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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 83
21 - 27 July 2001


CONTENTS:

BURUNDI: Coup attempt ahead of regional summit
BURUNDI: Summit endorses Buyoya as transitional leader
BURUNDI: Mandela "really exhausted"
BURUNDI: Council welcomes agreement on transitional leadership
RWANDA: Over 2,000 confess to role in genocide
RWANDA: Another rebel commander captured
RWANDA: Another endangered mountain gorilla killed
DRC: Government rejects UN official
DRC: Opposition rally rescheduled for 30 July
DRC: Civil society selection for dialogue completed
DRC: Sixty reported dead as ferry sinks in Kasai River



BURUNDI: Coup attempt ahead of regional summit

Army mutineers staged a coup attempt in Bujumbura on the night of Sunday,
22 July, ahead of a regional summit on the future of Burundi which opened
in the Tanzanian town of Arusha on Monday. Residents of the Burundian
capital told IRIN that shooting broke out in what Defence Minister Cyrille
Ndayirukiye described as a coup attempt. "A group of soldiers, that we
call mutineers, have attempted another coup," Ndayirukiye said over state
radio on Monday. "These mutineers are against the Arusha peace accords and
do not know the need for the accords." He went on to say that the
situation was normal, the coup had failed, and loyalist soldiers were in
control of the situation.

According to the radio, the rebel soldiers - who fled north from Bujumbura
- had surrendered to the authorities in the northern province of Ngozi,
and five officers taken hostage by the renegades had been released. The
minister named one of the coup leaders as Lieutenant Kamenyero, saying
that he already been arrested. He also blamed certain politicians for
trying to exploit "problems" within the army. "The root cause [of the
crisis] is not the army, but the politicians," he stated.  President
Pierre Buyoya, who returned to the country on Monday after the Arusha
summit, commented that coup attempts "never lead anywhere". [For more
details, see separate IRIN update on Burundi issued 24 July 2001]

BURUNDI: Summit endorses Buyoya as transitional leader

Regional leaders who met in Arusha on Monday announced that agreement had
been reached on President Pierre Buyoya's presidency for the first 18
months of the transition period, due to commence on 1 November, news
organisations reported. Peace mediator Nelson Mandela, who arrived in
Arusha on Monday, had stated on arrival that the "overwhelming majority of
the parties negotiating have accepted this decision" and "we are not going
to reopen the matter", the Hirondelle news agency reported. Buyoya will be
assisted by Hutu Vice-President Domitien Ndayizeye for the first half of
the three-year transition period, after which the roles will be reversed.
Hirondelle recalled that implementation of the Arusha peace accord, signed
last August, had been blocked by the absence of a ceasefire and by lack of
consensus among signatory parties on who should lead the transition.
According to Reuters, four presidents attended - Uganda's Yoweri Museveni,
Kenya's Daniel arap Moi, Tanzania's Benjamin Mkapa and Burundi's Pierre
Buyoya. Other invited countries have sent representatives.

The Burundian negotiating sides had been meeting in Arusha, ahead of the
regional summit, and a threatened boycott of the meeting by Tutsi parties
opposed to Buyoya appeared to have been averted. Over the weekend,
delegates in Arusha discussed the distribution of ministerial posts and
the conditions attached to Buyoya's presidency, as announced by peace
mediator Nelson Mandela in Pretoria earlier this month. The parties were
allowed to modify these conditions - which include reforming the army,
inviting international peacekeepers and freeing political prisoners - but
only by consensus.

BURUNDI: Mandela "really exhausted"

The Burundi peace mediator, Nelson Mandela, would not meet CNND-FDD leader
Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye and other officials of the group in Pretoria,
South Africa, on Thursday, his spokeswoman, Zelda la Grange, said on
Wednesday. She said Mandela was "too weak" after receiving therapy for
prostate cancer. She described him as "really exhausted" after receiving
the first of his seven-week radiotherapy course, adding that they expected
him to be out of action for a few days. "Mandela's fine - it's just an
adjustment for his body," she said, as quoted by Reuters. "So we thought
for the first few days we thought it better that he rests."

La Grange said that South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who was
scheduled to join Mandela for the meeting, would continue with the
discussions. Burundi President Pierre Buyoya and Gabonese President Omar
Bongo were also expected to attend. She said DRC President Joseph Kabila
would not attend the talks.

BURUNDI: Council welcomes agreement on transitional leadership

Members of the UN Security Council on Wednesday welcomed the announcement
of the agreement reached in Arusha on the transitional government in
Burundi. "Members of the Council hope that all parties in Burundi will
support this government," the Council's president, Ambassador Wang Yingfan
of China, said in a press statement.

The statement followed a closed-door session during which the Council was
briefed on the situation in Burundi by UN Under-Secretary-General for
Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast. The statement strongly urged the
armed groups to cease hostilities immediately and join the peace process
already under way and asked the international community to continue to
provide assistance to the transitional government once it was set up.
Council members also expressed their support for the efforts by the
facilitator of the Burundi peace talks, Nelson Mandela, and the leaders of
the Great Lakes region.

RWANDA: Over 2,000 confess to role in genocide

Some 2,340 prisoners at Ntsinda prison in Kibungo Province, southeastern
Rwanda, recently confessed to their roles in the 1994 genocide, according
to the Rwanda News Agency (RNA). They also promised to cooperate during
gacaca traditional justice trials. "We are eagerly waiting for the gacaca
programme," they were quoted as saying, adding that they were ready to
reveal the truth so that innocent people could be released. Rwanda's
Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo was quoted as saying during his visit
to the prison that there was a need to confess and cooperate in telling
the truth about what happened during the 1994 genocide. "We are not
forcing anybody to confess, but you should understand the importance of
cooperating with all judicial sectors, particularly gacaca courts, so as
to bring criminals to justice," he said. Ntsinda prison has some 13,239
inmates, RNA said.

RWANDA: Another rebel commander captured

The "intelligence chief" of the Interahamwe militia, a second lieutenant
in the former Rwandan army, Major Joseph Nandizimana, was captured on 20
July by the Rwandan army, Rwandan radio reported on on 21 July. It said
Nandizimana, known as Major Nyundo, was arrested in the Bugarura District
of the northern Ruhengeri Province. Nyundo, who crossed from the DRC at
the end of June, was captured with his escorts, according to the radio. It
noted that his capture followed that of an Interahamwe chief-of-staff,
Peter Habimana, commonly known as Colonel Bemera.

RWANDA: Another endangered mountain gorilla killed

Another endangered mountain gorilla (gorilla beringei beringei), died in a
crossfire in the forested Virunga volcanoes which straddle the borders of
Uganda, Rwanda and eastern DRC, a statement from the African Wildlife
Foundation (AWF) said. AWF quoted the director of the International
Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP), Annette Lanjouw, as saying that
Rugendo [the dead gorilla], was shot dead during clashes between the
military and Interahamwe militia groups on 15 July. It was the dominant
male silverback of one of the groups on the Congolese side of the border.
"The loss of Rugendo is another tragedy for conservation for the efforts
being made in Congo, Rwanda and Uganda to protect the gorillas from the
consequences of the war, and to protect this endangered species for the
future," Lanjouw said. "Personally, the loss of Rugendo is a double
tragedy as he was the first gorilla I ever saw in the wild, leading his
own family as a young silverback," she noted. Lanjouw said that Rugendo
had been habituated since 1986 and had, over the years, allowed hundreds
of tourists to visit him and approach his family.

The Virunga region is home for one of the two remaining populations of the
endangered mountain gorillas; the other population resides in Uganda's
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. Together, these two groups
represent a world population of mountain gorillas of just over 650
individuals.

DRC: Government rejects UN official

The DRC government has rejected the nomination of a British official,
Matthew Kahane, as the country's UN humanitarian coordinator, the BBC
reported on Wednesday. Up to now, no reason has been given for the
rejection of Kahane who works for the UN Development Programme. The UN has
urged the Congolese government to reconsider. A western diplomat told the
BBC that President Joseph Kabila had asked for a list of alternative
candidates. Some diplomats suggested that the Congolese government "may be
flexing its muscles at a time when it feels vulnerable to takeover by
international agencies like the UN", the BBC added.

The Security Council, meanwhile, called on all parties in the DRC to
comply with the Lusaka peace agreement. In a statement on Tuesday read by
its president, Wang Yingfan, the Council said it was unacceptable that
more than a year after the adoption of its resolution demanding the
complete demilitarisation of Kisangani, the rebel Rassemblement congolais
pour la démocratie had so far failed to comply. The Council called on it
to fully implement its obligations, noting that continued failure to do so
might have future implications. The Council also reminded all parties of
their obligations to cooperate fully with the UN Mission in the DRC, and
reiterated support for the inter-Congolese dialogue, facilitated by former
Botswana president Ketumile Masire.

DRC: Opposition activists dispersed

Police blocked an opposition party meeting in the capital of the
Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday. Some 60 to 70 party activists
arrived at a church hall in Kinshasa for a press conference, but were
confronted by a squad of police and found the door was locked. The meeting
would have been the first joint public conference held by the major
opposition parties since the president announced the lifting of a ban on
their activities on 17 May. The activists chanted abuse against the
president and others in his entourage, but were dispersed. [For more
details, see separate IRIN story of 25 July headlined: "Demonstration
blocked in Kinshasa"].

DRC: Opposition rally rescheduled for 30 July

Following what journalists told IRIN was the "violent dispersal" of the
Wednesday press conference in Kinshasa by the Union des forces congolaises
pour le respect integral de l'Accord de Lusaka et la tenue du dialogue
inter-congolais (UFAD), a coalition of political opposition parties that
support full respect of the Lusaka peace agreement and the pending
inter-Congolese dialogue, UFAD has called upon "all the Congolese people
to take to the streets for a peaceful and massive demonstration in favour
of peace and the inter-Congolese debate," Joseph Olenghankoy of the Forces
novatrices de l'union sacree (FONUS) opposition party told Radio France
Internationale (RFI). "There is growing tension in the DRC today. Two days
ago, the government declared on national television that the restrictions
on political parties' activities were lifted contrary to the orders given
by the minister of interior. Now, there is repression," Olenghankoy told
RFI.

The incident occurred while Roberto Garreton, UN special rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in the DRC, is in the middle of a fact-finding
mission to the DRC for a report on the current status human rights and
political and press freedom to be submitted to the UN in early August. In
addition to FONUS, UFAD includes the Union pour la democratie et le
progres social headed by Etienne Tshisekedi; the Mouvement populaire de la
revolution headed by Catherine Nzuzi; the Mouvement national
congolais-Lumumba headed by Francois Lumumba; and the Pionniers de
l'independance.

DRC: Civil society selection for dialogue completed

With the selection on Wednesday of eight representatives from Kinshasa,
the civil society delegate election mission for both the dialogue and its
preparatory meeting has been completed, the office of the facilitator of
the inter-Congolese dialogue, Ketumile Masire, a statement from his office
said on Thursday. Of the total 54 civil society representatives chosen
from all 11 provinces of the DRC to participate in the dialogue, 14 will
be present at preparatory talks scheduled to begin on 20 August in
Gabarone, capital of Botswana.

Meanwhile, Masire's office was trying to resolve questions related to the
representation of political opposition organisations, another contingent
of the dialogue. The three signatories to the Lusaka peace agreement who
will participate in the inter-Congolese dialogue, namely the government of
the DRC, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD), and the
Mouvement de liberation du Congo, will begin representative selection on a
date yet to be announced. The issue of representation of the RCD, which
has splintered in to several groups since the signing of the accord, has
yet to be resolved.

DRC: Sixty reported dead as ferry sinks in Kasai River

An estimated 60 people are believed to have drowned on the night of 21
July in the Kasai River in Kasai Occidental Province when a ferry carrying
some 120 people capsized in a whirlpool, the Kinshasa daily 'Le Phare'
reported on Monday. The incident occurred near Katoka, some 50 km from
Tshikapa. According to a witness at the scene, the "Wembley II" is
believed to have capsized due to a combination of factors. It was
overloaded with passengers and goods, nocturnal navigation of the river is
difficult, and the captain was allegedly drunk, 'Le Phare' reported. The
newspaper noted that the number of boating accidents and resulting
fatalities on the Kasai River had increased in recent months due largely
to difficulties with nocturnal navigation and intoxication of boat
captains.

Nairobi, 27 July 2001


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