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 41
7 - 13 October 2000



CONTENTS:

BURUNDI: Heavy fighting continues countrywide
BURUNDI: Rights group tells rebels to work for peace
DRC: Number of displaced people rises
DRC: Council consults on extension for MONUC
DRC: Kabila allies pledge to defend Mbandaka
DRC: Mobutu son meets rebel leaders
DRC: Human rights activists arrested in Bukavu
RWANDA: Cyangugu genocide trial resumes
KENYA: President seeks ban on vernacular radios
KENYA: President calls for end to mob justice
TANZANIA: About 1.3 million "highly food insecure"
TANZANIA: Police fire on opposition crowd
UGANDA: Nine dead, over 60 injured in rebel attack

BURUNDI: Heavy fighting continues countrywide

Fighting continued in the south of the country, with at least 26 people,
including seven rebels, reported killed. The BBC Kirundi service said the
provinces of Cankuzo, Bururi and Gitega had witnessed intensified fighting
"which comes before 20 October", the deadline given to the rebel groups by
the peace facilitation team to commence ceasefire talks. There has been
particularly heavy fighting between rebels and government soldiers in the
Rutovu area (home of President Pierre Buyoya and former presidents
Micombero and Bagaza) in Bururi Province, where 5,000 people are reported
to have fled Condi zone. In Cankuzo Province, artillery was being used,
according to an observer interviewed by the BBC Kirundi service.  There
were also reports of Burundians fleeing the province into Tanzania. 

Other reports from Burundi said there had also been violence in the north
towards the end of last week. The private Netpress news agency said rebels
from Rutana and Gitega provinces had linked up and moved north, where they
attacked guests at a wedding ceremony in Remera, killing 18 people. 

Subsequently, Interior Minister Colonel Ascension Twagiramungu sought to
reassure the people of Bujumbura that the army was resisting rebel
attempts to "destabilise the capital". In an interview with Burundi radio,
he explained that "combat operations" were taking place in Tenga, just
north of Bujumbura, aimed at pushing back the rebels. Army sources quoted
by the BBC Kirundi service said 150 rebels and six soldiers had been
killed on Thursday. According to Twagiramungu, the security situation in
the southern areas of Rutana and Cankuzo had become stable after heavy
fighting there. 

BURUNDI: Rights group tells rebels to work for peace

The Burundian human rights organisation, Ligue Iteka, has strongly
condemned the new surge of violence in the country, saying that at this
advanced stage in the peace process it should not be allowed to continue.
In a statement received by IRIN on Thursday, the organisation said a
cessation of hostilities should not depend solely on the rebels' demands
to close the regroupment camps and free political prisoners, even though
these were important issues. It urged the rebel commanders to engage in
"concrete actions" aimed at working towards a just and lasting peace and
agree to a ceasefire. Ligue Iteka also called on army commanders to keep
the regular soldiers under control. 

DRC: Number of displaced people rises

The number of people displaced by fighting in the northwestern province of
Equateur continues to increase. According to a report from the Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Kinshasa, about 8,000
displaced people in Bokungu had no access to drinking water and the
over-population was "alarming". In Boende, 12,000 displaced people were
occupying five sites, while in Yalusaka the population had shot up from
1,000 to 10,000 in just a few weeks, with most people fleeing from the
fighting in Ikela. In the northeastern part of the country about 20,000
displaced people were languishing in the Ituri Forest, scene of bloody
clashes earlier in the year. The report said they were refusing to leave
because most of them had no clothes. 

Meanwhile, UNHCR staff are to establish a permanent presence in Betou,
Republic of Congo (ROC), which is hosting about 20,000 refugees fleeing
the fighting in northwestern DRC. The move follows the findings of earlier
relief missions to Betou which found that shelter and food supplies in the
area had been exhausted. About 400 DRC government soldiers were among the
refugees in Betou and their repatriation was under discussion, UNHCR said. 

DRC: Council consults on extension for MONUC

The UN Security Council on 6 September held closed consultations to
discuss an extension of the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, a
statement from the Council said. According to UN spokesman Fred Eckhard,
the mission had reported difficulties in obtaining approval from the DRC
goverment to conduct flights to the northwestern city of Mbandaka to
re-supply the four UN military observers there. The mission's mandate is
due to expire on 15 October. 

DRC: Kabila allies pledge to defend Mbandaka

President Laurent-Desire Kabila held unscheduled talks with his allies -
Namibia, Angola and Zimbabwe - in the Namibian capital, Windhoek, on
Monday.  News agencies issued a warning that "full-scale war" with Uganda
would break out if the Kampala-backed rebel Mouvement de liberation du
Congo (MLC) did not halt its advance on Mbandaka. Namibian President Sam
Nujoma said after the mini-summit: "We will not allow Mbandaka to fall."
Speaking on behalf of Kabila, according to AFP, Nujoma said the DRC
president had agreed to the deployment of about 5,000 UN peacekeepers and
500 military observers, and he had pledged to guarantee them freedom of
movement. Presidents Robert Mugabe of Ziimbabwe and Jose Eduardo dos
Santos of Angola also reaffirmed their support for Kabila. 

Meanwhile, President Yoweri Museveni, also on Monday, accused the DRC
government of frustrating international and regional efforts to resolve
the conflict in that country. In an independence day address to the
nation, broadcast by Ugandan radio, Museveni said implementation of the
Lusaka accord was the only way of achieving that end. "Short of outright
war, we do not see an alternative to the Lusaka agreement," he said. 

DRC: Mobutu son meets rebel leaders

Leaders of the governing Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie
(RCD-Goma) held talks with the son of former President Mobutu Sese Seko in
Goma on Wednesday, rebel-controlled Goma radio reported. It said Nzanga
Mobutu had returned to the country after three years of exile, and was
received by RCD President Emile Ilunga and RCD army chief Jean-Pierre
Bemba.  Nzanga Mobutu was expected to hold more meetings to explain the
aim of his visit to RCD-controlled territory, the radio said. 

DRC: Human rights activists arrested in Bukavu

The New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticised
"public beatings, detentions and ill-treatment" of 13 human rights
activists in Bukavu. "The latest intimidation follows months of escalating
violence and deaths in eastern Congo, and comes on the heels of last
week's visit to the region by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Mary Robinson", HRW said in a statement on Wednesday. The activists were
arrested on Monday at the offices of the Groupe Jeremie organisation in
Bukavu by soldiers of the governing Rassemblement congolais pour la
democratie (RCD-Goma). They were reportedly made to "come out of the
office one by one" and were "beaten publicly in front of a big crowd with
sticks and fists". HRW said the action showed the "ruling rebel force's
contempt for human rights". "The RCD must stop terrorising those who speak
out peacefully," the statement added.

Sources in Bukavu told IRIN the 13 were released on Tuesday night from the
Saio military camp, where they were being held. The town has been tense
ever since the death of diocese Archbishop Emmanuel Kataliko was
announced, and this erupted into violence with stone-throwing incidents
and three deaths reported. The bishop's funeral went ahead without
incident on Tuesday. On Sunday stones were thrown at the car of South Kivu
governor Norbert Kantintima and Rwandan soldiers reportedly fired into the
air as the bishop's body was taken from the airport to the cathedral, the
sources said. 

Meanwhile, the government has expressed condolences over the archbishop's
death and announced a countrywide day of mourning on Tuesday. In its
statement, the government asserted that he had not died a natural death,
but had fallen victim to "a cowardly assassination hatched up by the
enemies of the Congoleser people".

RWANDA: Cyangugu genocide trial resumes

The trial of three genocide suspects from the southwestern prefecture of
Cyangugu resumed at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
in Arusha, Tanzania, on Monday. Former Mayor Emmanuel Bagambiki, former
Transport Minister Andre Ntagerura and the former commander of the
Cyangugu military barracks, Samuel Imanishimwe, are accused of committing
genocide and crimes against humanity in Cyangugu in 1994. 

Meanwhile, a genocide suspect living in Britain has dropped his attempt to
block his deportation to the ICTR, the BBC reported. It said Tharcisse
Muvunyi, a former army officer, had agreed to go to Arusha in return for
guarantees that he would be returned to London, where he had been living
as a refugee since 1998, if acquitted. 

KENYA: President seeks ban on vernacular radios

President Daniel arap Moi towards the end of last week ordered Information
Minister Musalia Mudavadi and Attorney General Amos Wako to draw up a law
to prevent radio stations from broadcasting in languages other than
English and Kiswahili. Targets of the law would be the Kikuyu language
radio, Kameme FM, Rehema radio, which broadcasts in Kalenjin, and the
Hindi language East FM.  President Moi said vernacular radios "promoted
tribal chauvinism and undermined national cohesion", according to the
'Daily Nation'. 

The president's directive has drawn mixed reactions from Kenyans, many of
them arguing that the president should reprimand or sack ministers or
ruling party members whose utterances have ignited a series of tribal
clashes, press reports said. 

KENYA: President calls for end to mob justice

In an address to the nation on Tusday to mark his 22 years in power,
President Moi called for an end to mob justice, which is on the rise in
the capital, Nairobi, and speedily taking root in other parts of the
country. In the address, monitored by the BBC, he referred to a recent
case where residents of a Nairobi estate had lynched an elderly man who
was walking with his granddaughter, on suspicion that he had abducted her.
The city has been swept by a spate of child abductions, causing people to
rise against suspected perpetrators. The bodies of victims have been found
mutilated with parts missing. 

"The ongoing abduction and abuse of children in Kenya is one of the most
serious violations of children's rights," UNICEF's Kenya Country
Representative, Nicholas Alipui, said in a statement last week. "It is a
situation that requires prompot and extraordinary action." 

TANZANIA: About 1.3 million "highly food insecure" 

About 1.3 million people in 33 districts in Tanzania are "highly food
insecure" due to drought and need about 75,000 mt of food aid over the
next three to six months, according to a WFP Rapid Vulnerability
Assessment carried out in August, which also indicated a need for 2,390 mt
of seeds to support agricultural recovery. WFP said in its weekly
emergency update that the Tanzanian government was about to release 20,000
mt of maize for sale to the population at subsidised rates. 

TANZANIA: Police open fire on opposition crowd

Police in Zanzibar reportedly opened fire on a crowd of opposition Civic
United Front (CUF) supporters, injuring five of them. 'The Guardian'
newspaper quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the CUF supporters had
gathered at their office in Kilimahewa after police cancelled a rally to
have been addressed by the party's presidential candidate, Seif Sharif
Hamad, at Mukunguni. The police reportedly provoked the crowd by driving
their lorry close to the place where the CUF supporters were sitting. "CUF
supporters who assembled at the party office did not allow the police
vehicle to pass, starting wanton exchanges of stones and gunshots," the
paper said. 

UGANDA: Nine dead, over 60 injured in rebel attack

Nine people have so far been confirmed dead and 60 others injured
following an attack by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Gulu,
northern Uganda on the country's independence day on Tuesday. Ugandan
radio quoted the area's district chairman Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Ochora
as saying that three days of mourning had been declared in the district in
honour of the dead. He said a security meeting was due to take place on
Thursday to discuss the situation there. He also said the rebels had
recently dropped leaflets in nearby Kitgum district threatening to kill
200 people a month in Gulu and the neighbouring districts. Ochora appealed
to the government to tighten security in the area in order to avoid any
further killings by the rebels. He also advised citizens to cooperate with
the relevant authorities in restoring security to the affected districts.
The victims were reportedly killed when rebels opened fire and hurled a
grenade into Opich Travellers Inn in Gulu town.  The rebels have increased
their activity in the north lately, news reports say. Early in the month,
they ambushed and shot dead a Catholic priest, Father Raffaele Di Bari, as
he drove to say mass at Acholi Bur, some 40 km southwest of Kitgum, the
semi-official 'New Vision' newspaper said.  It also reported several
abductions including that of 20 children from Alokolum, Lacor about seven
km west of Gulu. 

Nairobi, 13 October 2000


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


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