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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 85
4 - 10 August 2001


CONTENTS:

DRC: Humanitarian situation "horrendous" - NGOs
DRC: Zimbabwe's withdrawal depends on outcome of dialogue
DRC: UK minister meets Kabila
DRC: Short visits rebel-held areas
RWANDA: Short visits Kigali, meets Kagame
RWANDA: Former mayor pleads "not guilty"
RWANDA: Priest ready to face his accusers
BURUNDI: Agreement with Tanzania to tighten border security
BURUNDI: Pro-negotiation UPRONA wing happy with agreement
CAR: Two opposition members leave US embassy

DRC: Humanitarian situation "horrendous" - NGOs

The humanitarian consequences of the war in the DRC are "horrendous", a
report launched on Monday by three international NGOs working in DRC said.
The NGOs, Oxfam GB, Save the Children UK and Christian Aid, said the
humanitarian crisis in the DRC, which has been described as the worst in
the world, had led to appalling levels of hunger, disease, death and to
countless abuses of human rights. "More than two million people are
internally displaced, most of whom are in eastern DRC," the report said.
It said women and children had borne the disproportionate burden of
suffering in emergency situations. "Among the displaced are a large number
of children, many of whom are separated from their families," it said. The
report noted that the crumbling state of the infrastructure in health and
other sectors has been completely unable to cope with the growing
suffering of the population. Poverty, accentuated by conflict, is
increasing people's vulnerability on a "massive scale". "It is estimated
that more than one third of the population [16 million people] have
critical food needs," it noted, adding that in Kinshasa, a growing number
of people eat only once every two or three days.

"In areas under rebel control, the situation is even worse. Parts of the
country which used to grow food for export, such as Ituri and the Kivus,
are now wracked by hunger, severe malnutrition rates among children under
five have reached 30 percent," the report said. In some places in eastern
DRC, infant mortality rates have reached 41 percent per year. It noted
that in addition to the immediate problems of food and health care, the
current situation was sowing the seeds of a medium- and long-term
socioeconomic crisis in the DRC. "At least four of every 10 children of
primary school age are being denied their basic right to education as a
result of their parents' inability to pay school fees, the dilapidated or
destruction of school buildings, and population displacement," it said.
"DRC will be left with an unskilled and partially illiterate workforce,
ill-equipped to participate in the future development of the country.
Furthermore, the war has created conditions conducive to a rapid spread of
the HIV/AIDS virus," it noted. [The full report is available at
www.oxfam.org.uk]

DRC: Zimbabwe's withdrawal depends on outcome of dialogue

The outcome of the inter-Congolese talks will determine when Zimbabwe
withdraws its estimated 12,000 troops from the DRC, AFP quoted a Zimbabwe
military spokesman, Colonel Mbonisi Gatsheni, as saying. "The upcoming
talks will determine when and how we leave the DRC," he said. He stressed
that his country wanted to make sure the talks were succeeding, "lest the
same trouble that you went to stop starts all over again," he said.

Meanwhile, Uganda's defence minister, Amama Mbabazi said at the weekend
that Ugandan troops "will withdraw from most parts of the country by the
end of the year". He told AFP that Uganda would only maintain a "symbolic
presence" in the northeastern towns of Buta and Bunia following a request
of the UN. "I have no doubt in the fact that Ugandan troops shall be out
of DRC by the end of the year," he said. "We shall maintain a symbolic
presence in Buta and Bunia on the request of the UN and other allies, as
well as maintain some troops in the Rwenzori Mountain areas," he said.

DRC: UK minister meets Kabila

In a meeting with visiting British Secretary of State for International
Development, Clare Short, in Kinshasa on Tuesday, President Joseph Kabila
stressed the need for effective financial assistance to help the country
demobilise and disarm militia within its territory, according to Congolese
TV. He said his government was determined to implement the Lusaka accord,
especially the chapter related to the demobilisation and disarmament of
militiamen. He said the "Rwandan genocide has become capital for a number
of western countries who intentionally ignore the UN Charter and show
total indifference towards the three million Congolese citizens killed
during the aggression and the occupation of our territory". Kabila said
that as a result of this attitude, he did not intend to shy away from the
pledges he made to the international community. He said that he was still
ready to fully support and help the demobilisation process, "but
unfortunately, as can be seen, the process demands a lot of material and
financial resources which still has to be supplied".

"The most important thing that the DRC wants is the effective assistance
of the international community in general, and of the United Kingdom in
particular, for the success of this task," Kabila said. Short, for her
part, indicated that both her government and that of the DRC would examine
ways to help "speed up the demobilisation process". "The United Kingdom is
already providing a considerable financial assistance, that is at least 10
million dollars every year," she said. "Furthermore, we will get seriously
involved along with the entire international community so as to support
what is being done now. The World Bank and the IMF will also be involved
in efforts under way to find a solution to the Congolese crisis," the TV
quoted her as saying.

DRC: Short visits rebel-held areas

After her Kinshasa visit, Short, on Wednesday travelled to the rebel-held
areas of eastern and northwestern DRC, news organisations reported. In
Kisangani, northeastern DRC, Short met officials of the Goma-based
Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma), UN officials and
staff from the from the British relief organisation Oxfam, AFP quoted
RCD-Goma spokesman Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga as saying. "We discussed
relations between the RCD and the UN mission, and we concluded that the UN
organisation is now in agreement with us and that it will finally start
verifying violations of the ceasefire on the ground," Kisanga said.
According to the Associated Press (AP), RCD-Goma told the minister that
they were ready to withdraw troops from Kisangani on condition that they
could deploy around the strategic town and maintain control of its
airports. AP said the conditional agreement came in the wake of intense
diplomatic pressure involving Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt,
acting head of the UN mission in Congo's (MONUC's) and force commander,
Mountaga Diallo. "We informed the visiting British minister that the RCD
has written to MONUC with proposals regarding demilitarisation of
Kisangani, but they are yet to respond to our preconditions," Kisanga
said.

In Gbadolite, the base of the Jean-Pierre Bemba-led Mouvement de
liberation du Congo (MLC), a statement from MONUC said Short toured the
area with the aim reviewing with Bemba the peace process within the
framework of the Lusaka ceasefire agreement and the Kampala and Harare
disengagement plans. She was accompanied by Diallo.

RWANDA: Short visits Kigali, meets Kagame

The UK has renewed its commitment to work with parties involved in the DRC
conflict to ensure full compliance with the Lusaka agreement, Short said
in Kigali on Thursday. "I have visited Kinshasa and the east of Congo on
this visit. We would like to help drive the process forward and ensure
compliance by all forces to the Lusaka agreement," a statement from
Kagame's press office quoted her as saying. "In my meeting with President
Kabila, he made a commitment to making an announcement on the
demobilisation, disarmament, rehabilitation and reintegration of the
Interahamwe by 14 August," Short said. "I am hopeful that this will help
to move Lusaka forward," she added.

President Paul Kagame, for his part, said he hoped the efforts of the UK
government would help to ensure the compliance of the DRC to the Lusaka
agreement. "Rwanda would like the DRC to stop supporting the militias that
pose a security threat to Rwanda, and to work with the other signatories
of the Lusaka agreement," he said. On relations between his country and
the UK, Kagame said: "We are working well together, and the implementation
of the memorandum of understanding is going well."

RWANDA: Former mayor pleads "not guilty"

The former mayor of Kibungo Prefecture, eastern Rwanda, Jean Mpambara, on
Wednesday pleaded "not guilty" to a genocide charge at the International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the Arusha-based Internews service
reported. Mpambara was arrested on 20 June at Mukungwa refugee camp in
northern Tanzania at the request of the chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte.
Mpambara's indictment states that he was responsible for killing or
causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the Tutsi population
with intent to destroy them, Internews said. He is also alleged to have
prepared a hate campaign against the Tutsis in his commune. The
preparations included anti-Tutsi propaganda and recruiting, training and
arming Interahamwe militia. Mpambara is accused of distributing arms to
civilians for purposes of attacks against Tutsis. "Execution of the
campaign entailed disarming the Tutsi and disabling resistance to the
attacks and strategically directing armed attacks against large groups of
Tutsi population," the indictment says.

RWANDA: Priest ready to face his accusers

A Rwandan priest, the Reverend Athanase Seromba, who has been accused of
involvement in the country's 1994 genocide is "ready" to face his
accusers, AP quoted a spokesman for Florence archdiocese in Italy as
saying on Tuesday. According to a statement by the diocesan spokesman,
Riccardo Bigi, which was carried by the Catholic missionary news service
Misna, the priest was still in the diocese "and he is ready to respond
before the law to all of the accusations he is facing". Seromba left
Rwanda in 1994. In 1999, an African Rights report accused him of helping
orchestrate the massacre of some 2,000 Tutsi refugees at his parish in
Nyange in April 1994. Seromba has said he had already left Nyange when the
killings began, AP said. Seromba who had been working as a priest in the
Florence archdiocese since 1997, left his parish last month to avoid the
media after the chief UN war crimes prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, said she
was "stupefied" that Italy had refused to cooperate with her
investigation. "I wouldn't want to have to tell the UN Security Council
that Italy is a country that doesn't like to cooperate. I hope not," she
was quoted as saying in an interview with the Italian Tirreno newspaper.

Subsequently, on Thursday, the Italian parliament adopted a bill on
cooperation with the ICTR, AFP reported. AFP quoted a justice ministry
spokesman as saying, "Once the law is approved, I think all the legal
tools will be in place to allow international warrants of arrest."

BURUNDI: Agreement with Tanzania to tighten border security

Members of a delegation from the northeastern Muyinga Province met their
Tanzanian counterparts from Kagera Region on 3 August and agreed to ensure
that security prevailed along their common borders, Burundi radio
reported. The delegates praised the prevailing security situation along
the border and renewed their commitment to "do everything possible to
maintain the current security climate". Muyinga's provincial governor,
Lazare Karekezi, thanked his Kagera counterpart, Tumaneiro Kiwelu, for
"his initiatives to decisively deal with all criminals so as to stop them
from attacking some areas in Muyinga".  Kiwelu, for his part, stressed
that Tanzania "would do everything within its means to fight everyone with
a dream of destabilising Muyinga Province". He said the Tanzanian
government had already started searching the Burundi refugee camps and had
seized firearms and ammunition in the process. The two sides agreed to
join hands in the fight against the theft of vehicles and the production
and trafficking of cannabis.

BURUNDI: Pro-negotiation UPRONA wing happy with agreement

The pro-negotiation wing of the UPRONA party, said on 3 August that it had
no problem with the 11 Arusha conditions given the transitional government
to implement, Burundi news agency Net Press reported. According to its
spokesman, Luc Rukingama, there was "nothing" in the conditions to make
his wing "afraid or demoralised". "All these conditions are found in the
Arusha agreement for a very good reason," he said. He said that conditions
such as inclusion of representatives of signatory parties in the
transitional government, collaborating entirely with the UNHCR in the
repatriation of refugees, offering complete protection to all political
leaders against opponents, working for equitable representation of Burundi
communities in the public sector and collaborating entirely with the
commission monitoring the implementation of the agreement "speak for
themselves". He added, however, that "faithfully and without reservations
implementing all the clauses of the agreement does not signify that the
reservations have been lifted", he said. "They can only be lifted by the
signatory parties which raised them," he said in reference to the fact
that there are several parties who expressed reservations concerning
certain conditions.  Rukingama said the reform of the army "in its
earliest possible time"  which is another condition, "will only take place
once the overall agreement for the ceasefire has been obtained".

CAR: Two opposition members leave US embassy

Two close associates of former CAR President Andre Kolingba left the US
embassy, where they had taken refuge following the clashes in Bangui at
the end of May, Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported on Monday. The
two, Louis-Pierre Gamba and Henri-Pierre Assangou, both of the Central
African Democratic Rally (RDC), were reportedly going home after receiving
guarantees for their safety from the national investigation commission.

RFI said that 33 other close associates of Kolingba were still inside the
French embassy in Bangui. "They are afraid to go back home and are asking
for asylum," RFI said. "They claim that they do not have anything to do
with the foiled putsch, but that they are in danger because they are from
the Yakoma ethnic group."

Nairobi, 10 August 2001


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


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