Africa

Burundi

IRIN 3 Dec 2002 Government, main rebel group sign ceasefire deal ARUSHA, 3 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - After two days of tough negotiations and several alleged breakdowns of the talks, held in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, the Burundian government signed a ceasefire accord with the main faction of the country's largest rebel group on Tuesday. The deal between the transitional government and Pierre Nkurunziza's faction of the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) ended the 19th regional summit on Burundi. The rivals appear to have compromised over the outstanding military and political issues that had blocked the talks and threatened the entire peace process. After signing the accord, Burundian President Pierre Buyoya and Nkurunziza reaffirmed their commitment to see the agreement to end the war that began in 1993 implemented fully. Details of the agreement are still sketchy. However, a Ugandan diplomat close to the talks said that the accord - the first that the South African talks facilitators have secured with a significant Hutu rebel faction - provided for the government army and the CNDD-FDD to retain their arms while the new national army was being established. Once done - split in equal proportions between Tutsis and Hutus at all levels - then disarmament of the remaining forces could go ahead. However, analysts expressed surprise at this arrangement. "Buyoya can never agree to the disarmament of the army," an analyst in Bujumbura told IRIN. "The army is the most volatile issue, and if he compromises, the situation is such that there is likely to be a coup." The communiqué released at the end of the summit, which also outlined the political aspects of the accord, said the CNDD-FDD would "take part in the power-sharing arrangements of the transitional government" and "will become a political party under a new law governing political parties". Many of the details of these political aspects are yet to be agreed on by the two parties. As a result, some observers are disappointed that more was not done to resolve the issues at the summit, rather than leaving them for later. At one stage on Monday, after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had congratulated all the parties and just as the initial signing ceremony was about to begin, the CNDD-FDD demanded to re-examine the ceasefire document. Then, claiming that a clause had been removed without its consent, it called for a rewrite. Museveni closed the summit, calling for an end to the "endless" and "unprincipled" wars in Africa, and saying that the onus of ending the resultant suffering was on both the peoples of the countries involved and the continent as a whole. Despite the optimism prompted by the attainment of the ceasefire accord, observers have said there could still be problems with its implementation, because the signatories reached agreement only in response to "enormous pressure". "Arusha was similar - people ended up feeling that they had to sign, because of the pressure and the need to look good. The result is that people don't believe in what they sign," one observer said. The ceasefire deal, which the talks facilitator, Deputy President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, called "another victory for Africa", was accompanied by stern warnings of sanctions against Agathon Rwasa's Parti pour la liberation du peuple hutu-Force nationale de liberation, the remaining Hutu (Palipehutu-FNL) rebel group yet to join the peace process. At the previous summit in October, Palipehutu-FNL was given 30 days to sign a ceasefire. Instead, it stepped up the fighting. "I appeal to Palipehutu-FNL to stop what they are doing," Museveni said on Tuesday. "The region will not tolerate it. We are now on the verge of putting sanctions on the Palipehutu-FNL. They will be robust sanctions that will convince them not to cause trouble."

Central African Republic

IRIN 5 Dec 2002 First contingent of intervention force arrives BANGUI, 5 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - The first contingent of the regional Central African Economic and Monetary Community Force (CEMAC) arrived in the Central African Republic (CAR) capital, Bangui, on Wednesday. "Yesterday about 90 Gabonese soldiers came and many more are expected today," Xavier Sylvestre Yangongo, the CAR's junior minister of defence told IRIN on Thursday. The mandate of the CEMAC force - headed by Gen Barthelemy Ratanga of Gabon - is to protect CAR President Ange-Felix Patasse. The force will replace the 200-man Libyan contingent that has been protecting Patasse since the abortive coup by former President Andre Kolingba in May 2001. The troops would also occupy strategic sites in Bangui, and monitor the border between the CAR and Chad, Yangongo added. France trained and equipped the CEMAC troops in its Gabonese (Libreville) military base, and is transporting them to the CAR. China has offered 100 million francs CFA (US $153,853) worth of military equipment, and both the US and the EU have also promised to contribute. The force, which will comprise a total of 350 soldiers from Gabon, Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Mali, will be stationed in a former French military base near Bangui's international airport.

AFP 6 Dec 2002 Rebels firmly entrenched in the Central African Republic by Pierre Ausseill BOSSANGOA, CAR, Dec 6 (AFP) - Well-armed rebels, though thwarted in a coup bid against President Ange-Felix Patasse in October, have since gained control of much of the Central African Republic (CAR). An AFP correspondent travelling in the area found rebel forces in control of towns and villages within 40 kilometres (25 miles) of the capital Bangui, and in areas between the city and Sido on the border with Chad. Two weeks ago, the rebels seized the administrative district of Bossangoa, the home ground of former armed forces chief General Francois Bozize, who appears to have become a rebel after Patasse sacked him in November last year. Bozize claimed responsibility for a bloody bid to oust the head of state on October 25, which led to heavy fighting in northern Bangui for a week until the rebels were driven out by presidential troops and their foreign allies. Officers commanding different rebel units gather sometimes in Bossangoa, in the heart of the impoverished landlocked country's cotton-growing region, and discuss front-line news and tactics at a hostelry in the town centre. It was from Bossangoa that the rebels late last month attacked Bossembele, a strategic town controlling the road west towards Cameroon, before they were beaten back. At Bossembele, they fought heavily armed Libyan troops, backed by two ultra-light aircraft, and troops of the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC), a rebel force which holds part of the northern Democratic Republic of Congo. Rebel troops said they had never fought any battles with soldiers of the regular CAR army. Such was the state of affairs on Friday after more than 100 soldiers from Gabon arrived in Bangui, the first contingent in a regional peacekeeping force being deployed to ensure Patasse's security and secure the north. Patasse's request to MLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba for help putting down the October coup bid angered both the opposition and some of his backers, notably because MLC rebels swiftly set about looting the capital they had liberated. On October 30, Bozize's supporters left Bangui, which had seen the fiercest fighting in a series of attacks on Patasse since he first took office in 1993, and they argued they feared for the lives of civilians. The government then claimed that the rebels had been routed and said the country was under its control right up to the border with Chad, where Bozize had first fled with armed supporters on being sacked. "We were chased for 48 hours by the loyalists, on the defensive," a rebel lieutenant who did not give his name told AFP. "But then, we got to Damara, about 75 kilometres (45 miles) north of Bangui, and we took the town." Days after that, rebel units headed down the road to within 40 kilometres of the capital, in spite of attacks by Libyan aircraft. A forward position held by rebels lies around there. "We're face to face, we can see them," one rebel soldier said. With Damara secured, other rebel forces headed east towards Sibut, a town controlling road access to Sudan. And then they moved northwards, taking Dekoa, the Kaga Bandoro and Batangafo districts, and Kabo, close to Chad. Kabo had been the base for pro-Patasse forces led by Colonel Abdoulaye Miskine, who was put in charge of securing the north in December last year and is accused by Chad of being a former south Chadian rebel. Patasse's government, in turn, accuses Chad of directly backing Bozize, whose supporters said they had driven Miskine's forces out of Kabo before moving against Bangui. Not a single government soldier, gendarme or police officer was to be seen on the road from Sido to Bossangoa, while the local authorities seemed to have vanished into thin air. Leaders in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community decided early in October, before the latest trouble began, to deploy peacekeeping troops in a force to total some 350 men. Gabon's contingent will be joined by soldiers from Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Mali.

Chad

IRIN 6 Dec 2002 Ex-President Hissene Habre's immunity waived ABIDJAN, 6 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday hailed the waiver of ex-President Hissene Habre's immunity by the Chadian government, saying it would pave way for his prosecution in Belgium. It also opens the way for his indictment and extradition from Senegal where he lives in exile, HRW said in a news release. "This waiver is a clear green light for Habre's prosecution," Reed Brody of HRW, which helped the Chadian victims file the case against Habre said. "We are one step closer to the day when Habre will have to answer in a court of law for his terrible crimes." In a letter to the Belgian judge investigating the charges against Habre, Chad's Justice Minister Djimnain Koudj-Gaou wrote: "Hissene Habre cannot claim to enjoy any form of immunity from the Chadian authorities". The document dated 7 October, 2002, was given to HRW on Friday and the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH), which immediately made it public. In February and March, the Belgian judge, Daniel Fransen, visited Chad with a police team to investigate the charges against Habre. The judge visited Habre-era prisons and mass grave sites and interviewed victims as well as many of Habre’s collaborators, HRW said. The investigation has since been put on hold, however, as Belgian courts, restricted the scope of the anti-atrocity to cases in which the accused is already indicted in Belgium. The Belgian parliament is now considering two laws to overturn those decisions and restore the law’s longer reach, it added. Meanwhile Chadian activists hailed the waiver, HRW said. "For the first time, the Chadian government has committed itself to bring about justice and fighting impunity," it quoted Dobian Assingar, president of the Chadian League for Human Rights and vice-president of the FIDH, as saying. "We welcome this stand, but we will remain vigilant to see how this plays out." Habre, labeled an "African Pinochet", was indicted in Senegal two years ago on charges of torture and crimes against humanity before the Senegalese courts ruled that he could not be tried there. Chadian victims then filed charges against him in Belgium. The president of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, has said that he would extradite Habre to Belgium if a request were made, HRW said. More information on the cases against Hissene Habre can be found at http://www.hrw.org/justice/habre/

Cote d’Ivoire

BBC 30 Nov 2002 Ivory Coast: Who are the rebels? There are now at least three groups of rebels By Paul Welsh BBC West Africa correspondent Perhaps the only thing now clear about Ivory Coast's war is that it is confused. Until now, what began here on 19 September has been called a mutiny, an uprising or a failed coup; it is taking on all the characteristics of a classic West African fight. We took up arms because they killed Robert Guei - I am fighting to avenge the general Felix Doh, MPIGO There are chilling similarities with the beginnings of the wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone when new rebel groups sprang from the bush with alarming suddenness and regularity. There are now three rebel groups under arms in the country: The Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI) - which was the first to take up arms against the government The Movement for Justice and Peace The Ivorian Popular Movement of the Great West Attacks marked arrival The two new groups took advantage of a break in the ceasefire between the Ivory Coast Government and the MPCI to announce their arrival with attacks on cities in the west of the country. The city of Danane, 20 kilometres from the Liberian border, was the first to fall to the new rebels on 28 November - both of the largely unknown groups claim to have been responsible for its capture. The Movement for Justice and Peace (MJP) then took Man, the main city of the region, 70 kilometres further towards the centre of the country. Guei was killed as the uprising began On 30 November, the Ivorian Popular Movement for the Great West (MPIGO) moved further south and attacked Toulepleu. The region where they are fighting is by the Liberian border in the tribal homeland of the former military ruler General Robert Guei. The general was killed in mysterious circumstances on the first day of the original uprising in September. He had been accused of being behind the unrest; he had seized power in a coup in December 1999 and later lost it to the current President, Laurent Gbagbo, in elections. Both the MJP and the MPIGO say they are fighting to avenge General Guei's death and that they want President Gbagbo out of power. Family affair The MPIGO appears to be led by one of the late general's sons. A man who gave his name as Felix Doh telephoned the French news agency AFP saying he represented the MPIGO. "My men have taken Danane, are going all the way to San Pedro" he said, speaking of the second biggest port in Ivory Coast. "We took up arms because they killed Robert Guei. I am fighting to avenge the general." The Reuters news agency was contacted by a man representing the MJP who said he wanted the head of Laurent Gbagbo and that "we are going to go all the way to Abidjan," the main city of Ivory Coast and capital in all but name. Some of those fighting for the two new rebel groups came over the border from Liberia to fight. According to people in the newly taken areas, others have accents which suggest they are from Sierra Leone. The two countries have both suffered from long, vicious and inter-related wars involving numerous rebel movements. The rebels from both countries and from Guinea have supported and provoked each other's conflicts. The United Nations has just extended sanctions against Liberia because of the role it played in supporting rebels in Sierra Leone during the bloody conflict there. Stable neighbour collapses Ivory Coast had traditionally been the stable neighbour, now it looks in danger of being added to a sad list. Some rebels are more disciplined than others The idea that many of the fighters are linked to previous conflicts is supported by the difference between their behaviour and the way the original rebel force, the MPCI, is conducting itself. There are reports from Danane and Man of drug-taking and looting among the rebels there. They are said to be scruffy and undisciplined. Those who have held the northern half of the country since September are the opposite. They are not angels. I have seen some under the influence of drink or drugs, and they have carried out summary executions, but they are famously said to pay for everything they consume and there is an air of discipline among their number. It is the MPCI who have signed a truce with the government and who have entered into peace talks in the nearby country of Togo. Threatened demobilisation They began as a group of around 700 soldiers who took up arms against their own country because they were about to be demobilised against their wishes. They had been brought into the army by General Guei when he was in power and some had fought in the first coup. Some rebels have called for Gbagbo's head The mutineers, as they were, finished the first day of fighting in control of the northern half of the country but they were forced out of Abidjan and the south. Since then, they have been joined by others, including ex-soldiers who had been living abroad. Their movement slowly changed, adopted the name MPCI, and made more definite demands. They want President Gbagbo to step down and for there to be elections within six months, open to all Ivorians. Previously, leading opposition politicians have been refused the right to stand and a controversial new Ivorian identity card is likely to prevent many people - most of them opponents of the government - from voting The government says the MPCI is supported and directed from abroad, with the backing of a foreign country. No evidence has been offered to support the claims, but it is clear that the rebels are getting funds from somewhere. What is much more clear is that the new, more shady, groups do have links across the borders.

BBC 1 Dec 2002 Ivorian troops shell rebel-held town An evacuee worries about her father, left behind in Man Government forces have attacked the rebel-held town of Man in western Ivory Coast just hours after French troops evacuated foreigners from the area. President Laurent Gbagbo's forces first secured the airport in Man after the French moved out, then attacked the town itself. "The objective is to take the town before nightfall," said a military spokesman. A Canadian missionary in Man quoted by Reuters news agency said there had been "a heavy bombardment" and "lots of stray bullets". He said 150 people were sheltering at the Catholic Mission there. Evacuees from Man said the rebels were looting and firing into homes, terrorising the population, the BBC's Paul Welsh reports. Convoys of heavily armed troops headed towards Man on Sunday from Duekoue, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the town, and pickups were also seen carrying some white mercenaries towards the fighting, Reuters reported. Man and nearby Danane fell on Thursday to two previously unknown opposition groups who say they are not linked to the original rebel movement which sparked the anti-government revolt. Evacuation French troops recaptured Man airport on Saturday and evacuated 40 French nationals and another 120 foreigners - half of them Lebanese - from Man and Danane. Ex-military ruler Robert Guei was killed in September It was the first time the French soldiers had been drawn into combat since being sent to protect French citizens and other foreigners in the former colony. The intervention and evacuation - in which at least five guerrillas were killed - apparently angered the new rebel movements who call themselves the Movement for Justice and Peace and the Ivorian Popular Movement for the Great West. But residents fleeing Man said they were certain that the rebel groups there also included members of the main Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast and fighters from war-ravaged Liberia across the border. One evacuee, Raj Angebat, told the BBC that the rebels were "going from house to house, taking cellphones, televisions, killing the dogs". Earlier, Gato Guillaume Prospere - a man calling himself a rebel commander - called the BBC to issue a warning to the French forces. The rebels started the Ivorian uprising 10 weeks ago "If France continues to attack our positions, they will raise the spectre of Rwanda here," he said. "They have no right to attack us and we will react." The rebel groups - who now control the mainly Muslim north of Ivory Coast - have moved the battle lines further south by attacking Toulepleu. The new rebels are from the Yacouba tribe and say they want to avenge the death of Ivory Coast's former military ruler General Robert Guei, who was killed on the first day of the uprising in September. But President Gbagbo has promised to end rebel control of all Ivorian areas and drive his opponents out of the country. The United Nations refugee agency says there are 47,000 displaced people in the area now controlled or being fought for by the rebels and a further 25,000 elsewhere in the country.

AP 1 Dec 2002 France Moves Foreigners From City in Ivory Coast By Clar Ni Chonghaile Associated Press Sunday, December 1, 2002; Page A32 ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, Nov. 30 -- French troops evacuated foreigners today from a rebel-held city in western Ivory Coast as loyalist troops headed toward the area with orders to oust the insurgents. Eighty-three of 160 foreigners seeking to leave the city of Man were flown south to Abidjan, the commercial capital of this former French colony. The others were expected to follow on a second plane during the night, said Lt. Col. Ange-Antoine Leccia, spokesman for the French force. It was not known if any Americans were among the evacuees, half of whom are thought to be French citizens. Earlier, French soldiers fought gun battles with the rebels in Man -- a city of 135,000 people northwest of Abidjan -- while trying to secure the airport for the evacuation. One French soldier was wounded and at least five rebels were killed, Leccia said. Ivory Coast, the world's leading cocoa producer, has been divided three ways as a two-month rebel uprising evolves into a multi-front war in the former French colony. The government holds the south, including Abidjan. The rebels who launched the Sept. 19 uprising control the north, and the new insurgents claim the west. French forces evacuated hundreds of French, American and other foreigners from rebel-held towns in the north at the start of the uprising. The French troops are also monitoring a cease-fire agreed to by the northern rebels and the army on Oct. 17, but which has crumbled in recent days. Rebels calling themselves the Ivorian Popular Movement for the Greater West now hold two towns in the mountainous west -- Man, the center of a cocoa-producing area, and Danane, 40 miles farther west. Residents of the two cities described the rebels as young men dressed in a mix of military fatigues, black jeans, T-shirts and flip-flops. Some rode scooters and others had commandeered cars, the residents said, but there seemed to be little discipline among them. Peace talks in nearby Togo seemed on the brink of collapse after West African mediators rejected the latest rebel proposals. The increasingly acrimonious discussions have stalled on rebel demands that President Laurent Gbagbo step down -- a demand Ivorian authorities refuse to meet. The conflict has fanned tensions between northern and southern groups. The northern rebels say they oppose discrimination against mainly Muslim northern tribes by Christian and animist southern groups that have traditionally dominated the government.

IRIN 4 Dec 2002 Preparing for peace amid war ABIDJAN, 4 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - Ensuring that the fight between loyalist forces and insurgents in Cote d’Ivoire does not degenerate into civil conflict pitting communities against each other is the task a section of Ivorian civil society has set itself. “You have to prepare for the postwar period while the war is going on, and that’s what we’re doing,” Honore Guie, spokesman of the Collectif de la Societe Civile pour la Paix (Civil Society Collective for Peace) told IRIN. “We are preparing people’s minds for the postwar period so that they do not try to seek revenge after the war.” The Collectif, launched on 29 October, includes the local chapters of two international organisations that promote democracy - the Groupe d'etude et de recherche sur la Democratie et le Developpement social en Afrique (GERDDES-CI) and Association internationale pour la democratie (AID-CI). Its other members are Buddhist, Christian and Muslim leaders, and country's two main human rights organisations - the Ligue ivoirienne des droits de l'homme (LIDHO) and Movement ivoirien des droits de l'homme (MIDH). Its work is supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Belgium, Canada, the European Commission, the UN Development Programme and the UN Children’s Fund. The more than 16 million inhabitants of the West African country have been affected in various ways by an insurgency that began on 19 September. The civil society groups’ decision to come together was motivated by the realisation that things could get much worse "if nothing decisive is done now to stop the beginnings of ethnic or religious clashes observed in certain areas of the country" as they said during the launch of the Collectif. During a pilot phase that ended in mid-November, the Collectif sent teams to Abidjan neighbourhoods and 10 of the country’s 58 departments, where they met administrative officials, ethnic, religious and political leaders, as well as representatives of women, young people and foreign communities. Follow-up committees made up of community representatives were formed with a view to pursuing the sensitisation so as to avoid ethnic or religious conflicts. "We still have 48 departments to visit," Guie told IRIN. "But these departments include some that are located in the zone that is in the hands of the insurgents. While it was easy for us to go to the areas controlled by loyalist forces with the support of the government, we haven't yet found the necessary security conditions that can allow us to go to the north. "However, we are trying to obtain those conditions through the Economic Community of West African States [ECOWAS - which is mediating between Cote d'Ivoire's government and rebels] and the UN system so that we can also reach all departments located in the territory occupied by the insurgents". One of the main challenges faced by the peace advocates is fear. In some areas, this prevented some political parties from responding to the invitations the teams sent out to prospective interlocutors. Fear has also conditioned the way communities view each other. "All ethnic communities are afraid," Guie said. Communities in the part of the country under the control of loyalist forces are afraid of the insurgents and communities who supposedly back the insurgents. Communities from the north of the country living in southern localities are afraid of being assimilated to the insurgents, and they are also afraid of being attacked by other communities." This fear, he said, was being kept up by individuals who have spreading rumours. In at least one case in October, level heads from two communities in the centre of the country were able to prevent rumours that one community was preparing to attack another from giving rise to clashes. Clashes have also occurred just after the insurgents took a town or just after its recapture by loyalist forces, Guie said. In some cases, the insecurity Cote d'Ivoire is now experiencing has added to existing tensions as in the southwest, where the sensitive issue of land ownership has given rise to periodic conflicts. These conflicts have opposed indigenous people and farmers from other Ivorian regions in some cases. In others they have pitted indigenes against migrants from neighbouring countries such as Burkina Faso. Such conflicts have sometimes caused massive displacement. In 1999, about 12,000 Burkinabe were displaced from an area near Tabou in the southwest. In 2000, other Burkinabe were displaced from Grand-Bereby, just east of Tabou. Guie admits his group has its work cut out. However, it does not pretend to be able to resolve such deep-rooted problems. "In the first analysis we are trying to calm everyone, to try to get people to live together pending a reduction in the tension," he says. "Once the tension is reduced, once the war is over, we think in-depth issues such as the land problem can be discussed calmly, with contributions from everyone. "Since we've seen now what war is, I think many concessions are going to be made on all sides so that we don't go through war again, a war that has traumatised everyone."

IRIN 5 Dec 2002 AU concerned at persistence of crisis ABIDJAN, 5 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - The African Union has expressed grave concern at the persistence of the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire and the armed incidents which have recently taken place in the western part of the country. In a communiqué issued on Wednesday from its headquarters in Addis Ababa, the AU urged the Ivorian government and the rebel Mouvement Patriotique de Côte d'Ivoire (MPCI) to extend full cooperation to mediation efforts in order to speed up the negotiation process. This, the AU said, should be done with regard for the respect of constitutional legality, unity and territorial integrity of the country, the communiqué issued after the 87th ordinary session of the central organ of the mechanism for conflict prevention, management and resolution at ambassadorial level, said. Commending the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the mediation by the Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema and other regional efforts, the AU expressed support for the establishment of a liaison office in Cote d'Ivoire's commercial capital, Abidjan, to ensure closer monitoring of the situation. It appealed for funding for the ECOWAS to facilitate rapid deployment of a peacekeeping force in the country. It also welcomed the dispatch to Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Ghana of a delegation from the AU commission on refugees and displaced persons to assess the humanitarian impact of the crisis and to examine the modalities of AU assistance to the affected populations. Meanwhile, a west African summit that was scheduled to take place in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, on 7 December has been postponed, news organisations reported on Thursday. The summit was to examine the modalities for the deployment of an ECOWAS peacekeeping force in Cote d'Ivoire. The force was to replace the French troops who have been monitoring a ceasefire signed on 17 October by MPCI and accepted the government. Radio France International (RFI) reported that the new rebel group - Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ) - had captured Koro, a town about 20 km north of Touba in western Cote d'Ivoire. Koro, in sugar-producing zone, was captured on Wednesday. While in the western town of Man, which the government said it had retaken from MPJ rebels early this week, BBC quoted eyewitnesses as saying bodies were littered on the streets. "I'm traumatized... There are bodies everywhere," Frenchman Carlos Fardom was quoted by the Associated Press as saying after fleeing the town on Wednesday. "Some people don't want to go out, because the bodies in the streets are decomposing, and it smells bad," a young man called Ndri said. The crisis which had started as a mutiny on 19 September and saw the country divided in two with the south in the government's hand and the north in the hands of MPCI, took a new twist on 28 November with the emergence of two new rebel groups MPJ and Ivorian Populaire Movement of the Great West (MPIGO) who captured four towns in the west.

IRIN 6 Dec 20002 ICRC urges respect for humanitarian law © ICRC ABIDJAN, 6 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Friday urged parties in the Ivorian conflict to comply with the rules of the international humanitarian law. In a news release, ICRC reminded all those bearing weapons of their obligation to respect in particular, the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols and to spare civilians and their property. It said furthermore that all those taking direct part in the hostilities, included wounded and captured combatants who were no longer able to defend themselves, must be treated with humanity and without discrimination. To execute such people without a fair trial, to loot civilian property or to hinder humanitarian action in any way were serious violations of humanitarian law, it noted. In the meantime, the organisation in collaboration with the Ivoirian Red Cross are providing emergency medical care for wounded soldiers and civilians in the western town of Man. In the other western towns of Toulepleu and Danane the National Society volunteers were also treating victims of the recent fighting and emergency medical supplies have been dispatched to Daloa military hospital also in the west, where soldiers wounded at the front are brought, it added. The World Food Programme has received a contribution of US $400,000 from the government of Switzerland to support its air operations in Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, a WFP news release said on Friday. "The US $400,000 Swiss donation in West Africa comes at a time when needs in the region have become acute increasingly urgent," WFP Regional Director Manuel Aranda da Silva said. "Should WFP be forced to cut back these air operations, the ability of WFP as well as other UN agencies and NGOs {non-governmental organizations] to serve the region would be severely hampered," he added. The continuing crisis in Liberia, as well as the civil unrest in Cote d'Ivoire makes WFP's air operation vital - not only for passenger transport but also for the rapid delivery of emergency food rations, medical supplies and security evacuations, the agency stated. The Swiss contribution enables WFP to pursue air operations up to the end of February 2003. Meanwhile, French troops monitoring the ceasefire signed on 17 October by rebels of the Mouvement Patriotique de Côte d'Ivoire (MPCI) and accepted by the government said on Friday they had discovered a mass grave western area of Pelezi some 70 km from Daloa, news organisations reported. French army spokesman Ange-Antoine Leccia told Reuters that the grave was 30 metres long by two metres wide. Legs were protruding from the earth. "We do not know how many bodies are there, who killed these people, or when," he said. "It is not our mission to exhume the bodies and we are simply reporting what we have found," he added. The crisis Cote d'Ivoire started as a mutiny on 19 September and saw the country divided in two with the south in the government's hand and the north in the hands of MPCI. It however took a new twist on 28 November with the emergence of two new rebel groups MPJ and Ivorian Populaire Movement of the Great West (MPIGO) which captured four towns in the west.

AFP 6 Dec 2002 French troops discover mass grave in conflict-torn Ivory Coast ABIDJAN, Dec 6 (AFP) - French troops Friday reported the discovery of a mass grave in the west of divided Ivory Coast amid a government offensive against rebels and a call by the African Union for intensified efforts to end the deepening 11-week conflict. French troops policing a tattered ceasefire found the grave on Thursday in an area named Monoko-Zohi, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the key town of Daloa, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ange-Antoine Leccia told AFP. It was "a mound 30 metres (yards) long and two metres high from which bodies protruded," he said. "We do not know who the people are who were killed. Nor do we know how, why or by whom." The grave is near Pelezi, which the rebels from the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI) claimed government troops bombarded on Wednesday night, killing 12 civilians and wounding a similar number. Leccia said a villager who had led the French soldiers to the grave "also pointed out a well nearby where, according to him, there could be more bodies." The Ivorian army on Friday immediately denied responsibility. Lieutenant-Colonel Jules Yao Yao, the spokesman for the Ivorian army's chief of staff, said the grave was in a village "under rebel control". "The republican forces have nothing to do with this affair. These killings can only be the work of the insurgents, whose methods are known to all," he said. In October, residents of Daloa accused members of the Ivorian security forces of kidnapping and killing dozens of people in the town, a major cocoa-growing centre. They alleged that the victims had been ethnic Dioulas and were killed on suspicion of supporting the rebels, many of whom belong to the same tribe. The Ivory Coast army meanwhile said Friday it was continuing an offensive against two new rebel movements who took up arms last week. Spokesman Jules Yao Yao said the army was conducting mopping up operations at Man, the main town in the mountainous west where it has been trying to rout rebels since Sunday. "The cleaning up operations and the consolidation of republican forces positions is still continuing in this town and the region. Life has returned to normal in this area," he said. Man, Danane, Toulepleu and Touba, all near the Liberian border, fell to the new rebel groups last week. The army and rebels have for days made contradictory claims about who was winning the battle for Man. Yao Yao said "wider operations to flush out .... rebels from the Eighteen Mountains region" were going on successfully, adding that according to a "provisionary toll" two soldiers had been killed and 12 wounded in the fighting while "several had been killed on the side of the enemy". He said security forces would from Friday impose even stricter war-time measures in the country, where a curfew has been in place for 11 weeks. Police would step up their searches in residential areas and would have permission to shoot without warning at anybody they considered suspicious, he said. The African Union (AU), in a communique sent on Friday to AFP in Addis Ababa, meanwhile stressed "the need for the region to strengthen its cohesion and its unity of action" in the handling of the Ivorian crisis. The AU Central Organ for Conflict Management -- akin to the United Nations' Security Council -- "urged the leaders of the region to intensify their efforts at promoting confidence and understanding, in order to facilitate peace." West African mediators managed to broker a ceasefire in October but the truce was shattered last week. Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema, a regional heavyweight, also initiated peace talks which have been deadlocked. Regional peace efforts have recently been marred by complaints from Senegal, which holds the rotating presidency of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States, that it had been sidelined in efforts to end the Ivorian crisis.

BBC 7 Dec 2002 'Foreigners' in Ivory Coast mass grave The army claims to have retaken the western town of Man A mass grave found in the western village of Monoko-Zohi in Ivory Coast on Thursday contained bodies of immigrants, representatives of the local community say. The leader of the village's Burkinabe` community, Ibrahima Ouedraogo, said the grave held 120 men. Mr Ouedraogo said the men had been killed by Ivory Coast soldiers, and buried by villagers when the soldiers left two days later. French soldiers found the grave following fierce fighting between government soldiers and rebel groups. The French have not investigated who was behind the massacre. The government denies any responsibility, saying the rebels are to blame - the village is in rebel-held territory. Ivory Coast used to be West Africa's richest country but 11 weeks after an army mutiny, some diplomats fear that it could descend into the anarchy and massive blood-letting of civil wars in neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone. The conflict could also draw in several neighbouring countries, which have many thousands of citizens in Ivory Coast or which are accused of backing one or other sides. Weeks of talks mediated by West African diplomats have failed to find a political solution to the crisis, which escalated last week when two new rebel groups emerged in the west of the country. Massacre The mass grave was found in territory held by the rebel Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI) 70km north-west of the key cocoa-trading town of Daloa, which is now in loyalist hands. Mr Ouedraogo said Ivorian army troops arrived in the village, travelling in six trucks with Ivorian military markings. The victims had been killed by "men in uniform," who were "aided by some villagers". The rebels are recruiting young Ivorians He said soldiers had accused merchants of feeding the rebels before going from house to house rounding up and killing men, at times working from a list of names. The bodies were found protruding from a mound which was 30 metres wide and two metres high, said a spokesman for the French forces in Ivory Coast, Lieutenant Colonel Ange-Antoine Leccia. The MPCI dominates the largely Muslim north of the country, while troops loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo retain control of the mainly Christian south. MPCI regional commander Zacharias Kone blamed the killings on the government, which attacked earlier this week. Mr Gbagbo has blamed the rebels for the mass killing. "The president has been informed and he is profoundly shocked by this macabre discovery. This can only be a crime committed by the rebellion," his spokesman Alain Toussaint said. Corpses everywhere People have been fleeing the fighting in Man, one of four towns captured last weekend by new rebel groups the Movement for Justice and Peace and the Ivorian Popular Movement for the Great West. Eyewitnesses fleeing Man, which the army said they recaptured earlier this week, report that the streets are littered with bodies. People are fleeing Ivory Coast for Liberia "There were hundreds of dead... Everywhere we went was piled with corpses," said philosophy teacher Julien Adeko Achi, adding that the bodies had fallen "like dead chickens ahead of a New Year feast". They say they are fighting to avenge the death of former military ruler, Robert Guei, who was killed in the first days of the rebellion in late September. The United Nations human rights commissioner, Sergio Vieira de Mello, has warned both sides in the conflict that they would be brought to trial by the International Criminal Court for any serious crimes committed during the fighting.

AP 7 Dec 2002 120 Civilians Killed in Ivory Coast By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 9:38 p.m. ET MONOKO-ZOHI, Ivory Coast (AP) -- Terrorized villagers on Saturday showed the burnt shops and covered corpses from what appeared to be the worst bloodletting of Ivory Coast's three-month war -- a massacre of 120 unarmed civilians by government soldiers, survivors claimed. Revelations of the mass grave at the central village of Monoko-Zohi came amid reports of heavy fighting in western Ivory Coast. Rebels and locals said Saturday that insurgents had taken another town, Blolekin, while pushing east into the heart of Ivory Coast, said Maj. Frederic Thomazo, part of a 1,000-strong French contingent in the former French colony. Meanwhile, the government called for a ``general mobilization'' Saturday, urging all Ivorians between the ages of 20 to 26 ``who have decided to go to the front to defend the republic'' to sign up with the army. ``In order to finish with these aggressors and free our country, I want to appeal solemnly for a general mobilization of Ivorians beneath the flag,'' Defense Minister Bertin Kadet said on state television. Tensions heightened further over emerging allegations of the massacre at Monoko-Zohi. Ivory Coast's army and government strongly denied wrongdoing, insisting Saturday that the dead were not civilians but rebels killed in combat. However, insurgents denied having their militia in the village of Monoko-Zohi and surviving villagers said the massacre victims were merchants and African guest workers on the region's lush cocoa and coffee fields. Villagers said the killing in Monoko-Zohi started when six marked Ivory Coast military trucks arrived Nov. 27 carrying uniformed Ivory Coast soldiers. Soldiers accused the villagers of feeding rebels and then went house-to-house in the hamlet with a list of names, survivors alleged. ``We heard the shooting -- we panicked, and we all ran,'' said Kamousse, a merchant who was showing a customer a radio when the soldiers arrived. ``But my brother stayed in the house. He said, 'Maybe it's just someone shooting into the air.' Afterward, they took him behind the house to the latrine and shot him,'' Kamousse said. French troops, who are in Ivory Coast to enforce a now-shattered cease-fire, first reported the mass grave Friday. The Associated Press viewed the scene Saturday. Monoko-Zohi is about 70 miles northwest of the government-held city of Daloa. A spokesman for President Laurent Gbagbo invited international human rights experts and doctors to the site. He also said rebels dug a mass grave near the rebel-held central city of Bouake. ``The French army and the special correspondents of Western media know of the existence of a mass grave near Bouake where the bodies of around 100 soldiers and their families were buried after they were taken and executed by the rebels,'' spokesman Toussaint Alain said. A nearly 3-month-old rebellion has torn the once prosperous West African nation into three parts. Rebels hold the north and are struggling now to hold the west and move east against a fierce government offensive. Fierce fighting continued Saturday with the reported rebel capture of the town of Blolekin. The reported advance put the rebels about 60 miles further east of the Liberian border. Civilians at a village east of Blolekin were said to be fleeing Saturday, escaping a feared showdown there between advancing rebel and government forces. In government territory Saturday, AP journalists saw pickup trucks full of Ivorian soldiers and white mercenaries -- some in black balaclavas to hide their faces -- rushing west to the offensive. Young village men and a vastly increased number of rebels roamed the insurgent region with weapons that included Uzis, AK-47s and an anti-aircraft gun. At Monoko-Zohi, bloody gore marked the scene of the alleged massacre. Limbs stuck out of a mass grave 90 feet long and 30 feet wide. Over two days, Nov. 27-28, soldiers shot some victims where they found them and gathered others for mass executions, said Ibrahima Ouedraogo, a surviving village elder. Survivors said loyalist forces killed some by slitting their throats. Villagers insisted they had no doubt the killers were government soldiers. ``We know their uniforms,'' said Adiriara Ouedraogo, a female worker from Burkina Faso who fled after the killings. Ivory Coast authorities initially said rebels must have been responsible for the killings. On Saturday, an army spokesman indicated loyalist forces were responsible, but said the dead were rebel combatants, not civilians. ``Look, this is very simple,'' spokesman Lt. Col. Jules Yao Yao said by telephone. ``The victims were rebels who were killed in combat. They then gathered the bodies, and buried them together. It's as simple as that.'' The French military says the village is on the rebel side of an Oct. 17 cease-fire line. However, a rebel commander claimed Saturday that rebels had no fighters in the hamlet before the shooting and fighters moved in only after villagers came to tell them of the killings and ask for help. ``At that point we didn't even know this area. It wasn't our territory,'' commander Zacharia Kone said at the village. Gbagbo took office in 2000 elections meant to restore democratic rule. The coup-installed military government tried to steal the vote, however, and violence aborted the election. A people's revolt put Gbagbo in power. Rebels, including hundreds of disgruntled former army officers, are demanding Gbagbo resign and make way for new elections. They launched their uprising with a failed Sept. 19 coup attempt.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Reuters 4 Dec 2002 UN approves thousands more peacekeepers in Congo By Irwin Arieff UNITED NATIONS, Dec 4 - The U.N. Security Council cleared the way on Wednesday for nearly 3,200 additional peacekeepers to be sent into the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo as the central African country's long civil war grinds down. A resolution approved unanimously by the 15-nation council raised the U.N. troop ceiling in the vast and mineral-rich nation to 8,700 from the current 5,537 in an effort to advance the peace process -- which has been moving forward at a glacial pace -- into its final phase. In that phase, rebel and foreign soldiers who have been fighting in the four-year civil war would be disarmed and sent home to be re-integrated into civilian life. The vote on the resolution was delayed by a day when the United States tried to add language to the text that would have kept U.S. peacekeepers in Congo from the reach of the International Criminal Court. There are currently no U.S. peacekeeping soldiers in Congo and Washington dropped the effort after other council members refused to go along. The new court was set up to pursue atrocities like genocide, war crimes and gross human rights abuses. But U.S. President George W. Bush has rejected it, arguing it could be used by a malicious prosecutor to ensnare U.S. peacekeepers or other officials through politically motivated law suits. The Congo war has drawn in five neighboring countries and numerous rebel groups and more than 2 million people have died, most of them from hunger and disease. TROOP WITHDRAWALS LEAVE VACUUM Government and rebel representatives have been holding talks in the South African capital of Pretoria since Nov. 15 on a power-sharing transitional government, so far without an agreement. Peace efforts have been boosted by recent withdrawals of thousands of foreign troops who fought on either side and were accused by the United Nations of using the war to loot Congo's vast mineral wealth. But the withdrawals have also had the unfortunate side effect of stoking instability by creating power vacuums in some areas that the United Nations and Congo's government in government have been unable to fill. Kinshasa's authority does not extend to huge parts of the country and the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo has been too thinly stretched to do much more than monitor the front line stretching across the lawless jungles of eastern Congo. There are currently about 4,200 U.N. peacekeeping soldiers in Congo, well below the authorized ceiling. Many of the newly authorized troops would be sent to the east, in phases, to help keep order and assist in the process of disarming foreign troops and sending them home. The council resolution welcomed recent moves by Angola, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe to withdraw their troops and called on all armed groups in the conflict to support the U.N. peacekeepers in the demobilization work. The resolution also expressed concern over a recent surge in ethnically targeted violence in Ituri province in the northeastern corner of Congo near its border with Uganda, and authorized U.N. troops to be sent to the area, if needed. U.N. officials and Amnesty International have warned of a possible ethnic blood bath in the area like the 1994 genocide in nearby Rwanda, in which 800,000 people were massacred.

Human rights activist assassinated © IRIN NAIROBI, 4 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - A human rights activist, along with his wife and young child, have been assassinated in their home close to Uvira in South Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ndaheba Rusagara, president of the Committee for Mediation and Defence in Sange, Uvira territory, was killed on 30 November by heavily armed men in uniform, a partner organisation, Hiers of Justice, reported on Tuesday. Two other children seriously wounded in the attack were now in Uvira's general hospital, it said. A similar incident occurred in November 2001, when Djuma Pili Rumanya, also a member of CMD and Heirs of Justice, was killed in Uvira. Ndaheba's name had been added to the "long list" of human rights activists killed for their work in the DRC, the organisation said. Heirs for Justice has called for an independent inquiry into the killings.

IRIN 5 Dec 2002 MONUC substantially reinforced DRC President Joseph Kabila and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan NAIROBI, 5 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - The strength of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) is to be expanded to a total of 8,700 military personnel and have its presence extended eastwards. The UN reported on Wednesday that the Security Council had unanimously adopted a resolution agreeing to a "new concept" of operations for MONUC which included a shift of emphasis eastwards, and a significant strengthening of its military capacity through the creation of a "forward force" of two robust task forces based in Kindu and Kisangani. The mission would provide security at sites allocated for the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration process, assist in the destruction of impounded weapons and munitions, and continue to monitor the withdrawal of foreign troops from the DRC. In addition, riverine units would be used to support the reopening of the Congo river to commercial traffic, the UN said. MONUC currently has a force of 4,309 uniformed personnel, comprising 455 military observers, 3,803 troops and 51 civilian police. These are supported by 549 international and 636 local civilian personnel. In a separate development, during talks on Tuesday with the head of MONUC, Amos Namanga Ngongi, rebel leader Thomas Lubanga pledged security for humanitarian workers in the Ituri District of northeastern DRC. "Mr Lubanga [leader of the Union des patriotes congolais] reacted positively and promised to provide security guarantees for the NGOs working in the region," Hamadoun Toure, the MONUC spokesman, said. He added that in order to defuse tensions in the region, a UN humanitarian coordinator would also be appointed in Bunia. The Security Council has called upon all parties to cooperate in the establishment of the Ituri Pacification Commission and requested UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to increase MONUC's presence in the area.

Kenya

East African Standard (Nairobi) 6 Dec 2002 OPINION What is Orengo's Message to Voters? Nairobi The future of Kenya as a nation, writes Prof Okoth Okombo, lies not in rekindling ethnic prejudices and suspicions, but in securing the future through patriotic exuberance. In Kenya, as elsewhere, multi-ethnic nationalism is a delicate political formation. So delicate that it often stretches to the limit our resources for patriotism. Our hope always is that those who get the privilege of occupying positions of leadership will have inexhaustible reservoirs of such rescues. At the minimum, that is what we expect of our presidential candidates. To my mind, and I believe, in the perception of most Kenyans, that Social Democratic Party presidential candidate, Mr James Aggrey Orengo, is the extreme opposite (lovers of Greek would say the antithesis) of Mr Dickson Kihika Kimani. Indeed, few Kenyans would tolerate hearing the two names mentioned in the same breath. If nothing else, such perceptions explain why I could not believe my eyes when last Sunday, I read in the Sunday papers that Mr Orengo - that firebrand nationalist of the Muungano wa Mageuzi fame - is now anchoring his presidential campaign on despicable Luo-Kikuyu ethnic prejudices. That is something I would laugh off without a second thought if it came from Kimani, a latter day patriarch seeking to establish a family-based political hegemony in his sphere of influence. When Orengo was busy trying to cultivate a sense of nationalism in the student politics of the mid-1970s at the University of Nairobi, Kimani was busy championing the narrowest of Kikuyu interests in the then acrimonious politics of the Kenyatta succession. Since those days, Orengo's public comportment has always been that of a nationalist. It is that nationalist facade which makes the Luo forgive Orengo when he teams up with Dr Apollo Njonjo -a veritable Kikuyu man - to haunt Prof Anyang' Nyong'o - a Luo- from Orengo's not so distant neighbourhood, out of the SDP establishment. According to the Sunday Standard of December 1, Njonjo is "Orengo's main man" in the SDP presidential campaign. That, in itself, is a laudable nationalist gesture. So, how does the SDP presidential candidate expect the Luo to understand his message when he contradicts his nationalist reputation and attempts to outdo Kihika Kimani in the retrogressive discourse of ethnic jingoism? Are we to laugh it off in the same manner that we normally laugh off the antics of Mr Kimani? Is Mr Orengo aware of the stressful extent to which he is stretching his credibility among the Luo, ready to forget the past to secure the future for Kenya? Probably not, but he would find it pretty hard to re-invent himself Let us get to the basics: The main theme of the civic education given to the Kenyan voters in their preparation for participation in the recently suffocated constitutional review process was making informed choices. The relevant question in this regard is: What constitutes legitimate Luo interest in the current election politics? Top of the agenda is joblessness and the pathetically low levels of income in that part of Nyanza. These twin tragedies are easily relatable to such economic evils as the exploitative practices in the fishing industry, the bullying of the sugar industry, and the killing of the textile industry. Another factor, which both derives from and further feeds Luo poverty is the shocking drop in educational standards, thanks to the poor state of schools and absence essential facilities. Moreover, like other Kenyans, the Luo have a legitimate interest in power sharing and securing enough democratic space to pursue their occupational and social objectives without undue political interference. Indeed, the list of legitimate interests in the current election politics could be extended to include, for example, the poor condition of roads in Nyanza and the need to guarantee safety from Kanu's vengeance. But the long and short of it is that such interest cannot be served by rekindling inter-ethnic hostilities as Orengo's presidential campaign is doing. The Luo have had nearly four decades to protect against the wrongs done to them by the perpetrators of such hostilities. This long protest has not been without socio-economic costs. It is now time for the Luo to join other Kenyans in reconstructing our nation and deriving the corresponding benefits as Kenyan citizens who deserve to get from their country no less than anyone else. Leaders who claim a Luo constituency must make concrete proposals about how they intend to engineer this revivalist spirit in the community. They must fire the community's imagination with ideas on how they may improve their low standards of living, not just with ethnic prejudices packaged in insincere political demagoguery. Let me emphasise that handling the challenges of ethnic diversity in a young nation such as Kenya is a daunting task. Since independence, our ethnic tensions have had regrettable consequences. But we must also remember that each of the few achievements we cherish in this country, like the re-introduction of multi-party politics, is attributable to those moments in our history when we have put aside our inter-ethnic hostilities and acted as one people. What Kenya is experiencing now calls for such action. This is certainly not the time for cheap, manipulative politics. Our salvation, not only in Luo Nyanza, but everywhere in Kenya lies in our ability to weaponise the voter's card. The writer is a professor of linguistics at University of Nairobi

Madagascar

Ravalomanana set to triumph in legislative elections © IRIN An election victory would consolidate President Marc Ravalomanana's power JOHANNESBURG, 5 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - Madagascar goes to the polls on 15 December, almost exactly a year since disputed presidential elections which plunged the island into a violent power struggle. The much-anticipated legislative elections are expected to legitimise Marc Ravalomanana's presidency and pave the way for further economic reconstruction. The election is in line with demands by the international community and the African Union (AU) that fresh polls be held before the end of the year. This was part of a set of resolutions to defuse the stand-off between ex-president Didier Ratsiraka, who refused to accept his election defeat by Ravalomanana, who eventually declared himself president - a move endorsed by the country's highest court. Although 40 parties are vying for 160 seats in the Malagasy National Assembly, analysts predict the elections would probably develop into a power struggle between Ravalomanana's newly founded party Tiako i Madagasikara (I love Madagascar), and the traditional ruling AREMA party. "It goes without saying that Ravalomanana's party will be victorious in the election. But this is not to say that AREMA has no support. While in Antananarivo [the capital], it is unlikely that AREMA will get any support, in Tamatave [a Ratsiraka stronghold], there are groups of supporters who have been resistant to Ravalomanana's changes. But people want change and that is what the results will probably show," Jean Erick Rakotoaresoa, a law professor at the University of Antananarivo told IRIN. Meanwhile, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said preparations for the poll were on track. "In some of the more remote areas we had to deliver ballot boxes by helicopters and small planes but these are the usual logistical considerations in a country such as this. All of the six provinces have received the ballot boxes and papers and they have distributed it to the local authorities. We are happy with the progress so far," chief technical advisor to the IEC, Jose Astorkia, said. Following his defeat in July, Ratsiraka fled to France leaving the once powerful AREMA party leadership in disarray. Recently, its secretariat called for a delay of the poll, saying it needed more time to regroup. Moreover, the party suggested the setting up of a national reconciliation forum prior to the holding of the election. But with Ravalomanana having already received widespread support for his interim administration, both locally and internationally, the government was not inclined to compromise. Since early last month a European Union (EU) observer mission has been monitoring preparations for the elections. But the AU, which has been reluctant to endorse Ravalomanana's presidency, has yet to respond to an invitation to be part of the international observer mission. Ravalomanana, a self-made millionaire and former mayor of Antananarivo, has vowed to reduce widespread poverty and improve the living standards of the country's almost 15 million people.

Nigeria

Guardian UK 1 Dec 2002 Why Is Nigerian Islam So Radical? By MATT STEINGLASS DJENNE, Mali — LIKE Nigeria, which recently exploded in religious violence after trying to hold the Miss World pageant, this ancient Islamic city has done battle with the Western beauty industry. In 1988, when an Italian television crew taped a provocative fashion show at Djenne's fabled mud-walled Great Mosque, the residents were outraged. But unlike Nigeria, Mali did not erupt. Djenne closed the mosque to non-Muslims, and that was the end of the matter. Sokode, a Muslim city in Togo, 500 miles southeast of here, was host in August to a round of the Miss Togo contest, swimsuits and all. But there was no protest. "We had 23 contestants, including a number of Muslim girls, and everything went just fine," said Kossivi Tanla, the contest's legal adviser. There are a half-dozen Muslim countries in West Africa. Several others are, like Nigeria, split between a Christian south and a Muslim north. But only Nigeria struggles with a strong radical Islamist movement, and only Nigeria has Shariah, the strict rule of law based on the Koran, in certain states. While northern Muslims and southern Christians are at war in Ivory Coast, the conflict is exclusively ethnic and nationalist: southerners stigmatize northerners as non-Ivoirian immigrants and shut them out of politics. In Nigeria, on the other hand, when Isioma Daniel, a journalist, said in a newspaper article that Muhammad might have married a Miss World contestant, Muslims vandalized churches and attacked Christians. More than 200 people died in the riots. What makes Nigeria so different? History, for one. "Nigeria is very unusual in that it has a recent history of Shariah rule," said David Westerlund, an expert in religious history at Uppsala University in Sweden. In the early 19th century, Usman dan Fodio led a jihad across northern Nigeria, creating a theocratic caliphate in the far northern city of Sokoto. The British took over northern Nigeria in 1900, keeping the Sokoto dynasty as part of their system of indirect rule, but banning punishments like amputation and stoning. By the mid-20th century, northern Nigeria was the only region outside the Arabian peninsula where Islamic criminal law was fully enforced. After independence in 1960, Nigeria's new secular constitution declared that criminal law was now a matter for the secular courts; Islamic courts were limited to family law. But Nigeria experienced a series of military coups and became increasingly lawless. By the late 1970's, Muslim students, inspired by the Iranian revolution, were demanding a return to Islamic law. Democracy returned to Nigeria in 1999, and Shariah became a popular campaign issue in the north; it has so far been instituted in 12 of Nigeria's 36 states. "The introduction of Shariah has a lot to do with the democratic process," said Frieder Ludwig, an associate professor at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, who studies Muslim-Christian relations in Nigeria. "The northern Muslims are trying to redefine their identity." Nigeria has a federal system, inherited from the British, which allows northern states to elect pro-Shariah governors, who could never win a national contest. In contrast, most of Muslim West Africa was colonized by the French, who left behind centralized governments that appointed local governors. That means no regional campaigns, and fewer chances for candidates to barnstorm for Islamic law. In Nigeria, most national leaders, whether military or elected, have been Muslims, reassuring the north that the economically stronger south would not run roughshod over them. But since 1999, Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian, has been in power. Meanwhile, the Christian population is rising in the north. "Some of the governors of Middle Belt states are now charismatic Christians," Mr. Ludwig said. "So in a way Shariah can be regarded as a movement of Muslims who feel themselves deprived of power." But none of this entirely explains why Nigeria is so different from, say, Ghana. Ghana, too, was colonized by the British; it has a powerful evangelical Christian movement, a Muslim north and a new democratic government. Yet there has been little religious violence, and no pressure to impose Islamic law. "I can't remember anything in the history of this country where Muslims and Christians have clashed," said Kassim Larry, a Muslim community organizer in Accra, the capital of Ghana. As for beauty contests, he added, there are a lot of them. "Just this morning I heard something on the radio, a contest for 18-year-old girls who have to be virgins," Mr. Larry said. "Muslims don't believe in women exposing their bodies, but Ghana is a secular country. It's a tolerant place." Ultimately, the reason Nigeria exploded while the rest of West Africa slumbered may simply be that everything in Nigeria is exaggerated. Its population of 130 million outnumbers that of the rest of West Africa combined. Its oil has made a few families staggeringly wealthy, while a vast majority are among Africa's poorest. Nigerians have a boisterous and critical free press. But that was what led to a fatwa, calling for the death of Isioma Daniel. Nigeria's papers are already moderating their tone. "We have to be very, very careful in what we write, especially about Shariah," said Jahman Anikulapo, managing editor of The Guardian, a Lagos newspaper. "The whole place is under a spell. Anything could happen."

IRIN 4 Dec 2002 Electoral body registers 22 new parties LAGOS, 4 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - Nigeria’s electoral body said on Tuesday it had registered 22 new political parties, bringing to 28 the number to contest next year’s general elections. Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC), Abel Guobadia, told a news conference in the capital Abuja that three out of 25 parties that had applied for registration failed to meet the revised guidelines issued by the body. "The commission wishes to congratulate the new political parties for their success, and further wishes them good fortune," Guobadia said. INEC had called for fresh applications last month from political parties seeking registration after the Supreme Court had overruled as unconstitutional several conditions used by the body to deny the 25 parties registration in June. All the five political parties that took legal action against INEC were registered in the latest exercise. With the registration of the parties, the coming general elections will be contested by the highest number of political parties ever since Nigeria adopted the presidential system of government in 1979. Only three political parties, the ruling People’s Democratic Party and the opposition All Nigeria People’s Party and Alliance for Democracy, were registered for the 1999 vote that ended more than 15 years of military rule in Africa’s most populous country. Three new political parties, the All Progressive Grand Alliance, the United Nigeria People’s Party and the National Democratic Party, were granted registration by INEC in June. Most of the new parties approved by the body on Tuesday are left-leaning. Among them is the National Conscience Party, led by radical lawyer Gani Fawehinmi, who had led the legal action against INEC and the Green Party, Nigeria’s first environmentalist political party.

IRIN 6 Dec 2002 Christians won’t turn cheek for Muslims, says bishop LAGOS, 6 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - The President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Sunday Mbang, said on Thursday Christians will in future retaliate for any acts of violence carried out by Muslim militants against their churches or members. Mbang, who is also the bishop of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, said President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government failed to give Christians adequate protection during the sectarian violence that erupted last month in the northern city of Kaduna over the country’s hosting of the Miss World pageant. More than 200 people were killed in four days of violence following Muslim fury at a Thisday newspaper article that suggested prophet Mohammed would have approved of the beauty contest and may have chose one the contestants for a wife. CAN is the umbrella organisation of all Christian denominations in Nigeria. "Nigerian Christians are completely disgusted with the seemingly insatiable desire by some misguided Muslim brothers to take lives and property at the slightest excuse," he said. "We no longer want to turn the other cheek." Mbang said Christians will no longer "fold our arms while our brethren in any part of the country" are being attacked and killed. The CAN position reflects a hardening of positions in the two main religious groups in the country of 120 million. The authorities in the pro-Muslim Zamfara State had declared a fatwa or death edict on Isioma Daniel, the Thisday reporter whose wrote the controversial article. Nigeria has suffered spells of religious violence claiming thousands of lives since 12 states in the country’s predominantly Islamic north began to adopt the strict Shari’ah legal code in the past two years. Most Christians and non-Muslims, who are dominant in southern Nigeria, view the new legal codes as attempts at Islamisation of the whole country.

This Day (Lagos) 7 Dec 2002 Aniagolu National Decries Decay, Political Killings Ahamefula Ogbu Enugu Former Supreme Court Justice, Mr. Justice Anthony Aniagolu yesterday lamented the deteriorating state of the Nigerian nation and widespread killings in the country and wondered why there was general lack in the midst of abundant resources. Aniagolu who was Chairman at the second lecture series in memory of late Ugwu Sunday Ugwu who is alleged to be the first victim of political assassination in Enugu State, further deplored the lack of value on human life in the country which has manifested in widespread killings. Nigeria Competition Bill Your Comments Requested "It is only in Nigeria that the Attorney-General of the Federa-tion in the person of Chief Bola Ige would be assassinated and nothing happens. It is also only in Enugu State that people are killed in these numbers and nothing happens. My brother, is this what we had in mind about democracy,? he asked. He called on the electorate to stand up and protect their rights as well as demand for service from leaders as the mandate they exercise reserves in the voters. "It is our duty to make democracy work here. We cannot sit and watch the will of the majority put aside by a few. You cannot afford to see a country endowed with all manner of resources being run in a despicable manner. "You must stand up to be counted as God created you to be something. No water, no electricity yet we pride ourselves in Nigeria to be the greatest in West Africa. Go home and spread the news of what we should do and what is going to happen about the change of government in Nigeria and Enugu State come 2003", he said. In paper, African Sense of Sacredness of life, the Vicar General of Enugu Catholic Diocese, Professor Obioke who was the guest lecturer wondered where the belief of politicians started to wear off. "They no longer attach importance to life which they now take with impunity. Professor Ike was represented by Reverend Father Evans Offor who drew the attention of those who take life to bible injunctions in Exodus 20, "Thou Shall not kill". "It is certain that life means little to the politicians. Our brand of politics has no respect for life, we are talking about Sunday Ugwu but who killed him and why was he killed," he querried. He lamented that the same lack of value for life led to the death of 14 worshippers at Adora-tion Ground on March 7, 2002 and wondered why people keep silent in the face of such sad events.

Sudan

IRIN 28 Nov 2002 Negotiating parties to visit United States NAIROBI, 28 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - Sudanese warring parties are expected to visit the United States in mid-December at the invitation of President George W. Bush's government, according to official sources. Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, told IRIN that a number of representatives of both the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, had been invited to attend a "brief" meeting in the US, and both sides had accepted. They would brief US government officials on the progress of the latest round of peace talks held under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which this month wound up in Machakos, Kenya, according to Dirdeiry. During the talks, which ended on 18 November, the parties agreed on a broad set of principles, which included the extension of a countrywide ceasefire and humanitarian access to vulnerable populations in disputed regions of southern Sudan. The parties however failed to reach a deal on key wealth- and power-sharing proposals. The talks are expected to resume in January, but a date has yet to be set. Observers view the US invitation as part of its role as a key player in the Sudanese peace process, and in which Washington is expected to push the parties towards a comprehensive ceasefire. However, State Department officials declined to give details regarding those who would represent the Sudanese parties or the Bush administration during the meeting, but said US diplomats would take part along with American technical experts on the issue of the Machakos talks, Voice of America reported. Dirdeiry however said no negotiations would take place during the trip. "This is not about negotiations. We are right on track in the talks. There is no need of opening another forum. IGAD is the best forum. The two days can't solve the remaining difficult issues in the talks," he said. "But we feel this will give us the opportunity to explain to the United States that we are engaged in peace-making in Sudan," he said. The US officially joined the Sudanese peace process in 2001 when it appointed Senator John Danforth as its special envoy to Sudan. Danforth negotiated a successful truce and humanitarian access in the Nuba Mountains region, which had suffered severe humanitarian crises as a result of the war.

IRIN 2 Dec 2002 33 killed in refugee camp violence ADDIS ABABA, 2 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - At least 33 Sudanese refugees have been shot dead in violent clashes at a refugee camp in western Ethiopia, humanitarian organisations said on Monday. The refugees, who fled fighting in their own country, were killed after fighting broke out at Fugnido refugee camp in Gambella on the border with Sudan. According to aid organisations and the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the majority of the victims are believed women and children. “UNHCR were the first to reach the scene of the massacre with Ethiopian soldiers," a senior UN source told IRIN. “They counted 33 bodies including 18 women. One woman was six months pregnant.” UNHCR said it would be holding an investigation into the shootings which occurred on the evening of 27 November. Senior humanitarian sources blamed the violence on a bitter dispute between the Anuak and Dinka tribes over who runs the camp administration. Reports say the shooting was sparked by an official of the refugee camp committee – an Anuak - who opened fire indiscriminately on a group of refugees. Fugnido is the largest camp for Sudanese refugees, providing food and shelter for some 28,700 people. Half of its population are Nuers, a third Anuaks and around 11 percent Dinkas. UNHCR and World Food Programme (WFP) staff have been evacuated from the camp to Gambella town for their safety. The situation is still reported to be tense. “Emergency talks being held to try and resolve the crisis and see that those responsible are brought to justice,” humanitarian sources said. Camp officials are also looking at separating the refugees to prevent future rival ethnic clashes. Ethnic tension has been escalating recently, although fighting has traditionally been between the Anuak and Nuer tribes. The Gambella region is one of the remotest in Ethiopia. There are currently some 81,000 Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia – many of whom have fled years of civil war at home.

IRIN 4 Dec 2002 Sides accuse each other of supporting LRA NAIROBI, 4 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - Sudan's warring parties have accused each other of arming and supporting the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), an insurgent group which is waging war against the Ugandan government from hideouts inside Sudan. On Monday, the Sudanese government said it had information that the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) was supplying weapons to the LRA, Uganda's independent 'Monitor' newspaper reported. "SPLA is actually providing LRA with arms. This is not an allegation. We have evidence. We are compiling the information and a report will be out very soon," the paper quoted Sirajudin Hamid, the Sudanese ambassador to Uganda, as saying. However, the SPLM denied the accusations. "That is preposterous," spokesman George Garang told IRIN on Wednesday. "What people know is that it is Sudan which is arming, harbouring and supplying assistance to the LRA." He reiterated earlier SPLM/A claims that the LRA had helped Sudanese forces to recapture Torit, a key southern garrison town, which fell to the rebels on 1 September. The latest accusations follow the extension of a military protocol signed in March between Sudan and Uganda, which allows the Ugandan army to hunt down the LRA in southern Sudan. The Ugandan authorities have said they are looking into the allegations. "We have a mechanism in place. We will use official channels to handle these suspicions," Shaban Bantariza, the Ugandan army spokesman, told IRIN on Wednesday. He said the SPLM/A was trying to antagonise Kampala and Khartoum because it was unhappy with the latest extension of the military protocol. "The latest protocol says we are not to harbour support for SPLM/A," Bantariza said. "I think the SPLM/A is trying to antagonise us along with Sudan, just to give the impression that we are having an alliance with the wrong people."

Rwanda

IRIN 4 Dec 2002 Special report on hopes for reconciliation under Gacaca court system Billboard in Kigali calls people to take part in the Gacaca courts. KIGALI, - The Rwandan government, the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission and the elite of the capital, Kigali, are at pains to stress the importance of reconciliation, the steps being taken to achieve it and the progress in this direction eight years since the 1994 genocide. One of the key components of that ongoing progress, they say, is the Gacaca court system. The grass-roots "courts" - 673 of which began opening across the country on 25 November to be followed by a further 8,258 in March 2003 - aim to expedite the trials of those accused of genocide crimes, to reveal the truth about what happened, to put an end to the culture of impunity in Rwanda, and to reconcile the Rwandan people and strengthen ties between them, says the government. In the absence of a functional justice system able to cope with the challenge of judging over 100,000 prisoners - a year after the genocide Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that only 36 judges, and three prosecutors with formal legal training, were available - and little money or support from outside to mobilise and strengthen that system, Gacaca revives traditional and affordable means of resolving conflicts based on pre-colonial Rwandan culture. A grass-roots countrywide sensitisation campaign, as well as radio, television, and billboards, inform the public to attend the courts, and that telling the truth and asking for forgiveness will significantly reduce their prison sentences. Less obvious to the observer, however, and more difficult to obtain information about, is the intimidation and fear that accompany the "telling of the truth". In Kigali alone, an investigation was under way into the deaths of "about 20" people believed to have been killed to prevent them from giving evidence in the Gacaca courts, Jean Paul Mugiraneza, a lawyer working with the Rwandan Institut de recherche et de dialogue pour la paix (IRDP), told IRIN. "There is a great risk, there is no strategy to protect witnesses," he said. "It is even worse outside Kigali, where there are more threats. The accused there far outnumber the victims," Naasson Munyandamutsa, Rwanda's only psychiatrist, said. The head of the National Human Rights Commission, Deogratias Kayumba, told IRIN that in general the Gacaca pilot phase (from June to October) had gone "very well", but acknowledged that witnesses had been bribed or threatened to keep quiet. "More dangerous than those two [threats and bribes] are some politicians at high levels who teach the population to say nothing [so as] to protect the accused, and as a means of propaganda," he said. "Some people have a nostalgia to turn back, using all means, even a civil war," he added. Overcrowded prisons How much Gacaca - which has an expected lifespan of four to five years - will contribute to the process of reconciliation remains, for the time being, uncertain. Most analysts agree that inhumane conditions in prisons (also a drain on the government's limited resources) will be improved by reducing the sentences of those who confess. A 25-year sentence, for example, could be reduced to between 12 and 15 years following a confession, John Nkubana, an employee of the Ministry of Justice whose task is to sensitise Kigali residents to Gacaca law, told IRIN. In a country where overcrowding in some detention sites is such that four inmates can occupy every single square metre of floor space in open courtyards, and six every square metre in dormitory buildings that surround the courtyards (HRW 1995), this would be considered welcome progress. Many prisoners who were arrested solely on the basis of denunciation and have never been brought to trial, or who have spent seven years in detention for minor crimes such as stealing, will be freed. Many others who have so far escaped justice will be imprisoned for the first time, as prisoners who have confessed accuse their accomplices. "Prisoners are also reporting on friends [who are free]. Prisoners will increase, not decrease," Mussa Fazil Harelimana, commissioner and Gacaca adviser to the Supreme Court, said. Other stated aims of the courts remain more uncertain, however, and depend on the extent to which judges (many of whom are poor and unpaid), witnesses, and those collecting and documenting the evidence abuse the system. With widespread poverty, poor security infrastructure, low levels of education (in 2002, the UN estimated that only 66.8 percent of those aged 15 years and above were literate), and little guidance from a weak civil society and a church that was heavily implicated in the genocide, Gacaca is open to manipulation. Divided society Humanitarian workers said Rwandan society remained "extremely closed", "suspicious", and highly traumatised, and lacked the vital financial resources needed for counselling and re-educating both the survivors and perpetrators of the genocide. "People still live in apprehension," Maxwell Nkole, the acting head of investigations at the Kigali office of the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda, said: "Certain sectors of Rwandan society continue to believe that the divisions continue. The hate message is still implanted, and it takes time and a lot of effort to pluck it out." Alternative to international justice While the Gacaca system is widely recognised as being flawed and a contravention of the "norms" of international justice systems, for many Rwandans it represents a great hope, as a participatory system, which forces people to tell the truth and to face up to their past. At least people have to sit together, discuss what happened and try to find solutions, said Peace Uwineza of the IRDP. "The traditional system hasn't offered us anything better," she added. Nkole said that the potential of Gacaca to bring about reconciliation and forgiveness was greater than the complicated international system of justice. "People are more inclined towards compensation for losses, they want to see that, they do not see the value of criminal justice," he said. He added that the rigorous standards applied in the international system, which included exhuming bodies, giving minute details, and being cross-examined for days on end, were foreign to most ordinary Rwandans. The threatening of witnesses giving evidence at the ICTR was also a "recurring problem," he said. Gacaca in prison Since 1999 an informal gacaca system has been operating in many of Rwanda's prisons and places of detention, at the order of the minister for justice. In 1998, Kigali's central prison started its own informal gacaca system, the prison director, Antoine Rutayisire, told IRIN. Of the 4,272 genocide cases (including 636 women), 1,401 had already confessed to their crimes, he said. Mwamina, a nurse who coordinates Gacaca in the women's section of Kigali prison, said the hope was that when Gacaca began and many people started attending the courts, they would confess and ask for forgiveness. She had admitted her role in the genocide and was waiting for a Gacaca court to hear her case. "My role was to show the people doing the killing where they [eight of the victims] were hiding," she said. Asked what she would do when she when she returned to her home in the Kanombe Prefecture of Kigali, she said she expected to be on good terms with her neighbours. "I will ask them to forgive me and explain what happened, and I hope they will understand," she said. "Once I am at home I will have to obey and respect these people." Reshaping thinking Many key questions will remain unanswered for some time. Will ordinary Rwandans feel that justice will have been carried out through Gacaca? Will they participate in the courts? Will people misuse the system to exact revenge? What will happen when thousands of ex-prisoners return to their villages to reclaim their land? Will survivors feel safe enough to openly accuse their neighbours? "How can you expect deeply traumatised people, without any support systems in place to help them, to forgive?" one humanitarian worker said. Even if the government is prepared to reduce sentences to ease pressure in the prison population, uncertainty remains about the public's willingness to forgive. Yet many Rwandans - who will finally find out who killed their families, and where they were buried - remain optimistic. "We are obliged to reconcile because we are neighbours," Consolata Mukanyiligira of the Association of Genocide Widows, Avega, said. Others say that without sustained poverty reduction, and help from the international community to achieve this, the divisions in Rwandan society that led to the genocide will remain. "People want food on their tables, and to send their children to school," a humanitarian worker said. The government is developing its policy on a reparation fund for genocide survivors (to replace the Fond d'Appui Rescapes de Genocide, FARG, which supports families of survivors). The government also introduced a poverty reduction strategy in July 2002, and is developing a policy on land, which was one of "the main causes of conflict" in Rwanda, the director of the Rwanda Initiative for Sustainable Development, Annie Kairaba, said. But with little money to negotiate with, real progress will be hard to achieve without outside aid. "I have hope, especially if there is a genuine effort towards poverty reduction. But if the economy doesn't improve, reconciliation will be very difficult," she said.

Sierra Leone

Reuters 2 Dec 2002 War Court Judges for Sierra Leone Take Their Oaths By REUTERS FREETOWN, Sierra Leone, Dec. 2 — The eight judges making up a United Nations special tribunal to try those accused of responsibility for war crimes in Sierra Leone's civil war were sworn in here today, witnesses said. About 50,000 people were killed and many more wounded in the decade-long war, which was marked by atrocities against civilians — mass killings, rape and mutilation — inflicted mainly by Revolutionary United Front rebels and fighters of a former military junta. Advertisement The special court was set up in January just as the conflict in the country was declared ended after a United Nations peacekeeping force disarmed more than 47,000 fighters. The eight judges — three Westerners, two Sierra Leoneans and three other Africans — will probably try about 20 people. With the swearing-in of the judges, "the special court is now fully constituted," Behrooz Sadry, the United Nations' acting special representative in the country, said at the oath-taking ceremony. "You, as judges of the special court for Sierra Leone, offer hope to future generations not only in this country but also in the rest of the world that no more deeds which offend the conscience of humankind will go unpunished," he said. The trial is expected to start next year, but political analysts say it is likely to rekindle political animosities in the country. The Revolutionary United Front leader, Foday Sankoh, who is already in jail, is expected to be among those facing prosecution, as is Johnny Paul Koroma, who led a military government after a coup ousted President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. Mr. Kabbah was restored to power a year later by a regional force. Mr. Koroma, who won a big share of the military vote in May in a presidential election won by Mr. Kabbah, did not attend the swearing-in ceremony. The court's foreign judges are from Britain, Canada, Austria, Nigeria, Gambia and Cameroon. The chief prosecutor is an American Army lawyer.

IRIN 2 Dec 2002 Special court judges sworn-in No Children to go before the Special Court ABIDJAN, 2 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - Eight judges for Sierra Leone's Special Court were sworn-in on Monday in the capital, Freetown, marking the establishment of the world's newest international criminal justice body, a statement from the court said. They were immediately expected to elect a president of the court. "The Court is now fully constituted," Behrooz Sadry, Acting Special Representative of the UN Secretary General said after witnessing the swearing-in. The ceremony, he added, was a "first step on the path to combating impunity and addressing accountability for the serious crimes committed in Sierra Leone that have shocked the conscience of mankind." The judges included three Trial judges, two appointed by the UN and one by the government of Sierra Leone. The other five are Appeals judges, three appointed by the UN and two by the government. Those sworn-in were Judge Emmanuel O. Ayoola (Nigeria), Judge Pierre Boutet (Canada), Judge Benjamin M. Itoe (Cameroon), Judge Hassan B. Jallow (The Gambia), Judge George Gelaga King and Judge Rosolu John Bankole Thompson (Sierra Leone) Judge Geoffrey Robertson (England) and Judge Renate Winter (Austria). Each pledged to serve the court "honestly, faithfully, impartially and conscientiously". After signing a solemn declaration, each shook hands with President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. The Court was created through an agreement between the UN and the government of Sierra Leone earlier this year. It is more streamlined than the international criminal tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia with three years to fulfill its mandate, the statement said. It added that work had commenced in Freetown on the building of the court and detention facility. In July, the Registrar of the Court Robin Vincent began setting up temporary offices. Prosecutor David Crane and his team of investigators and lawyers also started preparing their cases.

South Africa

IRIN 2 Dec 2002 Potential for conflict over land Land, a burning issue in KwaZulu-Natal DURBAN, 2 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - The pending settlement of a land dispute case in northern KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) could become an example for the rest of South Africa, which, like its neighbour Zimbabwe, is faced with a need to conduct land reform. Unlike its northern neighbour, South Africa's land reform programme has not been marked by violence and disrespect for the rule of law. However, a number of land invasions have occurred over the past few years outside of the government's programme. In the tiny rural area of Nonoti, about 100-km north of the coastal city of Durban, a land dispute case is being finalised that could have implications for land reform in South Africa. In the late 1980's Nonoti consisted mainly of a number of small-scale sugarcane farmers, many of whose families had been living on and working their land since the 19th century. However, since 1989 many of them have fled their homes and abandoned their farm land due to land invasions. But the seemingly intractable dispute over land rights may yet be solved through negotiations between land owners, illegal occupiers and the government. With KZN being a former hotbed of political violence - mostly before, during and the years immediately after South Africa's first democratic election in 1994 - the potential for further violence over land was worrying, said Mary de Haas of the Natal Violence Monitor. A Monitor report on patterns of violence in KZN, covering the period May to September 2002, noted that: "Orchestrated land invasions have been occurring in a number of areas of this province for several years. The threat of further invasions loomed large in Kranskop [a rural area of the province] following the killing of an alleged poacher in August ... "Following this incident, members of the amaNgcolosi Tribal Authority, which borders on commercial farming land and a conservancy area in which the shooting occurred, alleged various abuses by farmers (including the confiscation of livestock), called for the removal of whites and 'whoever came with sugarcane' (an apparent allusion to Indian farmers in the area)." The report said other farmers targeted for attack during the period included farmers of Indian heritage in the Verulam/Hazelmere area, "where attacks have reportedly increased dramatically this year ... a number have fled their farms in fear of their lives". BACKGROUND TO DISPUTE A representative of the small-scale farmers affected by land invasions, Naren Harikrishna, vice chair of the Darnall Farmers Association, outlined the background to the dispute. Although Harikrishna was not affected by land invasions, his association decided to assist the Nonoti farmers when it became clear a solution needed to be negotiated. "It [land invasions] began in about 1989. There was a black [African] family living on their own property and one of them decided he was going to sell plots to outsiders for a few Rands, that is how it started," Harikrishna said. As more and more people came to the area to settle, there was greater demand for land. "Sugarcane is easily destroyed by fire and they started burning the cane off the land and started building houses on farmers' land. It spread, from one farm to the other. These were poor, small farmers. Not guys who could afford security and legal costs to get squatters evicted. The affected farmers eventually, in about 1990, got together and formed a committee and they got a court order to evict the illegal occupants on their land. "But the order was not carried out [by authorities]. In one section the army did evict illegal occupants but two weeks later they [squatters] were back and were setting up shacks again," Harikrishna added. There were at least two incidents in which farmers homes were razed by arsonists. Violence and threats forced many to flee and give up their homes and land. About 20 small-scale farmers were left with nothing. THE DISPLACED De Haas said land invasions had "been going on for over 10 years, they have been targeting small-scale sugar farmers ... hoping nobody would notice". She said political violence was a major factor driving invasions. "It's linked to violence in other areas, [violence] has forced people to flee," she said. In Nonoti the displaced have become the displacers. Harikrishna told IRIN that many of the people who had illegally occupied farmers' land were themselves forced to flee their home areas. "People have come from everywhere, from the Transkei, Zululand, Durban, all over the place. A lot of people were displaced because of political violence in KwaZulu-Natal. Violence in their home areas forced them to move, they were looking for a safe haven. Also, many have never owned land in all their lives, so they see there's an opportunity to own land and they move in," he said. Their occupation of land has in turn forced others to flee. "The affected farmers have moved into cities and into other spheres of industry as their land cannot sustain them any longer. Many depend on relatives and friends. They were small farmers, each had between 10 and 20 hectares of land. Homes have been burnt down, crops were destroyed during the illegal occupations. The farmers had to abandon their land," Harikrishna noted. NO FACILITIES The people illegally occupying farm land have virtually no facilities. But the local municipality cannot provide infrastructure services without the permission of the land-owners, which was not forthcoming. "The council can only put in infrastructure with the land-owners permission, but how can the land-owners give consent for illegal occupation of their land?" said Harikrishna. "The squatters on the land have no infrastructure, no water provision, no electricity, no roads, no plumbing, no refuse removal - no facilities at all. "In all, about 600 hectares of crop land has been occupied illegally and there are about three treadle pumps to serve about 1,000 households averaging five people per home, that's about 5,000 people. In the mornings you see a long line of people queuing for water," he added. MOVING TOWARD A SETTLEMENT About six months ago the affected farmers began negotiating with the department of land affairs. "We have now got to the point where the affected farmers have decided to sell the land to the department, so they will get compensation, and the land will be given to the municipality so that they can go and put in infrastructure. "All the necessary documentation, title deeds etc., have been given to the department of land affairs. The department will appoint an evaluator to value the properties and we are hoping that by the end of March [2003] this whole [thing] will be sorted out. Payments would be made and the land would be given to the municipality," Harikrishna said. Khathe Nzimande, chief planner for the regional programme in the provincial department of land affairs, told IRIN that it seemed a resolution was near. "Previously we had a problem in that owners did not want to sign agreements and a lot of occupiers coming onto the land. Up until the intervention of the Darnall Farmers Association that is, now there seems to be a resolution. Most of the land owners have submitted their land availability agreements ... evaluation money has been approved and we'll be meeting with the community [occupying the land] very soon to discuss the transfer of the land to the municipality," he said. It appeared that there were reservations within the community occupying the land over the transfer of the land to the municipality and not to them. "In most cases we only transfer land to the municipality once the municipality has indicated there will be housing development [on the property], but in this case they have not [indicated such]. But they have assured us that once there's a final settlement they will plan for development. At this meeting we will talk to the people [about the municipalities' plans]," Nzimande explained. There has also been an official land claim lodged, but the regional land claims commission has given the department the go-ahead to proceed with its settlement. Should the official land claim succeed, there may have to be a renegotiation, Nzimande said. Either way, the department hoped the issue would be sorted out before the end of the financial year. A SUCCESS STORY? "We hope that this will be a success story, where the problems are solved, to a large extent, by the communities themselves. What we did was we formed two committees. A committee of affected landowners and a committee headed by a local councillor with representatives of the people living on the land. "We sat down and talked, and now there's a solution in sight," said Harikrishna.

Tanzania

Internews (Arusha) 28 Nov 2002 ICTR/Military Trial: Witness Gives Detailed Account of the Planning of Genocide By Mary Kimani Arusha A prosecution witness in the so-called "Military Trial" today gave judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) a detailed account of meetings and activities through which the 1994 genocide was planned and executed. The witness -- identified only as "ZF" -- began his testimony yesterday partly in closed session, to protect his identity, and partly in open court. Although ZF's identity and profession has not been disclosed to the public, he has said in court that he worked in military intelligence circles in Gisenyi Province, northwestern Rwanda. ZF listed names of former military officers, governors and mayors who met at the Biroto military camp in Gisenyi, saying these people at times met under the leadership of alleged genocide mastermind Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, one of the four defendants in the trial. Among the people ZF named are those currently indicted by the ICTR as well as the other defendants in the trial. ZF is testifying against Bagosora, Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva, Brigadier-General Gratien Kabiligi and Major Aloys Ntabakuze. The four allegedly masterminded the 1994 Rwandan genocide through their control in the military. They have denied charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. The witness told the court that after these meetings, weapons were distributed to 'Interahamwe' and 'Impuzamugambi' militia groups. The Interahamwe was the youth wing of the Movement of the Republic for National Development (MRND) party and the Impuzamugambi was allied to the Coalition for the Defense of the Republic (CDR) party. "In 1993, they received portable [Motorola] transmitters to be able to communicate between them and the lieutenant who was in charge of them, as well as Anatole Nsengiyumva, the operations commander," the witness claimed. According to ZF, those who took part in the Biroto meetings were members of informal groups known as the Zero Network, Les Dragons (the dragons), Abakozi (Kinyarwanda for leaders) and L'escadrons de la mort (death squads). Although these terms have previously been mentioned before the ICTR, ZF is the first witness to explain them comprehensively. "The Zero Network was a communication network. The death squads were a group of well-trained people who executed the decisions of this network. The dragons were a few people who were the masterminds of these activities and who were behind all anti-enemy activities, it was a secret group, a closely knit group. The Abakozi were the same as the dragons. The terms were synonymous," ZF explained. According to the witness, one of the first meetings by these groups was held in 1992. ZF testified that he later overheard two of the participants, Leon Mugesera and a man named Habyabere talking about the decisions taken during that meeting. "They were speaking about the extermination of the Tutsis. They said they had to put into action what had just been said in the meeting. The main subject was what they had to do to stop the extermination of the Hutu by the RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front) and the only way to do this was to exterminate the Tutsi," ZF said. Mugesera and Habyabere later went to Kayove commune in Gisenyi, ZF claimed, where they called a meeting with the local mayors. "They spoke to them about the decisions that had been taken at the meeting and in the following days there were problems There was an uprising against Tutsis, their houses were burned down and some of them were killed," ZF alleged. The witness also gave details of an extensive radio network communication through which orders were given to soldiers and members of the militia. According to ZF, Nsengiyumva, who was in charge of military intelligence in Gisenyi in 1993 and 1994, was responsible for the orders given to militia. The witness claimed that many militiamen often went to the military camp to see Nsengiyumva. "After Nsengiyumva came to Gisenyi, the militia came to the military camp often yes orders were given through these networks, which is why the militia had been given these transmitters. They were Motorolas. Through them they could be given orders by the lieutenant who was in charge of coordinating the activities of the militia the lieutenant got his orders from the chief of operations who was Nsengiyumva," ZF told the court. Elaborating further on the role of the militia, ZF said the Rwandan forces relied on them to cover the areas where "the military had no presence." He added that plainclothes soldiers trained the militiamen trained in Bigogwe camp. ZF said there was a radio station at the Gisenyi camp that was not used by ordinary military communication traffic but used exclusively by the Zero Network. "Only they [the Zero Network members] knew how to use it and how it operated. It was operated by the dragons and it was located in the home of the commander [of the Gisenyi military camp]," ZF said. Nsengiyumva was chief of military intelligence and commander of military operations in Gisenyi between 1993 and 1994.Bagosora served as director of cabinet in the ministry of defense during the violence. Kabiligi was chief of military operations in the Rwandan army during the genocide and Ntabakuze was commander of the para-commando battalion of the Rwandan army in 1994. The trial continues before Trial Chamber III of the ICTR, comprising Judges Lloyd Williams of St Kitts and Nevis (presiding), Pavel Dolenc of Slovenia and Andresia Vaz of Senegal.

Internews (Arusha) 5 Dec 2002 Military Trial Adjourned By Jane Some Arusha Judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) today adjourned the so-called "Military Trial," for four defendants, indefinitely, cutting short the testimony of the second prosecution witness. Announcing the adjournment, Judge Lloyd Williams (presiding) told the parties that they would be informed of the trial's resumption date "in due course." The adjournment came after three defense attorneys completed their cross-examination of the witness, identified only as "ZF." The fourth attorney will cross-examine ZF when the trial resumes. The first prosecution witness was Alison Des Forges, a human rights activist, who testified as an expert. Des Forges concluded her testimony on 26 November. The trial is for four former senior Rwandan military officers: Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, 61; Col. Anatole Nsengiyumva, 52; Brigadier-General Gratien Kabiligi, 51; and Major Aloys Ntabakuze, 48. All four have denied charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Jean Degli of Togo/France, lead counsel for Kabiligi, today questioned ZF's allegation that four Rwandan associations -- the Zero Network, the Amasasu, the Alliance and the Abakozi -- were clandestine organizations formed to undertake anti-Tutsi activities. The witness has linked the four defendants to these organizations. When asked to explain how he knew of these groups' activities if they were secret organizations, ZF responded that a Lieutenant named Bizimuremye told him about the groups' activities and membership. According to the prosecution, Bagosora, 61, masterminded the genocide. He allegedly assumed 'de facto' control of military and political affairs in Rwanda following the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana on 6 April 1994. He served as director of cabinet in the ministry of defense during the April-June 1994 violence Nsengiyumva, 52, was chief of military intelligence and commander of military operations in Gisenyi Province between 1993 and 1994. The other defendants in this case are Gratien Kabiligi, 51; and Major Aloys Ntabakuze, 48. Kabiligi served as chief of military operations in the Rwandan army during the genocide, and Ntabakuze was commander of the para- commando battalion of the Rwandan army in 1994. The trial is held before Trial Chamber III of the ICTR, comprising Judges Lloyd Williams of St Kitts and Nevis (presiding), Pavel Dolenc of Slovenia and Andresia Vaz of Senegal.

Americas

Canada

Globe and Mail (Toronto) 6 Dec 2002 Canadians remember Montreal massacre Alois Cruz places flowers on behalf of the student's union at the memorial for the fourteen victims of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre in Montreal Friday. It was 13 years ago today that gunman Marc Lepine killed fourteen female students at the school before taking his own life. Photo: Ryan Remiorz/CP Canadian Press Montreal — Funding for the gun registry may have been frozen but the federal government remains committed to the firearms tracking system, Justice Minister Martin Cauchon said Friday. Mr. Cauchon made the comments after attending a solemn ceremony marking the 13th anniversary of the Dec. 6, 1989, shooting rampage at the Ecole polytechnique that left 14 women dead. "The fact that we don't have the extra money will have an impact on the department, but we've decided to freeze essentially all the major spending as regards the registration system," Mr. Cauchon said. "But we have to make sure that the system that is up and running at this point in time will keep proceeding with its duty." The gun registry, part of changes to federal firearms laws sparked by the Ecole polytechnique