U N I T E D  N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa

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email: irin@ocha.unon.org


Central and Eastern Africa
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 22
27 May - 2 June 2000



CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Meles says for Ethiopia the war is over
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Proximity talks continue in Algiers
ERITREA: Relief commission says 1.5 million people displaced
SUDAN: 10,000 Eritrean refugees cross into Sudan in 24 hours
ETHIOPIA: UN reports substantial pledges of food aid
SOMALIA: Egal reaffirms refusal to join Djibouti peace talks
RWANDA: Hate radio journalist gets 12 years
RWANDA: Hutu rebels resume attacks in the northwest
DRC: Government pulls out of preparatory meeting for dialogue
DRC:  Kisangani demilitarisation begins
DRC: Massive rights violations "killing human decency" - Amnesty
DRC-UGANDA: Museveni denies "looting Congolese resources"
BURUNDI: Mandela to visit regroupment camps
BURUNDI: Camp dismantlement process stalled
TANZANIA/BURUNDI: UNHCR preparing for refugee repatriation


ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Meles says for Ethiopia the war is over

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Wednesday that Ethiopia had
achieved its objective of liberating all the lands occupied by Eritrea,
and that "as far as Ethiopia is concerned, the war is over and the need
now is to make efforts to establish peace." The order issued to the army
to withdraw from the western front was still holding, while the objective
of the army on the eastern front was to protect and consolidate positions
in the liberated areas, he said on Ethiopian radio. The Ethiopian army
would remain in areas under its control on the central front near Zala
Anbesa "until such time as we receive a guarantee from the international
community that there would be no attack from the Eritrean army on this
front," Meles said. Eritrea, for its part, said the war would go on until
Ethiopia had withdrawn all its forces from Eritrean territory. "How can
they say the war is over? It is impossible to have a ceasefire before
Ethiopia has left all occupied Eritrean territory," presidential spokesman
Yemane Gebremeskel told journalists. Fighting has significantly reduced
since Thursday (1 June), with "occasional artillery fire" on the active
fronts, a journalist in Asmara told IRIN on Friday. "The two sides are
sitting there looking at each other while the talks are on," the reporter
added. 

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Proximity talks continue in Algiers

Meanwhile, the proximity talks in Algiers went into a third day since
their resumption on Tuesday, with no sign of any breakthrough, journalists
reported. The talks are being conducted by the Ethiopian and Eritrean
foreign ministers, Seyoum Mesfin and Haile Woldensae, through an
international team of intermediaries. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the
current OAU Chairman, said on Thursday that Ethiopia's declaration of a
cessation of hostilities was a big step towards resolving the conflict. 
Ethiopia said on Wednesday it had asked the OAU to modify its peace plan
to take into account Ethiopia's sweeping gains on the battlefield, with
Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin stating that certain provisions of the OAU
plan were now redundant. In Asmara, Yemane Gebremeskel said the Ethiopian
call was outrageous and warned that it would lead to further conflict. "If
they think their invasion should be rewarded it is outrageous. If they are
throwing away the peace plan endorsed by the international community then
that means more war," Reuters news agency quoted Yemane as saying. 

ERITREA: Relief commission says 1.5 million people displaced

The Commissioner of the Eritrean Relief and Refugee Commission (ERREC)
Worku Tesfamikael said on Tuesday that more than 1.5 million people had
been displaced by the Ethiopian invasion, Eritrean radio reported. She
said that while the government was helping the displaced with the
provision of food and basic necessities, the Commission had appealed to
the international community for urgent humanitarian assistance. The
response so far had been very low compared to the magnitude of the problem
but aid was coming in, she added. International humanitarian sources said
it was very hard to get an accurate estimate of the numbers of people
involved, because the displaced were on the move, scattered and partly in
hiding, but that it was clear ERREC was overstretched and in need of
further assistance. The WFP warned that a majority of the displaced were
from the main grain-producing areas of Eritrea and that if they were not
able to return to their homes in time for planting, the next harvest could
be wiped out. 

SUDAN: 10,000 Eritrean refugees cross into Sudan in 24 hours

A UNHCR statement on Tuesday said an estimated 10,000 Eritrean refugees
had crossed the border into the eastern state of Kassala in the past 24
hours.  UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said most of the new arrivals were
women and children, who were exhausted and badly in need of water and
food. Their condition was significantly worse than that of previous
arrivals, indicating that they had been displaced for some time, the
agency said. The latest wave of refugees were being taken to camps at
Amarmousa, 2km from the Lasa border point, where some 18,000 earlier
refugees from the latest fighting had been given shelter. The refugees
were refusing to go further into Sudan and did not want any permanent
settlement, UNHCR stated.  The latest arrivals brought the total number of
Eritrean refugees to have entered Sudan since the start of the Ethiopian
offensive on 12 May to about 40,000. 

ETHIOPIA: UN reports substantial pledges of food aid

A 27 May update by the UN Regional Humanitarian Coordinator on the current
situation in Ethiopia said donors had come forward with substantial
pledges of relief food assistance for areas affected by natural disaster.
As of 23 May, 84.5 percent of the 836,000 mt of food aid for 7.7 people
requested by the Ethiopian government in January had been resourced. The
WFP had received donor pledges of 244,221 mt for an operation to
distribute 253,000 mt to 2.3 million people over the first nine months of
the year. A further 308,174 mt had been pledged through NGOs, while direct
bilateral pledges to the government totalled 55,092 mt. The Ethiopian
government had also contributed 100,000 mt under a programme of local
purchases, but now estimated that 400,000 to 450,000 mt of cereals would
be needed over and above the January appeal estimates, the report added. 

SOMALIA: Egal reaffirms refusal to join Djibouti peace talks

Somaliland President Mohamed Ibrahim Egal reiterated Somaliland's refusal
to participate in the current Somali peace negotiations in Arta, Djibouti,
the newspaper 'Xog-Ogaal' reported on Tuesday. It said Somali elders
attending the Arta talks had received a "long-awaited response" from Egal
to their proposal to send a delegation to Hargeisa to meet him. Egal's
letter said the Djibouti conference was irrelevant to Somaliland whether
the delegation came to Hargeisa or not, and that Somaliland would not take
part.  President Ismael Omar Guelleh of Djibouti, the sponsor of the
current Somali peace negotiations in Arta, told the BBC on Monday that he
was optimistic about the talks, and that warlords could no longer impose
their will on Somali society. The Puntland newspaper 'Sahan' reported on
Monday that the 'president' of Puntland, Abdullahi Yusuf, had issued a
circular waiving a ban imposed on people wishing to participate in the
Djibouti talks. Some 800 delegates representing Somali clans, political
and armed groups are attending the negotiations in Arta. 

RWANDA: Hate radio journalist gets 12 years

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Thursday
sentenced the Italo-Belgian hate radio journalist Georges Ruggiu to two
concurrent sentences of 12 years each, the InterNews agency reported. The
sentences were handed down for the two charges of direct and public
incitement to genocide and persecution to which Ruggiu pleaded guilty on
15 May. The judges considered that some level of clemency ought to be
shown to those who confess their guilt to encourage others complicit in
the 1994 genocide to come forward, InterNews reported.  The concurrent
sentences imply that Ruggiu will serve a single 12-year term, less the
time he has already spent in custody since his arrest in July 1997, the
report added. Rwanda said on Friday that while the Ruggiu sentence was
light, it could also prove productive in the long term. "The sentence is
light but so long as he cooperates and helps the prosecution in securing
convictions in other [hate] media trials, it becomes productive. In any
case, the Rwandan government has no authority in reversing the Tribunal's
decision," Rwandan Prosecutor-General Gerald Gahima told IRIN. 

RWANDA: Rebels resume attacks in the northwest

Hutu rebels last week broke 18 months of relative peace by carrying out an
attack in the northwest from the neighbouring DRC. A western diplomat in
Rwanda said up to 15 people were killed in the attack. "This is
significant in the sense that the insurgents carried out a surgical
operation and retreated across the border in an orderly manner. Maybe we
are seeing the renewal of fighting in that area," he added. Emmanuel
Ndahiro, special adviser to President Paul Kagame, played down the attack,
saying it was the work of bandits. "This cannot be termed as a sign of
renewed fighting in the northwest," Ndahiro told IRIN. Hutu militias and
ex-Forces armees rwandaises (FAR) troops have been increasingly
infiltrating Gisenyi and Ruhengeri prefectures in recent weeks, targeting
children to recruit them into their ranks to fight the Rwandan government,
humanitarian sources stated. 

DRC: Government pulls out of preparatory meeting for dialogue

The facilitator of the inter-Congolese dialogue, former Botswana president
Ketumile Masire, has announced his intention to convene a preparatory
meeting of the parties involved from 5 to 7 June in Cotonou, Benin. Masire
invited the DRC government of President Laurent-Desire Kabila, the
political opposition, the armed opposition and representatives of civil
society, but the government had already declined to attend, sources close
to the facilitator told IRIN on Tuesday. The Benin session was intended to
create the conditions necessary to begin the national dialogue by
delivering agreement on a venue and structure for the dialogue; the
appropriate level of participation; the type of representation required;
and, the rules of procedure governing discussions. Meanwhile, DRC Foreign
Minister Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi has told France, which will hold the
UN Security Council chair through the month of June, that Kinshasa will
take part in a meeting between the Security Council and the political
committee established to implement the Lusaka peace agreement, scheduled
to take place in New York on 15-16 June. 

DRC:  Kisangani demilitarisation begins

Uganda and Rwanda were this week reported to have removed heavy weaponry
and some troop elements from frontline offensive positions in Kisangani as
part of a demilitarisation plan agreed upon after recent clashes between
the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) and the Rwandan Patriotic Army
(RPA)  in the northeastern Congolese city. The arms removed included
tanks, artillery and ballistic missiles, and the withdrawal of troops -
under the supervision of the UN Observer Mission in the DRC - is expected
to be completed by Saturday 10 June, news organisations reported. MONUC
observers were quoted as saying the process was progressing smoothly.
Ugandan forces are scheduled to move to Rafwasende and Bandiya, and
Rwandan troops to Lubutu and Bundu, under the demilitarisation plan for
Kisangani. The Joint Military Commission (JMC) established to implement
the Lusaka ceasefire agreement intended to set up an office in Kisangani
to observe the disengagement process, the semi-official Ugandan 'New
Vision' newspaper reported on Friday. The JMC was meeting in the Zambian
capital Lusaka on Friday and Saturday 2 and 3 June to assess the current
state of affairs in the DRC conflict, with a meeting of the political
committee overseeing the Lusaka peace process scheduled to follow in the
Ugandan capital Kampala from Monday, 5 June. 

DRC: Massive rights violations "killing human decency" - Amnesty

The human rights organisation Amnesty International on Wednesday said all
parties involved in the DRC conflict were involved in a catalogue of human
rights abuses, which included the unlawful killing, rape, torture and
'disappearance' of civilians. In areas controlled by foreign government
forces and armed Congolese opposition groups, "most of the human rights
abuses are reported to have been committed by members of the Rassemblement
congolais pour la democratie (RCD)," it stated in its report, 'DRC:
Killing Human Decency'. The rape of women in rebel-occupied areas - by
Congolese rebels and soldiers from Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda - is
reported to be widespread, and children were being deprived of their basic
rights as they were forced to fight in this conflict, it added. "The
international community should expect and demand that military and
political leaders of the forces in the DRC take effective action to
prevent further human rights abuses, and bring those among their forces
responsible for abuses to justice," Amnesty stated. 

[for full report, see http://www.amnesty.org/]

DRC-UGANDA: Museveni denies "looting Congolese resources" 

President Yoweri Museveni, addressing the Ugandan parliament at an
extraordinary sitting on Sunday (28 May) to address the country's presence
in the DRC, said there was no truth in rumours that Uganda was "somehow
connected with the plundering and looting of the Congolese resources." The
Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) was "under very strict instructions
not to engage in any economic activities in Congo territory," Museveni
said, adding that Uganda had also welcomed a proposal that the UN should
establish a commission of experts to investigate any illegal exploitation
of Congo's natural resources. In Kisangani, Uganda's main interest was
political and not the extraction of gold, Museveni added.  He also said
there would be no unilateral withdrawal of the UPDF from the DRC because,
"if individual forces began withdrawing unilaterally, this could upset
this carefully negotiated sequence of events and, in fact, possibly lead
to the collapse of the [Lusaka] ceasefire agreement as a whole." 

BURUNDI: Camp dismantlement process stalled

None of the nine civilian regroupment camps scheduled to be dismantled
during the month of April - including Kabezi, Mageyo, Kigezi, Kavumu,
Nyabibondo, Ruyaga, Muyaga, Kibuye and Kwigere - has yet been shut down,
according to a recent evaluation of the sites. There had been some partial
dismantlement of Kigezi and Mageyo, a UNOCHA situation report received by
IRIN stated. The assessment also indicated that Ruziba, which was not in
the phase two closure schedule, had been dismantled over the weekend of
6-7 May.  The nine sites due for closure in phase two, account for a
regrouped population of 138,637 in the communes of Isale, Mubimbi,
Kanyosha and Kabezi, according to OCHA's data. As of 1 April, the last
date for which verified figures were available, some 18,200 people had
left regroupment camps in Bujumbura Rural, leaving about 317,000 still on
site, OCHA stated. 

Meanwhile, the facilitator in the Arusha peace process on Burundi, former
South African president Nelson Mandela, on Wednesday announced his
intention to visit Burundi from 12-14 June, for the second time in two
months. Mandela said after a meeting with Burundi civil society met
representatives of Burundi civil society in South Africa that, while in
Burundi, he would visit regroupment camps (of which he has been highly
critical) and prisons, besides meeting government officials, members of
the national assembly and representatives of religious organisations. 

TANZANIA/BURUNDI: UNHCR preparing for refugee repatriation

UNHCR and the Burundian government have prepared a contingency plan for
refugee repatriation in the event that the ongoing Arusha peace process on
Burundi delivers a peace accord. "When the agreement is signed, we will
pick up the operation of repatriation with the relevant Burundian
authorities," a UNHCR official in Nairobi told IRIN on Tuesday. "This
will, however, depend on refugees being willing to return to their
country.  We have been working on this and the government is prepared to
receive them," he added. Tanzania is currently host to more than 350,000
Burundian refugees in camps in Kigoma region. The concern was that a peace
deal worked out at the Arusha talks could lead to a flood of returnees in
a country unable to cope and this, in turn, would increase pressure in the
spheres of security and politics, humanitarian sources said on Tuesday. 

Nairobi, 2 June 2000, 14:15 gmt

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