues which needed to be addressed like drought, lack of water, hunger, ignorance, and disease were ignored. In Mandera, the MPs failed to raise the plight of more than 15,000 Danaba residents displaced in bloody clashes between the Garri and Ajuran clans of Wajir North. These displaced families who fled their homes two years ago are still living in makeshift camps at El-Danaba. The fact that disease, infant mortality and maternal mortality are wiping out the people due to lack of medical facilities was never addressed. People walk 70 kilometres to the nearest medical centre which lacks equipment and personnel. The leaders never raise the issue of 70,650 primary school-age children in Wajir, who are expected to share 49 poorly-equipped primary schools, a situation that effectively locks out more than 50 per cent of them. Secondary school age children numbering 28,025 are also expected to share six schools with a capacity for just 2,880, meaning that 90 per cent of such children never get places. More than 12,634 secondary age girls are expected to share one girls' school. The shortcomings of President Moi's tenure on matters relating to NEP cannot be blamed on the President alone. His trusted lieutenants are preoccupied with how they can benefit from political patronage, and therefore, Moi's reign has not been any different from Mzee Kenyatta's. The MPs failed to raise the issue of Islamic-run NGOs closed following the August 7, 1998 bomb blast. The NGOs were supporting thousands of impoverished residents by providing employment for youth and running orphanages. The Government did not provide alternatives. The thorny issue of insecurity was also downplayed. The long history of violent clashes and abuse of basic human rights coupled with frequent displacement of families from their homes was not mentioned at all. The Malka Marri killings of 60 men in 1981, the terror in Garissa in 1980, the Wagalla massacre of 1984 in Wajir, and the killing of 187 people in 1998 at Bagalla in Wajir are not issues that people from the province will forget. Someone should have told the President that Garissa, despite being on the banks of Tana River is still so short of water that people spend most of the day looking for water. He should have been told that during drought in Mandera, hordes of thirsty monkeys fight for water with humans - that is how desperate the water situation was. Reversing legacy of inequality The people of NEP want a president who will: Ensure the Garissa-Wajir-Mandera Road is tarmacked in the next five years, and that feeder roads from Wajir to Mandera, Isiolo to Modogashe, Wajir to Moyale and Moyale to Isiolo ,are also tarmacked in the subsequent five. Apologise to the people of NEP for the massacres of the past and promise compensation to the families of the victims. Promise to reverse the legacy of inequality, marginalisation and discrimination suffered by the people of NEP through affirmative action measures - like making the province a tax- free zone for 10 years. Ensure pastoralists in the region are allowed dual citizenship and are given free land for grazing and cultivation as well as the right not to be displaced from their own lands. Mr Kore is with the National Young Leaders Network.

The Nation (Nairobi) August 15, 2002 NGOs Plea to Aspirants On Human Rights NGOs have asked presidential aspirants to promise to fight human rights' violations if they assumed office. They told those aspiring for the top job to assure Kenyans that they would investigate political assassinations and other killings and prosecute those implicated. Spokesmen of the NGOs issued the statement at a function to mark the August 13, 1997 Likoni attacks which sparked ethnic violence in Mombasa, Kwale and Kilifi. Mr Khelef Khalifa of the Muslims for Human Rights said: "Investigations have shown that the violence was politically motivated." He said the clashes were a continuation of what had happened in Molo and parts of the Rift Valley prior to the 1992 General Election. Mr Khalifa said the government had suppressed information on the clashes and cited the Akiwumi Report. "Despite a court order, the government has refused to make the report public," Mr Khalifa said. The statement was also issued by spokesmen of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, Council of Imams and Preachers and the Coast Rights Forum. The NGOs also asked the presidential aspirants to ensure that Kenya, as a signatory to various international treaties on human rights, adheres to those treaties and takes concrete steps to entrench them into the local legal system. "The Government should immediately halt all forms of harassment of the media and abandon forthwith all schemes to muzzle free press in Kenya and release the Akiwumi Report on tribal clashes," Mr Khalifa said. Mr Khelef accused the Government of using state organs especially the judiciary to intimidate those who dare to inform the public. "The aim is to suppress the right to information and all basic rights and freedoms. The jailing of MP Njeru Gatabaki is the latest example in a long list," he said.

IRIN 16 Aug 2002 Jailed MP released by presidential decree NAIROBI, 16 Aug 2002 (IRIN) - The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has welcomed the release this week of Kenya's jailed opposition member of parliament and publisher, Njehu Gatabaki, by presidential decree. Gatabaki, who is editor-in-chief of the monthly magazine, Finance, was on 9 August sentenced to six months' imprisonment after being found guilty of publishing an "alarming" report, which directly implicated Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi in politically motivated ethnic killings in Molo, Rift Valley Province during the run-up to the 1992 general elections. Gatabaki was on Wednesday being held in Kamiti Maximum Security Prison just outside the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, when he was released at the orders of Moi, according the East African Standard newspaper. The case against Gatabaki arose from a December 1997 report in Finance magazine, entitled "Moi ordered the Molo massacre", alleging that Moi was responsible for ethnic clashes which plagued parts of Rift Valley Province in the early 1990s, according to CPJ. Gatabaki had originally been arrested on 5 December 1997, but was subsequently granted bail, after which the case had been inching its way through Kenya's backlogged court system, CPJ said. His sentencing drew protests from press freedom organisations, notably the CPJ and Reporters sans frontieres, each of which issued a statement asserting that what had befallen Gatabaki was part of the government's plan to "harass" the media. "Journalists should never be criminally prosecuted for doing their work. We demand the immediate release of Gatabaki," Ann Cooper, the CPJ executive director, said in a statement released on Wednesday.

The Nation (Nairobi) 21 Aug 2002 Mungiki Sect Demonstrate in Support Uhuru Kenyatta. By Mugumo Munene The banned Mungiki sect yesterday staged a massive demonstration through Nairobi streets in support of Kanu presidential nomination hopeful Uhuru Kenyatta. Hundreds of members of the traditionalist group - some armed with machettes and clubs - marched through the city centre waving placards and singing in support of the Local Government Minister. Sniffing tobacco, wielding clubs, and waving pro-Uhuru banners and placards, the demonstrators interrupted business in the city as they headed for Uhuru Park. Some brandished swords, but their leader insisted they stood for peace. Sect chairman John Maina Njenga said: "No one will mobilise us to cause chaos. We are for peace and not on hire. We support Uhuru because he is beyond tribal politics." Mungiki was proscribed with 17 other groups in March after its members were linked to the Kariobangi massacre in Nairobi, which left 23 people dead. Police commissioner Philemon Abong'o announced then that the 18 groups had been outlawed as they were a threat to security. But yesterday, plainclothes policemen and Intelligence officers freely mixed with the marchers. Police spokesman Peter Kimanthi said the demonstration was allowed to take place because its organisers had notified police as individuals and not as Mungiki members. He said it did not exist in government records. "Those people were allowed to demonstrate as Kenyans. As long as those who apply for permission fulfil all the requirements and don't break the law, police have no reason to stop them." Uniformed police monitored the march from a distance. At Parliament Road, Central divisional police boss Japheth Koome stood with a squad of uniformed anti-riot officers. Asked why the demonstrators carried weapons, Mr Njenga replied: "We could be attacked. We are just prepared in case of any eventualities, but as you have seen, we are not fighting anybody." The march started at Kamukunji, snaked through the Gikomba open-air market, past Kariokor and into Ronald Ngala Street in the city centre. The chanting demonstrators then joined Haile Selassie Avenue, turned on to Harambee Avenue, passed by Jogoo House on to City Hall Way. They tried to enter Parliament Road but were blocked by police. Officers in riot gear stood between the group and the President's Office, where President Moi had spent the morning working. Mr Koome asked the marchers to stay away from the mausoleum of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, where Kenya Army men were rehearsing for tomorrow's memorial for the founding President. The sect's national co-ordinator, Mr Ndura Waruinge, briefly argued with Mr Koome and insisted that his group was peaceful "and we should not be provoked". They had come in all manner of transport - on buses, private cars, hand carts and donkey carts. Sect officials said that they had hired the vehicles with funds drawn from the sect's account. Some of the placards and banners read Uhuru na Kazi, Uhuru for President, Mungiki for Peace and President Moi must be respected. At Uhuru Park, the sect members burst into traditional Kikuyu songs in praise of Kanu, Mr Kenyatta and President Moi. The first group to reach the park was led by Mr Waruinge, Mr Njenga and Kamukunji Kanu aspirant Simon Mbugua. It was later joined by another led by Nairobi Mayor Dick Waweru. Many of the sect members wore simple clothes and knitted caps in national flag colours. Mr Waweru was clad in a white suit emblazoned with Kanu's symbol of a cockerel. At about 1 pm, the rally was briefly interrupted as the presidential motorcade passed by. It slowed down with presidential security on full alert, but did not stop. Mr Njenga said that there had been rumours that youths had been hired to disrupt the meeting. Mr Waweru said Nairobi residents were united to ensure that Mr Kenyatta succeeded President Moi.

IRIN 21 Aug 2002 Outrage over Mungiki threats NAIROBI, 21 Aug 2002 (IRIN) - The Kenyan media and human rights fraternity has expressed outrage over threats of violence issued this week by members of an outlawed sect and by two legislators against those who were "insulting" President Daniel arap Moi. The independent Daily Nation newspaper reported on Wednesday that two opposition Members of Parliament, Stephen Ndichu and Kihika Kimani, had allegedly vowed to use members of the outlawed Mungiki, a quasi-religious ethnic Kikuyu sect, to take up arms and attack those opposed to Moi's choice of Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Kenya's founding president, Jomo Kenyatta, as his preferred successor. The MPs, who were reportedly addressing a public gathering at the weekend in the country's Central Province, urged members of the outlawed sect to take up arms and attack those opposed to the Uhuru-for-president campaign, according to the paper. Moi, who is the chairman of the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) has in recent weeks publicly campaigned for Kenyatta's nomination as the party's presidential candidate. His choice of Kenyatta has sparked protests within KANU from other candidates seeking nomination in the party, who have argued that Kenyatta was being given undue advantage over them. On Tuesday this week, hundreds of Mungiki adherents poured onto the streets in Nairobi, the capital, to voice their support for Uhuru, an ethnic Kikuyu. They announced that no one would be allowed to "again insult President Moi", the Daily Nation reported on Wednesday. "We have already met and resolved that no one will be allowed again to abuse Moi. And I'm telling Mungiki to ready themselves," the paper quoted Kimani as saying in his native Kikuyu language. Mikewa Ogada, a human rights activist in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, told IRIN on Wednesday that the remarks made by the two MPs and the Mungiki were worrying. He said a comprehensive statement would soon be issued to the press after a consultative meeting by human rights organisations in the country. "They [Mungiki] were exercising their rights be demonstrating. But the statements they made are meant to incite people to violence," he added. The Mungiki sect, a shadowy sect, composed mainly of unemployed youths, has since the late 1990s been accused of participating in acts of violence within Nairobi and its environs. In March this year, Police Commissioner Philemon Abong'o banned the Mungiki along with 17 other vigilante groups operating in the country, for security reasons. The ban followed attacks in Nairobi's Kariobangi residential suburb in which nearly 30 people were killed overnight by a gang of suspected Mungiki members. In a hard-hitting Wednesday editorial, entitled "Is Mungiki now legitimate?", the Daily Nation newspaper accused the two MPs of warmongering, and criticised the government for applying "double standards" to the outlawed Kikuyu sect. "Does yesterday's officially-sanctioned demo mean that Mungiki is now legitimate, because its aims now coincide with those of the power centre? Does it mean that if a banned outfit reconstitutes itself for a "worthy" political cause, then it ceases to be illegal? Does it mean that, as such an organisation "protects" the president, it can do anything under the sun with arrogant impunity?," the editorial posed. "At the Saturday meeting, when the two MPs hurled vile epithets at opponents of their favourite politicians, and advocated violence, it was obvious that they were breaking the law. Yet nothing has been done about it. This is abuse of power. It is indefensible and a complete anachronism, especially in a sensitive election year," it added. Ndichu has, however, denied making the remarks attributed to him. He told IRIN on Wednesday that he was for the Uhuru-for-president campaign, but had never advocated violence. "I don't advocate violence. When I was talking to Mungiki, I told them to be peaceful. "Hakuna matata. [a long-standing popular Kiswahili slogan meaning "there is no problem" used to portray Kenya as a peaceful nation in a turbulent neighbourhood]. It's all politics. I am a Christian. I pray that this country should have a peaceful transition. There should be no chaos at all," Ndichu said. "Journalists put a lot of words into people's mouths. They are all bashing Uhuru. But there are also those who support Uhuru," he added. The East African Standard newspaper's Wednesday editorial, entitled "Now its donkey politics", in reference to reports that the Mungiki had brought donkeys to accompany them on their demonstration, stated that the Mungiki "may have the vote, but they also have a notoriety that does not go in well with a sober and national approach to this kind of exercise. Known for their anti-women, pro-violence, traditional and ritualistic approach to most issues, Mungiki is hardly the kind of baggage any politician would want to carry on such a journey," it added.

Liberia
IRIN 20 Aug 2002 Liberia: ECOWAS hails reconciliation conference MONROVIA, 20 August (IRIN) - Mohammed Ibn Chambas, executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African Countries, ECOWAS, on Monday hailed efforts by Liberians to seek national reconciliation. Chambas met President Charles Taylor to discuss a proposed peace meeting for Liberia that ECOWAS plans to hold in Dakar, Senegal. ECOWAS, along with other regional and international organisations such as the African Union and the United Nations have been invited by Liberia's government to attend the opening of a national reconciliation conference on Saturday. Hundreds of Liberians, including prominent opposition figures and various NGOS have been also been invited. Ibn Chambas urged Liberians to seek a peaceful resolution of the country's conflict. He said stability in Liberia would lead to regional stability while continuing instability created problems for other countries as well. Organisers of Saturday's conference told journalists in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, on Monday that at least 500 people were expected to attend the meeting at the refurbished Unity Conference Center in Virginia, just outside Monrovia. Also visiting Liberia this week was a delegation of government ministers and parliamentarians from Guinea and Sierra Leone. On Monday, they met various Liberian government officials, including Taylor, opposition leaders and civil society to assess the security situation and to discuss prospects for peace in the war-torn country. The delegation, led by Sierra Leone's Alex Koroma, has been seeking ways to encourage the three Mano River Union countries - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - to build peace ahead of the proposed ECOWAS meeting in Dakar.


Malawi

IRIN 21 Aug 2002 Fears over rising political violence BLANTYRE, 21 Aug 2002 (IRIN) - Political violence is on the rise in Malawi as political divisions deepen ahead of elections in 2004, a new report by the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has warned. The survey by the state-appointed independent organisation said that the politicisation of ethnicity and regionalism was encouraging violence and discrimination. Hate speeches by political leaders, the fragility of democracy and the rule of law, and Malawi's underlying poverty and illiteracy have helped drive intolerance, the commission said. "We want to establish the real causes and establish solutions to the prevalence of human rights violations, discrimination and related intolerance which are on the increase in our country," said Emiliana Tembo, MHRC executive secretary. She noted that complaints to the commission of beatings and harassment on political and religious grounds were running at levels normally seen at the height of election campaigns, even though polls were not for another two years. The failed attempt earlier this year by President Bakili Muluzi to amend the constitution to run for a third term, condemned by the church and civil society groups, has raised the political temperature in Malawi. Opponents warned that the democratic gains won in 1994 with the end of the dictatorial rule of Hastings Kamazu Banda would be threatened. Human rights NGOs have been quick to blame the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF's) militants, the "Young Democrats", for perpetrating much of the current violence, with the police allegedly choosing to look the other way. David Nungu, director of investigations for MHRC, said the commission intended to investigate the allegations of state-sponsored violence. "It'll form the part of the peace building process emanating from public inquiry into political intolerance," he said. Among the recent high-profile cases was an attack last week on Brown Mpinganjira, the leader of the opposition pressure group National Democratic Alliance (NDA). He was ambushed at a police roadblock just outside the capital Lilongwe. "We had very successful rallies in Mchinji and Dowa. We were coming from another rally at Chinsapo, Likuni and had decided to drive straight to Blantyre. A white Prado without number plates overtook us at high speed and we found it parked next to the police roadblock," Mpinganjira, a former senior cabinet minister, told IRIN "The police asked us to get out of the car. We saw close to 12 people carrying metal bars, sticks and stones. I then told my driver to proceed. But they pounced on us and smashed windows on the right hand side of our vehicle. Luckily we drove away at high speed. "They intended to kill me. They're coming for me. [President] Bakili [Muluzi] wanted to kill me. Yet the police were part and parcel of it all," said Mpinganjira, who has been in and out of police custody since he was axed from the cabinet in 2000. A second NDA vehicle was held up at the roadblock but managed to turn around and sped away to Lilongwe police station. "These thugs followed them to the police yard. One of our colleagues was stabbed in the back and shoulder. The car was smashed, people were stabbed and robbed inside a police yard. And these people had the audacity to fire in the air in the police yard. Our car is still at the police yard as I speak to you now," Mpinganjira said. An eyewitness, Lawrence Mlambwaza, alleged the NDA team was attacked by the Young Democrats and the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB). According to Ollen Mwalubunju, executive director for the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), ruling party militants were acting with impunity. "We have witnessed the Young Democrats beating up opposition politicians," he said. "Does it mean the law that we have only protects members of the ruling party? We appeal to the state president to discipline members of his party. He has a greater role to play." Faustace Chirwa, executive director of the NGO Women's Lobby said efforts to advocate peaceful coexistence were not working. "All the efforts to advocate for non-violence have failed. On a serious note, we do not have a direct answer to the problem. But we'll keep on lobbying the perpetrators, including the president, who are promoting violence because we fear the repercussions," she said. Paul Maulidi, the UDF's deputy secretary-general told IRIN that his party's policy was to condemn violence. "But you must understand that this is politics. In politics, you're dealing with people's emotions. When they hear you castigating the president, they'll hit you. Normally those things happen outside the knowledge of the political leaders. It's not the position of the party. And those things happen everywhere, not only in the UDF. If we get evidence [of violence], we have a disciplinary committee," he said.


Nigeria

IRIN 12 Aug 2002 Plateau peace meeting denouces militias LAGOS, 12 Aug 2002 (IRIN) - Government officials, political and community leaders met on Sunday to discuss ways to end a year of ethnic and religious turbulence in Nigeria's Plateau State and denounced the emergence of militia groups, saying it is a key factor aggravating conflict. The meeting in the state capital Jos, organised by the governor, Joshua Dariye, was attended by more than 80 participants including human rights groups, traditional and religious leaders and communities that have been affected by ethnic and religious clashes in the past year. "Security agencies should be advised to redouble their efforts at detecting and preventing the outbreak of violence," said the official communique issued at the end of the meeting. "Organisers and perpetrators of conflicts who stock arms and train ethnic and religious militias should be apprehended and prosecuted," it added. The meeting also called for tolerance among the various ethnic communties in the central region state, in order to reduce the sort of friction that has often led to violence. Intermittent communal clashes have rocked Plateau State since September 2001, when ethnic and religious clashes between Muslims and Christians Jos, resulting in the loss of over 1,000 lives. Since the beginning of the year several clashes have occurred in parts of the state, in which mainly local Christians have engaged Muslim Hausa-speakers whose origins are further in the north of the country. Scores of people have died and thousands have been displaced. Relations between Nigeria’s Christians and Muslims have grown increasingly tense since 12 states in the mainly Muslim north introduced strict Islamic or Sharia legal codes. Under this code adultery is punishable by stoning to death, stealing attracts amputation of limbs while drinking of alcohol is punished by public flogging. The pervading tension in the state has been worsened by political violence between rival factions of the ruling People’s Democratic Party.

Vanguard (Lagos) NEWS 17 Aug 2002 How Soldiers Massacred Tivs, Witness Tells Panel By Kingsley Omonobi & Hassan Mohammed SOLDIERS of the Nigerian Army conveyed by at least five trucks and accompanied by armoured tanks carried out the alleged massacre of Tivs and other inhabitants of Logo Local government area of Benue State after completing an earlier massacre at Gbeji, the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Tiv/Jukun crisis heard Thursday. The killings were alleged to be in retaliation for the killing of 19 of their colleagues at Zaki Biam. Testifying at the commission's sitting, the chief administrative officer of Logo local government area, Mr John Ashe, said that aside from the massacre of innocent citizens which was pre-meditated, the soldiers left in their trail, the destruction of houses, churches, clinics and petrol stations among others. Mr. Ashe who said he was an eye-witness to the events leading to the destruction of Zaki Biam in Benue State told the commission that he saw soldiers in trucks including three armoured cars on his way from Zaki Biam to Ugba in Logo local government area. His words: "We received a report at about 5 p.m. on 22 October, 2001 that soldiers had invaded Gbeji and Ayii. We then went to Zaki Biam at about 10 p.m. of the same 22nd to report to soldiers of 72 Battalion, Makurdi who were camped there and the commander was not there but we met a captain who was the second in command. We informed him of the need to get some soldiers to provide protection for the place. "The captain said it was late and his boss was not around, so we were asked to come back the next day, 23rd. When we got there the next day, the captain said the commander had not come but he would give us some men and he asked us to come back at 12 noon. On our way back, between Wukari and Zaki Biam, we saw a convoy of armoured cars with headlights on coming in our direction. We had to give way and parked by UBA (United Bank for Africa). "We drove about 100 metres from the bank and we saw another convoy, this time about 100 metres to the secretariat. We saw armoured cars with long nozzles and a white pick-up with a bold inscription Operation Thunder. When the pick-up passed, we heard a whistle and the vehicles that were passing were by the road side. "They moved on and later on, we heard loud sounds of shooting but there was nowhere we could run to other than abandon our car and fled into the bush (myself, the driver and our deputy chairman). Shooting continued until about 4 p.m. "After the operation, the soldiers disappeared only to reappear in Zaki Biam. We slept in the bush, the following day we came out and we heard that people were going to Zaki Biam to identify corpses." However, during cross examination by Elder Chris Abongabi, Mr Ashe could not say whether the soldiers actually reached Zaki Biam before the shooting was heard.

AP 11 Aug 2002 Muslims, Christians Pray in Nigeria OSOGBO, Nigeria (AP) — Hundreds feverishly shout prayers as a virgin casts melon seeds and meat from a freshly sacrificed goat into the Osun river — offerings to the river goddess people here believe shields them from disease, hunger and war. Many of the worshippers observing the centuries-old ethnic Yoruba celebration in southwestern Nigeria this weekend are Christians and Muslims. But they say one cannot pray to enough gods in a country overwhelmed by grinding poverty, rampant ethnic violence and the ravages of AIDS and malaria. Kalopo Wale, a 25-year-old Christian, first made the trip to the banks of the Osun a decade ago, after dropping out of school because his parents couldn't afford the fees. ``I had a problem that day. I prayed here, and it went away,'' Wale said near the water's edge. ``That's why I come every year.'' Days after participating in the celebration known as the Osun water festival, a tailor offered Wale an apprenticeship. Now he has his own business and is back seeking prosperity. The weeklong festival is one of the most sacred feasts for the Yorubas in that part of Nigeria. The ceremony also draws tens of thousands from other parts of this nation of 120 million people — and dozens of tourists — to the town of Osogbo each August. The Yoruba — who believe in a pantheon of gods, each representing a natural element or emotion — regard the river as Osun, the goddess of fertility. The waters, they believe, cure infertility in women, heal the sick, and ensure prosperity and long life. Every August, streams of women flow from the river's edge carrying plastic jugs of brownish water on their heads. ``With that water you can request anything you want,'' Wale said, watching the women. ``You take it home, pray to it, drink it, give yourself a bath.'' The 20-million-strong Yoruba tribe is almost equally divided between Christians and Muslims. But Yoruba beliefs have survived, withstanding the onslaughts of religion as well as European colonization and tribal wars. Slaves took Yoruba traditions as far as Cuba and Brazil. They are also evident in neighboring West African countries, Benin and Togo. The Yoruba belief in multiple gods helps them reconcile different religions, said Caleb Kullman, 31, an American researcher, who is studying the effects of modernity on the Yoruba. ``Nigerians are very practical,'' Kullman said, watching crowds stream to the river for blessings from priestesses. ``If they think they can get more benefits if they mix praying to Osun with Christianity, they will.'' Yet, ethnic, religious and political clashes have killed thousands of Nigerians in recent years. The presence of thousands of white-cloaked members of the Yoruba ethnic militia, the Odudua Peoples Congress, at this year's festival served as a reminder of the violence still tearing at Nigeria. The militia was banned two years ago after the government blamed it for ethnic riots that killed more than 100 people in the commercial capital, Lagos.

Vanguard (Lagos) NEWS August 20, 2002 Security Report Fingered in Obasanjo, Governors' Talks By Paul Odili THE planned meeting between President Olusegun Obasanjo and the 36 states governors in Abuja this week was prompted by a recent American security report on the state of Nigeria's democracy, Vanguard can now reveal. The security report was said to have cast doubts over the legitimacy of the country elections, which the American government suspects would be rigged in favour of incumbent office holders and therefore not reflect the true aspirations of Nigerians, thus sparking violence. The U.S. State Department had, in an August 8, 2002 statement, warned Americans to be weary of travelling to Nigeria, claiming that armed gangs and authorities were clashing ahead of the council polls originally scheduled for August 10. It described conditions in Nigeria as posing "considerable risks to travellers," alluding to religious and ethnic violence in parts of the country. Vanguard gathered that the meeting in Abuja is at the instance of the governors, who were said to be alarmed by the American security report. Their interpretation of the report is a vote of no confidence on the political leadership of the country which could be seized by anti-democratic forces to undermine democratic rule. According to sources, the 36 state governors on learning of the report, "were really scared and would like to impress it on the President to do something." The governors, Vanguard, further learnt hope to use the meeting in Abuja to prevail on the President to soften his hard stand on some issues like the implementation of the budget, and the release of funds into the nation's economy. Some state governors are already losing control of the situation in their states, especially where some of them are owing workers their salaries up to 10 months. Other issues which the governors hope to take up with the President include the security of the nation. Sources said the governors are apprehensive following briefing by the commissioners of police in their various states over possible violence during the coming elections. The police commissioners had held a meeting recently with the Inspector-General of Police, at which they reviewed the operational status of the police which they say is inadequate. The governors are likely to mount pressure on the President to release more funds to the police and seek the President's support to set up community police, which the source said, however, could be a form of state police the governors have been calling for. The other issue on the agenda of the meeting is the current face-off between the Presidency and the National Assembly, which the governors hope to wade in as it is heating up the polity.

Rwanda

Chicago Tribune 9 Aug 2002 Rwandans turning to Islam as faith shaken by genocide By Laurie Goering KIGALI, Rwanda — Long before the call to prayer begins each Friday at noon, Rwanda's Muslim faithful jam the main mosque in Kigali's Nyamirambo neighborhood, the overflow crowd spreading their prayer rugs on the mosque steps, over the red-earth parking lot and out the front gate. Almost a decade after a horrific genocide left 800,000 Rwandans dead and shook the faith of this predominantly Christian nation of 8 million people, Islam, once seen as a fringe religion, has surged in popularity. Today "we see Muslims as very kind people," said Salamah Ingabire, 20, who converted to Islam in 1995 after losing two brothers in the killing spree. "What we saw in the genocide changed our minds." Women in bright tangerine, scarlet and blue headscarves stroll the bustling streets of the capital, beside men in long, white tunics and embroidered caps. Mosques and Islamic schools are overflowing with students. Today about 14 percent of Rwandans consider themselves Muslim, up from about 7 percent before the genocide. "We're everywhere," says Sheik Saleh Habimana, the leader of Rwanda's burgeoning Muslim community, which has mosques in nearly all of the country's cities and towns. Islam is no rarity in Africa, and countries around Rwanda — Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda — have large Muslim communities. But the religion was never particularly popular in Rwanda until the 1994 genocide, which spurred a rush of conversions. From April to June 1994, militias and mobs from the country's ethnic Hutu majority hunted and killed hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis at the government's urging. Within a few months, three of four Tutsis in the country had been hacked to death, often with machetes or hoes. More than 100,000 suspected killers eventually were jailed and many others fled to Congo, where they joined that nation's bloody war. The genocide stunned Rwanda's Christian community. While clergy in many communities struggled to protect their congregations and died with them, a number of prominent Christian leaders joined in the killing spree and are facing prosecution. Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, the head of Rwanda's Seventh-day Adventist Church, is on trial, charged with luring Tutsi parishioners to his church in western Kibuye province then turning them over to Hutu militias who slaughtered 2,000 to 6,000 in a single day. The day before the massacre, Tutsi Adventist clergymen inside the church sent Ntakirutimana a now-famous letter, informing him that "tomorrow we will be killed with our families" and seeking his help. Survivors report that he replied: "You must be eliminated. God doesn't want you anymore." At the same time, Rwanda's Muslims — many of them intermarried Tutsi-Hutu couples — were opening their homes to thousands of desperate Tutsis. Many Muslim families successfully hid Tutsis from the Hutu mobs, who feared to enter the country's insular Muslim communities. Yahya Kayiranga, a young Tutsi who fled Kigali with his mother at the start of the genocide, was taken into the home of a Muslim family in the central city of Gitarama, where he hid until the killing was over. His father and uncle who stayed behind in Kigali were slain. "We were helped by people we didn't even know," the 27-year-old remembers. Unable to return to what he considered a sullied Catholic church, he converted to Islam in 1996. Today he wears a white tunic and gold-embroidered cap and no longer drinks Rwanda's traditional banana beer. He is studying Arabic and the Quran at a local madrassa and most mornings awakens for the dawn prayer, the first of five each day. His job as a money-changer in downtown Kigali conflicts with Islam's prohibitions on profiting from financial transactions, but he thinks he has mostly adapted well to his new faith. "I thought at first Islam would be hard, but that fear went away," he said. "It's not easy at the beginning, but as you practice it becomes better, normal." Rwanda's Muslim leaders have struggled to impart the importance of unity and tolerance to their converts, who number as many Hutus as Tutsis. Sheik Habimana is one of the leaders of the country's new interfaith commission, created to promote unity and tolerance, and in a country still seething with anger and fear after the mass killings, Rwanda's mosques are one of the few places where reconciliation appears to have genuinely taken hold. "In the Islamic faith, Hutu and Tutsi are the same," Kayiranga said. "Islam teaches us about brotherhood." While Rwanda's ethnic Tutsis, for the most part, have come to Islam seeking protection from purges and to honor and emulate the people who saved them, Hutus also have come, seeking to leave behind their violent past. "They all felt the blood on their hands, and they embraced Islam to purify themselves," Habimana said. Becoming Muslim has not been an easy process for many Rwandans, who chafe at the religion's dress and lifestyle restrictions. Despite Islam's new post-genocide status, Rwandan Muslims traditionally have been second-class citizens, working as taxi drivers and traders in a society that reveres farmers. "Because we were Muslim we weren't considered Rwandanese," Habimana said. Now, as the religion's popularity grows, that is changing. 'I think now it will be a complete genocide of the non-Muslims'

AFP 16 Aug 2002 Ethnic origins ignored in Rwanda's first census KIGALI: Eight years after up to a million of its citizens died in Africa's worst genocide in living memory, Rwanda Friday began its first ever population census that ignores ethnic origins. Some 10,000 officials were mobilised to gather information on the tiny central African nation's estimated 8.6 million inhabitants in an exercise expected to last until August 31 and costing around eight million dollars. "The 1994 genocide and the return of refugees have muddled the statistics, so the current data on the Rwandan population are only estimates," President Paul Kagame said in a televised address prior to the launch of the census. "We can no longer rely on estimates when we are trying to fight poverty," he said. According to international relief agency figures, between 500,000 and one million people -- mainly Tutsis and moderate Hutus -- died in the 1994 killing spree orchestrated by the previous Hutu government and carried out by machete-wielding gangs, according to international relief agenc. All ethnic references have since been banned from official literature by the current government, which emerged after the genocide from the former Tutsi rebellion, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR). Ethnic tensions are blamed for sporadic massacres of Tutsis prior to the genocide, dating back to 1959 -- three years before Rwanda's independence from Belgium. New national trappings officially adopted last December include an ethnically-neutral flag, anthem and coat of arms. In the new census, citizens will be asked 65 questions touching on their age, religion, means of transport and communication, housing and sanitary facilities -- but not on their Tutsi, Hutu, or other ethnic origins. Both of the previous censuses since independence charted the population's ethnicity, as well its steady growth -- from 4.8 million in 1978 to 7.2 million in 1991. The country's National Population Office expects the current population to double over the next 20 years.

Reuters 17 Aug 2002 Rwanda Slams UN Tribunal for Dropping Genocide Case Reuters KIGALI - Rwanda Saturday said it was unhappy with a decision by a U.N. tribunal trying suspects in the country's 1994 genocide to drop charges against a former army officer and promised to launch its own investigations. U.N prosecutors said Wednesday there was insufficient evidence to try Leonidas Rusatira, a former general they had alleged participated in the killing of about 2,000 ethnic Tutsis at a technology institute in the capital Kigali. But Rwanda's Minister of Justice and Institutional Relations Jean de Dieu Mucyo accused the tribunal of rushing its decision and added that the government would carry out its own investigations and present the findings to the U.N. court. "We were shocked to hear the sudden decision," Mucyo told Reuters. "We wonder how in a spell of three months the tribunal could finalize investigating this man and pass such a questionable decision. I mean, other cases have been taking years to complete." The government has often accused the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda based in Arusha, Tanzania of working too slowly and Mucyo said its decision regarding Rusatira showed it was weak. "We are not happy with this kind of decision. It clearly depicts the weaknesses of the Arusha court that we have been condemning all along," he said. An estimated 800,000 people were killed in the genocide, in which extremists from the ethnic Hutu majority slaughtered Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus. Observer groups had criticized Rusatira's arrest in Belgium in May saying the general had in fact tried to protect Tutsis hunted by militiamen and had publicly called for an end to the killings by his army. "The issue of saying that he saved Tutsis during the genocide is mere propaganda. He fooled the U.N. and the world by pretending to protect the Tutsis and yet he secretly turned around and ordered for their murder," the minister said.

Internews (Arusha) 20 Aug 2002 Plans to Indict French Military And Government Officials By Sheenah Kaliisa Arusha The Rwandan government is planning to indict French military and government officials for their alleged involvement in the 1994 genocide, 'Internews' has learned. A source in the Rwandan government, who spoke to Internews on the condition of anonymity, said the indictments would be issued "very soon." "Of course we have to indict the French. We are gathering evidence," the official said on the telephone from Kigali. The Rwandan government is accusing France of arming the Habyarimana government to plan and implement the April-June 1994 genocide, which began on 6 April when unknown assailants shot down a plane carrying then President Juvenal Habyarimana, Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryarmira and other Rwanda government officials. The president and all on board died in the crash. The genocide claimed more than 800,000 lives. Rwanda also alleges that France shielded and provided an escape route for genocide perpetrators through 'Operation Turquoise', French peacekeeping forces deployed in Rwanda in 1994. The government claims that the French incited killing of ethnic Tutsi and moderate ethnic Hutu and simultaneously shielded top government officials and militiamen. According to the government, the French also facilitated the escape of genocidiares to France and to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), then Zaire. "They [the French] saved some Tutsi just to cover up what they were doing," the source added. In June 1994, France, which colonized Rwanda until 1961, established ' Zone Turquoise' in western Rwanda near the border with DRC, which was to be a neutral no-fighting zone between government and rebel forces. "We have too much evidence. For example, we have a telephone conversation where a top French official was talking to a Rwandan military official, giving them weapons and asking him to stop killing Tutsis on camera. 'Kill them [Tutsi] but do it off camera'," the source told Internews. When contacted, Rwanda's Prosecutor-General Gerald Gahima declined to give any details, but did not deny that his office is conducting investigations. "I have no comment about that at this stage," Gahima said on telephone from Kigali. Another source indicated that Rwanda plans to hold a public debate titled 'France in the 1994 Genocide' on national television. However, Internews' efforts to establish the date of the program failed. The government of Rwanda on 23 July wrote to the UN Security Council, criticizing the performance of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which was established in 1995 to try the alleged perpetrators of the genocide. Rwanda claims that the ICTR is inefficient and corrupt. The Kigali government wants increased protection measures for witnesses testifying before the tribunal. Rwanda also claims the tribunal has in its employ people suspected to have been involved in the genocide. Judge Navanethem Pillay of South Africa, ICTR President, wrote to the UN Security Council on 8 August denying Rwanda's claims and absolving the UN court of any impropriety. Since its inception in 1995, the ICTR has handed down nine judgments - eight convictions and one acquittal. Currently, trials are in progress for 22 detainees and 29 others are awaiting trial. The latest arrival at the United Nations Detention Facility (UNDF) in Arusha in Augustin Bizimungu, a former chief of staff in the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) who was arrested in Angola last week and transferred to Arusha in last Thursday.

Tanzania

Irin 2 Aug 2002 ICTR unlikely to fulfil mandate by 2008 NAIROBI, 2 Aug 2002 (IRIN) - At its current rate of work, there is "no chance" that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda will complete its mission before 2008 to hear all the cases of genocide suspects before it at Arusha, Tanzania, the International Crisis Group reported on Thursday. This, it said, was because of the Tribunal's "overly ambitious" prosecution schedule and "the lack of effective efforts" to expedite processes and hearings. "Five cases of utmost importance have been waiting too long to be heard," it said. [The full report, titles The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: The Countdown is available (only in French)]

IRIN 9 Aug 2002 US to fund expansion of ICTR NAIROBI, 9 Aug 2002 (IRIN) - The US government is to fund "a significant expansion" of the United Nations Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), US Ambassador-At-Large for War-Crimes Pierre-Richard Prosper announced on Tuesday. Speaking to journalists in the Washington, he said the US was prepared to agree to a complement of a pool of 18 new judges for the court, which would effectively triple the roster of nine judges who currently made up the tribunal. Although over 40 indictees had been captured and handed over to the court, Prosper said "the tribunal court calendar is now backlogged with a significant number of cases. It has come to our attention and the attention of the UN Security Council... [that] additional judges should be assigned to the [ICTR] process." Declining to specify how much the US would spend, he added that "we intend to use our presence in the Security Council to see if we an advance this issue - to add resources to the tribunal for Rwanda so that it can move at a more expeditious pace." The ICTR, established to try the chief instigators of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, has come under heavy criticism for being too slow, despite its large budget. Since 1996, when the court was established, it has handed down only nine judgements - eight convictions and one acquittal. Its budget in 2001 was almost US $94 million, of which the US - the largest single donor to the tribunal - donated US $20.2 million. In late February this year, the US government called on the ICTR to finish its work by 2007-2008. On 1 August an advocacy body, the International Crisis Group, issued a report on the tribunal stating there was "no chance" that the court would complete its mission before 2008, at its current rate of work. This, it said, was because of the tribunal's "overly ambitious" prosecution schedule and "the lack of effective efforts" to expedite processes and hearings.

Internews (Arusha) NEWS 16 Aug 2002 ICTR President Praises UN Approval of 18 Temporary Judges By Sukhdev Chhatbar Arusha Navanethem Pillay of South Africa, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), has praised Wednesday's decision by the UN Security Council to approve the creation of a pool of 18 ad litem (temporary) judges to expedite trials at the Arusha-based UN court. The Security Council unanimously adopted the resolution enabling the tribunal to appoint temporary judges, in an attempt to speed up trials for suspects of the April-June1994 genocide in Rwanda. Currently, the tribunal has nine permanent judges. Trials are in progress for 22 detainees and 29 others are awaiting trial. "This measure will significantly enhance the capacity of the tribunal to dispose of the cases pending before it," Pillay stated. The ICTR President notes that the Security Council's decision provides for only four of the ad litem judges to sit in the trial chambers at any one time, "rather than the nine proposed by the tribunal, with a view to completing our mandate by a projected date of 2008." Pillay urged UN member states to propose sufficient number of qualified candidates "so that the new judges can take up their duties as soon as possible." UN sources hinted that the temporary judges would take up their positions early next year, at the latest. The Security Council took almost one year to consider the tribunal's proposal for ad litem judges, who will serve for non- renewable four-year terms. The ICTR was established in November 1995 to try the alleged perpetrators of the genocide, which claimed the lives of more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsi and politically moderate ethnic Hutu. Violence in Rwanda in 1994 started immediately after the death of then President Juvenal Habyarimana in a plane crash on 6 April 1994. Unknown assailants shot down the plane at it approached the capital, Kigali, killing all board. Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira were returning from a regional peace meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Since inception, the tribunal has handed down nine judgments -- eight convictions and one acquittal.

Uganda

New Vision (Kampala) 19 Aug 2002 UPDF Army Discovers Mass Graves By Emmy Allio THE army has said it discovered two mass graves yesterday at Awich, Aswa county in Gulu near the battle scene where Vincent Oti was reportedly shot and injured. Oti is deputy to Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army rebels. Sources said the mass graves will be opened this week to find out whether Oti was killed and buried there or was still in hiding. "Since we have not seen his body, we cannot go on record to say he is dead. But the information we gather is that Kony and his commanders are mum on his whereabouts," a security source said yesterday. The source said Kony sneaked back into Sudan last Tuesday, hours after the Awich battle. On Thursday, Kony appointed Charles Tabuley as his deputy. Tabuley ordered the July 24 Mucwini massacre and the Achol-Pii raid where over 100 people were killed. Sources said Oti, the author of the massacre of 250 people in his home village in Atiak in April 1995, was reportedly shot on his way from Kilak to Pader district to meet Kony.

Zimbabwe

Christian Science Monitor 19 Aug 2002 Zimbabwe's political tool: food Since Friday, 133 white farmers have been arrested. Opposition says Mugabe is exploiting food crisis. By Nicole Itano, Special to The Christian Science Monitor HARARE, ZIMBABWE - Even with foreign aid pouring into the country, observers say that Zimbabwe will not have enough food for its people over the coming year. In this looming crisis, the government sees an opportunity - to gain political leverage by withholding food from political opponents, says Sam Mlilo, an organizer for the opposition party here. Mr. Mlilo says that members of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party come to him looking for food, as drought and President Robert Mugabe's controversial land redistribution program have edged Zimbabwe closer to famine. But Mlilo has to turn his fellow supporters away. "I have no resources, no food for you," he tells them, "and the next day, I hear that they have surrendered their party cards because they have been starving." Mlilo, a former university professor who lives in Mberengwa East, an area wracked by violence during the country's March presidential elections, adds: "It's really working. [The government's] plan is going to work." That plan, according to opposition leaders such as Mlilo and aid groups, is to starve the opposition into submission, forcing their allegiance to Mr. Mugabe's regime. Earlier in the year, some 50 MDC supporters were beaten and shot, allegedly by Mugabe supporters in the run up to the March elections. But as rural villagers are reduced scavenging for roots and berries, or selling their remaining assets to buy high-priced food on the black market, the MDC and local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) say food is the government's latest weapon. The government denies this charge. Speaking to the nation last week during Zimbabwe's independence day celebrations, Mugabe promised that the government would feed everyone, even the "stooges and puppets," one of his favorite term for opposition supporters he claims are working for Britain, the country's former colonial master. In two short years, Zimbabwe has gone from a food supplier to becoming one of the largest humanitarian emergencies on the continent. Mugabe's plan to give white-owned farms to landless blacks has crippled the country's commercial-farming sector. Yesterday, more than 133 white farmers were arrested for defying orders to vacate their land. Over the next nine months, the country faces a 1.5-million-ton food-production shortfall and the specter of six million starving if it doesn't receive sufficient aid, according to the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP). Even with aid, Zimbabwe is likely to face a half-million ton shortfall. But despite pleas from the UN to allow the private importation of food to help fill the projected gap, the government has maintained a steely grip on the market. Late last year, private wheat and corn imports were banned, and the government-run grain marketing board, which is managed by top military and intelligence officials, was given control. Known MDC supporters are being turned away from grain depots, while party big men are buying up grain and selling it on the black market at a profit, say some observers. NGOs also report that MDC supporters are being discriminated against in government-run food-for-work programs. The Food Security Network, a coalition of 54 local NGOs that has been monitoring the situation in Zimbabwe, says politicization of food aid has been reported in at least 33 of the country's 54 districts. They say many of the depots are being run by youth militia from Mugabe's ZANU-PF party or by intelligence officers, and that more food is being sent to ZANU strongholds than to MDC areas. "We went to one depot that was being run by youth militia," says the director of one prominent NGO, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation from the government. "That in itself is outrageous. These are the same people who were beating and torturing people in the first four months of the year," referring to alleged violence around the March election, which most observers say was rigged in favor of Mugabe. The government has threatened to ban NGOs critical of the state and to seize the passports of their workers. The WFP says that food is being distributed to all, not just to those in a particular party. But local NGOs and the MDC say that monitoring has been poor. They accuse aid agencies of looking the other way to avoid confrontation with the government, allowing it to influence who receives donated food. "The lists of beneficiaries are all being drawn up by rural committees, which are relying on chiefs and headmen who are all in the pay of the government," says Eddie Cross, spokesman for the MDC on economic affairs. "On principle [the WFP and aid groups] will not act in a political manner, but they're allowing themselves to be manipulated." The WFP and donors deny such allegations and say that they have thoroughly investigated all charges of political bias in the food-distribution process and found them untrue. The biggest problem, they say, is just that there's not enough food aid for everyone. Since the ranks of the needy are so vast, it is nearly impossible to prove whether someone was left off a list because of political affiliation. Still, several cases of direct interference by ruling-party militants have been recorded. In the town of Binga, near Lake Kariba, war veterans stopped food distribution by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace for almost two months, saying that the commission was a political organization that was using the food to foment antigovernment sentiment. In another district, a local NGO says its workers were beaten by war veterans who claimed that bags of cornmeal were being distributed with pro-opposition material inside. The biggest challenge for the donors may be the next phase of the crisis - the recovery phase. Feeding the hungry is usually followed by long-term efforts to improve food security, but according to the WFP, donors will likely be hesitant to subsidize new farmers placed on land taken from white commercial farmers.

Americas

Argentina

WP 21 Aug 2002 Argentine Ex-Leader Tied to Death Squad U.S. Records Cite Role in 1976-83 Killings By Dana Priest Page A14 One of the leaders of the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina between 1976 and 1983 was at the top of the chain of command, directing a notorious death squad thought to be responsible for the killing and disappearance of thousands of Argentines during that period, according to declassified State Department documents released yesterday. Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri, who served as president of Argentina from December 1981 to June 1982 and faces criminal charges in the disappearance of 18 people, is listed at the top of an organizational diagram drawn by officials at the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires. The chart, once stamped secret, shows the chain of command for the secretive unit, known as Battalion 601, moving from task forces, through positions in its headquarters, to the Army's chief intelligence officers and then to Galtieri. The chart, drawn by James J. Blystone, the Regional Security Officer at the embassy, is one of 4,677 pages released yesterday after years of requests by U.S. groups and the relatives of Argentine victims of the military government's war against its own people. Then-Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, during a visit to Buenos Aires in 2000, met with the grandmothers of some people who had disappeared, and Albright promised to push for the documents' release. More than 9,000 Argentines, including political and labor leaders, clergymen, human rights activists, physicians and students, were killed or "disappeared" during the military junta. The United States, which tacitly encouraged the campaign against anti-government activists in its early years, later tried to pressure the government to stop the disappearances. The released documents include memos outlining an intense policy dispute within the U.S. government over what its position on the ruling junta should be, according to Thomas S. Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research institute that pushed for the release of the documents. Blanton, often a critic of the U.S. government because of its secrecy, praised the State Department yesterday. "For Argentina, this information is essential for coming to terms with their very bloody past, and that's hugely significant." But, he added, the documents also show "a remarkable level of knowledge by the U.S. government" about daily human rights abuses. At the time, some U.S. government officials said the abuse was being committed by renegade military and security force elements, and was not Argentina's government policy. But one of many examples describing the U.S. government's knowledge about the government's unorthodox tactics is laid out in a cable from the embassy to the State Department in May 1980: A reliable source described for embassy officials the "very hard orders that went out late last year for security procedures" concerning the Montoneros, a domestic terrorist group. "Torture and summary executions will be their lot," the cable quotes the source as saying. Asked by U.S. officials "why the military did not feel it possible to bring these people before formal courts, even military courts, our informant gave two reasons," the cable says. "First, security forces neither trust nor know how to use legal solutions. The present methods are easier and more familiar. Second, there is no responsible military man who 'has the courage' to take formal responsibility for the conviction and execution of a Montonero." The cable concludes by saying: "Under present rules, 'nobody' is responsible on the record for the executions." http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB73/press.htm

Colombia

BBC 8 Aug 2002 Massacre in Colombia welcomes new president By BBC At least 13 people have been killed and nearly 30 wounded in explosions in the Colombian capital Bogota, minutes before Alvaro Uribe was sworn in as the country's president. Several of the explosions took place in poor Cartucho district a few streets away from the national parliament where Mr Uribe was receiving his presidential sash. A correspondent says that only the Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have the ability to mount such attacks. He says the are a sign that the FARC is not intimidated by the new president's pledge to get tough on them and to restore order in the country. Mr Uribe, a 50-year-old lawyer, won a landslide election victory in May after promising a crackdown but has since warned people not to "expect miracles". In the past six months there have been three attempts on his life, including one which destroyed cars in his motorcade. Mr Uribe's father was gunned down by FARC rebels on the family ranch in Antioquia in 1983. Mr Uribe did not mention the explosions during his inaugural address. But concerns about possible attacks had led to the ceremony being moved from its traditional outdoor location in Bogota's central colonial plaza into the parliament. Several regional presidents were attending the inauguration, as well as the heir to the Spanish throne, Prince Felipe, but they were not hurt. Instead, local residents took the brunt of the injuries, with several children among the dead. A number of police officers also suffered injuries. A series of mortar shells were fired, despite the presence of 20,000 soldiers and police, and a US surveillance plane. Although there was no claim of responsibility, home-made mortars are a weapon frequently used by the FARC. The outgoing President, Andres Pastrana, staked his government's reputation on initiating peace talks with the rebels, who have been at war with the Colombian authorities for 38 years. But his attempts to end the conflict failed, and the cycle of violence has continued. Mr Uribe has already warned that he will need a "lot of time" to tackle Colombia's problems.

AP 18 Aug 2002 Colombian paramilitary commander says army executed 24 of his fighters BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A regional commander of an outlawed paramilitary force accused an army soldier on Saturday of executing 24 of his men along a roadside in central Colombia. The paramilitary commander, who goes by the nom de guerre Rodrigo, dismissed an army claim that the paramilitaries were killed during combat as a lie. The right-wing paramilitaries and the U.S.-backed Colombian army often maintain secret links and work together in attempts to crush Colombia's 38-year-old leftist insurgency. Rodrigo said in a telephone interview that a drunken soldier from the army's 14th Brigade forced his men from a truck near Segovia village in Antioquia province on the evening of Aug. 9 and ordered them to kneel on the side of a road with their hands behind their necks. The soldier then opened fire on the men with a machine gun, Rodrigo said by phone from Segovia, 186 miles (300 kilometers) north of the capital, Bogota. Army officials have said 24 paramilitary fighters were killed during fighting that broke out near Segovia on Aug. 9, and that three soldiers were injured during the alleged clashes. Rodrigo said the army soldiers were injured when 12 paramilitary fighters returned fire while trying to escape. The brigade's commander, Col. Guillermo Quinones, could not be reached for comment Saturday. Another officer of the brigade, Col. Hector Hurtado, said the case was being investigated by a prosecutor in Segovia. The prosecutor's office did not answer phone calls Saturday. Rodrigo, commander of the paramilitary's Metro Block with an estimated 1,200 fighters, said he learned of the massacre from four of his fighters who survived. The dead paramilitaries were between the ages of 18 and 25, Rodrigo said. He pledged not to take revenge against the army. "We will never take military action against the state or the army,'' said Rodrigo. "That's why we're denouncing this, so that what happened will be investigated and brought to light.'' Rodrigo said he and other paramilitary commanders had met frequently with a lieutenant from the 14th Brigade to coordinate operations against rebels. The United States, which provides millions of dollars in military aid as well as training to the Colombian security forces, has insisted the army sever ties with the paramilitaries, who have been accused of numerous massacres of suspected rebels and other abuses. About 3,500 people were killed last year in Colombia's war.

Mexico

AP 18 Aug 2002 Nine deaths in Mexico may be drug-related MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Eight men and a woman were lined up against a wall and gunned down with assault rifles and pistols at a western Mexico ranch in what reports published Sunday said may have been a drug-related massacre. The victims' bodies were found Saturday, and the execution-style killings -- each victim was found facedown and shot in the head -- probably occurred sometime Friday, Michoacan state police told local media. Police found a white powder, plastic bags such as those used to package cocaine for retail sale and unspecified equipment that may have been used in processing cocaine, state police told the newspaper La Jornada. Tests were continuing on the equipment and the powder to determine their nature. The killings occurred in the remote rural township of Aquila in a mountainous area about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the Pacific coast and some 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of the coastal resort city of Manzanillo. Impoverished farmers in the area reportedly grow small plots of marijuana, but the cocaine trade would be a relatively new development there. The dead included the ranch's owner, and most of the other victims -- who ranged in age from 19 to 49 -- appeared to be ranch employees. Photographs of the crime scene showed the bodies -- some shirtless -- crowded side by side into the small, brick warehouse-type room where they were executed. Original reports had said other ranch residents were missing, but two women and five children later turned up, saying they left the property after ranch owner Jose Mendoza told them to take the weekend off. The killers apparently showed up at the ranch Friday in two pickups, which they then abandoned outside the property, and killed everyone present at the ranch. State police searched the area for signs of the attackers.

AP 20 Aug 2002 Mexico Land Issues Spark Clashes ALTAMIRANO, Mexico (AP) — Supporters of leftist Zapatista rebels clashed with a rival group in southern Mexico, injuring nine people. Five others were wounded in a separate attack motivated by religious differences. Zapatistas and supporters of the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, fought each other with sticks, guns and machetes on Monday in Chiapas state. Seven injured PRI supporters were treated in nearby hospitals; two injured Zapatistas were treated within their autonomous townships. There was no immediate information on their conditions. The two groups are engaged in land disputes near the city of Ocosingo, about 100 miles east of the colonial city of San Cristobal de las Casas. In a separate clash in Chiapas state, militant Catholics ambushed a group of Protestants in the village of San Juan Chamula, wounding five people. About 50 men armed with hunting rifles attacked Protestants as they took their children to school on the first day of classes, a spokesman for the regional governor said. The predominantly Catholic village, on the outskirts of San Cristobal, has seen decades of religious violence that has forced out thousands of Protestant farmers. Town leaders have demanded uniformity in religion, saying that dissent weakens an embattled culture that has survived several genocidal wars in recent centuries. Critics say local bosses only seek to maintain power for themselves. Also Monday, about 2,000 Zapatista supporters wearing ski masks marched through the Chiapas city of Altamirano, near the Guatemalan border, to demand custody of men they claim killed one of their leaders earlier this month. The Zapatistas kidnapped one man they claimed was a government agent and ransacked several homes, the government news agency Notimex reported.

Miami Herald 7 Aug 2002 Mexico targets ex-president in murder inquiry BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER Miami Herald MEXICO CITY -- Former President Luis Echeverría, a populist who governed Mexico from 1970 to 1976, has emerged as the principal target of an unprecedented government investigation into the long-hidden ''dirty war'' waged against anti-government activists decades ago. As if to emphasize the government's determination to punish wrongdoers, top officials say they will invoke international treaties to overcome a 30-year statute of limitations law that would prevent the prosecution of Echeverría for gross human rights abuses in the 1970s. Interior Minister Santiago Creel said the 80-year-old Echeverría is being investigated for his alleged role in the 1968 and 1971 killings of dozens -- perhaps hundreds -- of leftist activists, many of whom disappeared after clashes with government forces in Mexico City demonstrations. The first incident took place while Echeverría was interior minister under his predecessor, the late Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. The Echeverría probe is among half a dozen investigations that are putting to a test a vow by President Vicente Fox to end Mexico's tradition of allowing powerful politicians to get away with commiting crimes. Leaders of the party once led by Echeverría claim Fox has embarked on a witch hunt, and threaten to strike back with labor union strikes and other protests if the government goes ahead with the inquiries. ''In cases of disappearances, we will take the position that this is a continuing crime,'' Creel said in an interview at his office. ``There will be a debate about this, but we believe there is a basis to make a good argument that the statute of limitation on these crimes has not expired.'' Echeverría, who championed Third World causes and used to lash out against the United States during his presidency, had long been the target of press allegations that he had authorized the killings. But it wasn't until President Fox's victory in 2000, when Echeverría's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost power after seven decades of often authoritarian rule, that the government started a serious investigation into the case. Last month, the Mexican government declassified millions of government files on the ''dirty war'' of the 70s and 80s. In addition, Fox appointed a special prosecutor to look into the 532 documented cases of political killings and disappearances, including those in the 1968 clash at Mexico City's Tlatelolco Square and the 1971 student demonstration in the city's San Cosme district. Until recently, Echeverría lived the privileged life of an elder statesman of the PRI. He was a frequent visitor at the presidential residence of Los Pinos, and recommended loyalists to powerful jobs. One of his children, Benito Echeverría, has headed a Mexican government tourism office in Miami for about seven years. MANY QUESTIONS But, in a scene reminiscent of Chile's recent probes into former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, Echeverría was summoned by special prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo Prieto to testify last month and was greeted with shouts of ''assassin!'' by scores of demonstrators. The prosecutor gave the former president more than 150 questions, which he will have two months to answer. Last week, Echeverría was hospitalized, suffering from non-life-threatening respiratory infections, the health ministry said. In a statement, the ministry said the ex-president was admitted to Mexico City's Ignacio Chavez National Cardiology Center on Thursday for routine tests. Echeverría's doctors said he was no longer suffering from fever, that his prognosis was good and that they expected him to be out of the hospital ``in a few days.'' Government prosecutors want to know whether Echeverría -- as many of the victims' relatives say -- ordered the repression of the 1968 student demonstration, where army troops killed at least 30 leftist activists, while he was interior minister. Some historians believe many more were killed in that incident. Echeverría has said in the past that the orders had come from President Díaz Ordaz, and that the late president himself had publicly admitted that. But the main charges against Echeverría focus on the June 10, 1971, killings in San Cosme by a para-military group known as ''Los Halcones'' (The Falcons), reportedly created by Díaz Ordaz and assigned to patrol the streets and subway stations. `TWO BIRDS' Former Mexico City Mayor Alfonso Martínez Domínguez was quoted in a 1979 interview with the weekly Proceso as saying that the killings by the paramilitary group ``were engineered by Luis Echeverría to kill two birds with a stone: He wanted to scare those who he said were trying to harass his government at the very start of his term, and he got rid of me.'' According to human rights groups, the paramilitary group not only shot at the demonstrators, but also went to several hospitals afterwards to kill survivors in the emergency wards. Echeverría declined requests for an interview, but his top attorney, Juan Velázquez, disputed the critics' version of the events. Velázquez said the Falcons were ordered by ''somebody'' to crack down on the demonstrators with canes and, when they were met with gunfire from the demonstrators, went back to their headquarters to get weapons. The Falcons did indeed go the hospitals later that day, but it was to take their own wounded, the attorney said. At any rate, prosecution for both the 1968 and 1971 crimes has been proscribed, and the government will not be able to invoke international conventions against genocide to press charges against Echeverría, Velázquez said. ''Assuming, without conceding, that there was a genocide, the 30 years the law would have required to file charges has already expired,'' Velázquez said. ``And Mexico's Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that, when there is a question of hierarchy between the Mexican Constitution and international conventions, the Constitution comes first.'' LATER CRIMES Some academics concede that the Supreme Court ruling may well protect Echeverría for these two incidents. But they add that the former president could still be prosecuted for later crimes, and will at any rate end his life shrouded in controversy. ''It may be too late to do justice in connection with the events of 1968 and 1971, but there can still be legal action regarding actions that took place after 1973, which have not prescribed,'' says leading historian Lorenzo Meyer. ``At any rate, forcing Echeverría to respond for his actions sets an important precedent to prevent these crimes from remaining unprosecuted in the future.''

AP 4 Aug 2002 '68 Student Demonstration Studied MEXICO CITY –– A special prosecutor said he has found no evidence to support historians' claims that about 300 people died when army troops opened fire on student demonstrators in 1968. It appears that about 38 people died during the demonstration at Mexico City's Tlatelolco Plaza, Ignacio Carrillo said in an interview published Sunday. Carrillo was appointed in January to investigate the massacre and the disappearances of hundreds of leftists in the 1970s. The Mexican government reported shortly after the Oct. 2 massacre that 24 died, but witnesses described a blood bath and many historians have said the death toll was 300. No firm body count or list of the dead has been compiled beyond a monument erected in 1998 bearing the names of 38 known victims. That number is probably close to the real figure, Carrillo said. "I haven't seen any photographs that show hundreds of bodies, I haven't seen any document that supports that," Carrillo told the newspaper La Jornada. For decades, the government's secretiveness and its decision to hastily remove the bodies led many Mexicans to believe that a crime of enormous proportions had been covered up. Carrillo said that "imprecise figures always appear, based on the nature of massacres ... when you open fire indiscriminately on a crowd of people, the number of victims remains unclear." Carrillo, a legal scholar, was named special prosecutor when President Vicente Fox created the post in January. Fox, the first opposition candidate ever to win Mexico's presidency, promised to do away with repression and investigate past crimes when he ended the 71-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 2000.

United States

WP 11 Aug 2002 Idaho's Anne Frank Memorial Takes Aim at Intolerance Idaho has had it with hate. The state is tired of the rap it often gets as a haven for neo-Nazis and other ragtag extremist groups, and it's about to take a big step to prove it. On the banks of the Boise River this week, Idaho leaders are planning to celebrate the opening of an elaborate testament to tolerance, the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial. Its centerpiece is a life-size bronze statue of the famed Jewish teenager, whose diary of persecution by the Nazis during World War II put a face on the Holocaust and has long been a worldwide bestseller. The memorial, spread across several acres of parkland, also will feature 60 stone tablets engraved with quotations from past and present champions of human rights. The project has been in the works for nearly seven years and cost $1.5 million to complete. The memorial's backers say they decided to make Frank the focus of it because