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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 29

15 - 21 July 2000


CONTENTS:

BURUNDI: Deliberations underway in Arusha
BURUNDI: Rebels stay away from talks
BURUNDI: Main points of draft accord
DRC: More refugees flee to Republic of Congo
DRC: Half the population now affected by war
DRC: MSF operations in Kivus on hold due to insecurity
RWANDA: Census underway
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: President ready for talks with opposition
SUDAN: ICRC clinic bombed
SOMALIA: Interim Charter adopted
SOMALIA: Provisional capital approved
ETHIOPIA: Numbers affected by drought increase
ERITREA: New appeal for "shattered communities"


BURUNDI: Deliberations underway in Arusha

The negotiating sides in the Burundi peace process resumed talks in
Arusha, Tanzania on Wednesday. The facilitator, Nelson Mandela, had wanted
to the peace accord to be signed on 20 July, but delayed the date to 28
August, after various sides expressed concern that a hastily signed
agreement would not be implementable. Mandela had closed-door talks with
regional leaders, after which he said the two main outstanding issues were
a possible ceasefire and who would lead the transition, the Internews
service reported.  He expressed disappointment that the rebel
PALIPEHUTU-FNL had not come to Arusha, but stressed that the other armed
rebel faction, CNDD-FDD, was there and had made "positive contributions".
[See also separate item of 20 July:  IRIN Focus on the Burundi peace
process]

BURUNDI: Rebels stay away from talks

The rebel group PALIPEHUTU-FNL said it would not take part in the current
round of Burundi peace talks. The movement's politico-military adviser,
Alain Mughbarabona, told IRIN that PALIPEHUTU-FNL representatives were in
touch with the mediation team and "as soon as the situation is sorted out,
we shall take part." He stressed that the group was in favour of peace
negotiations. There had been much speculation as to whether Cossan Kabura,
the leader of PALIPEHUTU-FNL (Parti pour la liberation du peuple
hutu-Forces nationales de liberation) would attend the peace talks for the
first time. Mughbarabona said his movement was unhappy about several
issues, including the methodology and the way the negotiations were
developing. [See also separate IRIN story headlined "Rebel PALIPEHUTU-FNL
will not take part in Arusha talks"].

BURUNDI: Main points of draft accord

A draft peace accord was circulated in Arusha on Wednesday. According to
Burundi radio, some of the main points contained in the draft provide for
a president and two vice-presidents, to be appointed in Arusha, and drawn
from different ethnic groups and political parties. The National Assembly
will have 100 deputies and there will also be a Senate made up of two
delegates from each of the country's provinces. On security, the draft
states that no single ethnic group will constitute more than 50 percent of
the defence forces "to prevent them from becoming monoethnic or
instruments of ethnic dominance". The transition, according to the draft,
will come into effect three to six months after the signing of the accord
and will end after a maximum 30 months with the election of a new
president.

DRC: More refugees flee to Republic of Congo

UNHCR has been giving more details of the tens of thousands of refugees
who have fled fighting in Equateur province along the Ubangui river to
neighbouring Republic of Congo (RoC). "Around 4,000 of the 22,000
Congolese in camps north of the [RoC] town of Impfondo scattered into the
forest when government forces engaged rebels last week on the opposing
bank of the river that separates the two countries,"  UNHCR spokesman Ron
Redmond told a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. "New sites have sprung up
about 5 km from the river." He said that people were still arriving in
small numbers from Equateur. Refugees told a UNHCR team in the area that
they were leaving the towns of Imese, which was reclaimed by government
troops last week, as well as the villages of Nyela, Itula, Mbombe in DRC.

DRC: Half the population now affected by war

At least 24 million people of Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC)
population of 59 million have been affected by the country's ongoing war,
according to a new UN report. The report, prepared by the UN Humanitarian
Coordinator in DRC, said that as of the beginning of the month, there were
1.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in 10 of the vast central
African nation's 11 provinces. It said that only 50 percent of these
displaced people were in easily accessible areas. Most of the people,
scattered around the nation in four zones controlled by the government and
three rebel groups, had remained largely inaccessible over the past two
years because of sustained fighting.

DRC: MSF operations in Kivus on hold due to insecurity

The health NGO Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) on Wednesday stated that it
was suspending some of its activities outside the towns of Goma and Bukavu
as a result of two severe security incidents on 9 July. The decision means
that the provision of basic healthcare to internally-displaced people
(IDPs), the building of a nutrition centre and the start of a nutritional
programme have been put on hold, an MSF press release stated. In one
incident, a health worker from the International Medical Corps was killed
and six people were injured when their vehicle was attacked on the road
between Kiliba and Uvira. In the other, two small IDP camps - together
hosting about 5,000 people - were attacked west of Sake, near Goma. At
least 25 people were killed, while dozens of huts were burned down and
looted, as well as seven houses and two pharmacies in Sake itself, MSF
stated. Such attacks, which are quite frequent in the Kivus, "are
principally on civilians, but international NGOs are targeted as well," it
said. The suspension of some MSF activities is set to continue until a
clearer picture of what happened in the two incidents emerges. "In the
meantime, the fate of the IDPs [near Sake] remains unclear since they are
either not willing or able to return to the camps," MSF added.

RWANDA: Census underway

The Rwandan authorities have embarked on a national census to establish
exactly how many people died in the 1994 genocide, news organisations
reported. The census, which began on Monday, is due to last 10 days. A
government-appointed team of 1,600 investigators will tour the country to
draw up a definitive list, according to a BBC report. At least 800,000
Tutsis and moderate Hutus are believed to have perished in the massacres.
The census will begin from October 1990 when the-then rebel Rwandan
Patriotic Army (RPA) began its fight against the government of president
Juvenal Habyarimana. The BBC noted that genocide survivors criticise the
current government for using the genocide as a political tool while
neglecting their needs, and the census is an attempt to address some of
the criticism.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: President ready for talks with opposition

President Ange-Felix Patasse of the Central African Republic has said he
would be ready to hold a national dialogue with representatives all
sectors of society, including his political opponents, according to
reports this week by diplomats based in the capital, Bangui. No date,
however, has been set for such a conference. The diplomats said it was
important that the talks are held because of growing concerns about
violence, human rights violations and an economic crisis exacerbated by
fuel shortages. Earlier this month, the country's six opposition parties,
citing government "incompetence", reiterated calls for Patasse's
resignation, and the establishment of a government of national unity.

SUDAN: ICRC clinic bombed

A clinic run by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was
damaged, several homes destroyed and at least one person wounded on
Saturday when an "unidentified aircraft" bombed a village in the tense
southwest region of Bahr el Ghazal, an ICRC spokesman told IRIN on
Tuesday. The ICRC said it planned to raise the issue with the Sudanese
government and the rebel Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).
The attack occurred on Saturday morning at the village of Chelkou where 14
bombs were dropped. The bombing occurred the day after a three-month
ceasefire in Bahr el Ghazal ended.

SOMALIA: Interim Charter adopted

The Djibouti-hosted Somali National Peace Conference adopted a
Transitional National Charter on Sunday, conference sources told IRIN on
Monday. They said the charter was adopted by an overwhelming majority of
participants. It provides for a three-year transitional government based
on a federal system, with a transitional national assembly (TNA) elected
on the basis of clan. It also provides for the establishment of a
transitional judiciary system, validating the 1960 Somali constitution and
"other laws not in contradiction with the charter", a source said. [For
details, see separate IRIN story headlined "Peace conference passes new
charter"]

SOMALIA: Provisional capital approved

The southern town of Baidoa will become the "provisional capital" of
Somalia until a new interim government restores law and order in
Mogadishu, the Djibouti-hosted Somali National Peace Conference announced
on Wednesday. A resolution adopted by the conference stipulated that "a
national task committee" be entrusted with the restoration of security in
Mogadishu. [See separate IRIN report entitled, "SOMALIA: New provisional
capital chosen".

ETHIOPIA: Numbers affected by drought increase

The number of people affected by food shortages in Ethiopia has reached
10.5 million, the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC)
said in a report posted on the pro-Ethiopian government Walta Information
web site.  DPPC sector heads put out a joint statement saying the number
was based on the findings of various study teams dispatched to assess
drought conditions in all regions, except the Somali and Afar regional
states. According to the findings, 3.6 million people are affected in
Amhara region;  2 million in Oromiya; 1.7 million in Tigray; and 3.2
million in other regions, including Southern Nations, Nationalities and
Peoples State. Other teams have been dispatched to the Afar and Somali
states and their findings will be released later.

ERITREA: New appeal for "shattered communities"

The United Nations Country Team in Eritrea on Wednesday appealed for US
$87.3 million for more than 1.1 million war-affected Eritreans. The
revised appeal brings together the relief aid requirement of eight UN
agencies providing food, farming aid, shelter and household items, water
and sanitation, health and nutrition, education, psycho-social care, child
protection, reintegration assistance and coordination support. The
programmes are designed to provide immediate assistance to the most
vulnerable and help Eritreans "return home to rebuild their shattered
communities", said a press release. Eritrea faced "a potentially
catastrophic situation with large-scale population displacement and
increasing impoverishment", said UN Resident Humanitarian Coordinator,
Simon R Nhongo. "The sooner that displaced Eritreans can return home to
cultivate their land and resume their normal productive activities, the
better able this seven year-old country will be to feed itself," he said.

Nairobi, 21 July 2000


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