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Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 126
08 - 14 June 2002


CONTENTS:

ROC: Fighting erupts in Brazzaville
ROC: Some 20,000 remain inaccessible to aid, says UN
BURUNDI: Governor of Ruyigi appeals for aid
BURUNDI: Media watchdog urges end harassment of journalists
DRC: Annan calls for one-year extension of MONUC
DRC: UN rapporteur to probel recent Kisangani violence
DRC: Residents flee as RCD-Goma fights Mayi-Mayi in east
DRC: World Bank resumes support with US $450 million loan
DRC: MONUC to verify RCD claims of 500 dead in Ituri
RWANDA: Long-awaited Gacaca trials about to begin
RWANDA: One million people suffer from malaria annually
GREAT LAKES: Small-arms unit established
KENYA: Sweep of aliens "puts refugees at risk" - HRW
UGANDA: Army says no time limit for LRA pursuit


ALSO SEE:

KENYA-RWANDA: Focus on Felicien Kabuga evading justice at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28309

RWANDA: Interview with UNICEF representatives Theophane Nikyema at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=28223

TANZANIA: Focus on small arms and control at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28006

ROC: Fighting erupts in Brazzaville

Fighting erupted early on Friday in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic
of Congo (ROC), when an assault was launched on Mayama airport, sources in
the city told IRIN.

After a four-hour lull gunfire was heard again around 7 a.m. (09:00 GMT)
and lasted until 8:30 a.m. (10:30 GMT).

"The town is extremely quiet," one resident told IRIN. "No one is on the
road apart from government and military vehicles."

She said about 5,000 people have started to flee but the military has
blockaded "many parts of town". In Mfilou area, tanks are in the street,
and cars are being stolen by the military in Ouenze." A humanitarian
worker said that some government soldiers were wounded, and that the
International Committee of the Red Cross reported that two of their staff
were also wounded but could not be evacuated because roads are blocked.

Details about the conflict were still sketchy by midday, but diplomats
said were considering two theories: First, that Ninja militias sought to
attack government military installations and equipment at Mayama.
"Government tanks lined up and fired in the area, and light arms were
fired as well," a diplomat in Brazzaville told IRIN. "The military often
retaliates this way - with heavy and light arms - to scare and deter the
Ninjas."

Fighting erupted in ROC in late March when so-called Ninja militias
attacked several government military positions in Pool region, north and
west of Brazzaville, government said. However, Ninja representatives have
said that the clashes were provoked when they discovered government plans
to arrest their leader, the Rev Frederic Bitsangou, alias Pasteur Ntoumi.

A second explanation put forth was that this was an attempted coup d'etat,
or perhaps the result of internal problems between the Congolese and
Angolan forces, whose troops are present to support President Denis
Sassou-Nguesso.

Sassou-Nguesso was due back later on Friday after attending the World Food
Summit in Rome. ROC: Some 20,000 remain inaccessible to aid, says UN

UN agencies in the Republic of Congo say that at least 20,000 people in
urgent need of humanitarian aid remain in inaccessible areas of the
troubled Pool region. The Office of the UN Resident and Humanitarian
Coordinator in the country reported on Tuesday that the UN had access to
the towns of Djamballa, Kinkala, Madzia, Kibouende, the east part of the
railway line (on the south side only), Kindamba and Bouenza region (west
of Pool region). [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28261]

BURUNDI: Governor of Ruyigi appeals for aid

The governor of Burundi's Ruyigi Province, Isaac Bujaba, has appealed for
more food and non-food aid, saying that the repatriation of refugees to
the area was "in full swing", government-run Radio and Television
Nationale du Burundi reported.

He said if help was not received the situation could become "overwhelming"
and "catastrophic".

An official from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs in Ruyigi, Apollinaire Bigirimana, told IRIN that -
between 31 May and 8 June - 2,027 people had spontaneously returned from
Tanzania, with between 100 and 500 people arriving each day. Prior to
this, about 300 people had been arriving per week. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28243]

BURUNDI: Media watchdog urges end harassment of journalists

The state-run media regulatory body, the National Communication Council,
has urged the transitional government in Burundi to cease the "harassment
and intimidation" of journalists in the country, a local human rights
advocacy organisation, Iteka, reported. The council stated on Thursday
that the public prosecutor's office ban on the media publishing
information on the killing, in November 2001, of the World Health
Organisation's head of operations in Burundi, Dr Kassi Manlan, was "a
violation of press freedom".

The council said it was within "the full rights" of journalists to
investigate any matter of public interest and publish their findings,
provided they did so within the limits of Burundi law, Iteka reported.
[Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=28232]

DRC: Annan calls for one-year extension of MONUC

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended that the UN peacekeeping
mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which, in the face
of serious difficulties, "continues to serve the international community
well", should be extended for a further year, UN News reported on Tuesday.

In his latest report on the mission, known by its French acronym as MONUC,
Annan also recommended that the Council increase MONUC's authorised
strength by 400 troops, to undertake key tasks in the eastern DRC cities
of Kisangani and Kindu. MONUC troops currently deployed in the DRC were
not equipped, trained or configured to intervene rapidly, he said, "to
assist those in need of such protection".

However, he said that local authorities had "the basic responsibility of
providing protection to civilians". [Full report at:
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28282]

DRC: UN rapporteur to probel recent Kisangani violence

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or
Arbitrary Executions, Asma Jahangir, will begin a week-long visit to DRC
on Sunday to gather information on extrajudicial killings alleged to have
occurred in the eastern city of Kisangani on 14 May and immediately
thereafter, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
reported on Tuesday.

The tour will start in the capital, Kinshasa, where she will meet
government officials and UN representatives, then travel to the eastern
city of Goma to meet representatives of the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement
congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma), the de facto authority in
Kisangani. Her visit will end on 22 June with a visit to Kisangani to meet
local authorities, international agencies, witnesses and victims of
alleged human rights violations.

The mission comes at the request of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Mary Robinson, following a 24 May Presidential Statement from the Security
Council on the events at Kisangani. [Full report at:
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28283]

DRC: Residents flee as RCD-Goma fights Mayi-Mayi in east

Thousands of residents were forced to flee into a nearby forest when
RCD-Goma forces attacked the town of Kampene, eastern DRC, Missionary
Service News Agency (Misna) reported on Saturday.

The Italian-based agency reported that the local hospital, social
structures and the Roman Catholic mission were looted. It reported that
the fighting took place 6 and 7 June in Kampene, some 500 km southwest of
Bukavu, in the Maniema region. Misna said that a month earlier, a
Mayi-Mayi faction called the Kaka Sawa (Righteous Brothers) had seized
control of the gold- and coltan-rich area from RCD-Goma.

While the exact toll of the fighting in Kampene remained unknown, Misna
reported that the town was deserted. DRC: World Bank resumes support with
US $450 million loan

The World Bank approved a US $450-million loan to the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC) on Thursday to support the country's economic reform
programme and peace efforts.

The loan, described as an Economic Recovery Credit, will support efforts
at improving governance, fostering private sector development, enhancing
the availability of public services, improving public sector financial
management, and reforming public sector enterprise. The money will also
support reforms in the forestry and mining sectors.

Belgium, the DRC's former colonial power, welcomed the Bank's
announcement, saying it was a "crucial decision" for the country's
economic recovery. France, South Africa and Sweden had lent DRC money, the
Belgian foreign ministry reported, to enable the country to pay off part
of its debt to the World Bank.

"Belgium has also declared its willingness to contribute to a trust fund
to pay the DRC's debt to the Bank," the ministry added.

According to the Bank, the credit is an integral part of its Transitional
Support Strategy, discussed by its Executive Board in July 2001, to
underpin the DRC's economic and social recovery. The Bank suspended aid to
the county, then known as Zaire, in 1993.

[For full report see:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20050193]

DRC: MONUC to verify RCD claims of 500 dead in Ituri

MONUC is to investigate reports of up to 500 people having been killed in
recent clashes between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups in the
northeastern DRC province of Ituri, mission force commander Gen Mountaga
Diallo told IRIN on Monday. "It appears the situation is worsening, and
I'm afraid we are yet to see the worst," he said.

He added that eight of his military liaison officers in the region were
still awaiting security clearance on Monday from the local authorities -
the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani-Mouvement de
liberation and their Ugandan backers - to visit the site of last week's
fighting near Bunia. Diallo said he would lead a MONUC delegation to
Kampala, the Ugandan capital, this week to consult with government
officials on possible ways "to cool down the situation". [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=28239]

RWANDA: Long-awaited Gacaca trials about to begin

The long-awaited trials to be conducted by Gacaca courts - an adapted form
of Rwandan traditional participatory justice - are to begin on 18 June to
deal with the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide. The purpose of the Gacaca
judicial process was to expedite the trials of those accused of crimes, to
"reveal the truth about the genocide", to put an end to the culture of
impunity in Rwanda, and to reconcile the Rwandan people and strengthen
ties between them, said President Paul Kagame's government on its official
website. Gacaca also revived traditional forms of dispensing justice based
on Rwandan culture, and demonstrated the ability of local communities to
solve their own problems by involving people in the trial and sentencing
process, the government added.
[Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=28252]

RWANDA: One million people suffer from malaria annually

Rwandan Health Minister Ezechias Rwabuhihi said on Monday that one million
Rwandans suffered from malaria every year, the Rwanda News Agency
reported. Speaking at a one-day seminar on malaria organised by the
National Programme for the Fight against Malaria, he said the disease was
the single highest cause of death in the country. The seminar brought
together participants from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.
[Full report on Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28263]

GREAT LAKES: Small-arms unit established

A small-arms unit, based in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, has been
established by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to halt the
widespread use of light weapons in the Great Lakes region.

In a statement issued on 7 June, the UNDP said that in recent years there
had been a dramatic increase in the "availability, accumulation and
uncontrolled proliferation" of small arms in the region.

The aim of the new unit was to motivate groups to surrender arms in
exchange for help in successfully reintegrating into civilian life, and
also to render civilian life more "attractive and viable", UNDP reported.
[Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28255]

KENYA: Sweep of aliens "puts refugees at risk" - HRW

Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned on Saturday that the Kenyan government's
current crackdown on illegal aliens was liable to put refugees at risk,
and raised concerns about its commitment to human rights and refugee law.
The US-based organisation expressed particular anxiety at the Kenyan
government's alleged threat to repatriate hundreds of Ethiopian and Somali
refugees rounded up in a police sweep in the capital, Nairobi, on 30 May.
Many of these refugees, it said, could face arbitrary arrest, torture, and
other serious abuses in their countries of origin.

"The Kenyan government must not return people to the hands of their
abusers," said Alison Parker, refugee policy fellow at HRW. "International
refugee law prohibits sending people back without a proper hearing to
determine whether they will face persecution on their return." [Full
report at:  http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=28234]

UGANDA: Army says no time limit for LRA pursuit

The Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) are not bound by time in their
pursuit of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) inside Sudan, where the
LRA had bases from which it was launching attacks in northern Uganda, the
army spokesman told IRIN on Thursday.

Under an agreement concluded between the Ugandan and Sudanese governments
in March, the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) were authorised to
pursue the LRA inside Sudanese territory, within limited periods.
According to Maj Shaban Bantariza, the UPDF spokesman, time is not a
factor for the Ugandan army, in its pursuit of LRA inside Sudan. "For us,
the time frame is not important. We shall continue until we defeat them
all," he told IRIN. His remarks followed reports that the UPDF had killed
some 67 LRA fighters inside Sudan. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=28202]


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2002


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