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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 121
04 - 10 May 2002


CONTENTS:

CENTRAL AFRICA: Security Council team ends eight-nation trip
CAR: Curfew lifted nearly one year after failed coup
DRC: Informal peace talks begin in South Africa
DRC: IMF head outlines "key priorities" for future cooperation
DRC: Rights group deplores secrecy of Kabila assassination trial
UGANDA: UPDF clashes with LRA in Sudan
KENYA: Thousands displaced by flooding
KENYA: UNHCR preparing to move Somali Bantus to Kakuma
TANZANIA: Politician, environmental lawyers charged over Bulyanhulu

ALSO SEE:

RWANDA-TANZANIA: IRIN Focus on Rwandan refugees in Tanzania at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27699

BURUNDI-TANZANIA: IRIN Focus on sexual violence among Burundi refugees at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27637

BURUNDI-TANZANIA: IRIN special report on returning Burundian refugees at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27652

TANZANIA: IRIN Focus on child welfare at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27708

CENTRAL AFRICA: Security Council team ends eight-nation trip

A delegation of the United Nations Security Council on Monday ended its
eight-nation mission to the Great Lakes region after holding a "positive"
two-hour meeting in Rwanda with President Paul Kagame and other senior
officials, UN News reported.

On Sunday, the 15-member delegation, whose visit has been aimed at shoring
up support for regional initiatives, met Burundi President Pierre Buyoya
and his deputy, Domitien Ndayizeye, in that country's capital, Bujumbura,
it said. At a news conference before leaving for Rwanda, Ambassador
Jean-David Levitte of France, who led the mission, said the message of the
Security Council to Buyoya was simple: "Continue reform." He added that
the Council had encouraged the transitional government and parliament in
Burundi to "fully implement in the coming months the political, social and
economic reforms that were part of the Arusha agreement".

In the Rwandan capital, Kigali, Levitte told journalists that the official
visit to Rwanda was of key importance for the future of the peace process
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Reuters reported. "We
recognise fully the security problems of Rwanda, and we want to address
them in the framework of the Lusaka agreement, so that the whole region,
when Lusaka is implemented, will live in peace as good neighbours,"
Reuters reported Levitte as saying.

Kagame told Rwandan radio on Monday that his country was ready to
cooperate in all efforts to resolve problems related to the internal
situation in the in the DRC. He said Rwanda would help in contributing
towards bringing parties together to the negotiating table to find an
all-inclusive solution to the DRC's problems, adding that Rwanda was ready
to pull out of the DRC if its security threats were addressed. [Full
report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27641]

Earlier, on 4 May, President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania and Levitte,
speaking at a press conference in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam,
both stressed that while the UN delegation would try to help coordinate
the peace processes, ultimately it was up to the leaders of the DRC and
Burundi to put the wellbeing of their people before personal interests,
and bring stability to the region. Mkapa said that leaders had to realise
that "their people had suffered enough and that they had a unique
opportunity to restore a sense of national unity and to give expression to
independence, territorially".

For his part, Levitte said that the UN echoed Mkapa's sentiments entirely,
and that while the Security Council could help leaders implement
agreements they had negotiated themselves, it had to be a joint effort. He
said there was "no room" in the region for those would not stop fighting,
as there was now real hope for peace.

On 3 May, the delegation was in Kampala, Uganda, to meet President Yoweri
Museveni and MLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, who will serve as prime
minister in the DRC's new political order. According to Radio Uganda,
Museveni described the Sun City accord as a good foundation for peace,
while stressing that it needed to be broadened to include all parties to
the inter-Congolese dialogue.

Museveni told journalists that he had advised DRC President Joseph Kabila
and Bemba to be flexible on their agreement, and bring on board the other
armed and political opposition groups in the DRC in order to have an
all-inclusive transitional government. Museveni called for the unification
of the administration of the DRC, with the withdrawal of foreign armies
from the country, the organisation of elections and the rebuilding of
state structures, Radio Uganda further reported. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27623]

It subsequently transpired that a plan proposed by the UN team during its
tour to create a buffer zone between the DRC and three of its eastern
neighbours had won unanimous support from countries in the region, the UN
Special Representative of the Secretary General to the DRC, Amos Namanga
Ngongi, said on Wednesday. Summarising the achievements of last week's
tour of Great Lakes countries by the UN delegation, Ngongi said "a major
point to bear in mind is the unanimity obtained for a project to create a
buffer zone between the DRC and three of its neighbours, Burundi, Uganda
and Rwanda". "This is remarkable progress," he said, but cautioned that
for the plan to be put into action, all political actors would have to be
involved.

The proposal for the buffer zone, as outlined by Levitte, would involve
cooperation between the DRC armed forces and troops from Burundi, Rwanda
and Uganda. "We have had the agreement of all countries concerned at the
level of the head of state for this idea to be realised when the time is
right," said Levitte. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27667]

CAR: Curfew lifted nearly one year after failed coup

Nearly one year after its imposition in the wake of a failed coup that
shook Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), a nationwide
curfew was lifted on Thursday. Originally imposed on 28 May 2001 from
21h00 to 6h00, when soldiers loyal to former President Andre Kolingba
launched an offensive against forces loyal to current President Ange-Felix
Patasse, the curfew was scaled back on 31 December 2001, from midnight to
5h00. During these hours, all civilians had to remain indoors, and only
military patrols were allowed to move freely through cities and towns. In
case of emergency, only authorised vehicles with flashing lights were
allowed to circulate, while nocturnal workers such as security guards and
doctors were required to remain within the bounds of their workplace.

Humanitarian sources in Bangui speculated that the timing of this decision
was due in part to the fact that rebel soldiers who fled across the
Ubangui River to Zongo in the neighbouring DRC have been relocated some
100 km from the riparian border and progressively disarmed, whereas
previously, they remained an armed threat just across the river. A
statement from the office of the president said that the lifting of the
curfew meant that life had returned to normal in CAR. It further noted
that "in taking this decision, the President of the Republic ... counts on
the public-spiritedness and sense of responsibility of all children of
CAR."

"On the other hand," it continued, "[the President] sends a strict warning
to all who, refusing obstinately that our country and the people of CAR
live in national peace and harmony, would attempt to take advantage of
this return to normalcy to hatch their harmful plots to challenge our
democratically constituted institutions. They will be considered as
terrorists and will be brought to justice."

Another source in Bangui told IRIN that despite the lifting of the curfew,
a high level of insecurity remained in and around the capital, including
regular armed break-ins and highway robbery.

[Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27715]

DRC: Informal peace talks begin in South Africa

Informal talks between members of the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour
la democratie (RCD-Goma) and opposition political parties in the DRC began
on Wednesday in Cape Town, South Africa. The talks are being hosted by
South African President Thabo Mbeki.

Mbeki's spokesman, Bheki Khumalo, told IRIN on Thursday that all of the
parties who participated in the inter-Congolese dialogue (ICD), were
present in Cape Town with the exception of the government and the former
rebel Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC). He stressed that the talks
were informal and said their purpose was to "assist the peace process so
it can resume". He added that it was essential that the formal ICD resume
in order to obtain an inclusive power-sharing agreement, but that nobody
knew when this could happen at this stage.

The RCD spokesman, Kin Kiey Mulumba, told IRIN that the meeting was an
informal one, "to see what can be done to push forward the peace process".
He said his party had been informed that representatives from Kabila's
government would attend the talks next week.

On Tuesday, Mbeki held talks with the Kinshasa government in order to gain
its perspective on a resumption of formal talks, news agencies reported.

[Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27695]

DRC: IMF head outlines "key priorities" for future cooperation

Citing "good prospects for further intensifying [IMF] cooperation" with
the DRC, IMF Managing Director Horst Köhler on Tuesday outlined "key
priorities" in order for the country "to rebuild confidence, normalise
relations with the international community, and restart economic growth,
job creation, and poverty reduction". Speaking in the DRC capital,
Kinshasa, during a four-nation tour of Africa, Köhler said the appropriate
instrument for such intensification would be a three-year programme
supported by the IMF's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF).

According to Köhler, the key priorities will include further consolidation
of macroeconomic stability; restoration of the payments system and
restructuring of the banking sector; strengthening the legal framework and
rebuilding public administration and accountability, to enable the country
to fight corruption; development of an appropriate social safety net; and
starting work on a poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP), "which would
engage the full international community", including the World Bank and
African Development Bank.

Köhler said these "good prospects" for intensified cooperation were based
on several accomplishments since the IMF had helped the DRC, at the
request of Kabila, to design a staff-monitored programme to stabilise the
economy. "The economic team has instituted budgetary discipline and
tackled exchange rate and price distortions in the economy," Köhler
stated. "The Central Bank has conducted a prudent monetary policy. And
there have been important improvements in the judicial and regulatory
environment. As a result, hyperinflation and the free fall in the value of
the currency have come to an end."

[Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27593]

DRC: Rights group deplores secrecy of Kabila assassination trial

A Congolese human rights organisation has protested against the secrecy
surrounding the trial of suspects alleged to have been involved in the 16
January 2001 assassination of Laurent-Desire Kabila, the then DRC
president. In a statement released on Monday, La Voix des Sans-Voix (VSV -
Voice of the Voiceless) condemned the exclusion of the free press from
media coverage of the trial and demanded that not only the trial be opened
to the public but also that it be broadcast live via radio and television
"so that the Congolese people know the truth about the death" of Kabila.
It warned that any judgment rendered by the court after a trial behind
closed doors would constitute a "masquerade of a trial".

The trial, which was originally open to the public, opened on 15 March
2002 before the Cour d'ordre militaire (COM - Military Order Court). On 22
April, the court accused private press outlets of a lack of objectivity in
their reporting, and thereafter allowed only military press and state
media representatives to attend proceedings. On 2 May, citing reasons of
state security, the court went a step further by banning the state media
from admission, and allowing entry only to the military press.

Although the full circumstances surrounding his assassination remain
shrouded in mystery, Kabila was reportedly shot by one of his own
bodyguards, who was himself then shot to death by other guards. About 100
men and women - Kabila's former guards and aides, as well as wives and
girlfriends of suspects - have been charged with a role in the Kabila
assassination, according to the Associated Press. Kabila was succeeded by
his 30-year-old son, Joseph.

UGANDA: UPDF clashes with LRA in Sudan

The Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) said on Sunday that they had
killed at least 18 members of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) on 3 May,
during their first major contact with the Ugandan rebel force in a
continuing campaign inside south Sudan. The clashes had occurred at
Katire, in the Imatong Hills area between the garrison towns of Magwe and
Torit in Eastern Equatoria (about 60 km from the Ugandan border), The New
Vision government-owned newspaper on Monday quoted the UPDF spokesman,
Shaban Bantariza, as saying.

There is considerable confusion about casualties, since the independent
Monitor newspaper quoted him as saying that 18 LRA fighters had been
killed, while The New Vision put the number at 32, and the Associated
Press quoted Bantariza as saying that the Ugandan army had counted 50 LRA
bodies, one by one.

"We are still searching the battle zones and blood trails," Bantariza told
The New Vision. "The death toll may reach about 50." Five soldiers had
been wounded on the UPDF side, he added. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27622]

Meanwhile, eight children abducted by the rebel LRA have recently been
brought back to their homes in northern Uganda, with the help of the UN
Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Office for Migration (IOM).
The children, who had all escaped LRA captivity in southern Sudan, were
brought back on 30 April to their families in Kitgum and Gulu districts,
in the Acholiland area of northern Uganda, where they would receive
psychosocial counselling provided by the NGO World Vision, IOM said.

Since September 2000, a total of 278 persons abducted by the LRA in
northern Uganda have been repatriated by the IOM and its partners,
Friday's press release stated. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27636]

KENYA: Thousands displaced by flooding

Floods and landslides triggered by weeks of heavy rains across Kenya have
killed at least 20 people and affected over 120,000, many of whom have
been forced to flee their homes. One of the worst-hit areas was Migori
District, southwestern Kenya, where some 13,000 people had been displaced
due to swelling of the nearby Migori and Kuja rivers, humanitarian sources
told IRIN on Wednesday. "If it continues raining we could see another
20,000 people forced to leave their homes in Migori," sources said.

Col Bonventure Wendo, spokesman for the Kenyan National Disaster
Operations Centre, was quoted as saying by the BBC that the worst flooding
was in the low-lying districts of Kisumu and Busia near Lake Victoria.
Meru, Mt Kenya, Murang'a, all in central Kenya, had also been badly
affected, sources said. The Daily Nation newspaper reported on Tuesday
that more than 30 people had been killed across the country, with 22
reportedly killed in landslides in Murang'a and Meru in the past week.

Reuters quoted a Kenya Red Cross official as saying the floods were the
worst to hit the country since 1998, when heavy rains linked to the El
Nino phenomenon killed more than 80 people in 24 hours. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27710]

KENYA: UNHCR preparing to move Somali Bantus to Kakuma

World Vision Kenya has announced that it and the IOM are constructing
2,200 shelters for 11,000 Somali Bantus who will be relocated from Dadaab
Refugee Camp in northeastern Kenya to Kakuma Refugee Camp in the
northwest. The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
told IRIN this week that it could not yet state when exactly the
relocation would start, but World Vision said the work on the shelters was
expected to be completed in Kakuma within three months. The construction
area has already been set aside and survey work started, according to the
NGO.

The US decided last year that it would resettle over 8,000 Somali Bantus
in 2002, probably because UNHCR feared tension in Dadaab if the Bantus
were resettled there, arising from the fact that Dadaab has a
predominantly non-Bantu Somali population, according to humanitarian
sources. This was the likely reason for the decision to move the Bantus to
Kakuma, which also has a substantial Somali population, but is
predominantly Sudanese, they told IRIN.

The US is planning to admit up to 70,000 refugees to the country this
year, and some of the Somali Bantus could be among that number, depending
on the ability of the State Department's Bureau for Population, Refugees
and Migration to process applications, according to the US Committee for
Refugees.

The US resettlement programme has specifically targeted the Somali Bantus
resident in Dadaab and Kakuma camps, who arrived in Kenya and registered
with UNHCR prior to 1 January 1998, because they were an identifiable
group, particularly impoverished and a persecuted minority unlikely ever
to return to Somalia, according to humanitarian sources.

"Due to the Bantus' history and physical features, which are more Negroid
than the indigenous Somali, they are one of the most discriminated-against
groups in Somali society," according to the Washington-based Cultural
Orientation Network, which provides training for refugees arriving in the
US.

[Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27677]

TANZANIA: Politician, environmental lawyers charged over Bulyanhulu

The leader of an opposition party and two environmental lawyers were this
week charged with sedition over their persistent claims that at least 50
artisanal miners were buried alive at Bulyanhulu, Tanzania's biggest gold
mine, in 1996.

Claims that small-scale miners were buried alive initially emerged soon
after Bulyanhulu mining areas were cleared for the development of
large-scale production when the mine was taken over by foreign investors
in 1996. The Tanzanian government and Barrick Gold, the Canadian company
that owns the mine, have repeatedly denied the claims.

Augustine Mrema, leader of the Tanzania Labour Party, and Rugumeleza
Nshala and Tundu Lissu of the Lawyers Environmental Action Team were
charged with sedition for allegedly having published material and made
speeches encouraging disaffection against the government. Mrema told IRIN
on Thursday that the police had charged him with writing a letter or
giving a press statement in which he was alleged to have said that at
least 52 people were buried alive in the Bulyanhulu mine, and that the
government had not taken any steps to investigate the matter. He said
that, as he did not know what material the police were referring to, he
had denied the charges and was waiting to see what was levelled against
him. Mrema insisted that he did not intend to incite people against the
Tanzanian government.

Nshala confirmed that he and Lissu had been held in connection with a
statement last year claiming that the mining company, aided by the police,
had filled in artisanal mining pits in 1996 "while knowing that there were
people inside those pits". "I am just waiting for the charges to be
formally levelled against me and then I will explain myself," Nshala told
IRIN. "Basically it is a campaign to try and silence us, but we think that
the facts will come through in the case."

The trial is scheduled to begin on 31 May 2002. If convicted, the three
accused face up to two years in prison and a fine of 10,000 Tanzanian
shillings (about US $10).

[Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27587]


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