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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 172
26 April - 02 May 2003


CONTENTS:

BURUNDI: President Buyoya transfers power to Ndayizeye
BURUNDI: NGOs urge donors to release funds
BURUNDI: MSF suspends operations in Makamba
ROC: Over 2,300 Ninjas surrender in recent days
CAR: Bozize to step down after transitional period
CAR: UN in US $9.1-million appeal for war victims
DRC: Military Order Court abolished, 70 prisoners amnestied
DRC: RCD-Goma rebel delegation arrives in Kinshasa
DRC: Amnesty urges end to carnage, economic exploitation
DRC-UGANDA: So far, 1,650 Ugandan troops return home
UGANDA: Fear for children as ceasefire collapses in north
KENYA: UNHCR supports government plan on refugees
TANZANIA: Villagers clash over land, 10 homes burnt

ALSO SEE:

BURUNDI: Interview with Mamadou Bah, The African Union interim chairman's
special envoy at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33778

KENYA: Feature - Help for HIV/AIDS patients at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33743

BURUNDI: President Buyoya transfers power to Ndayizeye

Domitien Ndayizeye was inaugurated president of Burundi on Wednesday, to
lead the second half of a three-year transitional power-sharing government
designed to end 10 years of civil war.

"I swear to work for the good of all Burundians, to fight genocide and
exclusion, and to ensure the respect of human rights," the BBC quoted him
as saying when he took the oath of office in the Burundi capital,
Bujumbura.

He takes over from Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, who led the country during the
first 18 months of the transitional government. Ndayizeye, a Hutu, will
rule until presidential elections are held at the end of the transitional
phase.

Buyoya handed over power under the terms of the Arusha Peace and
Reconciliation Agreement, signed between Tutsi and Hutu political parties
in 2000. The accord was the culmination of two-and-a-half years of
negotiations, led by the late Tanzanian president, Julius Nyerere. The
talks resulted in a transitional government that brings together 19
Burundian political parties for the three-year transition phase prior to
democratic elections. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33796]

BURUNDI: NGOs urge donors to release funds

Five international aid agencies have urged foreign donors to release
rapidly "substantial additional" funds already pledged to Burundi, after a
successful transfer of presidential power on Wednesday.

The appeal by Agro Action Allemande, CARE, International Rescue Committee,
Oxfam and Save the Children was made on Monday. In their joint statement,
made available to IRIN on Wednesday, the aid agencies also called on the
international community and Burundian parties to ensure that the transfer
of the presidency from Buyoya to Ndayizeye was peaceful.

They want the international community to support the government and
provide money and men to ensure the timely deployment of the African Union
(AU) ceasefire implementation force. The NGOs also implored all
belligerents to respect the ceasefire.

An AU force of 3,500 is to deploy to Burundi. Some South African troops
arrived this week. Ethiopia is to provide a battalion and two companies to
the force and Mozambique one company. Maj-Gen Sipho Binda of South Africa
is to command the force, to be known as the African Mission in Burundi, or
Amib. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33781]

BURUNDI: MSF suspends operations in Makamba

The international medical NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has suspended
its operations in Makamba Province, southern Burundi, after government
health authorities prevented its team from gaining access to essential
medical supplies.

"Burundian health authorities are preventing humanitarian organisations
from gaining access to medical equipment and supplies essential to
carrying out emergency aid operations," MSF reported.

MSF suspended its activities on 25 April in the province, where prevailing
insecurity makes the NGO's presence critical for civilians. "Supplies have
run out and surgical teams lack required items including anaesthetics,
suture materials and bandages," MSF said.

It also reported that after weeks of negotiation, a 17-mt cargo of medical
and surgical equipment arrived in Bujumbura, the Burundi capital, on 19
April and that although MSF conformed with import procedures, the material
remained blocked at the Bujumbura airport. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33786]

ROC: Over 2,300 Ninjas surrender in recent days
 
At least 2,300 rebel Ninja soldiers have surrendered with their weapons in
recent days in the Pool Region of the Republic of Congo (ROC), according
to the communications department of the Congolese Armed Forces (Forces
armees congolaises).

This followed a peace agreement reached on 17 March between the government
in Brazzaville and the Ninja leader, the Rev Frederic Bitsangou, alias
Pasteur Ntoumi, the military said.

On Monday, 812 rebels handed their weapons over to military authorities in
Missafou, a small town on the Congo-ocean railway, some 110 km southwest
of the capital, Brazzaville. Last week, between Wednesday and Friday, at
least 1,500 rebels also surrendered in the town of Mindouli, some 200 km
from Brazzaville. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33760]

CAR: Bozize to step down after transitional period

The Central African Republic (CAR) leader, Francois Bozize, announced on
25 April that he would step down as president after a transition period of
between 18 and 30 months.

"I gave myself the mission of saving the CAR people and presiding over the
transition and then I will step down," he said at a news conference in
Libreville, the Gabonese capital.

He was on an official visit to Gabon for talks with President Omar Bongo.
This was Bozize's first visit outside the CAR since he seized power on 15
March.

During the news conference, which the official Radio Centrafrique
broadcast on 26 April in its entirety, Bozize said he would tour all the
subregional capitals before visiting other countries.

He said that the support given his administration by the Economic and
Monetary Community of Central African States (CEMAC)was the first step in
his bid for full recognition by the international community. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33723]

On 28 April, some 100 soldiers from the ROC left Brazzaville to join the
CEMAC force in the CAR capital, Bangui. A contingent of 150 soldiers from
the ROC is already there as part of the CEMAC force. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33757]

CAR: UN in US $9.1-million appeal for war victims

The UN system in the CAR appealed to donors on Wednesday for US $9.1
million to help two-thirds of the country's 3.7 million people directly
affected by war.

The money will be to improve health delivery, food security, human
protection and the coordination of humanitarian activities for the 2.2
million beneficiaries, 400,000 of whom are children under five years old
and 600,000 women of child-bearing age.

Broken down, the health sector will receive $3.06 million, the food sector
$4.85 million, humanitarian protection $220,000 and other humanitarian
activities $974,000. The emergency programmes, which target the
war-ravaged north and east of the country, both isolated from the rest of
the CAR during the fighting, are scheduled to last three months, after
which an inter-UN agency consolidated appeal is to be launched with a much
wider scope of aid to last between six and 12 months. {Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33832]

DRC: Military Order Court abolished, 70 prisoners amnestied

The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) announced on
25 April that the Cour d'ordre militaire (COM - Military Order Court) had
ceased to exist.

In a statement, Justice Minister Ngele Masudi said the mandate of the COM
had expired at midnight on Thursday, 30 days following a decree signed by
DRC President Joseph Kabila in mid-March 2003. According to the Kinshasa
government, the COM is to be replaced by the Haute cour militaire, or
Military High Court.

Meanwhile, 70 prisoners were released on 25 April following an amnesty
granted them by Joseph Kabila. However, DRC Chief Public Prosecutor
Luhonge Kabinda Ngoy, who presided over the liberation of the prisoners,
told IRIN that no one sentenced in connection with the trial for the
assassination of Laurent-Desire Kabila, including 30 condemned to death,
would benefit from this amnesty. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33729]

DRC: RCD-Goma rebel delegation arrives in Kinshasa

Leaders of the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie
(RCD-Goma) rebel movement arrived in Kinshasa, the DRC capital, after more
than four years of war.

"Today, we are declaring an end to the war, which lasted four years and
nine months because circumstances demanded it. Today, those circumstances
have ceased to exist. We bring with us a message of peace and
reconciliation," said a smiling Azarias Ruberwa, the secretary-general of
RCD-Goma.

Ruberwa and Jean-Pierre Ondekane, the RCD-Goma vice-president, led the
rebel delegation, which was greeted by hundreds of Kinshasa residents
waving palms fronds and assorted tree branches, sometimes singing songs in
honour of the opposition politician, Etienne Tshisekedi, who allied
himself with RCD-Goma. The RCD-Goma delegation was also welcomed by a
delegation from the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC), another major
rebel faction, supported by Uganda.

Ruberwa and Ondekane were scheduled to participate on Tuesday in a meeting
of the national follow-up committee for the inter-Congolese dialogue, the
negotiation process that ultimately led to a power-sharing agreement among
the Kinshasa government, numerous armed rebel movements, unarmed political
opposition movements, Mayi-Mayi militias and civil society. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33733]

DRC: Amnesty urges end to carnage, economic exploitation

The human rights situation in the DRC could improve dramatically if the
international community showed "genuine political will and commitment to
act", the human rights NGO, Amnesty International (AI) said on Monday.

In a new report, titled "Democratic Republic of Congo - Our Brothers who
help kill us", AI urged the UN Security Council and the international
community to take "immediate action" to stop the violation of human rights
and the illegal exploitation of DRC's natural resources.

"For the last four and half years, Rwanda, Uganda and their Congolese
allies have systematically plundered eastern DRC's natural wealth on a
vast scale, causing, directly or indirectly, the deaths of hundreds of
thousands of Congolese civilians. In spite of numerous peace agreements,
the killing continues, while the international community looks on," AI
reported.

The power-sharing agreement signed on 2 April in Sun City, South Africa,
by Congolese parties to the conflict should, AI reported, serve as a
"valuable opportunity" to break with the violence and human rights abuses
of the DRC's recent past. AI urged the DRC government and all parties to
the Sun City agreement to ensure that the perpetrators of violations of
human rights and international humanitarian law were not granted impunity.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33754]

DRC-UGANDA: So far, 1,650 Ugandan troops return home

Uganda had by 27 April withdrawn 1,650 troops from the DRC, the army
spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza, told IRIN on Monday. The first group was
flown out on 25 April. The remaining troops, he said, were walking back to
Uganda from southeast of Bunia, a three-week journey that would take about
three weeks for some.

Military officials, including Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi, welcomed the
troops who arrived at Entebbe Air Base on 25 April. Referring to Kampala's
assertion that Ugandan dissidents were active in eastern DRC he said: "The
mission in Congo was to defeat terrorists wanting to destablise us. Uganda
will not stand idly by while our people are being threatened from the
Congo."

The soldiers - with their light weapons and munitions - were flown from
Bunia's tiny airport, the principal town in Ituri District, aboard four
Antonov transport aircraft. Some of them had not seen their families in
Uganda in five years. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33717]

Meanwhile, The Monitor privately owned Ugandan daily reported on Thursday
that the pull-out of Ugandan troops from Ituri had increased fears of a
resurgence of violence. It said the king of the Hema people, and the
bishop of Boga Anglican Province in eastern DRC had fled Ituri and taken
refuge in Fort Portal in Kabarole District, western Uganda. King Mugenyi
of the Banyagwa had fled earlier this week with some 20 royals. A Kingdom
of Toro senior official, the Rev Richard Baguma, told the daily that the
kingdom was hosting them, it reported.

Baguma said King Mugenyi had fled for fear of attacks by the Lendu and
Balega communities. He noted that Toro had a tradition of helping monarchs
in times of need. Kabarole District Chairman Augustine Kayonga said Bishop
Njojo of Boga and several other clerics had also taken refuge in Kabarole.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33818]

UGANDA: Fear for children as ceasefire collapses in north

The head of the UN Children's Fund, Carol Bellamy, has expressed concern
over renewed abductions of children and women by the rebel Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA) following the recent collapse of a ceasefire in
northern Uganda. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni last week cancelled the
limited ceasefire he had offered the LRA in March, and ordered a
full-scale military operation against the group, accusing it of failing to
respond positively.

"Every resurgence in the fighting brings renewed expressions of concern
from governments and a wide range of national and international
organisations," Bellamy said. "But these concerns have yet to be
transformed into a constructive peace process."

She said the recent intensification of the conflict and increased military
operations in the area were a setback to hopes for peace. She urged both
the Ugandan government and LRA leaders to renew efforts for dialogue and
secure the return of all abducted persons. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33782]

KENYA: UNHCR supports government plan on refugees

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
has welcomed plans by the Kenyan government to allow refugees to live
outside camps.

Home Affairs Minister Moody Awori said the government was considering the
possibility of relocating some of the estimated 230,000 refugees from
neighbouring countries to reside outside the camps, where they are
currently living under difficult conditions. Awori said professionals such
as teachers, engineers and accountants, would be given priority as they
had capacity to be self-reliant, the East African Standard reported. He
said the measure was aimed at decongesting the camps and enhancing the
human rights of refugees in the country.

"We envisage a situation where social and physical infrastructure
available to refugees at the camps could be extended to the host
communities," the paper quoted Awori as saying.

A UNHCR spokesman in the capital, Nairobi, Emmanuel Nyabera, told IRIN
that his agency welcomed the initiative. "We support any initiative and
flexibility of policy that would make refugee lives better, particularly
on the issue of promoting self reliance," Nyabera said.

TANZANIA: Villagers clash over land, 10 homes burnt

Villagers armed with traditional weapons injured several people and burnt
10 homes during fighting over land in Unguja South, on the island of
Zanzibar.

A Dar es Salasam newspaper, The Guardian, reported on Monday that some
villagers fled into a nearby forest, after the clash. It reported that
fighting erupted after some residents of Ukongoroni village slashed crops
planted on a contested piece of land by their neighbouring Bwejuu
villagers. Following the clash, a number of villagers suspended
agricultural activities for fear of being attacked.

The local chairman of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party, Makame
Khamisi, was among those wounded and was admitted to a Zanzibari hospital.
The Police Field Force Unit intervened to calm the villagers and made
several arrests. Unguja South regional police commander Abuu Kificho was
quoted as saying that he had increased the police presence in the two
villages.


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