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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 89
1 - 7 September 2001


CONTENTS:

DRC: UN special rapporteur concerned over military trial
DRC: Annan in talks with Kabila on peace process
DRC: Annan visits rebel-held Kisangani
DRC: Kabila sacks public sector bosses
RWANDA: Annan arrives for official visit
RWANDA: Kagame welcomes handing over of Interahamwe by DRC
RWANDA: Kagame in talks with Kabila, Museveni and Mbeki
BURUNDI: Security "not worse than other times"
UGANDA: First Great Lakes AIDS conference opens

DRC: UN special rapporteur concerned over military trial

UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DRC, Roberto
Garreton, on 31 August expressed concern that the DRC military court, la
Cour d'ordre militaire, had on 22 August started a trial of 80 people in
Likasi. According to a press statement from Garreton's office, the
defendants include 17 young soldiers ("kadogos"), as well as child
soldiers arrested in October 2000, accused of having been involved with
Anselme Masasu Ningada, commander of the former government army, the
Forces armees congolaises (FAC). Ningada was executed along with eight
others after a summary and secret trial, during which they were afforded
no defence and were not allowed to challenge evidence brought against
them. Also among the defendants are soldiers and former diplomats accused
of an alleged assassination attempt on President Joseph Kabila. A number
of them were arrested 48 hours after Kabila was sworn in last January.
Most of this group of defendants did not know each other. A third group is
made up of 51 soldiers arrested in April 2001.

During his last mission to the DRC from 19 July to 2 August 2001, Garreton
met a number of the detainees, who told him about cases of "atrocious
torture during incommunicado detention", the statement noted. "The trial
is being held 2,000 km from [Kinshasa, to the southeast], where their
crimes allegedly took place, which makes the process of their defence even
more difficult. The defendants have not been allowed to choose their
lawyers, and the military proceedings are closed," the statement said.

Garreton strongly condemned "this flagrant violation of the right to a
fair trial, which is enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights - which the DRC has ratified". He also made an urgent
appeal to Kabila and the ministers of human rights, the interior, defence,
and justice "to stop this trial from taking place". Garreton invited
international and Congolese human rights organisations "to do all they
could so that international observers are allowed to attend the trial
proceedings".

DRC: Annan in talks with Kabila on peace process

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan met DRC President Joseph Kabila in
Kinshasa on 2 September at the beginning of a three-day visit to encourage
efforts being made to end the country's three-year civil war. "Our duty is
to continue to accompany this peace process so that it becomes
irreversible," AP quoted Annan as saying of the UN, which has 3,000
unarmed observers and armed troops in the DRC. According to AP, Annan said
progress was being made, citing Uganda's ongoing withdrawal of most of its
forces, and Namibia's withdrawal from all but the capital, Kinshasa. "If
the Congolese work together, I believe that it will encourage foreigners
to leave the country," the BBC quoted Annan as saying. Assessing the
current situation, Kabila told RTNC TV that "to us in Kinshasa, the
situation now is, I could say, calm. But, I would also want to add that it
is a situation that could be described as a no-peace-no-war situation. No
peace, because there are still [obstacles] to peace. No war, because there
is a ceasefire."

DRC: Annan visits rebel-held Kisangani

Subsequently, Annan arrived in rebel-controlled Kisangani on Monday, where
he met leaders of the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la
democratie (RCD-Goma) rebel movement, which controls the city, as well as
other political party officials and civil society representatives.
According to rebel-controlled RTNC radio in Goma, Annan's meeting with
RCD-Goma leaders lasted about an hour, focusing on the DRC peace process;
a message from DRC President Joseph Kabila to RCD-Goma Chairman Adolphe
Onusumba Yemba; and the much-anticipated demilitarisation of Kisangani as
demanded in repeated UN Security Council appeals. The rebels have
previously replied to the Security Council appeal, saying they would be
willing to withdraw their forces to points outside the city, but insisted
on retaining control of its strategic port on the Congo river and its two
airports, AP reported on Monday. A correspondent for Radio France
Internationale, meanwhile, reported on Monday that "all along the way to
the UN Observer Mission in Congo [MONUC] camps, we could see local
inhabitants chanting 'Rwandans back to Rwanda'".

DRC: Kabila sacks public sector bosses

As part of ongoing efforts to restructure the economy in order to attract
investment, President Joseph Kabila has sacked the senior executives of
all public sector firms, including the mining giant, Gecamines, the BBC
reported on Tuesday. The executives were suspended last month after the
government said an audit had uncovered gross mismanagement. The dismissals
follow Kabila's visit to South Africa last week, during which he promised
business leaders more economic restructuring to encourage investment. A
total of 50 state-owned enterprises are affected.

Last week Kabila outlined changes he hoped would attract foreign direct
investment to DRC after more than a decade of war and political
instability. According to the BBC, these included revision of the mining
and investment codes and the drafting of new telecommunication and
electricity acts. The BBC said Kabila told South African investors that
changes brought about by the restructuring were already visible, noting
that inflation, which in 2000 stood at 511 percent, was expected to be
reduced to 100 percent by the end of 2001, while the Congolese franc,
which traded at CF 340 to the US dollar, was now trading at CF 240.

RWANDA: Annan arrives for official visit

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday arrived in Kigali for a two-day
visit and held talks with President Paul Kagame and top government
officials, Rwandan radio reported. They discussed the implementation of
the Lusaka peace agreement, the AIDs scourge and poverty alleviation.
Kagame thanked Annan for his "timely visit, which is an embrace for the
Rwandan government in its tireless efforts in seeing there is peace and
stability in the region". He highlighted the need for countries of the
Great Lakes region to see that there is sustainable development leading to
economic welfare for all the countries in the region.

Annan, for his part, praised the cooperation between Rwanda and the
neighbouring countries in fostering regional peace, and thanked Kagame, in
particular, for his supportive role in ensuring that the Lusaka peace
accord was fully implemented. He expressed appreciation for the
government's efforts in its advocacy programme of unity and reconciliation
among Rwandans, the drafting of the constitution and amendments of other
laws, especially after the 1994 genocide. He said the UN "will continue
supporting Rwanda in its programme of combating the AIDS scourge and help
in poverty alleviation programmes".

RWANDA: Kagame welcomes handing over of Interahamwe by DRC

President Paul Kagame has welcomed an announcement by the DRC that it will
hand over to UN observers some 3,000 Rwandan rebel fighters, according to
an AFP report. "It is a step in the right direction that can help us move
the peace process forward," AFP quoted Kagame as saying during a joint
press conference with Annan. He said his country had started withdrawing
its troops from the DRC, and insisted that the international community
should "reply to the threat" against Rwanda made by Hutu rebels
[Interahamwe] based in the east of DRC. Under the 1999 Lusaka peace
agreement, all the armed groups active in the east should be disarmed.
Kagame said his government was "open to return of these people", though
those guilty of taking part in the genocide should be sent to face the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda or Rwandan courts.

RWANDA: Kagame in talks with Kabila, Museveni and Mbeki

President Paul Kagame on 31 August met DRC President Joseph Kabila to
discuss Rwandan claims that Kinshasa actively backs Rwanda's exiled Hutu
militia, Reuters reported. The closed-door talks between the two men,
without their aides, took place at a local hotel in Durban, South Africa,
on the sidelines of the UN conference on racism, and lasted over an hour,
according to Reuters. "Our message to the Congolese president and his
government is that they must stop aiding and supporting the Interahamwe
militia," Kagame's adviser, Emmanuel Ndahiro, was quoted by Reuters as
saying.

On 1 September, Kagame held talks with South African President Thabo
Mbeki, the South African SAPA news agency reported. The South African
presidential spokesman, Bheki Khumalo, told SAPA that the two leaders
discussed the situation in the Great Lakes region. In the evening of 1
September, Kagame held talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
According to Monday's Ugandan independent newspaper 'The Monitor', the two
discussed bilateral relations, noting that this was the third time since
July that the two have held talks as part of ongoing dialogue aimed at
stabilising relations that had soured between the two countries.

BURUNDI: Security "not worse than other times"

Security authorities in Burundi have said the current insecurity reported
in the country is "not worse than [at] other times". "It is the usual
attacks that the rebels launch from time to time," the army spokesman,
Colonel Augustin Nzabampema, told IRIN on Thursday. He said the army was
doing its best to flush out the rebels from their "strongholds".

The independent Radio Publique Africaine reported on Wednesday that
fighting between the rebels and the army was continuing in Kanyosha and
Isale communes in Bujumbura-Rural. It said that the provisional death toll
was nine. Two soldiers and two women were among the dead. It said the
fighting had led to thousands of people being displaced at the Muyira
headquarters. It described the fighting as "intense", involving the use of
artillery by both sides. Last week, 57 people were wounded and four killed
when a grenade exploded at a crowded market in Kinama, northeast of
Bujumbura. Three people were also wounded in another grenade attack in
Rohero II near the University of Burundi when assailants threw a grenade
at the home of an Asian businessman. Government officials contacted by
IRIN also said that there was an increase in the rate of armed robberies
in the country. "The targets are not only organisations or office
premises, but civilians too," one of them noted.

Meanwhile, four people died and several other were wounded on Tuesday
night near Nyengwe on the border between Bururi, southwestern Burundi and
Makamba, southern Burundi, on Lake Tanganyika when rebels fired antitank
rockets at a Tanzanian boat, the Muongozo, local Bonesha radio quoted
sources as saying.

UGANDA: First Great Lakes AIDS conference opens

The first African Great Lakes AIDS conference is being held in the Ugandan
city of Entebbe from 6 to 9 September, attended by representatives from 20
African countries. According to the PR Newswire service, Ugandan President
Yoweri Museveni is due to be presented with a special award for his fight
against HIV/AIDS. The aim of the conference is to identify and assess gaps
in resources to try and improve HIV/AIDS care in the Great Lakes region.
The conference has been organised by an international initiative of the
AIDS Healthcare Foundation. President Museveni pointed out that in the
developing countries, the epidemic was leading to a severe loss of
productive labour, of valuable expertise and long-earned experience.
Michael Weinstein, the president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said
Uganda had shown that a significant and sustainable reduction of HIV
infection could be achieved through effective social marketing, widespread
availability of condoms and strong political will.

Nairobi, 7 September 2001


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