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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 92
22 - 28 September 2001


CONTENTS:

DRC: Agreement, funds short ahead of dialogue, says mediator
DRC: Government denounces "inter-Kivu dialogue"
DRC: RCD-Goma to organise inter-Mayi-Mayi dialogue
DRC: Rebel coalition captures strategic town
RWANDA: Election of traditional judges set for 4 October
RWANDA: Government to set up 11,000 traditional courts
RWANDA: Courts sentence 74 to death
RWANDA: UN tribunal for Rwanda asks for more judges
RWANDA: Rebel group demands withdrawal of Rwandan troops in DRC
BURUNDI: Army clears road of fighters
BURUNDI: Obasanjo seeks approval for Nigerian peacekeepers
CAR: Budget slashed by one-third due to coup attempt

DRC: Agreement, funds short ahead of dialogue, says mediator

Preparations for the inter-Congolese peace and reconciliation dialogue
between the government, the political opposition and rebel movements in
the DRC have run into last-minute obstacles, AFP reported a mediator as
saying on Friday. "October 15 [in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia] is still the
working scenario date for the mediation team, but there are difficulties,
and some of these problems are still not sorted out," Hacen Ould Lebatt
said.

He said the problems were the way in which various forces, such as the
Mayi-Mayi militias, the Ugandan-backed Congolese Rally for
Democracy-Liberation Movement, and civil society, would be represented;
and the financial difficulties. "The new, good thing is that everyone
agrees that the Mayi-Mayi should be part of the political process, but
they don't agree how," Ould Labett was quoted as saying at the conclusion
of a two-day meeting in Nairobi of the Consultative Committee of the
inter-Congolese dialogue. As special representative of Botswana's former
head of state Ketumile Masire - the facilitator agreed to by all parties
to the 1999 Lusaka peace agreement - Labett said "time is tight". The
money so far raised to pay for the main talks in the Ethiopian capital "is
far short of what is needed", he added, urging the donor community to
provide "the promised funds".

The committee, made up of two members from each of the six parties at the
Gaborone talks - the Kinshasa government, the three armed opposition
groups, political opposition groups and civil society - were also
scheduled to discuss such issues as its method of operation and frequency
of meetings. The Nairobi meeting was convened by Masire and chaired by
Ould Lebatt.

DRC: Government denounces "inter-Kivu dialogue"

Speaking on government-owned RTNC TV in Kinshasa on Tuesday after a
meeting of the DRC Council of Ministers regarding the recently-concluded
"inter-Kivu dialogue", the communications minister and government
spokesman, Kikaya bin Karubi, announced that "the government hereby
denounces this destabilising manoeuvre, which violates the Lusaka accords,
as well as the Republican Pact signed in Gaborone by all the sides
involved in the Congolese conflict. It therefore appeals to the brave
people of the entire Kivu region to reject the holding of this so-called
dialogue, and not to feel bound by the resolutions that will be adopted at
this forum. It also calls on inter-Congolese dialogue facilitator Ketumile
Masire to help end acts aimed at sabotaging the national dialogue, because
the entire Congolese people have agreed to holding the talks. It appeals
to the international community "to thwart Rwanda's obvious plan to torpedo
the peace process and sabotage in advance the talks" slated to begin 15
October in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

DRC: RCD-Goma to organise inter-Mayi-Mayi dialogue

The Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma rebel movement hopes to organise a meeting
with the principal representatives of the Mayi-Mayi Congolese militias
before the beginning of the inter-Congolese dialogue on 15 October, AFP
reported on Wednesday. "The question of the integration of the Mayi-Mayi
in the inter-Congolese dialogue" will be discussed at this meeting,
RCD-Goma Secretary-General Azarias Ruberwa was quoted as having told AFP,
without specifying a date or location.

Factions of the Mayi-Mayi have been fighting soldiers of the RCD-Goma and
their Rwandan supporters in the North and South Kivu provinces of eastern
DRC since August 1998, when rebel movements supported by Uganda and Rwanda
launched an assault to topple the then DRC president, Laurent-Desire
Kabila. The inter-Congolese dialogue, a key element of the Lusaka peace
agreement, will bring together representatives of the Kinshasa government,
armed opposition groups, opposition political parties and civil society.
However, the accord made no provision for the inclusion of "negative
forces" - armed non-signatories to Lusaka, such as the Mayi-Mayi, the
Interahamwe and the ex-FAR - in the inter-Congolese dialogue.

DRC: Rebel coalition captures strategic town

Rwandan and Burundian rebels aided by Congolese army officers have
captured the strategic town of Fizi on the northwestern shores of Lake
Tanganyika in eastern DRC, news agencies reported on Tuesday. The
president of the RCD-Goma, Adolphe Onusumba, said the 7 September capture
of Fizi occurred as Burundian government forces were pulling out of
eastern DRC to fight rebels outside their country's capital, Bujumbura.
"The capture of Fizi is significant, because Burundian and Rwandan rebels
now have an opening to mount incursions into their countries across the
lake," he told the Associated Press. He said the capture was "particularly
significant", because the government in Kinshasa had supplied these groups
with speedboats that can insert fighters into Burundi. "Officers of the
[DRC] government forces are the ones masterminding logistics and other key
operations of the Rwandan and Burundian rebels in the east," he added.

The Rwandan deputy army chief-of-staff Brig-Gen James Kabarebe said the
forces who captured Fizi had arrived in boats from the port of Muliro, on
the southwestern shores of the lake. "We have no forces deployed in that
area, but the RCD is making plans to regain control of the town, and I
think they will," Kabarebe told Reuters. Rwandan military officials said
the Hutu rebels who had established bases in and around Fizi were part of
a force of more than 40,000 men advancing towards Rwanda. Rwanda's
Tutsi-dominated government says tens of thousands of Hutu militiamen, who
led Rwanda's 1994 genocide, were still hiding in the DRC, and accuses
Kinshasa of backing them. The DRC rejects these allegations.

RWANDA: Election of traditional judges set for 4 October

The long-awaited elections of judges for Rwanda's traditional - the Gacaca
- courts which will preside over genocide cases has been scheduled for 4
October, the chairman of the Electoral Commission, Protais Musoni, told
the Rwanda News Agency on Wednesday. The judges will be elected at the
cell, sector, district and prefectural levels of the Gacaca courts. Musoni
said the elections will not be by secret ballot, but by means of voters
lining up behind the candidates of their choice. Candidates are not
allowed to solicit votes beyond introducing themselves, but may refute
allegations that might be made against them. Qualifications of eligibility
to run for this office are that a candidate be able to read and write
Kinyarwanda, the national language, and be a person of integrity. "Anybody
who challenges the moral integrity of the candidate shall be asked to
substantiate the claim openly with vivid examples," Musoni said.

Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo told RNA that the elections would be
followed by a short training course for the judges.

RWANDA: Government to set up 11,000 traditional courts

Rwanda is to set up 11,000 Gacaca courts to ease pressure on an
overburdened prison system now holding 115,000 inmates awaiting trial for
the 1994 genocide, the state-owned Rwandan News Agency reported on Monday,
quoting the adviser to the Supreme Court, Augustin Nkusi. "By the end of
this year, the files for all genocide suspects in prison will be ready so
that they can be taken to their respective sectors for justice," he said.

The trials, expected to last three years, are being brought before the
Gacaca courts, because the modern judicial system is unable to handle the
workload. Nkusi, who is the secretary-general of the Gacaca court system,
said trials would be nationwide and save the country scarce resources that
could be channelled into development projects. Government spent at least
US $1 million on the prison system each year, he added, equal to the
budget for the National University of Butare.  Rwanda had 785 judges
before the 1994 genocide, he said. Less than 20 judges and 70 lawyers
survived he said.

RWANDA: Courts sentence 74 to death

In the first six months of this year, Rwandan courts sentenced 74 people
to death for their part in the 1994 mass killings of Tutsi and politically
moderate Hutus, a Rwandan human rights body said on Wednesday, AFP
reported. The Rwandan League for the Promotion and Defence of Human
Rights, in its publication 'Le Verdict', reported that 877 people were put
on trial during this period. The courts handed down 192 life sentences and
180 acquittals after hearing between 5,000 and 6,000 genocide cases, AFP
quoted 'Le Verdict' as saying. So far, it added, 22 death sentences had
been carried out - all by firing squad in public in May 1998.

RWANDA: UN tribunal for Rwanda asks for more judges

Burdened by a heavy caseload, the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda has asked the UN Security Council and the General Assembly for 18
more judges to help accelerate its work for a short period, UN News
reported on Tuesday. The Tribunal wants the judges to preside over trials
and pre-trial proceedings. In her letter of request, the president of the
Tribunal, Judge Navanethem Pillay, put the estimated cost of the
short-term appointments for 2002-2003 at US $23.6 million. A similar pool
of judges has already been set up for the International Criminal Tribunal
for the former Yugoslavia, UN News reported.

RWANDA: Rebel group demands withdrawal of Rwandan troops in DRC

The Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda, an anti-government militia,
said on Tuesday that it agreed to disarm 3,000 of its "freedom fighters"
in the southeastern province of Katanga, as a demonstration of its support
for the international effort to bring peace to the DRC. "Our presence in
DRC may no longer be a pretext for Rwanda to maintain its troops in that
country," Alexis Nshimyimana, the group's spokesman, told reporters in
Brussels on Tuesday. Therefore, he added, the Rwandan government should
withdraw all its troops, accept an inter-Rwandan dialogue, and "cease the
manhunt of survivors" in the occupied territories. "Our wish is to return
to our home country as deserving citizens and not as slaves," he said.

Nshimyimana said his group refused to be associated with the Interahamwe
and ex-FAR, who are blamed for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. "I don't know
anyone of them," he said. "All this confusion is created by the Rwandan
government in order to demonise us," he said. Yet, he acknowledged that
some ex-FAR were fighting with his group, just as some ex-FAR were now
serving in the present Rwandan Patriotic Army. He also denied that his
forces were fighting with the Burundian anti-government group, the Forces
de defense de la democratie, against the Tutsi-dominated Burundi army.

BURUNDI: Army clears road of fighters

Traffic is flowing again along the road running north from the capital,
Bujumbura, to Bugarama after army troops pushed back anti-government Hutu
forces threatening to sever the highway at a point some 15 to 20 km
northeast of the capital, army spokesman Colonel Augustine Nzabampema told
IRIN on Tuesday. He said the government troops had ejected the attackers -
whom he declined to identify - on 23 September from most parts of Mageyo
toward the valley of the Muzazi river. Reuters reported at least seven
soldiers and three civilians dead in the four days of fighting. The army
has not released any figures. "I cannot discuss casualties," Nzabampema
told IRIN.

Traffic had been halted since 20 September when the army took on fighters
of the National Liberation Forces (NLF) a Burundi news agency, Net press,
reported. It said hundreds of civilians had fled. A senior commander of
the NLF told Reuters that it had attained its objective in the attack and
would continue the war. The agency did not state the objective. The NLF
has been fighting the Tutsi-dominated government and army since 1993 in a
war in which about 200,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed,
Reuters reported.

BURUNDI: Obasanjo seeks approval for Nigerian peacekeepers

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo is seeking parliamentary approval for
Nigerian peacekeeping forces to be deployed to Burundi, AFP reported on
Thursday. In a letter to Nigeria's upper house of parliament, the Senate,
Obasanjo said the request for approval followed ongoing efforts by some
African leaders, particularly the South African former president and
Burundi peace mediator, Nelson Mandela, to end Burundi's civil war. "It is
envisaged that at the end of the exercise (to end the crisis), some
countries, including Nigeria, will be requested to deploy military
personnel to the Burundi peacekeeping mission," Obasanjo said in the
letter.

Civil war in Burundi since 1993 has pitted Hutu rebel movements against
the government and army, both controlled by the country's Tutsi minority.
All political and civil parties to the strife in Burundi agreed to a
ceasefire in August 2000, and under a power-sharing deal, a transitional
administration is due to take shape beginning on 1 November. However, the
two main rebel movements, the Forces for National Liberation and the
Forces for the Defence of Democracy, have not signed the accord.

BURUNDI: Obasanjo seeks approval for Nigerian peacekeepers

A rapid evaluation and assessment coordination team has been asked to
assemble on Friday and recommend the type of aid needed for some 20,000
people displaced by recent fighting in Bujumbura-Rurale Province, western
Burundi, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
reported. This follows an appeal on Thursday by the province's governor,
Baltazar Nemahungiro, who is asking for non-food items such as soap,
sheeting and water containers. The IDPs are dispersed in different homes,
so aid and local government officials have suggested four distribution
sites. These are in Ruyaga to serve Kanyosha, Rushuvi for Isale, Mubone
for Mutimbuzi and Mageyo/Rushuvi/Kinama as distribution sites for Mubimbi.
OCHA Burundi and NGOs operating in the province are to specify on Friday
the exact location of the IDPs and the best way to distribute the aid.

CAR: Budget slashed by one-third due to coup attempt

The Central African Republic has slashed its 2001 budget by nearly
one-third due to a failed coup attempt in May that compounded an already
grave financial crisis, the leader of parliament told Reuters on
Wednesday. National Assembly President Apollinaire Dondon Konamabaye
reported that the parliament had cut the 2001 budget by 31 percent,
because revenues were now expected to amount to just 81.66 billion CFA
francs (US $114 million) instead of the 119.5 billion francs CFA ($167
million) originally forecast. "This revision is necessary due to the
harmful consequences of the attempted coup," Reuters quoted Konamabaye as
saying.

The country's political landscape and economy were already shattered by a
series of mutinies in the 1990s, and government employees have remained
unpaid for many months. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report
last week that urgent aid was needed to help the country through the
crisis. He called for more funds and a wider mandate for a UN
peace-building mission already established in the country.


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2001


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