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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 107
19 - 25 January 2002


CONTENTS:

GREAT LAKES: British, French ministers end regional tour
DRC: Danger of more magma eruptions persists
DRC: Cabinet condemns "silence" on troop redeployment
ROC: Government holds referendum on new constitution
BURUNDI: Talks between rebels and government postponed
EAST AFRICA: Museveni urges move from Assembly to integration
EAST AFRICA: Bilharzia health hazard highlighted
TANZANIA: Food shortage looms
KENYA: Human rights group decries police violence
UGANDA: Police warn against planned multiparty meeting

GREAT LAKES: British, French ministers end regional tour

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and his French counterpart, Hubert
Vedrine, ended a three-day tour of the Great Lakes region on Wednesday,
with no reports of progress in ending the war in the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC).

"It's hard to assess the tour as a success, but we have a better
understanding of what contribution we can make to unblock the Lusaka
[peace] process," Reuters quoted Vedrine as saying after he and Straw had
met Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday. The ministers' tour
was organised as a joint effort to promote the peace process in the DRC.

"We discussed the issue of Ugandan troops being deployed in DRC, and
President Museveni assured us that he is ready to stand by the Lusaka
peace accord, which called for [the] orderly withdrawal of troops," AFP
quoted Straw saying.

Museveni denied that Uganda had recently sent troops into the DRC, saying
that a recent deployment of Ugandan soldiers there was a "minor border
operation". He said Uganda had withdrawn 12 of its 14 battalions from the
Congo in line with the Lusaka peace agreement, which calls for a total
withdrawal of all foreign troops, AFP reported.

Straw and Vedrine also met Jean-Pierre Bemba, the leader of the Mouvement
pour la liberation du Congo, and Mbusa Nyamwisi, leader of the
Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-mouvement de liberation, which
are fighting pro-government forces in northeastern DRC. [Full report at:
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19915]

Both ministers said they had failed to persuade the leaders of Rwanda and
the DRC to make any gestures towards peace, the BBC said. They had been
hoping to persuade Rwandan President Paul Kagame to withdraw his troops.
However, Rwandan Foreign Minister Andre Bumaya said that would only happen
when anti-government Rwandan Hutu militia in the Congo had been disarmed,
news agencies reported.

In Kinshasa, on Monday, Straw and Vedrine had pressed DRC President Joseph
Kabila to begin disarming and repatriating about 1,800 Rwandan Hutu
militia members now camped at the Kamina military base in DRC's Katanga
Province, agencies reported. Kabila had agreed to do so in principle,
Radio France Internationale reported, but said that this presupposed a
Rwandan troop withdrawal. [Full report at:
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19849]

DRC: Danger of more magma eruptions persists

The thousands of people who fled their homes in the eastern Congolese town
of Goma following a the lava outflow from nearby Mt Nyirangongo, began
streaming back home from Rwanda on Monday, ignoring continuing tremors and
warnings by UN officials. [Full report at:
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19695]

Large crowds of the returnees lined up on Wednesday to receive the first
supplies of emergency food aid to reach Goma since the lava flows began on
17 January. The World Food Programme (WFP), assisted by aid agencies, was
able to distribute 22.5 mt of high-energy food, or enough to feed 70,000
people for one week, a WFP spokeswoman said. Many of the recipients had
not eaten for six days. Delays in delivering food occurred because of
logistical problems, coupled with concerns over whether more lava would
seep from the volcano. Bulldozers eventually cleared a path through the
lava, creating a much-needed corridor for vehicles and pedestrians to
pass. [Full report at:
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19919]DRC]

On Friday, however, volcanologists confirmed that further magma eruptions
were possible throughout the Goma region. Lower Gisenyi, in neighbouring
Rwanda, where about 250,000 people temporarily fled on 17 January, was
still at risk, as well as Goma town, where an estimated 500,000 people
live, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) reported on Friday.

Unlike last week's evacuation, when the majority of Goma's inhabitants
fled to Gisenyi, just across the Rwandan border, future evacuees should go
to higher ground inside Rwanda, to the east, or to Sake in western DRC,
the agency added.

"The residents of Goma must not be lulled into a false sense of security,
despite assurances given regarding the harmlessness of gases and the
relative stability of the overall situation," OCHA warned. Scientists
there, meanwhile, said that the the continuing earth tremors were due to
magma fluid moving underground, gases, magma mixing with the underground
water table, and activity deep beneath the earth's surface.

WFP representatives on Friday also confirmed that Thursday's food
distributions had proceeded better than the day before, when many
logistical difficulties had been encountered. Openings through the lava
greatly facilitated the deliveries, a spokesperson said. WFP added that it
foresaw a three-month emergency operation for 400,000 beneficiaries, with
an evaluation after one month to determine whether refinements were
necessary. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20069&SelectRegion=Great_Lakes&SelectCountry=DRC-RWANDA
DRC: Cabinet condemns "silence" on troop redeployment

The cabinet in the DRC has condemned the international community's
"silence" on the redeployment of Ugandan troops in northeastern DRC,
Congolese state television reported last weekend.

The redeployment, the cabinet said, was in violation of the 1999 Lusaka
Accord, and it therefore called on the United Nations and the Organisation
of African Unity to "force Uganda to withdraw". Briefing the cabinet
separately, the minister of security, law and order, that of the
presidency, and the delegate minister for national defence, said Uganda
had stationed over five extra battalions at Aru, Mahagi and Ariwara - all
towns in northeastern DRC.

"The government strongly condemns this renewed and serious violation of
the Lusaka Accord by Uganda, and deplores the silence of the international
community and the UN Observer Mission in Congo," the cabinet said.

"The government calls on the UN and OAU to take urgent measures to finally
force Uganda to respect the commitments made within the framework of the
Lusaka Accord, which compels it, as well as Rwanda and Burundi, to
withdraw their armed forces from the Congolese territory," it added.

Recently, Ugandan officials said that although there was violence in most
parts of northeastern DRC, Uganda's official position adopted after the 7
December meeting between rival rebel factions was that the Uganda People's
Defence Forces would not militarily intervene in any dispute among the
Congolese rebels unless there was a genuine humanitarian crisis.

However, because of fears of escalating violence in the region, Uganda
confirmed on 17 January, that it had redeployed troops in Aru, Mahagi and
Ariwara. These areas are not only threatened by the upsurge in fighting
between the forces of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie
forces and those of the Mouvement de liberation du Congo but are also at
the heart of an ethnic feud between the Lendu, Hema and Ngiti, in which
thousands of members of the three tribes have been systematically clubbing
and hacking one another to death in recent years. [Full report at:
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19682

ROC: Government holds referendum on new constitution

A vote on a draft constitution for the Republic of Congo, was held on 20
January. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Team
report said the vote took place in a "generally calm and orderly manner",
although some irregularities were reported by various sources. It said
initial results indicated that the majority voted, and that of those, the
majority voted in favour.

The draft constitution proposes a presidential system, with a seven-year
presidential mandate renewable once, the UNDP report said. It also
proposes to establish a bicameral house, a Constitutional Court, a High
Court of Justice and a National Human Rights Commission, it added. The
report quoted observers as saying that some of its clauses were
controversial, including some of the specific conditions for being a
presidential candidate, and a clause allowing the president to, in some
cases, overrule parliament.

A coalition of opposition parties - l'opposition plurielle - called for a
boycott of the referendum. Exiled leaders, including former president
Pascal Lissouba and the former Brazzaville mayor, Bernard Kolelas, also
called for a general boycott. A local human rights organisation -
Collectif des ong de defense des droits de l'homme et de developpement
democratique, said on Wednesday that the vote had taken place in "an
ambiance of manipulation". It also cited several other irregularities such
as absence of indelible ink.

The Republic of Congo last held national presidential elections in August
1992, and legislative elections in October 1993. The presidential election
of August 1997 was cancelled because of civil war. A presidential election
is expected early this year and a legislative ballot shortly afterwards.
No dates have been set.

BURUNDI: Talks between rebels and government postponed

Cease-fire talks scheduled for the end of January between Burundi's rebel
groups and transitional government were postponed on Wednesday after the
rebels asked the mediator Jacob Zuma, South Africa's deputy president, for
more time to prepare, the South African Press Association, SAPA, reported.

"We are hoping the meeting will take place by the end of February, but we
still have to consult all the parties concerned before we set a date,"
SAPA quoted Zanele Mngadi, Zuma's spokeswoman, as saying. SAPA said that
the talks had been due to run from 30 January to 2 February in Pretoria,
the South African capital.

The rebel groups that requested the delay are the Forces pour la defense
de la democratie (FDD) and Forces nationale de liberation (FNL). A
spokesman for the Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie-Forces
pour la défense de la démocratie (CNDD-FDD), Jean-Marie Ngendahayo, told
IRIN on Thursday that his group had also told Zuma in December that the
CNDD-FDD would not be available for a meeting before February.

Several attempts to hold talks between the rebels and the government have
failed, either because the rebels did not attend or because they demanded
that Gabonese President Omar Bongo be co-mediator of the talks. On 1
November 2001, a power-sharing transitional government was set up in
Burundi with Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, as president. He is to lead the
country during the first half of the three-year transitional period, while
a Hutu is to be president for the next 18 months. Despite the government's
inauguration, the rebels have stepped up their attacks around the capital,
Bujumbura. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20010]

EAST AFRICA: Museveni urges move from Assembly to integration

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has urged the East African countries of
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to speed up economic and political integration
in the region by removing the "cultural mutilation" brought about by
colonial boundaries, according to news reports from the opening of the new
East African Legislative Assembly (EALA).

"As long as the boundaries still exist, we shall respect them, but we
political leaders are capable of removing them," Nairobi's Daily Nation
newspaper quoted Museveni as saying.

Museveni told the Assembly, which he officially opened on Monday in
Kampala on behalf of the other regional heads of state (Daniel arap Moi of
Kenya and Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania), that African political leaders had
failed to unite the continent in the past because they "lacked vision and
ideology", Radio Uganda reported on Tuesday.

The Assembly was inaugurated on 30 November 2001 in Arusha, northern
Tanzania - together with the East African Court of Justice - as part of
the efforts of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to revive the defunct East
African Community (EAC), which collapsed in 1977 as a result of political
differences among the member states. The current East African heads of
state signed a treaty in Arusha on 30 November 1999, providing for the
re-establishment of the Community, with a view to paving the way towards
economic integration in the region.

The EALA, comprising 32 assembly members (nine elected from each partner
state plus five ex-officio members), is the Community's legislative organ,
according to information posted on the Community's web site. [Full report
at: Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19891 Also see
www.eachq.org/News/PressR2001_11_27.html]

EAST AFRICA: Bilharzia health hazard highlighted

Health officials have expressed concern over the high rates of bilharzia -
a waterborne parasite that attacks the liver, lungs and eyes of humans -
among children living around the vital regional water resource of Lake
Victoria.

Scientifically known as schistosomiasis, after the schistosome parasites
which cause the disease, bilharzia is contracted when blood flukes enter
the body by way of contact with infested surface water, mainly among
people engaged in agriculture and fishing.

Despite efforts to control it in a number of countries, an estimated 200
million people are still infected, of whom 120 million show symptoms and
20 million are severely affected, according to the United Nations World
Health Organisation (WHO). About 80 percent of all cases, and all those
most severely affected, are now concentrated in Africa, the agency adds.

Bilharzia is of concern throughout East Africa, especially among people
living around bodies of water such as lakes, rivers, irrigation schemes
and swamps, where the snails which spread the bilharzia-causing parasites
[schistosomes] thrive, according to Joyce Onsongo of Kenya's Communicable
and Vector Disease Control Department.

Studies in Kenya had shown prevalence rates in local populations as high
as 60 percent in specific geographical areas, especially around Lake
Victoria, Onsongo told IRIN. In Uganda, meanwhile, up to 67 percent of
children living in districts close to Lake Victoria are infected with
bilharzia, the independent Monitor newspaper reported on 18 January. Elly
Tumushabe, the director of health services in Mukono, one of the 10
districts gazetted by Uganda's Health Ministry as suffering from a high
prevalence of the disease, said the infection rate in the Lake Victoria
region, was "alarming and deserved medical attention to save the young
generation", the report stated. [Full report at:
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19899]

TANZANIA: Food shortage looms

A severe food shortage is looming in various parts of Tanzania, including
one of the leading cereal production areas in the central region of
Iringa, which various media reports have attributed to a combination of
factors, including drought, pests and increased cereal demand in
neighbouring countries.

Tanzanian authorities said a combination of drought and pests in the
northern, central and eastern regions of the country, had cut the
2001/2002 food output by 4 percent to 7.4 million mt compared with a
national demand of 8.1 million mt, the Panafrican news agency (PANA)
reported on Friday.

PANA quoted Onasimbo Ntukha, Tanzania's national food security director,
as saying recent "food assessment studies" had shown that nearly 120,000
people in more than 10 districts would need food relief between now and
the beginning of long rains in April. A sharp rise in the wholesale prices
of major foodstuffs such as maize has been reported in some parts of the
country, driven mainly by competition over food exports to neighbouring
countries including Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi.

The WFP has confirmed the food shortage, especially in parts of the
northern and central regions which tend to be food insecure, but said the
situation was not of a famine proportion as had been earlier feared, but
that intervention was still necessary to prevent it from reaching that
scale.

"There are clear signals of increasingly tightened food supplies reflected
by the escalating cereal prices," WFP's Juvenal Kisanga told IRIN from Dar
es Salaam, adding that this was abnormal at this time. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20008]

KENYA: Human rights group decries police violence

Police action to control opposition rallies during 2001 was often
sponsored by government and ruling party officials, according to a
recently released report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Some "high-ranking government and ruling [Kenyan African National Union]
party officials continued unabated to sponsor or permit violence against
opposition activists, with police cracking down on government critics in
numerous incidents", the human rights watchdog said in its World Report
2002. [www.hrw.org]

Fears have risen in recent months that harassment of opposition figures by
police and security forces, and apparently increasing inter-ethnic
violence, could be used as political tools in the run-up to general
elections scheduled for this year, just as happened during the country's
multiparty elections in 1992 and 1997, according to regional analysts.

Apart from action against political opposition groups, "reports of police
corruption, harassment, use of excessive force, and unlawful confinement
were routine [during 2001]", HRW added. The Kenyan police spokesman, Peter
Kimanthi, recently rejected a January report by the corruption watchdog
Transparency International, which stated that the police force was the
most heavily bribed institution in Kenya.

On the positive side, the government's Standing Committee on Human Rights,
created by Moi in 1996, stepped up pressure for police reform, and
recommended that police officers underwent compulsory human rights
training, HRW reported. Most importantly, the Committee in June published
a report that alleged that prison wardens had murdered six death-row
inmates who died in custody in 2000, it stated.

However, the Committee was subsequently charged with contempt of court for
being in breach of judicial rules that prevent comment on a pending case.
In addition, a bill to strengthen the independence of the Committee,
pending since 2000, had not been considered by parliament as of November
2001, HRW said. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19929]

UGANDA: Police warn against planned multiparty meeting

A Ugandan police spokesman has warned the public against attending an
opposition political rally planned to coincide with 26 January
celebrations to mark the anniversary in power of the ruling National
Resistance Movement (NRM), The New Vision, a government-owned newspaper,
reported on 18 January.

"Article 269 [of the Ugandan constitution] is very clear. We are not going
to change our position, and members of the public should not risk
[attendance]," the Kampala paper quoted the spokesman, Asuman Mugenyi, as
saying. "The rally is illegal," the paper, on 17 January quoted,
Information Minister Basoga Nsadhu as saying.

Rubaga South Member of Parliament - and the opposition Conservative Party
(CP) Secretary-General, Ken Lukyamuzi - has said his party intends to go
ahead with plans for a "consultative meeting of multipartyists" on 26
January, the same day on which Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's NRM
will celebrate its 16th year in power, according to local news reports.

The proposed rally is being seen as a "direct challenge" to the NRM,
according to Livingstone Sewanyana, executive director of the Foundation
for Human Rights Initiative, based in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. "It
would be a big issue if they succeeded," he said. "These rallies are
really just the opposition trying to challenge the status quo. Of course,
the government will try to stop it." [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19450]


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