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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 86
11 - 17 August 2001


CONTENTS:

DRC: MONUC helicopter hit by gunfire in the east
DRC: No access granted to MONUC yet
DRC: Kabila suspends managers of parastatals
DRC: Uganda closes consulate in Goma
DRC: Call for equal participation for women in dialogue
RWANDA: French foreign minister meets Kagame in Kigali
RWANDA: Government responds to DRC claims
BURUNDI: Protesters dispersed, scores arrested
BURUNDI: One hundred days to lay foundations for peace - ICG
BURUNDI: Joint report seeks continued food assistance

DRC: MONUC helicopter hit by gunfire in the east

A helicopter used by the UN mission in the DRC (MONUC) on Thursday came
under fire from unidentified gunmen between Kalemie and Uvira in the
rebel-held eastern DRC, MONUC spokesman Hamadoun Toure said in a
statement. The aircraft, clearly marked with the UN insignia, received 14
gun shots as it flew above Biera village, but the pilot managed to land
safely in Kalemie, he said. There were no casualties. An MONUC official
told IRIN on Friday that the helicopter had gone to the area to drop eight
military observers in all, at the towns of Bukavu and Uvira, in South
Kivu, eastern DRC. It came under fire soon after it had dropped the last
four at Uvira. Investigations were still going on, the official said. He
said it was not easy to know who could have been behind the attack. "All
we can say at the moment is that the area in general is under rebel
control." The attack was the second on a UN helicopter since MONUC began
deploying peacekeepers across the DRC. In October last year, rebels of the
Gbadolite-based Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) fired on a UN
helicopter near DRC's border with the Central African Republic.

The two MONUC teams arrived in Kivu on Thursday, after the rebel
Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) agreed to the deployment.
The four-man teams at Bukavu and Uvira will be the first permanent UN
military observers in South Kivu, the DRC province with the highest level
of guerilla fighting between occupying forces and insurgent groups. A
report published by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in 2000,
which estimated a death toll of some 1.6 million people in eastern DRC as
a result of the war over 22 months, was based on five sample surveys, of
which three came from South Kivu. The other two came from Kisangani and
Moba, also areas of heavy fighting. Sources at MONUC said negotiations
were under way for a further deployment of observers at Punia and Lubutu
in Orientale Province.

DRC: No access granted to MONUC yet

Sources at MONUC told IRIN that the mission had not gained access to
Congolese army camps in Kamina and Katonda to carry out a voluntary census
among soldiers to identify those who belonged to Rwandan and other foreign
rebel groups - known as "negative forces". "So far access for this purpose
has not been granted despite repeatedly being told by Kinshasa that the
mission would be allowed to visit these camps," the source noted. By
midday on Wednesday, the government had not made an announcement, nor had
MONUC been informed of any government plans on the issue of the negative
forces, despite the fact that on Tuesday the country's foreign minister,
Leonard She Okitundu, confirmed that the announcement would be made the
same day.

DRC: Kabila suspends managers of parastatals

Congo's president Joseph Kabila has suspended all boards of directors and
boards of management at his country's 50 state-owned companies. An
auditors' report on public enterprises landed on his desk on 7 August, the
local media said, and, by 9 August, the president had given the senior
managers their marching orders. "The report shows that their management
has been catastrophic," Information Minister Kikaya Bin Karubi said on 10
August. The minister could only think of two state companies that had been
reasonably well managed - the Office of Posts and Telecommunications and
the Office for the Management of Public Debt. Observers told IRIN that
they would wait to see which chairmen of state companies were reinstated,
as an indication of the government's commitment to reform.

Last year the government had not paid its bills to the state water
company, for example, for 13 years, an observer noted. The information
minister said foreign governments had furnished auditors with evidence of
corruption and embezzlement. The government is under pressure to appoint
new people approved by potential foreign donors to key positions in the
public sector. Interim administrators for state companies would be
appointed immediately, said the minister.

DRC: Uganda closes consulate in Goma

Uganda closed its consulate in the rebel-held town of Goma, eastern DRC in
an effort to prevent the collapse of the ongoing talks to restore
diplomatic relations with the DRC, 'The EastAfrican' weekly reported on
Monday. The closure was among the conditions set by the DRC for the
reopening of Uganda's embassy in Kinshasa. The paper quoted diplomatic
sources as saying DRC President Joseph Kabila's government had demanded
that Uganda redefine the role of its consulate in rebel-controlled Goma
before the reopening of the Kinshasa mission was effected. "During the
start of the talks in March, President Kabila's government insisted that
the operations of Uganda's Goma consulate meant that Uganda recognised the
rebels as a legitimate authority in that part of Congo," the paper said.
It quoted a senior official of the Ugandan foreign ministry, Okullo Ogole,
as saying Uganda had maintained a consulate in Goma even before the rebels
took over the area. He said Uganda had trade interests in Goma which could
not be effectively handled from Kinshasa.

"Uganda closed the consulate in June and withdrew its staff in July after
realising that its existence would create a stalemate in the restoration
of diplomatic relations with Congo," the paper quoted sources as saying.
Efforts to revive diplomatic relations between Uganda and the DRC started
earlier in the year with the visit of Uganda's former foreign minister,
Eriya Kategaya to Kinshasa. Kabila subsequently sent a high-powered
delegation to Kampala. The paper noted that Uganda wanted the illegal
occupants its Kinshasa embassy, (allegedly including a son of former
Uganda's dictator, Idi Amin), evicted from the building so that it could
rehabilitate and restore it.

DRC: Call for equal participation for women in dialogue

The facilitator of the inter-Congolese dialogue, Ketumile Masire, and the
UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) have called for equal participation
of women in the dialogue. A statement, issued from Masire's office, quoted
him as urging the Congolese signatories to the Lusaka agreement to ensure
women's equal representation at the forthcoming preparatory meeting of the
inter-Congolese dialogue. The DRC's groupings have so far designated only
one woman to represent them at the preparatory committee meeting for the
inter-Congolese dialogue to be held in Gaborone, Botswana from 20 to 24
August.

"I am deeply concerned that women may be inadequately represented at the
preparatory meeting," Masire said. "I have appealed to the Congolese
signatories to the Lusaka agreement to increase their quota of female
representation in an aim to address this serious imbalance, and to ensure
gender issues are addressed at the dialogue," he said. He also appealed to
the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, and to the UN Security Council for
"urgent support in this regard". The conflict in the DRC had taken a
severe toll on women, the statement noted. Although the country is party
to the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW), the Geneva Conventions and the convention relating
to the status of refugees, women and girls continued to be targets of
sexual violence, rape and other forms of torture.

RWANDA: French foreign minister meets Kagame in Kigali

French Foreign Minister Hubert Verdrine arrived in the capital, Kigali, on
Monday for what news organisations said was an attempt to normalise
relations. According to the BBC, France gave critical backing to the
former regime of the late Juvenal Habyarimana before and during the 1994
genocide.  France has also been accused of helping those suspected of
atrocities to escape the country under an initiative - ostensibly
humanitarian - known as Operation Turquoise. This is the first official
visit to Rwanda by a French foreign minister since 1978.


During a meeting with President Paul Kagame on Monday, Vedrine said that
his government supported efforts to bring to justice all those suspected
of genocide and crimes against humanity in Rwanda. "All of those who have
been accused of genocide must be brought to justice. There should be no
exception to this principle," he said. "France was overcome by a wave of
horror and compassion in the aftermath of the genocide. We know that today
the task is to build a modern Rwanda," a statement from Kagame's press
office quoted him as saying. "The French people are willing to assist the
people of Rwanda in doing that," he added. "Our talks today have been
frank, open, honest and confident. We are talking about what we can
usefully undertake with Rwanda for the future," he said.

Kagame, for his part, renewed Rwanda's commitment to the Lusaka agreement
and highlighted some of the challenges preventing the full implementation
of the accord. Vedrine said that the "problems being encountered were very
real and serious as demonstrated by recent events". He was referring to
the country's border security. "We know that the Lusaka accord can only
succeed if all of the actors agree to implement them fully and at the same
time. President Kagame expressed to me Rwanda's commitment to implement
the accord."

RWANDA: Government responds to DRC claims

Rwanda has said that the claims by DRC that the country is bent on
"secessionism and expansionism" in the DRC's territory is "entirely
imaginary and retrograde". The country's permanent representative to the
UN, Anastase Gasana, in a letter dated 9 August, addressed to the
president of the UN Security Council, said the Kinshasa authorities,
"extremely frustrated because they are now administering only one quarter
of the country, the remaining three quarters being in the hands of various
Congolese rebels, are trying as best as they can, with their dwindling
reserves of energy, to brainwash international public opinion". It said
that when DRC drew a distinction between "invited rebels" and "uninvited
rebels", the government was engaging in a "risky" exercise of
distinguishing between "good and bad" rebels. "For Kinshasa, the good ones
are the Bunia and the Gbadolite rebels. The bad ones are the Goma rebels,
which Kinshasa is constantly targeting, accusing them of being guilty of
practically everything, in keeping with the simplistic invited and
uninvited refrain," the letter said.

"This little game of hide-and-seek is so childish that the Congolese
rebels of Goma, Bunia and Gbadolite will not fall into that trap, even
once the inter-Congolese dialogue under preparation has begun," it added.
It accused the Kinshasa government of sounding "false alarms", because
they did not have exclusive rights over a unitary and independent Congo -
"in fact they have no special privileges in that connection". "They have
no monopoly over such a Congo, which is just as much a concern of the
Congolese authorities of Goma, Bunia and Gbadolite. For the Kinshasa
authorities to keep returning to that theme now is therefore nothing but
demagoguery," the letter said.

BURUNDI: Protesters dispersed, scores arrested

Police in Bujumbura at the end of last week dispersed members of the
largest Tutsi opposition party, PARENA, who attempted to demonstrate in
the capital in protest against government peace moves, news organisations
reported. According to Reuters, helmeted policemen patrolling the city
centre dispersed and arrested groups of hardline protesters from the Tutsi
minority at the independence square near the central market to prevent
them from staging the demonstration. The agency quoted the party's general
secretary, Remi Ntengurutse, as telling journalists that police had
arrested between 30 and 40 party members protesting against plans to end
the country's eight-year civil war. "Some of them were taken at home early
in the morning, the others at the place where they were to meet with other
demonstrators," Ntengurutse said. "We protest against arrests of members
of our party who wanted to protest against the 11 conditions accepted by
the new leadership of the transition, especially against the dismantling
of the army and the invasion of the foreign troops," he added.

Meanwhile, three military officers have been arrested in connection with
last month's failed coup attempt, Reuters said.

BURUNDI: One hundred days to lay foundations for peace - ICG

The Brussels-based think-tank, the International Crisis Group (ICG), has
said that for the first time since 1993, there is a real chance for peace
to take hold in Burundi. In a statement on Tuesday, ICG warned that time
and money were short, and the international community, donors and regional
governments "must give the peace process their full support". In its
report published on Tuesday - "Burundi: 100 days to get the peace process
back on track", ICG describes how a change of tactics by Nelson Mandela's
facilitation team finally broke the deadlock. On 23 July, after two and a
half years of negotiations, Mandela announced that agreement had finally
been reached on the presidency and vice-presidency for the first half of a
three-year transition period, which starts on 1 November. "However, there
is still no ceasefire in Burundi, attempts to negotiate with Hutu rebels
have failed and the economy is in tatters," ICG said. "Two coup attempts
in just over three months highlight dangerous divisions in the armed
forces, and Tutsi extremists also threaten to derail attempts to build new
institutions," ICG noted. "The 100 days from Mandela's announcement on 23
July to the beginning of the transition period on 1 November are crucial,"
the ICG senior analyst Francois Grignon, said.

"The responsibility lies largely with FRODEBU - the main Hutu opposition
party - to demonstrate its leadership by persuading Hutu rebel groups to
put down their arms. But regional governments and international donors
must also play their part. The DRC in particular must stop giving support
to Hutu militias on its territory," he said. ICG called on the UN Security
Council to take strong action against any individual or party that
supports coup attempts or assassinations. "These people must be threatened
with sanctions and their foreign assets should be frozen," the group said.
[Full details are available at http://www.crisisweb.org].

BURUNDI: Joint report seeks continued food assistance

The minister of agriculture and livestock recently presented the Joint
FAO/FP/UNICEF and the ministry of agriculture crop and food supply
assessment mission report, and requested for continued food assistance,
WFP said in its weekly emergency update. In the meantime the agency is
preparing the future seeds protection rations (SPR) distribution campaign
due to start in September, in collaboration with FAO and implementing
partners. Of the 187,500 households planned by FAO for seeds
distributions, WFP has initially targeted 112,000 households to receive
the SPR. The operation would require 6,160 mt of food, the agency said.
Further targeting will be conducted by WFP and implementing partners on
the basis of the list of FAO seed beneficiaries. During the second half of
July, WFP food economy assessment teams conducted food security assessment
in Makamba, Rutana and Ruyigi provinces, where people are repeatedly
victims of insecurity. WFP conducted follow-up assessments in Vumbi and
Gitobe communes in Kirundo Province, which hosts about 59,000 people.
After having assessed several communes in Karuzi Province, WFP recommended
continued food assistance to about 22,477 households, until October.

Nairobi, 17 August 2001


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