U N I T E D  N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 28
8 - 14 July 2000



CONTENTS:

SOMALIA: Peace talks in Djibouti hit deadlock
DJIBOUTI: Drought-affected area hosts refugees
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UN prepares peacekeeping mission
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Ethiopia ready for "direct" talks
SUDAN: Renewed fighting causes "deep concern" 
UGANDA: Sudan urged to help free abducted children
KENYA: Starvation-related deaths reported
RWANDA: Government welcomes OAU's reparations recommendation
DRC: UN condemns Uvira attack on relief workers   
DRC: Kisangani death toll upped to 760
DRC: Envoy recalled from Belgium
BURUNDI: Arusha talks start of "real negotiations" - FDD
BURUNDI: Peace agreement "unlikely next week"


SOMALIA: Peace talks in Djibouti hit deadlock

The Djibouti-hosted Somali National Peace conference has hit a deadlock
over the method of appointment to the Transitional National Council,
sources close to the conference told IRIN on Thursday. They said political
decisions were "dragging". Puntland delegates were petitioning for
elections to be held on the basis of pre-civil war districts, while all
other participants were campaigning for elections to be held on the basis
of clan. Opinion was also divided opinion on whether the president should
be elected by the peace conference or by the Transitional National
Council. Policies regarding health, education and agriculture have been
outlined for a new government. It seemed likely that the conference would
agree to use Baidoa as a temporary capital while the devastated national
capital, Mogadishu, was renovated, a source told IRIN. 

DJIBOUTI: Drought-affected area hosts refugees

Hundreds of Ethiopians have been crossing from drought-stricken border
regions into southern Djibouti. Local officials told IRIN on Thursday they
had set up temporary shelters on the fringes of Asiela town, near the
border, and they suggested that the best way to stop the exodus would be
through the delivery of humanitarian aid. About 1,000 who arrived in June
were visited by representatives from WFP, UNHCR, ICRC and USAID. Local
officials have provided some assistance and are appealing to aid agencies
to help with food and medical care. Last month, three Ethiopians, weakened
by hunger, died because of lack of medical care, local officials told
IRIN. Others were arriving in Bondara, southern Djibouti, and a small
group of about 200 received local assistance in the regional capital,
Dikhil.

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UN prepares peacekeeping mission

A United Nations reconnaissance team preparing for the deployment of
peacekeepers between Eritrea and Ethiopia, visited Addis Ababa on
Wednesday after successfully completing a four-day visit to the Eritrean
capital, Asmara. Major-General Timothy Ford, leading the mission told the
BBC, however, that no peacekeeping force would be able to keep the two
sides apart if they chose to resume hostilities. The UN and the OAU have
stressed the need to deploy peacekeepers as rapidly as possible. The
reconnaissance team said they planned to have the first group of liaison
officers in both capitals before the end of the week, even though the
deployment of a large multinational force of armed peacekeepers and
unarmed military observers was likely to take some months. The UN Security
Council is still to announce a timetable, approve the mandate and decide
on the size of the peacekeeping force.

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Ethiopia ready for "direct" talks

At the summit of the Organisation of African nity (OAU) in Lome, Togo, AFP
quoted the prime minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, as saying his country
was ready for direct talks with Eritrea. "For us the war is over," he
said. "We are ready for direct talks." The two neighbouring countries
signed a ceasefire in Algiers last month, formally bringing to an end a
two-year border war in which tens of thousands were reportedly killed and
many more forced to flee their homes.

SUDAN: Renewed fighting causes "deep concern" 

Carolyn McAskie, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, expressed "deep concern" 
over resumed hostilities between the Sudan People's Liberation Army and
the Sudanese government in Southern Sudan. In a statement issued from New
York, Ms McAskie said reported fighting around Gogrial in Bahr-el-Ghazal
and Mabaan in Upper Nile had caused the displacement of at least 4,000
people. It has also been reported that air raids on Rumbek and other
locations in the Bahr-el-Ghazal, Lakes area and Western Equatoria last
week, had resulted in three deaths and the wounding of several others. 
The statement said the events were of particular concern because "they not
only bring about further deterioration of humanitarian conditions in the
area but also jeopardise the crucial humanitarian ceasefire that both
parties pledged to respect earlier this year". 

UGANDA: Sudan urged to help free abducted children

The European Parliament has tabled a resolution urging the Sudanese
government to stop supporting the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army
(LRA) and particularly to cooperate in freeing all children abducted by
the rebels. The resolution noted that thousands of children had already
died in captivity from hunger, disease, beatings, stabbings and the
fighting itself.  It said a peace accord signed in Nairobi last December
between Uganda and Sudan had included a pledge from the Sudanese
government to cease support for the LRA and guarantee the safe return of
abducted Ugandan children from the LRA's bases in Sudan. "The political
will to implement the peace accord has been lacking on both sides [and]
both countries have continued to support each other's armed rebels," the
resolution said. "Very few abducted children have been returned by Sudan."

KENYA: Starvation-related deaths reported

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)  has stressed the rapidly
deteriorating food situation in Kenya, noting that starvation-related
deaths are now being reported. In a special report issued on Monday, the
FAO said the severe drought currently affecting the country had resulted
in a dire food situation "especially for pastoralists because this is the
fourth consecutive rain failure in their areas". As a result the prices of
the staple food, maize, are very high and continue to rise. "This is
seriously hurting the poor whose access to food is increasingly being
curtailed," the report said. For pastoralists, livestock losses and
plummeting livestock prices combined with the rising cost of grain have
led to the collapse of household economies "leading to destitution and
starvation-related deaths, especially among children". 

RWANDA: Government welcomes OAU's reparations recommendation

The Rwandan government has welcomed a recommendation contained in an OAU
report on the 1994 genocide that reparations should be paid to Rwanda as a
goodwill gesture by the international community. The Rwandan presidential
adviser on security matters, Major Emmanuel Ndahiro, told IRIN this was
"long overdue". "In order for genuine reconciliation to be achieved,
people's lives have to be improved in terms of providing health services,
infrastructure development and cancellation of the burdensome foreign
debt," he said. "Reparations can go a long way to helping all Rwandans
build a new society." 

"Apologies alone are not adequate," the report by the OAU's International
Panel of Eminent Personalities said. "In the name of both justice and
accountability, reparations are owed to Rwanda by actors in the
international community for their roles before, during and since the
genocide. The case of Germany after World war II is pertinent here."  It
also blamed the Catholic and Anglican churches, the UN, France, Belgium
and the US for failing to stop the genocide. 

DRC: UN condemns Uvira attack on relief workers

Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator for the UN Carolyn McAskie on
Wednesday expressed shock at the "unwarranted and vicious attack on
humanitarian personnel", which resulted in one death and several injuries
in Uvira, South Kivu, on Sunday. The International Medical Corps (IMC)
suspended its immunisation activities in the country as a result of the
attack on its staff, McAskie said in a statement. She called on the DRC
government and all parties involved in the fighting in the east "to adhere
to their commitment to enable relief workers to operate safely and to
ensure that those responsible for this cowardly act are brought to
justice". UNOCHA said armed men had opened fire on a vehicle transporting
IMC staff at a checkpoint near Uvira on the third day of a polio
immunisation campaign in the region. One health centre supervisor was
killed, and several staff members and local vaccinators wounded. Another
NGO, Action contre la faim also suspended its activities in the Uvira
region. 

DRC: Kisangani death toll upped to 760

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday that
at least 760 people were killed last month in fierce fighting between
Ugandan and Rwandan forces for control of Kisangani, the third largest
city of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A spokesman told IRIN that
the ICRC and the local Red Cross in Kisangani had virtually completed the
collection and burial of hundreds of decomposing bodies. "The ICRC
believes that at least 619 civilians and 141 soldiers died in the
week-long fighting.  Up to 250 Red Cross volunteers and numerous ICRC
staff were involved in removing the remains, which presented a major
threat to public health," the spokesman said.

DRC: Envoy recalled from Belgium

The DRC government has recalled its ambassador to Belgium after the former
colonial power issued an international arrest warrant for Foreign Minister
Yerodia Abdoulaye Ndombasi on charges of inciting ethnic hatred. Speaking
on state television on Friday, DRC Information Minister Didier Mumengi
accused Belgium of "cynicism" and "duplicity", and said the warrant
violated the immunity of foreign government officials. Reuters news agency
said Yerodia, who is now liable to arrest if he enters any country willing
to execute the warrant, has denied the charges. He was quoted as saying
his remarks in 1998 - when he described the Tutsis as "vermin" and called
for their "extermination" - referred to the Tutsi-led rebels who attacked
Kinshasa, and not to a specific ethnic group.

BURUNDI: Arusha talks start of "real negotiations" - FDD

The rebel Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la
defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD)on Wednesday said next week's
resumption of the Arusha peace process only constitutes the start of "real
negotiations" aimed at the eventual signing of a peace accord in the
months to come. In a statement, spokesman Jerome Ndiho said the FDD's
attendance at the talks - for the first time - was a gesture of support
and gratitude for the efforts of the mediator, Nelson Mandela. The
statement reiterated that the CNDD-FDD was "showing goodwill" by attending
the talks, despite the fact its two preconditions - dismantling the
regroupment camps and freeing political prisoners - had not been fully
met. 

BURUNDI: Peace agreement "unlikely next week" 

Burundi's army spokesman Colonel Longin Minani also said it was unlikely
the peace deal would be signed next week.  "We don't think there will be a
signing of the agreement next week," he told IRIN. "We haven't seen the
document and the population hasn't agreed on certain issues," Minani
observed. "There could only be a plenary session, but not the signing
because all those negotiating have said they are not ready." Minani blamed
a "lack of communication" between the negotiators and the facilitation
team leading to the presumption that there an accord would be signed on 20
July, a day after the Arusha talks resume. 

Nairobi, 14 July 2000


[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: irin-cea@ocha.unon.org ]



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