U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
email: irin@ocha.unon.org
Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


CENTRAL 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 ]



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