Africa

Burundi

IRIN 31 Oct 2002 UN humanitarian office launches new website NAIROBI The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Burundi launched a new bilingual website on Thursday, thereby facilitating a daily exchange of information on the humanitarian situation in the country. "This new website bridges the information gap between humanitarian partners in Burundi and external parties worldwide," Nicholas McGowan, the OCHA-Burundi information officer, told IRIN on Thursday. "Our objective is to provide a user-friendly (French and English) interface where accurate information can be accessed with ease. It is a vital tool for anyone who is interested [in] or observes Burundi and the Great Lakes Region," he added. The site features daily news briefs; weekly situation reports; monthly humanitarian situation updates; minutes of the weekly Contact Group Meeting; the 2002 Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for Burundi; and the latest news on Burundi published by OCHA's Reliefweb and the Integrated Regional Information Networks, known as IRIN. The site is a Reliefweb and OCHA-Burundi initiative, building upon the earlier success of the Occupied Palestinian Territories website launched early this year. The site can be accessed at: www.ochaburundi.org

AFP 4 Nov 2002 - Grenade blasts in Burundi capital, opposition youths blamed BUJUMBURA, Nov 4 (AFP) - Young supporters of a Tutsi opposition party in Burundi let off grenades and tried to erect barricades in several areas of the capital Monday morning, the city's mayor told AFP. "They were youths, supporters of PARENA (National Recovery Party) who let off the grenades. They also tried to erect barricades but security forces intervened to restore order," said Mayor Potien Niyongabo. "They wanted to organise a dead-city protest. The party has been using these people since PARENA's chairman was summoned (before the chief prosecutor) and since four of its leaders who wanted to change the government by force were arrested," added Niyongabo. Five grenades went off in three different areas of the capital on Monday, the first exploding at about 6:20 am (0420 GMT), according to an AFP journalist in the city. Hundreds of police, some in riot gear, were deployed around Bujumbura and along its main roads. "We have been following them since Saturday. They wanted to close the shops, the banks and schools, but the security forces were vigilant. "We knew what was planned for Monday morning and so we were prepared," said Niyongabo. The head of PARENA, former president Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, who is accused of threatening the security of the state, was forced to appear Saturday before the state prosescutor. He was taken home after being questioned for three hours. Bagaza, a former army colonel, came to power in a 1976 coup. We was ousted in 1987 by Major Pierre Buyoya, who lost the country's first democratic election in 1993 but forced his way back to power in a 1996 bloodless coup.

IRIN 4 Nov 2002 Rebels step up war despite progress at ceasefire talks BUJUMBURA, 4 November (IRIN) - Burundian rebels have launched several fresh attacks against government forces despite progress at ceasefire talks between the two sides, being held in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam. Units of Burundi's main rebel group, the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Force pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD), lobbed 13 mortar bombs into Burundi's second-largest city, Gitega, on Sunday. "One shell fell near the school for the blind at Mushasha, another fell near the girls' secondary school, ENF, but it seemed many were directed at the Bragita brewery," a Gitega resident told IRIN on Sunday. "Thank God, no one was killed or wounded." Burundi's Net Press reported that the town's electricity supply was interrupted during the attack after a high-voltage line was hit. Elsewhere on Sunday, government troops killed 51 rebels heading for Zina, in the northwestern province of Bubanza, the army spokesman, Col Augustine Mzabampema, said. He made no mention of government losses or of the identity of the rebels. But the administrator of Buganda Commune, Emmanuel Bigirimana, said, "[There] were more than a thousand rebels, mostly Rwandan [Hutu] Interahamwe [militias]." He said thousands of people fled their homes. On Saturday, in the nation's capital, Bujumbura, the hardline rebel Parti de liberation du peuple hutu-Forces nationales de liberation attacked the western suburb of Buterere, killing two people and wounding 10 others, Mayor Pontien Niyongabo said. "They took all the medicines in the Buterere health centre," he added. Meanwhile, Radio Burundi reported that at the talks in Tanzania, "the technical teams [of the CNDD-FDD and the government] are working in perfect cooperation on the ceasefire preamble".

AFP 5 Nov 2002 Over 70,000 Burundians flee fighting between government and rebels BUJUMBURA, Nov 5 (AFP) - More than 70,000 people have fled their homes in central Burundi to escape fighting between the army and forces from one of two main rebel groups, local officials said on Tuesday. Fighting broke out last Friday between the Tutsi-dominated army and fighters from the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), on the same day that the government began talks with Hutu rebels on a possible peace accord. Nearly all of the estimated 45,000 inhabitants of Bugendana have fled and regrouped outside the town, according to Tharcisse Ntibarirarana, governor of the surrounding Gitega province. "Since this morning it's been fairly calm, whereas yesterday there were clashes between the army and rebels all afternoon," the governor said on Tuesday. No civilians had been killed, the governor said. "People got the message and fled as soon as the rebels arrived in the area." Sylvain Nzigamiye, the governor of neighbouring Muranvya province, said the 26,000 residents of Rutegama left the town on Tuesday morning as rebels arrived to find "large numbers" of government troops waiting for them. Army spokesman Augustin Nzabampema confirmed that the clashes had taken place but gave no information on their outcome or casualties. The rebels are understood to be on the retreat, heading for the FDD's Kibira forest stronghold in the country's centre west. Fifty-one rebels and 10 civilians were reported killed in the northern province of Cibitoke in clashes with the army last Saturday. Peace talks between the government and FDD in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, have made no progress after three days, a member of the Burundi delegation said on Tuesday. "We're still on the introduction to the ceasefire plan," the government delegate said on condition of anonymity. "We have not been able to agree on the first two articles." Burundi's second largest rebel group, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), has so far refused to join the talks. Inter-ethnic clashes descended into a full civil war following the 1993 assassination of Burundi's elected Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye. The war has claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people, most of them civilians.

AFP 7 Nov 2002 Official killed by rebels in Burundi capital: witnesses BUJUMBURA, Nov 7 (AFP) - A local government official has been killed by Hutu rebels in the Burundian capital, witnesses to the slaying said Thursday. Emmanuel Ndereyimana, an administrator in the mainly Hutu neighbourhood of Ruziba, in the south of Bujumbura, was killed Wednesday by three rebels from the National Liberation Forces (FNL), according to the witnesses. Ndereyimana was riding a bicycle in Ruziba at around 6:00 pm (1600 GMT) when the rebels, who have accused him of collaborating with the predominantly Tutsi army and to have killed civilians who back the FNL, shot him. "The neighbourhood leader was killed by rebels, but he never had civilians killed," Ndereyimana's immediate boss, Jacques Bigirimana, said. Ndereyimana is the fourth official to have been killed by suspected FNL rebels since October in Bujumbura's outlying neighbourhoods.

AFP 12 Nov 2002 Burundi rebels threaten to attack the capital BUJUMBURA, Nov 12 (AFP) - Rebels of Burundi's main armed Hutu movement, the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), said the army had attacked them on Tuesday morning and threatened reprisal raids on the capital Bujumbura. "We call on the population living near the military camps in the Bujumbura area to leave them as fast as possible, because we are going to attack these camps," FDD spokesman Lieutenant Gelase Daniel Ndabirabe told AFP. Ndabirabe charged that troops of the Tutsi-dominated army had launched an assault against the FDD on two fronts, in the central Muramvya province and in Kayanza province in the north. "Military planes are taking off from Bujumbura and dropping bombs on Bukeye and Teza (in the centre) and Muruta and Matongo (in the north), in support of several infantry battalions," Ndabirabe said by telephone. No confirmation of the rebel claim could be had from military or administrative sources. Burundi's President Pierre Buyoya on November 8 blamed FDD leader Pierre Nkurunziza for deadlock at a latest round of peace talks which had just ended in Tanzania, across the border from the central African country. But Nkurunziza accused Buyoya of delaying the discussions, mediated by South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma in a bid to reach a negotiated settlement in a conflict which has claimed at least 250,000 lives. The rebel military spokesman said that because government aircraft were coming from "Bujumbura, it is our duty to defend ourselves by attacking the departure point of the offensive -- Bujumbura." "We can strike at any moment, this isn't for the fun of it. If Buyoya doesn't halt this offensive, we'll react," Ndabirabe said. "Last time, we stopped shelling for humanitarian reasons, but this time, it'll be a major attack," he added. Late in July, five civilians were killed and 10 injured by rebel mortar fire on the capital.

AFP 18 Nov 2002 Grenade blasts wound 15 pupils in Burundi school BUJUMBURA, Nov 18 (AFP) - Fifteen schoolchildren were injured overnight when two grenades exploded close to a dormitory in southern Burundi, a local official said Monday. The first grenade at the Bururi Lycee went off at 1:00 am (1100 GMT Sunday) followed by another explosion fifteen minutes later, Bururi Provincial governor Anicet Niyongabo told AFP by phone. "Pupils ran out of their rooms prompting a stampede. Some preferred to jump from the first floor windows," he said. "About 15 pupils, including three who are seriously wounded are in hospital. Two were wounded by the grenade blasts while the others were hurt when they jumped out the windows or were trampled on in the crush," said Niyongabo. "There was tension of an ethnic nature among the students. Some even fled the school before the explosions," he said. He added that these students were both Tutis and Hutus. The two ethnic groups are on opposite sides of a long-running civil war between Hutu rebels and the Tutsi dominated army.

AFP 14 Nov 2002 - Fighting in Burundi undermines refugees repatriation: UNHCR DAR ES SALAAM, Nov 14 (AFP) - The number of Burundian refugees returning home from camps in northwest Tanzania has dropped dramatically following a recent upsurge in fighting in the central African country, the UN refugee agency said Thursday. "We have the capacity of helping up to 1,500 refugees return home every week by sending two convoys, but in the last eight weeks, the exercise slowed down to as low as 70 a week," UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokeswoman Ivana Unluova told AFP. Unluova said, however, that the numbers of those repatriated started picking up again last week, when up to 691 refugees returned to Muyinga in Burundi. The UNHCR official said some 27,000 refugees out of about 100,000 who have volunteered to return to Burundi have been given assistance to go home since April. Tanzania hosts about 400,000 Burundi refugees in camps located in the northwestern regions of Kigoma and Kagera. Unluova also said more refugees were still arriving in western Tanzanian regions to escape continued fighting in Burundi, pointing out that an influx of 17,000 refugees from Burundi had entered Tanzania in October. "That was the biggest influx into Tanzania, but we understand there are many more people who are internally displaced due to the current situation in Burundi ... some of these people cannot get over the border," she said. "It is possible that armed rebel groups and the Burundi army have blocked them from fleeing into Tanzania," Unluova added. The war in Burundi has claimed more than 250,000 mostly civilian lives since 1993.

IRIN 20 Nov 2002 Main rebel group fails to show for ceasefire talks BUJUMBURA, 20 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - A new round of ceasefire talks to end Burundi’s nine-year old civil war failed to get underway on Tuesday, as rebels of the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) said they did not get the invitation to attend. "We have not received the invitation. And even if we would receive it today, it would take days for us to report to Dar es Salaam," Gelase Ndabirabe, spokesman of the CNDD-FDD, told IRIN. He said the CNDD-FDD had asked the South Africans facilitating the talks to send the invitation "at least two weeks before" the start of the meeting. "The invitation must also clearly state whether we are going to discuss or to negotiate because if it was to discuss we would not go," Gelase said. However, the Burundi government’s chief negotiator at the talks, Ambroise Niyonsaba, told IRIN that a member of the South African facilitation present in Dar es Salaam - the Tanzanian venue of the talks - told him that they had sent the invitation to the CNDD-FDD. "We are waiting for clarification, and if there is no chance to meet the other side, we will return to Bujumbura," Niyonsaba added. Before leaving for Dar es Salaam on Sunday, he had told IRIN that his team hoped that a ceasefire agreement would be reached before 25 November, when regional heads of state are due to meet again on the Burundi situation. On 12 November, the chairman of the regional initiative for peace in Burundi, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, gave the warring sides in Burundi another two weeks to reach a ceasefire agreement with the transitional government in Bujumbura. A previous deadline of 30 days expired on 7 November.

IRIN 20 Nov 2002 Rebels shelling densely populated areas of Bujumbura NAIROBI, 22 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - Burundi rebels started shelling a densely populated suburbs of the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, on Friday, putting panic-stricken residents to flight, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported. "There is widespread confusion," Antoine Gerard, head of OCHA-Burundi, told IRIN. He said the neighbourhoods of Kiriri, Kamenge, and Mutanga were being hit the hardest, with shells falling in the vicinity of King Khaled Hospital in Kamenge. "OCHA is very concerned for the victims of these attacks, and given the level of insecurity, neither UN agencies nor NGOs can reach these populations," he said. He said that the city centre had, so far, remained untouched. OCHA also reported that heavy fighting between rebels and government forces was ongoing near Kibira Forest, in Mpanda Commune of Bubanza Province, causing an estimated 10,000 civilians to flee. Meanwhile, Radio Publique Africaine reported that shells landed near the Munarira centre in Rutegama commune, Muramvya Province, where those wounded by earlier fighting had sought shelter. The total number of people dead or wounded remains unknown. Efforts at reaching a ceasefire in Burundi were ongoing in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

AFP 21 Nov 2002 Alarm as 40,000 flee Burundi fighting MUSENYI, Burundi, Nov 21 (AFP) - Fighting in an area near Burundi's capital has prompted almost 40,000 civilians, mostly women and children, to flee their homes, a local government official told AFP on Thursday, warning they were in dire need of food and shelter. Earlier reports put the number of those displaced at around 10,000. "Nearly 40,000 people have fled very heavy fighting that has raged in Butakuna since Saturday, Fidele Niyonkuru, and advisor to the mayor told AFP. Butakuna is in Mpanda commune, some 24 kilometres (12 miles) north of Bumumbura. The fighting pits Hutu rebels against the Tutsi-dominated army. "They are now holed up in Musenyi (the main town in Mpanda) and in Nyambare," Niyonkuru said. An AFP reporter in Musenyi saw thousands of people camped outdoors. Most had fled their homes on Saturday, when fighting broke out. On Thursday clashes were still going on in the village of Masha, a stronghold of the Forces for the Defence of Democracy rebels. Witnesses said they had seen dozens of trucks carrying soldiers and heavy weapons to the front every day since the weekend. "If this goes on for two or three more days, there could be a catastrophe because people have nothing to eat and we have nothing to give them," said Niyonkuru, who called for urgent help from aid agencies. Efforts to reach a negotiated settlement to Burundi's civil war, which has killed more than 300,000 since 1993, have not yet been successful.

Boston Globe 24 Nov 2002 Violence grows, hope fades in Burundi Ethnic conflict now seen as fight for power, wealth By Declan Walsh, BUJUMBURA, Burundi - On a hillside above this capital city, neat rows of red roses thrive in the warm African air. The buds remain closed until shipment to Europe, where romantics will give them as tokens of affection. But in Burundi, similar flowers of love grow in an environment of hate. Thierry Nzohabonayo's rose farm is caught in the crossfire of his country's civil war. In the green hills that rise above his property are the ethnic Hutu rebels, who sparked the war nine years ago. They press their advantage by attacking the city below, where the Tutsi-led government's army holds sway. The conflict is low intensity but relentless. At night, the city air is filled with the crackle of gunfire or the thump of mortar fire. ''I never know if the farm will still be there when I get to work in the morning,'' said the 29-year-old entrepreneur. In recent weeks, as political talks have stalled, the tempo of violence has increased. A two-hour blitz of rebel mortar fire Friday resulted in four civilian deaths and forced 20,000 people from their homes. Workers at Nzohabonayo's rose farm dropped their tools and ran. It was a prudent move. In previous attacks, stray bullets whizzed through the compound and a stray bomb destroyed a plastic shed. ''My friends tell me I'm crazy to continue. But what can I do?'' Nzohabonayo said. But when he started the business a year ago, he said, it didn't seem like such a bad idea. Under the guiding hand of former South African president Nelson Mandela, Hutu and Tutsi politicians hammered out a deal to end the conflict, which has claimed at least 200,000 lives, mostly civilians. The enemies agreed to a three-year transitional government to be led for the first half by a Tutsi, followed by a Hutu. South Africa cemented the power-sharing pact by sending 700 troops to protect about 30 Hutu politicians returning from exile. Since then, however, progress has been dismal. Beset by political strains, the transitional government looks increasingly brittle. Human-rights abuses by soldiers from both sides continue unabated, and the fighting has increased. The problem lies within the peace deal itself. It failed to include the National Liberation Front and the Force for the Defense of Democracy, the two main Hutu rebel groups doing the fighting. Last week, Lieutenant Gelase Ndabirabe, spokesman for the Force for the Defense of Democracy, told the Associated Press his group would continue attacking government troops ''right up to their barracks.'' Frustrated regional leaders, led by Vice President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, are trying to remedy the situation through cease-fire talks in neighboring Tanzania. But progress is slow, and in the war-weary nation, hopes for peace are waning. ''Everyone, Hutu and Tutsi alike, is sick of this war,'' Nzohabonayo said, ''but it doesn't look like it will end anytime soon.'' Ethnic divisions are at the roots of the conflict. Minority Tutsis have clung to power almost continuously since independence in 1962, and both sides have carried out mass killings - the Tutsis in 1972, the Hutus in 1993. In September, army troops massacred 173 mainly Hutu civilians in central Itaba Province. Two officers are being disciplined. But now, many Burundians contend that power and money have overtaken ethnicity as the driving force behind the conflict. They blame their leaders for leading comfortable lives while the rest of the country is miserable. The statistics are appalling: 1 in 6 Burundians have been forced to live away from home, 1 in 5 die before age 5, and the average life expectancy has plummeted to 41. The United Nations ranks the country as the world's third most undeveloped. Human-rights abuses often are perpetrated with no apparent ethnic linkages. Two weeks ago, a poor Tutsi family took shelter from the seasonal rains to mourn their daughter, Jeanine Ndayishimiye, who had been shot the night before. ''A soldier demanded to see her ID card,'' explained a cousin, who was standing by a puddle stained with the girl's blood. ''She handed him the Bible and said that was her identity. He got angry and started shooting.'' An overhaul to the army is a major sticking point in the current talks. The war started in 1993, when Tutsi paratroopers assassinated Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu and the only democratically elected president. The rebels say they will continue until democracy is restored. ''Tutsis killed our president. And those same soldiers are still in charge of the army,'' Yusuf, a wounded fighter for the National Liberation Front who would give only his first name, said at a clinic on the edge of Bujumbura. The three men beside him, one missing half his foot, nodded in agreement. The army does not serve any ethnic group, and the Hutu rebels are ethnic extremists ''fighting to obtain power through genocide,'' said Colonel Augustin Nzabampema, a government army spokesman. However, there was agreement on the need for more Hutu soldiers, he said, but the dispute centers on how to bring about those changes. Analysts say the transitional government will be lucky to last until May, when President Pierre Buyoya is due to hand over power to his Hutu vice president, Domitien Ndayizeye. A collapse could fan the flames of extremism. Last year, Buyoya survived two coup attempts led by Tutsi hard-liners. In recent weeks there have been rumors of a third. This story ran on page A4 of the Boston Globe on 11/24/2002.

IRIN 29 Nov 2002 Rights body says risk of civilian deaths rising NAIROBI, 29 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Friday there was a growing risk of more civilian deaths in Burundi, judging from recent army actions and rebel bombardments of the capital, Bujumbura. The New York-based rights body called on international donors and regional leaders, to "apply maximum pressure" on the Burundi government to protect civilians and to reach a ceasefire with rebels in the nine-year war. A weekend regional summit on Burundi's peace process is due to convene in Tanzania, hard on the heels of a donors' conference on Burundi that ended on Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland. HRW's warning was contained in a new report entitled "Escalating Violence Demands Action", released on Friday. Produced in the form of a briefing paper, the rights body documents army killings of civilians since July, the worst of which, it said, accounted for 174 deaths in Itaba Commune, Gitega Province. "Although the largest slaughter since July, it was only one of a number of deliberate killings of civilians carried out by government troops in the last four months," it reported. It also recalled the rebel bombardment - most likely by the Forces nationales de liberation - of heavily populated suburbs of Bujumbura on 22-23 November, in which five people died and others were wounded or put to flight. "Both government army officers and rebel commanders must hold their troops accountable for these deliberate attacks on ordinary people who have no place to run," HRW said.

Pan African News Agency (PANA) 29 Nov 2002 Britain sues recalcitrant Burundi faction leader Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - The British government has an international arrest warrant underway for Agathon Rwasa, the recalcitrant leader of Burundi's second main rebel movement -- the National Liberation Front (FNL) -- a local radio reported here. Rwasa is accused of masterminding the December 2000 attack against a passenger bus that killed about 20 persons, including a British citizen. The bus, named Titanic express, was ambushed north-east of Kigali near the stronghold of the FNL while travelling on 28 December 2000 to central Rwanda. Ms. Charlotte Wilson, a British volunteer, who taught Biology at Gitarama secondary school in Central Rwanda, was killed in the ambush. The assailants sprayed the bus with machine gunfire that also killed Charlotte's Burundian boyfriend Ndereyimana Richard. Meanwhile, the rebel leader said he was ready to answer any international court injunction once he is provided with irrefutable evidence of his guilt, Bonesha FM quoted Rwasa as saying. He has denied being involved either overtly or covertly in the ambush of "Titanic express," arguing that the whole affair is only "framed to discredit his movement." The affair came as a twist amid strong international pressure meant to bring FNL and its leaders to the negotiation table to discuss permanent cease-fire in Burundi's nine-year-old civil war that has left over 250,000 persons dead and displaced about one million others. FNL demands encampment of the loyalist army before accepting any cease-fire talks.

Central African Republic

IRIN 31 Oct 2002 UNHCR Warns of Possible Ethnic Tension Among Refugees From Bangui Kinshasa Officials of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees warned on Wednesday that ethnic tensions in the troubled Central African Republic could spill into the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo with the arrival of refugees fleeing a failed coup in the CAR capital, Bangui. Armed forces loyal to Gen Francois Bozize, former chief of staff of the CAR army, launched an offensive against government forces on 25 October. Many Central Africans have been gathering at the shore of the Oubangui River in an effort to cross to neighbouring DRC. "We fear that the inter-ethnic fighting between the Kaba, the ethnic group of present Central African President, Ange-Felix Patasse; and the Yakoma, the group of former President Andre Kolingba, could carry over to Central African refugee camps in the DRC," Fatoumata Kaba, the UNHCR spokeswoman in Kinshasa, told IRIN. At least 3,400 Yakoma refugees from CAR, who fled during previous uprisings, are still living in the Mole refugee camp near Zongo, DRC, along the Oubangui. Former soldiers of the CAR military belonging to the Yakoma, who have been disarmed, are located in a camp some 135 km farther south in the DRC. "These people are exiled because they have been persecuted by the present regime. If groups of Kabas cross over together, there may be problems," Kaba warned. However, although many Kabas have gathered at the river's edge, few have made the crossing so far. The UNHCR said most find themselves lost in a mass of other ethnic groups, unable to cross due to harassment from the CAR army. Only 42 people have been able to cross since fighting erupted in Bangui on Friday. "A couple arrived late in the evening on Wednesday, complaining of having to pay 7,000 CFA [about US $10] for the crossing," Kaba said. The sum would be beyond the means of most Central Africans. "Many people would be prevented from crossing by the Central African presidential guard, who insist on payment of 1,000 CFA for the crossing," she added. The Ugandan-backed Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) rebel movement of Jean-Pierre Bemba, which controls much of the northern regions of the DRC, has been sending its troops to Bangui to fight alongside the CAR government forces. As at Thursday, the MLC-army alliance, which also includes some 200 soldiers from Libya, had succeeded in pushing the rebels out of Bangui. UNHCR representatives have been dispatched along the banks of the Oubangui to monitor the arrival of refugees and to negotiate with CAR government forces to allow asylum seekers to cross to the DRC.

VOA News 01 Nov 2002 CAR Denies Massacre Of Chadian Civilians A top Central African Republic official has dismissed allegations that as many as 120 Chadian civilians were massacred by government troops. Prime Minister Martin Ziguele was responding to a statement released by the government of Chad on Thursday. In it, Chad said that between 80 and 120 of its citizens were killed on the outskirts of the capital, Bangui, after government troops drove rebels out of the city. The CAR government has accused Chad of backing the rebels' attempt to overthrow President Ange-Felix Patasse. Chad has denied the accusation. The movement's leader, former army chief Francois Bozize, fled to Chad last year after being dismissed from the military. On Thursday, the State Department ordered all U.S. government personnel to leave CAR. The United States also said it was suspending operations at its embassy in Bangui and warned U.S. citizens not to travel to the country. A small U.S. military team arrived in the capital on Wednesday to help with a possible evacuation of several hundred American residents. The rebels began their uprising last Friday. Although there has been no word from President Patasse since the conflict began, government spokesman Gabriel Koyambounou says the president has remained in the capital throughout the conflict. He has survived repeated coup attempts since coming to power in 1993.

IRIN 1 Nov 2002 Thousands of civilians caught between retreating and advancing forces - The human toll of the failed coup attempt remained difficult to ascertain on Friday. BANGUI, 1 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - Humanitarian organisations in the Central African Republic on Friday expressed concern for the safety of thousands of civilians caught between retreating rebel forces of former CAR army chief of staff, Gen Francois Bozize, and Congolese rebels pursuing them in the direction of the northern border with Chad. Although relative calm had returned to the capital, Bangui, by Friday, the situation near the town of Damara, located some 80 km north of Bangui, was called "very worrying" by one aid worker, as no humanitarian access was available to thousands of civilians fleeing a possible military confrontation between Bozize loyalists and forces of the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC), a rebel group from neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that came to the aid of besieged CAR President Ange-Felix Patasse. CAR military forces, however, were not reported to be part of the pursuit because of concerns that they would not want to fight or perhaps even defect to the side of Bozize, who remains a very popular figure among many Central Africans, local sources told IRIN. Many soldiers of the CAR army have not been paid for the past 18 months. Central Africans displaced from northern neighbourhoods of Bangui told IRIN that while they had no fear of Bozize's forces, who were widely reported to have behaved in a civil manner toward residents during their six-day siege of the capital, they were afraid of the Congolese forces, who were reported to have pillaged "everything in sight" and raped many women. In response, government forces set up checkpoints around northern neighbourhoods of Bangui to stop Congolese fighters from fleeing with looted goods. "We invited them in, but we won't let them leave with stolen goods," one CAR soldier told IRIN. "Government troops should do their best to take back the stolen goods and return them to their owners," one displaced elderly woman told IRIN. Even though a general coordination meeting among relief organisations had been held on Friday under the auspices of the Ministry of Social Affairs, the human toll of the failed coup attempt still remained difficult to ascertain, with many of the wounded afraid to seek medical assistance for fear of being accused to be rebels, one humanitarian worker told IRIN. Residents of the Gobongo neighbourhood of Bangui told IRIN that at around noon local time on Friday they witnessed a CAR soldier gun down a man in the street suspected of belonging to Bozize's forces. Raquel Ayora, country director for the international humanitarian relief organisation, Medicos Sin Fronteras (MSF-Spain), told IRIN that its main priority at present was canvassing neighbourhoods in an effort to identify those afraid to seek medical assistance. She said they were also calling for an end to looting by foreign troops, and for access to displaced people along the northern road to Damara and the southwestern road to Mbaiki. Ayora noted that in contrast to Damara, the situation in Mbaiki was not presently a major source of concern because most displaced people had found food and shelter with family and friends there, and it was far from the current field of battle. She added that in addition to supplies already on hand, MSF had ordered a wide variety of medicines and medical equipment that had already reached Yaounde, in neighbouring Cameroon, and was due to arrive in Bangui next week in order to provide medical assistance to civilians. Although life in the capital was said to be returning to normal - electricity and telephone service had been largely restored, and two-thirds of vendors had returned to hawk their goods at the city's largest market, located in the Kilometre Five section of Bangui - the threat of a resumption of hostilities remained. Speaking to Radio France Internationale on Friday, a man claiming to be a Bozize spokesman said "we are at the gates of Bangui and we will return". "We control many sites up-country," he added. Bozize's forces withdrew along the same road by which they had approached Bangui on 25 October, leading northwards to Chad. According to military sources, they had maintained control of that route throughout their six-day assault on Bangui. Meanwhile, a pair of fighter jets on loan from Libya, which has had a contingent of some 200 soldiers in Bangui since a previous coup attempt in May 2001, continued their flight patterns at a low altitude over the city. On Thursday, Africa No 1 Radio reported that 100 Gabonese troops were being trained at a French military base in Libreville, and were expected to arrive in Bangui within a week. It added that France would be providing logistical and materiel support. As for the whereabouts and well-being of Patasse, who had not yet appeared in public or spoken on the radio, government officials assured reporters that he and his family were safe at home. The fate of Patasse's spokesman, Prosper Ndouba, however, remained unclear, as he had not yet been released by Bozize's rebels, who abducted him from his vehicle at the beginning of the coup last Friday. Bozize and an unknown number of his supporters fled to neighbouring Chad in November 2001 after leading an armed resistance against Bozize's arrest for questioning in relation to the failed May 2001 putsch. As for Bozize, who has claimed responsibility for the latest attempted coup, Chadian and French sources confirmed on Tuesday that he had returned from the Chadian capital, Ndjamena, to Paris. Since the election of Patasse in 1993, the CAR has suffered repeated internal armed crises. Additionally, repeated clashes attributed to Bozize's supporters based in Chad and to the alleged Chadian rebel leader, Abdoulaye Miskine, based in CAR, have taken place along the two nations' common border since Bozize and soldiers loyal to him fled to Chad.

IRIN 2 Nov 2002 Preliminary Civilian Toll: 22 Dead, 98 Wounded, Says CAR Government Bangui The government of the Central African Republic announced on Friday a preliminary toll of 22 dead and 98 wounded among civilians, although sources in Bangui told IRIN that this figure was expected to increase significantly as additional assessments were conducted in the coming days. A humanitarian assessment mission was conducted on Saturday morning to some of the worst-affected northern neighbourhoods of Bangui, which had served as the stronghold of rebel forces of former CAR army chief of staff, Gen Francois Bozize, during their six-day siege of the capital. The mission was comprised of representatives from United Nations organisations such as the UN Office in the CAR (BONUCA), UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the World Food Programme, as well as international humanitarian relief NGOs such as Medicos Sin Fronteras (MSF-Spain) and Cooperazione Internazionale (Coopi) of Italy. Massimiliano Pedretti, head of Coopi, told IRIN that the overall situation "was not as serious as we expected", but said that the assessment mission was concerned about a lack of access to areas still deemed to be insecure by CAR military authorities. In response, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's Representative to the CAR, Lamine Cisse, met with government authorities on Saturday afternoon in an effort to negotiate for increased access to all areas. Pedretti said that the mission had decided to make its first priorities the identification and burial of bodies, in order to avoid the outbreak of disease, and the assessment of the needs of the population in order to appeal to donors with precise figures. Meanwhile, church parishes and local health centres were serving as the primary conduits of humanitarian aid. During their tour, the mission found two corpses on the street, said to be Congolese soldiers killed during battle. The local population said they were refusing to bury the corpses because of widespread looting and rape committed by the Congolese forces during the joint CAR-Congolese counter-offensive that drove Bozize's forces out of the capital, retreating northward along the road to Chad. Hundreds of Congolese forces of Jean-Pierre Bemba's Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) came to the aid of CAR government forces, reportedly at the request of the CAR government. Bangui residents expressed concern that the results of government investigations into crimes allegedly committed by Congolese forces would not be fully revealed out of embarrassment for having called for their assistance. In related news, the Observatoire Centrafricain des Droits de l'Homme (OCDH), a local human rights NGO, announced that it would be organising assessment missions of its own in order to investigate reports of pillaging, summary executions, and rape. Speaking to government-owned Radio Centrafrique on Friday, CAR Prime Minister Martin Ziguele announced that CAR forces had recovered many documents from vehicles abandoned by Bozize's forces, including an itinerary for the assault and lists of names and to which battalions they were assigned. According to Ziguele, the documents, which were made available to foreign diplomats, provided proof that six-day battle was, in fact, an attempted coup backed by an "exterior" agent. Responding to Chadian allegations of a massacre of 120 Chadians by CAR government forces, Ziguele led a group of foreign diplomats to the northern neighbourhood of PK 13, where the incident was said to have occurred, in an effort to prove the allegations false. Ziguele also announced that the Bangui-M'Poko Airport was scheduled to reopen on Saturday afternoon, and that schools and government offices would reopen on Monday. Meanwhile, as at Saturday, CAR President Ange-Felix Patasse had still not appeared in public or spoken on the radio, although government officials assured reporters that he and his family were safe at home. The fate of Patasse's spokesman, Prosper Ndouba, remained unclear, as he had not yet been released by Bozize's rebels, who abducted him from his vehicle at the beginning of the coup on 25 October. Bozize and an unknown number of his supporters fled to neighbouring Chad in November 2001 after leading an armed resistance against Bozize's arrest for questioning in relation to the failed May 2001 putsch. As for Bozize, who has claimed responsibility for the latest attempted coup, Chadian and French sources confirmed on Tuesday that he had returned from the Chadian capital, Ndjamena, to Paris. Since the election of Patasse in 1993, the CAR has suffered repeated internal armed crises. Additionally, repeated clashes attributed to Bozize's supporters based in Chad and to the alleged Chadian rebel leader, Abdoulaye Miskine, based in CAR, have taken place along the two nations' common border since Bozize and soldiers loyal to him fled to Chad.

IRIN 4 Nov 2002 Regional Peacekeeping Force to Arrive "Early This Week" Bangui The first soldiers of a 350-man regional peacekeeping force are due to arrive "early this week" in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), Gen Lamine Cisse, the Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in the CAR, told IRIN on Sunday. "A dozen Gabonese military officers will be in Bangui early this week, and will be followed by 177 Gabonese soldiers, whose training concluded yesterday [Saturday 2 November]," Cisse said. He added that contingents from the Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea would be sent in as soon as they finished their specialised training. Mali has also promised troops. However, Cameroon said it could not commit forces but that it would be willing to train CAR troops. Cisse noted that in the wake of the 26-31 October incursion into Bangui by supporters of Gen Francois Bozize, the former chief of staff of the CAR army, the UN was appealing for donor funds to support the regional force, whose deployment was scheduled to begin on Monday under an accord signed in the Gabonese capital, Libreville, on 2 October aimed at ending tensions between CAR and Chad. "We are still within the time limit, and the UN has launched an appeal for funds to the donors," Cisse said. The regional force is to replace a Libyan contingent of some 200 men that has been stationed in CAR since the failed 28 May 2001 coup by former President Andre Kolingba. It will be responsible for protecting President Ange-Felix Patasse, restructuring the CAR's armed forces, and monitoring the CAR-Chad border zones. Bozize's forces were driven out of Bangui late last week by CAR forces supported by the Libyan contingent and forces of Jean-Pierre Bemba's rebel Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) from neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo. CAR Defence Minister Pierre Angoua told IRIN on Monday that Bozize's forces had now retreated about 300 km north of Bangui, toward the Chadian border. The situation in Bangui was continuing to return to normal on Monday, with Prime Minister Martin Ziguele calling on Central Africans to return to work. However, the casualties of the six-day battle remain unclear and MLC soldiers were reported to be continuing their pillage of Bangui's northern suburbs. RFI reported on Saturday that Bemba was in Bangui on Saturday, and promised to punish any MLC soldiers involved in criminal activity. His forces have been widely accused of rape and theft.

IRN 14 Nov 2002 Ruling party accuses opposition of complicity in rebel attack BANGUI, 14 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - The ruling party in the Central African Republic (CAR) has accused an opposition alliance of 13 political parties of complicity with former soldiers who invaded the capital, Bangui, in October, in an unsuccessful attempt to oust President Ange-Felix Patasse. In a statement read over state radio on Sunday, the administrative secretary-general of the ruling Mouvement pour la libération du peuple centrafricain, Jean Joseph Tchendo, condemned the alliance - the Groupe des partis d'opposition (GPO) - for issuing a communiqué on 7 November criticising Patasse. The communiqué accused him of "violating his constitutional oath by allowing foreign air and land forces - namely Libya - to bombard the northern suburbs of Bangui". Some 200 Libyan troops were sent to CAR, in the wake of a failed coup bid launched in May 2001 by former President Andre Kolingba, and are still in Bangui. The ruling party's executive board said the alliance's statement was proof of its sympathy for and complicity with the attackers, whose leader was the CAR's former army chief of staff, Gen Francois Bozize. "The parties gathered under the GPO have finally unmasked themselves. They are accomplices and intellectual authors of all the coup attempts that the country has suffered since 1996, and particularly the one planned by Chad and executed by Bozize," Tchendo said. He added that his party was particularly indignant over the opposition's claim that Chad had had nothing to do with what was essentially an internal crisis in the CAR. Through its spokesman, Paul Bellet, the opposition alliance denied involvement in the coup. However, he told IRIN on Thursday, "Patasse's refusal to hold political talks could only lead to what is happening." Apparently in no way intimidated by Patasse's expressed intention to prosecute some opposition leaders, Bellet said: "We are an opposition and we are not here to applaud the regime." He said Patasse had used the Chad ruse to divert the attention of the international community from the country's social and economic problems. Meanwhile, the government remains suspicious that Chad is keen to annex the CAR's oil deposits in the north of the country. In an attempt to head off a widening and deepening crisis between the two countries, the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (known by its French acronym CEMAC) has decided to send a monitoring force of between 300 and 350 soldiers to the CAR. They are expected to be deployed this week.

Cote d'Ivore - Ivory Coast

IRIN 19 Oct 2002 Peace advocates join together to avert civil war ABIDJAN, 29 Oct 2002 (IRIN) - Civil society groups in Cote d'Ivoire have come together to avert civil war with the support of the international community. The Collectif de la Societe Civile pour la Paix (Civil Society Collective for Peace), inaugurated on Tuesday, plans to "conduct a vaste campaign of sensitization, throughout the national territory, to prevent and curb ethnic or religious conflicts", the group said in a peace declaration. Hundreds of people have died, material damage has been considerable and the economy has slowed significantly as a result of the worst socio-political crisis in Cote d'Ivoire's history, the Collectif noted. It warned, however, things could get much worse "if nothing decisive is done now to stop the beginnings of ethnic or religious clashes observed in certain areas of the country". Lessons could be learnt, in this regard, "from the unfortunate example" of other African countries such as Burundi, Rwanda and Somalia, the group said. A rebel war in Cote d'Ivoire broke out on 19 September, when a force including former members of the Ivorian military failed in bid to overthrow President Laurent Gbagbo but took over the towns of Bouake and Korhogo in the centre and north of the country respectively. A ceasefire agreement signed by the insurgents and mediators from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) entered into effect on 17 October, paving the way for talks last week in Abidjan between Ivorian and ECOWAS officials followed by negotiations this week in Lome, Togo, between the rebels and representatives of the state. The rebels' representives at the talks, which were scheduled to start on Wednesday, included the secretary-general of their political arm, former student leader Soro Guillaume, along with Tuo Fozie and Cherif Ousmane, two of the rebels’ most visible commanders. A senior military official, Col Michel Gueu, was also reported to be on the rebel delegation. The state will be represented by a team led by the chairman of the government’s Economic and Social Council, Laurent Dona Fologo. The delegation also includes officials of all parties represented in Gbagbo's coalition government, along with the National Assembly armed forces, gendarmerie, police, and civil society. Addressing the team on Monday before its departure for the Togolese capital, Gbagbo explained the state's preconditions for negotiations. "You represent the entire people of Cote d'Ivoire," he said "tell them what Cote d'Ivoire is saying ... The assailants must lay down their weapons. We want the integrity of our territory to be respected. We want our sovereignty to be respected. Then, and only then, everything can be discussed, everything can be negotiated." Pending the cessation of fighting between the two sides, civil society aims to prevent an even deeper rift from developing in the society. War between armies, whatever the atrocities committed, can eventually be controlled, but a civil war between ethnic and religious groups is uncontrollable and its sequels remain engrained in people's psyches, said the spokesman of the Collectif, Honore Guie. The Collectif includes the local chapters of two international organisations that promote democracy - the Groupe d'etude et de recherche sur la Democratie et le Developpement social en Afrique (GERDDES-CI) and Association internationale pour la democratie (AID-CI). Its other members are religious leaders representing Christians, Muslims and Buddhists, and the country's two main human rights organisations, the Ligue ivoirienne des droits de l'homme (LIDHO) and Movement ivoirien des droits de l'homme (MIDH). According to its spokesman, Honore Guie, it will send delegations comprising six persons - one Christian and one Muslim priest along with a representative each from LIDHO, MIDH, GERDDES-CI and AID-CI to various parts of Cote d'Ivoire, starting with areas under government control. Each team will hold separate sensitisation meetings with the administrative authorities of the area, chiefs of ethnic and religious communities followed by general meetings in which elected local representatives will also take part. A follow-up committee made up of community representatives would then pursue the sensitisation with a view to avoiding any ethnic or religious conflicts. The committee is being supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), European Commission, Canada and Belgium. Speaking on their behalf, UNDP Resident Representative Mostafa Benlamlih said they were happy to back the initiative since "above and beyond the political solutions, real peace will be built within communities and individuals". "While contacts are being pursued for a peaceful solution of the crisis, your effort will create the conditions for lasting peace," he said.

AFP 31 Oct 2002 26 Malians killed in Ivory Coast cocoa town: consulate BOUAKE, Ivory Coast, Oct 31 (AFP) - Men dressed in fatigues killed 26 Malians in mid-October in Ivory Coast, after loyalist forces recaptured the cocoa town of Daloa, a source at the Malian consulate in the rebel stronghold of Bouake said Thursday. "One of our diplomats returned Wednesday from Daloa, and that's the latest count that he made," the source said. "Our compatriots there are still in shock. Before our diplomat arrived, they were hiding at home," he said. He described Daloa as being in a state of "psychosis." During a parliamentary debate Tuesday in Bamako, Foreign Minister Lassana Traore said that 16 Malians have been confirmed dead in Ivory Coast -- 10 in Daloa, three in Bouake, and three in the main city Abidjan -- since the military uprising began on September 19. Rights watchdog Amnesty International said in a report Monday that 22 Malians were among dozens of victims in Daloa. "These people were Ivorians with Muslim names or expatriates from countries in the sub-region -- especially from Mali and Burkina Faso -- suspected of supporting the forces of the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI)," the rebels' political wing, the report said.

Reuters 1 Nov 2002 West African rivalries threaten Ivory Coast force By Silvia Aloisi ABIDJAN, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Regional rivalries and funding concerns have raised questions about a West African peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast even before troops have been deployed. West African countries have agreed to send a 2,000-strong force to replace troops from former colonial power France monitoring a two-week-old truce in the world's top cocoa producer. Hundreds of people died in a month of fighting that followed a failed September 19 coup against President Laurent Gbagbo. The truce has split the rebel-held Muslim north from the mostly Christian south. The so-called Ecomog force is meant to be on the ground in the next 10 days or so. But behind-the-scenes negotiations on the composition and command of the force do not appear to be moving any faster than peace talks in Togo, where little has come from three days of wrangling between rebels and government negotiators. Senegal, whose soldiers have a good reputation, effectively ruled itself out as leader of the force this week by refusing to increase its commitment of 250 troops and contribute the biggest contingent. Senegalese officials say Togo's criticism of Senegal's high-profile role in securing the truce is behind the snub -- a clear setback given that Senegal chairs the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is behind the force. "We will just stick to our original pledge and let Togo or Guinea Bissau take the leadership," Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio told Reuters. Regional giant Nigeria, which led interventions in the civil wars of Liberia and Sierra Leone, says it might not contribute because of possible confusion arising from its English-speaking soldiers being deployed in a French-speaking country. Privately, Nigerian officials are fuming that Gbagbo spurned an earlier offer for help in the war and made West African mediators look silly by rejecting their first truce proposal. UNCERTAIN COMMAND Given that Guinea Bissau's offer of 380 troops is the biggest so far, command of the force should on paper go to the tiny state. But Guinea Bissau is suffering from years of instability and Togo now seems a more likely candidate. There are also big questions about how the force will be funded. ECOWAS has asked nine contributing countries to advance money for the first month's operations until Western donors can kick in with support. Despite Western pledges of help, the only countries to come up with cash so far are Britain and France, which one West African official said was "itching to leave". But French Lieutenant Colonel Ange-Antoine Leccia said: "We will not leave until the West African force is fully deployed." Whatever its composition and leadership, the force will struggle to shake off a far from distinguished reputation acquired during missions to end messy wars in neighbouring Liberia and nearby Sierra Leone. In both countries, large Ecomog contingents ended up staying for years, got sucked into heavy fighting and were accused of summary executions, looting, illegal diamond mining, drug dealing and various other forms of criminal activity. Particularly on the government side, Ivorians are distinctly reluctant to see a West African force deployed and even Gbagbo was at first opposed to the idea. Anti-Ecomog placards are a feature of every pro-government march. "Experience has shown that ECOWAS forces have not always been successful in resolving crises and that is something we are aware of," said one Ivorian official.

BBC 4 Nov 2002 Ivorian rebels warn of talks pull-out The two sides have agreed an amnesty Rebels in Ivory Coast have warned that they may withdraw from the latest round of peace talks, due to resume in neighbouring Togo on Tuesday. Rebel leader Guillaume Soro told a news conference in the stronghold of Bouake that they would not travel unless their political demands were met. The government last week agreed to a deal which would grant an amnesty to the rebels, and reintegrate mutineers into the army. But this ignored the key demands of both sides - fresh elections for the rebels and the government's insistence on disarming those behind the uprising. Ivory Coast has been divided into the rebel-held north and the government controlled south for the past six weeks. Opposition death Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in the fighting. French troops are currently deployed in a buffer zone between the two forces and they are due to be replaced by a West African force within the next two weeks. "We will not set foot in Lome unless it's accepted that we can discuss all problems without any taboos," Mr Soro said. "It is not ruled out that we could be in Lome tomorrow, as long as we are allowed to discuss all of our demands," said the secretary-general of the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI). The talks were initially scheduled to restart on Monday but were postponed at the rebels' request. Meanwhile, an opposition leader has been found shot dead in the main city, Abidjan, according to officials from the Ivorian Popular Movement. Emile Tehe was arrested by paramilitary gendarmes on Friday and found on Saturday with five bullet holes in his body. Retaliate On Sunday, Mr Soro told thousands of supporters in Bouake that they would not lay down their weapons. "We took up arms to demand the departure of [President Laurent] Gbagbo. If not for that, we would not have started fighting," he said. President Gbagbo has refused to step down "If our political demands are not met at the negotiations, we are ready to resume the war," Mr Soro said. "If Gbagbo breaks the ceasefire, we have the means to retaliate... We will go all the way to Abidjan," he said. "If it weren't for the French presence, we would already be there." For the Ivorian Government, Mr Soro's remarks were "further proof the rebels are against peace". "You can't promise one thing in Lome, and another thing in Bouake, in front of a crowd that has been forced to demonstrate," presidential spokesman Toussaint Alain told AP news agency. Surprised The negotiations in Togo have been organised by the West African regional body, Ecowas, and follow a truce in the fighting, which has held for two weeks. The mediators in the crisis said they were surprised by Mr Soro's earlier comments. The rebels want President Gbagbo to step down "That's not what he was saying during the negotiations last week," said Ecowas executive secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas. The conflict has intensified ethnic tension between the country's mostly Muslim north - now controlled by rebels - and largely Christian south. Both sides agreed last week to allow humanitarian aid to reach rebel-held regions and to grant "the immediate release of all civilian and military prisoners of war".

IRIN 20 Nov 2002 Man arrested in Belgium with gold worth $500,000 from South Kivu BRUSSELS, 20 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - Belgian police have arrested in Brussels a Canadian carrying gold bullion from South Kivu worth US $500,000 and charged him with money laundering, the city's police force announced on Wednesday. Zulfa Karim Panju, 60, was carrying five gold bullion bars each weighing 10 kg. Police displayed the bullion at a news conference on Wednesday. The Brussels prosecutor's office said the gold originated from Bukavu, a town in the South Kivu Province of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The metal was transported in plastic boxes bearing the seal of the [Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie rebel movement] RCD-Goma", Glenn Audenaert, a director of the police, said. The boxes were concealed in a backpack. Police said that Panju had for four years, every two weeks, carried fake corporate invoices, along with 50 kg of gold, destined notably for Belgium, UK, USA and Switzerland. The gold was then sold and laundered through non-resident bank accounts, such as at the BBL bank in Belgium. The gold was smelted in Antwerp before appearing on the international market. The profits of the transactions were then sent to Rwanda, where they were used to buy arms, clothes and vehicles for the RCD rebellion, the prosecutor's office in Brussels said. The arrest occurs in the wake of an investigation into the business affairs of Aziza Kulsum, alias Mrs Gulamali, 50, who headed the Societe Miniere des Grands Lacs (Somigl); a company that from November 2000 to April 2001 organised a coltan monopoly for the benefit of RCD-Goma. On 4 November, police in Brussels arrested Belgian businessman Jacques Van den Abeele for forgery and money laundering. He is accused of involvement in a major operation to smuggle coltan. However, Belgian judicial authorities said Van den Abeele was only an intermediary for a highly complex network headed by Gulamali, who is being sought by Belgian authorities. In both the Van den Abeele and Panju cases, Belgian judicial authorities froze the accounts used for transactions, "representing several millions of US dollars", they said. Accounts in other European countries, notably Switzerland, have also been frozen. Since the Van den Abeele case, the DRC government, through a Congolese lawyer established in Belgium, has elected to associate itself as a plaintiff in court action by the Belgian public prosecutor against money laundering of proceeds from the plundering of minerals originating from DRC.

IRIN 21 Nov 2002 - Côte d'Ivoire: Rebels dismiss referendum proposal ABIDJAN, 21 November (IRIN) - Cote d'Ivoire's insurgents on Wednesday dismissed a promise by President Laurent Gbagbo to hold a constitutional referendum next year, news organisations reported. "Our demands are a whole. There must be complete and far-reaching solutions," Reuters quoted rebel leader Guillaume Soro as saying. "They speak of a referendum, but that is only one step." Gbagbo had said on Tuesday in a televised speech that he was ready to hold a referendum "to ask the people, 'do you want to change the constitution, yes or not?'" "It is just a first step. Our requests regard an overall revision of the administration of power, for which complete solutions are necessary," the Missionary News Agency (MISNA) quoted Soro as saying. According to BBC, Gbagbo's promise came after the rebels dropped their original demands for his resignation and fresh elections at ongoing talks in Lome. The demands do not figure in their latest proposals to the mediator of the talks, Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema. The mediator and his team are currently going through the proposals presented by the two sides.

PANA 29 Nov 2002 - Monitors say Ivorian govt forces crossed cease-fire line Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (PANA) - Côte d'Ivoire National armed forces (FANCI) on Thursday launched an offensive against the city of Vavoua which has been under rebel control since 19 September, French military sources revealed in Abidjan. Commander Frédéric Thomazo, of the information and communication service of the French Forces monitoring the cease-fire in Côte d'Ivoire, told PANA in a telephone interview on Thursday that government forces crossed the cease-fire line held by French troops, and headed for Vavoua, 439 km north-west of Abidjan. He said the troops comprised two columns of about 300 men, including "several English-speaking black and white mercenaries," who took the direction of the locality controlled by Sergeant Koné Zacharia's men, a warlord most hated by the FANCI. Asked about why French forces allowed the loyalist troops to cross the ceasefire line, Thomazo explained that French troops were not "an intervention force." "We are here simply to monitor the cease-fire agreement. If one of the warring sides decides to resume hostilities by crossing the cease-fire line, we can only note the act," he added. The government repeatedly broadcast a communiqué for 13 hours on national television on Wednesday, citing an attack against its "positions on the Man-Séguéla road," and vowing "to take action." Some 620 French troops coming from the 43rd BIMA (Maritime Infantry Battalion) based in Abidjan have been monitoring the cease-fire line since 17 October between loyalist forces and Ivorian military rebels who control more than 40 percent of the country. The cease-fire agreement was signed in Bouaké (379 km north of Abidjan), between the revel movement and Senegalese mediators, sent by President Abdoulaye Wade, current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Human Rights Watch 31 Oct 2002 - UN must prevent "ethnic cleansing" in Ituri (New York, October 31, 2002) The U.N. Security Council must increase its peacekeeping force in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to protect civilians against slaughter, Human Rights Watch said in a backgrounder released today. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked that the United Nations Organization Mission in Congo (MONUC) be expanded to 8,700 troops, and the U.N. Security Council is considering the matter today. As Congolese rebel groups as well as Ugandan and Rwandan government forces continue to fight over control of eastern DRC, hundreds of civilians have died in the provinces of South Kivu, Ituri and Orientale during the last few weeks. Some victims have been targeted for their political loyalties and others have been killed because of their ethnic affiliation. According to U.N. estimates, some two million people are now displaced in the region, most of them without access to humanitarian assistance. In mid-October, a coalition of local Mai-Mai and Banyamulenge combatants drove the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Goma (RCD-Goma) from the town of Uvira and surrounding areas of South Kivu province. RCD-Goma, a rebel movement opposed to the DRC government, is strongly supported by Rwanda and Burundi. It was defeated after Rwandan government troops withdrew from eastern DRC under the terms of a July 30 treaty between Rwanda and the DRC. On October 19, RCD-Goma retook Uvira and much of the region with the assistance of Rwandan and Burundian government troops. Their forces have killed, raped and arbitrarily arrested civilians. In early September, another branch of the RCD, the RCD- Liberation Movement (RCD-ML) and militias of the Ngiti ethnic group attacked the town of Nyankunde, about 20 kilometers west of Bunia in Ituri province. A survivor of the attack said, "Thousands of Ngiti came down in groups to loot: men, women and children, all armed with machetes, axes, knives, arrows and bows, spears and fire arms." The attackers killed members of the Hema ethnic group and others said to have collaborated with them. They killed patients in their hospital beds, medical personnel of the Nyankunde hospital, and a local official. Some 200 people are estimated to have died in this attack and one several weeks earlier carried out by the largely Hema Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC) against RCD-ML supporters and the Ngiti. Until recently, Ugandan army troops occupied much of this part of northeastern DRC. Most have now left, but hundreds of Ugandan troops continue to occupy Bunia under a September 6 agreement between Uganda and DRC. When the UPC attacked the RCD-ML, some Ugandan soldiers stood by and watched as civilians were killed. "The slaughter of civilians in the last few weeks shows that neither the Ugandans in the north nor the RCD-Goma in the south can effectively protect civilian lives", said Alison Des Forges, senior advisor to the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. "The Security Council gave MONUC the mandate to protect civilians at risk. Now it must give the peacekeepers the numbers needed to carry out the mandate." The conflict in eastern Congo stems in large part from competition to control the area's rich natural resources, such as coltan (columbite-tantalite, used in the manufacture of cell phones) gold, diamonds and timber. A special investigative panel of the U.N. Security Council last week issued a report condemning high-ranking Rwandan and Ugandan army officers for enriching themselves through illegal exploitation of Congolese resources. The panel concluded that various foreign actors encouraged local conflicts as a way to maintain their own control and ease their extraction of local wealth.

IRIN 5 Nov 2002 Ethnic violence ceases, refugees "trickling back" NAIROBI, 5 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - The 17,000 Sudanese refugees who fled ethnic violence two weeks ago in a refugee settlement, about 80 km west of the town of Aru on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, are "trickling back" to their settlements, Kitty McKinsey, regional public information officer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told IRIN on Tuesday. Since 31 October, fighting between the Congolese Patriotic Union/Popular Rally (UPC-RP) rebels and the Lendu community around the refugee settlement in Biringi and Kandoi, 45 km west of Biringi, had ceased, she said. The refugees were returning, but remained cautious, she added. The UPC force commander in the area was encouraging them to return to their settlements, and had encouraged local authorities to reassure both them and the local Congolese to resume their daily activities, she added. Local authorities had also been instructed to mount an information campaign next week to encourage their return. The UN agency remained concerned, however, about the overall security situation in the region, and said there was need to assure the refugees' safety.

IRIN 6 Nov 2002 Access "impossible" to 900,000 IDPs in the east NAIROBI, 6 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - Access to at least 900,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) remains "impossible", according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Of this total, some 500,000 IDPs are in the Ituri District, fleeing ongoing fighting between the Lendu and Hema communities. The number of IDPs was expected to rise as instability was continuing in the region, the international relief NGO, World Vision, reported on Wednesday. The group reported that many of these IDPs were leading "wretched lives" in camps, churches, warehouses and with relatives in a string of towns along a 200-km stretch between Bunia and Beni. Most of the IDPs are living in Eringeti, 50 km north of Beni, with others in Mayi-Moya, Mbau, Mavivi, Ngadi, Mutwanga and Beni, according to World Vision. They need food, clean water, shelter, medicine, clothing, blankets, kitchenware and utensils. Meanwhile, another 400,000 IDPs are scattered throughout South Kivu Province, many as a result of recent fighting between Congolese Mayi-Mayi militias and the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie rebel movement, in the wake of a large-scale withdrawal of Rwandan forces as agreed under the 30 July peace accord signed in the South African administrative capital, Pretoria. Negotiations are said to be "ongoing" by humanitarian organisations with authorities of Mayi-Mayi factions and RCD-Goma, for access to the patchwork of areas under their respective control.

Reuters 21 Nov 2002 Congo Govt. Troops Kill 100 Civilians -Witnesses KINSHASA (Reuters) - At least 100 civilians were killed by government troops in a town in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo , witnesses and a human rights group said on Thursday. The killings took place after an argument broke out between soldiers and militiamen known as the Mai Mai on November 10. Tens of thousands of residents have since fled Ankoro, in Katanga province near the frontline with rebel-held territory. "The army accused the population of supporting the Mai Mai. They burned down their houses and started to massacre them," a resident of Ankoro who has fled to the regional capital Lubumbashi, and asked not to be named, said. Congo's Minister of Defense Irung-A-Wan said he was not aware of the killings in Kitanga, which is split in two by a frontline dividing government and rebel-controlled territories. The Ankoro resident added that people have also fled their homes in nearby Kabongo and Malemba N'Kulu. "The people are caught between two fires -- the army and the Mai Mai," he said. "The situation is still tense and we are waiting for the authorities to do something about it." A human rights organization in Lubumbashi asked the Kinshasa government to open an enquiry into the reports of the massacre. The Congo-based Human Rights and Development Commission (CVDHO) said that more than 1,200 houses in Ankoro were burned down, 39 bodies were found in the ashes and others are still being pulled out of the Congo river, where the corpses were thrown. The rights organization said more than 75,000 people have fled toward the town of Manono in rebel-held territory. "The military and civilian authorities knew about this drama, but instead of trying to calm it down, airplanes flew in reinforcements from Kamina and Lubumbashi," CVDHO said in a statement. The spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Congo, Hamadoun Toure, said the mission received reports of clashes between government soldiers and militiamen, but could not confirm reports of casualty figures. The Mai Mai militias are traditional warriors, armed by Kinshasa to fight in its war against Rwandan and Ugandan-backed rebels controlling the eastern third of Congo. But throughout eastern Congo they have been accused of grave human rights violations and the resident of Ankoro said one group enjoyed cannibalism. "There is one group who kills people and then eats their flesh," the resident said. The killings come as the main Congo rebel group, the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) holds talks in Pretoria, South Africa, to come up with a power-sharing deal with the government of President Joseph Kabila to end years of war. An estimated two million people in the central African nation have died during the war, mainly from war-induced hunger and disease. War broke out in Congo in August 1998 when Rwanda and Uganda backed Congolese rebels sought to oust then-President Laurent Kabila. Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia sent troops to support the government.

ICRC 21 Nov 2002 ICRC News 02/47 Democratic Republic of the Congo: Aid for displaced people in northern Katanga The ICRC has launched a fresh relief operation for people who have fled their homes owing to the fighting in northern Katanga. In late October and early November, delegates distributed blankets, soap and tarpaulins to 3,100displaced families (some 16,000people) in Kaboto, 45kilometers north of Kabongo. These items will offer protection during the rainy season. Some 800families who have always resided in Kaboto and have extended their hospitality to the displaced people, also benefited from the distribution. ICRC staff regularly visit the upper Lomami area and the organization is planning to open an office in Malemba-Nkulu in order to maintain its presence among the victims of violence in a region about which there is great humanitarian concern. Commission says fewer than 45 died in Ankoro clash © IRIN KINSHASA, 29 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - About 45 people died earlier in November during clashes between the pro-government Mayi-Mayi militia, regular soldiers and residents of Ankoro, a village in the northern Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Human Rights Minister Ntumba Luaba told reporters. This assessment contrasts with the 104 dead and 1,200 homes burnt a local human rights body, the Commission de vulgarisation des droits de l'homme et de developpement, had reported. "The number of homes burnt was about 100 and not thousands," Ntumba told reporters on Thursday. He was speaking in the southeastern city of Lubumbashi, four days after leading a government commission of inquiry into the clashes. The government also said 14,000 had been displaced, compared to the 75,000 the rights body had reported. The rights body had also said on 10 November that the fighting erupted when government forces began burning and pillaging homes and shops in the area. Ankoro is the birthplace of the late President Laurent-Desire Kabila, assassinated on 16 January 2001 by a bodyguard.

AFP 24 Nov 2002 16 civilians killed in eastern DR Congo KIGALI: At least 16 civilians were killed overnight near the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) city of Bukavu, several sources said Sunday. A local development association and witnesses said Hutu extremists from Rwanda and local inhabitants attacked and looted the town of Chazi, 15 kilometers (nine miles) northwest of Bukavu, capital of South Kivu Province, bordering Rwanda. Eight people were burned alive in a house torched by the assailants, and another eight including women and children were shot dead as they tried to hide from the attackers outside the village, the sources said.cked Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), a rebel movement controlling the area, for failing to intervene. A variety of people live in the Bukuvu area including Rwandan Hutu extremists, refugees, pro-government militiamen, and other armed groups. The Rwandan Hutus extremists have been in the DRC since the 1994 genocide for which many are held responsible. The Rwandan army backed the RCD's insurgency, which began in August 1998. It withdrew under a July 30 peace deal signed by the Kigali and Kinshasa governments, whereby Rwanda agreed to pull out its forces while the DRC pledged to disarm and repatriate Rwandan fighters and refugees.

IRIN 28 Nov 2002 Rival militias to meet, says UN NAIROBI, 28 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - Rival militias in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have confirmed, in writing, their willingness to take part in a planned meeting to solve their differences peacefully, Namanga Ngongi, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, said on Wednesday. He told reporters at a briefing in the capital, Kinshasa, that the venue of the meeting had not yet been decided. The meeting would involve the leaders of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-K-ML), the RCD-National, and the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo. Bunia, a town in Ituri District, is controlled by the Union des patriotes congolais of Thomas Lubanga - a breakaway faction from the RCD-K-ML of Mbusa Nyamwisi. Ngongi deplored the persisting insecurity in Ituri, northeastern DRC, where some of these groups are fighting each other, saying that the situation was being driven by "belligerents' thirst for power and winning a few more square kilometres or gaining control of one more village". Efforts to improve the climate for peace in the troubled area received a boost recently when the presidents of the DRC and Uganda, Joseph Kabila and Yoweri Museveni, said they were ready to launch a pacification committee for Ituri, after consultations with their stakeholders. Referring to the recent fighting between Mayi-Mayi militia and government troops in Ankoro, Katanga Province, Ngongi said: "These minor conflicts among Congolese should stop a at time when foreign troops have pulled out of the DRC. Congolese should work together, hand-in-hand, to guarantee peace and security to their populations." Peace talks in the South African administrative capital, Pretoria, aimed at setting up a transitional power-sharing government are to be reconvened there on 9 December. However, the leader of RCD-National, Roger Lumbala, has said his movement had withdrawn from the talks.

IRIN 29 Nov 2002 Commission says fewer than 45 died in Ankoro clash KINSHASA, 29 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - About 45 people died earlier in November during clashes between the pro-government Mayi-Mayi militia, regular soldiers and residents of Ankoro, a village in the northern Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Human Rights Minister Ntumba Luaba told reporters. This assessment contrasts with the 104 dead and 1,200 homes burnt a local human rights body, the Commission de vulgarisation des droits de l'homme et de developpement, had reported. "The number of homes burnt was about 100 and not thousands," Ntumba told reporters on Thursday. He was speaking in the southeastern city of Lubumbashi, four days after leading a government commission of inquiry into the clashes. The government also said 14,000 had been displaced, compared to the 75,000 the rights body had reported. The rights body had also said on 10 November that the fighting erupted when government forces began burning and pillaging homes and shops in the area. Ankoro is the birthplace of the late President Laurent-Desire Kabila, assassinated on 16 January 2001 by a bodyguard.

Ethiopia

IRIN 8 Nov 2002 Local NGO closed down by authorities ADDIS ABABA, 8 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - A local NGO has been closed and its director jailed after being accused of corruption, sources told IRIN on Friday. Mahmud Abdi Ahmad, the head of the Ogaden Welfare Society (OWS), was arrested and being held in the federal jail in Jijiga, sources close to the case said. The charity, along with another local NGO, Guardian, had been at the centre of a row with the Ethiopian government after being accused of "threatening national security". Their offices in the Somali Regional State were raided by police in May and closed down after being banned from operating by the justice ministry. After initially winning the right to continue operating, pending a court case, the OWS was eventually banned from operating in August. Mahmud was arrested a month later. An appeal by the OWS has now been lodged with the High Court, but no date has been set for the hearing. The OWS was contending that it was the victim of a recent power struggle within the regional state’s ruling political party, saying its lawyers would fight the case all the way, the sources said. "We do not hold out much hope. I don’t think the government wants to reverse this decision. The court has approved the decision from the ministry of justice," one of them told IRIN. The OWS, which receives funding from international organisations like Christian Aid, employs more than 300 people, who are feeding up to 1,000 children a week. The charity cares for some 500,000 people in the Somali State, which suffers from one of the harshest environments in Ethiopia. It also looks after 12,000 internally displaced persons in Gunagadao, southeastern Ethiopia. Staff at the OWS regional office were told not to remove anything when the premises were raided. All the charity's property was subsequently confiscated. A petition signed by 200 elders and chiefs was delivered to the prime minister, appealing to him to reverse the justice ministry's decision. The Christian Relief and Development Association, which lobbies on behalf of NGOs in Ethiopia, has expressed concern over the case. Guardian has been providing 6,000 people with food in Gode, an area hard hit by the 2000 famine. Its chairman, Dr Korfa Garane, who is a member of the country's Council of People's of Representatives, has lobbied on Guardian's behalf. The charity was unavailable to confirm whether or not it was still closed down.

IRIN 8 Nov 2002 Drought Stimulates Outbreaks of Violence At least 20 women have been shot dead in northeastern Ethiopia, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Friday. The women, all ethnic Afars, were killed as they were on their way home from a market, the sources confirmed. The shooting, which took place in late October, is believed to be part of increasing tensions in the Afar Regional State sparked by a severe drought affecting many parts of the country. In a separate incident, at least 11 ethnic Ittus were killed in a shoot-out on Tuesday in Fentale, Oromiya Regional State, also hit by the drought. Fierce clashes have occurred in Afar, particularly in Zone Five, between ethnic Afars and Issas competing for scare water resources. The zone is currently off-limits to UN staff. Skirmishes between Afars and Issas have been gradually escalating over the years with the Afars accusing the Issas of persistently encroaching on their territory from the southeast. "If the [current] conditions continue, tensions will only increase," one source told IRIN. "Depending on the drought and the rains, if you can't move freely it's going to heat up. There is a drought and there is a lot of fighting." The recent clashes, which took place near the Somali Regional State, are believed to be revenge attacks by Issas after Afars raided them for cattle earlier this year. "The rains started, the Issas left, rearmed and came back to reclaim their cattle," the source said. Regional government officials have been in talks with the Issas in an effort to resolve the tensions and calm the situation. A humanitarian source said the situation had been exacerbated by the nomadic Afar having been squeezed into a tiny area with little or no water. The sources said they did not know who was responsible for the massacre of the Afar women near the town of Shewa Robit, about 280 km north of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. But they said violence among rival clan groups had been increasing and that rival ethnic groups had been blamed. The area has also seen an increase in weapons, with AK-47 assault rifles allegedly being smuggled in from Djibouti. According to one humanitarian source operating in the area, the guns had been arriving in the town of Gewane before being distributed.

Ghana

IRIN 4 Nov 2002 At least nine killed in communal clashes TAMALE, 4 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - At least nine people died and several others were injured in communal clashes last week in Ghana's eastern Volta Region and northeastern Upper East Region. Eight of the victims were killed in fighting sparked by a disagreement over a hoe between two people belonging to the Nawuri and Konkomba ethnic groups. The clashes took place at Kotaki-Zongo in the Volta region. The town was later deserted by both communities. News organisations quoted Volta Region's police commander, Kofi Atta, as saying the regional security committee had dispatched 66 armed police and 13 soldiers to restore law and order in the area. Five bodies had been discovered by 30 October, he added. Atta appealed to elders of the two groups to ensure that the conflict did not spread to other areas. He also said a number of arrests had been made and the suspects were assisting with investigations. Later in the week, one person was killed and several others wounded in a clash between Kusasis and Busangas in Bawku East District. Military personnel brought the situation under control. The conflict broke out when Kusasis accused Busangas of stealing their goats, which the Busangas denied. A policeman told IRIN the denial did not convince the Kusasis and the clashes ensued. He said guns were used in the fight and that people had fled the affected village, Dega, for fear of reprisal attacks.

IRIN 6 Nov 2002 Over three hundred displaced TAMALE, 6 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - At least 336 people were displaced by last week's communal clashes between the Konkomba and Nawuri ethnic groups at Kitare in Nkwanta district in the eastern Volta region of Ghana, the district coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Bernard Mensah said. Briefing the Volta regional security committee who were assessing the situation on Saturday, Mensah said 226 of the displaced persons had been registered at Nkwanta and 110 at Nyambong. Five people were killed and several others wounded. He said the incident was characterised by shooting, looting and destruction of property including foodstuff worth several millions of cedis. A number of arrests had been made and the Volta regional minister, Kwasi Owusu Yeboah, who is also the chairman regional security committee, directed that the suspects be transferred to Ho, the regional capital, to be prosecuted in courts for conspiracy to murder, murder and causing damage. A dispute between two members of the opposing ethnic groups escalated into communal clashes early last week in Kitari area. News organisations reported that eight people had been killed. Police said only five bodies had been recovered so far. In a similar event, one person was killed and several others wounded in a clash between Kusasis and Busangas in Bawku East District in the Upper East region, northern Ghana.

Liberia

The NEWS (Monrovia) 19 Nov 2002 Human Rights Center Wants Massacres Investigated - Equate Allegations to "Breach of Peace" Moses M. Zangar, Jr. Monrovia In the face of growing controversy over the cause of the death of five Catholic nuns in 1992, a consortium of nine human rights organizations, the National Human Rights Centre of Liberia, is calling for the setting up of an "independent commission of inquiry" to determine the perpetrators of all massacres that were meted out against unarmed and innocent people during the nearly eight years of civil war in Liberia. The Centre's call for the setting up of an independent inquiry commission to investigate all massacres during the war was contained in a release circulated in Monrovia at the week-end. On the criminal allegations by Representative Sando Johnson that Catholic Archbishop Michael Francis masterminded the murder of the five Catholic nuns, the National Human Rights Centre of Liberia said the statement by the lawmaker against the Archbishop and others is tantamount to what it termed, "breach of the peace." Additionally, the consortium of human rights groups said such statement warrants Representative Sando Johnson being "stripped" of his legislative immunities to face justice as provided for under Article 42 of the Liberian Constitution. Article 42 of the Constitution stipulates that "no member of the Senate or House of Representative shall be arrested, detained, prosecuted or tried as a result of opinion expressed or votes cast in the exercise of the functions of his office. Members shall be privileged from arrest while attending, going to or returning from sessions of the Legislature, except for treason, felony or breach of the peace. All official acts done or performed and all statements made in the chambers of the legislature shall be privileged and no legislator shall be held accountable or punished therefor." But the human rights groups in the release contended that the lawmaker's statement was made outside of his official functions and thus cannot be protected by Article 42 of the Liberian Constitution. The Centre further intimated that the effects of such an "inflammatory" statement coming from a lawmaker does not only render the Catholic Bishop vulnerable to "heartless, ill-guided and anti-democratic forces" in society, but also has the propensity to derail the current efforts by peace loving citizens to reconcile "our" war-ravaged society. Moreover, the release furthered that Representative Sando Johnson's utterances remind the groups of a previous accusation he once made against Clls. Tiawon Gongloe and Benedict Sannoh, which led to what they termed the "eventful and infamous arrest and torture of Cllr. Gongloe early this year." As a result of the lawmaker's allegations against the Catholic Archbishop, the Catholic Church last Friday suspended all of it's activities and operations, except for its media and emergency medical relief, nationwide. Further, the allegations have drawn the Bomi County Representative at the center of a controversy.

Kenya

WP 3 Nov 2002 Scarcity Makes Rivals of Neighbors Farmers and Herders in Kenya Wage Age-Old Battle Over Water and Land By Emily Wax, Page A18 NGAO, Kenya -- First there is the endless mooing, then the parade of hundreds and hundreds of cattle swimming across the Tana River, their heads bobbing above the brown water. The bulls and cows keep coming in wave after wave for about an hour. Draped in red cloth and carrying long sticks, herdsmen lead the cattle up the riverbank and into this drowsy farming village, where women are shucking corn and men are surveying their crops. The herders try to be mindful of the crops and houses as they lead their livestock both around the village and along a path that winds among the farmers' homes. The farmers just shake their heads. "Why are they here again?" asks Emma Gwinyo, 27, as she watches the cattle stomp over the muddy earth. "Their animals are going to eat all of our crops. They never go away. We don't want to share with them." Here along the Tana River, and in countless other places across Africa, farmers and herders are in conflict. Their ways of life, as old and familiar as any on Earth, differ in almost every way imaginable, yet they have one thing in common: They depend on water and land for their livelihood. Often these natural rivals live side by side, competing for the same resources. Sometimes the rivalry turns violent, as it did here on March 7, 2001, when a fight over one patch of land near the Tana River ended with 100 people being slaughtered. "This is our wealth and nothing else," Kolde Abashora, 58, said while herding his cattle out of the river. "We know there are tensions. But we can't graze in the air." All over the developing world, the struggle for scarce resources causes disputes that sometimes lead to well-documented wars and sometimes to skirmishes that never make headlines. Last month, for example, fighting broke out in northeastern Congo between the traditionally pastoral Hemas and the Lendus, who are mostly farmers. Violence between the two groups has cost hundreds of lives over the past four years. The same week as the Congo violence, eight people were killed in Nigeria when a group of gunmen identified by locals as Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacked the Christian farming village of Maza. Not quite a decade ago, one of modern Africa's bloodiest episodes erupted from similar causes. Hatred between Rwanda's Tutsi and Hutu tribes, stemming from colonial rulers' preferential treatment of the pastoralist Tutsis over the agriculturalist Hutus and from their competition for land and water in the tiny country, erupted into genocide in 1994. A state-sponsored campaign of killing by Hutu extremists led to the slaughter of more than a half-million Tutsis in 100 days. Here in Ngao, the people are thankful that violence has been absent for more than a year. But "the tensions are here and will be here," said Abraham Daniel Mabombe, the chief of the area, who toured the village one recent day, supervising the reconstruction of houses burned in the clash last year. "The farmers want land and water to grow crops," Mabombe said. "The herders want land and water to raise their cattle. Does that make conflict hard to solve? Well, yes. Very. But we try anyway. We are aware of the problem." Some of the tensions stem from the fact that the herders and the farmers have completely different economies. Many of the farmers grow food only to feed their families. They usually settle on plots of land for generations. They have strong communal responsibility, rarely selling what they grow to the outside world. In contrast, cattle herders are nomadic. They are driven to different regions by where they can best feed and water their animals. They operate as capitalists, selling their cattle for around $300 each when they need cash. They are unattached to the land, ready to move around the country to earn a living. Culturally and physically the groups are also stunningly different. Most cattle herders are from Nilotic tribes, descended from the tall, slender, narrow-featured peoples of the Nile Valley. Farmers typically are shorter and stockier because their roots extend from the Bantu tribes that migrated from western Africa to almost every part of the continent below the Sahara. In a village called Sare B, herders of the Wardei tribe are regally draped in colorful gold and red locally made cloth. They are Muslims, and the women cover their hair with shimmering scarves that flow over their long bodies. The children wear bright silver hoops in their ears, and the women wear beaded bracelets. The men wear used wingtip shoes with no laces and walk with perfect posture as they herd their animals. The women collect water in gallon jugs from a murky stream, about a 20-minute walk from the village. In neighboring Sare A, the short, muscular farmers of the Pokomo tribe are dressed in ripped, secondhand T-shirts and pants from the United States. Some are barefoot. Although many herders are aloof, the farmers are talkative, even effusive. Unlike the herders, who speak only their native language, the farmers speak English. They are Christian, and missionaries built a school for their boys and girls, and a health center for the farmers; the herders, who are building a mosque in their village, have no health center or schools for girls. The farmers say the herders are unclean because they deal with animals. The herders say the farmers are too aggressive and loud, and the women are too chatty with men. But with all their differences, "both groups want the same things: water and land," said the Rev. Sampson Maliwa, who has worked on a reconciliation project in the area. Maliwa said that the weather played a part in exacerbating tensions here. A lack of rain has dried up smaller streams and forced herders to rely on the river more than ever. At the same time, the government started deeding land to the farmers, who had never held land titles. The herders complained that they were losing access to good grazing land. On March 7, 2001, a 56-year-old schoolteacher named Ephriam Kiokomo went to farm his government-issued parcel of land along the Tana. A herder also showed up to graze his cattle. The two men argued, according to local officials, and Kiokomo was found dead, killed with a spear. "That very day the violence spread all over the Tana River," said Mabombe, the chief. "The farmers came with machetes. The herders had bullets." Now the herders say the fighting is over. They don't want to talk about it. "The only thing that bothers us is they got more help from the government rebuilding their huts then we did here," said Dende Wachu, a herdsman and village elder. Hostility simmers on the farmers' side as well. "We will not buy their milk," said Peter San Umur, a farmer in Sare A. "We can't share anything with them." Aid workers and a local government chief say they are hopeful that community talks and several projects will ease tensions. The Kenya Red Cross and the Swedish Red Cross are working on a project to build 35 wells to lessen both tribes' dependence on the river. In the villages, the wells are welcome, because the resource that everyone is fighting over is in fact a murky brew of brown water that causes diarrhea and other waterborne illnesses. "Clean water means health here," said Erik Pleijel, a well project manager with the Swedish Red Cross. "We are hoping the wells will really ease some of the tensions." Aid workers said the two groups would not have to share any of the new wells.

East African Standard (Nairobi) 6 Nov 2002 OPINION Muslims Deserve the Recognition Ahmad Khatif Muhammad - Nairobi Constitution of Kenya Review Commission has done a great job in laying down the foundation for good governance in Kenya, but it should be pointed out from the outset that the mere drafting of a new constitution is not going to solve all our problems. The notion that the new constitutional order will eliminate all the problems facing Kenya at the moment is simply not true. In the new draft constitution, there are many grey areas, contradictions and anomalies that still need clarification, definition, explanation and redrafting. One example of an area in the draft constitution that requires clarification is clause 32 (1) of the Bill of Rights (Chapter Five), pertaining to the right to life. In that particular clause, the word "life" is not clearly defined. This could give rise to various interpretations of the meaning of the clause, including the liberal and licentious permutation that would allow abortion. "Life" should be defined as starting from the time of conception. The definition of is "life" of great importance since an unborn child developing in the womb of the mother already constitutes a life. The new constitution should not give licence to those who wish to terminate the life of the unborn child. Part (2) of the same Clause 12 seeks to abolish the death penalty. This is again a big mistake since it would give free reign to habitual criminals and serial killers to do whatever they want. It has been proved time and time again over the history of mankind that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to those who would commit serious crimes such as homicide. If a person commits a serious crime such as murder or genocide, society has a collective duty to mete out appropriate punishment. The liberal notion that the death penalty militates against the right to life, simply does not take the interests of the victim(s) into account. There is simply no justice in a system in which a serial killer or a genocidal maniac receives a non-penal prison sentence just like a petty thief. I also have a major quarrel with Clause 38 (3) (a) of the Bill of Rights under the title "The Family," which states that, "Every person who is at least 18 years of age has the right to marry, based upon the free consent of the parties." Once again, this clause does not define "marriage" as being between two adult persons of opposite sexes. If this clause is left as it is, it would give rise to various unnatural unions under the guise of marriages, for instance between homosexual men or lesbian women. Such unions go against the tenets and teachings of almost every major religion. Marriage should remain a sacred union between two adults of opposite sexes as was intended by God. Even nature does not support or sustain unions of living beings of the same sex. In extreme cases, the Clause could also lead to "marriages" between human beings and animals or inanimate entities such as robots and computers, provided that both parties are above the age of eighteen years, Where "consent" would be the only contentious issue open to different interpretations. In order that the draft constitution wins wide acceptance, especially from politicians (Members of Parliament) who have to pass it into law, I feel strongly that Clause 112 pertaining to the Recall of a Member of Parliament in the Chapter on the Legislature, should be deleted. Not only will this clause prove unpalatable to most MPs, but it will also prevent them from performing their duties and fulfilling the mandate given to them. In any given parliamentary constituency, there will be at least 30 per cent of the voters who do not like MP. If a political opponent manages to gather the signatures of at least 30 per cent of the registered voters in a particular constituency, then he can wreak havoc on the life and tenure of the MP. This is a sure recipe for making our MPs extremely insecure and solely intent on self-preservation rather than legislation. Once a person has been elected MP , he or she should be left to fulfil that mandate for the given five years. If the majority of voters no longer support their MP, then they have the chance to remove him or her at the expiry of the given tenure and not before. While the draft constitution by the CKRC presents the people of Kenya with the first solid foundation for building a well-governed, prosperous and just society, it is of vital importance that every clause be thoroughly scrutinised for any anomalies that might create problems in the future. It is in our national interest that we must guard against the insertion of inappropriate foreign values in our new constitution. The new constitution for our country must be based on values and principles that are clearly recognisable as our own while importing those ideas that enhance our collective well-being. Of particular interest and great importance to those of us who are Muslims, is the issue of the Kadhis Court system, which has been included in the new draft constitution (Clauses 200 to 202). In Kenya, the Kadhis Court System has been in existence for the more than 1,000 years that Islam has been in this country. Even the current Constitution gives recognition to the Kadhis Court system, but does not give it the kind of independent structure it requires to serve the Muslim community. It has been argued in some quarters that the Kadhis Court system is irrelevant and that it gives special recognition and treatment to Muslims, against the essence of the new draft constitution on equality, and especially provisions of the Bill of Rights. According to critics of the Kadhi Court system, the new draft constitution contradicts itself by providing for the existence of a Kadhis Court hierarchy and that from the jurisprudence point of view, such special Islamic judicial system would be inimical to the proper operation of the new constitution. As mentioned earlier, there is nothing new in the operation of the Kadhis Court system alongside the secular judicial system. The Kadhis Court system has been in existence in Kenya for more than 1,000 years and received unqualified recognition from the British colonial administration and the post independence government of Kenya in dealing with Islamic personal law on matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and succession. While Kenya is, and shall remain a secular state, even under the new constitutional order, the Kadhis Courts system is a matter on which the Muslim community cannot compromise because it deals with matters of great importance to them. There is nothing new about the operation of the Kadhis Courts in Kenya except that the new draft constitution gives it more autonomy. Contrary to the views of some critics, there is absolutely no disagreement among the different Muslim denominations regarding the existence and jurisdiction of the Kadhis Court system over matters of personal law. The Kadhis Court system is a matter that binds the entire Islamic faith. It touches on the core of Islamic beliefs and practice as contained in the Holy Quran. Anyone who believes in and practises Islam has the obligation to submit to the Kadhis Court system for the interpretation of personal law in accordance with the Holy Quran. Whoever opts for any other legal or judicial system, cannot claim to be a Muslim. Given that the whole essence of a constitution is to provide a firm foundation for good governance and to bind together all the diverse peoples, interests and groupings that form a nation it is important that such document be all-inclusive and cater for all citizens. The constitution must recognise and respect the diversity of a nation in its cultural, ethnic, political, religious, and other spheres even as it engenders the unity of purpose, goals and aspirations of its people. Any constitutional order that fails to recognise and respect the diversity of the people in a nation inevitably fails in its most fundamental role of providing a platform for unity. While Muslims constitute only around a third of the total population of Kenya, it should be remembered that they occupy more than half the country's land mass. Muslims cannot feel that they are an integral part of this nation unless they are allowed to practise their religious faith freely under the constitution, especially on matters of personal law The writer is secretary general of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, and former MP for Wajir West.

BBC 7 Nov 2002, Attempt to bridge Kenyan rift - Forty schools have now been built in the area A former BBC News Online journalist now working for the International Committee of the Red Cross, visits a project seeking to heal a long running Kenyan dispute. By Mark Snelling Valley of Hope From a distance, the Kerio Valley looks, quite simply, like paradise. The road from Eldoret, the nearest city, winds through the fertile highland farms of the Cherangani Hills before plunging 3,000 metres down the vast Elgeyo escarpment to the wooded valley floor below. But up close, it is a fractured and traumatised region. By keeping everybody busy, it had an incredibly quick effect on the level of conflict Vincent Nicod, ICRC For decades now, farmers of the Marakwet farming community and their semi-nomadic cattle-herding neighbours, the Pokot, have effectively been at war over the valley's scarce resources, particularly water. A generation ago, such clashes were fought with bows and arrows. But the proliferation of small arms since the mid-1990s has made a whole new terror widely available - the AK-47 assault rifle. It is the type of brutal forgotten conflict that is repeated across sub-Saharan Africa. In the Kerio Valley, however, a series of ambitious projects have given the two communities hope that they may be able to share their future together. Intervention Backed by its mandate under the Geneva Conventions to assist the victims of armed conflict, the ICRC first began work here in 1998 with an emergency distribution of basic aid to some 14,000 people. It may not have been a full-scale civil war, but the level of violence was such that locals nicknamed the road running between Pokot and Marakwet areas "Kosovo". The issue of water has fuelled the conflict "This was one of the most violent areas in Kenya," says Vincent Nicod, he