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 Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 email: irin@ocha.unon.orgCENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 26 24 - 30 June 2000
CONTENTS: UGANDA: Ugandans vote in political referendum UGANDA: Museveni, Kagame to meet DRC: "Significant" humanitarian needs in Kisangani DRC: Attacks continuing in South Kivu DRC: Facilitator's office reopened RWANDA: Four Rwandans to face trial in Belgium RWANDA: Twa appeal for recognition and involvement BURUNDI: UN volunteers resume work BURUNDI: New rebel group formed SOMALIA: Djibouti delegates secure two more weeks for debate ETHIOPIA: Repatriation of Somali refugees from eastern Ethiopia ERITREA: UNHCR says refugees trickling back from Sudan SUDAN: Turabi launches new political party SUDAN: SPLA says it captured southern town of Gogrial SUDAN: International aid agencies resuming operations in south UGANDA: Ugandans vote in political referendum Ugandans went to the polls on Thursday to vote in a referendum which will decide the country's future political system. The referendum will determine whether to keep the single party Movement system, or bring in multiparty democracy. Many observers say voters are likely to retain President Yoweri Museveni's ruling National Resistance Movement. Final results will be known by Saturday. Museveni said the outcome of the referendum would determine the NRM's future. "If there are no problems in the organisation of the elections or natural causes like rain preventing all the registered voters from casting their ballots, and the Movement gets less than 60 percent, I will know there is a serious problem with the Movement system," he told IRIN in an exclusive interview on Thursday. "But we shall make a judgement after looking at the results and the voter turnout." UGANDA: Museveni, Kagame to meet President Yoweri Museveni on Thursday confirmed that his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame will visit Kampala at the weekend in a bid to clear up "misunderstandings" between the two countries following fighting between the two armies in the DRC city of Kisangani earlier this month. "We are going to discuss the problems that have been created by the unfortunate incidents in Kisangani, so that blunders are not repeated in the future," Museveni told IRIN. DRC: "Significant" humanitarian needs in Kisangani Humanitarian needs in the ravaged city of Kisangani remain significant, with tens of thousands of people displaced and some 5,000 homes destroyed, humanitarian sources said on Tuesday. The number of civilian deaths from the fighting earlier this month between Ugandan and Rwandan troops is now estimated at over 600, and the figure is still rising. At least 3,000 civilians have been wounded. A UN inter-agency assessment mission to Kisangani observed the extent of the civilians' physical and psychological trauma and called for increased support from the international community regarding the emergency response phase and long-term rehabilitation efforts. DRC: Attacks continuing in South Kivu Humanitarian sources have pointed out that insecurity is still prevalent in Bukavu and areas of South Kivu. About 1,000 Interahamwe militiamen last week reportedly attacked the parish of Kabare, Mukongola hospital and a number of nearby villages, and were said to have killed, raped and looted. The sources said the attacks resulted in civilians fleeing to the Kadutu and Bagira areas, and some 10,000 people arrived in Bukavu itself. The ever-increasing number of displaced people in Bukavu is putting an enormous strain on commodities. The South Kivu governor has called on the local youth to organise self-defence militias, the sources added, stressing that the situation in Kabare was of serious concern. Meanwhile, further south in Kiliba, near Uvira, clashes broke out between joint Mayi-Mayi militia forces and Burundian rebels of the Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD) against allied Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma)-Rwandan troops. The Interahamwe also attacked villages near Lubarika. Following the attacks, people are again on the move, the sources said. DRC: Facilitator's office reopened Interior Minister Gaetan Kakudji announced that the inter-Congolese dialogue facilitator's office was reopened last Friday, although the government still rejected former Botswanan president Ketumile Masire as the facilitator. "The government of public salvation wishes to reassure the public and the international community that it is not opposed to the organisation of the inter-Congolese dialogue, but that it refuses to have Ketumile Masire as the facilitator because of his partiality," he said, in comments broadcast by DRC state television. He called on the OAU to name another facilitator. RWANDA: Four Rwandans to face trial in Belgium Four Rwandans living in Belgium are to face trial for their alleged participation in the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Belgian radio reported on Tuesday. It said this was the first time the Belgian law on crimes against international law would be applied, since it came into effect in 1993. The four include two Catholic nuns who reportedly failed to help Tutsis fleeing for their lives. One of the nuns is said to have provided the Hutu militias with petrol to set fire to a garage where several hundred people had taken refuge. RWANDA: Twa appeal for recognition and involvement The Twa of Rwanda have urged President Paul Kagame to involve them more in the country's development efforts. In an open letter to Kagame, the president of the Twa umbrella organisation CAURWA, Zephyrin Kalimba, appreciated the government's intention to include all three ethnic groups in the country's reconstruction. "However, the contribution of the Twa in the development of our country remains negligible and consequently our community is heading towards extinction," Kalimba warned. He said that historically the Twa had been excluded from development projects, the education system, the government, the economy and national culture. Kalimba recalled that during the 1994 genocide, 10,000 Twa out of a community of 30,000, lost their lives. The forest-dwelling Twa, or pygmies, had been chased away from their natural environment without receiving compensation and were now dying of hunger and disease, he added. BURUNDI: UN volunteers resume work UN Volunteers (UNVs) are resuming a range of development activities in Burundi following evacuations in November 1999. A statement from the organisation's office in Bonn, Germany, said that by the end of this month, about 50 UNVs will have taken up assignments in the country. Thirty-seven of the UNVs are Burundi nationals who will work in areas such as conflict resolution in civil society, peace education, community development, health, information and networking. "Together with international UNVs, the national UNVs will support the efforts of communities and the ministry of environment and land use to help slow the degradation of natural resources and carry out public education campaigns," the statement said. BURUNDI: New rebel group formed The former vice-president of the rebel Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces de defense pour la democratie (CNDD-FDD), Christian Sendegeya, has deserted the movement and formed his own group known as FRODEBU-Mparaniragihugu, the private NetPress news agency reported. In a statement, Sendegeya and his supporters said they felt they could not opt for peace and reconciliation, and at the same time support war, and thus decided to withdraw from the CNDD-FDD coalition which was an armed movement. They called upon all the belligerents to follow their example and embark "without further delay, on talks that should lead to a ceasefire, latest by the end of the month of June 2000". SOMALIA: Djibouti delegates secure two more weeks for debate Somali delegates attending peace talks in Djibouti won more time in which to agree on steps towards the selection of a new provisional government. The move came on Sunday at a meeting between the steering committee elected by the conference delegates and the host of the Djibouti peace initiative on Somalia, President Ismail Omar Guelleh. A tight two-week schedule was agreed upon, with the election of a Transitional National Assembly (TNA) anticipated by 10 July. It was then hoped to have a president and prime minister elected by 13 July. The schedule is being seen as a compromise between the Djibouti government - under considerable financial pressure to reach a conclusion to the two-month talks - and Somali participants' desire for sufficient time to reach consensus. ETHIOPIA: Repatriation of Somali refugees from eastern Ethiopia A convoy of trucks has just taken some 1,000 Somali refugees back into Somaliland from the Jigjiga region of eastern Ethiopia, the pro-government Walta Information Centre reported on Wednesday. It said this brought the number of Somalis voluntarily repatriated from the region to more than 93,000 in the past four years. According to UNHCR, the repatriation programme started in February 1997, following the restoration of a degree of stability in the northwestern Somaliland region since 1995. But a spokesperson told IRIN that the programme had been slowed down by an estimated 8 million land mines planted in the region - some 400,000 of which had been uncovered, as well as a ban on Somali beef imports by a number of Gulf countries in 1997 over a suspected outbreak of Rift Valley Fever. However the programme was continuing with the 100th convoy crossing back into Somalia in April. More than 162,000 Somali refugees still remain in the Jigjiga region, according to the Ethiopian Administration of Refugees' and Returnees' Affairs. ERITREA: UNHCR says refugees trickling back from Sudan UNHCR said on Tuesday that Eritrean refugees had been trickling back across the border from Sudan over the past few days, despite very difficult conditions in western Eritrea. Spokesman Kris Janowski said it was hard to give an accurate estimate of how many refugees were returning out of a total of 94,000 registered in Sudan's Kassala state since the outbreak of fighting between Eritrea and Ethiopia last month. Many of the returnees were using unofficial crossing points. Conditions for those going back were hampered by a serious lack of food and other relief supplies in western Eritrea, although the areas of Tesseney and Talatashar were reported to have electricity and running water, Janowski said. But the start of the rains meant that many roads were turning into mud, further complicating the relief operation. SUDAN: Turabi launches new political party Hassan al-Turabi, the former parliamentary speaker and ex-secretary general of Sudan's ruling National Congress (NC) party, announced the launching of a new political party on Tuesday, the Sudanese news agency (SUNA) reported. Turabi told a press conference at his Khartoum residence that the new party, the People's National Congress, would be a "comprehensive shura organisation", indicating that it would be outside the government. He accused President Omar al-Bashir of betraying the NC's Islamist tenets and said two cabinet ministers were defecting with him, according to Agence France Presse (AFP). Turabi, a former close ally of Bashir, was dismissed as parliamentary speaker last December after a power struggle between the two men. SUDAN: SPLA says it captured southern town of Gogrial The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) announced on Monday that its forces had captured the garrison town of Gogrial in Bahr el-Ghazal province. Spokesman Samson Kwaje said the town was taken on 24 June and that government forces were fleeing in disarray towards Wau and Aweil, which he said were the only major towns controlled by the government in the region. Aid workers last week confirmed fighting between the two sides near Gogrial, where a ceasefire had been in effect for several months. SUDAN: International aid agencies resuming operations in south A spokesman for Oxfam confirmed on Wednesday that the organisation would be resuming operations in southern Sudan. He told IRIN that Oxfam had not yet signed the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) Memorandum of Understanding - which outlines conditions for aid agencies to work in rebel-held areas - but that it anticipated doing so. He said that Oxfam was co-coordinating its move with other agencies, including Save the Children Fund (SCF). A statement issued by Care International also announced the resumption of operations. SPLA spokesman Samson Kwaje announced on Monday that four international agencies - Oxfam, SCF, Care International and the German and Belgian branches of Veterinaires sans Frontieres (VSF) had agreed to return to southern Sudan after signing the Memorandum of Understanding. Nairobi, 30 June 2000 [IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: irin-cea@ocha.unon.org ] [This item is delivered in the English service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. 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