SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL NEWS RELEASE 7 August 2003 Embargoed until 9 August PUSHED TO THE EDGE SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL MARKS UN DAY BY NAMING TOP THREE ENDANGERED TRIBES Survival International, the worldwide organisation supporting tribal peoples, is marking 9 August, UN Day for Indigenous People, by naming the three tribes currently facing the greatest danger to their survival. The AYOREO-TOTOBIEGOSODE of western Paraguay are the last uncontacted Indians south of the Amazon basin. Over the last century, most of their land has been taken by loggers and cattle ranchers. Illegal incursions onto their land are increasing, and the Indians' last refuge is being squeezed from all sides. The GANA AND GWI 'BUSHMEN' and their neighbours the Bakgalagadi were evicted from their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana in 2002. The government claims this is to 'develop' them - but since the evictions, their land has been carved up for diamond exploration by companies including De Beers and BHP Billiton. Meanwhile the Bushmen are forced to live in grim government camps where their way of life is falling apart, and are desperate to return home. The JARAWA tribe, who number only 250-300 and live in the rainforests of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, hunting with bows and arrows, have resisted contact with settlers from mainland India for 150 years. Now, they are at risk of exploitation, and diseases to which they have no immunity, due to a road bulldozed through their land. An unknown number have already died in a measles epidemic. Survival's director Stephen Corry said today, 'The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode, the Bushmen and the Jarawa live in totally contrasting environments across three continents, yet the racism and the threats they face are startlingly similar. Unless these tribes are allowed to live on their own land in peace, they will not survive.' Photos and footage available. For more information www.survival-international.org

Africa

Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 5 Aug 2003 Can Africa Afford Its Own Force? COLUMN Jean-Jacques Cornish A marketing guru seeking to promote the proposed African Peace and Security Council (PSC) could hardly have come up with a better example than the brief and bloodless coup in São Tomé and Príncipe this month. Soldiers led by Major Fernando Pereira rebelled to express their unhappiness at the way the government of Fradique de Menezes was distributing the small country's oil riches. Within six days the intervention of former colonial power, Portugal, the regional power, Nigeria, and the continental chair, Mozambique, had settled their hash. With democracy restored, Africans are left wondering what would have happened if the story had not ended happily. Said Djinnit, the African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, said São Tomé underlined the case for an African rapid reaction force. To turn this from "nice to have" to reality, Africa has to find both the money and the political will. The latter has become President Thabo Mbeki's pet project on the continent. He risked boring delegates at the AU summit in Maputo last month with repeated calls for members to ratify the protocols of the PSC. This body, styled on the United Nations Security Council, will enable members to intervene in other countries in cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Despite Mbeki's efforts the PSC has only half the 28 ratifications it needs to be brought into force. South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma explained before the summit that this did not necessarily indicate a lack of political will or support for the PSC. "It is a very complex issue making support for the PSC a part of your national law," she said. "We - who are very, very keen on the council - took a year to ratify the protocols. There are important issues of legality and sovereignty involved. It is not surprising that other countries are finding it a long process." Mbeki has meanwhile set the end of the year as the target date for making the council a reality. Even if this deadline is met, the possibility of a rapid reaction force remains distant. Funding could be obtained from the Western powers and other's who want Africa to assume greater responsibility for its own security. Previous concrete commitments from the United States to train such a force could presumably be revived. But which African country would be allowed to assume the power of leading, housing, equipping and training an African force? South Africa would be an obvious candidate and has made it clear it would expect to be a "permanent" member of the PSC. Fears of South African "gigantism" that extend beyond the region would make this problematic. A smaller, democratic state might be more politically palatable. But this would require additional expenditure on infrastructure that would use money that should be spent on men and equipment. A rapid reaction force would obviate the need for foreign military intervention in Africa, such as that by Britain in Sierra Leone, and France in Côte d'Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This foreign involvement is both politically sensitive and - as US reluctance to put boots on the ground in Liberia shows - unreliable. At last month's summit African leaders discussed no fewer than 11 conflict areas. They talked about the hot zones - the DRC, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, the Central African Republic, Burundi and Liberia - and they examined post-conflict problems in Angola, the Comores and Côte d'Ivoire. Strategic analysts could ask: "What about fundamentalist or separatist conflict in Algeria, Chad, Senegal and Uganda? And how far is Zimbabwe off this list?" The fact is, Africa remains crippled by conflict. This week the UN Economic Commission for Africa confirmed again that conflict had hamstrung economic growth on the continent. Estimates of the manpower Africa will need for peacekeeping in the short term run improbably into the millions. Providing such numbers is impossible for Africa and unacceptable to the international community where Africa takes up three-quarters of the UN Security Council's time. African misery does not make the A-list of world strategic considerations unless it affects on the all-embracing war on terrorism. Thus this elephant of conflict prevention and control has to be eaten by Africans themselves - one bite at a time. The first of these should be to pre-empt conflict and send in mediators rather than wait for the explosion and send in soldiers, says Herman Hanekom, an analyst at the Africa Institute. The second is to have a rapid reaction force to quell the fire as quickly as possible and prevent it spreading.

IRIN 13 Aug 2003 Countries Urged to Extend Citizenship Rights to 'Forgotten' Pygmies Advocacy group Refugees International (RI) has called on the international donor community to encourage countries in Africa's Great Lakes region to extend citizenship rights to the Batwa or "Pygmy" people. "Batwa occupy the role of second-class citizens," RI said in a report released on Tuesday titled "Forgotten people: The Batwa 'Pygmy' of the Great Lakes region of Africa". The report details the challenges Pygmies face. These are indigenous hunter-gatherer people who initially inhabited forests in central Africa. "They lack marketable skills, having neither access to their traditional forest economy or to any public services," RI said. "Education, healthcare, land ownership and equal treatment by the justice system are all less accessible to the Batwa that the general population," RI said. "Without the availability of traditional or state resources, the Batwa become the most vulnerable and most easily exploited populations during the conflicts [in the Great Lakes region] that began in the 1990s." Among other recommendations, RI said peace and reconciliation programmes should be created, in response to the conflicts in the Great Lakes, which "take into account the need to reconcile Batwa populations with other citizens and include them in reconciliation efforts". RI said forest conservation efforts in the region should take into account the traditional guardianship role the Batwa have played and incorporate them into all current and future forest conservation efforts. "Exposure to conflict has jeopardised the Batwa way of life," RI reported. "Violent conflict has spilled into all the countries of the Great Lakes since the Rwandan genocide in 1994." In the Great Lakes, the Batwa are found in Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. Outside the region, they are found in Cameroon and Gabon. Refugees International also sought to correct misrepresentations of the Batwa, saying certain characterisation of the people has had devastating effects among them. "The popular perception of them as barbaric, savage, wild, uncivilised, ignorant, unclean and above all else, subhuman has seemingly legitimised their exclusion from mainstream society and left them with little support or outside resources in their current state of forced displacement," RI said. [The Refugees International report is available online at: http://www.refugeesinternational.org/cgi-bin/ri/index?id=eQhRdkMa]

Burundi

AFP 4 Aug 2003 Burundi ceasefire talks set to resume in Tanzania BUJUMBURA, Aug 4 (AFP) - The Burundi government and rebels from the war-torn central African state's main Hutu rebel movement are to resume talks Tuesday on an eight-month-old ceasefire deal which exists only on paper. Ambroise Niyonsaba, head of the government negotiating team, said the talks with the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of neighbouring Tanzania, would probably wrap up on Friday. The principal mediator in Burundi's peace process, South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, arrived in Dar es Salaam on Monday to mediate in the talks, Tanzania's Foreign Minister Jakaya Kikwete told AFP. Talks broke up last week to enable each team to consult with its leaders, Niyonsaba told AFP in Bujumbura before flying to Tanzania. Burundi's civil war broke out in 1993 pitting rebels from the Hutu majority against their Tutsi rivals, who control the military and held sway over the government until the interim power-sharing regime was installed in November 2001. More than 300,000 people, mostly civilians, have died. An apparent breakthrough was made on July 20 in talks in Dar es Salaam sponsored by regional leaders aimed at persuading the Burundian government and the FDD to implement a ceasefire agreed in December at Arusha in Tanzania. The deal was signed by former Burundian president Pierre Buyoya and FDD leader Pierre Nkurunziza but never respected, and both sides accuse each other of violating the truce. Another rebel Hutu group, the National Liberation Forces, is not involved in the discussions and last month it launched a major offensive on the Burundian capital. Its men were forced back by the army but fighting has continued in the surrounding countryside since then. However, Burundi's current President Domitien Ndayizeye and the FDD leader have agreed to continue negotiations ahead of a summit of regional leaders later this month. The two sides are expected to discuss integrating the FDD into the army and government, with Ndayizeye predicting agreement in about two weeks. Meanwhile, Belgian Defence Minister Andre Flahaut, who arrived in Bujumbura late Sunday, said any resumption of military cooperation with Burundi would only be "in stages". "It is important to learn to walk before you run," cautioned Flahaut, after talks with Ndayizeye and other top officials. "We are going to proceed in stages." Belgium suspended military aid to its former colony after ethnic massacres rocked the country in 1972, but Bujumbura is seeking a resumption of the ties. A Belgian diplomatic source said it "premature" to expect the resumption of military ties anytime soon, saying first there would have to be an effective ceasefire and an agreement on integrating the FDD into the armed forces.

IRIN 7 Aug 2003 100 days of Ndayizeye's presidency NAIROBI, 7 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - The unexpected happened and the expected did not. This is how an analyst described Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye's first 100 days in power. Ndayizeye, a Hutu, took over on 30 April from Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, as head of a transitional power-sharing government for the second half of its three-year team, which is to culminate in democratic elections and, hopefully, end 10 years of civil war. The war has displaced hundreds of thousands, of whom some 350,000 are refugees in Tanzania. The change in the presidency is one of the terms of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement, signed between Tutsi and Hutu political parties on 28 August 2000 at the end of two-and-a-half years of negotiations. So far, Ndayizeye has fulfilled some of the key conditions of the Arusha agreement. A draft electoral law in preparation for the multiparty polls at the end of the transitional period is seen as one of the main achievements of his government. Some politicians have claimed that the rival Front pour la democratie au Burundi (FRODEBU), a mainly Hutu party, and the mainly Tutsi Union pour le progress national (UPRONA) colluded in drafting a law tailored to their interests. Opponents say conditions are not ripe for the multiparty elections because there is no ceasefire. The response of the Ndayizeye government has been that the electoral law, drawn up by government-appointed experts from FRODEBU and UPRONA loyalists, would be reviewed by all national stakeholders. "All politicians will be given an opportunity to criticise the draft which is yet to be debated by the council of ministers, the national assembly and the Senate," Salvatore Ntihabose, interior minister, said. Genocide law Another area of progress is the national assembly's enactment of a genocide law. This measure has partially satisfied the Tutsi community, some of whom had always seen Ndayizeye as a Hutu hardliner. The new law states that an international commission is to investigate crimes committed between independence in 1962 and the date of the enactment of the law. However, anti-genocide organisations, whose membership is mainly Tutsi, insist on the implementation of UN recommendations following an investigation into a 1993 coup during which Melchior Ndadaye, the country's first democratically elected president and first Hutu head of state, was killed. Tens of thousands of people died in subsequent massacres. The UN investigators recommended that a tribunal be set up to judge those accused of the crimes committed in 1993. But powerful interests, because of their alleged involvement in Ndadaye's death and acts of genocide, oppose the idea of a tribunal. This, perhaps, explains why these erstwhile political enemies work together today. Ndayizeye recorded another success when the national assembly voted 140:0 (with one abstention) for a law on the mandate and composition of a proposed National Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Human Rights and Institutional Reforms Minister Alphonse Barancira said the commission's main task would be to "investigate and establish the truth on various crimes that befell the country, with a view to reconciling the Burundi people." Ndayizeye's administration has also been able to get some rebel factions to encamp their fighters in designated areas. Analysts see this as progress in forming a unified national army as envisaged under the Arusha accord. Beginning of cantonment The country's two rebel factions, the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Force pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) and the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) are both split into two. The larger of the CNDD-FDD factions is lead by Pierre Nkurunziza and the larger FNL group by Agathon Rwasa. Neither of these has agreed to encampment, leaving only the fighters of the smaller factions - Jean Bosco Ndayikengurkiye's CNDD-FDD and the Alain Mugabarabona's FNL in the camps, although the process has lately been affected by lack of funds. Moreover, Rwasa's faction is not party to the 2000 Arusha accord. Nkurunziza's faction of the CNDD-FDD has, so far, refused to take part in a Joint Ceasefire Commission, although a delegation from this faction was in Bujumbura from 28 July to 2 August to discuss security and logistics before deciding on joining the commission, which was established by the government. Rwasa's FNL faction has refused to sign a ceasefire agreement with the government. However, Nkurunziza's faction promised regional leaders at a recent meeting on Burundi, held in Dar es Salaam Tanzania, that its fighters would start cantonment before a summit to be held in the second week of August. On assuming the presidency from Buyoya, Ndayizeye had promised "to make sure" the ceasefire agreements of 7 November and 2 December 2002 would be implemented, and to reform the security forces. He has not succeeded in implementing either because the government and the rebels disagree on which should come first: a ceasefire deal or military reforms. While the government wants a ceasefire agreement followed by talks on the implementation of army reforms, the rebels want the converse. "What Burundians want to see is that the army, responsible for the killings that took place in the country, is reformed and made a national army. This has to happen if the peace agreement is to be respected," Hussein Rajabu, the CNDD-FDD secretary-general, said. Difficulties likely to persist Another difficulty for Ndayizeye is political jockeying for the post-war elections. Evidence of this tussle is already emerging between FRODEBU and the Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD. Nkurunziza's faction has been complaining of FRODEBU encroachment on its territory for the purposes of campaigning. CNDD's recent abduction of four FRODEBU MPs in Ruyigi, exemplifies this tension. Analysts believe that this kind of action has everything to do with Nkurunziza effort to position his faction for the Hutu vote in preparation for an electoral showdown with FRODEBU. In addition, Ndayizeye has not yet implemented a deal his party signed on 28 March with UPRONA, to which Buyoya and current Vice-President Aphonse Kadege belong. Under that agreement Ndayizeye undertook to organise a debate on the electoral system for the period, which follows the reign of the transitional administration. Ndayizeye also agreed to let Kadege finalise negotiations on ceasefire agreements with rebel movements in the country and the integration of rebel fighters into defence and security forces. Similarly, he agreed to let Kadege countersign all security related documents. Ndayizeye pledged to contact mediators and the international community on ways to implement a global and permanent ceasefire or to call for political disqualification and sanctions against the FNL, and to give the army more money to crush the rebellion. Moreover, Ndayizeye agreed to ask the UN to set up a judicial commission of inquiry and an international criminal tribunal to bring to trial people accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Burundi between 1 July 1962 and 28 August 2000. Arusha accord The Arusha accord signed in 2000 set the boundaries of the transitional period, stipulating its duration. In addition, the agreement called for the "repatriation, resettlement of Burundians living outside the country and the rehabilitation of war victims". Its recommendations included a call for the creation of an autonomous national commission for the rehabilitation of war victims. UPRONA, FRODEBU's main partner in the transitional government, believes these to be the minimum needs to be met before it agrees to army reforms and democratic elections. Some UPRONA insiders say the objective of some of the conditions is to make sure "a Hutu does not hold discussions with Hutu rebels on the fate of Tutsis". Analysts in Bujumbura fear there could be a constitutional vacuum if Ndayizeye fails to implement these key components of the Arusha accord during his term, and that it could plunge the country into deeper crisis. Wary of becoming part of transitional institutions in which it does not have a say, Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD, with the support of Rwasa's FNL, has been calling for the setting up of new institutions to govern the transition period. The Tanzanian connection An understanding of Burundi's peace process would be incomplete without an examination of Tanzania's role in the evolution of political events in the country. Dar es Salaam has been hosting hundreds of thousands of Burundian refugees who have fled the war. Others have accused Tanzania of allowing the rebels to set up rear bases on its soil and feel it could end Burundi's misery if it wished by pressuring the rebels. "Tanzania needs only to tell the CNDD-FDD to stop fighting and the war stops immediately," Thomas Bukuru, the secretary-general of the Parti pour la democracie et la reconciliation (PADER), told IRIN. "Tanzania has some interests in Burundi and until those interests are satisfied, the war will not end." However, analyst Francis Grignon, of the International Crisis Group, told IRIN on 23 July that each time there were moves to reduce tension the Burundian government would argue that Tanzania was playing spoiler in the region. "This is an easy accusation to make after six years of negotiations," he said. "Tanzania does not have full control of its territory which would permit it to stop rebel activity on its soil," he said. "That is why one cannot rightly accuse it of allowing the rebels to do as they like in Tanzania." Tanzania, for its part, has been adamant about the need to repatriate all Burundian refugees. The governments of both countries and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Burundi signed a tripartite agreement on 8 May 2001 to this effect. But most refugees are unlikely to return home until security improves. The Burundi Ministry of Reintegration and Resettlement of Displaced People and Repatriates said that the number of returnees in May and June was higher than in the preceding period. The director general of the ministry, Zenobe Niragira, said the push factor was a reduction of food rations in Tanzanian camps and advances in the Burundi political process. Plight of IDPs Many refugees say they have been forced home due to the hash camp conditions and appear willing to risk the uncertainties of being internally displaced persons (IDPs) in their own country. The situation for IDPs has not improved. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes since 1 May, especially following the 7-13 July shelling of the capital by FNL fighters. Those displaced by the FNL attacks were from the predominantly Tutsi areas of Musaga, Gatoke, Mutanga Nord. "The situation for the displaced varies according to regions," Fabien Yamuremye, a specialist on repatriation affairs within the ministry, said. "In some areas, people have been fleeing due to rebel activities such as Kayanza while in others, rebels attacked existing camps, forcing people to flee again." FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said that if Ndayizeye resigned, "the situation will become much easier". "We have called on Tutsis to chose elders for talks with us," he said. "These are the people who will chose a president acceptable to everyone," he added. FRODEBU President Jean Minani says if the government fails to oversee the holding of democratic elections at the end of the transition period, "it would be a catastrophe". The implication here is that finding another agreement to replace the Arusha accord would be difficult at best, but more likely to prolong instability. "It will be an uphill task to fulfil all the conditions set up in the March agreement and in the Arusha agreement within the remaining period," Frederic Bamvuginyunvira, the former vice-president and chairman of the National Resettlement and Reintegration Commission, said. However, other observers believe that Ndayizeye still has a chance to succeed, and that he has enough time to satisfy the conditions for the holding of the elections. Some politicians contend that Ndayizeye will not be able to implement all that is laid down in the Arusha agreement during his presidency. But he does not seem to view this as a problem for the nation since the process could be continued. "Eighteen months is a short period if one takes to account what has to be done," he said in a June visit to Rwanda. "We will do what we can, what remains will be finished by others."

13 Aug 2003 Food distribution to CNDD-FDD rebels resumes BUJUMBURA, 13 August (IRIN) - Food distribution among Burundian fighters loyal to rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza resumed on Wednesday after a six-month suspension, Army Spokesman Augustin Nzabampema told IRIN. Reporters were not allowed to cover the food distribution. "We got instructions not to allow journalists to report anything, the operation was supposed to be done in secret," Col Nzabampema said. He added, "I don't know why the food distribution restarted, we are observers in this operation." An NGO worker, who requested anonymity, said that the food comprised beans, rice, palm oil, flour and salt. Witnesses said four lorries belonging to GTZ, a German NGO, and escorted by a unit of the African Union peacekeeping troops in the country, transported the food that was distributed among the rebels at Kayange in the northwestern province on Bubanza, on the edge of Kibira Forest. The forest is considered a stronghold for Nkurunziza's Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Force pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) rebel faction. The last food distribution to the rebels, decided upon by the government in a bid to prevent rebel attacks on civilians, took place in February. The operations were then financed by the EU. The CNDD-FDD has in the past justified attacks against civilians as a way of obtaining food for its combatants. It signed a ceasefire agreement with the government in December 2002 but both sides have violated the pact several times. Of late, talks have been going on between the transitional government and the CNDD-FDD on power sharing and the eventual integration of the rebel group into government institutions. Observers see the latest food distribution as a way of encouraging CNDD-FDD fighters to report to cantonment camps set up across the country. Only a few fighters from small rebel factions, the CNDD-FDD led by Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye and the Forces nationales de liberation faction led by Alain Mugabarabona, have reported for cantonment.

AFP 13 Aug 2003 Burundi peace talks postponed BUJUMBURA, Aug 13 (AFP) - A meeting between the Burundian president and the leader of the country's main rebel group planned for this week has been postponed, rebel sources said Wednesday. The meeting between Domitien Ndayizeye and Pierre Nkurunziza, leader of the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), was due to take place Wednesday and Thursday in Pretoria, South Africa. The talks are aimed at ending the central African country's bloody 10-year civil war, in which tens of thousands of civilians have died. An FDD spokesman, Major Gelase Daniel Ndabirabe, said that Nkurunziza had left Burundi on Monday and was en route to South Africa where he was due by the weekend. "He is expected to meet President Ndayizeye in Pretoria, but we have not heard of any date yet," Ndabirabe added. The talks will focus on what posts the FDD might hold within Burundi's transition government, notably in security and defence bodies. A Burundian government source said Wednesday that Ndayizeye "stands ready to go to Pretoria at any time, he is only waiting for word from the (South African) mediator, Jacob Zuma. Monday August 19 has been put forward but is not yet certain". Regional heads of state are to hold a meeting on Burundi in Dar es Salaam on August 24, ahead of the Southern African Development Community summit on August 25 and 26. Burundi's civil war broke out in 1993, pitting rebels from the Hutu majority against their Tutsi rivals, who control the military and held sway over the government until the interim power-sharing regime was installed in November 2001. More than 300,000 people, mostly civilians, have died. A ceasefire agreed in December last year at Arusha in Tanzania was never implemented with both the government and the FDD accusing the other of violations. But progress was made last month in talks on implementing the ceasefire after another rebel Hutu group, the National Liberation Forces, which is not involved in the discussions, launched a major offensive on the Burundian capital Bujumbura.

28 Aug 2003 Burundi: Three years since Arusha, peace remains elusive BUJUMBURA, 28 August (IRIN) - Burundi celebrated on Thursday the third anniversary of the Arusha accord for peace and reconciliation, but analysts say the agreement has not yet met the expectations of the country's people. Hailed at the time as a major step towards ending years of war because it brought important opposition parties together with the government, according to Human Rights Watch, fighting continued as the two main rebel groups, the Forces pour la defense de la democratie and the Forces nationales de liberation, refused to sign the accord. The conflict, which erupted in 1993 when Tutsi soldiers assassinated Hutu President Melchior Ndadaye, has claimed the lives of some 250,000 people, most of them civilians. "The most important thing Burundians expected from the Arusha accord was peace," Eugene Nindorera, former minister of human rights and institutional reforms and now an independent analyst, told IRIN. "The population wants an end to war. I travelled several times to the countryside to collect people's opinions, and there is one common call from the population: they seek an end to war." Another analyst, Nestor Bikorimana, who heads the Forum pour le renforcement de la societe civile, said the objectives of the Arusha accord - peace and reconciliation - had not yet been realised. "We all agree that the achievement of peace is a long process, but the accord itself is not fully implemented, apart from the power-sharing government that has been established," he said. "But there is no effective ceasefire; although there has been some progress, the war continues." For his part, Nindorera said the Arusha accord, in which Hutus and Tutsis agreed to share power, brought much hope to the population, but that there remained mistrust among the signatories of the accord. "There is some cause for hope, but we are far from the goal. On the other hand, the agreement's implementation has been handicapped by the pursuit of violence," he said. "If mistrust persists among partners, it is very difficult to think that there is a common will to go in the same direction." Another main problem, he said, was the question of impunity. "I do not believe that through the Arusha accord the signatories have advanced proposals to address this problem; there are proposals, but sometimes they contradict," he said. "We talk about a national truth and reconciliation commission, we talk about genocide law, yet at the same time we talk about immunity law. We don't know how everyone understands these questions - everyone has his own interpretation, and in the end we find ourselves confused. This is a major handicap." Nindorera also said that deficiencies in good governance also needed to be addressed: "Signatories of the Arusha accord think they cannot be arrested, despite wrongdoings. They must properly manage public wealth, and whoever mismanages must be replaced." Nevertheless, Bikorimana said he believed the Arusha accord was an important document because it enabled Burundians to discuss problems that had plagued them for years. "For the first time, Burundians sat down together and debated the questions that had divided them for decades, and there was a consensus reached. It is the first stone on which we should build even greater consensus," he said.

Côte d'Ivoire - Also read News Monitors for Côte d'Ivoire from 2002 and 2001

BBC 7 Aug 2003 Ivory Coast passes amnesty law Rebels still control much of the north of the country Ivory Coast's parliament has passed a law giving immunity for some crimes committed during the recent civil war in the country. The amnesty will not be applied to those who have committed serious human rights abuses or economic crimes during the hostilities, which left thousands dead and up to one million people displaced. BBC correspondent Liz Blunt says the bill removes a significant legal hurdle to disarmament, reassuring the rebels that they will not be prosecuted for treason the moment they abandon their weapons. The bill is part of the French-brokered peace deal between President Laurent Gbagbo's government and rebels who initiated the conflict. Compensation The amnesty was the subject of serious debate in the assembly, and outside the assembly building in the southern city of Abidjan, demonstrators protested against the idea of granting an amnesty to rebel forces. Our correspondent says both sides have already exchanged lists of prisoners. The bill also makes provisions to award compensation to those who suffered in the conflict. Ivory Coast is still split in two, with rebel forces still controlling the northern part of the country. However fighting has stopped and an agreement signed in France last January is gradually coming into force. Around 4,000 French troops and 1,200 West African peacekeepers are still in the Ivory Coast, monitoring the ceasefire lines drawn between rebels and those loyal to Mr Gbagbo.

Reuters 27 Aug 2003 Plots and perils in limbo-land Ivory Coast ANALYSIS By Clar Ni Chonghaile ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's president says his enemies are plotting to kill him. They say he is stockpiling weapons and scheming a return to war. The army is restless, the people on edge. There is a painful anniversary round the corner. Nearly a year after a rebel uprising and seven months after a peace deal was signed, whispers of imminent war are swirling in the West African nation's main city Abidjan. When former colonial master France said this week it had foiled a plot to destabilise Ivory Coast and arrested a group of mercenaries, it seemed the prophets of doom were right. President Laurent Gbagbo said the mercenaries planned to kill him. His spokesman accused rebels -- now part of a unity government -- of backing the plot. They denied the charge. Now everybody is waiting to see what happens next, as the looming anniversary of last year's uprising hones frustrations. "The end-game will not come in September but there will be an attempt to force some kind of end-game because it serves as a focal point," said Kojo Bedu-Addo, senior Africa analyst at the London-based Control Risks Group. "It might not force a complete resolution, but it will tilt the balance and my bet is it would be against Gbagbo," he said. Ivory Coast's war began with a failed coup attempt on September 19 last year. Rebels seized the north and west of the country and for months fighting waxed and waned. Thousands were killed and more than one million fled their homes. COUNTRY IN LIMBO Now Ivory Coast is in limbo. After the peace deal was signed in January, a new government was formed in April and the war was declared over in July. But the country is still divided between a government-held south and rebel-held north. The guns have fallen silent but they have not been laid down and the peace process is deadlocked because of a row over who should control key defence ministries. "I think we are seeing the calm before the storm now because nothing has been really settled between the opposing sides," said Bernard Conte, an Africa expert at Bordeaux University. Among the risks are a return to civil war or schisms in either the army or the rebel "New Forces". Some analysts say there is a risk the army might decide that Gbagbo is part of the problem, push him out and install some kind of transitional military administration. Hermann Hanekom, a consultant at the Africa Institute of South Africa, said he expected some kind of denouement in weeks rather than months after the alleged mercenary plot. "This could upset the apple cart completely as far as the government of national unity is concerned. It will increase the mistrust on Gbagbo's side," he said. In Abidjan, even little incidents raise fears of the worst. A police officer killed in a hail of bullets by bandits. The daily routine of sometimes-aggressive police roadblocks. Helicopters over the city -- all grist to the return-to-war rumour mill. THE FRENCH CONNECTION Standing between the Ivory Coast and a fresh outbreak of war are 4,000 French soldiers, deployed around the country to enforce weapons-free zones between the belligerents. This week, two French soldiers were shot dead in a dispute with drunk rebel fighters near the central town of Sakassou -- France's first combat deaths since deploying last year. The gunfight illustrates the dangers lurking in a nation, and region, awash with arms. "(The French force) has created a degree of stability but it has also consolidated the partition of the country and allowed everybody to continue arming themselves," said Conte. "The French have got themselves trapped. There's no way they can pull out now, that would be seen as France abandoning Africa," he added. For decades, Ivory Coast's people viewed themselves as being beyond the kind of horrific wars that beset West Africa. Now Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa grower, looks more like the region's tinderbox. Rebels from Liberia and Ivory Coast easily slip across the border between the two countries. Ivorians are fighting with Liberia's Model rebel group, while Liberians joined both sides of the conflict in Ivory Coast. "If anything goes wrong in Ivory Coast, it could impact on Liberia and vice versa," said Hanekom. (Additional reporting by Mark John in Paris)

DR Congo

AFP 1 Aug 2003 DR Congo ministers meeting in Bunia broken up by militia supporters BUNIA, DRCongo, Aug 1 (AFP) - A meeting in the troubled northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) town of Bunia attended by government ministers was broken up on Friday by local militia sympathisers, an AFP journalist reported. The three ministers had been sent from the capital, Kinshasa, in a bid to advance peace efforts in the northeastern Ituri region, where more than 50,000 people have been massacred in interethnic fighting between the minority Hema and majority Lendu peoples since 1999. As Defence Minister Jean-Pierre Ondekane, Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba and Foreign Minister Antoine Ghonda -- all members of the recently installed transition government -- arrived in Bunia, they were greeted by hostile shouting from a visibly drunken crowd, according to an AFP journalist. The three were able to address a meeting in the centre of town, but representatives from the UN-backed Ituri Pacification Committee (IPC) were prevented from speaking by the crowds of protestors. The mob brandished signs reading "We want peace, not the IPC" and "France Belgium Artemis force = disastrous failure", the latter a reference to the French-led European Union peacekeeping force that arrived in Bunia in June. Ondekane, who addressed the crowd in Swahili and was understood, was spontaneously applauded when he said that the central government would speak to militia leaders with a view to integrating them in the political process. But Mbemba and Ghonda, who spoke in the language of western DRC, Lingala, were reportedly only applauded when the people leading the crowd signalled their approval. Many of those demonstrating had reportedly been bussed in from outside of town by the Union of Congolese Patriots (UCP) militia, and, spurred on by ringleaders, heckled the interim Ituri administration with death threats. The meeting came to an end after 30 minutes, with UN and EU troops barely managing to control a stampede towards the exit. The DRC ministers' visit coincided with a visit by the French and Belgian defence ministers, who praised the efforts of EU peacekeepers in the region. The force's mandate is confined to Bunia and its immediate surroundings, and the troops are unable to stop the continuing murders and brutalities elsewhere in the Ituri region. But they have succeeded in turning Bunia into a safe haven, and French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said it had become "a living town, a town with its activities and markets and lots of charm on the part of its children."

AFP 14 Aug 2003 Ituri militias rub their hands as EU peacekeepers prepare to go by Emmanuel Serot BUNIA, DR Congo, Aug 14 (AFP) - As the European Union's first peacekeeping mission outside Europe begins winding down in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) troubled northeast, local militias on Thursday said they were quite looking forward to their UN replacement. The EU mission, baptised Operation Artemis, was deployed with a UN mandate in June to protect civilians after inter-ethnic clashes claimed hundreds of lives within weeks in the regional capital Bunia and outlying areas of Ituri province. With a mandate to operate only in Bunia and the immediate surroundings, Operation Artemis was intended to be an interim measure while the UN prepared its own mission to the DRC -- MONUC -- along with a mandate to police the whole of the Ituri region. Some 50,000 civilians have been killed and half-a-million others displaced in Ituri since 1999 in ethnic bloodletting between members of the majority Lendu tribe and their rivals from the minority Hema group -- killings which continued in spite of the EU peacekeepers' presence. The MONUC mission, due to replace the EU force completely from September 1, will have an extended mandate to "open fire to complete their mission" compared to the previous authorisation only to open fire in self-defence. While MONUC is optimistic about its chances of success, as it will be taking over installations and checkpoints already set up by the EU force, local militia leaders expect the new peackeepers to be a pushover compared to the outgoing force. "We're just waiting for the force to go on September 1 and then we'll start attacking," one militia leader told AFP, rubbing his hands. Such feelings are shared by Bunia's inhabitants, who fear a repetition of the horrific violence seen earlier this year once the French-led force leaves. "If the French go, it's the end for the inhabitants of Bunia," said local shopkeeper Dieudonne. "The militias will massacre us." MONUC will be made up of 3,800 troops compared to the current 1,850 in the French-dominated force. The new force will draw on a battalion each from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Uruguay. More than 800 Uruguayan troops are already in Bunia, as are 960 Bangladeshis of which another 300 are expected Thursday, according to a MONUC spokesman. "The handover, already underway for officers, will begin on the ground on August 15," said EU force spokesman Gerard Dubois, adding that Bangladeshi peacekeepers would start taking control of checkpoints on Saturday. "But the tactical means at our disposal have in no way been reduced, with 1,000 soldiers still on the ground," he added. British army engineers and Belgian army medics have already left Bunia, while the first planeload of Pakistani peacekeepers is expected Friday, with another due the next day. Of the 3,350 tonnes of equipment the French brought with them, they will be taking back 1,150 tonnes, with dozens of cargo flights leaving Bunia for the long journey back to France in coming weeks. Meanwhile in Bunia, many are wondering how citizens of this former Belgian colony will communicate with the Bangladeshis, of which few speak French. "Bangladeshis or Banglabeshis (sic), I don't even know what language they speak. Is it Arabic?" asked Yousouf, a youth hanging out on Bunia's main drag.

BBC 4 Aug 2003 DR Congo's lifeline returns-- River barges similar to this one will boost trade leading to lower prices For the first time since the outbreak of the war five years ago, river barges carrying commercial goods have arrived in the north-eastern town of Kisangani from the capital, Kinshasa. A convoy of eight barges belonging to the Beltexco company arrived in the formerly rebel-held town on Sunday, carrying $10m worth of salt, cement and flour as well as thousands of bicycles. Thousands of people lined the banks of the river to greet the barges, with many more dancing aboard river boats drawn up alongside the barges. The economies of both Kisangani and the capital, Kinshasa are heavily dependent on the arduous Congo river which links them. Before the war, barges from the capital would arrive in Kisangani at the rate of about two a week. The barges took 35 days to make the journey upstream from Kinshasa. Lower prices The resumption of trade activity along the Congo river should lead to lower commodity prices. The arrival of the huge consignment of flour, for example, will reduce the price of the commodity and allow bread prices to be halved, according to an official of the UN mission for the DR Congo. UN troops are deployed across the country to secure the peace This renewed economic activity comes at a time when the DR Congo is in line for debt relief worth as much as $10bn (£6.2bn) after the International Monetary Fund and World Bank gave their blessing to economic reforms. An IMF review completed a week ago pointed to positive economic growth in 2002 and inflation dropping from 135% to 16% in just one year. But despite this positive news, the economy of the war-torn nation remains in tatters, and the appointment of a new government comprising both the former administration and rebel groups has not stopped widespread and vicious fighting. The situation is particularly dire in the resource-rich north-eastern Ituri region, where a United Nations force trying to impose peace has just had its mandate extended by another year.

IRIN 7 Aug 2003 MONUC head condemns killing of 11 civilians near Baraka NAIROBI, 7 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - The head of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), William Swing, has condemned the killing of 11 Congolese civilians near the town of Baraka in southeastern South Kivu Province. Speaking during a news conference in the capital, Kinshasa, on Wednesday, Swing, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the DRC and head of the UN Mission, known as MONUC, said he was "deeply saddened" to receive confirmation of the deaths of the Congolese who had been taken hostage in Kafulu, near Baraka. MONUC said reports indicated that the individuals were killed on 24 July by fighters belonging to an alliance of the Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD), a rebel group from neighbouring Burundi; Rwandan former military (ex-FAR); and Congolese Mayi-Mayi militias in the area. One of the victims, Evariste Maheshe Chisagala, was a hydraulic engineer employed by the UK NGO Tearfund, while the other 10 were employed by the Water Committee of Baraka. Swing said that he "condemned these acts of violence on humanitarian and associated personnel" and called upon all parties "to take all measures necessary to ensure the safety and security of such personnel." He also called upon the competent authorities to investigate the attack, arrest the perpetrators and bring those responsible to justice. Fighting in and around Baraka reportedly opposes the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) former rebel movement against a coalition of FDD; ex-FAR and Interahamwe (Rwandan Hutu militias), both held to be largely responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda; and Mayi-Mayi forces. MONUC is facilitating talks aimed at ending the hostilities.

IRIN 14 Aug 2003 Trapped Fataki orphans safely back in Bunia, says church NAIROBI, 14 August (IRIN) - Some 30 orphans trapped by fighting between ethnic militias in the village of Fataki, 80 km north of Bunia, the main town of the embattled Ituri District of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), have reached Bunia safely, the Missionary Service News Agency, Misna, reported on Thursday. Bunia is currently under the protection of the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, and an EU-led peace-enforcement mission. According to Father Protect Dhena, who launched an appeal on 8 August for the safety of the 31 orphans - the oldest aged three - and the two nuns and four nurses accompanying them, the group had barricaded itself in the Sisters of Carmel convent, where there was no food. However, the group reported on arrival in Bunia that another nun, Sister Mathilde, elderly and unable to flee, had been killed during fighting last weekend. She belonged to the Servantes de Jesus congregation. Fataki, primarily inhabited by Hema and Gegere, was the scene of death for some 80 civilians on or about 20 July. Misna has blamed the attack in which they were killed on Lendu militias. Independent verification, however, proved impossible, owing to lack of access. Due to prevailing insecurity, MONUC has been unable to deploy outside Bunia, while the EU-led mission sent to reinforce MONUC until 1 September is not mandated to operate beyond the confines of the town. However, the UN Security Council recently adopted a resolution giving MONUC a stronger mandate and increasing its authorised strength from 8,700 to 10,800 troops. The council also extended the mission's mandate for another year, until 30 July 2004. Strife in natural-resource-rich Ituri between Hema and Lendu militias had prompted between 200,000 and 350,000 people to flee when fighting intensified in May, humanitarian sources reported. None of the ethnic-based militias fighting for control of Ituri is signatory to the national power-sharing accord leading to the installation on 30 June of a two-year transitional government led by President Joseph Kabila. Since 1998, economically driven ethnic strife has led to the deaths of about 50,000 people and displaced some 500,000.

Reuters 28 Aug 2003 U.N. Congo blue helmets chief aghast at violence STOCKHOLM, Aug. 28 — The violence in Congo is worse than anything the U.N. peacekeepers' new commander has seen during a career in hotspots such as Afghanistan, the Balkans and Lebanon, he said in an interview published on Thursday. ''I have never experienced such lawlessness and ruthlessness,'' Brigadier-General Jan-Gunnar Isberg, who will lead the contingent of blue-helmeted U.N. troops in the northeastern Ituri region, told the Swedish TT news agency. The United Nations and aid agencies in the Democratic Republic of Congo have reported indiscriminate killings and atrocities such as young girls being abducted and raped, elderly people hacked to death and families being made to eat the hearts of relatives killed by militiamen. ''The tragedy here is so apparent. The militia go around and club people to death without mercy. It's a massacre resembling Rwanda,'' said Isberg, a 56-year-old Swede. He assumes his command on Monday but has already been serving as number two in the U.N.'s Congo mission. Tribal violence flared into a genocide in neighbouring Rwanda in 1994, costing around 800,000 lives. When confronted by people carrying arms, the U.N. force, which includes troops from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal, will be under orders to shoot first and ask questions afterwards. ''If anyone lifts a weapon against us, we'll shoot. If our soldier feels he is under threat, he'll shoot,'' Isberg said. The Security Council has authorised the U.N. peacekeepers to open fire to stop bloodshed. The latest war in the Congo began in August 1998, when Rwanda and Uganda sent troops to back rebels seeking to topple Laurent Kabila, Congo's president at the time. Despite a 1999 ceasefire and withdrawal of foreign troops, tribal fighting has continued in Congo's resource-rich northeast and eastern regions, where some militia groups serve as proxies for Rwanda and Uganda. Millions have died in the conflict, which prompted Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia to send forces to prop up the Kinshasa government.

IRIN 25 Aug 2003 Parliament launched KINSHASA, 25 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - The National Assembly and Senate of the two-year transitional government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were opened on Friday in the capital, Kinshasa, presided by President Joseph Kabila and his four vice-presidents. "This meeting is very important, because it's the last stage of installation for the transition in Congo," Olivier Kamitatu, president of the National Assembly and member of the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) former rebel group, told IRIN. The National Assembly is made up of 500 members from the numerous parties to the inter-Congolese dialogue, namely the former Kinshasa government, the unarmed political opposition, civil society and former rebel movements. The Senate, headed by civil society leader Pierre Marini Bodho, is made up of 120 members from the various parties to the national power-sharing accord. "All members of parliament will have an important role to play in consolidating the reunification and the pacification of Congo, and to adopt more than 60 laws regarding the constitution - among them laws on nationality, functioning and organisation of political parties, elections law, and institutional management," Kamitatu said. In his remarks, Marini said that there would no longer be impunity for the massacres and murders the Congolese people had suffered during nearly five years of war, while Kamitatu said that one of parliament's first priorities would be to discuss a general amnesty. He added that parliament should use its power to end fighting and the massacres that have continued in the Ituri District of the northeast and the Kivu provinces of the east. Meanwhile, Belgium said it would contribute €500,000 (US $543,600) to support the transitional government. The report follows a similar announcement by the Netherlands on 13 August that it would give $1 million for logistical support of the new government. The two chambers of the newly-inaugurated parliament postponed until a later date the installation of five institutions to be headed by civil society representatives to support the transitional government that were due to be launched on Monday - namely, a national human rights observatory; a high authority for media; a truth and reconciliation commission; and national elections council; and a commission for ethics and the fight against corruption, as called for by the inter-Congolese dialogue. "We decided that it was important that the two chambers [of parliament] meet before launching these bodies," Lambert Omalanga, the Senate rapporteur, told IRIN on Monday.

IRIN 26 Aug 2003 Controversy surrounds certain military appointees KINSHASA, 26 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - Human rights activists have criticised the recent appointment of military officials alleged to have been involved in massacres in Kisangani, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), during hostilities that erupted in May 2002. Gabriel Amisi and Laurent Nkunda, both from the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) former rebel movement and named brigadier-generals for a unified national army on 19 August by President Joseph Kabila, were cited by the rights groups - meeting under an umbrella organisation, the Reseau d'organisations des droits humains et d'education civique d'inspiration chretienne (Rodhecic) - as having been "the primary leaders of the Kisangani massacres". According to Human Rights Watch, Amisi, alias "Tango Fort", was the RCD-Goma's assistant chief of staff for logistics while Nkunda was the commander of the 7th Brigade, based in Kisangani. They and other senior officers were directly implicated in the killings, the international human rights defence NGO said. A statement issued by Rodhecic said that groups that investigated the events of 14-16 May 2002 in Kisangani, including a mission dispatched by the UN Security Council, Human Rights Watch and local NGOs, cited the two officers in several reports. The killings followed an apparent mutiny involving troops of RCD-Goma, then a Rwandan-backed rebel group that was the de-facto authority in eastern Congo. The group briefly occupied a local radio station and appealed to the public to expel Rwandan troops from the country. A number of people were immediately killed by a mob, after which RCD-Goma troops retaliated. According to the 23 July 2002 report presented to the UN Security Council, more than 103 civilians and more than 60 police officers were executed. The Security Council subsequently issued a strong call for accountability for the killings. In its statement, Rodhecic asked for the intervention of William Swing, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative to the DRC, in resolving the controversy. Responding to the rights groups' complaint, RCD-Goma representative Moise Nyarugabo told IRIN on Monday: "We think that this is the wrong way of going about things. Of all the officers named [to the unified national army], there is not one who has not killed - otherwise, what was the war all about? These officers [Amisi and Nkunda] could only be replaced if a judgment had been rendered against them. If someone was judged and condemned, we could understand and replace him. You know, there are a great many people with even greater allegations against them, beginning at the highest level."

27 Aug 2003 UN rapporteur on human rights begins 10-day mission NAIROBI, 27 August (IRIN) - The UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Antoanella-Iulia Motoc, arrived in the capital, Kinshasa, on Tuesday to begin a 10-day mission that will also take him to the towns of Bunia and Bukavu in the northeast and east of the country, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) told IRIN. In Kinshasa, Motoc is scheduled to meet with members of the country's newly installed two-year transitional government, including President Joseph Kabila; National Assembly President Olivier Kamitatu; Senate President Pierre Marini Bodho; Foreign Affairs Minister Antoine Ghonda Mangalibi; Justice Minister Kisimba Ngoy; and Human Rights Minister Madeleine Kalala. UNHCHR added that the special rapporteur would also meet with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative to the DRC, William Swing, who also head the UN peacekeeping mission there, known as MONUC, as well as heads of UN agencies, the diplomatic corps and civil society representatives. Motoc, of Romania, was appointed special rapporteur in December 2001, replacing Roberto Garreton, who had announced his resignation on 17 October, stating that his new responsibilities as the human rights advisor for the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean were incompatible with the status of serving as an independent expert. Motoc is a lawyer and academic who has been a member or alternate member of the UN Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights since 1996, serving as its chair from 2000 to 2001.

IRIN 27 Aug 2003 Ituri militia leaders fear mutiny if they surrender KAMPALA, 27 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - Leaders of armed factions in the troubled Ituri District of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) want to disarm but say they cannot because they are afraid of their own men, a UN peacekeeping official told IRIN on Wednesday. "Ituri's militia leaders are in a tight corner because while they know they have to surrender, they fear falling victim of a coup by their own men if they try. This is a dangerous situation, as their men are not all well controlled," Usman Dabo, the official, said. Dabo, who heads the Kampala, Uganda, office of the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC, known as MONUC, had just returned from the DRC capital, Kinshasa, where the five main belligerent groups of Ituri had recently been holding meetings with MONUC and the newly-installed two-year transitional government, including President Joseph Kabila. Dabo said that for the first time, he saw a genuine willingness among the militia leaders to disarm to achieve peace. "It seemed to me that they have finally realised that something has to change – that they can't continue to carve up Congo between themselves. They have to come together to bring the whole country under a legitimate authority," Dabo said. The Kinshasa gathering brought together some 30 representatives of the Front des nationalistes et des integrationnistes, the Union des patriotes congolais, the Parti pour l'unite et la sauvegarde de l'integrite du Congo, the Forces populaires pour la democratie au Congo, and the Forces armees du peuple congolais. In a memorandum of understanding signed at the end of the talks, the Ituri militias agreed to work together with the new government in restoring state authority across the region. They also pledged to end hostilities and to bring an end to "uncontrolled" groups that have continued to commit massacres despite the signing of several ceasefire agreements. None of the ethnic-based militias fighting for control of Ituri is signatory to the national power-sharing accord that led to the installation on 30 June of the Congo's new government, led by Kabila. Last week's talks were aimed at including them in a peace and reconciliation process from which they had complained of being excluded. "They were very happy to be in Kinshasa and took this opportunity to move towards peace," Dabo said. "But they are clearly afraid of what happens next." Since the recent installation of the transitional government, activities of the Ituri militias have been officially outlawed by the new administration – a prohibition to be enforced with the help of MONUC, whose mandate and manpower were recently strengthened by the UN Security Council. The council also extended the mission's mandate until 30 July 2004. "The big problem that the Congolese military must face is what to do with all these soldiers," Dabo said. "What is on offer for them to be persuaded to lay down their arms? "Obviously, the ideal solution is to absorb them into the army - so the rebel groups laid this down as a condition of surrender." However, Kabila rejected the militia leaders' requests to include their men in the unified national army, currently in the process of being formed. "He cannot take in, train, feed and clothe all these combatants. He lacks the resources," Dabo said.

Guardian UK 30 Aug 2003 Comment: Diamonds that spell death Western commerce still feeds the war in Congo Tristram Hunt and Oona King Early next week a French-led contingent of multinational troops will pull out of the Congo town of Bunia after barely three months of peacekeeping. Thankfully, some high-level diplomacy at the United Nations by the secretary general, Kofi Annan, has secured a replacement force to serve a further year in an attempt to end the regional conflict which since 1998 has claimed more than 3.3 million lives. But while efforts are rightly focused on seeking a truce between the Hema and Lendu militia groups, and urging an end to Ugandan and Rwandan interference, western diplomats might also think about getting their own houses in order. In an uncanny repetition of western intervention in the region that dates back to the 19th century, complicit multinational corporations and unknowing - or unthinking - western consumers have contributed to the regional conflagration. The Democratic Republic of Congo is an area cursed by an abundance of natural wealth from gold through diamonds and timber to oil and even the mobile-phone mineral coltan. Foreign companies, happy to cut deals with military commanders, have sustained the conflict by exploiting natural resources with near-total disregard for human rights or long-term development. In turn, when we use our phone, give a PlayStation to a teenager, or buy a diamond for a loved one, we too risk being an unwitting accomplice. Since King Leopold II of Belgium first decided on Congo as a suitable site for his imperial ambitions in the 1870s, the west's role in the region's history has constituted an almost apocalyptic rape of resources and people. It was under the guise of the International African Association and with the assistance of that criminally overrated explorer, Henry Morton Stanley, that Leopold II carved out his territory. Local chiefs were forced to hand over vast tracts of land in exchange for cloth, beads and a couple of bottles of gin. But unlike France or Britain, Leopold was never interested in the geopolitics of Africa - he wanted the riches. To begin with, it was ivory. Trading posts were established along the Congo river manned by Belgian military officials with strict targets for collection rates. Armed with the gun and the chicotte (a whip made of hippo skin), they quelled local villages, who pressganged tens of thousands into railway construction and liquidated any resistance. Then came rubber slavery. With the demand for bicycle and car tyres growing in the west, the wild rubber trees of the Congo basin became a goldmine for Leopold. Whole villages were taken hostage to ensure men went into the jungles to tap trees. Villages that refused were massacred en masse and hands hacked off as evidence of orders carried out. Brussels always had a good eye for bureaucracy. Every bullet needed to account for every smoked limb. The "savage" African custom of mutilation - seen to such horrendous effect in Sierra Leone and Rwanda - owes much to the introduction of Belgian bureaucratic rigour. The forests and rivers of Congo became a killing field as King Leopold's officers destroyed a civilisation with the racial determination of Nazi death camp commandants. And as Adam Hochschild has shown in his masterful book, King Leopold's Ghost, it was no surprise that it was in this "heart of darkness" that Conrad found his Kurtz. Was the prototype Guillaume Van Kerckhoven, who paid his soldiers 2d for every human head they brought him during military operations, or perhaps Leon Rum, who surrounded his garden with severed African heads and thought himself, like Kurtz, "an emissary of science and progress"? By the time world opinion finally woke up to Leopold's atrocities, the Congo Free State had been stripped of its wealth, some 10 million people slaughtered in one of the worst genocides in history, and an entire cultural tradition extinguished. The west, of course, hadn't finished with Congo, deciding later in the 20th century to support the brutal kleptocracy of General Mobutu for some 30 ruinous years. Today a familiar pattern continues. A UN panel of experts recently concluded that foreign interests sustain the current war by illegally subsidising militias, in return for gold, diamonds, cobalt, coltan and other loot. Vast quantities of the country's natural wealth are shipped out illegally, leaving behind an impoverished population that is often pressganged into labour or, literally, pillaged and raped. The conflict has witnessed some of the worst sexual violence in history, and is dubbed Africa's first world war: millions of casualties, and 18 million people with no access to services of any kind - no clean water, health, education, transport, or housing. A wave of bloodletting earlier this year sparked fears of a Rwandan-style genocide. Renewed attempts to broker peace have now, thankfully, led to a transitional government headed by the young Joseph Kabila - son of Laurent - and the promise of an enhanced UN peacekeeping force. But history runs rings round Congo. Back in 1960 it had the dubious distinction of being the first country in the world to host a UN peacekeeping force. So what's new? Well, for a start, the UN might finally have some power. Next month, the UN mission, Monuc, will increase from just over 2,000 to approximately 8,000 by the end of September. Of course, it needs more. If it had the same troops-to-land ratio as in Kosovo, Congo would have 10 million peacekeepers. But Monuc's new power - a mandate authorising active intervention to protect civilians, rather than its former observer status - does mark significant progress. It is a departure from the UN's dark days in 1994, when it walked away from the Rwandan genocide only to return some months later to hang curtains around 800,000 corpses and accidentally provide sanctuary for the murderers regrouping in Congo, thus preparing the ground for today's conflict. Since the arrival of the French-led international force, including a British contingent, Bunia, the town where daylight robbery and murdering militias went hand in hand, has been demilitarised. But a large number of the population are displaced in the surrounding countryside, too terrified to return. The British government has so far increased humanitarian assistance this year to £16m. But Congo also needs protection from exploitative western interests. It needs an extension of controls on diamonds and other minerals; the enforcement of OECD guidelines for multinational businesses; an effective small-arms embargo; and stricter conditionality on assistance to other regional governments linked to Congolese resource exploitation. As Congo knows from its past, UN peacekeepers are not enough. Only good governance and economic transparency will drain the illegal swamp of economic and military networks that have, throughout its history, conspired in crimes against humanity. · Tristram Hunt teaches history at Queen Mary, London. Oona King MP is chair of the all-party group on the Great Lakes and genocide prevention.

Liberia

WP 5 Aug 2003 Rights Activists Worried By African Peacekeepers By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, August 5, 2003; Page A10 UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 4 -- As the first unit of Nigerian peacekeepers touched down in Monrovia today to try to halt Liberia's civil war, human rights advocates are criticizing the legacy of the organization that sent them. These activists have urged the United States, the United Nations and African leaders to ensure that the group -- the Nigerian-led Economic Community of West African States -- is held accountable if its troops commit crimes in Liberia. During more than 13 years as the region's principal peacekeeper, the organization has helped restore an elected leader to power in Sierra Leone and provided a safe haven in Monrovia for more than 1 million people through the early 1990s. But it has also gained a reputation for ruthlessness and corruption, looting property, arming local militias and conducting summary executions. Human rights organizations have sharply criticized the group, and the United Nations and the State Department have taken notice. "It's a laudable thing that they are willing to intervene," said Binaifer Nowrojee, a visiting fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard University who has studied the coalition for nearly 10 years. "However, it should be done with checks and balances to make sure rights are respected by the peacekeepers, and that's where the U.N. can play a role." In the rush to persuade the Nigerians to intervene to avert chaos in Liberia, there has been little public debate in Washington or at the United Nations over ECOWAS's human rights record in West Africa. The Bush administration, which has pledged to provide cash and logistical support for the West African forces, ushered a resolution through the Security Council Friday that grants the peacekeepers broad immunity from prosecution for any crimes committed in Liberia. "I don't think [the West African human rights performance] was foremost in everybody's mind," said a U.S. official who tracks the issue. "ECOWAS has had some problems, but the situation in Liberia is so bad that people were looking to get a force in to stop them from fighting." The official said the Nigerian-led force is engaged in a risky effort to restore peace in Liberia and should receive the "benefit of the doubt." The enormous international attention being paid to the operation would ensure that the force stays in check, he said. "They are going to be operating under a microscope." In Sierra Leone, Human Rights Watch documented 180 cases of summary executions in 1999 by West African forces or by Sierra Leonean militias under their command. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and the State Department also cited reports of illegal killings by the Nigerian-led force, including a case in which West African troops killed an 8-year-old boy who was caught with a pistol and given no trial. One West African military officer, dubbed "Captain Evil Spirit" by local residents, oversaw the execution of at least 98 people on a bridge, according to a 1999 Human Rights Watch report. "Small groups of young men were brought to the entrance to the bridge in trucks and cars, and arrived usually stripped down to their underwear and often with their hands tied," the report said. "They were then marched onto the bridge where they were executed and thrown into the bay." On Jan. 11, 1999, West African forces executed more than 50 rebels in and around the Connaught Hospital, according to several witnesses interviewed by the New York-based rights organization. "Wounded rebels were dragged from their beds and executed within the hospital grounds, or shot directly in their beds or as they tried to flee on crutches and in wheelchairs," the report said. "Others were executed in the morgue where they were caught trying to hide among the corpses." Nigeria's chargé d'affaires at the United Nations, Ndekhedehe Effiong Ndekhedehe, said none of the allegations against Nigerian peacekeepers has been "substantiated." "By and large our troops are well disciplined," Ndekhedehe said in an interview today. "They behave themselves. We are governed by the rules of engagement laid down in the Geneva Conventions, so our troops know what to do." Despite questions raised about some West African peacekeeping units, U.N. officials said the first battalion of ECOWAS troops -- which has completed its tour of duty under U.N. command in Sierra Leone and is being deployed today in Monrovia -- performed with honor in Sierra Leone. "I'm sure that they will serve in Liberia in the same fashion and will also employ the basic principles of human rights to which we are all very much attached," said Hedi Annabi, a senior U.N. peacekeeping official. "As usual, the U.N. will keep an eye on such things and, should there be a problem, we would of course take it up." Human rights advocates say that internal reports by U.N. human rights officers alleging misconduct by the Nigerian-led force in Liberia rarely made their way into public accounts. One report involved a raid by Nigerian troops into the Lajoy Gold Mine on May 10, 1997, where several individuals were beaten, one of them fatally. "During interrogations, Ecomog [the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group] soldiers beat many people with wooden sticks and electric wire and slashed one man with razor blades," said the confidential report, obtained by Nowrojee. "In the past, troops that committed violations would be shipped off home, but there would be no sanctions or punishment," Nowrojee said. "The U.N. has been loathe to play the appropriate oversight role because it has so much gratitude for [ECOWAS's] willingness to intervene" in West Africa's civil wars. "This is an opportunity for the United Nations to step up to the plate and play a more responsible role."

AFP 12 Aug 2003 New clashes in Liberia's key port city ABIDJAN, Aug 12 (AFP) - Fighting has resumed in the second port city of Buchanan, a rebel leader said Tuesday, adding that his force has called on west African peacekeepers to deploy to the region. "Fighting is continuing in Buchanan," Thomas Nimely, chairman of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), told AFP by telephone. The MODEL, the smaller of two rebel groups which have been battling Liberia's government forces, late last month took control of the port town, located about 120 kilometres (75 miles) down the Atlantic coast from the capital Monrovia "We were attacked at nine in the morning (0900 GMT) yesterday and we are trying to join up with ECOMIL to clear the corridor leading to Monrovia via Harbel," Nimely said, referring to the west African force. He said he had spoken to the head of the ECOMIL force, General Festus Okonkwo, and said the Nigerian commander had approved his request for peacekeepers' help. An official from the Firestone rubber plantation, located in Harbel near the airport, told AFP by telephone that he had seen two ECOMIL trucks, crammed with troops, proceed for Buchanan. The MODEL, a group which first appeared in March and is based in southern Liberia, has been fighting along with the much larger rebel group LURD to overthrow president Charles Taylor. But after Taylor resigned Monday and went into exile in Nigeria, it was unclear whether they would make peace with the government and accept a new interim administration. Their leader Nimely said he had ordered his men to secure the road leading northwest from Buchanan to Harbel, but denied that they were trying to advance on the city. He said the MODEL's aim was to secure a "humanitarian corridor" on the road, but not push beyond a point called Cotton Tree, "about 30 minutes drive" from Harbel. But the official at the Firestone plantation, where thousands of refugees have gathered during recent months of fighting, said that the renewed fighting had already caused many people to flee Buchanan and seek shelter at nearby camps and two churches. Nimely, meanwhile, accused Liberian President Moses Blah, who took over from former warlord Taylor, of waging a "pointless" attack. "This thing is over now, there's no need to do something pointlessly," he said. The Liberian government has accused neighbouring Ivory Coast of backing the MODEL.

AFP12 Aug 2003 - South Africa to send troops to Liberia with UN: official PRETORIA, Aug 12 (AFP) - South Africa will contribute to a UN-led international peacekeeping force in Liberia, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said in Pretoria on Tuesday. "The president has indicated that we have to assist the United Nations. We just have to decide exactly how we can do so," Pahad told reporters. "South Africa will contribute to a multinational force in Liberia. This will have to go through the cabinet and through parliament. We also have to look at capacity." The decision by President Thabo Mbeki came after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wrote South Africa requesting its participation in a UN peacekeeping mission, Pahad said. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has already begun deploying its own troops in Liberia, where Charles Taylor stepped down from power on Monday before flying to Nigeria to begin a new life in exile. Faced with mounting violence in the country, which has seen 14 years of nearly uninterrupted fighting, the United Nations voted on August 1 not only to back the ECOWAS peacekeepers, but also to create a 15,000-strong international stabilisation force which will take over in October. Namibia, Pakistan and Bangladesh have already offered to contribute troops to the UN force. But it is still not clear how the project will be financed, with the UN saying the United States will have to put up at least a quarter of its projected cost of 500 million dollars (440 million euros). Hedi Annabi, head of the UN office for peacekeeping operations department, said last week that officials were working on a "fairly sizeable" force. But the full size and scope of the UN mission cannot be fully measured until the fighting has stopped and a clear assessment made. UN officials are eager for the UN project to avoid the fate of a similar operation that failed in Sierra Leone three years ago. The multinational forces aim to enforce a June 17 ceasefire between the Liberian government, now led by President Moses Blah, and two rebels groups which had been seeking Taylor's removal from power. But troop and money donors would first like to see a peace settlement among the warring factions and assurances of a continuing US presence after the UN takes over. There were reports of renewed clashes in Liberia on Tuesday, including some in the second port city of Buchanan. The United States meanwhile sent its commander in Liberia, General Thomas Turner, to Monrovia to try to open the rebel-held port to shipments of food and humanitarian aid.

Reuters 27 Aug 2003 Liberian president urges peacekeepers to secure volatile countryside areas REUTERS Wednesday, Aug 27, 2003,Page 6 Liberia's caretaker president urged West African peacekeepers on Monday to push into the lawless bush and stop carnage taking place despite a week-old peace deal meant to end nearly 14 years of conflict. Reports of civilians, including women and children, shot or hacked to death began to emerge from the hard-to-reach interior. There were conflicting accounts of who was to blame as civilians were once again caught in a crossfire of war and ethnic hatreds. "They killed some 25 people. I saw the bodies myself," Targen Wanteh, a former Liberian ambassador to Guinea, said by satellite phone from the bush near Bahn in eastern Nimba County after fleeing what he said was a rebel attack. "They shot some people, cut women and children into pieces, opened up their stomachs, cut their heads and laid the bodies in front of their houses," said Wanteh. President Moses Blah, due under the peace deal to hand over to the head of a new interim administration in October, said many people had been killed in Nimba County and that fighting was flaring in a string of places outside the capital Monrovia. The violence underlined the challenges in cementing the peace deal between the government and rebels when many fighters, including drugged-up teenagers, are deep in the bush beyond lines of control and communications. Blah called on peacekeepers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to spread out swiftly from Monrovia, which they have secured with the help of US Marines flown in from three warships off Liberia's coast. "We want ECOWAS to hurry up with the deployment and make sure they deploy throughout the country to stop the carnage on our people," Blah said at his home in Monrovia. Echoing his predecessor Charles Taylor, who stepped down and went into exile under international pressure earlier this month, Blah said Liberia's armed forces were unable to defend themselves because of a UN arms embargo. reports of massacre Liberia's state radio said on Sunday many civilians had been massacred by rebels in Bahn, some 240km northeast of Monrovia. It quoted one source as saying 1,000 civilians had been killed, but no independent confirmation was available. A spokesman for the peacekeepers, known also as ECOMIL, said they had no plans for now to deploy towards Nimba County. "We're still very thin on the ground. We don't have enough men," said Colonel Theophilus Tawiah, adding that the next target for the force would be to deploy to the rebel-held port city of Buchanan. About 1,550 peacekeepers are in Liberia and some 750 new soldiers are due this week from Ghana, Mali and Senegal. Wanteh said villages around Bahn had been burned down by fighters from Liberia's two rebel groups, Model and LURD. "Everybody said Nimba County was Taylor's stronghold, so they want to destroy this place and the international community is not doing anything," he said. A radio operator in Monrovia said contacts with Nimba County had produced reports of Model rebels hacking people to death with knives and machetes. Since Taylor launched a rebellion in 1989 to win power, Liberia has seen little but violence and has been the epicenter of a regional cycle of bloodshed in which 250,000 people have been killed. Taylor is now in exile in Nigeria. Last week's peace deal cleared the way for the creation of interim government to guide Liberia to elections in two years. But for many of those in the bush, it is not enough. "If nothing is done there will be a genocide," Wanteh said. "ECOMIL is sitting in Monrovia and we are here in the bush, surviving on bush yams."

AFP 28 Aug 2003 Liberian president decrees three days of national mourning MONROVIA, Aug 28 (AFP) - President Moses Blah Thursday announced that three days of mourning will be declared in the near future to remember all the victims of Liberia's long civil war. In a broadcast speech to the nation, Blah expressed his condolences to the families of those who had died in both sides of the conflict. He said the government would organize a symbolic burial in honor of the dead. Blah reiterated his commitment to the peace agreement, which calls for him to step down and hand over to Gyude Bryant, a businessman and political leader chosen by the belligerents to lead the country. "We have no political ambitions to govern past October 14," he said. Blah took over the presidency after the departure of Charles Taylor on August 11. Rejecting suggestions he was Taylor's man, Blah said, "the Liberian people have suffered too long and we are not here to play politics with their future." To ensure the nation's peace, Blah appealed to the US ambassador to Liberia, John Blaney, "to use his influence to stop the carnage." He said he wanted to be a factor for stability and peace during his brief period in the presidency, and pledged transparency in government, starting with a finance ministry audit of activities in the port of Monrovia.

28 Aug 2003 Uncontrolled gunmen could torpedo fragile peace process [This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] MONROVIA, 28 August (IRIN) - The flare-up in fighting between Liberian government fighters and rebels in several parts of the war-ravaged West African nation this week, underscores the extreme fragility of Liberia's peace process. The government and the two rebel groups - Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), accuse each other of renewing the fighting. Interim President Moses Blah described the clashes as "madness" in an address to the nation on Thursday. He blamed the LURD and MODEL rebel groups for ignoring a peace agreement signed in Accra, Ghana, on 18 August. The Peace Agreement, which paved way for a broad-based Transitional Government to replace Blah on 14 October, demands that all Liberian warring factions stay in their present locations. It also calls for an immediate ceasefire throughout the war-ravaged country, to allow immediate humanitarian access to vulnerable people - the overwhelming majority of Liberia's three million population. "This madness only makes our already destitute people more destitute," the President told a gathering of top government, political and military leaders at his Executive Mansion in the capital, Monrovia. From Sunday until Wednesday, intense fighting continued near Gbarnga, 150 km north of Monrovia in Bong County, a former stronghold of ex-President Charles Taylor but now controlled by LURD. At the same time, MODEL launched attacks in Bahn, 240 km northeast of Monrovia, in Nimba County and in the southeastern Grand Bassa County, near Roberts International airport. The latter attacks sent 8,000 civilians fleeing for safety towards the town of Harbel. Liberian state radio reported that MODEL killed hundreds of people in Bahn. Information Minister, Reginald Goodridge, told IRIN the killings were "tribal revenge killings" by the Krahn tribe who dominated MODEL against Gio and Mano tribes, who supported Taylor. MODEL issued a statement denying that it had killed civilians. However eyewitnesses told international journalists that the rebels hacked at women and children with knives, opening up their stomachs. They burnt also down whole villages. The skirmishes between LURD and government troops around Gbarnga in north central Liberia sparked off a massive influx of thousands of displaced people, walking in driving rain to seek refuge in Monrovia. This dilapidated city of more than one million people is already overstretched by the presence of an estimated 300,000 displaced people sheltering in virtually all its nooks and corners. Of these, up to 50,000 took shelter in the national sports stadium following attempts by LURD to overrun the city in June and July. Many of the displaced civilians thronging Monrovia, had been living for years in camps of mud huts on the city's outskirts, forced to leave their original homes by a civil war that has festered on since 1989. They fled into the relative safety of the city centre as the rebels advanced into the northwestern suburbs and began shelling the city centre. "The security situation is still very fluid in many parts of Liberia and this hampers efforts by relief workers to reach vulnerable people," Ross Mountain, Special United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Liberia told IRIN. The ebullient Liberian Defence Minister, Daniel Chea, blamed by many for sanctioning atrocities by government troops, said he was also concerned that renewed skirmishes would affect the activities of relief workers. "Renewed clashes have a very big impact on humanitarian work. It stops relief workers from doing their job. We don't want that to happen," Chea told IRIN in an interview. Civilians caught up in the clashes have found themselves missing out on rations because relief workers cannot reach them or because gunmen grab what they have been given. "There is no point giving us food when we are on the run. The armed fighters simply loot it from us," Robert Sulu, a local clan chief at Totota, 109m km north of Monrovia, told IRIN. The gunmen have also helped themselves generously to the property of relief organisations. More than half of the World Food Programme's (WFP) food stocks in the port of Monrovia disappeared during the recent fighting in the capital and LURD rebels stole about 70 vehicles, including most of the truck fleet of WFP and the UN refugee agency UNHCR. As a result, they are now struggling to undertake food distribution. "The rebels are attacking us and slaughtering civilians. We need to compel LURD and MODEL leaders to ensure they order their men to stop fighting," General Benjamin Yeaten, Liberian army commander told IRIN. Relief workers in Monrovia said there were so many undisciplined, unpaid often drunk gunmen roaming Liberia's villages and towns that it is difficult to tell which gunman belonged to which group. Last weekend, drunken government militias set up roadblocks near the airport to extort money. The airport is near MODEL controlled-areas. Soon tension built up, but on that occasion a patrol of Nigerian troops from the West African peacekeeping force ECOMIL diffused it. "The problem is West African peacekeepers deployed in the country are only 1550," one military expert in Monrovia said. "A few hundred Malians are expected on Thursday, but still the force lacks the manpower and other resources to police the whole country." The defence minister said the onus was on ECOMIL, to put pressure on rebel leaders to stop the fighting. "It is like a game of football. When you miss the ball, you try to get it from between somebody else's legs. The rebels are trying to distract us from the ultimate goal of pacifying Liberia, but we shall not lose sight of our goal," Chea said in an interview. ECOMIL spokesman, Major Ogun Sanya, told IRIN that while the force was gradually spreading out, it was trying to persuade the various rebel leaders to reign in their fighters. "We are in contact with their Commanders," he said. Out in LURD controlled areas, north of the capital, drunk and drugged up fighters with red bands tied around their heads, commandeer vehicles and race them up and down, oblivious of civilians. They mete out instant retalliation to any civilians who try to answer them back or to deny them a favour. Lives have however been saved because ECOMIL disarms the fighters before they enter Monrovia city centre. The fighters, many of whom are children, are still itching for a fight. "If government troops attack us, we will pursue them to where they came from," General Aliyu Sheriff, LURD Chief of Staff said. At Tubmanburg, a LURD-controlled town 50 km northwest of Monrovia, local civilians said LURD had pushed them out of their buildings. They also blamed the rebels for raping women and girls. In areas under government control, such as central and eastern Monrovia, the militias belonging to the different fighting groups formed by former President Charles Taylor have not been paid for months. Looting for them has become a way of life. On Monday, fighters who were fleeing from fighting in Gbarnga looted a vehicle driven by the Medical Superintendent of Phebe hospital, the only major health centre still operational in Bong County. They beat up the doctor. Yeaten said he rigorously enforces discipline among his fighters: "My soldiers know that if you rape or kill, we execute you. I have executed over 10 so far - in front of the public," he told IRIN. But relief workers say very few of the guilty have been so punished.

Nigeria

BBC 4 Aug 2003 Clashes in oil rich Nigerian area Ijaw militants have taken hostages to press their claim for more oil wealth Nigeria's police minister has called for calm after attacks in the oil-rich Delta region at the weekend left at least 10 dead and dozens of homes burnt. Chief Broderick Bozimo said the traditional rulers of the Ijaw and Itsekiri tribes were not doing enough to put an end to the inter-tribal hostilities. The attacks on three Ijaw villages followed reports that an Itsekiri village was attacked last week, resulting in the deaths of at least 15 people. Bloody clashes between the two groups over political power and land rights in the past few years have claimed hundreds of lives and made thousands more homeless. An Ijaw representative, who wished to remain anonymous, told Reuters news agency: "The situation is very tense, because the Ijaw people will definitely retaliate." The Ijaw group in particular want more of the benefits of the region's oil. During the election campaign earlier this year, violence led to several multinationals pulling their staff out of the poverty stricken Delta and led to Nigeria's crude oil exports to be cut by 40%. The elections themselves were marred by violence and fraud in Warri and the surrounding Delta State, observers said. The violence now appears to be escalating again. Delta State governor James Ibori summoned Ijaw and Itsekiri representatives for talks on Monday afternoon.

Vanguard (Lagos) 5 Aug 2003 Itsekiris sack Ijaw villages; 13 killed, 50 houses razed Sola Adebayo WARRI- ITSEKIRI youths, weekend, attacked three Ijaw communities of Erekongbene, Ojudorgbene and Gbaribodegbene, killing 13 persons and torching no fewer than 50 houses. Reacting to the attack, the Minister of State for Defence, Dr. Rowland Oritsejafor, asked the warriors to lay down their arms, urging them to keep away from "further destroying our inheritance." Oritsejafor sounded a note of warning that government might be forced to employ maximum force should dialogue fail to achieve anticipated results of reconciling the warring factions. The minister told journalists shortly after addressing a cross-section of Ijaw and Itsekiri leaders as well as youths in his Warri residence, that the youths should channel the abundant human and material resources in Delta State towards their growth and development. Oritsejafor commended Gov. James Ibori for his recent peace initiative aimed at reconciling the warring factions, and said government would continue to employ dialogue and consultation in seeking solutions to the impasse. "We are not going to depend on deployment of troops, we would continue to talk to them. The governor has done very well in this connection by going round, dialoguing and talking with people on ground. That must be encouraged and he must be commended for the action. If we take these steps and these guys continue to kill and maim law-abiding citizens, force has to be used as the last resort. These guys must use our resources for what God wants us to use it for, which is for capacity building, empowerment and restoring the economic well-being of the country," the minister stated. He did not believe that fresh deployment of troops to the region was repressive, stressing that the clamour for better living conditions was not a licence to engage in unpatriotic activities. He said the Obasanjo administration had instituted far-reaching measures to alleviate the sufferings of Niger Deltans and pleaded for their understanding to nurture such people-oriented programmes into fruition. "NDDC is there, yet we may not be doing enough. There are a lot of programmes, youth empowerment, everything that is there, we are not going to handle it in a day; we are preaching, we are talking to traditional rulers and others, we hope they will listen and allow lasting peace to prevail," he stated. He assured his people that "from appointment and from what is going to happen, our fair share will be given to us and it has started. It is not going to happen overnight. At least, they can come and hold me now, I can't run away from here. I am from here, the Police Affairs Minister, Chief Bozimo; the CDS, General Ogomudia are from here, so there is no excuse that they cannot reach us; they have the right to come to us and ask what is happening in Abuja." Also reacting to the attack, Gov. James Ibori said it was only God's intervention that could stem the tide of bloodletting in the state. Ibori, who made the remark at a thanksgiving service to mark his 45th birthday anniversary at First Baptist Church, Ogharefe, regretted that the unending ethnic crisis had stalled the growth of the state. He attributed his second term mandate to divine intervention, asserting that God rescued him from the hands of evil doers before, during and after the April polls. "I am certain that God will allow me to accomplish that which is my heart's desire at this time which is peace for my people, Deltans. He has never failed me and I know He will not fail even now. These are trying times for our state, Delta, and it only requires the intervention of God to pull us through. Having saved my life all this while and having protected and given me back the mandate to serve the people of Delta State, I am very sure and I have no doubt whatsoever in my mind that God will also give me the wisdom, the knowledge to solve the problems that we have in the state," Ibori said.

Vanguard (Lagos) August 9, 2003 Over 1000 Itsekiri killed so far in Warri crisis - Mabiaku Sola Adeboya No fewer than 1,000 Itsekiris have been killed in the unending ethnic crisis in the oil city of Warri and its environs from 1997 to date. Similarly, about 40 riverine Itisekiri communities have been razed, leading to the loss of property running into several billions of naira during the period under review. The Iyatsere of Warri Kingdom, Chief Gabriel Mabiaku made the revelations during a chat with our correspondents. Mabiaku told Weekend Vanguard that all the 40 communities have been taken over and are currently being illegally occupied by Ijaw ethnic militias The Iyatsere of Warri while answering a question on the losses of the Itsekiri due to the frequent bloody clash with their Ijaw and Urhobo neighbours said "our loss is monumental". His words: "It (losses) is going into billions, that is property, the human lives, you can't quantify; we have the statistics. I can't give you the figure but it is well over 1,000 people, from 1997 to date, not to talk of those who were maimed and also those in hospitals, both here and in the western region, including Lagos. Over 40 communities had been razed and taken over by the Ijaw invaders Mabiaku traced the woes of the Itsekiris to the admission of the Urhobos and Ijaws into their homeland of the three Warri Council areas of Warri North, South and South-West. He pointedly asserted that the three councils which are the outcome of the old Warri division were the homeland of the Itsekiris, maintaining that "every bit of the 1,550 square miles belonged to the Itsekiris. We have historical and legal background to buttress our claim. We have stated them very clearly." "Since we cannot stay aloof without having people in our midst, we too are in other people's midst, so Ij aws are in our midst, we have always welcome them, the Urhobos are in our midst, we have always welcome them. But this gesture has turned sour" he lamented. Iyatsere of Warn accused the Ijaws of expansionist tendencies, saying that "all along Ijaws have occupied the places they burnt down in 1997. Each time they burnt a place, they give it a new name. All the communities have been given one name or the other. Even in our midst here in Warri township, my own Estate, was taken over, after vandalizing, looting and burning since 1997". "We did not want to go into head-on collision with them, we reported the matter to the police, to the governor, to everybody over the years, we even reported this development to Danjuma Committee. The Olu ofWarri's property were also occupied, so too are about thirty or more property in Warri township here, taken over by Ijaws forcefully". He lamented that the usurpers bluntly refused to heed the order of the state governor, Chief James Ibori asking them to vacate the property. The Iyatsere also commented on the recent attack on Abi-Gborodo Community, stating that the invasion was planned in order to get at the state governor, Chief James Ibori and the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, for issuing quit notice to the usurpers as well as creating the enabling environment for the displaced Itsekinis to return to their respective communities. Uduaghan hail from Abi-Gborodo which is also the maternal hometown of Ibori. "So for the governor to have the effrontery to say the Itsekiris should go back to their homes, they say, okey, let us go and burn that place (Abi-Gborodo). I can't adduce any other reason", he stated. However, Mabiaku accused the State and Federal Government of not being decisive, stressing that the method being adopted in search of peace is "too soft". His words: "When you are too soft on issues, you never get to the place. For instance, how would it be explained that some soldiers were killed, some were dispossessed of their guns, they just came, peace moves, they brought eight guns, what has government done with those who stole the guns of the solders?" "Except you teach people a lesson, they never learn. I believ the government is taking a step which is too soft. If Itsekiri offend, punish them. If anybody offends, punish him or her according to the law. Don't allow criminals to go unpunished because you want peace, with that, you never get peace"."The criminals need to be punished. Arson is a serious offence in law." They know those committing arson and murder, nobody is touched. And they commend them for returning guns. Until the government takes positive steps to protect the indigenes of the country, what we are seeing now portend danger".

Reuters 16 Aug 2003 Fighting Erupts in Nigerian Oil City of Warri By Daniel Balint-Kurti LAGOS (Reuters) - Fighting erupted on Friday night and continued on Saturday morning in the southern Nigerian city of Warri, in a continuation of bitter conflict between rival ethnic groups in the oil-rich Niger Delta, sources there said. The fighting was some of the most serious in the region since an ethnic rebellion broke out in March, leading to dozens of deaths and forcing oil majors to evacuate key installations. Joel Bisina of local non-governmental organization Niger Delta Professionals for Development told Reuters ethnic Itsekiris attacked Ijaw residents near Warri's port and around a market area called McIver on Friday night. "As I speak to you there are still gunshots," Bisina told Reuters at five o'clock a.m. (0400 GMT) on Saturday from the city. He said he heard the sounds of assault rifles and heavier weapons being used. "There is a mix -- rapid shooting and intermittent shots," he said. "There are heavy bangs intermittently." Itsekiri representatives were unavailable for comment, but an Ijaw spokesman confirmed the fighting. "Itsekiri people came down and burned down Ijaw settlements in that area," said Daniel Ekpebide, a spokesman for the militant group Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities. He said he had been unable to get to the affected area himself and could not say whether anyone had been killed in the fighting. "We the Ijaw people are committed to the peace initiative by the government, but it is very, very unfortunate that the Itsekiris are provoking the Ijaw people," he said. "By the time Ijaws take their revenge, people should not cry foul." Sources in the Niger Delta said the latest fighting followed an attack on the village of Ode-Itsekiri on Thursday, in which four people were reported killed and 15 missing. Ode-Itsekiri is the traditional homeland of the Itsekiris.

IRIN 19 Aug 2003 Death toll mounts in Delta State violence LAGOS, 19 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - At least 45 people had died by Tuesday as the death toll increased in four days of gun battles between rival ethnic militias in Nigeria's southern oil city of Warri, witnesses said. Oil transnationals operating in the area had closed their offices. More than 40 houses were burnt and thousands left homeless as fighting, which broke out on Friday night between Ijaw and Itsekiri militias armed with automatic weapons, persisted despite a nighttime curfew imposed by the Delta State government. Twenty people were reported killed by witnesses in the first two days of fighting. Ijaw militants said 39 of their people were killed by troops deployed by President Olusegun Obasanjo's government to quell the violence. "The 39 people include women and children and 16 men killed in cold blood by soldiers," Bello Oboko, an Ijaw militant leader told IRIN on Tuesday. His claims could not be confirmed by independent sources. But Colonel Gar Dogo, commander of the 6th Amphibious Battalion of the Nigerian army, deployed to end the violence denied that his troops had killed innocent people. "It is not true we have killed any Ijaw people, my soldiers have been very restrained and we have no reason to take sides against Ijaws," he told IRIN. Bawo Omatsola, an Itsekiri resident, said more than 15 people were killed during attacks launched by Ijaws on their settlements on Sunday and the early hours of Monday. He said many people were still missing and may have died. Oil transnationals which use Warri as a key base for operations in the western Niger Delta asked their employees to stay away from their offices to avoid being caught in the crossfire. But both Royal/Dutch Shell and ChevronTexaco, which have big operations in the area, said their production and exports have yet to be affected by the violence. "We have asked people to stay home but our field operations are still going on," a Shell spokesman told IRIN. A ChevronTexaco official said employees "had "been advised to stay at home" but added the company’s oil export schedules were continuing unhindered so far. Colonel Ganiyu Adewale, the armed forces spokesman, said more troops were being deployed to the troubled city to create "a buffer zone" between the warring militias and added that the situation was now under control. "Normally in such a situation there must be casualties but I can't give anything in terms of numbers," he said in response to a question about death toll. Warri, a sprawling city of one million people set amid the swamps of the Niger delta, is a major oil base for companies that pump the crude oil that is the lifeline of the Nigerian economy from nearby oil platforms. Fighting between Ijaws and Itsekiris in March left at least 100 people dead and forced oil transationals operating in the area to shut down facilities producing 40 percent of Nigeria's daily export of two million barrels. At the heart of the violence are claims and counter-claims to the ownership of the oil-rich land. The individuals and communities who control the land mop up the many benefits that can be extracted from the oil companies whose wells have been drilled there. Ijaws accuse Obasanjo's government of abetting an Itsekiri ascendancy over their neighbours, giving them the best of government patronage and most of the few amenities that come to the impoverished region.

Weekly Trust (Kaduna) 2 Aug 2003 Discovery of Headless Bodies Renews Warri Crisis Aigbonoga Brodrick Delta State Governor Chief James Onanefe Ibori's peace initiatives among the warring groups in the area, has suffered a serious setback as tens of the headless bodies of victims of last week's savage attack by irate Ijaw youths from the Burutu Local Government Area on the sea-side Abi-Gborodo village in the Warri North LGA, have been discovered. Some of the headless bodies have been taken to Warri township hospitals for presentations pending trials while the decomposing ones are being quickly disposed off to prevent a probable outbreak of epidemic, Weekly Trust learnt. Abi-Gborodo is an Itsekiri town from where the secretary to the Delta State government Dr Emmanuel Oduaghan hails. The event which occurred on July 24 2003 in what looked like an apparent reprisal to the killings of 10 Ijaw people by unidentified pirates, on the Burutu waterways a forth night ago, has left a trail of brutal killings and carnages, akin to the Koko massacre, another Itsekiri settlement in the same area recently. Weekly Trust correspondent has been informed several wounded people most of whom are women, children and aged had been evacuated by the state government to mainland Warri for admissions into hospitals. Meanwhile, several people are feared to have been swept away by raging tide as the made desperate attempts to escape from the invaders. Information available to Weekly Trust shows that about 18 speedboats loaded with Ijaw militants had over taken the fishing village by surprise that Thursday afternoon where upon dismemberment, they unleashed horror on the unsuspecting inhabitants. As at the time this report, the number of survivors of the violence was not known even though it had been established that the area which had a population of about 4,000 people with hundreds of houses, has been turned into a ghost town as virtually all the structures there are feared to have been completely razed down. Efforts by the Weekly Trust to get the commandant of the 7th Battalion of the Nigerian Army at Effurum, near Warri did not yield fruits as he was said to be on the field directing the operations of troops deployed to restore normalcy in the area. The secretary to the state government could also not be available for interview as he was too busy working towards funding a solution to the crisis.

anguard (Lagos) August 20, 2003 Warri:- Ijaw Allege Death of 128 Kinsmen Osaro Okhomina Benin City IJAW in the three Warri local government areas of Delta State alleged, yesterday, that over 128 of their kinsmen had been killed, so far, in the ongoing mayhem in Warri. According to the Ijaw, the alleged killings which started in July was intensified to forestall the good intentions of the Federal Government at finding a lasting solution to the protracted Warri crises. The leaders, the Ibediwei of Diebiri Kingdom, Chief J.G. Ovubu; the head of Gbonweigbene, Chief John Gbonwei and the leader of thought, Mr. Clark Gbenewei in a statement issued in Benin City, yesterday, said the killings are the cause of the endlessness of the Warri crisis as manifested in the alleged attitude of Itsekiri who are taking advantage of the presence of the governor, Chief James Ibori to hatch the Itsekiri plan of driving the Ijaw from their home land. "In order to forestall the state governor's peace initiative to bring lasting peace to Warri and its environs, the Itsekiri carried out sporadic and premeditated attacks on the Ijaw and their communities soon after His Excellency ended his peace initiative tour of Ijaw communities and oil/gas flow stations located mostly on Ijaw lands in Warri South West and Warri North local government areas. The Itsekiri planned and executed their attacks on the Ijaws." The leaders who gave a breakdown of the alleged attacks carried out on their people stated that since the July 14 attack on one Captain Felix Amakoru and four others, the Itsekiri group have allegedly kidnapped five and killed 128 Ijaw. "Beside the killings", the leaders alleged, "several attempts were made by the Itsekiri with the connivance of borrowed military men to harass, attack