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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 101
24 - 30 November 2001


CONTENTS:

DRC: UN seeks US $194 million for 2002 programmes
CONGO: New electoral criteria law for presidential candidates
BURUNDI: Army launches push against rebels
BURUNDI: UN agencies seek US $107.86 million for 2002
RWANDA: Annan backs survivors of genocide, holocaust
RWANDA: Significant increase in ICTR trials, says president
UGANDA: Three killed in LRA attack
UGANDA: UN launches funding appeal for 2002
UGANDA-KENYA: Turkana leave Karamoja to avoid disarmament
TANZANIA: International lenders cancel US $3 billion in debt

DRC: UN seeks US $194 million for 2002 programmes

United Nations agencies and their partners in the DRC are seeking a
combined total of US $194.1 in funding for humanitarian relief and
recovery efforts for the year 2002, the UN Office for the coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Kinshasa announced on Tuesday. The DRC
appeal is part of the UN Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal seeking $2.5
billion to assist and protect more than 33 million conflict-affected
civilians around the world.

Political developments and military disengagement observed this year in
the DRC have not led to significant improvements in the "dire"
humanitarian situation, according to OCHA. "Horrendous statistics - two
million displaced people and 16 million considered food insecure - fail to
do true justice to the silent death toll in Africa's land of [virtual]
plenty," it said. "Over two and a half million people have died since
August 1998 in eastern DRC, largely as a result of economic insecurity,"
it reported.

OCHA stated that the 2002 Consolidated Appeal was the first with a strong
integrated UN/NGO approach. Based on the "four pillars" of saving lives,
preserving livelihoods, reviving local economies, and enhancing a sense of
fairness and justice, the 2002 appeal "seeks to reflect the contradictory
realities of the current situation in the DRC," OCHA said.

"It also attempts to recognise a common wish not to differentiate 'saving
lives' from 'restoring justice', thus calling for imaginative initiatives
to address feelings of acute unfairness and fear expressed by antagonistic
communities, particularly in rural areas," OCHA added. [For the complete
Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for 2002 in the DRC see:
http://www.reliefweb.int/appeals/2002/files/drc02.pdf]

CONGO: New electoral criteria law for presidential candidates

The transitional parliament of the Republic of Congo (ROC) in Brazzaville
on 24 November adopted a new electoral law setting out conditions for
presidential candidates, according to AFP. The law specifies that all
presidential candidates must have resided continuously in the ROC for 24
months before election, be Congolese by birth, and be in good physical and
mental health as certified by three medical doctors. Furthermore,
candidates must have at least 15 years of professional experience and be
between the ages of 45 to 75 on the date they register their candidature.
They must also present a certificate of proper financial conduct and a
deposit of five million francs CFA (US $6,900).

According to AFP, former President Pascal Lissouba and his prime minister,
Bernard Kolelas, both found guilty in absentia of a variety of crimes,
will not be allowed to present themselves as candidates. The two men have
lived in exile in London and Cote d'Ivoire during the past four years.
Denis Sassou-Nguesso proclaimed himself president on 25 October 1997,
following victory in the civil war. A 75-member transitional assembly, the
Conseil national de la transition, was established in January 1998. [Full
report at: Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=16089]

BURUNDI: Army launches push against rebels

Government ground forces have begun a drive against Hutu rebel strongholds
in the Tenga forest about 20 km northeast of the capital, Bujumbura, the
army spokesman Col. Augustin Nzabampema, told IRIN on Tuesday. He
mentioned no casualties and said there were no civilians in the combat
zone.

But on Thursday, he told IRIN that that four government troops had been
killed and 12 wounded. Rebels casualties were difficult to count
accurately, he added, because they usually buried their dead. He denied
media reports that the government was using aircraft in the attack against
the fighters of the Force nationale de liberation (FNL). The BBC reported
that 300 people died when these fighters attacked Tenga in December 2000.

Fighting has intensified in Burundi since the inauguration of a
power-sharing government between almost equal numbers of Hutus and Tutsis
on 1 November. More recently, the FNL and its rival Conseil national pour
la defense de la democratie-pour la defence de la democratie (CNDD-FDD)
announced a joint negotiation position for future peace mediation talks
chaired by Gabon. The spokesman for the Pierre Nkurunziza faction of the
CNDD-FDD, Jean-Marie Ngendahayo, said that in a joint communiqué signed
last weekend with the FNL they had highlighted priorities for progress in
any peace process, among which are the return of the army to barracks and
the release of political prisoners.

BURUNDI: UN agencies seek US $107.86 million for 2002

The UN Country Team in Burundi and its partners seek US $107.86 million to
implement humanitarian and rehabilitation programmes presented in the
Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for 2002, OCHA reported on Tuesday. "We
must and will ensure that specific attention is given to those who remain
most vulnerable after the past years of conflict," Georg Chapentier, the
UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Burundi, said on Tuesday.

In Burundi, one million people depend on humanitarian aid, and the UN
Country Team and its partners are to embark on a two-pronged strategy to
help them. One strategy is to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches all
vulnerable groups. The other is the promotion of the peace process through
public awareness activities.

RWANDA: Annan backs survivors of genocide, holocaust

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan pledged on Sunday that the world body
would continue to be a "close partner" to the survivors of genocide and
holocaust, with the aim of transforming their trauma into action to
prevent a recurrence of war crimes. In a prepared message to the
International Conference of Survivors of Holocaust and Genocide, which
opened in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on Sunday, Annan said "painfully
and belatedly" the international community was trying to do more to
prevent and punish genocide and crimes against humanity. "At last, the
world is seeking an end to the culture of impunity," he said.

The UN has two international tribunals for war crimes and serious
violations of humanitarian law: one for the former Yugoslavia and the
other for Rwanda. Annan told the delegates that genocide shaped the
founding of the UN because "the men and women who drafted the UN Charter
did so as the world was learning the full horror of the Holocaust
perpetrated against Jews and others by the Nazi regime". Armenians,
Bosnians, Jews and Rwandans are among some 250 delegates debating how best
to remember the victims of genocide and improve the lives of survivors,
Reuters reported, quoting Antoine Mugesera, chairman of Ibuka, a coalition
of Rwanda genocide survivors' associations. An exhibition of photos of the
1994 Rwandan genocide and weapons used to carry out the act is being held
in parallel with the conference, Reuters reported. Ibuka and the New
York-based Holocaust Survivors and their Children body organised the
six-day event.

RWANDA: Significant increase in ICTR trials, says president

A number of judicial, administrative and prosecutorial steps taken have
led to a "significant increase" in the number of trials at the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, its president, Navanethem
Pillay, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday. She added that seven
trials involving 17 accused persons were presently in progress. All three
trial chambers, she said, were engaged in simultaneous trials on a twin or
multitrack system - with two chambers each conducting two trials and the
third holding three trials.

As to why the tribunal had made just eight judgments in four years, she
said: "The prosecutors' strategy, from the outset, has focused on those
suspects who are alleged to have been in the highest positions of
leadership and authority and those who are alleged to have authority in
Rwanda in 1994." However, she also said: "During years 2002-3, you can
expect judgments in the cases of a large number of accused."

UGANDA: Three killed in LRA attack

The Uganda People's Defence Forces has confirmed that an ambush by the
rebel Lord's Resistance Army on a commercial pick-up truck in northern
Uganda caused the loss of three lives, AFP reported on Tuesday. "We have
been pressing the rebels out of their enclaves, and so they desperately
ambushed that vehicle to divert our troops," it quoted the local Ugandan
army commander, Geoffrey Muheesi, as saying.

Among the three deceased was the Sudanese priest, the Rev. Peter Obore
Oromo, who was on his way from the Ugandan capital, Kampala, back to his
parish of Loa/Nimule in the Diocese of Torit, southern Sudan, when the
attack occurred between Atiak and Bibia on Saturday afternoon, the diocese
reported. The pick-up was reportedly set ablaze by the LRA after the
attack, it added. [Full report at:
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=16342]

UGANDA: UN launches funding appeal for 2002

Humanitarian assistance to Uganda's poor and insecure northern and western
regions is crucial to restoring hope, confidence and stability, and to
consolidate peace throughout the country, the United Nations stated on
Monday as it launched its US $68.10 million Consolidated Inter-Agency
Appeal 2002 for Uganda.

That appeal, presented by OCHA, called on donors to ensure that adequate
humanitarian assistance was provided to "reduce future vulnerability and
promote conditions leading to durable recovery," particularly in the
insecure north and west. Eight UN agencies, the International Organisation
for Migration and 10 NGOs were included in the appeal, which is to fund 39
projects in the areas of food, agriculture, health and nutrition, water
and sanitation, education, protection and human rights, recovery and
infrastructure, coordination and support services, and security and staff
safety.

Although the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance declined
by nearly 400,000 this year, or about 35 percent, OCHA expressed
particular concern over the 717,000 refugees, displaced people and victims
of drought remaining in displaced persons camps - or "protection camps" -
without sufficient land, shelter and income.

UGANDA-KENYA: Turkana leave Karamoja to avoid disarmament

Turkana pastoralists who have been living and grazing their cattle in
eastern and northeastern Uganda for almost 30 years have returned to Kenya
to avoid handing their guns over to the Ugandan government, according to
local news reports.  The Turkana have driven some 60,000 head of cattle to
the Kenyan side of the border for fear of being caught up with a Ugandan
government programme to recover thousands of illegal firearms from
Karamojong warriors, the government-owned New Vision newspaper reported on
Monday.

"We have received information to the effect that the Turkana have all
moved out of Matheniko County, [Moroto District, Karamoja subregion]," the
paper quoted Assistant Resident District Commissioner for Moroto, Andrew
Keem, as saying on Saturday. The Turkana had been grazing their cattle
inside Uganda since 1973 when, according to the New Vision, they signed a
peace pact with the local Matheniko people after the Turkana carried out a
series of armed cattle raids.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni last week announced that, as part of a
disarmament programme in Karamoja subregion, UPDF personnel would be
deployed along the borders with Kenya and Sudan. That deployment would
protect the Karamojong from attack by fellow pastoralists tribes from
Kenya and Sudan, and enable them to surrender their arms in safety to the
Ugandan authorities, he said. The Karamojong are due to begin handing in
their weapons on 2 December. After an initial phase of voluntary surrender
of weapons, anyone found in possession of illegal guns would be arrested,
the BBC quoted Museveni as saying on 19 November. [Full report at:
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=16305]

TANZANIA: International lenders cancel US $3 billion in debt

The IMF and the World Bank have agreed to provide Tanzania with some US $3
billion in debt relief over the next 20 years, the two institutions
announced on Wednesday.

Resources made available by debt relief provided under the Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative would be allocated to key
anti-poverty programmes outlined Tanzania's Poverty Reduction Strategy
Paper (PRSP), the Bretton-Woods institutions said in a statement. "The
debt relief will be used to strengthen support for education, health,
water, roads and other priority sectors as envisaged under the Poverty
Reduction Strategy Paper," the Tanzanian government said in a statement on
Monday after the IMF had approved the measure.

The IMF resident representative in Dar es Salaam, Ali Abdi, told IRIN on
Thursday that IMF approval of the relief package was the culmination of a
process Tanzania had been going through for the last two years. "This is
not a one-time action," he said. "Tanzania has been reforming its economy
in line with the poverty reduction strategy paper."

Prior to implementation of the relief package, Tanzania's foreign debt
stood at $6.6 billion, according to the country's central bank. The stock
of debt was expected to fall to $5.8 billion in 2002, the Economist
Intelligence Unit reported on Tuesday. Tanzania is the fourth country
after Uganda, Mozambique and Bolivia to qualify for full debt relief under
the enhanced HIPC initiative, launched by the IMF and World Bank in 1996
to reduce unsustainable debt burdens on developing countries. [Full report
at: www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=16748]


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


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