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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 98
03 - 09 November 2001


CONTENTS:

CAR: Calm returns to Bangui after general flees
DRC: Reports of torture throughout the country - UN
DRC: Kabila rallies support in Belgium, France and US
BURUNDI: IDPs fleeing rebel bands for Ruyigi
RWANDA-UGANDA: Presidents agree to reduce tension
UGANDA: Northern youths lament "unimaginable misery"
UGANDA: Room for hope but not complacency - OCHA
UGANDA: Nebbi, Arua districts battle plague
UGANDA: Northern youths lament "unimaginable misery"
TANZANIA: Kilimanjaro shows local costs of global change


CAR: Calm returns to Bangui after general flees

The situation in the Central African Republic capital, Bangui, was
reported to be calm on Friday after soldiers loyal to President Ange-Felix
Patasse forced former army chief, General Francois Bozize, and his
supporters to flee northward from the city on Wednesday.

Hostilities erupted on Saturday, 3 November, when government forces tried
to arrest Bozize on behalf of a judicial commission probing a coup attempt
on 28 May this year. Bozize refused, claiming he had not been given
sufficient safety guarantees. He was dismissed as army chief of staff on
26 October and five days of intermittent fighting followed in northern
Bangui between supporters of his and of the government. Officials have not
released details of casualties.

Government forces, backed by Libyan troops and claiming that Bozize was
prolonging negotiations in order to launch a coup with the aid of unnamed
foreign backers, on Wednesday dislodged Bozize and his supporters from the
barracks where they had been based. Presidential spokesman Prosper Ndouba
called on Bozize, whose whereabouts was unknown after he fled on
Wednesday, "to present himself to the legal authorities", adding that "the
president of the republic is committed to ensuring his security".

Patasse has survived army mutinies in 1996-97, as well as the failed coup
in May which was blamed on his predecessor, Andre Kolingba, a general who
lost the presidential election in 1993. Kolingba's whereabouts remain
unknown after his troops were overpowered and forced to flee Bangui in
June.

DRC: Reports of torture throughout the country - UN

The ongoing conflict in the DRC has had "a major impact on the human rigts
situation in the country", with torture reported in government- as well as
rebel-held areas, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said
in her latest report, released on 30 October.

In government-controlled areas, the High Commissioner's office "received
reports of summary or extrajudicial executions, prolonged arbitrary
detention and torture". Robinson "expressed particular concern" about the
trial of 80 individuals before a military court in Likasi, Katanga
Province in late August/early September.

In rebel-held areas, it said, "general insecurity persists" and the High
Commissioner's office had received "credible reports of arbitrary
detention, systematic violations of the right to movement, free
expression, association and fair trial, and torture, sometimes leading to
the death of the victims". [Full report at
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=12874]

DRC: Kabila rallies support in Belgium, France and US

DRC President Joseph Kabila has ended visits to France and Belgium in an
effort to shore up both political and financial support for ongoing peace
efforts in his country. On Monday, Kabila made a brief visit to Paris,
where he met with French President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister
Hubert Vedrine to discuss the status of the inter-Congolese peace
dialogue. Chirac encouraged Kabila to pursue the inter-Congolese dialogue
and urged international financial institutions to release aid that has
been promised to the country, AP quoted the Elysee Palace as saying.

On Tuesday, Kabila held lengthy discussions with Belgian Prime Minister
Guy Verhofstadt and Foreign Minister Louis Michel. Verhofstadt promised
that Belgium would continue to put efforts to achieve peace in the DRC at
the top of the European agenda because his nation was "fully aware of the
severity of the humanitarian and political crisis that is ravaging" the
Great Lakes region. Michel cited as the most serious obstacle to peace the
numerous armed forces operating in eastern DRC. Among these "negative
forces" are Rwandan Hutu Interahamwe militias and the former Rwandan army
elements, who fled into the DRC after involvement in the 1994 genocide
dead.

[Full report at Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=13048]

BURUNDI: IDPs fleeing rebel bands for Ruyigi

Aid workers say they are expecting another 2,500 displaced people on
Friday in the besieged eastern Burundi town of Ruyigi, as rebels of the
Forces pour la defense de la democratie scour the area, looting and
sometimes kidnapping school children. Most of the internally displaced
persons (IDPs) expected in Ruyigi were fleeing Butezi, about 14 km to the
northwest, where aid workers reported the presence of "many rebels". Bands
of between 20 to 30 rebels have been reportedly sighted in all communes in
Ruyigi province. [full story at
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=13683]

An aid worker in Bujumbura told IRIN that 2,500 other IDPs arrived in the
town on Thursday. Humanitarian aid workers in Ruyigi have provided
blankets, soap and food. Rebels have stepped up their attacks in the east
near the border with Tanzania since the inauguration of a power-sharing
government in Bujumbura on 1 November. On Tuesday, rebels kidnapped a
number of children and teachers from a primary school in Mukundanya, seven
kilometres from the eastern town of Ruyigi, also close to Tanzania.

Fighting between rebels and the army had also been taking place in Munini,
149 km southeast of Bujumbura, and Maramvya, Bujumbura Rurale Province,
since 30 October, according to humanitarian and news sources, who said
displaced populations were present in Mubone (Bujumbura town), Rukaramu
(Bujumbura Rurale) and Mpanda (Bubanza Province).

RWANDA-UGANDA: Presidents agree to reduce tension

Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda vowed on
Tuesday to set up mechanisms to improve relations by ensuring that
dissident groups did not destabilise their respective governments, news
organisations reported. The two met in London for talks convened by the
British government, to try to cool the growing tension between the once
tightly knit allies. Recently, tension became particularly severe along
their common border, from where Uganda had just withdrawn a battalion of
troops. Rwanda had feared an invasion by Uganda which, in turn, accused
Kigali of harbouring Ugandan dissidents.

After a six-hour summit, described in a joint statement as "good, fruitful
and frank", both men affirmed their desire to re-establish good relations.
Museveni told the BBC that a joint commission would review the reasons for
the underlying tensions. The commission, which Museveni said would begin
its work in a week, is also to investigate complaints of dissident
activity in both countries and recommend corrective measures.

UGANDA: Northern youths lament "unimaginable misery"

Insecurity, abductions, displacement and poor educational opportunities
are the key concerns of young people in northern Uganda, whose lives have
been shaped by inter-related conflicts there and in neighbouring southern
Sudan over the last two decades, according to a report released on Friday
by the US-based Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children (WCRWC).

"Against All Odds: Surviving the War on Adolescents", was the first-ever
report conducted by Ugandan and Sudanese adolescents, who were themselves
eyewitnesses, victims and survivors of the 15-year conflict which
continued to rage in northern Uganda, said Jane Lowicki, senior
coordinator for the Children and Adolescents Project at the WCRWC and
author of the report.

It is intended as a tool for campaigning on policy and programme issues in
Uganda, and to contribute to international efforts to improve services and
protection for refugee and displaced adolescents affected by armed
conflict and persecution. "Any hope for adolescents in northern Uganda
depends on increased security, decongestion of displaced persons' camps
and the creation of lasting peace," it stated. [Full story at
http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=13686]

UGANDA: Room for hope but not complacency - OCHA

After 16 years of instability and sporadic internal conflict in Uganda,
this year so far has seen political and social gains that have reduced the
number of people in need of humanitarian assistance fall from 1.1 million
to around 717,000, according to a United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) situation update for October.

Among the factors OCHA highlighted for this decrease were: the withdrawal
of Ugandan troops from the DRC, and their redeployment to peripheral
crisis areas in Uganda; resumption of diplomatic relations with Sudan and
the discontinuation of arms and logistical support for the Ugandan rebel
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), in the north, and Allied Democratic Forces
(ADF) in the west and southwest. It also cited the beneficial effects of
peace initiatives by community leaders and mediation by third parties; the
government's declaration of an amnesty for rebels who gave up their fight
and surrendered their arms; and a clearer indication of the numbers
involved because of census-taking in refugee settlements and "protected
villages" for IDPs.

The present lull in rebel activity - particularly since June - left no
room for complacency, but did allow relief agencies time to regroup and
think where they needed to go, OCHA stated. "These events and their
outcomes need to be consolidated if Uganda is to withstand pressure by all
those who gain from a perpetuation of crisis," it added. [Full report at
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=13352]

UGANDA: Nebbi, Arua districts battle plague

There have been over 150 recorded cases of bubonic plague in Nebbi and
Arua Districts, northwestern Uganda, as of the end of October, and at
least 25 deaths, according to the latest humanitarian update from the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). From 11
September, a plague outbreak in Nebbi has accounted for 82 or more cases,
with 18 recorded deaths, mainly in the sub-counties of Zeu, Kango and
Nyapea in Okoro County, according to the agency's humanitarian update to
31 October.

In neighbouring Vurra County, Arua District, there were nine cases and two
deaths in September, rising to 63 cases and four deaths by the end of
October, it said. There was also a minor outbreak in Logiri sub-county
(Arua District), which borders Nebbi and the DRC, with six cases and two
deaths, it added.

"Our efforts are geared towards environmental sanitation, with the
communities along the border [with DRC] being sensitised and mobilised to
hunt down rats, but we have got some people from across the border coming
to seek medication, which means that this problem exists there too," AFP
news agency quoted Sam Okware, a specialist in communicable diseases at
the Ugandan Ministry of Health, as saying. [Full report at
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=13555]

TANZANIA: Last refugees to fly home

The last group of Tanzanian refugees who fled political disturbances at
home and took refuge in Kenya in January began returning to the islands of
Pemba and Zanzibar on Tuesday morning, a spokesman for the UN refugee
agency told IRIN on Monday. In a press release on Tuesday, UNHCR said two
flights would leave Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya for Pemba
that day, with another two flights from Dadaab to Zanzibar on Wednesday.
Once these flights were completed, all the remaining Tanzanians refugee in
Kenyan camps will have gone, according to UNHCR.

In total, 2,000 refugees fled Tanzania at the end of January following
clashes between security forces and members of the opposition Civic United
Front (CUF) over last October's elections. Nearly 200 of the refugees, who
were transferred to Dadaab in May, decided last month to leave the camp
and travel to the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

TANZANIA: Kilimanjaro shows local costs of global change

Mt Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania could lose its entire icecap by 2015,
symbolising that global climate change "may be felt first and hardest by
the environment and people of Africa", the environmental lobby group
Greenpeace reported on Tuesday. Ten years ago, glaciers covered most of
the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro, the name of which derives from Kilima Njaro
or "shining mountain" in Swahili. According to some projections, almost
the whole of Kilimanjaro's icecap could vanish in the next 15 years, the
NGO said in a press release.

As environment ministers from around the world gathered in Morocco to
finalise the Kyoto Protocol on mitigating global climate change,
environmental campaigners on Mt Kilimanjaro highlighted the risks to the
environment and livelihoods in northern Tanzania, and Africa in general.
Western industrialised nations were trying to ensure that the protocol was
as weak as possible to protect their atmosphere-polluting industries, but
catastrophes such as the loss of the icecap on Kilimanjaro were "the price
we pay if climate change is allowed to go unchecked", said Greenpeace
campaigner Joris Thijssen. [Full report at [see
http://www.greenpeace.org/]

Nairobi, 9 November 2001


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


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