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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 115
16 - 22 March 2002


CONTENTS

DRC: Kinshasa, rebels agree on troop withdrawals
DRC: South Kivu displaced "in urgent need"
DRC: Kabila assassination trial postponed
BURUNDI: Security Council calls for end of hostilities
BURUNDI: 45,000 refugees ready to return from Tanzania
KENYA: WFP denies food aid causing slump in maize prices
TANZANIA: UK delays aid over air traffic control system
TANZANIA: Clerics' condom stand at odds with national policy
UGANDA-SUDAN: Joint statement marks much improved relations
RWANDA: Former priest arrested in Cameroon at ICTR's behest

Also see:

DRC: IRIN interview with RCD-ML faction leader Ernest Wamba dia Wamba
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26392&SelectRegion=Great_Lakes

DRC: Interview with Security Minister Mwenze Kongolo
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26101&SelectRegion=Great_Lakes



DRC: Kinshasa, rebels agree on troop withdrawals

The Rwandan-backed rebel group Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie
(RCD) and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo have agreed
to withdraw troops from Moliro, Pweto Yayama and Kakaya, disputed towns in
the east of the country, the United Nations reported on Friday.

The RCD agreed to withdraw from Moliro within five days and Pweto within
10 days, while the Congolese armed forces agreed to withdraw from Yayama
and Kakaya within 10 days, according to a UN spokesperson.

The UN observer mission in the DRC (known by its French acronym MONUC) is
due to monitor the withdrawal, and report back to the chairman of the
political committee - representing six signatories of the Lusaka peace
accord - within 15 days of the agreement being implemented, the UN added.
The agreement was reached by the political committee during a two-day
meeting in Lusaka, Zambia.

This followed a resolution adopted by the UN Security Council on 19 March
that demanded the withdrawal of RCD troops from Moliro and Pweto, and
recalled that the northeastern city of Kisangani must also be
demilitarised.

The DRC government had suspended its participation at the inter-Congolese
dialogue on Thursday 14 March, in protest at an RCD attack on Moliro,
which it captured two days later. The government alleged that Rwandan
troops were also involved, a charge Rwanda vehemently denied.

Meanwhile, a proposal to form an ad hoc committee to deal with key issues
at the inter-Congolese dialogue (including the "new political order" and
the "new national army") failed to meet with general approval, the
organisers of the dialogue announced on Thursday.

The two issues which have held up progress in the dialogue's political and
defence committees essentially concern the status of DRC President Joseph
Kabila and his government, and the extent of power-sharing that the
various parties are prepared to contemplate, according to participants.
[more details at http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26683]

DRC: South Kivu displaced "in urgent need"

International Alert, a London-based conflict resolution organisation, has
warned that displaced people in the Fizi area of South Kivu, eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo, are in dire need of assistance. There are
some 20,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in the vicinity of Baraka,
about 80 km south of Uvira, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, with smaller
concentrations northwards along the lakeshore, Bill Yates of International
Alert told IRIN on Wednesday.

Heavy fighting in the region from September to December last year -
involving Burundi, Rwandan and rebel group Rassemblement congolais pour la
democratie (RCD) troops fighting against DRC government supported
Mayi-Mayi militia fighters - had displaced up to 30,000 people, he said.
However, about one third of those had since returned home.

Malaria appears to be endemic and a "new, major outbreak" of cholera was
unfolding in Kazimia, about 20 km south of the Ubwari peninsula, according
to International Alert. The most urgent needs are food and basic
medicines, followed by non-food items, farming tools and - on higher
ground - veterinary supplies and seeds, it said.

"There is a misapprehension among aid agencies that Baraka is an extremely
dangerous place to get to, which is absolute rubbish," Yates told IRIN.
[more details at http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26717]


DRC: Kabila assassination trial postponed

The trial of some 115 people, both military and civilian, accused of
involvement in the assassination of the late President Laurent-Desire
Kabila was postponed on Tuesday to 3 April by the military court, news
organisations reported. The posponement came after defence lawyers
complained that they had not been given enough time to prepare.

Laurent Kabila was assassinated in the presidential palace in the DRC
capital, Kinshasa, on 16 January 2001, apparently by his own bodyguards.

Assassination and treason were the two main charges that the majority of
the accused faced, although Eddy Kapend, Kabila's former security chief,
has also been charged with disorganising the office of the military staff,
thus depriving the president of information, the private Congolese news
service L'Agence Presse Associee (APA) reported.

Kapend is charged with attempting to seize power on the day of the
assassination by reportedly taking over state airwaves to issue orders to
the army, including directing them to close the borders; and of ordering
the murder of five soldiers and 11 Lebanese traders (supposed accomplices
in the preparation of Kabila's assassination) in Kinshasa according, it
added.

Human rights groups contend that many of the accused have been tortured
during their one-year stay in custody, and that few, if any, have had
access to lawyers or information on the cases against them. [more details
at http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26561]

BURUNDI: Security Council calls for end of hostilities

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday called for an immediate
end to hostilities in Burundi and urged armed groups to commence
negotiations "in good faith without delay".

In a statement issued by the Council's President for the month of March,
Ole Peter Kolby, Council members expressed support for facilitation
efforts of the South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma and Gabon's
President Omar Bongo and welcomed positive contributions made by the
Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania. The statement also urged donors
to increase their development assistance to Burundi.

Fighting is still going on in several parts of the country, a security
source confirmed to IRIN on Thursday. "The situation is still the same,"
the source said. "There is fighting in Mbare-Gasarara, Isale, Kabezi,
Kanyosha, the Rukoko Valley and Kivoga in Bujumbura Rural, among other
places." There had been rebel infiltrations in Makamba province in the
southwest and the army was carrying out activities in this area, he added.
[more details at http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26575]


BURUNDI: 45,000 refugees ready to return from Tanzania

Up to 45,000 Burundi refugees living in camps in western Tanzania had
signed up with the UN refugee agency by Thursday, under a voluntary
repatriation scheme, to return home to Burundi. A maximum of 45,000 had
registered with the agency as of Thursday, contrary to news reports that
some 80,000 refugees had registered, UNHCR spokeswoman in Tanzania, Ivana
Unluova, told IRIN on Friday. The 80,000 figure was "grossly inflated,"
she said.

An official from UNHCR in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, told IRIN on
Monday that, tentatively, the first movement of refugees would begin at
the end of March. Most of the refugees were returning to the communes of
Makamba, in southern Burundi, and Ruyigi in the eastern part of the
country, according to UNHCR.

Although large numbers of people have been voluntarily registering for
repatriation, the BBC reported on 15 March that observers were saying
Tanzania has been showing "signs of tiredness" over sheltering hundreds of
thousands of refugees. "This is said to have forced most of the refugees
to register for voluntary repatriation instead of being repatriated by
force by the Tanzanian government," it added. [more details at
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26682]

KENYA: WFP denies food aid causing slump in maize prices

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) on Thursday denied that the sale of
food aid it had distributed to refugees in Kenya was contributing in any
significant way to an oversupply of maize on the local market, which has
resulted in a slump in prices and hit farm incomes.

It was "really without much foundation" that the Kenyan market could be
distorted, or flooded, by the volumes of food WFP was distributing to
refugees (in Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps in the northwest and east of
the country respectively), WFP official Paulette Jones told IRIN. The
amount of maize WFP was distributing was "very limited" in comparison with
the overall size of the Kenyan market, the agency said.

Kenyan farmers have blamed food aid brought in by aid agencies for a steep
drop in local prices, which has hit farm incomes, already depressed by
market liberalisation, the BBC reported on Tuesday, 19 March.

Part of the issue is that relatively good "long rains" in 2001 (especially
in the main producing areas of the Rift Valley Province) provided for a
good maize crop. This, combined with carry-over stocks, has led to a sharp
decline in prices in recent months, such that the government has appealed
to donors to increase local purchases of food aid. [more details at
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26665]

TANZANIA: UK delays aid over air traffic control system

Britain has delayed payment of about US $14.3 million equivalent in
budgetary support to Tanzania because of concern about the government's
commitment to poverty reduction, especially in the light of its intention
to spend US $40 million on a controversial air traffic control system.

British Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short
ordered the delay ahead of an international report on Tanzania's planned
purchase of the 28 million pound ($40 million) air traffic control system
from British aerospace company BAE Systems.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is investigating
whether or not the system is appropriate for Tanzania, and is expected to
report its findings next week. An earlier report from the ICAO concluded
that the BAE technology was primarily for military use and that Tanzania
could get a better system for a quarter of the price.

The British government granted an export licence for the system in
December 2001 but only after a cabinet row in which Prime Minister Tony
Blair backed the sale despite opposition from Short, who argued that the
high cost could threaten Tanzania's sustainable economic development by
diverting spending from health, education and agriculture.

The decision to delay the release of budgetary support, "pending the
review of Tanzania's air traffic control system, was based on Tanzania's
commitment to poverty reduction," Short said in a statement quoted by dpa.
[more details at http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26573]

TANZANIA: Clerics' condom stand at odds with national policy

A leading AIDS activist organisation in Tanzania has expressed concern at
the country's religious leaders recent statement that they were implacably
against the use of condoms in the fight against HIV/AIDS, a key tenet of
national policy on tackling the disease. But it also considered that this
would have little impact on the pattern of infection since there was
already a high level of HIV/AIDS awareness among Tanzanians.

At a meeting in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, last week, more than
70 representatives of various religious organisations declared that "all
holy books" were against the use of condoms and they would, therefore,
discourage their followers from using condoms.

Lucy Ng'ang'a, programme director of the AIDS NGOs Network in East Africa
(ANNEA) told IRIN that the rejection of condoms by religious leaders was
"just a first reaction" which was not informed by the reality of the
HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country.

"A lot of people will dismiss it, because levels of awareness [about
HIV/AIDS] are now much higher," she said. "A while ago, such statements
could have had a big impact on the population." [more details at
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26074]

UGANDA-SUDAN: Joint statement marks much improved relations

The governments of Uganda and Sudan have distributed a joint statement,
through the UN Security Council, confirming that they were cooperating "to
contain the problems caused by the Lord's Resistance Army [LRA] across the
Sudanese-Ugandan borders."

It said a meeting of Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir and Ugandan
President Yoweri Museveni in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on 12 January
had reinvigorated the countries' shared will to implement the provisions
of the Nairobi reconciliation agreement signed in December 1999, "and to
further foster and maintain security across their common border".

As a result of these agreements and subsequent understandings, the
statement said, Sudan had "provided access for the friendly Ugandan forces
to execute a limited military operation within the borders of the Sudan in
order to deal with the LRA problems."

Ugandan army spokesman Shaban Bantariza told IRIN that his forced hoped
related military operations could directly result in the rescue of between
2,000 and 4,000 Ugandan children believed to be LRA captives in southern
Sudan.

Sudan and Uganda said they would "spare no efforts to safeguard and
maintain the safety of innocent civilians", and seek the safe repatriation
of abducted children, with the assistance of international humanitarian
organisations. [more details at
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26548]

RWANDA: Former priest arrested in Cameroon at ICTR's behest

A former Rwandan priest, Hormisdas Nsengimana, was arrested by police in
Yaounde, Cameroon, on Thursday on the basis of an arrest warrant submitted
by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) last week. A
statement from the tribunal said Nsengimana, a former priest and Rector of
Christ-Roi College in Nyanza, Nyabisundi commune, in the southern Rwandan
prefecture of Butare, is charged with genocide, conspiracy to commit
genocide and crimes against humanity for murder and extermination.

Nsengimana is alleged to have played a leading role in a group of killers
called Les Dragons (or Escadron de la mort), a group which reputedly
played a crucial role in the killing of Tutsis in Butare prefecture, the
statement said.

Meanwhile, a former organiser of the youth movement in Ngoma commune,
Butare prefecture, Joseph Nzabirinda, was on Wednesday transferred from
Belgium to the UN Detention Facility in Arusha, northern Tanzania. He was
arrested on 21 December 2001 on the basis of a warrant issued by the ICTR,
the statement said. [further details at
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26703]


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


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