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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 90
29 September - 05 October 2001


CONTENTS:

DRC: RCD-Goma authorises humanitarian corridor for UN
DRC: Donors release money for inter-Congolese talks
DRC: Wamba dia Wamba in Kinshasa
DRC: Kabila, Obasanjo meet but rebel leaders fail to show
DRC: Influx of Angolan refugees fleeing renewed fighting
DRC: Annan presents update on recovery and reconstruction
DRC: UN report urges steps on human rights
DRC: Kinshasa/Mayi-Mayi assault on Kindu repulsed - RCD-Goma
ROC: WHO begins return to Brazzaville
RWANDA: Elections of traditional court judges begin
BURUNDI: Peace deal implementation body meets
BURUNDI: Meeting on transitional government makes progress - Mandela

DRC: RCD-Goma authorises humanitarian corridor for UN

The Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma)
armed opposition movement announced on Thursday that it had authorised the
UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC (MONUC) to navigate humanitarian barges
freely in waters located in territory under

RCD-Goma control. The announcement follows Wednesday's meeting between
authorities of RCD-Goma and the UN held in Goma. For the first time since
the outbreak of war in the DRC in August 1998, Kisangani, the DRC's
third-largest city, will be linked to the capital, Kinshasa.

RCD-Goma also gave assurances that it would authorise the resumption of
inter-territorial commercial traffic upon the conclusion of the
inter-Congolese peace and reconciliation dialogue, once modalities for
inter-territory navigation and immigration had been determined. The talks
are scheduled to begin on 15 October in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

DRC: Donors release money for inter-Congolese talks

Much of the money pledged by donors for the inter-Congolese dialogue has
been released, a European Union (EU) spokesman in Kinshasa, the DRC
capital, said on Wednesday. The spokesman, who requested anonymity, said
the office of the facilitator of the talks should by now have a budget of
between US $4.5 million and $5.8 million, to which Belgium, France and the
US have contributed. "The EU would look favourably on the Congolese
government releasing the US $1 million it has pledged," he added. "We saw
a letter on Tuesday authorising the DRC finance ministry to disburse that
money."

The facilitator's office, handling the funds, was still complaining of
difficulties but was unable to say how much money was available. The
spokesman for the facilitator, George Ola-Davies, said on Tuesday there
was "definitely a financial difficulty". This has threatened to delay the
talks due to be held on 15 October. However, the facilitator, Ketumile
Masire, the former president of Botswana, said on arrival in Kinshasa on
Tuesday that the talks would start as scheduled.

DRC: Wamba dia Wamba in Kinshasa

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, who headed the Congolese Rassemblement congolais
pour la democratie (RCD) armed opposition group in August 1998 when
Ugandan and Rwandan forces entered the DRC, is currently in the country's
capital, Kinshasa, following more than three years of exile, news agencies
reported Wednesday. "I am in Kinshasa to consult with the politicians and
various interest groups. After here, I hope to meet the leadership in
Kampala," Wamba was quoted as telling Ugandan-government-owned 'The New
Vision' newspaper on Wednesday. His consultations are in advance of the
peace dialogue due to begin on 15.

Responding to reports that he had defected from the opposition to join the
Kinshasa government, Wamba told the newspaper, "I am an icon of the
opposition and democratic governance of Congo. I cannot quit the
opposition."  Wamba, who later disagreed with the RCD's Rwandan backers,
broke away from the RCD (now known as RCD-Goma) to form the Ugandan-backed
RCD-Kisangani.

DRC: Kabila, Obasanjo meet but rebel leaders fail to show

Presidents Joseph Kabila of the DRC and Olusegun Obasanjo met on Tuesday
in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, for talks aimed at preparing the
groundwork for peace negotiations with civil war rivals in the central
African country. However, Nigerian officials said that Adolphe Onusumba
Yemba of the RCD-Goma and Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Mouvement pour la
liberation du Congo (MLC) had failed to show up for the meeting. "I can
confirm that President Obasanjo met with President Kabila for more than
three hours on Tuesday, but the rebel leaders were not there," a senior
presidential aide told IRIN on Wednesday.

Onusumba, whose group is backed by Rwanda, and Bemba, who enjoys Ugandan
support, have been fighting Kabila's government since 1998 in a war that
has drawn in at least six African countries on opposing sides. Speaking to
Congolese RTNC TV on Wednesday, DRC Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu
called the absence of Bemba and "deplorable in that the scheduled meeting
was aimed at discussing ways and means of speeding up the peace process in
the DRC".  Diplomatic sources informed IRIN that although Onusumba had
indeed committed himself to attending the Abuja meeting, Bemba had in fact
stated that he would not attend.

DRC: Influx of Angolan refugees fleeing renewed fighting

Fighting in northern Angola has sent a new wave of refugees into the DRC,
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on Tuesday. At
least 3,000 Angolans have already arrived in the DRC town of Kimvula since
mid-September, and nearly 250 more are arriving daily. They are fleeing
renewed fighting between Angolan government forces and UNITA (National
Union for the Total Independence of Angola) at Kimbindi, in the north of
Angola's Uige Province. Kimvula, which already had close to 9,000 refugees
from an influx in August, is 30 km north of Angola's northern border with
the DRC. The refugees who arrived during August were awaiting transfer to
sites away from the border.

UNHCR has begun to register the latest group of refugees in preparation
for their transfer, along with earlier groups, to settlement sites
allocated by local DRC authorities. UNHCR is also negotiating for two
additional sites to settle the most recent arrivals. Local authorities had
earlier allocated three sites for the previous group. UNHCR specialists
have been deployed to the new sites, some 60 km to 80 km from the border,
and have begun to demarcate parcels of land for distribution to the
refugees. Refugee families transferred to the area will receive two to
three hectares of land for subsistence farming, along with preliminary
food and household supplies.

DRC: Annan presents update on recovery and reconstruction

A report released on Monday by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on economic
aid to the DRC says that the transparency and liberalisation advocated by
Kinshasa at the political and economic levels, and respect for human
rights, offers a "real opportunity to end the crisis". In the report,
entitled "Special assistance for the economic recovery and reconstruction
of the DRC", Annan noted that the DRC had embarked on a series of stages
recommended by the Bretton Woods institutions, but warned that the
country's efforts lacked funding due to the "wait-and-see attitude being
maintained by most donors and other sources of financing".

Annan also said the DRC should be helped in mobilising resources to
improve its image, promote peace and good governance, and implement
quality macroeconomic programmes. He also called for the strengthening of
grassroots organisations to enable them to help end the crisis,
particularly by resettling displaced persons, demobilising and
reintegrating ex-combatants, controlling HIV/AIDS, and rehabilitating
basic social infrastructure.

DRC: UN report urges steps on human rights

The latest report of the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Roberto Garreton, recommended that
the parties to the country's conflict, political parties and civil society
commit themselves to the inter-Congolese dialogue, "avoiding pointless
arguments and always keeping their eyes on the goal - the establishment of
a democratic, participatory system".  Released on Monday, the report urged
the parties to cooperate with MONUC, by informing it of the presence of
armed groups. This would, it said, enable MONUC to disarm the groups, and
to begin the demobilisation of child soldiers. Garreton also recommended
that the DRC government restore the rule of law; return confiscated radio
and television channels; refrain from taking action against the media;
stop supporting Mayi-Mayi militias; draft laws giving effect to all the
agreements reached at a recent national human rights conference; and give
precedence to international human rights norms over domestic law.

To the countries violating the territorial integrity of the DRC, Garreton
recommended they comply with Security Council resolutions on withdrawing
from the DRC and demilitarising Kisangani; refrain from exploiting Congo's
natural resources; and return the goods they have exploited illegally. In
addition, Garreton suggested that the RCD and MLC armed opposition groups
end all cooperation with the armies violating the DRC's sovereignty; put
an immediate end to actions that cause terror among the Congolese
population; suspend actions leading to the country's partition; and repeal
all such measures already taken.

DRC: Kinshasa/Mayi-Mayi assault on Kindu repulsed - RCD-Goma

The Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma armed opposition movement has announced that
its fighters repulsed a pre-dawn attack by government troops and their
allies on Kindu in eastern DRC. AP reported that an estimated 800
government soldiers and their Mayi-Mayi allies were expelled from the
airport and town on 29 September. The day-long occupation resulted in the
deaths of at least 11 Mayi-Mayi fighters. Some government army officers
were reportedly captured, two civilians were killed in crossfire and one
RCD soldier was seriously injured, RCD-Goma spokesman Jean-Pierre Lola
Kisanga told AP on 30 September. "This is the worst escalation of the war
since March this year when all parties disengaged from frontline
positions," he was quoted as telling Reuters.

Meanwhile, fighting is reportedly continuing in Fizi, on the shores of
Lake Tanganyika in South Kivu Province, where, earlier this month, a
coalition of Burundian and Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Forces pour la
defense de la democratie and the Interahamwe, together with Mayi-Mayi
militias, allegedly supported by the Congolese army, captured the town.

ROC: WHO begins return to Brazzaville

The World Health Organisation Regional office for Africa begins its return
to Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, on Tuesday after a four-year absence
caused by civil war, the UN agency reported. WHO Regional Director Ebrahim
Samba was be among the first group of 15 returning staff leaving Harare
for Brazzaville, which has been the seat of the UN agency since 1952.

RWANDA: Elections of traditional court judges begin

Rwandan President Paul Kagame appealed to the nation to discard ethnicity,
sexism and regionalism as they vote on Thursday to elect judges and other
officials who will serve in the nation's traditional court system known as
Gacaca, Radio Rwanda reported.  "Let us elect, without discrimination,
people who are honest, principled and hardworking," he said on Wednesday.
He told Rwandans that by so doing the courts would be able to meet public
expectations in promoting national understanding, development and justice,
the radio reported. He said that if the Gacaca trials succeeded, that
would help solve some problems resulting from the 1994 genocide, such as
lack of care for the survivors, the prisoners and their families, improve
the economy, help end the culture of impunity, and encourage unity among
Rwandans.

The functioning of the 11,000 Gacaca courts, each to be served by a panel
of 19 judges, is expected to ease pressure on the overburdened prison
system, which is holding some 115,000 inmates, and costs the nation some
US $1 million to maintain each year. Despite this, Kagame said, "It is not
the intention of the Gacaca courts to release those in prison
unconditionally. These court have laws that will govern them and clearly
stipulate penalties for those found guilty." However, Human Rights Watch
(HRW) in New York on Thursday said the Gacaca system "may be subject to
political pressure" and lacked some basic internationally recognised
safeguards, such as the right to legal counsel. "The system has flaws, but
it provides the only real hope for trials in the foreseeable future for
more than 100,000 persons now detained in inhumane conditions," Alison Des
Forges, senior adviser to the African division of HRW, said.

BURUNDI: Peace deal implementation body meets

The committee set up to monitor and implement the peace agreement between
the Burundi government and anti-government forces began another meeting on
Wednesday on aspects of the deal still to go into effect ahead of the
establishment of a transitional government on 1 November, diplomatic
sources told IRIN. Top on the draft agenda of the Implementation
Monitoring Committee (IMC) meeting - in Arusha, Tanzania - is the proposed
special protection force for the transitional government and returning
political exiles. This force was supposed to be in place three weeks
before the government started business, the Hirondelle News Agency
reported. However, that had been delayed, because details were yet to be
worked out about its numerical strength, selection and training.

Other agenda items relate to the drafting of laws on political freedom,
laws on temporary immunity, and those on genocide and crimes against
humanity. The meeting will also discuss the establishment of an
independent commission to investigate the question of political prisoners,
with a view to securing their release. The government has not yet set up
this body, nor presented the draft laws to the 29-member IMC. The
government's independent commission was to be made up of eight Burundians
and four international legal experts provided by the UN, a diplomat in
Arusha said.

BURUNDI: Meeting on transitional government makes progress - Mandela

Nelson Mandela, the chief mediator of the Burundi's peace talks, said on
Monday that leaders of the Great Lakes countries had agreed to "a number
of issues" that had been hindering implementation of the Burundi peace
agreement, Radio Tanzania reported. The radio did not say what was agreed,
and diplomatic sources said no communiqué was issued. However, media
organisations reported that Monday's talks by the five leaders had
collapsed. Diplomats in Arusha told IRIN that details had not yet been
worked out on one of the two main items on the agenda: the special
protection force for the institutions of the transitional government and
for the protection of returning political exiles.

Agreement has already been reached that the force, whose strength has not
yet been determined, would comprise 50 percent Hutu and an equal number of
Tutsi personnel. "It takes time to select and train the personnel," the
diplomat, who claimed anonymity, said. If that cannot be done by 1
November, the diplomat added, the African leaders will have to decide on
taking interim measures, an issue they are likely to consider at their
next summit scheduled for 11 October in South Africa. Burundi President
Pierre Buyoya said one of these arrangements could be for the countries
that agreed to help set up the protection force to provide the service
until the Burundi unit is operational. These are Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal
and South Africa. Monday's meeting was also convened to discuss a
cease-fire, and to get a progress report on what has and has not been done
before the transitional government is installed. "Everyone is still aiming
for 1 November," the diplomat said.

The summit was attended by the presidents of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda,
Uganda and Tanzania. South Africa sent Deputy President Jacob Zuma, while
Ghana and Nigeria sent their defence ministers. Other invited leaders who
did not attend were those of Gabon, the DRC, Ethiopia, Malawi, Senegal and
Zambia.


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


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