Africa

Burundi

AFP 30 Nov 2003 Burundi's FNL rebels in first face-to-face talks with government NAIROBI, Nov 30 (AFP) - A Burundi government delegation held its first face-to-face talks here on Sunday with Hutu rebels of the National Liberation Forces (FNL), which had previously rejected negotiations. "The talks are going on... there's nothing else to say for the moment," a member of the Burundi government delegation said, adding that the negotiations would continue into Monday. The FNL had previously rejected peace negotiations aimed at ending a decade of civil war, even though the government is now led by President Domitien Ndayizeye, a member of the majority Hutu ethnic group. It has insisted that real power in the central African country resides in the hands of the Tutsi-dominated army. The ground-breaking talks began in Nairobi on Saturday between a delegation of the Burundi government made up of minority Tutsis, including senior army officers, and four FNL representatives, according to sources both in Bujumbura and the Kenyan capital. "We are not negotiating with the government of President Domitien Ndayizeye, but with Tutsi delegates," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana earlier told AFP. Meanwhile, two of the four new ministers of a rival Hutu rebel group, the Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD), arrived Sunday in Bujumbura, where it has become part of a power-sharing government formed by Ndayizeye a week ago. Interior Minister Simon Nyandwi and Communications Minister Onesime Ndiwimana, accompanied by three other FDD officials, were received by the African Union representative to Burundi, Mamadou Bah. "I'm hoping to bring new blood, even if this is not a matter of only one minister, but rather of the combined efforts of all the Burundians who should work to restore total security," Nyandwi told the press. FDD leader Pierre Nkurunziza is scheduled to arrive in Bujumbura on December 6 "if all goes well," according to one source. According to Nyandwi, several other FDD officials should be arriving in the coming week. The FNL rebels, said to number between 1,500 and 2,500, had earlier rejected a November 16 ultimatum by regional leaders to enter peace talks with Bujumbura within three months or face sanctions. Burundi's civil war erupted in October 1993, when Melchior Ndadaye, the country's first Hutu president, was killed by members of the Tutsi-dominated army. The conflict has claimed some 300,000 mainly civilian lives, according to the United Nations. The talks in Nairobi, held in the presence of US ambassador to Burundi, James Yellin, and the UN envoy to Burundi, Berhanu Dinka, came just days after FNL rebels shelled the presidential mansion in Bujumbura. The rebel delegation is led "by a high-ranking official, the FNL armed forces chief of staff in person," Habimana said, without giving his full name. A Burundi government source told AFP that "the government has mandated a delegation to negotiate with the FNL in Nairobi, and to try to convince them to adhere to the current peace process." The government delegation is led by Ambroise Niyonsaba, a Tutsi who has been the main government negotiator for several years. Five senior officers in the delegation include colonels Lazare Nduwayo and Bernard Bandonkeye, as well as Francoise Ngendahayo, the minister in charge of reintegrating returning displaced people and refugees, government and rebel sources said. "During these discussions in Nairobi, we will talk about holding real negotiations between Burundi's ethnic groups in order to reach peace," Habimana said.

IRIN 1 Dec 2003 Burundi: Former rebels arrive in Bujumbura to take up ministerial posts BUJUMBURA, 1 Dec 2003 (IRIN) - Two members of Burundi's largest former rebel movement, the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD), who were recently appointed ministers, arrived on Sunday in the capital, Bujumbura, after several years in exile. The two, Simon Nyandwi and Onesime Nduwimana, were appointed on 23 November as interior minister and minister for communications and government spokesman, respectively. Nyandwi arrived from Tanzania where he had been for eight years while Nduwimana arrived from Germany where he had spent the last eight years. "We are very happy to return home after a long stay in exile, this is an indication that peace is coming in Burundi," they told reporters in Bujumbura. "It's time to put together our efforts for the return of peace and give up division among Burundians," Nyandwi said. "Burundians killed each other because of ethnic and regional divisions, this is the past, we have to look forward to the reconstruction of our nation." CNDD-FDD leader Pierre Nkurunziza who was appointed Minister of State for Good Governance and the movement's deputy secretary-general, Salvator Ntahomenyereye, who was appointed Minister of Public Works, were expected in Bujumbura soon, Nyandwi and Nduwimana said. At the same time, two CNDD-FDD members who will represent the movement in the Joint Ceasefire monitoring Committee (JCC) have also arrived in the country. All senior officials of the CNDD-FDD will be under the protection of the peacekeeping African Mission in Burundi comprising troops from Ethiopia, Mozambique and South Africa before the integration of the former rebel faction's combatants into the country's new security forces. President Domitien Ndayizeye reshuffled his cabinet to accommodate the CNDD-FDD in accordance with a power-sharing agreement between the two parties that was signed on 16 November in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Under that agreement, the CNDD-FDD is also due to get 40 percent of posts in the army staff and 35 percent in the police. It will have two posts in the bureau of the parliament and will be represented by 15 members of parliament. The three-year transitional government was established in Burundi following the signing of the Arusha Accord for Peace and Reconciliation on 28 August 2000, allowing for two 18-month phases under which the country would be led by a Tutsi and Hutu, respectively.

AFP 1 Dec 2003 Burundi rebels walk out of talks with government BUJUMBURA, Dec 1 (AFP) - The last active Hutu armed group in war-ravaged Burundi has walked out of internationally brokered talks in Nairobi, their spokesman said Monday, complaining that their interlocutors represented a government unrecognised by the movement. "We went to Nairobi to ... reach an understanding on holding real negotiations with all of Burundi's ethnic groups, but the Tutsis we met were behind the government," Pasteur Habimana, spokesman for the National Liberation Forces (FNL) told AFP by phone. "So it's a stalemate, and our delegation has already left Nairobi," he added. Sunday's walkout came a day after the start of the meeting between FNL rebel leaders and a government delegation made up of representatives of the minority Tutsi ethnic group and senior army officers. Some 300,000 people have been killed in Burundi since armed Hutus rose up against the Tutsi-dominated army and the then Tutsi-led government in 1993. All other Hutu rebel groups have now signed peace deals with the current transitional government, which is made up of people from both ethnic groups. The talks took place in the presence of the US ambassador to Burundi, James Yellin, and UN envoy Berhanu Dinka. They were due to wrap up on Monday. "It was a waste of time. The international community promised us talks witht the Tutsis and they sent us a government delegation," complained Habimana. The FNL has long refused to negotiate with the government, insisting the real power in Burundi lay with the Tutsi leadership of the army. "We are ready to resume negotiations with the Tutsis anytime but we will never negotiate with the Bujumbura government which does not exist," said Habimana. The government, formed under the provisions of a power-sharing deal signed by Burundian politians in 2000, enjoys international recognition, and is led by President Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu. The FNL would only lift its refusal to talk directly to the government, said the spokesman, if "all successive governments write us a letter admitting that they organised the genocide of Tutsis and Hutus". Since independence in 1961, Burundi has seen several episodes of ethnic bloodletting in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed. Eighty percent of Burundi's population are Hutu, 14 percent Tutsi and one percent are Twa. Also Sunday, two of the four new ministers of a rival Hutu rebel group, the Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD), arrived in Bujumbura, where it has become part of a power-sharing government formed by Ndayizeye a week ago. Interior Minister Simon Nyandwi and Communications Minister Onesime Ndiwimana, accompanied by three other FDD officials, were received by the African Union representative to Burundi, Mamadou Bah. The FNL, said to number between 1,500 and 2,500 fighters, have rejected a November 16 ultimatum by regional leaders to enter peace talks with Bujumbura within three months or face sanctions.

Business Day ZA 3 Dec 2003 Zuma to lobby UN to take over AU's peace effort in Burundi International Affairs Editor IN AN effort to persuade the United Nations (UN) to take over the African Union's (AU's) peace support operation in Burundi and to seek more donor support, Deputy President Jacob Zuma will hold talks with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and address the Security Council tomorrow. But UN backing for the mission is unlikely as UN rules require that there be a comprehensive cease-fire arrangement for any backing. While the largest Hutu rebel group, the CNDD-FDD, signed a peace agreement with Burundi's transitional government last month, one group, the FNL, remains outside the agreement. This group continues to fight and last month shelled the capital of Bujumbura, forcing 12000 civilians to flee the city. While the UN may not itself become directly involved because of the absence of a cease-fire agreement, it could still offer expanded financial support for the AU. Zuma will be able to make the case that the majority of rebels are now within a peace accord that also allows all signatories to be represented in government. SA will also be trying to raise funds for the mission at a donor conference in Pretoria later this month. So far, SA has received funding from the European Union (EU), which has covered just a small portion of the South African National Defence Force's deployment costs. The US has paid for the deployment of Ethiopian forces, and the UK for the Mozambican contingent. But SA is hoping that the accord signed between Burundi's transitional government and the CNDD-FDD last month in Pretoria, will pave the way for UN-funding and involvement. The AU argues that its mission in Burundi was established as a stop-gap measure until the conditions are conducive to UN participation. The AU's peace-keeping operation in Burundi, the first it has carried out, is being run along the lines of a UN peace support mission. Its mandate is confined to the protection of returning politicians and overseeing camps where disarmed Hutu rebels are held before demobilisation. UN involvement stands to relieve SA of the substantial costs of the military deployment in Burundi, where SA has about 1400 troops. In the past fiscal year, this and next SA's peace-keeping operations in Burundi are expected to cost R2,6bn. Earlier this week, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad criticised donor countries, saying they were giving insufficient support to post-conflict efforts in African countries. Warning that the Rwanda genocide could come back to haunt industrial countries, Pahad said the lack of support seriously undermined efforts to develop the institutions and environment in which ceasefire agreements could hold.

AFP 5 Dec 2003 Rebel clashes near Burundi capital leave 28 dead, displace 15,000 BUJUMBURA, Dec 5 (AFP) - At least 20 rebels and eight soldiers were killed in Burundi this week, and some 15,000 people forced to flee their homes as government forces clashed with the central African country's last remaining Hutu rebel group, army and government sources said Friday. "Since Wednesday the army has been conducting military operations against the FNL (National Liberation Forces) in Kibuye zone," 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of Bujumbura, an army source who asked not to be named told AFP. "More than 20 rebels were killed while we lost eight from our side," he added. A local government official said more than 15,000 people had fled their homes in Kibuye. The governor of Bujumbura Rural province, Ignace Ntigwurirwa, said conditions facing the displaced were "more than worrying because it is now the rainy season and they are sleeping in the open." General Juvenal Niyoyunguruza, who commands the army in the western region, which includes the capital, on the banks of Lake Tanganyika, and Bujumbura Rural, said the rebels had lost fighters, but it was impossible to give a precise toll on the insurgents' side. "The FNL sustained losses but they take most of their bodies with them. We had five soldiers wounded and no deaths," he claimed. "Operations are continuing," he told AFP. FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said there had been clashes and that the army had "used lots of heavy artillery," but declined to comment further. "They want war. We will see who will win," he said. Unlike several other armed Hutu groups in Burundi, the FNL has refused to negotiate directly with the government, insisting on talking only with the army or leaders of the Tutsi minority community. The country's largest armed Hutu group, the Forces for the Defence of Democracy, signed a comprehensive peace deal with the government and joined its ranks last month. Burundi's civil war has killed more than 300,000 people, mostly civilians, since 1993.

BBC 7 Dec 2003 Burundi rebels say sorry for war Pierre Nkurunziza (l) arrives in the capital for the first time since 1993 A Hutu rebel leader in Burundi has asked for forgiveness for the harm his group caused civilians during the 10-year civil war. But Pierre Nkurunziza, of Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), said the war had been "forced on us". He was speaking on arrival in Burundi's capital Bujumbura to take up the job of Minister for Good Governance in the new power-sharing government. A smaller Hutu rebel group has refused to negotiate and is continuing attacks. Mr Nkurunziza arrived in Bujumbura on Saturday for the first time since the war began in 1993, which led to the deaths of more than 300,000 people. "We take this opportunity to ask forgiveness from the people of Burundi for all the harm we have done to them because of a war that was forced on us," he told a news conference. "For our part, we forgive those who imposed this war on us," he added. Mr Nkurunziza takes up the third most important government job following a peace accord signed in November. A handful of other government portfolios have been given to other FDD leaders. Talks However, the smaller Hutu rebel group, the Forces for National Liberation (FNL), have so far refused to recognise the government. FNL members met senior Tutsi government figures at a secret location in Nairobi earlier in the week. COALITION GOVERNMENT 4 FDD ministers 40% of army officers 15 MPs Second assembly vice-president Assembly deputy secretary general 2 ambassadors 35% of a new police force 35% of vacant secret service posts FDD fighters to be demobilised Q&A: Burundi's peace moves A spokesman stressed they did not recognise the legitimacy of the government, and were meeting officials and military leaders merely in their capacity as members of the Tutsi minority. "We are not negotiating with the government of President Domitien Ndayizeye, but with Tutsi delegates," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana told AFP news agency. In Bujumbura, the new FDD ministers said they were happy to return home from exile under the terms of the peace agreement.

AP 21 Dec 2003 Rights Group Slams Burundi Peace Deal NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- An international human rights group on Monday criticized a peace agreement giving soldiers and rebels temporary immunity from prosecution for atrocities committed against civilians in Burundi's 10-year civil war. More than 200,000 people have been killed, mostly civilians who often are targeted by rebels from the Hutu majority and soldiers from the Tutsi-dominated army. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said soldiers and rebels have been responsible for deliberate attacks on civilians -- including rapes, killings and looting -- during recent fighting. Last month, the main rebel group, the Forces for the Defense of Democracy, or FDD, and the transitional government reached a peace agreement in which they agreed to give temporary immunity to members of the armed forces and FDD fighters. But fighting continues between the army and another rebel group, the National Liberation Forces, or FNL. The FDD also has clashed with the FNL in recent months. ``With the recent agreements, government soldiers and FDD combatants have no need to fear being held accountable for their conduct,'' said Alison Des Forges, senior adviser to Human Rights Watch Africa division. ``Civilians pay and will continue to pay the price.'' Burundi's army spokesman, Col. Augustin Nzabampema, said he could not comment until he read the report. It was not immediately possible to contact the FNL, but FDD spokesman Gelase Daniel Ndabirabe said many atrocities happened during the war. ``Both sides will take time to discuss them. For the time being, we are not fighting. We are working for peace and are trying to cure the wounds,'' he said. In a report titled ``Everyday Victims, Civilians in the Burundi War,'' Human Rights Watch catalogues a series of attacks in which it says civilians were killed and raped by rebels and government soldiers between April and November. In an April attack in Kabezi, in Bujumbura Rurale province, civilians were killed in an exchange of fire between FNL rebels and government soldiers, who later deliberately killed more civilians near an ambush site used by the rebels, the report said. ``These killings illustrate the disregard of civilian lives by both government soldiers and FNL combatants as well as the deliberate killing of civilians by government soldiers,'' the report said. The immunity deal was an extension of a provisional immunity law approved by the transitional National Assembly in August. The purpose of the law was to protect Hutus who returned from exile as part of a power-sharing accord reached with Tutsis in August 2000. The Arusha accord called on the United Nations to set up an international inquiry to investigate allegations of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Burundi since it achieved independence from Belgium in 1962. But the commission has not been established, and the killing continues. The war broke out after Tutsi paratroopers killed the central African country's first democratically elected leader, a Hutu, but there had been cycles of killings by Hutu and Tutsis since independence. Despite being in the minority, Tutsis have governed the country for all but a few months since independence. On The Net: Human Rights Watch report: www.hrw.org/reports/2003/burundi1203

Côte d'Ivoire

ICG 28 Nov 2003 Côte d'Ivoire: "The war is not yet over" Freetown/Brussels, 28 November 2003: There are ominous signs that the Côte d'Ivoire peace process initiated in January 2003 has broken down. If the country goes back to war, it could well take all West Africa with it, endangering even recent progress in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The International Crisis Group's latest report, "Côte d'Ivoire: The War Is Not Yet Over," a copy of which is attached, examines the fragile equilibrium of neither peace nor war in the country and argues that the international community that has endorsed the peace accords brokered by France (the Linas-Marcoussis Accords) should take a greater interest in their implementation. The immediate need is to press President Gbagbo to welcome back into the "Reconciliation Government" ministers from the rebel groups who walked out in September to protest the president's unilateral measures. "The Security Council needs to take a leading role in the peace process", says Stephen Ellis, Director of the ICG Africa Program. "The UN presence must be upgraded to a full peacekeeping mission that subsumes 1,400 West African troops under the umbrella of an expanded operation and steps up cooperation with the ongoing UN peace operation in Liberia". After a year of civil war interspersed with precarious ceasefires, the governmental crisis threatens to destroy the only blueprint for peace that exists. Hardliners in President Gbagbo's FPI and his youth supporters, as well as "left out" rebel leaders can still mobilise support against the political process. A fresh outbreak of hostilities is being talked about openly by all sides. The peace accords implicitly condemn the ultra nationalism of Gbagbo and his party. Yet, they have also legitimated a rebellion while failing to address the conflict's regionalisation. The central challenge is to find a compromise between parties that still think like enemies so that the reconciliation process can bring the country safely to elections in 2005. What makes the need most urgent are ties between Ivorian troubles and those in neighbouring countries, which have meddled in the conflict just as President Gbagbo and his foes have been intimately involved in their difficulties. Armed bands, recruited for the Ivorian conflict or left over from previous wars, will continue to be a grave source of regional insecurity unless a comprehensive disarmament program is carried out. Urgent measures are needed to prevent Ivorian militias from being incorporated into Liberian militias lest those two conflicts continue to feed each other. While the French peacekeepers can do much that is needed on the ground, they are held back by Ivorian suspicions of the former colonial power. France needs more encouragement, particularly from the U.S. and the Security Council, to increase protection of civilians, and the international community also needs to help the ECOWAS peacekeepers so they can do more. "It should be made clear to the armed groups and their supporters, including the leaders of Burkina Faso and Guinea, that they risk prosecution for war crimes if they engage in further ethnic killing or disruption of peace processes", says Comfort Ero, West Africa Project Director at ICG.

SAPA 1 Dec 2003 Ivory Coast situation catches Mbeki's eye December 01 2003 at 01:24PM Johannesburg - South African President Thabo Mbeki on Monday expressed his concern over the deteriorating security situation in the Ivory Coast and the increasing possibility of a resumption in that country's civil war. Speaking at the opening of the 24th General Assembly of the World Veterans Federation in Sandton, Mbeki called on the country's people to look past petty differences at the consequences of war for themselves and their neighbours. Referring to a recent book by Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, who commanded United Nations troops in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide there, Mbeki said it was time to banish war from the process of structuring relations among human beings and between societies. "This also applies to the Cote d'Ivoire, which threatens to explode again into an orgy of mass killings unless the people of that country find it within themselves to respond to the call made by General Dallaire to 'rise above race, creed, colour, religion and national self-interest and put the good of humanity above the good of our own little tribe'." Mbeki was speaking a day after disgruntled soldiers briefly seized control of Ivory Coast's state television headquarters to broadcast demands that French and West African peacekeepers leave the war-divided country so that the military could attack northern-based rebels at their convenience. Although the country's civil war ended by agreement in July, the Ivory Coast is still divided along the former frontline and the rebels are refusing to take part in a power-sharing government. They claim President Laurent Gbagbo is refusing to devolve powers as provided for in a French-brokered peace deal in January. Gbagbo, for his part, wants the rebels to disarm first. The Ivory Coast has been politically volatile since its first coup d'etat in December 1999. About 4 000 French and 1 200 West African peacekeepers are patrolling the no man's land between the antagonists.

IRIN 1 Dec 2003 Côte d'Ivoire: Pro-Gbagbo youths demonstrate outside French base ABIDJAN, 1 December (IRIN) - Several hundred hardline youth supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo staged a rowdy demonstration outside the French military base in Abidjan on Monday demanding that 4,000 French peacekeepers patrolling a buffer zone between government and rebel forces leave Cote d'Ivoire. The demonstrators, belonging to militia style youth groups known as "Young Patriots," lit a fire in front of the base near Abidjan international airport and threw stones at French soldiers inside the perimeter fence after they tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas. Residents also reported demonstrations by Young Patriots demanding the immediate "liberation" of the rebel-held north of the country, in the working class suburb of Adjame. Gbagbo meanwhile remained silent about an incident on Sunday night, when unidentified officers interrupted state radio and television broadcasts to demand that he sack General Mathias Doue as military chief of staff, General Denis Bombet as head of the army, and General Gregoire Touvoly as head of the paramilitary gendarmerie. The unidentified officers, who appeared to have government authorisation to enter the television centre, urged Gbagbo to remove Doue within 48 hours. They also called on him to order French peacekeepers to leave the frontline so that government forces could "liberate" the rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire. Earlier on Sunday, a group of about 200 pro-Gbagbo youths, escorted by about 100 Ivorian government soldiers, clashed with French peacekeepers as they tried to march through the demilitarised buffer zone to the rebel capital Bouake. The two sides exchanged fire and the French peacekeepers destroyed an Ivorian government tank. Six Ivorian soldiers were wounded in the clash. The rebels signed a peace agreement with Gbagbo in January and joined a broad-based government of national reconciliation in April. But they withdrew in September, just before they were due to begin a process of disarmament. The rebels protested that Gbagbo had failed to devolve real power to the coalition cabinet in which they held nine seats. Since then, the situation in the country has become increasingly tense. Last week, clashes took place near the southern town of Gagnoa between villagers of Gbagbo's Bete tribe and several hundred immigrant cocoa farmers whom they had driven off their land. Up to seven people were reported killed, including one gendarme, in several days of fighting. Diplomats in Abidjan said they were pessimistic that the situation would improve quickly. They observed that a flurry of meetings between Gbagbo and other West African leaders in West Africa during November had failed to produce a reconciliation between the Ivorian president and rebel leaders. Rebel leaders were meeting in the northern town of Korhogo on Monday to discuss their response to the splits emerging in the government army and the re-appearance of the Young Patriots as a bellicose force on the streets, despite an official three-month ban on public demonstrations. Eugene Doue, the leader of a faction of the Young Patriots which vandalised the offices of French-owned water. electricity and mobile phone companies in early October, told IRIN on Monday: "We are not longer talking about disarmament. We are talking about liberating Bouake."

AP 2 Dec 2003 Ivory Coast Loyalists Demand All - Out War ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) -- Growing pro-government mobs armed with everything from assault rifles to rocks demanded a return Tuesday to all-out war against Ivory Coast's rebels -- and threatened attacks on the 16,000 French civilians here if French peacekeepers refuse to clear the way. In Paris, Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous said France would ``absolutely not'' bow to militant demands in its former colony. Surging war sentiment threatened to hurtle Ivory Coast back into a recently ended, nine-month civil war, completing destruction of what once was West Africa's most prosperous and stable nation, and destabilizing a region trying desperately to recover from civil wars. ``WAR! YES!'' loyalists chanted by the thousands at a pro-government militant rally Tuesday. Those with assault rifles thrust them skyward to the beat of the chants. Elsewhere in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's skyscraper-lined commercial capital, government-allied militants mounted a second day of rock-throwing, machete-waving attacks on the main French military base. French forces fired stun grenades and tear gas against the hundreds-strong crowd besieging the barracks gates, engulfed in billowing black smoke of barricades set afire by the mob. After looking on for two days, Ivory Coast security forces intervened in the afternoon to break up the riot at the French base. Paris has 4,000 troops in the former French colony to enforce a power-sharing deal aimed at bringing peace in the civil war, which has left the country split between rebel-held north and government-held south. Roughly 1,000 West African peacekeepers also are deployed in support of the agreement. Loyalist militias are demanding that French and West African peacekeepers pull back from the 400-mile cease-fire line -- allowing government troops to reopen attacks on the northern-based rebels. If not, some pro-government militias warned, they would open attacks on French citizens who live permanently in Ivory Coast. ``We give an ultimatum to the French...they have to leave the front-line,'' militant youth leader Narcisse N'Depo declared at the military base, as loyalists hurled back tear gas canisters fired by the French. ``If not, the next targets will be the residences, houses, goods and interests belonging to the French,'' N'Depo said. ``All that is French will be attacked.'' The angry mob, coupled with the militia threats, raised fears of a repeat of violent scenes from early this year, when anti-French riots rocked Abidjan -- pro-government youth trashing French businesses and spitting on French citizens at the airport as they tried to flee. The French army base is far from the center of town, however, and most of Abidjan was calm Tuesday, despite the threats. Some mothers hurried to bring children home early from a school for French expatriates. French Embassy spokesman Francis Guenon said only, ``We are going to take the necessary measures.'' At one rally, Ivory Coast's most influential pro-government youth leader told thousands of followers to participate Wednesday in another demonstration at the French army base, but said this one would be peaceful. He also told them to be ready to march on the French-held cease-fire line Friday. ``If ever the French try to stop us, we will have to fight against them,'' Ble Goude, flanked by men cradling AK-47s, told supporters. But Goude, the force behind the anti-French riots earlier in the year, renounced the threats to harm French families. ``Do not attack French civilians,'' the youth leader told followers. But he warned: ``The next shot from the French army against a civilian or soldier from Ivory Coast will be very fatal for the French.'' Ivory Coast Defense Minister Rene Amani went on national television Tuesday night to warn that public demonstrations had been banned by the government and to assure all those living in Ivory Coast that the country's security forces would protect them. Despite those assurances, the French embassy decided to close all French schools in Abidjan on Wednesday as a precaution. Over the weekend, at least six of Goude's followers were injured when civilians backed by Ivory Coast soldiers marched on the cease-fire line. French forces pushed them back, firing upon and destroying one Ivory Coast armored vehicle. Anger over that clash helped to spark the last two days of riots and threats. Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, in an interview Tuesday with France's Le Figaro daily, noted that the government is much better armed now than it was during the war -- and said loyalist soldiers and militias were spoiling for a fight. ``I can understand why they are fed up,'' Gbagbo told Le Figaro. ``The problem is that the French are between them and the rebels, and they want to finish with the war.'' However, Gbagbo said of the French peacekeepers: ``I am the one who asked the ... troops to be here and I have not changed my mind.'' In Bouake, stronghold of the rebel-held north, rebel commander Cherif Ousmane declared: ``We are ready and waiting for our enemies.'' Rebels urged northerners to be on alert for government incursions, asking civilians to help sound the alarm if attack came. Ivory Coast -- the world's largest cocoa producer -- stood for decades as the anchor of France's former West African empire, its economy and its government the soundest of the region. A 1999 coup shattered stability. Ethnic, political, regional and religious tensions have surged since, with northerners and immigrants accusing the southern-based government of fueling hatreds.

Reuters 12 Dec 2003 At Least 10 Killed in Ivory Coast Shooting Reuters By Ange Aboa ABIDJAN (Reuters) - At least 10 people were shot dead near a roadblock in the heart of Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan on Thursday night, military officials said, a further sign of instability in the war-divided West African country. "They tried to attack the (state television). Our riposte left more than 10 dead. Since then we have been patrolling to put an end to this attack," said Ahosse Amie, a sergeant in the paramilitary police. "One of us was injured in the shooting," he added. Tensions are running high in the world's top cocoa-producing nation, which remains divided between the government-controlled south and rebel-held north despite a formal end to a civil war which erupted last year after a failed coup. Thursday night's shooting is the worst single incident in the economic capital Abidjan since rebels tried to seize power in September last year. Around 300 people were killed as the insurgents battled government troops in the city. State television on Friday showed at least four different bodies, filmed at night and lying in pools of blood. One of the corpses had magic charms wrapped around the torso. Soldiers said the attackers were traveling in a beaten-up minibus. A senior army officer in the West African nation said 12 attackers had been killed and one member of the Ivorian security forces died in three separate incidents overnight in Cocody and another suburb called Abobo. Presidency spokesman Toussaint Alain said three people had been arrested after the incidents. Shaken residents of Cocody gathered at the site of the shooting -- a junction dubbed the "Crossroads of Death" because of the frequent traffic accidents there. ARMY PATROLS There were blood stains and piles of clothes by the roadblock on Friday, not far from the state television building. Paramilitary police were out in force. Witnesses saw one bare-chested man being bundled into a police truck. "At around midnight my wife and I heard gunfire. We went up to the third floor and looked down and our watchman told us they had just killed some bandits," said Michel Agnero, a teacher who lives by the crossroads. Armored personnel carriers roamed the streets near Cocody in the early hours of the morning shortly after the shooting and bursts of gunfire could be heard. Twitchy gendarmes crammed into a pickup truck with a mounted machinegun, warning lights flashing and rifles at the ready, stopped vehicles and shouted at occupants to get out. It was not clear who the dead were or what triggered the shooting. State television showed a black T-shirt with the lettering "Brigade Nindja." Soldiers said the attackers had been wearing them. A peace process in the former French colony has become deadlocked over rebel political demands and a call by President Laurent Gbagbo for them to lay down their guns. The Ivorian army and rebel officers have agreed to start withdrawing heavy weapons from the frontline dividing the country from Saturday, but there is no set date for full-scale disarmament as yet. Some pro-Gbagbo loyalists have pledged to attack rebel positions if they don't disarm next week although the cease-fire line and a no-weapons buffer zone is policed by some 4,000 French soldiers and 1,300 West African peacekeepers. (Additional reporting by Silvia Aloisi, Anne Boher, Emmanuel Braun, Alain Amontchi and Matt Bigg) .

DR Congo

Reuters 5 Dec 2003 Priest Sought in Poisoning of 64 in Congo By REUTERS KINSHASA, Congo, Dec. 4 (Reuters) A priest is being sought by the authorities after 64 members of his congregation were poisoned to death by a potion he said would grant them salvation, Congo's health minister said Thursday. "Sixty-four of the approximately hundred people who drank the potion have died," the health minister, Yagi Sitolo, said. The incident happened about a week ago in the remote town of Bosobe, about 315 miles northeast of Kinshasa, the capital. Years of war has left millions dead and most of the country's essential services destroyed. Much of the population has had little education, and vast swathes of the country are cut off from the rest of the world. Churches have increased since the start of the war. They often collect sizable donations in exchange for promises of help. Many of the churches are known to advocate belief in child witchcraft, offering exorcisms for a fee. The health minister said the authorities in Bosobe were looking for the priest who had fled for fear of recrimination. "There is an investigation in process," the official said. "We will find out what has happened."

Ethiopia

NYT 17 Dec 2003 ETHIOPIA: AFTER 9 YEARS, THE DEFENSE The genocide trial of the former Ethiopian leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam, entered the defense phase, nine years after its start. Mr. Mengistu, who lives in exile in Zimbabwe, is being tried in absentia with scores of his former aides. Ethiopia's courts have convicted more than 1,000 people for their roles in the so-called Red Terror, which Human Rights Watch has labeled "one of the most systematic uses of mass murder by a state ever witnessed in Africa." Marc Lacey

Ethiopia Gambella:

All Africa.com 15 Dec 2003 100 Reported Dead After Soldiers Target Civilians in Gambella By Charles Cobb Jr. Washington, DC Soldiers in the town of Gambella, 450km (280 miles) west of Addis Ababa, are reported to have engaged since Saturday in violent attacks against leading members of a local ethnic group, leaving 100 or more people dead. According to some reports, the attacks came after the deaths of seven men, including three government officials and one police officer, when their convoy was ambushed Saturday morning, allegedly by members of the Anuak, or Anyuaa group. One report cites Ethiopian officials as saying the ambush provoked clashes between Anuak and Nuer, the largest ethnic group in that area; that fighting left 21 dead and was the justification for deploying government soldiers in the town to restore order. But local sources say the soldiers' action looked more like a punishment operation against Anuak people. A US church source who wished to remain anonymous for fear of compromising his church's contacts in Gambella, told allAfrica.com: "It is reported to me that over 200 people have been killed." According to this source, the Ethiopian military police on Saturday started "pulling out educated people and community leaders" and "killing them with guns or by slitting their throats;" he said local people believed Anuaks were specifically targeted. He quoted missionary sources in Addis Ababa as reporting that Anuak students at Gambella's Teacher Training Institute had been rounded up and taken away, Monday morning. He said sources in Gambella city had told him that the Catholic church compound was full of people taking refuge from the violence and that they had almost no supplies. "People have not been able to come out of their compounds for fear of being shot. It is the third day and citizens are concerned for their children having no food and water," he said. Citing "chaotic" scenes, he mentioned a case of two people who tried to retrieve bodies from the street and were themselves shot. A local church official reported Monday that there were five bodies outside his house but he could not risk going out to remove them. A US citizen has reportedly been arrested by the soldiers. Omot Omot Bewar, formerly a refugee from the area who came to the US seeking asylum is currently in Gambella on a visit to his former home. According to friends in Minnesota where he is normally a student, he attempted to video the violence and was beaten and detained. News reports from the region are still sketchy and confused. A U.S. State Department spokesperson said he and the Department were "unaware" of the violence. A BBC report cited "humanitarian sources" as charging that Anuaks are the targets of violence by "highland Ethiopians." The army is "involved in restoring stability and order," an Ethiopian Defense Ministry spokesperson told Associated Press on condition of anonymity. She said an investigation is under way to determine what sparked the violence and that the government aims to find those responsible. Recent oil exploration agreements with multinationals have fueled tensions over land rights amid jockeying for control of potentially lucrative oil fields. Under a deal signed in June, Petronas has exclusive rights to "explore and develop" some 15,000 square kilometers in the region, which borders Sudan - a major African oil producer.

IRIN 16 Dec 2003 21 killed in tribal fighting ADDIS ABABA, 16 December (IRIN) - At least 21 people have been killed as troops tried to quell tribal violence that has flared in one of Ethiopia's remotest regions. Soldiers were moved into Gambella in western Ethiopia after seven men - including one policemen and three government officials - were shot dead on Saturday. The attack occurred as the men - three of whom were working for the government's refugee agency - were travelling to Gambella town. It fuelled reprisal killings the following day and 14 people were murdered and houses were burnt to the ground, the Ethiopian ministry of defence stated. But humanitarian sources say the death toll could be far higher, with up to 100 people killed during the weekend fighting. The defence ministry stated that an investigation has been launched to try and bring the killers to justice although no-one has been caught yet. "The army are already involved in restoring stability and order," said a spokeswoman for the defence ministry in Addis Ababa. The initial attack has been blamed on the Anuak ethnic group who live in the region, the official added. Anuaks in the town are then said to have been attacked in reprisal killings. The spokeswoman said that seven people were killed on Saturday and that 14 Anuaks had been killed the following day in the brutal reprisal attacks. Humanitarian sources say that the construction of a US $1.8 million refugee camp - which will house Dinka and Nuer refugees - has provoked anger among Anuaks. Gambella is home to around 87,000 refugees and five camps run by the government's Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA) with the UN refugee agency (UNCHR). Ilung Ngandu, head of the UNHCR in Ethiopia, expressed concern for the safety of his 16 staff in the area, but said they had been in regular contact. "We deplore this incident against humanitarian workers," he said from his office in Addis Ababa. "We are reviewing our security situation." The region - which is around 600 miles west of the capital Addis Ababa and borders Sudan - has witnessed an explosion in ethnic violence in the last two years. Much of the fighting has been between two ethic groups - the Nuer who live close to the Ethio-Sudan border and the Anuak tribe. Late last year 41, mainly Dinka refugees from war-torn Sudan, were murdered in a refugee camp where some 28,000 people had sought protection. The killings were blamed on armed Anuak refugees who indiscriminately opened fire. Four months earlier, 60 people were killed after gunmen from the Nuer ethnic group attacked Anuaks, forcing some 8,000 people to flee their homes. Earlier this year the ministry of federal affairs stepped in to quell the ethic violence. The president of the region was arrested and is currently facing charges of inciting ethnic hatred. The entire local police force was disbanded. A local power-sharing administration was also set up representing the Anuak and the Nuer ethnic groups who inhabit the region. A battalion of around 500 Ethiopian troops was moved into the region to help restore order while the new police force was being trained. Around 182,000 people live in Gambella Region. The Anuak make up some 27 percent, with the Nuer representing the majority group with 40 percent of the population. But the Anuak question the legitimacy of the Nuer who they say are usurpers who have crossed the border from Sudan. Nuers say they lack political representation.

UNHCR 16 Dec 2003 www.unhcr.ch Situation Remains Tense in Gambella Region United Nations High Commission for Refugees (Geneva) PRESS RELEASE December 16, 2003 The situation in Ethiopia's Gambella region remained tense for the third day following last Saturday's killing of eight people, among them three employees of UNHCR's main implementing partner in Ethiopia - the government's department of Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA). The group of eight, which included the three ARRA staff, two policemen and three construction workers, was killed in an ambush 18 kms from the western Ethiopia town of Gambella on Saturday morning. The group was on their way to Odier-Bol, a new site being developed for the relocation of some 24,000 refugees from the nearby Fugnido refugee camp, when their vehicle came under machine-gun fire. Four people died on the spot while four others, including the ARRA staff were killed as they tried to escape into the bush. It is not clear who was behind the killings. The incident on Saturday unleashed a spiral of violence which has left an estimated 30 people dead and many more homeless after scores of homes were torched in what appeared to be reprisal attacks. By yesterday (Monday), shops, schools, offices and banks in Gambella remained closed. Domestic flights between the capital, Addis Ababa and Gambella were cancelled. The local hospital was reported to be overstretched as scores of wounded people were brought in. By yesterday, there was a heavy military presence deployed by the government to restore calm. Sporadic gunfire that could be heard on Sunday subsided following the military deployment. On Monday, senior government officials arrived in the town close to the Ethiopia-Sudan border to negotiate peace between the warring ethnic groups. As a precautionary measure, UNHCR has withdrawn non-essential staff from Gambella and has, this morning, sent in two security staff to make a detailed assessment of the security situation in the area, including the nearby Fugnido camp. The situation in Fugnido has remained calm. We are now waiting for recommendations from the security team before taking other security measures. .

Reuters 17 Dec 2003 Ethiopia accuses rebels of inciting killings By Tsegaye Tadesse ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia accused rebel groups on Wednesday of inciting unrest in which up to 30 people were killed in the western town of Gambella last week. "The conflict in Gambella town last weekend was triggered by members of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) supported by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) and al Itihad al Islamiya," Minister of State for Federal Affairs Gbre-Ab Barnabas said in a statement. "Many people...lost their lives in the incident," he added. Addis Ababa has previously accused the groups of anti-government activity. U.N. sources said the conflict involved the Anuak and Nuer ethnic groups who have traditionally clashed over land. Government and United Nations sources told Reuters that up to 30 people died during the violence near Gambella, some 700 km (435 miles) west of the capital Addis Ababa. Ilunga Ngandu, representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ethiopia, said an ambush on Saturday in which eight people were killed sparked the bloodshed. An unidentified gang attacked a U.N. car travelling from a new refugee camp to the UNHCR offices in Gambella. Three people working for the state-run refugee agency, two policemen and three casual labourers were killed. "After people in Gambella heard about the killing, violence erupted and a number of people were also killed in retaliation," Ngandu said. Ngandu said the UNHCR had subsequently moved 10 non-essential staff out of Gambella. A U.N. and government assessment team had gone to Gambella, which was now calm. Ethiopia has blamed OLF rebels, fighting for independence for the southern Oromo region since 1993, of being behind a series of bombings in the country over the past year. The EPLF is the ruling party in neighbouring Eritrea, which fought a border war with Ethiopia in 1998-2000. Tensions between the two countries remain high. Al Itihad al Islamiya is thought by some analysts to be linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

IRIN 17 Dec 2003 UN refugee agency evacuates staff from Gambella ADDIS ABABA, 17 Dec 2003 (IRIN) - The UN refugee agency has evacuated its non-essential staff from western Ethiopia after violence that left an estimated 30 people dead and dozens injured. UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said the local hospital had been “overwhelmed” after a weekend of fighting in Gambella, 800 km west of Addis Ababa. A daylight 7am till 7pm curfew has also been imposed in the ravaged town by the regional authorities, according to UN sources with contacts in the town. A large military presence has restored calm but the situation is still extremely tense. Fighting erupted on Saturday when seven people were killed in a vehicle which came under machine gun fire as they drove to a new site for a refugee camp which will house some 24,000 people. Four men were killed instantly, while the others – who were government refugee workers - were chased into the bush before being shot, Janowski said in a statement from Geneva. “The incident on Saturday unleashed a spiral of violence which has left an estimated 30 people dead and many more homeless after scores of homes were torched in what appeared to be reprisal attacks,” the statement said. “On Monday, senior government officials arrived in the town close to the Ethiopia-Sudan border to negotiate peace between the warring ethnic groups,” it added. Flights to Gambella from the Ethiopian capital have also been cancelled while shops, schools, offices and banks in the town all remain closed, UNHCR said. According to local sources, Anuak residents in Gambella are unhappy over the proposed refugee camp which will house Neur and Dinka refugees. Anuak and Nuer have been fighting in recent years over land and political representation in the area.

News 24 SA (South Africa) 17 Dec 2003 www.news24.com Ethiopia clashes claim 30 Geneva - About 30 people have been killed and dozens wounded in ethnic clashes in southwest Ethiopia, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday, announcing the withdrawal of its non-essential staff from the region. The fighting was triggered by an ambush on Saturday, after which gunmen killed at least eight people near the town of Gambella, Kris Janowski, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said here. "The incident unleashed a spiral of violence which has left an estimated 30 people dead and many more homeless after scores of homes were torched in what appeared to be reprisal attacks," Janowski said. "The local hospital was reported to be overstretched as scores of wounded people were brought in," he added. Janowski said that Gambella had remained "very tense" on Monday, with shops, schools, banks and offices all closed. Domestic air flights to the capital from Gambella had been suspended. But the Ethiopian minister of state for federal affairs, quoted by the Ethiopian News Agency, said on Tuesday in Addis Ababa calm had returned to the town. An attempt by an anti-peace group to destabilise the security of the state has been foiled, Dr Gebre-Ab Barnabas said in a statement. The "anti-peace group who received military training in a neighbouring country has killed eight innocent people working at a refugee camp", he said. The attack was carried out by members of an "anti-peace group supported by anti-people organisations such as the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) and Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya," the minister added. Addis Ababa has often accused the EPLF, the governing party in neighbouring Eritrea, of supporting and training militants of the OLF, an armed separatist group in South Ethiopia. Somali Islamist group Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya (Unity of Islam) has also been accused by Ethiopia of having direct links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. Tuesday at mid-day, 14 bodies were recovered from the ashes of burnt residential houses and shops in Gambella, and the search for more bodies is still going, said Major Harnet Yohannes, a defence spokesperson in Addis Ababa. .

www.ethiomedia.com AND www.oromoliberationfront.org 18 Dec 2003 Press Release by Gambela People's United Democratic Front PRESS RELEASE A hated regime perpetuates ethnic slaughter to prolong its life in power On Saturday December the 13th, 2003 EPRDF government soldiers targeted the ethnic Anuak civilians in Gambella region. While most killings that took the lives of more than 350 Anuaks were committed in Gambella town, which started with the killings of educated Anuaks, the genocide is also currently continuing in all areas where Anuaks live. Our reliable sources from Gambella indicated that the attack came after the death of seven people, including three government officials who were visiting the area. Their car was ambushed by unknown gangs, allegedly some refugees who were opposed to a government plan to remove the refugees' camp. However, the government alleged that the officials were ambushed by the Anuaks only because the accident took place in an Anuak territory. But the fact was that this is a pre-planned strategy by the EPRDF to deceive highlander Ethiopians that the Anuaks were opposed to them, and create the pretext to commit gross crimes against humanity. To our dismay, Mr. Meles' Defense Ministry spokesperson went on the mass media and issued a false statement which complicates the matter, stating that the tragedy was the outcome of a conflict between the Anuaks and the Nuers. To the contrary, however, there was no single fight occurred between the Anuaks and the Nuers. Therefore, the statement is a clear indication that the EPRDF government is fully responsible for such crime committed against humanity. One journalist working for Reuters also came out with a story echoeing the government's baselss accusation, contrary to ethics of professional journalists. The statement cited Dr. Gebrab Barnabas, the Federal Minister who blamed the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Eritrean government. Well, if we to assumed that the government statement was correct, the question is what would justify EPRDF's crimes of genocide against the Anuaks inside Gambella? Is OLF fighting the Anuaks or the Ethiopian army? Moreover, Gambella is not an Oromo territory. Unlike the pervious ethnic cleansing which was sparked between the Anuaks and Nuers by EPRDF, this one took a different approach but greatly resembled to the tragedies that EPRDF committed in Awassa and Tepi towns of Southern states, where the EPRDF government used their strategic and tactical allies to commit mass murder against the Magenger and other southern Ethiopian civilians. While many of these mass murders which have been taking place in different provinces since the EPRDF came to power 12 years ago in what was peaceful Ethiopia, they all carry the same objectives, and that is to divert the attention of one national issue so as to prolong the life of EPRDF. The real motive, however, is that the EPRDF government has failed to govern Gambella for the last 12 years of rule and nightmare imposed upon Ethiopian people. EPRDF has not only failed to win the support of the people of Gambella, particularly who are the few educated in the area, but also severely exhausted all its efforts of divide and rule in Gambella, and it doesn't have a future in Gambella. Last year was the Nuer and Majanger fetched against the Anuaks. But to no avail. When all these divide and rule policies failed, we have now witnessed EPRDF forces mass-murdering the Anuaks openly in daylight. The reason is obvious, and that is, the Anuaks became a victim for only one reason: for standing tall as proud Ethiopians. In Gambella, the EPRDF regime is the most hated ruling clique the Anuaks had ever seen in Ethiopian history. They resent the un-Ethiopians government and its apartheid policy of the regime. The vicious attack on civilian Anuaks was carried out in coordination with the so called anti-Ethiopia forces operating in the area, those share the same philosophy with the EPRDF regime. The questions many outsider and foreigners, particularly journalists, ask is why the government committed such genocide on it own citizens? And why in the world a government that enjoyed the support of the United States and the civilized western world would commit such a heinous crime and mass murder on its own citizens which could be compared with Adolf Hitler's Holocaust on the Jewish people and Saddam Hussien's on the Kurds people? The following evidence and systematic oppressive policies would highlight as to what the government is after. The objectives of the Meles regime are clear: 1. Having found itself to be the most hated government in Gambella, the EPRDF government begin a systematic policy by jailing 62 Anuaks politicians in Addis Ababa and more than 300 in Gambella. Over the year from 1998-2003, many educated Anuaks left Ethiopia for fear of their life. Moreover, the EPRDF set up the Anauks the road of conflict with other Ethiopian ethnic groups in the region. In all ethnic cleansing taking place in Gambella, Anuaks are the victims. During these barbaric attacks inflicted on Anuaks, the EPRDF provided guns and operational logistics to other ethnic groups to kill Anuaks. 2. Anuaks are subjected to such brutality and misdeed by the government, only for embracing Ethiopian identity which the EPRDF government resented. To confuse the issues, EPRDF created an atmosphere where the business owners in Gambella, mostly Ethiopian highlanders, can be in conflict with the natives of the area, particularly the Anuaks. 3. By mistreating the Anuaks, the EPRDF and its puppet groups that operate against the national interests of Ethiopia, are desperately looking for the surrender of the Anuak people as the ruling clique's subservient subjects. The Anuaks are proud Ethiopian citizens, and they would rather continue to struggle for the respect of human rights and the reign of a democratically-elected regime than fulfill the hidden, anti-Ethiopian interests of the hated regime in power. ETHIOMEDIA.COM - ETHIOPIA'S PREMIER NEWS AND VIEWS WEBSIT

www.addistribune.com 19 Dec 2003 Clashes among Refugees Leave Dozens Dead in Western Ethiopia, UN Reports Tensions remain high among Sudanese refugees in western Ethiopia after weekend violence killed dozens of people, including three staff members from an Ethiopian government office, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Responding to the clashes that took place in Ethiopia's Gambella area, which hosts 85,000 refugees, UNHCR proposed relocating some 24,000 refugees to Odier-Bol, 74 kilometres away. Officials on their way to the refugee site under construction at Odier-Bol were ambushed on Saturday in an attack that left eight dead, including the Ethiopians from the government's Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs. The deaths ignited a wave of ethnic clashes that left an estimated 30 people dead, according to UNHCR. Many more were homeless after their shelters were torched in what appeared to be reprisal assaults. Sporadic gunfire was heard in the area on Sunday. By Monday, the Government had deployed troops to restore calm in Gambella. Senior government officials also arrived in the town, which is close to the Ethiopian-Sudanese border, to negotiate peace between the warring ethnic groups, the UN agency reported. Shops, schools, offices and banks in Gambella remained closed on Monday, domestic flights between the town and the capital were cancelled and the local hospital was reportedly overwhelmed by scores of wounded people. UNHCR said it had pulled out its non-essential staff from Gambella as a precautionary measure. It had also sent two security staff to assess the situation in the area, including Fugnido camp, 100 kilometres away, which was reported to be calm. Late last year, a spate of clashes involving ethnic Anuaks, or Anyuaa, who straddle the Sudanese-Ethiopian border, on the one hand, and the Sudanese Nuers and Dinkas on the other, killed 107 Sudanese refugees in Fugnido camp. According to a 2002 UN report, the factors causing conflict in Gambella include "the question of the majority population in the region and what language should be taught in school and a general feeling, or apprehension, among Anyuaa that they are being dominated by the pastoralist Nuers, who enter Anyuaa territory in search of grazing land and water."

VOA 19 Dec 2003 Tensions Ease In Ethiopia's Gambella Region Amid Military Presence Joe De Capua Washington The security situation in the western Ethiopian town of Gambella is reported to have improved somewhat since last weekend’s ethic violence. More than 30-people were killed. The violence affected operations by the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. Peter Kessler is a spokesman for the UNHCR. From Geneva, he spoke to English to Africa reporter Joe De Capua about the situation in Gambella. Mr. Kessler says, “Following the incidents earlier this week when scores were killed, including three workers from our partner agency – the Ethiopian Government Administration for Refugee Returnee Affairs – UNHCR pulled its non-essential staff out of the Gambella region. However, we’re told the situation has stabilized. There’s been a big deployment of Ethiopian government forces to ensure security in that area and some shops and government offices have reopened and people are on the streets in Gambella town.” The UNHCR has only basic services underway at the moment and precautions have been taken to protect staff members. The Gambella region hosts 85,000 Sudanese refugees in five camps and settlements. The Fugnido camp is the largest with 28,000 people.

Liberia see also Sweden

Reuters 2 Dec 2003 Disarming violent youths key to stability in Liberia Weapons are not limited to military uses in the African trouble spot; they are also the only means for many teenagers to survive By Matthew Green REUTERS Tuesday, Dec 02, 2003,Page 9 Sam accepted the offer of a cigarette, let his AK-47 rifle fall to his side and admitted that a life spent as a Liberian rebel had largely been a waste. "Brother's been killing brother," said the 29-year-old, speaking in Buchanan, a once-thriving Atlantic port now ruled by teenage gunmen in flip-flop sandals. "We're tired of war," he said. Yesterday UN peacekeepers were to launch a scheme to give an estimated 40,000 fighters the chance to turn their backs on a life of drug-fuelled rape and murder by handing in their guns and learning a trade. The plan sounds simple: end 14 years of war in Liberia by removing weapons that have spread to fuel conflicts in neighboring Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone. Liberians used to living at the mercy of teenagers with machine guns agree it is an excellent idea, saying disarmament is the only way to enforce a peace deal signed by the government and rebels in August. The UN has enlisted gospel artists, the hip-grinding performance of a woman singer called Ladylove and a clown named George to help convince fighters to lay down their arms, but it may not be easy. "I WANT TO KNOW BOOK" Sam's "Delta Force" comrade Emmanuel summed up the problem -- finding the combatants a way to make a living other than by taking what they want at gunpoint. "That thing give him food to eat," he said, giving Sam's battered rifle a tap on its barrel. Add to that mistrust among factions, a lack of UN troops and a flow of weapons from abroad, and the task of disarmament takes on monumental proportions. Buchanan seems to offer hope that at least some rebels might join the disarmament program, following 800 fighters, mainly government troops, who have already signed up. On the edge of town, a 16-year-old rebel gunman called John levies money from a car crossing a bridge over the river, the only break in the tangle of palm fronds and creepers flanking the road. "I want to go to school, I want to know book," he said, displaying ritual chest scars to stop bullets. "I don't want to be in the army, I want to be a businessman," he said. UN officials say they are confident of receiving US$50 million from donors for the program to demobilize and retrain ex-combatants, but unemployment already stands at 85 percent in a country where war has smashed the economy. Demobilization officers say up to half the combatants may be child soldiers, a lost generation who can fire a gun but cannot read, and who will also soon want work. In Buchanan, 118km southeast of the capital Monrovia, rusted machinery at the port bears stark witness to disruption of industries like iron ore and timber extraction, which once were important sources of income. Perhaps aware that civilian life may be tough, rebel leaders are less enthusiastic about disarming. At the end of Buchanan's main street, where virtually the only signs of economic activity are a few women selling oranges in the shade, lies the rebel headquarters. A man in a vest bearing the word "Model" -- the name of the group based in the town -- strolls into the house with a pet monkey trailing on a string. It is not long before the commander arrives -- in a brown saloon car with a gunman perched on the bonnet, and two more sitting in the open boot at the back. A man of few words, Tailey Gladior scoffed at the US$300 allowance offered to fighters under the nine-month scheme. "We are willing to give the weapons, but by giving the weapons, what will be our reward?" he asked, a gold watch dangling from his wrist. "I'm saying that before I give the arm, US$500 for each arm," he said. GUNS FOR HIRE Handing in weapons might also appear rash for rebels who are still involved in clashes with loyalists of former president Charles Taylor, exiled to Nigeria in August. Model said it wanted peacekeepers to deploy to protect its men before disarming -- but the force so far has only about 4,500 of a planned 15,000 troops on the ground. Even if peacekeepers can pacify the interior, experts say the program will work only if steps are taken to limit the movement of Liberians as hired guns abroad. In a region where sponsoring your neighbor's rebels is standard procedure, officials say pressure also needs to be put on regional governments to stop the arms flow. Human rights groups say Guinea, a recipient of US military aid, backs the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy rebels, while Ivory Coast is accused of sponsoring the smaller Model group. Pausing from cycling down Buchanan's rutted street, Model fighter Aka Poco, 34, said the UN force would have to ensure all sides in Liberia complied. "If the arms stay in this country there will be problems. If they don't bring perfect peace to this country, the war can start again," he said.

NYT 5 Dec 2003 Interpol Puts Liberian Ex-Chief on World's Most-Wanted List By CRAIG S. SMITH PARIS, Dec. 4 Interpol called Thursday for the arrest of the former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, for his suspected role in atrocities committed during Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war. Interpol put Mr. Taylor on its most wanted list by posting a "red notice" on its Web site, alerting police forces around the world to an arrest warrant issued by Sierra Leone in June. Interpol's notice does little to change Mr. Taylor's status: he has been living in Nigeria since resigning his presidency in August as part of an American-brokered accord to end fighting in Liberia. But the Interpol action does raise the international profile of the Sierra Leone warrant, which Nigeria has so far ignored. "It reminds the world that Charles Taylor remains a fugitive from justice," said Allison Cooper, a spokeswoman for the United Nations court in Sierra Leone, speaking by telephone from Freetown. "It also demonstrates that there's no such thing as amnesty for war crimes and crimes against humanity." The court, set up in 2000, has argued that because Nigeria is a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, the African Convention on Human Rights and the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court, it is obligated to turn Mr. Taylor over for prosecution as a war criminal or try him itself. But Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who granted Mr. Taylor asylum in hopes of neutralizing his influence in the region, has rejected Sierra Leone's extradition request. Mr. Obasanjo has said he might consider a similar request by Liberia, if that country seeks to prosecute its former president. Nigeria's asylum agreement with Mr. Taylor does not shield him from Liberian law. Mr. Taylor, born to an American father and a Liberian mother, graduated from Bentley College in Massachusetts and worked in the Liberian civil service in the 1980's before he was accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars. He fled and returned in December 1989 to mount a rebellion from neighboring Ivory Coast. From the beginning, his forces were accused of appalling violence. He became Liberia's president in July 1997, though the fighting in the country continued. Mr. Taylor is charged with training and arming Sierra Leone rebels, many of them children, for that country's long and bloody civil war. Hundreds of thousands of people died during the fighting, and thousands more were left maimed by the Liberian-trained rebels who punished civilians by hacking off limbs. Sierra Leone's war ended in 2001, and its court indicted Mr. Taylor in June. The court applied to become an Interpol member this April, and that process was completed last month, allowing the police organization to post its notice. As with all Interpol red notices, a photograph of Mr. Taylor appeared on the organization's Web site, with the added warning: "Person May Be Dangerous."

Interpol 4 Dec 2003 www.interpol.int LYON, France, 4 December 2003 - At the request of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (www.sc-sl.org), Interpol has issued a Red Notice for former Liberian President Charles Taylor. The notice was issued on 4 December 2003. This is in accordance with a cooperation agreement between Interpol and that court, finalized in November 2003: Wanted by Interpol TAYLOR, Charles Ghankay Legal Status Present family name: TAYLOR Forename: CHARLES GHANKAY Sex: MALE Date of birth: 28 January 1948 (55 years old) Place of birth: ARTHINGTON, Liberia Language spoken: English Nationality: Liberia Offences Person may be dangerous. Offences: CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY , GRAVE BREACHES OF THE 1949 GENEVA CONVENTIONS Arrest Warrant Issued by: / SCSL:SPECIAL COURT FOR SIERRA LEONE IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONTACT YOUR NATIONAL OR LOCAL POLICE GENERAL SECRETARIAT OF INTERPOL fugitives@interpol.int

Nigeria See Liberia

AP 2 Dec 2003 Nigeria Dismisses Human Rights Report The Associated Press Tuesday, December 2, 2003; 11:54 PM ABUJA, Nigeria - Nigeria on Tuesday dismissed a human rights report that accused the government of killing opposition activists and stifling free speech, calling the charges "jaundiced and misconceived." In a strongly worded 40-page report, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch cited alleged killings and beatings by Nigerian security forces. It urged that leaders of Britain and its former colonies, attending a Commonwealth summit in Nigeria this week, hold President Olusegun Obasanjo accountable for alleged rights abuses. "The federal government categorically rejects the report in its entirety and denies that there is a clampdown on freedom of expression and individual liberties," presidential spokeswoman Remi Oyo said in a statement. By publishing the critical report just ahead of the meeting of the Commonwealth summit, she said, Human Rights Watch was seeking to "cast undeserved aspersions on the integrity of the Nigerian government and people." Oyo insisted Obasanjo's civilian government - elected in 1999, after 15 years of corrupt and often brutal military rule - had deepened basic freedoms in a manner unprecedented in Nigeria.

Weekly Trust (Kaduna, Nigeria) 6 Dec 2003 OPINION December 6, 2003 Memo to Commonwealth Leaders By Wada Nas Your Excellencies, I join millions of my countrymen and women in welcoming you whole-heartedly to Nigeria. I believe that your meeting here or in any of your member countries has two broad based purposes, viz: to advance the common interest of your peoples and at the same time feel their pulse, aspirations and worries. Within this preamble, I tend to draw your attention to a few areas, which I believe will interest you. The first is about democracy. Do please recall that you suspended Pakistan from membership of your prestigious organisation on account of the seizure of power by the military junta there. You then went on to equally suspend Zimbabwe for reasons of a sham election which returned Mugabe to power for another term of five years. Undoubtedly, you took these decisions to institutionalise democratic ideals in your member countries. There is no doubt that your citizens share these ideals and are with you in this great endeavour. However, Your Excellencies, you are all aware that what took place in April/May in Nigeria was an election which voting was largely done by security agencies, led by the police and what we here called assassins of democracy, who are recruited thugs from the our saturated market of the unemployed, ready to kill for peanuts. In several places, they were the only Nigerians that voted in the last elections. What the government did, Your Excellencies, was to deploy its agencies and hired political thugs to ensure that greater votes where allocated to its candidates. This was exactly what happened in several places. You will note believe it, Your Excellencies, that in a state where about 60,000 voters were registered, 1.3 million voted and about 90 percent for government party! You may not also believe that 100 percent turn out was recorded in several places indicating that none of those who registered died within six months or so between the registration of voters and election, an impossibility which has never been recorded even in countries with highly advanced health system. If it surprises you that all the 100 percent voters voted for the government party, you need to contact the Nigerian electoral authorities, INEC, to find out for yourselves. You may also wish to find out from several local and international observers that results were announced for places where voting never took place at all and such other places where government agents, acting for its party, denied polling representatives of other political parties. In some places "voting took place, behind police counters. One of our highly principled presidential aspirants went to a police station to complain about voting taking place in the palaces of our local traditional rulers only to discover, at the police station, that the police were busy stuffing ballot boxes behind their counter in favour of the ruling party. This was how the police and other security agencies were largely those who voted for General Olusegun Obasanjo and his party. Several ballot boxes where elections took place were later replaced with those stuffed by the police. Your Excellencies, these are statements of fact as widely reported in the media and observed by Nigerians. Observers came from some of your countries to record this sordid happenings. In spite of the fact that they were invited by the government, recently Obasanjo tactically condemned them, in a speech to an INEC seminar for no reason other than telling the truth about the ballot looting conducted by his government, the worst ever seen in this country and I believe in any part of the world including Zimbabwe. Indeed, what happened in Zimbabwe was child's play to what happened in Nigeria. Yet, Your Excellencies, you all lost your voices over the Nigerian case, giving the impression that you acted against Zimbabwe not on account of rigged election but for other reasons. During the period of Abacha, you suspended Nigeria on account of what happened to Ken Saro-Wiwa and others. Your Excellencies, it has been reported that 200 were either killed or wounded by security agencies who resisted the looting of ballot boxes by them and PDP thugs. Of the member still in detention for their patriotic services to democracy, you need to go to our crowded prisons to find out, where incidentally you will see the cruelty of man to man as 70 percent of inmates have been there, some over 10 years, without trial. Our prisons are symbols of our complete disregard for human rights, where people live in sub-human standards. I hope you will devote time to this issue. I am not asking you to go to the police, because they will hide the truth from you being that they are in the thick of the problem of our democracy. These killings and brutality were officially carried out by them. I hope you have learnt how they abducted a governor, along with some civilians whom they are now giving protection to. While they withdrew the police details from top officials, including judges, some of these crooks of democracy are still enjoying their own. Meanwhile, I cannot give you the accurate figures of politically motivated assassinations that have taken place so far. All I can say, to be on the safe side of truth, is that never in our history has such taken place before May 29, 1999, when Nigeria returned to democracy after 15 years of military rule, could be said to be the greatest age of political assassination in the land. When some few people in Odi, a small town in the Niger Delta part of our country allegedly abducted and killed some 10-security men, which was terribly bad enough. Obasanjo ordered troops and razed the town to the ground. Some speak about 2000 killed or injured. Please, find time to visit the area to see the scars of official brutality to the people. Zaki Biam, in Benue State was not left out. Soldiers moved into the village, ordered thousands to lay face down and the next thing they were all dead and the town destroyed. You must have seen it on BBCTV, CNN and other international media organisations. Again, the period under review has been the age of visiting brutality on innocent people by those who are supposed to protect them. The civil war apart, never has such things happened in our country. I should however mention that it has been also a period of genocide where thousands were killed in certain parts of the country without positive official action against those involved. Nigeria has been a theatre of official massacres of innocent citizens since May 1999. Again, Your Excellencies, you all lost your voices, once more, as if approving of this official genocide by a government against its own people. Some of you have been killing Iraqis on account that you want to save them from Saddam Hussein. It is therefore an irony that you could sanction the human rights abuses that have been going on here without a voice of protest from all of you. Nigerians feel very sad. Next is the issue of corruption. If the entire world has been told that Abacha's government was corrupt, the present one in several times, in the figure of ten, more corrupt. The more we have been crying the more we have been having no money such that you can hardly see what the government has done in four years of unprecedented revenue earnings. While Nigeria was the 27th most corrupt country under Abacha, we moved to occupy the number one position in 1999 and second position for each year since then. Then came a London-based NGO to rate us as the most corrupt in Africa for 2003. These assessments are not without foundations. Once you are in the favoured book of the government, you can get away with a lot of corruption. Former Defence Minister and for sure, one of our highly respected citizens, General T.Y Danjuma, publicly announced that government has never been serious about its propagated war on corruption and he knows why he was saying so. He caught a top official who cornered N480 million of public money, got him to court and no sooner they applied nolle proseque and the man is now enjoying himself. He is said to be a relation of a highly placed official in government. I don't want to bore you with N350m missing from the NNPC each year since 2000, where Obasanjo presides as the minister, nor how he has been violating money bills to suit his desire. The National Assembly is there for you to find out or in the alternative, invite former Speaker, Ghali Umar Na'Abba. Your Excellencies, corruption is the breakfast of top Nigerian officials; looting of public funds their lunch and squandering shamelessly without accountability their dinner. It has been that bad but especially since 1999 when our supposed anti-corruption crusade took over. Your Excellencies, I don't want to bore you with other issues like official disrespect for the rule of law, poor performance, nepotism, complete disrespect for public opinion, wastage of public funds through useless appointments and frivolous foreign travels by our constantly flying president, disrespect for court rulings, crushing public services, including educational institutions, divide and rule tactics which has been leading to senseless communal violence, insecurity, poor economy, unemployment and others. I believe you do not have time to read detailed accounts of these and many more. Having said this, I wish you fruitful deliberations and safe journey back home later.. May Allah grant you all the wisdom to digest some of the issues raised here. Amen.

Rwanda

Reuters 2 Dec 2003 Rwandan court convicts 18 for genocide KIGALI (Reuters) - A Rwandan court has convicted 18 men of taking part in the slaughter of about 20,000 ethnic Tutsis who had sought refuge in a church during the country's 1994 genocide. The court handed down jail sentences on Tuesday of between seven and 25 years after finding the 18 guilty of leading the attack on Nyarubuye church, 140 km (85 miles) east of the capital, Kigali. An estimated 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were massacred by extremists from the Hutu majority nine years ago. Prosecutors said the 18 were members of the militias that attacked Nyarubuye church on April 15, 1994, shooting civilians who had crowded into the church and its grounds. They returned the next day armed with machetes to hack to death any survivors. Gitera Rwamuhizi, who led the group, was sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment after pleading guilty to killing 10 people. The remaining 17 suspects, about half of whom confessed to participating in the massacre, were given sentences of between seven and 16 years. The ruling at a makeshift court in Rukira, a small town neighbouring Nyarubuye, drew scorn from some survivors of the church killings. "It's unfair that such killers are given lenient sentences. This definitely does not appease the community of survivors," said Daniel Murenzi, shaking his head at the sentencing. Alongside a U.N. tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, charged with prosecuting the masterminds of the genocide, Rwandan authorities have opted for mass trials in the tiny central African country to deal with a huge backlog of cases. Up to 6,500 people have been convicted of crimes linked to genocide, with up to 700 receiving the death penalty. Some of the worst massacres of Rwanda's genocide took place in churches. Today, several serve as memorials, with bones piled high as a reminder of the three months of horror.

BBC 2 Dec 2003 The impact of hate media in Rwanda By Russell Smith BBc News Online Africa editor The United Nations tribunal in Arusha is expected to rule on Wednesday on the role of three men - accused of being key figures in the media campaign to incite ethnic Hutus to kill Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. The 'Hate media' trial began in 2000 It is widely believed that so-called hate media had a significant part to play in the genocide, during which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died. There is also little doubt that its legacy continues to exert a strong influence on the country. The most prominent hate media outlet was the private radio station, Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines. Cockroaches It was established in 1993 and opposed peace talks between the government of President Juvenal Habyarimana and the Tutsi-led rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which now forms the government. After President Habyarimana's plane was shot down, the radio called for a "final war" to "exterminate the cockroaches." About 800,000 people died in Rwanda's 100-day genocide in 1994 During the genocide that followed it broadcast lists of people to be killed and instructed killers on where to find them. The BBC's Ally Mugenzi worked as a journalist in Rwanda during the genocide and says there was no doubting the influence of the RTLM. "RTLM acted as if it was giving instructions to the killers. It was giving directions on air as to where people were hiding," he said. He himself said he had a narrow escape after broadcasting a report on the Rwandan media for the BBC. They announced on the radio he had lied about them and summoned him to the station to explain himself. He spent three hours there, justifying his report. General Romeo Dallaire, the commander of the UN peacekeeping operation in Rwanda at the time of the genocide, said: "Simply jamming [the] broadcasts and replacing them with messages of peace and reconciliation would have had a significant impact on the course of events." As the Tutsi forces advanced through the country during 1994, the broadcasters of Radio Mille Collines fled across the border into what was then Zaire. Media Prosecutors in the Tanzanian town of Arusha at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda have been trying to prove the significance of the RTLM in the genocide during the trial of the radio's top executives Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza and Ferdinand Nahimana. Hassan Ngeze, who ran an extremist magazine called Kangura has also been on trial.. The tribunal has secured just a dozen convictions in a decade Their defence relied on the often ambiguous nature of the comments - which they say were aimed at the advancing Tutsi rebels under General Paul Kagame rather than at civilians. President Kagame's government has used the recent memories of hate media to justify keeping a tight reign on its own media. Just last week, the country's only independent newspaper, Umeseso, had copies of its newspaper seized and journalists arrested for publishing articles critical of the government. Rwanda also still lacks a private radio station and the government exerts control over most of the media outlets. This helped ensure landslide election wins for the RPF during the first post genocide multi-party elections this year. The government promises to introduce a more open media soon. There will be many hoping that the hate media verdicts delivered in Arusha on Wednesday will help that process along.

AP 2 Dec 2003 Thompson Visits Rwanda to Assess HIV / AIDS KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) -- Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson on Tuesday laid a wreath at the tomb of victims of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which thousands of women were raped and infected with HIV/AIDS. Thompson was driven from the airport to the Gisozi Genocide Memorial site where he laid a wreath to victims of the slaughter on the second leg of a four-nation tour of Africa -- the continent hit hardest by HIV/AIDS. He is assessing existing projects and determine what needs to be done to increase treatment and prevent the spread of the pandemic. ``We will do everything in our power ... to protect you and find a therapy for everyone here,'' Thompson told AIDS victims at a health center in Kigali. Africa south of the Sahara is home to more than 26 million of the 40 million people worldwide living with HIV. Only about 1 percent have access to life-prolonging drugs widely available in wealthier countries. At least 13 percent of Rwanda's 8.2 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS, and the tiny central African nation will ask for more help from the U.S. to tackle the crisis, Innocent Nyaruhirira, minister of state in charge of HIV/AIDS and related diseases, said. Rwanda has one of the highest numbers of orphans per population in the world as a result of the twin tragedies of HIV/AIDS and the 1994 genocide in which more than 500,000 people were killed, mainly the minority Tutsis and politically moderates from the Hutu majority. The 100-day slaughter was spurred by the extremist Hutu government then in power. Thompson is accompanied by top U.S. health officials, lawmakers and business leaders on the tour, which began in Zambia and will also take in Kenya and Uganda. Also along is Richard Holbrooke, president of the Global Business Coalition for HIV/AIDS, which is working to encourage companies large and small to contribute to the fight against the disease among their employees in Africa and other developing nations.

BBC 4 Dec 2003 4 December, 2003 Rwandans applaud genocide verdict Their lawyers said they were exercising free speech Rwandans have welcomed the long prison terms given to three media executives for inciting violence against ethnic Tutsis during the 1994 genocide. The attorney general said it showed that those who ordered others to kill bore the same responsibility as those who carried out the slaughter. Two worked for a radio station which broadcast lists of people to be killed and revealed where they could be found. About 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in just 100 days. Ferdinand Nahimana, who was sentenced to life in prison, and Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, who got 35 years, helped set up a private radio station - Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) - which urged Hutus to "exterminate the cockroaches". Bitter memories One Tutsi student, who did not want to be named, said she remembered listening to RTLM as a child when she was hiding during the genocide. The impact of "Hate Media" "My own father's name was pronounced on RTLM. To track him and to kill him by all means," she told the BBC, her voice quivering with emotion. "And it happened. He's dead," she said. She said it was important that those people who ran the station faced justice. "Those who spread the message through the media and told the ordinary people to kill are far worse than people who followed their orders," said attorney general Gerard Gahima. Precedent The new chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Hassan Bubacar Jallow, which pronounced the verdict, said the verdict would serve as a warning for journalists and editors in other conflicts. Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza boycotted the trial "The tribunal has established an international precedent that those who use media to target a racial or ethnic group for destruction will face justice," he said. Hassan Ngeze, who was sentenced to life, was the editor of an extremist magazine called Kangura. Judge Navanathem Pillay told him he had "poisoned the minds of your readers" against Tutsis. They were all found guilty of genocide, incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity by the tribunal, based in the Tanzanian town of Arusha. Barayagwiza boycotted the trial, saying it would not be fair. Defence lawyers for the others had argued that the trial was an attack on free speech and the freedom of the press.

IRIN 19 Dec 2003 Commission to Probe Murder And Harassment of Genocide Survivors Nairobi Following reports of murder, harassment and intimidation of Rwandan genocide survivors testifying under the "Gacaca" justice system, a commission has been established to investigate these acts, the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported on Thursday. The creation of the commission, which will include Rwandan senators, follows a statement of condemnation issued on Tuesday by an umbrella organisation for genocide survivors, known as Ibuka. "The reason behind the killings and the harassment is to scare away genocide survivors from testifying in Gacaca courts," Ibuka said in its statement. The Gacaca justice system, based on traditional village courts, was introduced in the country in 2001 to expedite trials for an estimated 85,000 suspects held in prisons across the country in connection with the 1994 genocide that claimed the lives of at least 800,000 people. In a related development, RNA reported that a cabinet meeting on Wednesday also denounced the murder and intimidation of genocide survivors, and called upon security and judicial officials to act in accordance with the law to ensure that those responsible were punished.

South Africa

SAPA 8 Dec 2003 'SA cannot extradite to world court' - Probably due to a "drafting slip", a South African act passed last year does not allow the country to surrender accused people to the International Criminal Court (ICC), an advocate said today. "If (former Liberian president) Charles Taylor found himself in South Africa... the country would not be lawfully empowered to surrender him to the ICC," Anton Katz, a member of the bar in Cape Town and New York, said at a seminar of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria. South Africa was a party to the Rome Statute, which brought the ICC into being. Accordingly, it was obliged under international law to cooperage with that court, he said. Last year Parliament passed the Implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Act in an attempt to incorporate the provisions of that statute in domestic law. But the unfortunate result of formulation of that act was, according to Katz: "Neither the executive nor the judiciary have the authority to order the surrender, in response to a request by the ICC, of a person accused of a war crime, genocide or crime against humanity." Those are the three crime categories the ICC will hear. Its jurisdiction commenced from July last year. In an article in the latest issue of the ISS' African Security Review, launched on Monday, Katz explains that in terms of the South African act, a request of the ICC for the arrest and surrender of a person will go to the director-general of the Department of Justice. The DG will immediately refer that to a magistrate, who has to endorse the warrant of arrest for execution. The next step is a hearing before a magistrate, who must determine whether the warrant applies to the person in question, whether the arrest was conducted in accordance with domestic law, and whether the rights of the person have been respected. "If the magistrate is satisfied that the three requirements have been complied with he or she must issue an order committing the person to prison pending his or her surrender to the ICC." This does not amount to a surrender order, Katz says. "There is no provision for any competent authority, whether a court or the executive branch of government, to issue an order of surrender. Accordingly, the Implementation Act does not properly, or at all, provide the South African authorities with the necessary power to respond to a request for surrender by the ICC... "This anomaly should be corrected as soon as possible." According to Katz, Parliament tried to streamline the process currently followed with the extradition of people for trial in other countries. This attempt appears not to have been successful though, he says in the article. It will hardly help humankind if states become party to international treaties but cannot give effect to them because of technical reasons, Katz says. "This allows the guilty to get off if they have clever lawyers. Other than the guilty, the only beneficiaries of these technical hitches are the lawyers who... are paid handsomely to advance the technical points."

BBC 23 Dec 2003 SA announces apartheid pay-outs By Barnaby Phillips BBC Southern Africa Correspondent There have been reconciliation celebrations in South Africa this month South Africa has started paying reparations to thousands of victims of apartheid, the government says. They were identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which spent seven years examining the crimes committed under apartheid. The government is giving a one-off payment equivalent to about $4,500 to the victims of apartheid. The TRC examined decades of human rights abuses and identified about 20,000 victims earlier this year. Slow process The government says it has processed payments for 9,000 people, but more than a third of these payments have already been returned because victims supplied invalid bank accounts. The government is paying far less in reparations than was recommended by the TRC. It also rejected suggestions in the TRC's final report that it raise more money for reparations by imposing a special tax on big business. This has led to bitter complaints from some of the victims that they are not being adequately compensated.

Sudan

AFP 2 Dec 2003 Sudanese air raids kill 47 civilians in western Sudan: rebels CAIRO, Dec 2 (AFP) - Sudanese government warplanes killed 47 civilians and wounded 37 others during bombing raids on villages in western Sudan's Darfur region, a rebel leader, Abdel Wahed Mohammed Ahmed al-Nur, said Tuesday. "Antonov planes with the Sudanese armed forces savagely bombed villages in the Jibal Nun region on Monday, leaving 47 dead, mostly women and children, and 37 wounded," Ahmed al-Nur said. Ahmed al-Nur, president of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), said the air strikes in the region north of El-Geneina, the main city in West Darfur State, sparked a mass exodus of villagers to surrounding mountains and villages. The SLM last week accused Sudanese government forces of having launched air strikes against two areas of Darfur, killing 14 people. Government forces have clashed since February with the SLM, which accuses Khartoum of neglecting the impoverished North, West and South Darfur states in the region neighbouring Chad. The rebel movement regularly accuses the government of breaking the ceasefire agreement signed in September. The government and the SLM are due to restart negotiations to reach a comprehensive settlement in Chad on December 4. At least 3,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced by the fighting, with the conflict choking economic development in the region.

AFP 8 Dec 2003 Bush invites Sudanese to sign peace accord in Washington: report KHARTOUM, Dec 8 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush has invited his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Beshir to sign an expected peace accord with the country's southern rebels in Washington, the state news agency SUNA said Monday. Bush telephoned Beshir and proposed that "the signing ceremony for a peace accord between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) take place in Washington," it said. The White House, meanwhile, said Bush on Monday telephoned both Beshir and SPLA leader John Garang asking them to resolve final differences ahead of a peace accord. "Both calls were upbeat and positive," said spokesman Scott McClellan, adding that Bush "congratulated each leader on the progress made thus far" in the peace process. "The president encouraged each side to demonstrate the flexibility to resolve their remaining differences and take the final steps to complete a just and comprehensive peace agreement," the White House spokesman said. Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said last week that an agreement would be "signed at the end of the current year". Vice President Ali Osman Taha and Garang on Sunday began talks in Kenya aimed at finalising an accord. Since 1983, a civil war has pitted the SPLA, representing mainly animists and Christians in southern Sudan, against successive Arab and Muslim governments in Khartoum.

Reuters 8 Dec 2003 Sudan, rebels say peace deal would include amnesty KHARTOUM, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The Sudanese government and rebels said on Monday a general amnesty would be included in a peace deal they are now negotiating in Kenya with the aim of ending 20 years of civil war in the south. A spokesman for the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) said it would establish reconciliation committees in the south to deal with war crimes committed in the conflict. More than two million people have died during two decades of civil war, most of them as a result of famine and disease. "We have...agreed that there will be a general amnesty announced on the signing of the peace agreement for the whole of Sudan," the SPLA's Samson Kwaje told Reuters in Khartoum, where a rebel delegation is making its first official visit. Foreign Ministry Minister of State Nagheib al-Kher, who also said the deal would contain a general amnesty, added that people would not be prosecuted retrospectively. The civil war in Africa's largest country broke out in 1983 and broadly pits the mainly animist and Christian south against the Islamist government in the north. Alongside religion, the war has been fuelled by disputes over oil and ethnicity. Kwaje said the amnesty would be similar to one declared in South Africa in 1994, where those seeking amnesty had to disclose their offences but not in public and a truth commission was formed to establish what happened during apartheid. "We will create a regional truth and reconciliation committee to deal with war crimes so that we as a people can move on," Kwaje said. The deal is expected to give southern states a degree of autonomy from Khartoum. Kwaje said the amnesty would be part of a "healing process" in Sudan after years of violence and would exempt people from actual judicial proceedings.

ICG 11 Dec 2003 Towards an Incomplete Peace Just as a peace deal promises to end Sudan’s twenty-year civil war, a separate, intensifying war in the west threatens to undermine it. Sudan is finally on the brink of a peace agreement to end the devastation that has afflicted Africa’s largest country for an entire generation. The current progress toward addressing the fundamental grievances of the south and other neglected areas has been historic. But the effort to resolve the main conflict, that between the Sudanese government and the insurgent Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, ignores the rapidly deteriorating situation in the western province of Darfur. Any peace agreement that fails to address Darfur risks replacing one conflict with another. The international community will need to contain its satisfaction over peace prospects in Sudan and keep pressure on the parties to conclude a comprehensive agreement. ICG reports and briefing papers are available on our website: www.crisisweb.org .

WP 21 Dec 2003 Cease-Fire Opens Sudan War Zone To Health Workers Vaccinations Lure People from Hiding By Emily Wax Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, December 21, 2003; Page A32 LUWERE, Sudan -- She waited just as the others did, wondering what the needle would feel like. Jamila Ibrahim, 39, stood in a messy line that fanned out under a wild fruit tree in order to receive the first injection ever pressed into her skin. She gently explained that she and her three wide-eyed daughters had never been vaccinated against any disease. In front of her were mothers who quieted children sore from the shot. Behind her were the anxious and the curious, including one woman with a baby on her back, another nursing at her breast and a toddler clinging to her leg. All looked exhausted. Under a beating sun, the line swelled. Health care is a luxury in Sudan's central Nuba Mountains, where periodic fighting in a 20-year war kept Ibrahim and many mothers like her huddled in the grassy hills. The land mines that stud the hills left them too terrified to cultivate fields. Hunger made them too weak to walk three hours to a source of clean water. "We are stuck in the middle," explained Ibrahim's daughter, Kaka Mahjubua, 18, who proudly approached a line to receive her first vaccination for tetanus, provided by UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency. "We fear our health is spoiled because of it." Diseases that were eradicated in much of the rest of the world are still sickening people in southern and central Sudan. The country has 80 percent of the world's cases of dracunculiasis or guinea worm, a debilitating illness in which a parasite enters the body in contaminated water. Sudanese also suffer from leprosy, sleeping sickness, measles, polio, elephantiasis, HIV-AIDS and malaria. Negotiators are near a peace deal in the war, which was fought over oil, religion and culture. The conflict was between the Sudanese government, dominated by the Muslim Arabs of the north, and rebels from the black African south. The war has taken 2 million lives, many from disease and starvation, and uprooted 4 million people from their homes. The Nuba Mountains, a golden sweep of hills about the size of Maine, were included in the north by British colonizers. The people are Africans, and they have long sided with the south's main rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army. To claim fertile land and build an oil pipeline, the government bombed many areas in Nuba. "This is one of few places in the world where people had it better 50 years ago," said Alex de Waal, author of "Facing Genocide: The Nuba of Sudan." "The Nuba have seen a campaign to push them off land, deny them medical treatment and at times starve them." A cease-fire in the Nuba Mountains last year has allowed humanitarian aid to get through and gave health workers a chance to begin work. Measles has killed 108 children and adults this year, according to health workers. Diarrhea is also a cause of death, said Brigitte Toure, a UNICEF health coordinator for the rebel-held areas of Sudan. Mothers without health education often stop giving their children water when they should be rehydrating them, she said. There are concerns about HIV-AIDS because 150,000 refugees have returned to the area, some from countries with high infection rates. "We brought condoms here. Nobody uses them. They don't like them. They sit in a box over there, untouched," said Abdulaziz Adam Alhilu, the regional governor, pointing to a hut in the distance. "There are not more than seven doctors here for 400,000 people, and no surgery to speak of," the governor said. Land mines are also a concern, he said. A team from the Danish agency DanChurchAid was sent out to remove mines and hit one several miles from Luwere, the administrative capital, in early October. Eight people were killed and two were injured. Confidence was shattered. "It doesn't take more than a few mines, or the perceptions of mines, to keep people hiding where they can't get clean water or health care or harvest their crops," said Nils Carstensen of the aid group. To encourage participation in the vaccination campaign, Toure's team sent local health workers out on bikes. They charted safe pathways and urged people down from the hills. They also told them that next time, the injections might take place in their homes. That's because a pre-filled, single-use device called Uniject, manufactured by Becton, Dickinson and Co., was tested during this vaccination. For Ibrahim, even getting to the vaccination site was filled with fears. She woke early to complete chores so she could fit the vaccinations into her long day. Her daughter, smiling by her side, acknowledged that she begged her mother to come. "I was thinking, I would like to see what would happen," said Mahjubua, a pretty girl with a wide smile and a torn dress. Then she marched off to get her shot.

Tanzania

IRIN 3 Dec 2003 UN Tribunal Convicts Media Leaders of Genocide Nairobi The UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) convicted on Wednesday three Rwandan media personalities of genocide and sentenced two of them to life imprisonment and one to 35 years in prison In a statement, the tribunal reported that a bench of three judges had sentenced Ferdinand Nahimana, a founder and ideologist of the Radio Télévision des Mille Collines (RTLM) and Hassan Ngeze, editor in chief of Kangura newspaper, to life in prison for their involvement in the 1994 genocide that claimed at least 800,000 lives. The third defendant, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, a board member of the Comité d'initiative of the RTLM and founding member of the Coalition for the Defence of Republic (CDR) political party, was sentenced to 35 years in prison. They were found guilty of genocide, incitement to genocide, conspiracy and crimes against humanity - extermination and persecution. The judgement, in the trial that had been known as the Media Case, was delivered by Judges Navanethem Pillay (presiding), Erik Møse and Asoka de Zoysa Gunawardana. The tribunal reported that the case examined the role of the RTLM radio station and Kangura newspaper in the genocide in Rwanda. "It also reviewed the role of the CDR, a party found by the Chamber to have spearheaded the Hutu Power movement, which created a political framework for the genocide," the tribunal reported. In their ruling, the judges observed that in a radio interview broadcast at the height of the genocide on 25 April 1994, Nahimana, talked of the "war of media, words, newspapers and radio stations", which he described as a complement to bullets. "You were fully aware of the power of words, and you used the radio, the medium of communication with the widest public reach to disseminate hatred and violence," Pillay told Nahimana when she read the court's ruling. She added, "Without a firearm, machete or any physical weapon, you caused the death of thousands of innocent civilians." Barayagwiza, who was tried in absentia after he boycotted the trial, was convicted for his role in RTLM, as well as for individual acts of genocide and extermination and his leadership role in the CDR. Ngeze, also a founding member of CDR, was convicted for his activities in "ordering, instigating and aiding and abetting acts of genocide", as well as for his writings in Kangura. The tribunal reported that the judges found that Tutsi women, in particular, were targeted for persecution through the portrayal of the Tutsi woman as a "femm