US Committee for Refugees 6 Jun 2002 Statistical Up Uprooted populations worldwide A) Worldwide General Statistics Refugees 14.9 million refugees worldwide at start of 2002. 400,000 more refugees than last year--a 2.7 percent increase. Worldwide refugee totals have increased for three consecutive years after six straight years of declining numbers. 1.7 million fewer refugees than ten years ago; 2.7 million fewer than the peak year of 1992. Two countries/territories are the source of more than half the world's refugees: Afghanistan, Palestinians. Five countries/territories are the source of two-thirds of the world's refugees: Afghanistan, Palestinians, Burma, Angola, Sudan. Nine countries/territories have produced three-quarters of the world's refugees: Afghanistan, Palestinians, Burma, Angola, Sudan, Burundi, Congo-Kinshasa, Eritrea, Iraq. 12 countries/territories are each producing a quarter-million or more refugees. 21 countries/territories are each producing 100,000 or more refugees. Six of the ten leading refugee-producing countries are in Africa. Internally Displaced Persons At least 22.5 million internally displaced persons worldwide at start of 2002. (Less conservative estimates by USCR run as high as 24.9 million.) This is the largest number of internally displaced persons in seven years, according to USCR's most conservative historical estimates. 15 countries have a half-million or more internally displaced persons. 23 countries have a quarter-million or more internally displaced persons. 31 countries are each producing 100,000 or more internally displaced persons (compared to 26 such countries in 1996, and 21 such countries in 1990). Nearly half of the world's internally displaced persons are in Africa. Total Uprooted People (Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons Combined) At least 37.4 million people worldwide are uprooted as refugees or internally displaced persons. This is the largest number of uprooted people worldwide in seven years, according to USCR's most conservative historical estimates. 4 million or more became newly uprooted during 2001. 61 countries/territories are sources of significant numbers of uprooted people (at least 10,000 each). Ten largest producers of uprooted people: Afghanistan (5.5 million); Sudan (4.4 million); Palestinians (4.1 million); Angola (2.4 million or more); Colombia (2.4 million); Congo-Kinshasa (2.3 million); Indonesia (1.4 million); Burma (1 million or more); Burundi (970,000); Sri Lanka (940,000). More than one-third of the world's uprooted people come from three sources: Afghanistan, Sudan, and Palestinians. About half of the world's uprooted people come from five sources: Afghanistan, Sudan, Palestinians, Angola, and Colombia. Two-thirds of the world's uprooted people originate from ten sources (listed above). B) Worldwide Regional Comparisons: Refugees Middle East - 6.8 million refugees; 45 percent of worldwide total. Africa - 3 million refugees; 20 percent of worldwide total. South and Central Asia - 2.7 million refugees; 18 percent of worldwide total. Europe - 1.2 million refugees; 6 percent of worldwide total. East Asia - 0.8 million refugees; 5 percent of worldwide total (up from 0.7 and 4.6 percent last year) Americas - 0.6 million refugees; 4 percent of worldwide total. C) Major Hosting Countries Worldwide Half of all refugees worldwide have fled to five countries/territories: Iran (2.5 million); Pakistan (2 million); Jordan (1.6 million); Gaza/West Bank (1.4 million); and Tanzania (0.5 million). The second five countries/territories hosting the largest refugee populations: United States (490,000); Yugoslavia (400,000); Syria (400,000); Lebanon (390,000); India (345,000). 15 countries are each hosting a quarter-million or more refugees. 26 countries/territories are each hosting 100,000 or more refugees . 72 countries/territories are each hosting 10,000 or more refugees. D) Repatriation Worldwide At least 610,000 refugees voluntarily repatriated in 2001. The five largest voluntary repatriations during 2001: to Afghanistan (208,000); to Sierra Leone (80,000); to Macedonia (71,000); to Somalia (40,000); to Eritrea (33,000). More than 1.2 million refugees have voluntarily repatriated in the past two years. More than 2.3 million refugees have voluntarily repatriated in the past three years. More than 3.9 million refugees have voluntarily repatriated in the past five years. 14 countries each received 10,000 or more repatriating refugees during 2001. Click here for the USCR World Refugee Survey 2002. http://www.refugees.org/WRS2002.cfm

ICRC 20 June 2002 ICRC News by 02/25 ICRC initiative on conflict-related disappearances Uncertainty as to the fate of a relative is a harsh and painful reality for countless families around the world. While the pain is felt most keenly by immediate family members, wounds can fester in entire communities, even entire countries, and impede a return to stability and reconciliation once armed conflict or internal violence have ended. They may even contribute to further outbreaks of violence. The current approaches used to deal with conflict-related disappearances, which focus on preventing their occurrence or — failing that — ascertaining the fate of the missing and providing their families and communities with support, are inadequate. For this reason, the ICRC has launched a major initiative to find a more effective way to address the problem. The ICRC has already begun an internal review aimed at improving its own action and that of its partners in the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. However, on the basis of its long experience the ICRC is well aware that a concerted effort among civilian and military leaders and various experts and organizations will also be needed. It has therefore invited a wide range of people from governmental, non-governmental and other organizations to help develop standards and guidelines for dealing with this very complex issue. Three special studies will be carried out. In addition, a series of eight workshops will be held throughout 2002, as will an international conference on the missing and their families (Geneva, February 2003), which will seek to identify best practices. A wide range of issues will be addressed, in particular: Ÿ methods for preventing disappearances; Ÿ the needs of families who have lost contact with their loved ones; Ÿ how to respond more appropriately when people are unaccounted for. Another objective is to raise this concern to a higher level on the agendas of governments, the United Nations and non-governmental organizations to encourage them to take more effective action. The first workshops — on dealing with human remains, the legal protection of personal data, identification and prevention, and support for families of missing persons — took place recently. The level of participation, and the willingness and commitment of the participants to seek viable and effective solutions, have been encouraging. When all workshops have been held, their results will be included in a preparatory document for the conference, which will represent an opportunity to make substantial progress in tackling the problem of conflict-related disappearances and its destructive effects on families and communities.

Africa

AFRICA: Analysts warn of challenges ahead of AU launch NEPAD hopes to generate US $64 billion in investment JOHANNESBURG, 20 Jun 2002 (IRIN) - Analysts on Thursday issued a cautious welcome for the African Union (AU), expected to be launched on 8-10 July in Durban, South Africa. Speaking to western diplomats gathered at the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA), political observers agreed that although the transformation from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the AU was a promising move, the new organisation faced enormous challenges. Although relatively upbeat about the launch, applied legal studies expert Prof Shadrack Gutto said: "The most important challenge for African leaders is to make the AU not only coherent but relevant to the African people." Gutto commended the wording of the AU's mission statement, "A New African Initiative", saying that the ambitious plan outlined in the statement went far beyond anything ever envisaged by the OAU. "The new institution is more about the present moment. Women and the youth are explicitly mentioned in the mission, which is a reflection of the change in attitudes among leaders. In 1963 these groups were not a priority for the founders of the OAU." The formation in 1963 of the OAU was the first attempt to make real the vision of a united Africa. However, with an out-of-date charter, which narrowly defined sovereignty, the pan-African organisation has been widely criticised for its apparent protection of dictators by its so-called principle of non-interference. Significantly, the AU, unlike its predecessor, will have the political leverage to intervene in member states where there is evidence of serious human rights violations, such as genocide and war crimes. Senior Africa researcher at SAIIA, Ross Herbert said: "It is one thing to have it down on paper, but the real test is the implementation in practical terms. How much power will leaders have to rope in countries such as Zimbabwe, which seems to have gone off the rails, remains to be seen." The union will be multi-faceted, with an assembly made up of all the heads of state and an executive council composed of foreign ministers. Included in the union plan are a pan-African parliament, a court of justice and a central bank. The new resolve to end Africa's conflicts and develop the continent's many moribund economies, was affirmed at a summit in Lusaka last July and leaders were given a year to prepare for the AU launch. But NGOs and analysts labelled the union as a "waste of money" and "another autocratic nightmare". "The AU will require a budget much larger than that of the OAU. Leaders will have to be more creative about how they intend to finance such an ambitious project," Gutto added. As the OAU cedes to the AU, it is owed US $50 million in arrears as less than a third of its members have paid their membership fees. Central to the success of the AU is the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), an African-designed plan to rebuild the continent. If the plan gets off the ground, the hope is to generate US $64 billion in investment yearly, boosting continent-wide annual economic growth to seven percent. In return, western countries are asking Africa to make a commitment to democracy and the fight against corruption. At a summit in Nigeria in March, 21 African states agreed on a communique which proposed eight draft codes of behaviour to be judged by an independent, credible African institute "separate from the political process and structures". The African Peer Review Mechanism, as it has been dubbed, should make sure "that policies of African countries are based on best current knowledge and practices". Gutto said: "By setting up the institute and the codes of practice, NEPAD's backers are hoping to head off worries among the western states whose money is needed if NEPAD is to succeed." When NEPAD was unveiled, in July, Africa had already suffered a decline in prosperity which had seen 34 of the continent's nations ranked among the world's least developed countries, compared with 27 in 1996. Development aid to Africa fell from US $24.2 billion to US $14.2 billion between 1989 and 1999, while the UN said that foreign investment had been set to fall by 40 percent even before the 11 September attacks on the United States.

Angola

AFP 18 Jun 2002 Three million Angolans need immediate aid: UN official GENEVA, June 18 (AFP) - Three million Angolans, whose country is emerging from 27 years of civil war, are in need of immediate aid, a senior UN official said Tuesday. The director of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Ross Mountain, has launched an appeal for international aid for the wartorn country, calling on donors to give up to 142 million dollars (150 million euros) in the next six months. He also called for Angolan authorities to also step in and assist in financing and dispensing aid. "There is a need for additional resources in order to consolidate the ongoing peace process and most importantly, to ensure that those who are suffering will survive and are able to reintegrate into their communities," Mountain told a news conference after returning from a trip to Angola. "It is vital that UN assistance arrives pretty fast." The Angolan government signed a peace accord on April 4 with the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) movement, ending Africa's longest war. He said the organisation had estimated that three million Angolans were now in need of immediate assistance. Mountain told journalists he had visited a number of hospitals where he had seen countless children were suffering from severe malnutrition. Another UN agency, UNICEF, said on Tuesday that Angola had one of the highest under-five child mortality rates in the world, estimating that one Angolan child dies every three minutes. Given Angola was "a potentially very rich country", Mountain said the Angolan government was in a position to make resources available for both humanitarian and reconstruction efforts. "We got a positive reaction that there would be resources forthcoming, which is encouraging," he said adding that government officials had spoken of a figure of about 20 million dollars. The 27-year civil war forced more than four million people to leave their homes. In addition to the refugee crisis, demobilizing the former rebels and finding a new role for them in society remains a key hurdle to the peace process. The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned last Tuesday that Angola's government and the UN were being too slow to respond to the needs of at least 600,000 people in need of immediate aid.

Burundi

IRIN 31 May 2002 BURUNDI: Court clears 34 accused of Teza tea factory massacre NAIROBI, 31 May 2002 (IRIN) - Following a month-long trial, from 2 to 28 May, a Bujumbura criminal court declared innocent 34 alleged leaders of a July 1996 attack on a tea factory in Burundi’s Teza region, Muramvya Province, that left about 100 dead, the local news agency Net Press reported on Thursday. News agencies and human rights groups at the time reported that a large number of Hutu rebels had attacked the plant, killing mainly Tutsis. The factory, six administrative buildings, 20 trucks and large quantities of tea were destroyed by fire. Soon after the massacre, the army reportedly retaliated in the Bukeye and Kiganda areas, killing at least 500 people, according to Amnesty International. It called on all parties to the conflict in Burundi to take immediate measures to prevent killings of unarmed and defenceless civilians, to exercise restraint and to take steps to prevent reprisal killings.

IRIN 7 June 2002 Lawyers Demand Release of Anti-Genocide Leader Lawyers for the leader of a Tutsi anti-genocide organisation in the capital, Bujumbura, who has been imprisoned without charge since 2 May, have called for his immediate and unconditional release, a Burundi news agency, Net Press, reported on Thursday. Burundi's new penal code, enacted since the installation of a transitional national government on 1 November 2001, forbids holding anyone in prison without charge. The president of Puissance d'autodefense-Amasekanya, Diomede Rutamucero, was arrested after members of his organisation staged a protest in Bujumbura against the Arusha peace accord and the adoption of laws on provisional immunity for returning political leaders, many of whom they hold responsible for massacres of Tutsis. On Wednesday, authorities informed Rutamucero that he had been arrested in connection with a complaint a government minister lodged on 27 April, claimed that members of Amasekanya had been singing offensive and intimidating songs. A regional analyst told IRIN that Rutamucero's detention was an attempt by authorities "to get anti-genocide organisations to shut up". "You can't charge someone over what someone else said," he added, referring to Rutamucero's imprisonment on the basis of what members of his organisation said. This is the 15th time during the current tenure of Burundi President Pierre Buyoya that Rutamucero has been imprisoned. Under a deal to end the brutal eight-year civil war largely between the ruling Tutsi minority and the majority Hutu opposition, Buyoya, a Tutsi, is heading the new power-sharing administration for 18 months until mid-2003. During this period, Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu, serves as vice-president. Ndayizeye is then to assume the presidency for the next 18 months.

AFP 21 June 2002 12 sentenced to death in Burundi for 1993 massacres BUJUMBURA, June 21 (AFP) - Twelve people were sentenced to death in Burundi on Thursday for "massacres, murders and pillage" committed in 1993 at the start of the civil war, the justice ministry said. Eleven sentences were handed down in the central town of Karuzi and one in Ngozi in the north. The 1993 assassination of Burundi's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, was followed by inter-ethnic massacres between the majority Hutus and Tutsis and provoked the start of the current civil war. - Nampa-AFP

AP 22 Jun 2002 Burundi Court Sentences 11 to Death The Associated Press BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — A court has sentenced 11 people to death and 16 others to life imprisonment for taking part in massacres that followed the 1993 assassination of Burundi's first democratically elected leader, the justice minister said Friday. The criminal court in Gitega, 45 miles east of the capital, Bujumbura, handed down the sentences on Thursday, said Dwima Bakana. The death penalty in Burundi is carried out by hanging. The last time it was implemented was in 1995. The 8 1/2 -year civil war in Burundi broke out after Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the President Melchior Ndadaye, a member of the Hutu majority. Ndadaye's death sparked a cycle of killings with Hutus attacking Tutsis and the Tutsi-dominated army carrying out reprisal attacks on Hutu civilians. More than 200,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed during the civil war. A transitional government was inaugurated in November after President Pierre Buyoya's government, 17 political parties and the National Assembly signed a power-sharing agreement last August; but fighting has continued.

Cameroon

IRIN 17 June 2002 CAMEROON: Amnesty International, Survival protest Mbororo arrests YAOUNDE, 17 Jun 2002 (IRIN) - Two global human rights watchdogs, Amnesty International (AI) and Survival have protested the arrest of four activists of the Mbororo ethnic group in Cameroon's North West province, and launched a campaign for their release. AI said on Thursday that it was concerned over the safety of the detained activists who had been held without charge and faced further risk of torture or ill-treatment. The military, Survival added, arrested Ousman Haman, Ahmadou Hassan, Adamu Isa and Yunusa Mbagoji in April and May on the orders of a member of the ruling Cameroon Peoples' Democratic Movement. Ousman Haman was arrested near Sabga in Mezam judicial division. Under the law he could only be charged within Mezam, where English Common Law is in force. Instead he was taken to Bafoussam in another province to be tried by a military tribunal under French-based Cameroonian law. Ahmadou Hasan, Adamu Isa and Yunusa Mbagoji were arrested in the city of Douala for an alleged crime that occurred near Sabga in Mezam judicial division. They were transported first to Bamenda and then to Bafoussam to be tried in a military tribunal, the organizations said. All the four suffered various types of torture, AI and Survival said, adding that the arrests were part of human rights abuses against the Mbororo Fulani of the North West Province. The government had neither explained the reason for their arrests nor allowed them access to lawyers and their families. "Several weeks after their arrests, no charges have been brought against [them]. The four were arrested in relation to a dispute over grazing land. At no time since Cameroon gained independence in 1961 has any dispute over grazing land been taken to a military tribunal. The detention of the Mbororo men suggests a wider campaign of intimidation against this politically marginal ethnic group," Survival said. In 1986 a prominent businessman and a member of the ruling party central committee established two cattle ranches in the Boyo and Menchum divisions and reportedly forced some Mbororo out of their land without compensation, which made him the largest single private landowner in the province, AI said. "The Mbororo Social and Cultural Development Association which was established on 1992 to protect Mbororo rights and promote development has been a particular target," it said. Survival is a London-based organisation that supports tribal peoples by campaigning for their rights. It helps to protect the lives, lands and human rights of the minority tribes. Details of the campaign are available at: http://www.survival-international.org

DR Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo)

IRIN 30 May 2002 Kigali Accused of "Genocide Against 3.5 Million People" The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has accused Rwanda of committing "genocide against more than 3.5 million people" in the DRC, including the victims of "the recent massacres" in Kisangani, by engaging in "killing, slaughter, rape, throat-slitting and crucifying". In a case filed on Tuesday at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, The Netherlands, the DRC government stated that Rwanda had been guilty of "armed aggression" in the DRC since August 1998, and that it had resulted in "large-scale human slaughter" in the South Kivu, Katanga Orientale provinces in the east of the country. The application submitted to the court accused Rwandan troops and their Congolese rebel allies, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD), of rape and sexual assault, assassinating and kidnapping political figures and human rights activists, systematic looting of public and private institutions, seizure of property belonging to civilians, and arrests and arbitrary detentions in contravention of the United Nations Charter, the Organisation of African Unity Charter, the International Bill of Rights, and others. It demanded the "immediate, unconditional withdrawal" of Rwandan troops from DRC territory, and stated that DRC citizens were entitled to compensation for acts of wrongdoing, including looting, destruction, slaughter and removal of property. It also requested that "provisional measures" be taken pending the court's decision on the case, which may take up to several years. The purpose of these measures would be "to prevent irreparable harm being caused to its [DRC's] lawful rights and to those of its population by reason of the occupation of part of its territory by Rwandan forces". The application added that to fail to make an immediate order for the measures sought, "would have humanitarian consequences incapable of being made good, whether in the short term or in the long term". The Rwandan Special Envoy for the DRC, Patrick Mazimhaka, denied the charges. He told IRIN that Rwanda had no case to answer. He said people had died in the region due to neglect, poverty, disease and a lack of infrastructure, medical supplies, food and access for aid agencies. "Rwanda cannot be held responsible," he said. The Rwandan foreign minister, Andre Bumaya, declined to comment, saying that the government was preparing a statement on the matter. The International Court of Justice would hold hearings on the request for provisional measures on 13 June and possibly on the 14th also, the ICJ said in a statement.

AFP 9 Jun 2002 -- Rebels say 400 civilians killed in eastern DR Congo KIGALI, June 9 (AFP) - Rwandan-backed rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have accused a rival group allied to the Kinshasa regime of massacring nearly 400 civilians this week in the northeastern Ituri region. "The Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) denounces the widespread massacring of the civil population near Bunia by the RCD-ML led by Mbusa Nyamwisi and allied to the forces of the Kinshasa government," the rebels said in a statement in Kigali late Saturday. "During the nights of June 4-5, and again June 6-7, nearly 400 people were killed at Gomu (45 kilometres from Bunia), at Risafi, and in the villages of Bedu, Madro, Lonyo, Katoto and Kilo." A spokesman for the community confirmed there had been killings but questioned the death toll. The Rwandan-backed group controls the eastern third of the vast DRC, while the RCD-ML (Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement), a small rebel group backed by Uganda, controls the far northeast of the country, near the border with Sudan and Uganda. The region is plagued by ethnic violence, particularly between the Hema and Lendu tribes. The RCD said "four bodies had been taken to Bunia and placed in front of the office of the UN mission to the DRC (MONUC)." The rebels said they "demanded a commission of inquiry be set up and urged the UN Security Council to put pressure on the Kinshasa government, the RCD-ML and their backers Uganda to stop the massacres." The RCD's claims have not been confirmed by independent sources. The rebel group has been excluded from a peace deal signed at Sun City in South Africa in April between Kinshasa, the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) -- the main Ugandan-backed rebel group -- as well as smaller groups sucha as the RCD-ML and a host of political parties. The RCD said that Kinshasa, the RCD-ML and Uganda should carry the blame for "the unprecedented increase in attacks on Ituri's civilians who are rejecting the Sun City accord." A spokesman for the Hema community, which has been worst hit by the violence, confirmed that there had been attacks but did not agree with the RCD's death toll or version of events. The source, who spoke to AFP by telephone from Bukavu in eastern DRC, blamed the killings on the rival Lema tribe. "The Hema community is not against the Sun City accord," he added. The RCD has in recent weeks been accused of killing nearly 200 people in reprisal for a failed insurrection in the northeastern city of Kisangani, which is under its control.

AFP 7 Jun 2002 -- Human rights situation "grave" in eastern DR Congo: NGO KIGALI, June 7 (AFP) - The human rights situation remains "grave" in South Kivu province in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a local human rights organisation said in a report obtained Friday. "Numerous instances of murder, rape, torture, looting, arbitrary arrest and detention and massive displacement of the local population as a result of fighting were recorded throughout 2001," the Heirs of Justice rights group said in its report. South Kivu, a mountainous region bordered by lakes Tanganyika and Kivu, is in theory controlled by the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), the DRC's biggest rebel group. Soldiers from Rwanda and Burundi have been fighting in the region alongside RCD troops against Hutu rebels from Rwanda and Burundi and Mai-Mai tribal warriors loyal to Kinshasa. A number of unidentified armed groups have also sprung up in the region since war broke out in the DRC in August 1998. "The repeated, serious human rights violations committed by the RCD and its allies and by various other armed groups are for the most part going unpunished," Heirs of Justice said. It added that it wanted to "remind the RCD leadership that it carries the responsibility for the reprehensible abuses committed against the women, children and men of South Kivu." The human rights group singled out the 2001 Christmas Day massacre at Kalama, in the Bunyakiri district, in which "at least 84 people, including women and children" were killed by RCD troops. "These people were accused of cooperating with the Mai-Mai and the Interahamwe (extremist Hutu militia who carried out the 1994 genocide in Rwanda)," according to the Heirs of Justice report. The group noted that more than a dozen people died on May 15 when the Burundian army bombed three villages on the Rusizi plain, and blamed "other, similar atrocities" on the Mai-Mai, the Interahamwe and the Rwandan Liberation Army (ALIR), the rebel movement formed by Rwandan Hutu extremists in the DRC. War broke out in the DRC four years ago when Rwanda and Uganda invaded in a bid to help oust then president Laurent Kabila, whom they accused of failing to flush out Hutu rebels in the east.

IRIN 10 June 2002 DRC: MONUC to verify RCD claims of 500 dead in Ituri NAIROBI, 10 Jun 2002 (IRIN) - The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) - known as MONUC - is to investigate reports of up to 500 people having been killed in recent clashes between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups in the northeastern DRC province of Ituri, mission force commander Gen Mountaga Diallo told IRIN on Monday. "It appears the situation is worsening, and I'm afraid we are yet to see the worst," he said. He added that eight of his military liaison officers in the region were still awaiting security clearance on Monday from the local authorities - the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-K-ML) and their Ugandan backers - to visit the site of last week's fighthing near Bunia. Diallo said he would lead a MONUC delegation to Kampala, the Ugandan capital, this week to consult with government officials on possible ways "to cool down the situation". On Saturday, the Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma armed opposition movement denounced that week's killing of civilians around Bunia; alleging that DRC troops, supported by Congolese Mayi-Mayi militias allied to RCD-K-ML leader Mbusa Nyamwisi, carried out the acts. RCD-Goma spokesman Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga said his movement was concerned for the safety of civilians in government and RCD-K-ML controlled territory, and called on the international community to condemn "widespread acts" of human rights and international humanitarian law violations. He urged the UN Security Council to demand that the DRC and Ugandan governments "cease civilian massacres in Ituri, and that a UN international commission of inquiry be created to determine those responsible". In a letter written on 19 March to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged MONUC to "immediately send more military and civilian observers to the strife-torn Ituri Province", warning that the "conflict between Hemas and Lendus has resulted in hundreds of civilian killings and the displacement of thousands". From the onset of the Hema-Lendu conflict in 1999 to the current spiral of killings, HRW said, "Leadership disputes within RCD-K-ML and manipulation by the occupying Uganda army have combined to stoke the violence." Diallo added, "It appears that there is political manipulation behind these ethnic rivalries." Both groups, he said, were organised into militias, trained in camps, and armed with weapons such as AK-47 assault rifles. He said that the Uganda People's Defence Forces - which have at least 1,000 soldiers in Ituri - had made multiple efforts to stop the fighting, without success. In another development, Rwanda has renewed its calls on MONUC to disarm the 40,000 Interahamwe (Hutu militiamen) Kigali believes are based in the DRC. President Paul Kagame's special envoy for the Great Lakes region, Patrick Mazimhaka, had asked the Security Council on Thursday to deploy peacekeeping soldiers to disarm the Interahamwe, believing that this could encourage an additional 15,000 ex-FAR (former Rwandan armed forces) to renounce fighting, the BBC reported. That would, he told Reuters, clear the way for Rwanda to withdraw all its troops from DRC territory. Responding to MONUC reports of 12,000 to 15,000 Interahamwe in eastern DRC, Mazimhaka told Radio France Internationale (RFI) on Friday that those figures "concerned the situation in Kivu and North Katanga areas, where MONUC has access ... MONUC does not have access to Kinshasa government military camps where those 40,000 are." Meanwhile, RCD-Goma leader Adolphe Onusumba has been travelling throughout the eastern region of DRC to update local populations on his movement's efforts to resume the inter-Congolese dialogue. The Sun City, South Africa, talks ended in April with an alliance formed among Kabila, the Ugandan-backed Mouvement de liberation du Congo armed opposition organisation of Jean-Pierre Bemba, and a majority of representatives from the political opposition and civil society. Under the deal Kabila would remain president in a new government and Bemba would become prime minister. RCD-Goma rejected the offer of presidency of the National Assembly. Then the movement formed an association - the Alliance pour la sauvegarde du dialogue intercongolais - with five unarmed opposition parties, one of them being the Etienne Tshisekedi-led Union pour la democratie et le progres social. Whereas all parties have expressed their willingness to continue talks, the Kabila-Bemba camp insists that any further negotiations take place under the terms of its Sun City accord. However, the RCD-Goma-led alliance is refusing to recognise that accord, demanding that all matters be open for discussion in a renewed dialogue.

BBC 11 June 2002, Ethnic massacre claim in DR Congo The Lendu use bows and arrows in the fighting The United Nations says it is investigating claims that more than 2,000 people have been killed in tribal clashes in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The commander of the UN mission in the country, General Mountaga Diallo, said he was trying to send a team to Ituri province, where the Hema - a minority tribe in the area - say many of their people were killed by the majority Lendu. People are complaining that we haven't been doing more, but we are here with only the mandate provided within the Lusaka peace agreement on Congo General Diallo UN Congo mission But he added that efforts to verify these claims were hampered by a lack of security guarantees in the region. "It appears the situation is worsening, and I am afraid we are yet to see the worst," he said. Thousands of people have been killed in recent years in fighting between the Lendu and Hema over land and natural resources. Fresh clashes Hema representatives asked the UN to investigate at least 2,400 deaths which they say resulted from more than 70 attacks since April, and to demilitarise the area. The long-standing rivalry between the Hemas and Lendus has been exacerbated by the war in DR Congo, with each side backing rival warlords. General Diallo said the rebels and the Ugandan army, who control the area, had refused to provide an escort for his team to travel to the villages north of the town of Bunia, on the border with Uganda, where the massacres are reported to have taken place. But he added that he would himself fly to Kampala later this week to discuss ways of calming the situation with the Ugandan authorities. He stressed that the UN mission was in Congo as an observer mission only, and that its mandate did not stretch to intervention in local factional fighting. Old enmities "People are complaining that we haven't been doing more, but we are here with only the mandate provided for within the Lusaka peace agreement on Congo," he said. There have been sporadic, but very bloody outbreaks of violence between the Hema and the Lendu in the region for the past three years. The traditionally pastoralist Hema outnumber the Lendu, who rely on growing crops, by about five to one. The two communities have clashed for decades over tea and coffee farms, as well as cattle, which form the backbone of the local economy. General Diallo said the groups had organised into militias, set up training camps and acquired automatic weapons to intensify their conflict. Uganda has been accused in the past of pitting the two communities against each other, allegations it has denied.

Business Day (Johannesburg) 18 June 2002 Uganda to Ease Tensions in Congo. By Michael Wakabi Johannesburg UGANDA moved to ease tension in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, sending leaders from the strife torn Ituri province, for talks in Kinshasa with President Joseph Kabila's government. The move was part of efforts to stop tribal clashes that have claimed hundreds of lives in the region in recent weeks. The leaders will join the heads of Uganda-backed rebel groups that are already meeting in Kinshasa. As the United Nations moved to investigate the clashes, Uganda said it was too thin on the ground to have prevented the killings that the Hema ethnic group said had claimed 2400 lives since April. The bulk of Ugandan forces were pulled out of Congo last year, leaving a skeletal presence to patrol border areas. President Museveni's adviser on Congo Lt-Gen David Tinyefuza, said the local leaders had been removed from the region because they were part of the problem. "We have removed some of the leaders and asked them to go to Kinshasa to to sort out their mess," he said. "We are trying to help them find a local solution to the problem because it is not necessarily a military problem." Kabila left Congo yesterday for Equatorial Guinea, where he is expected to meet on the sidelines of a regional summit with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda to ease tension between those two states. Both leaders will take part in the 10th summit meeting of the Economic Community of Central African States where heads of state and government from 11 member states are to decide on measures necessary to promote regional economic co-operation. With Sapa-AFP

IRIN 21 June 2002 DRC: Rape as a weapon of war in the east NAIROBI, 21 Jun 2002 (IRIN) - Sexual violence, perpetrated by all parties to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is "rampant" in rebel-controlled eastern part of the country, says the advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW). Its report issued on Thursday on "The War within the War: Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls in Eastern Congo" details the widespread, and in some cases systematic, use of rape on the part of Rwandan troops and their rebel allies, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie, as well as armed groups opposed to them from Burundi and Rwanda, and an ethnic militia groups known as the Mayi-Mayi. Some of the combatants used rape as a form of "punishment" for civilian populations seen to be cooperating with the "enemy", HRW said. In other cases women and girls were abducted and forced to provide sexual and domestic services for periods of more than a year. Medical care in the region was practically nonexistent, and rates of HIV were thought to have reached 50 percent among fighting forces, HRW reported. "Rape in these circumstances can be a death sentence," it added. "Combatants must direct their violence against recognised military targets, not against hapless women and girls who happen to cross their paths. Those who abuse women must be held accountable for their crimes," Alison des Forges, senior adviser to the Africa division of HRW, said. [The full report is available at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/drc]

Guardian UK 20 June 2002 The invisible war This week the UN launched two inquiries into the conflict in the Congo. But the real issue is still being ignored - who will disarm the militias? Victoria Brittain Thursday June 20, 2002 The Guardian A humanitarian catastrophe more overwhelming than Afghanistan's grips the Democratic Republic of Congo. UN figures suggest that 2 million people are displaced, and estimates of the number killed in the past half-dozen years of this invisible war range from 1 million to 3 million. This week the UN has announced two human rights inquiries into different areas in the eastern part of the DRC; the international court of justice at the Hague has also started hearing a case between the DRC and neighbouring Rwanda; and the UN's mission in the DRC, MONUC, has had its mandate prolonged for a year. Earlier this year, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent by the international community on seven weeks of peace talks in Sun City, South Africa, between the various Congolese factions. The political talks produced a power-sharing formula between President Joseph Kabila and the millionaire northern leader, Jean-Pierre Bemba, a protege of Uganda, but no resolution in the east. Meanwhile, the social and political crisis is worsening. A report from Human Rights Watch this week on the war in the east reveals a level of sexual violence against women and a barbarity which local doctors describe as unprecedented. The consequences of this growing culture of brutality, and a health crisis rendered acute by galloping HIV/Aids, are grim. The UN inquiries, the internationally guided peace talks and the extension of MONUC's mandate are all aspects of an old Congolese story: the attempt by outsiders to impose their own norms on this huge country. The Kinshasa government's court case against Rwanda is another old Congolese story: a government that counts on westerners to do their dirty work - in this case hoping to persuade the UN court to order Rwanda's troops to leave the DRC without ending the threat of a repeat of 1994's genocide in Rwanda. The DRC is a product of colonialism, too vast and diverse to be a viable country. The atmosphere in Goma in the east is instantly recognisable as East Africa, while Kinshasa feels like Guinea, Senegal or Angola. The eastern provinces of the Kivus have long been regarded as a bastion of opposition to central government, and since 1993, when a violent land dispute broke out, there has not been a day of peace. Today, around 40% of the east is nominally under the control of the rebel Rassemblement Congolaise de Democratie that has the trappings of an administrative structure, as well as an army. But the RCD leadership has fractured several times and has little credibility. Various RCD factions were allegedly involved in the killings in Kisangani on May 14, which are being investigated by the UN, and in the repeated bouts of ethnic conflict between the Hema and Lendu in the north-east, where the second UN inquiry will take place. The RCD-Goma faction, which has the biggest army, is supported by Rwanda, other factions by Uganda. The fabulous wealth of the DRC's mining industry (gold, cobalt, diamonds, copper, cadmium, coltan and germanium) has long made it a magnet for unscrupulous outsiders. Its postcolonial leadership was happy to be wooed by western interests, notably the US and France, and to grow rich while the country stagnated and its vast areas were used for subversion elsewhere in Africa. The new, post-cold-war DRC shows little sign of being different. The fundamental power struggle remains for the wealth of the country. The weak Congolese elite in Kinshasa is courted by ambitious businessmen from a host of countries. Meanwhile, the formal economy and the state have virtually collapsed over much of the country. The catastrophic condition of the people is even worse than under former President Mobutu. The vast majority of the country eats less than two-thirds of the calories needed to maintain health, and 70% of the population have no access to healthcare. As the Human Rights Watch report details, destitute women, often displaced or widowed by the war, now make a living selling sex, the only commodity they have. Since 1996 this tragic place has been at the centre of a series of wars that have greatly contributed to the continent's impoverishment. The war has to varying extents involved almost all the DRC's neighbours: Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zimbabwe and Angola. Zimbabwe has no strategic interest in the war. For the three close neighbours in the east - Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi - war in the DRC threatens chronic instability. The poison which feeds it now is the continuing presence in the DRC of 12,000 or so armed former combatants from the days of the genocide in Rwanda. After they and thousands more fled into exile in the DRC they were initially used by President Laurent Desire Kabila, father of the current president, against his former backers, the government of Rwanda. Many were retrained in camps in Zimbabwe, and aimed to return to Rwanda to complete the genocide. In the lawless east, where numerous militias of shifting alliances make much of the region a no-go area, the Interahamwe militia and ex-soldiers from Rwanda - participants in the genocide - remain a significant factor. Over the years, thousands of them have returned voluntarily to Rwanda or been captured. Peace talks, UN inquiries into human rights violations and international court cases are distractions from the central issue of who will disarm this group of men, who have caused so much suffering. · Victoria Brittain is an associate of the LSE's crisis states programme.

News 24 (SA) 17 June 2002 UN to probe Kisangani massacre Kinshasa - UN human rights envoy Asma Jahangie arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Sunday to investigate a massacre last month in the northeastern city of Kisanagani. Jahangie, envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, is to meet non-governmental organisations and members of civic groups representing the east of the war-torn former Zaire. She will then travel to Kisangani itself, the DRC's third largest city and a major UN peacekeeping base. Local sources said 200 civilians and soldiers were killed in Kisangani in clashes between different rebel factions on May 14 after some of the guerrillas attempted to stage a mutiny. The DRC foreign minister, the European Union and France have all accused Rwanda of being involved in the killings that followed the failed rebel mutiny. "We will ask Kofi Annan's representative how many deaths there have to be before the United Nations decides to take sanctions against Rwanda," said Aena Tokwaulu, a leading member of a women's association who hails from Kisangani. "We Bantu people say responsibility lies with the chief. So responsibility for the deaths of these men, women and children from the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo lies with Kofi Annan," she said. The DRC government decreed a week of mourning following the Kisangani killings, since when the city has been the scene of regular protests, namely against the UN mission in the DRC (Monuc) and the British ambassador, whom the demonstrators accuse of turning a blind eye to the conflict. On Friday the UN Security Council condemned the Kisangani massacre and told the RCD rebels to halt extrajudicial executions and other human rights abuses there. The RCD, which launched an uprising against the Kinshasa government in August 1998, now controls the eastern third of the vast central African country. - Sapa-AFP  

Congo (Brazzaville)

Pan African News Agency (PANA) 20 Jun 2002 90 killed in Ninja militiamen attack on Brazzaville Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - Fighting between Congo government troops and Ninja militiamen on 14 June left 90 people dead, Information Minister Francois Ibovi disclosed Thursday at a press conference. The victims included 80 militiamen, five government soldiers and five civilians killed by stray bullets, he said. The fighting took place in Mfilou and Moukondo areas and around the military air base when the Ninja militiamen made a futile attempt to gain control of Maya Maya international airport. "These are terrorist incursions and we ask the public to help the security forces track down the terrorists by denouncing them" Ibovi said. He denounced the disinformation campaign run by the enemies of peace on buses and in the streets of Brazzaville. "There are many rumours in the districts (around the capital) and the objective of those who work for the terrorists is twofold. They instil fear in order to either blaze the trail for terrorism or prepare plunder and looting," the minister said. During the clashes, the Ninjas torched vehicles and houses in the western sector of the Congolese capital. "The fight is not against any ethnic group, but against terrorism. Regardless of their ethnic origin, the culprits will have to answer for their actions against the public, the army, the police and the gendarmerie", Ibovi said, adding that the dialogue for peace and national reconciliation was still on.

AFP 19 Jun 2002 Nearly 80 dead in latest bout of Congo violence: army official BRAZZAVILLE, June 19 (AFP) - A guerrilla attack on the main airport in Congo last week left nearly 80 people dead, an army official said Wednesday in the former French west African colony. Most of the dead were among the ranks of the so-called "Ninja" rebels, who attacked the Brazzaville international airport early on June 14. Army spokesman Colonel Jean Robert Obargui said of the 80 killed, 72 were Ninjas, five were civilians and three were government soldiers. Earlier, an unnamed police officer said more than 170 people including 155 so-called Ninja rebels had been killed in the attack. However, Colonel Obargui denied outright the figure of 155. "There were never 155 Ninjas killed during the fighting. Where were these corpses found?" The International Committee of the Red Cross announced on Monday that it had taken 12 severely wounded people, as well as pregnant women and five serious medical cases, to the city's hospitals, and transferred 19 bodies to the city morgue. According to statements from captured rebels quoted by the army, the Ninja guerrillas had marched for three days through tropical forests to reach the western sector of the city, where they linked up with a number of "sleeper" activists who had been based in Brazzaville itself. Most of the residents of western Brazzaville, who fled when the fighting broke out, had returned home on Wednesday, an AFP reporter said. However several thousand living in the vicinity of the airport were still staying away. Brazzaville faces Kinshasa, capital of the much larger Democratic Republic of Congo, across the Congo river.

Ethiopia

IRIN 31 May 2002 ETHIOPIA: Government criticised over Awasa shootings ADDIS ABABA, 31 May 2002 (IRIN) - Opposition parties in Ethiopia have condemned the government for the shootings in the southern town of Awasa, claiming that 38 people were killed and not 15 as reported by the federal authorities. One opposition leader, Beyene Petros, told a press conference in the capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday that "brutal force" was being used against people demanding basic rights, after fighting broke out on 24 May. "This must stop immediately," said Beyene, who heads the Council of Alternative Forces For Peace and Democracy in Ethiopia and the Southern Ethiopia People’s Democratic Coalition. Skirmishes flared up as around 3,000 demonstrators started protesting about plans to change the status of Awasa, which is the capital of the Southern Nations and Nationalities State, currently administered by the local Sidama ethnic group, which believes it will lose out under the new proposal. Also present at the press conference were Hailu Shawel, president of the All Amhara People’s Organisation, and Prof Merara Gudina, chairman of the Oromo National Congress. This was a tragic massacre against the Sidama people, who are attempting to peacefully demonstrate against the government's decision to relocate the central Sidama Zone from Awasa to another location," said Beyene. "This has resulted in the deaths of 38 innocent Sidamas. I am quoting this figure on the basis of dead bodies. This is a confirmed figure." He added that there were an undetermined number of wounded in the areas around Awasa – which is 150 miles south of Addis Ababa. Beyene said the government figures had come from health centres and hospitals, but had not taken into account other bodies that had not been taken to hospitals. Awasa has now been ruled out of bounds to United Nations staff, and the area is said to be very tense. Security sources in the town told IRIN that a curfew was still in place – a week after the shootings. The state minister for information, Netsannet Asfaw, insisted that the security forces had not used excessive force. She said the demonstrators had opened fire on the security forces first, resulting in the deaths of two policemen. She said the government now had information that two more people had died, bringing the total number of deaths confirmed by the federal authorities to 17. The Ethiopian Human Rights Council is investigating the shootings and is expected to publish a report shortly

IRIN 7 June 2002 ETHIOPIA: Rights group blames government for Awasa killings ADDIS ABABA, 7 Jun 2002 (IRIN) - The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRC) has blamed the Ethiopian security forces for clashes in the southern town of Awasa last month which, it said, left 25 people dead and a further 26 wounded. The EHRC report issued on Friday said a 13-year-old boy was among the dead, killed when demonstrators - protesting against a change in the status of the town - clashed with police on 24 May. Two of the victims were policemen. The report added that 36 people were jailed. “The government was to blame for sending armed people. The other people had nothing but green leaves in their hand and were draped in the Ethiopian flag, nothing else,” said Hailu Mekonnen, Secretary-General of the EHRC. The five-page document said police opened fire indiscriminately on the protestors - all from the Sidama ethnic group - who had been trying to end their demonstration in the town square of Awasa. It also claimed that security forces opened fire for ten minutes from a machine gun mounted on an armed vehicle. Awasa is currently the capital of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Regional State, one of the country’s nine federal regions, and administered by the Sidama ethnic group. The demonstration, in which up to 3,000 people took part, was held to protest against changing its status to that of a special zone. The change effectively takes Awasa out of the state and means the Sidama would lose administrative control. Some farmers fear they could lose the right of ownership to some parts of the farmland – which is located in the fertile basin of the Rift Valley. Religious leaders and elders in the town have been meeting to try and restore calm, but the area is still reported to be very tense. The federal authorities claim the demonstrators opened fire first, saying many of the them were armed and had been drafted in from nearby towns. They argue that the change in status will benefit Awasa. “However, attempts by anarchists and criminal elements disguised as promoters of the democratic rights of nations and nationalities are sometimes encountered," a statement from the information ministry said. “The government seriously warns that all unlawful and anarchic activities against the democratic principles and provisions are strictly prohibited."

IRIN 11 June 2002 ETHIOPIA: "Voluntary resettlement" in Badme Doninic Harcourt-Webster/UNDP ADDIS ABABA, 11 Jun 2002 (IRIN) - Ethiopia has begun "voluntarily resettling" drought-affected families in the northern Tigray region to the disputed border area near Badme, local sources told IRIN on Tuesday. They said some 210 people were moved from central Tigray in May under a pilot project to the Badme sub-region, as part of the government's new drive to tackle food insecurity in Ethiopia. The two-year border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea broke out in Badme in May 1998 and both countries claim they were awarded the village after a crucial border ruling in The Hague on 13 April. Badme - which is currently administered by Ethiopia - saw some of the heaviest fighting of the war. The resettlement programme is part of a new five-year plan launched by the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in 2000/2001. Tigray is one of the harshest areas in Ethiopia with massive food insecurity. However, the western part is known as the breadbasket of the region - a surplus producing area and the destination of many seasonal casual labourers. Central Tigray is the region's most populated area with about 60 percent of inhabitants living there. Some 40 percent of the households are headed by women, who have lost their husbands through war and famine. The sources said they were being resettled from the villages of Abergele, Naider, Adet and Woreilehe. The resettled families are given seeds, three hectares of land and oxen on credit to help them start farming. They also have an option to return to their original homes after the harvest in September. A study - which is expected to end later this month - will look at the total number of people to be resettled and whether the land can sustain them. "People have underestimated the impact that this last war has had on Tigray," said the sources from the regional capital Mekele. "Tigray is such a harsh terrain. "We need a monumental transformation of the economy and the productive base so it is good that they are doing this, but they need to do more. The west is the only logical place in Tigray but they have to also develop the social services." The voluntary resettlement programme - organised by the regional government - has been the centre of heated debate in Ethiopia and especially in Tigray. "It is also politically sensitive because lowlanders and pastoralists are concerned that they may lose their land," the sources added.

Kenya

GREAT LAKES: Small-arms unit established NAIROBI, 11 Jun 2002 (IRIN) - A small-arms unit, based in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, has been established by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to address the widespread use of light weapons in the Great Lakes region. In a statement issued on 7 June, the unit said that in recent years there had been a dramatic increase in the "availability, accumulation and uncontrolled proliferation" of small arms in the region, as well as a "booming business" in their import and export. Yet, instead of the respective governments in the region working together to combat the "escalating situation", many had resorted to manufacturing their own weapons and ammunition, UNDP reported. Some of the arms in use, as well as the trained or partly trained soldiers using them, were a legacy from pre-colonial struggles: "The long shelf-life of tolls of violence (small arms) and the abundance of ammunition dumped in the field over decades (aside from new stocks) have ensured the perpetuation of the utilisation of these weapons even when the original political objective for their use was long gone," the UNDP said. The fundamental aim of the new unit was, therefore, to motivate groups to surrender arms in exchange for help in successfully reintegrating into civilian life, and also to render civilian life more "attractive and viable". The unit would research and raise awareness about the humanitarian impact of the use of small arms with a view to advocating against it; develop international and UN policy and legislation on small arms; develop control and reduction strategies; and design and implement country-specific and regional programmes to address the issues from a development perspective, the UNDP said.

BBC 31 May, 2002, Kenya accused of ethnic atrocities The government is accused of organising violence A human rights group has accused Kenya's ruling party of organising and supporting violence designed to displace ethnic communities who are seen as opposition supporters. The methods employed in Rwanda's genocide were replicated on a much smaller but still deadly scale in Kenya. Human Rights Watch But the ruling party, Kenya African National Union (Kanu) has denied the allegations. Human Rights Watch says 100 people died in clashes instigated by the party in 1997 and warns of more clashes ahead of polls due in December. It says in its report that hired youth gangs used techniques akin to those seen in the 1994 Rwanda genocide which left 800,000 dead. 'Official backing' "The methods employed in Rwanda's genocide were replicated on a much smaller but still deadly scale in Kenya," the group said in a statement launching the 119-page report. "Speaking for the first time, perpetrators of armed attacks in the run-up to the last general election in Kenya have said that they were backed by ruling party officials." Human Rights Watch fears more electoral violence The report particularly cites ethnic clashes on the country's Indian Ocean coast during the 1997 election campaign. Kanu's current Secretary General Raila Odinga declined to comment, saying he crossed over from the opposition last year and was not a member of the ruling party in 1997. But he told reporters that Kanu, in power for 39 years, had no intention of fomenting ethnic violence in the forthcoming parliamentary polls. Violent culture Correspondents say the elections are seen as crucial because President Daniel arap Moi is set to retire after 24 years at the helm. They say the elections are tentatively set for December though a constitutional review may delay them for several months. Human Rights Watch says the steady flow of guns into Kenya in recent years is fostering a violent culture marked by rising crime and outbreaks of political violence. It says Kenya's location in conflict-ridden eastern Africa makes the country vulnerable to gun smugglers, who once used the country as conduit to funnel guns to other parts of the region. About 100 Kenyans died in clashes during the 1997 election campaign The same trade is now spilling back into Kenya, mainly in the northern and western parts of the country, its reports says. In Nairobi, the capital, and other urban centres, the growing number of guns has led to rising crime, such as carjackings and murders. Kenya's human rights activists say some 100,000 people were displaced in the 1997 unrest, bringing to 400,000 the number of those uprooted in political violence in the country of 28 million in the past decade. In 1998, the government launched an inquiry into the violence, but declined to make the report public after receiving it in August 1999. Tensions in Kenya have been largely subdued in the recent past, but political analysts say a spate of killings in urban slums this year show signs of being politically motivated.

Madagascar

BBC 4 June, 2002 Largest military clash in Madagascar The blockades have devastated the economy Up to 12 people are reported to have died in fighting in Madagascar's north-eastern, vanilla-producing region of Diego Suarez. Seven soldiers and three civilians were killed on Monday, reports the French news agency, AFP, quoting hospital and military sources. Veteran leader Didier Ratsiraka dispatched elite troops to recapture the regional capital of Sambava on Monday after it was taken by troops loyal to new President Marc Ravalomanana. The BBC's Alastair Leithead says this is the largest military clash since political turmoil followed disputed elections last December. He says that around 300 troops on each side are involved. According to AFP, a truce was declared overnight and the situation was calm on Tuesday morning. Surprise attack Vanilla is the main cash crop of the island nation, whose economy has been devastated by blockades imposed on the capital, Antananarivo, by supporters of Mr Ratsiraka, based in the eastern port city of Tamatave. Ravalomanana's supporters have vowed to break the blockade This fighting follows repeated warnings by Mr Ravalomanana's officials that they would use force to break the blockades on their Antananarivo stronghold. However, Sambava does not have a major port and analysts are surprised that it has been attacked. Mr Ravalomanana told the BBC that the attack was in response to reports of human rights abuses in the area by supporters of Mr Ratsiraka. Fuel and food are becoming scarce in Antananarivo and aid workers warn of a "creeping" humanitarian emergency. The BBC's Jonny Donovan in Madagascar says that Mr Ravalomanana is under pressure from Antananarivo residents to end the blockades. Phones cut Mr Ravalomanana was sworn in as president last month but Mr Ratsiraka has refused to recognise his defeat. The French-trained commandos, the Rapid Intervention Force (RFI), have remained loyal to Mr Ratsiraka throughout the dispute and were on Monday sent to retake Sambava and the surrounding region of Diego Suarez. Ratsiraka is refusing to stand down Our correspondent says that details of the fighting are difficult to come by as the phones lines are being cut. Last week, an attempt to take control of the airport in the country's second port city of Mahajanga by Mr Ravalomanana's forces was repulsed. The fighting shows that Mr Ravalomanana and his backers and now trying to solve the long-running dispute by military action and not negotiation, our correspondent says.

BBC 31 May, 2002, Madagascar attack foiled The blockades are causing severe hardship An airport in the north-western town of Mahajanga in Madagascar has been attacked by forces loyal to new President Marc Ravalomanana, reports say. We're going to smash all the roadblocks Defence Minister Jules Mamizara Officials in the administration of Mr Ravalomanana's rival, Didier Ratsiraka, say that the assault was repulsed and that one of the attackers was killed. Mr Ravalomanana's officials have repeatedly warned in recent weeks that they would use force to remove blockades imposed on their stronghold in the capital by those loyal to Didier Ratsiraka. Mr Ravalomanana was sworn in as president earlier this month after disputed elections last December but Mr Ratsiraka denies that he lost the poll and is demanding a run-off. 'Civilian' The BBC's Alastair Leithead says that the threat of serious armed conflict has increased in recent days. Mr Ravalomanana's forces had planned to secure the airport so that a plane could be flown in from the capital Antananarivo, carrying troops to pursue military operations, officials on both sides of the Indian Ocean island conflict told the French news agency, AFP. The provincial governor, Etienne Razafindehibe, told AFP by telephone AFP: "There was an attempt to attack soldiers guarding the airport. Our forces drove off the attackers and killed one of them, a civilian armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle," he said. The blockades are beginning to cause severe hardships in the capital, Antananarivo, where fuel and some foodstuffs are becoming scarce. Ethnic clashes Mr Ravalomanana's Defence Minister Jules Mamizara warned on Wednesday: "We're going to smash all the roadblocks and establish our administration across the territory to bring normal life back to Madagascar." Forces loyal to Ravalomanana are trying to establish their authority Mahajanga is the country's second port and Mr Ravalomanana's supporters have said that they would target it before the country's main port - Tamatave. Mr Ratsiraka has set up a rival administration in Tamatave, where his support is strong. Earlier on Friday, thousands of Ratsiraka supporters marched through the streets of Tamatave, demanding the release of their Prime Minister, Tantely Andrianarivoa. He is in the custody of Mr Ravalomanana's supporters after being arrested on Monday. Earlier this month, Mahajanga was the scene of ethnic clashes between the rival political groupings.

BBC 14 May, 2002, Ethnic strife rocks Madagascar - The Abattoir district, the scene of the worst violence By Alastair Leithead BBC correspondent in Madagascar One of the things Hery Rasamoely loves about Mahajanga is just how cosmopolitan the little port town is, but now each morning she goes to school to teach English, she could be attacked simply because she has straight hair. Hery has the Indonesian looks of a "merina" or a Malagasy person from the highlands. It's mainly the politicians who are trying to separate the people Hery Rasamoely She comes from the interior of the island but lives on the coast, where people have a more African look - and have curly hair. "Here in Mahajanga some people are now pursuing the highlanders and as we have got very straight hair we are the first targets for them," she says. Sporadic violence "The former president's [Didier Ratsiraka] supporters were using this ethnic problem between the highlanders and the coastal people to get more votes. It's mainly the politicians who are trying to separate the people." Merina people fear ethnic violence Hery is very determined she will not leave her town, and she is both fatalistic and brave about what could happen to her. But many merina people are scared - they stay indoors, certainly after dark, and are considering leaving Mahajanga. The violence has been sporadic for three weeks now, but in the last few days running battles have claimed lives and left many injured. In the dismal surroundings of the rundown provincial hospital, where there is little sign of medicines, Rija Randriamaharavo sits upright on his bed and describes the injuries he suffered. There are burns scattered around his body where petrol was poured on to him and set alight, machete cuts on his back, his head and his arm where he put it up to protect his face. His leg is in plaster and there are two deep cuts where the nails in the piece of wood that smashed his leg dug into his shin. Traditional rivalries He is both from the highlands and a supporter of newly appointed president Marc Ravalomanana. It can be tough being a Merina and a supporter of Marc Ravalomanana It is a brutal business, and what began as political division has developed into ethnic conflict. Politicians are using the rarely spoken of traditional rivalries between the highland and the coastal people to drive a wedge into the community. Propaganda is played every day on the television station that backs long-standing president Didier Ratsiraka. It preaches division. Those broadcasters who back Marc Ravalomanana have a tough task - when they began to broadcast coverage of Mr Ravalomanana's investiture, their cables were cut. And the Mayor of Mahajanga, Claude Pages, is not spared attention. He runs one of these TV stations and the office was attacked with rocks and petrol bombs. "These people are mainly young people who are not particularly bright, and it is very easy to manipulate them," he says. "They have been paid by the supporters of Didier Ratsiraka because they would like trouble in the town and because they don't want to accept their defeat at the election." He plays down the ethnic element to the violence, saying it is mainly political, but posters and leaflets put up around town shouting "merina leave" prove these traditional rivalries are being deliberately stoked. The provincial governor also tries to paint a rosier picture of his beautiful little port with its thriving fishing industry and its Arab style architecture. He is one of four governors who have declared an intention to secede from Antananarivo and set up a confederation of independent states. The local authorities deny there is an ethnic issue "On the whole things seem calm and quiet - there is no major problem and people feel quiet and feel they are secure," Governor Etienne Razafindehibe says. "The situation now in Mahajanga is not an ethnic problem, but the politics created it - it is a very cosmopolitan town so there is no way we can have an ethnic problem." Propaganda But in the pro-Ratsiraka Abattoir district of the town the propaganda is clearly working. Stalls run by merina have been destroyed and battles have been taking place almost nightly between the mainly ethnic quarters. The main boulevards are quiet by day Both sides are now armed with guns and grenades, and the military and the police do not have the will, or perhaps the orders, to intervene. But Hery Rasamoely is optimistic. "Yes, the propaganda is working as there is violence, but will they succeed in creating divisions along ethnic lines? No, I don't think so. We think that everything will be OK later as people get on together, but now we still have very big trouble in our country," she says.

BBC 30 April, 2002 Timeline: Madagascar A chronology of key events 1880s-1905 - France consolidates its hold over Madagascar in the face of local resistance. 1910-20 - Growth of nationalism fuelled by discontent over French rule. Ancient heritage: Avenue of the Baobabs 1946 - Madagascar becomes an Overseas Territory of France. 1947 - French suppress armed rebellion in east. Thousands are killed. 1958 - Madagascar votes for autonomy. 1960 26 June - Independence with Philibert Tsiranana as president. 1972 - Amid popular unrest, Tsiranana dissolves government and hands power to army chief Gen Gabriel Ramanantsoa as head of a provisional government. He reduces the country's ties with France in favour of links with the Soviet Union. 1975 June - Lieutenant-Commander Didier Ratsiraka is named head of state after a coup. The country is renamed the Democratic Republic of Madagascar and Ratsiraka is elected president for a seven-year term. 1976 - Ratsiraka nationalises large parts of the economy, forms the AREMA party. Over the years he increases state control over the economy until 1986 when he changes tack and promotes a market economy. 1992 - Under pressure of demonstrations, Ratsiraka introduces democratic reforms. A new constitution is approved by referendum. 1993 - Albert Zafy elected president. 1996 - Zafy impeached. Ratsiraka voted back into office. 2000 March - Thousands homeless after two cyclones hit the island and Mozambique. 2000 December - AREMA wins in most of the cities, apart from Antananarivo, in provincial elections. The elections are for a new system of local government designed to give the six provinces control of their development programmes, education and health. Some 70% of voters stay away after the opposition called for a boycott, saying voters had not been properly informed about the reforms. Highland boy 2001 February - An opposition parliamentary group, the Crisis Unit for the Defence of Democracy, is established following the jailing of MP Jean-Eugene Voninahitsy for insulting the president and cheque fraud. 2001 May - Senate reopens after 29 years, completing the government framework provided for in the 1992 constitution, which replaced the socialist revolutionary system. The new framework comprises the presidency, national assembly, senate and constitutional high court. 2001 December - First round of presidential elections. Opposition candidate Marc Ravalomanana claims an outright victory and says there's no need for a second round. Ravalomanana 2002 January - Ravalomanana and his supporters mount a general strike and mass protests. The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) mediates talks between Ratsiraka and Ravalomanana, urges that a second round of polls be delayed. 2002 February - Ravalomanana declares himself president in front of thousands of supporters following weeks of political deadlock with Ratsiraka over the results of December polls, which he says Ratsiraka rigged. Within days violence breaks out between rival protesters. Ratsiraka imposes martial law on Antananarivo. 2002 April - Supreme court annuls the results of the first round of elections and calls for a recount. Ravalomanana and Ratsiraka agree to recount at a meeting in Senegal. 2002 29 April - The High Constitutional Court names Ravalomanana as winner of the December polls after a recount but Ratsiraka says he'll ignore the verdict.

Namibia

The Namibian (Windhoek) 6 June 2002 German Firms Seek Dismissal of US $2m Herero Legal Suit Christof Maletsky TWO German companies facing a US$2 billion ( about N$20 billion) legal suit filed by Hereros in Namibia have asked a United States court to dismiss the case. The Hereros accuse Deutsche Bank and Woermann Line (now known as SAFmarine) and their government of forming a "brutal alliance" to exterminate over 65 000 Hereros between 1904 and 1907. The lawyer representing the Hereros, Philip Musolino of Musolino and Dessel, told The Namibian from Washington DC yesterday that the two companies had filed arguments for the dismissal of the case in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. "We are now working on our reply. We will file on the first of July," Musolino said. The Herero People's Reparations Corporation, which is registered in Washington DC, has also filed a US$2 billion claim against Germany. Musolino said the German government had countered by stating that the US-based lawyers had no jurisdiction to take them to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He said they would soon file papers asking the court to declare whether the Hereros' lawyers had the jurisdiction to fight on behalf of the Hereros in the US court. Initially, the Hereros filed cases against the German government, Deutsche Bank, Woermann Line (now known as SAFmarine) and Terex Corporation. However, they withdrew their case against Terex after the company claimed in court papers that it was under different management at the time of the atrocities. Musolino and Dessel are acting on behalf of the Herero People's Reparations Corporation. The Corporation is owned by the Chief Hosea Kutako Foundation which is headed by Herero Paramount Chief Kuaima Riruako. In the court papers, Riruako and others state that the companies helped imperial Germany to relentlessly pursue the enslavement and genocidal destruction of the Hereros. "The defendants and imperial Germany formed a German commercial enterprise which coldbloodedly employed explicitly-sanctioned extermination, the destruction of tribal culture and social organisation, concentration camps, forced labour, medical experimentation and the exploitation of women and children in order to advance their common financial interests," say papers filed by the lawyers. Riruako said they opted for the US courts because they felt there would be minimal outside influence compared to Germany. The Hereros handed over a formal request to the then President of Germany, Roman Herzog, when he visited Namibia in March 1998, in an effort to be compensated. Herzog responded that the Hereros could not claim any compensation from Germany as international rules on the protection of rebels and the civilian population did not exist at the time of the conflict.

The Namibian 4 June 2002 Herero chiefs dispute to be settled out of court by CHRISTOF MALETSKY- GOVERNMENT has agreed to consider applications by 40 Herero traditional leaders for official recognition. Herero Paramount Chief Kuaima Riruako and 39 other Herero traditional leaders sued the President and Minister of Regional and Local Government and Housing after Government recognised only four Herero traditional leaders in terms of the 1995 Traditional Authorities Act. Subsequently, a full bench of the High Court unanimously agreed in a judgement last December that a decision by the Minister of Regional and Local Government and Housing not to recognise the 40 and to refer the matter to the Council of Traditional Leaders should be set aside. Judge Elton Hoff, Judge Peter Shivute and Acting Judge John Manyarara however declined to grant Riruako and his traditional leader colleagues their second request: to order the Minister to officially recognise the 39 as chiefs in terms of the Traditional Authorities Act. Government had vowed to challenge the High Court ruling with an appeal set for July 1. However, Government recently approached the Hereros, through their lawyers, and indicated they would like to settle the case out of court. Herero Paramount Chief Riruako confirmed yesterday that the Herero chiefs met at Okandjira, east of Okahandja, over the weekend and decided to accept Government's offer to settle the case out of court. "The Government will abide by the court decision but we are still working on the details of the settlement," Riruako told The Namibian. He could not say how many chiefs would be recognised because "some have died in the meantime but have not been replaced". Riruako said the weekend meeting, however, agreed that the Herero chiefs would not accept any delays on Government's part. Initially, Government recognised only four Herero traditional leaders - Tuvahi David Kambazembi of the Kambazembi Royal House, Christiaan Eerike Zerua of the Zerua Royal House, and Kunene Region Chiefs Kapuka Thom and Paulus Tjavara. Riruako and his group charged that the decision to recognise only those four leaders was politically motivated, because the chiefs who got the nod of approval were ruling party supporters. But the High Court said it was clear that at least Chief Kambazembi and Chief Zerua were not supporters of the ruling party when they were recognised. It rejected the claim that the Minister was prompted by ulterior, political motives not to recognise the dissatisfied traditional leaders. The court also found that instead of the Minister taking the decision on the recognition of the chiefs, as he was obliged to do in terms of the Act, it was in fact taken by Cabinet. Because Iyambo had abdicated his function in terms of the law in this way, the court set aside his decision.

Rwanda

Internews 5 June 2002 Kigali Tribunal Hasn't Rejected Congo Office Proposal, Says Registrar Mary Kimani Arusha Adama Dieng of Senegal, Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), says the tribunal has not ruled out the possibility of setting up an office in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but that there is need to resolve issues of materials and funding for such a project. Dieng made the remarks in an interview granted to 'Radio Okapi' journalists last Friday. Radio Okapi is based in the DRC. The registrar clarified a previous statement by ICTR Spokesperson Kingsley Moghalu of Nigeria, which he said was misunderstood. In a press briefing at the ICTR on 14 May, Moghalu said that the tribunal "has no immediate plans at this time to open an office in the DRC," a statement that was perceived as a rejection of a request by the Congo government earlier that month. Lèonard She Okitundu, DRC's Minister for Foreign Affairs, on 11 May wrote to the ICTR and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urging the tribunal to establish a satellite office to address the issue of suspected genocide suspects in the Congo in order to speed up the reconciliation process in the region. The government of Rwanda continues to maintain its forces in the DRC, citing insecurity posed by former Rwandan officers and militiamen who participated in the 1994 genocide, and are suspected to be in the DRC. She Okitundu's proposal indicated that once the issue of genocide suspects in the DRC is resolved, Rwanda would no longer have a reason to have its soldiers in the country. Dieng told Radio Okapi that the while the ICTR is favorable to the idea of a Congo office, the funds and material support required for the project are not yet assured. He added that the ICTR is taking its time to look for a "suitable response to the request." "One must not forget that it was only in the month of March that the budget was adopted, it is normal for the spokesperson to take precautions in stating clearly that we have not rejected the proposal but we have first to resolve the material and financial concerns," Dieng stressed, adding that a Congo office would expedite efforts to arrest genocide suspects, improve investigative efforts and ease access to prosecution and defense witnesses.

Hirondelle (Lausanna) 4 June 2002 A Hundred Rwandans Sought in DRC for Genocide Crimes Says Local Paper   Arusha Close to one hundred Rwandans members of the former Rwandan Armed Forces, and militia of the former presidential party known as Interahamwe are being sought in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for genocide, according to a local Congolese newspaper. On Sunday Le Soft International reported that there are about a hundred hard-core Rwandan combatants, which Rwanda has publicised as wanted in the country or before an International Tribunal such as (ICTR) Arusha. The newspaper added that the incomplete report of those presumed guilty of genocide was drawn up meticulously by officers of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) following information provided by surrendering or captured combatants during operations carried out in Rwanda or in the DRC. The list comprising 88 names features notably the former chief of staff of the Rwandan Armed Forces, Major General Augustine Bizimungu, former prefect of Kigali Town, Colonel Tharcisse Renzaho, former head of the "civil defence", Colonel Athanase Gasake as well as the Commandant of the Presidential Guard, Major Protais Mpiranya. The Rwandan authorities have forwarded the said list to the United Nations Mission in Congo and the Joint Military Commission (JMC) as provided for by the peace accords on the DRC signed in Lusaka in 1999, added the newspaper. Moreover, there are names real and coded, and their military grades as they were in the ex-Rwandan Armed Forces of former President Juvénal Habyarimana or as they are currently in the armed groups. These armed groups include ALIR (Rwandan Liberation Army) and FDLR (Democratic Force for Liberation of Rwanda), according to the newspaper. Last week, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) accepted a proposition by the DRC government to open an office in the country, which would facilitate in the arrest of as many as possible genocide suspects apparently in Congo, according to the Tribunal Registrar Senegalese Adama Dieng. The Registrar indicated that the proposed office would re-enforce the operational capacity of the ICTR in the investigation, arrest and transfer of suspects as well as the search for prosecution and defence witnesses living in DRC. The ICTR estimates that there are around 60 Rwandan genocide suspects who are living in the DRC. Of these a warrant of arrest has been issued for around 20, according to sources. In February Dieng made an official visit to the DRC and to Congo Brazzaville, seeking the co-operation of these governments in the arrest and transfer to Arusha, of genocide suspects living in the two countries.

AP 27 June 2002 Genocide Survivors Demand Reforms KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) - Hundreds of survivors of the 1994 slaughter in Rwanda demonstrated outside the office of the U.N. tribunal for Rwanda on Thursday, demanding reforms at the court. The protest, organized by two genocide survivors' associations, was timed to coincide with the arrival of Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the Arusha, Tanzania-based court to try perpetrators of the killings. The 100-day slaughter in 1994 left more than 500,000 Tutsis and moderates from the Hutu majority dead. The U.N. court in Tanzania was set up in 1995. ``Staff at the court collaborate with perpetrators of the genocide,'' said Philibert Gakwenzire, an official with IBUKA, an association of genocide survivors. ``When witnesses return from recording secret testimony at the court in Arusha, they find that relatives of suspects and everyone else in the village knows exactly what was in the testimony,'' Gakwenzire said. He also complained of the tribunal's slow pace, convicting only eight people in seven years. There are more than 50 accused in the U.N. detention center in Tanzania. Gakwenzire demanded that the court ``clean up its act, starting by removing its staff implicated in the genocide,'' and that it prevent the harassment of witnesses. On Jan. 24, IBUKA and AVEGA, an association for genocide widows, decided to stop cooperating with the tribunal, charging that genocide suspects work there and pose a security threat. Tribunal officials have denied the allegations, though some defense investigators have since been arrested and charged with genocide. ``What they protect is their jobs and fat paychecks, not the interests of victims,'' one demonstrator shouted, amid chants of ``You must go!'' Tribunal officials were not immediately available for comment. War-crimes court: How it works The International Criminal Court, designed to prosecute crimes against humanity, entered into force yesterday.

South Africa

News 24 SA 10 June 2002 SA probes universal jurisdiction Cape Town - Parliament's justice committee wants an investigation into whether South African courts should be given universal jurisdiction to try anyone accused of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide anywhere in the world. It also wants the Correctional Services Minister to investigate whether South Africa should be placed on an international list of states willing to accept prisoners found guilty of such crimes for the purpose of serving their sentences. In its report tabled on Monday on the International Criminal Court Bill, the committee said the possibility of universal jurisdiction should be explored. It asked the Department of Justice to undertake the necessary research, including the financial implications and the difficulties that might arise as a result of competing requests from different countries. The department has six months to report back after the committee's report is adopted by the National Assembly. The bill currently provides for a more limited jurisdiction. SA courts' jurisdiction South African courts will have jurisdiction if the crimes are alleged to have been committed outside South Africa, if the perpetrator: is a South African citizen; is not a South African citizen, but is ordinarily resident in the Republic; is present in South Africa after the commission of the crime; and commits a crime against a South African citizen or against a person who is ordinarily resident in South Africa. The approach adopted in the bill was similar to Canadian legislation, the committee said. Urging that universal jurisdiction be explored, the committee said Belgium was the only country which, to date, had gone even beyond what South Africa and Canada had done. Belgian courts had universal jurisdiction which meant they could deal with cases in which the crimes in question had been committed by any person anywhere in the world. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is scheduled to begin on July 1 this year. The Bill provides that no prosecution may be instituted against a person accused of having committed a crime, if the crime in question is alleged to have been committed before the start of the statute. The committee has urged the Justice Department to make every effort to ensure the proposed legislation comes into operation on or before July 1 and that the required subordinate legislation is prepared and promulgated timeously.

Scotsman UK 21 June 2002 South Africa bans Zulu war cry against Indians Fred Bridgland in Johannesburg A POP song that incites Zulus to hate Indians has been banned in South Africa. AmaNdiya (Indians in Zulu), by the composer Mbongeni Ngema, has caused a storm in the month since its release, with the former president, Nelson Mandela, damning it as "pandering to the same prejudices that underpinned apartheid". In his song, Ngema calls for Zulus to confront the Indians, whom he describes as "our oppressors". It calls for equivalents of the warriors who defeated the British at Isandhlwana in 1879 to take on the Indians who "every day fill our airports". While many blacks have called radio stations and written to newspapers supporting Ngema, other South Africans are appalled. "Who needs Reality TV to dumb us down when we’ve got Mbongeni Ngema?" the columnist Charlotte Bauer wrote in the Johannesburg Sunday Times. Max du Preez, a radical Afrikaner editor who supported the African National Congress in the apartheid era, wrote in his Johannesburg Star column: "Similar racist songs and stories were sang and told before the Tutsi murders in Rwanda, and before Muslims, Serbs and Bosnians started killing each other. AmaNdiya smacks of the same jealousy of Jews that made it possible for Hitler to seduce the German nation into condoning his genocide." Until yesterday’s ban, the lyrics had been pounding out over the townships and pavement stalls of Durban, an ethnically diverse city where Zulus and Indians predominate. Ngema, who created the plays Woza Albert! and Asinamali! and the musical Sarafina, which all made it to Broadway, said: "If there wasn’t this reality, I wouldn’t have written this song. People would rather not deal with it, but the African-Indian problem is a very deep-rooted one. As long as I can remember, people have been talking about how oppressive Indians are to Africans." There are some 1.3 million South African Indians among the country’s 44 million people. Most live in or around Durban, where they were brought by the British in the 1850s to work as labourers or servants. Whites favoured them over blacks and granted them better access to education and the right to run businesses, although they were denied the vote and were forced to live in segregated townships. Mahatma Gandhi fought for Indian rights in Durban before he returned to India to lead the independence struggle. Some 150 Indians were killed in 1949 in a riot by Zulus. In banning AmaNdiya, Kobus van Rooyen, chairman of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission, said: "The song demeans the Indian section of the population by accusing the Indians in sweeping generalisations of the oppression and dispossession of the Zulus. It constitutes racial hate speech with incitement to harm. The lyrics are inflammatory, inciting fear among Indians." This is not the first time Ngema has courted controversy. When he was given £1.5 million in 1997 by the EU to write and produce a musical to help to counter South Africa’s HIV/AIDS pandemic, he was accused of purloining £350,000 to pay tax bills, renovate his home and turn his garage into a studio. Cambodia committed to try Khmer leaders, says prime minister

Sudan

The East African (Nairobi) 10 June 2002 Congress to Bush: Don't Go Soft On Khartoum Kevin J. Kelley President George W. Bush's policy of using persuasion rather than punishment to promote peace in Sudan was bitterly criticised last week by some members of the US Congress and by leaders of lobby groups. Clashes over Washington's approach to Khartoum broke out at a June 4 committee hearing in the US House of Representatives. The session featured a testy exchange between the Bush team's top Africa policymaker and a Democratic Congressman who charged that failure to get tougher with Sudan amounted to "playing with human lives." The dispute over the most effective of ending Sudan's civil war highlighted the long-standing issue of whether the US should seek normal relations with the Islamist regime or intensify efforts to destabilise it. In recent months, President Bush has favoured a softer line of approach, but advocates of a no-compromise stance are warning that Khartoum cannot be trusted to negotiate a settlement to the 19-year-old conflict with rebels in the southern half of the country. The controversy focused last week on a move to prevent foreign companies from developing Sudan's oil resources by preventing them from raising capital in the US. That proposed sanction against non-US firms is contained in a Bill approved by the US House one year ago by a margin of 422-2. President Bush's allies in the Senate, however, are blocking efforts to enact the proposal into law. American companies are already forbidden from doing business in Sudan. Some members of the House International Relations Committee called for action on the plan to dissuade Canadian, European and Asian companies from helping Sudan tap its sizeable oil reserves. Khartoum uses oil revenue to finance its assaults on rebel troops and civilian populations in the south, said Republican Congressman Chris Smith. "If you cut the spigot, you stop the war," he declared. But Walter Kansteiner, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, argued strongly against the attempt to block access to US capital markets. Such political interference in free markets is exactly what he urges African governments to forego, Mr Kansteiner told the committee. It was that statement that prompted Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos to fire back: "So far, we're playing with human lives." The California lawmaker was referring to the estimated two million Sudanese who have died in the course of the civil war. Non-governmental experts testifying at the June 4 hearing endorsed the effort to punish foreign companies that do business in Sudan's oil fields. Michael Young, head of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, said the Bush administration's special envoy for peace in Sudan is proceeding from a flawed premise in arguing that neither side can win the civil war. "Whether or not Khartoum can win the war is not the question. The point is that Khartoum thinks it can win the war, especially with hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenue pouring in," Mr Young said. Eric Reeves, a Sudan specialist at Smith College in Massachusetts, charged that the Canadian oil firm Talisman is "the very embodiment of Western corporate evil in Sudan." The company, which has played a leading role in developing Sudan's oil resources, is complicit with "genocidal destruction," Prof Reeves declared. Talisman's airstrips in Sudan are used by Khartoum's helicopter gunships for attacks on civilians, he said. The Bush team's policy was further faulted on the grounds that it had failed to prod Sudan's rulers into implementing "confidence-building measures" specified by US Special Envoy John Danforth. Assistant Secretary Kansteiner disagreed, citing one "important accomplishment in our engagement." Khartoum has allowed humanitarian relief to be delivered to the Nuba Mountains, he pointed out. While former Senator Danforth's peace mission has achieved "moderate successes on symptomatic humanitarian issues," it has so far not addressed the root causes of the conflict, added John Prendergast, an NGO official with long experience in Sudan.

Uganda

Xinhua 7 Jun 2002 -- Ugandan police to mediate ethnic clashes between Sudanese refugees KAMPALA, June 7, 2002 (Xinhua) -- Ugandan Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees MosesAli has ordered the establishment of a police post in the Kiryandongo refugee settlement of the Acholi and Lotuk ethnic groups between Sudanese refugees, local media reported on Friday. The move follows a clash between the Sudanese refugees of the Acholi and Lotuk ethnic groups in western Masindi district last week. The inter-tribal clash left 1,500 Lotuk tribesmen displaced and three refugees dead while several others injured in critical conditions. "He also directed that with immediate effect, a police post be established within the settlement," a press statement from the office of the prime minister was quoted as saying. The statement added that the displaced Lotuk were camped at Bweyale refugee settlement, where they accessed assistance from the World Food Program and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

New Vision (Kampala) 4 June 2002 Thousands Throng Namugongo Shrines Alfred Wasike THOUSANDS of pilgrims from many parts of the world yesterday converged for prayers at Namugongo, on eastern Kampala outskirts, for the annual Martyrs Day to remember the commitment of more than 20 fresh Ugandan Christian converts executed on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga in the late 1880s. A ululating Vice-President Speciosa Kazibwe, welcoming in "Kisoga style" the exhausted but enthusiastic pilgrims gathered for several days around a mini- grass thatched Basilica set on a small lake at the Catholic martyrs shrines, described the bravery of the young Christians of the 19th century as "a celebration of dedicated leadership." Despite the tight security around the sprawling shrines, there was a roaring trade in alcohol. There was also brisk trade in soft drinks, food and Martyrs Day souvenirs like hats. The pilgrims and traders braved a scorching sunshine, dust and later dark rain clouds that produced a drizzle. In a lengthy homily, Bishop Willigers of Jinja Diocese, spoke out against the genocide in Rwanda, instability in the DR Congo, the civil war in the Sudan, abduction of children from Uganda by Joseph Kony's LRA rebels, corruption in Government and public life. "Where are we heading to? I know someone who could be a martyr. She is a Munyarwanda, Felicity Niyetegeka, who was killed by the interahamwe for hiding Tutsi refugees. There are problems in the DRC, Sudan", he lamented. "Kony is busy abducting our children. Government is busy making promises that the insurgence will end soon. And it is not ending. The moral fibre of our people is being sapped in the so-called protected villages despite persistent calls by religious leaders to allow people go back to their homes," Willigers said.

Zambia

The Post (Lusaka) June 2, 2002 You Can't Trust Mmd Anymore, Says Mwila Reuben Phiri You can't trust the MMD government anymore, opposition Zambia Republican Party (ZRP) president Benjamin Mwila has said. In an interview on Friday, Mwila said the Mwanawasa administration was trying to weaken the opposition through arrests of its leaders and cited the recent case of Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata as an example. "Now they are trying to frame me so that they can arrest me and lock me up because the offence they are alleging I committed is not bailable," said Mwila in apparent reference to a story in one of the state owned and government controlled newspapers that he was involved in aggravated robbery. Mwila said it was ironic that a police officer could say he was waiting for instructions from Inspector General of Police Silas Ngangula to effect an arrest on an aggravated robbery charge when no one has ever recorded a statement from him ever since the offence is alleged to have been committed. "I wouldn't like to start accusing the state of conniving to lock me up. I hope this is not a trend by the government to weaken or eliminate the opposition," Mwila said. "This is a very sad development for Zambia." Mwila said he was the more aggrieved party over events that took place during the campaign in the December 27, 2001 presidential and parliamentary elections where his team was openly attacked by MMD cadres while the police watched. "Now they want to turn around and accuse me of aggravated robbery. That's not how to run a government. We can now see what we were dreading. I hope there will be no genocide. I can see it in the offing," Mwila said. "Politics of elimination must stop." And Mwila said the atmosphere of disunity that was emerging under the Mwanawasa administration was worrying. He said the unity which Zambia had enjoyed in the last 38 years had dissipated, particularly after the December elections and the situation was escalating. Mwila said there was need for the government to initiate dialogue both within the MMD and with the opposition in order to foster development. He said the MMD was embroiled in internal squabbles at the time when the majority of Zambians were living in abject poverty. "Zambia must be redeemed from the poverty and economic malaise. The only way to fight this is by uniting. Drought has not spared us either and the President has declared a disaster. How can we fight hunger with the nation in tatters?" And condemning defections from the opposition to the ruling party, Mwila said this was not the solution for resolving the problems the nation was facing. He said he was cheered that while other opposition members were trooping back to the MMD, ZRP