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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 162
15 - 21 February 2003


CONTENTS:

ROC: Government confirms haemorrhagic fever outbreak to be Ebola
DRC: Ituri peace accord postponed as UPC accuses MONUC of partiality
DRC: Annan appoints second deputy special representative
DRC: WFP announces emergency food airlift to Kindu
CAR: Government troops recapture three northern towns
CAR-CHAD: Presidents reconcile, new peacekeeping force commander
RWANDA: Genocide suspect arrested, tribunal convicts two others
BURUNDI: Analysts warn of serious political deterioration
BURUNDI: Government in E28 million cooperation agreement with Germany
BURUNDI: Malaria the leading cause of death
UGANDA: Museveni approves multipartyism
UGANDA: WFP to send food to drought-stricken Karamoja region
TANZANIA: Food situation in refugee camps "dire"
TANZANIA: Group launches first annual human rights report
KENYA: Government urged to probe past human rights abuses

ALSO SEE:

KENYA: Feature: Model school in Nairobi slum at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32348

ROC: Government confirms haemorrhagic fever outbreak to be Ebola

The government of the Republic of Congo (ROC) has officially declared the
cause of the suspected acute haemorrhagic fever epidemic in Cuvette Ouest
Region to be Ebola.

Laboratory testing carried out at the Centre International de Recherches
Medicales de Franceville, Gabon, has confirmed the diagnosis of Ebola in
clinical samples, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports. As at
Tuesday, 73 suspected cases and 59 deaths from Ebola had been reported in
the districts of Mbomo and Kelle in Cuvette Ouest Region.

The government has asked the WHO to help it control the outbreak. The WHO
has reported that a team, including epidemiologists and social
mobilisation experts from WHO and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response
Network, arrived in Cuvette Ouest, while experts in clinical management
will be joining them in the area shortly. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32386]

DRC: Ituri peace accord postponed as UPC accuses MONUC of partiality

The signing of a peace accord among hostile parties in the Ituri District
of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), due to have been
concluded on Wednesday, was postponed, according to the UN Mission in the
DRC (MONUC).

"Confronted by repeated obstacles, MONUC held consultations with the
parties to the Luanda accord, and a decision was taken to provisionally
postpone the calendar for the application of this accord, as amended in
Dar es Salaam and in Luanda, in order to allow for the time to carry out
necessary negotiations with a view to resuming the peace process," read a
statement issued by MONUC on Tuesday.

MONUC spokesman Hamadoun Toure said the UN mission was upset by a
communique issued by the Union des patriotes congolais (UPC), an ethnic
militia headed by Thomas Lubanga.

"The [UN] Special Representative [Amos Namanga Ngongi] noted in particular
that the decision of the UPC to prevent the participation of certain
stakeholders in ending hostilities and achieving a peaceful resolution of
the crisis in Ituri had resulted in the postponement of the signing of the
peace agreement due to have taken place on 19 February 2003 in Bunia. The
objections of the UPC would also have the effect of seriously compromising
the launching of the Ituri Pacification Commission on the date foreseen,"
Toure told IRIN. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32359]

DRC: Annan appoints second deputy special representative

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Behrooz Sadry, an Iranian,
as Deputy Special Representative for the DRC, UN News reported on Tuesday.

Sadry, who assumed his functions on Monday in the DRC capital, Kinshasa,
is in charge of operations and management of MONUC. He joins Deputy
Special Representative Lena Sundh of Sweden, who is in charge of the
political, humanitarian, human rights, and gender aspects of the mission.

UN News said Sadry, 67, had had a distinguished career with the UN, most
recently serving as Annan's Deputy Special Representative for Sierra
Leone. Prior to that, he served as the UN Secretary-General's Deputy
Special Representative in Angola, Cambodia, and Mozambique, among many
other positions. His experience in peacekeeping began with service in the
UN Congo operation between 1960 and 1962.

DRC: WFP announces emergency food airlift to Kindu

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has begun an emergency operation to
airlift food to some 6,750 people in Kindu, the capital of Maniema
Province, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the agency
announced on Friday.

During the operation, funded by the US government, WFP is planning to
deliver more than 200 mt of food aid. This is the first time that WFP is
intervening to assist internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Kindu, where
precarious food security is a source of great concern to humanitarian
organisations.

WFP reported that malnutrition rates were very high in the region, because
the population - mostly peasant farmers - had been unable to access their
fields for about three years. The agency added that following the
withdrawal of Rwandan troops from the region, people in Maniema Province
had been emerging from their hiding places in the forest and converging on
Kindu, only to find that there was no food for them there.

WFP said that its implementing partner in Kindu, the British NGO Merlin,
also planned to airlift 179.4 mt of food. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32434]

CAR: Government troops recapture three northern towns

Central African Republic (CAR) government forces, backed by the Mouvement
de liberation du Congo (MLC) from neighbouring DRC, have recaptured the
towns of Bozoum and Sibut, Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported on
16 February.

Acknowledging that they no longer controlled the towns, the rebels loyal
to the former army chief of staff, Francois Bozize, said they had been
defeated by virtue of the involvement of the MLC fighters.

"We affirm that it is [Jean-Pierre] Bemba's [MLC] fighters, who have been
fighting us on the ground since 13 February, together with 400 to 500
[Rwandan Hutu extremist] Interahamwe militiamen and former Rwandan
soldiers," Parfait Mbaye, a rebel spokesman, said. Bozoum (384 km
northwest of the CAR capital, Bangui) and Sibut (185 km northeast of
Bangui) are strategic towns. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32355]

Subsequently, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
sent a team to southern Chad to verify reports of the arrival of
approximately 20,000 refugees fleeing fighting in the northern areas of
the CAR, the UN agency reported on Wednesday. It quoted local NGOs as
saying that the refugees arriving in Chad comprised 6,000 CAR nationals
and about 13,000 Chadians who had been living in northern CAR. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32380]

On Wednesday, President Ange-Felix Patasse, said in a broadcast on RFI
that government and allied forces had recaptured the rebel headquarters of
Bossangoa, about 300 km northwest of Bangui. Patasse was speaking at a
news conference in Paris, a day ahead of the Franco-African summit, which
he is attending.

The recapture of Bossangoa by government forces and their MLC allies is
highly symbolic, as it is the birthplace of Francois Bozize, the former
army chief of staff now leading the insurgents. It is also the last
important town before the Chadian border, about 150 km farther north.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32411]

CAR-CHAD: Presidents reconcile, new peacekeeping force commander

Presidents Idriss Deby of Chad and Patasse of the CAR vowed on 15 February
to reduce bilateral tension and repair their badly battered relations
arising from cross-border insecurity.

"May this act be a start for a definitive normalisation of relations
between our two states and peoples," Patasse told Deby in a speech
broadcast by government-controlled Radio Centrafrique on 15 February. He
was referring to Deby's visit that day to Bangui.

The Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (CEMAC), to
which CAR and Chad belong, sent regional foreign ministers to witness the
reconciliation between the two men. CEMAC has 303 peacekeepers in the CAR,
whose mandate is to protect Patasse, monitor the securing of the CAR-Chad
border, and restructure the CAR army. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32325]

Meanwhile, a new commanding officer for the CEMAC peacekeeping force has
replaced Gen Mohammad Hachim Ratanga, who flew back to Gabon for health
reasons, Radio Centrafrique reported on Tuesday. Another Gabonese officer,
Rear-Admiral Martin Mavoungou, replaced him. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32381]

RWANDA: Genocide suspect arrested, tribunal convicts two others

A Rwandan former military officer, Ildephonse Hategekimana, wanted by the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for his role in the 1994
genocide in Rwanda, has been arrested in the Republic of Congo capital,
Brazzaville, ICTR spokesman Roland Amossouga told IRIN on Tuesday.

Hategekimana was transferred on Wednesday to Arusha, Tanzania, the
headquarters of the ICTR, where he faces five counts of genocide,
complicity in genocide, incitement to commit genocide, and crimes against
humanity for rape and other inhumane acts.

The Associated Press reported on 16 February that Hategekimana, a former
base commander in the Rwandan army, had been arrested on 14 February. He
allegedly participated in killings in Rwanda's southern Butare Prefecture
during the April-June 1994 genocide that claimed about 800,000 lives.

Also on Wednesday, the ICTR sentenced Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana to 10
years in prison, and his son, Gerard, to 25 years for their roles in the
genocide. The judgment against father and son is the ninth since the UN
Security Council established the ICTR in 1995. The tribunal has now
convicted 10 accused and acquitted one.

Elizaphan, 78, was a senior pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist church in
Mugonero in Rwanda's Kibuye Prefecture during the genocide. He was
convicted of aiding and abetting in genocide. Gerard Ntakirutimana, 45,
was a doctor at the Mugonero Adventist hospital. He was convicted of
genocide and of crimes against humanity (murder). [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32383]

On Monday, the ICTR transferred the body of Anglican Bishop Samuel
Musabyimana from Arusha to Rwanda for burial. In statement issued on
Tuesday, the ICTR said it had arranged for Musabyimana's body to be flown
to the Rwandan capital, Kigali, and that family members had received the
body. Musabyimana, 47, on 24 January became the first person to die in
ICTR detention. The ICTR said he was arrested in the Kenyan capital,
Nairobi, on 26 April 2001.

During an initial appearance before the tribunal on 2 May 2001,
Musabyimana denied four counts of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide
and crimes against humanity. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32356]

BURUNDI: Analysts warn of serious political deterioration

As the end of the first 18-month period of Burundi's transitional
government draws near, the country continues to face a deteriorating
humanitarian situation and a serious fragmentation of its political
make-up.

"In the eight years that I have been going to Burundi, I have not seen it
as fractured and factionalised," Jan van Eck, a conflict analyst at the
University of Pretoria, South Africa, told IRIN on Monday. He said 100,000
people were being displaced internally every month and were "just moving
from hill-top to hill-top".

Similarly, an analyst with the International Crisis Group (ICG) has warned
of a "terrible situation" on the ground, as abject poverty, combined with
regular ambushes and looting by rebels needing to replenish supplies,
makes life increasingly unbearable. The analysts said that the transfer of
power on 1 May from a Tutsi to a Hutu president was the main catalyst for
the increased political and military manoeuvring. All sides, they said,
were re-evaluating their positions in the context of the Arusha Agreement
and the ceasefires signed since then. {Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32397]

BURUNDI: Government in E28 million cooperation agreement with Germany

Germany and Burundi signed on Monday a E28 million (US $30 million)
cooperation agreement, according to the German embassy in Nairobi.

In a statement, the embassy said on Tuesday that the parties had agreed to
concentrate their bilateral efforts on conflict prevention, strengthening
democracy and civil society and the provision of food and water in urban
and rural areas.

The embassy said the funds would also be used for the reintegration
programme in Burundi. The project to reintegrate Burundians would
reinforce the reconstitution of the state based on the rule of law, and in
accordance with democratic principles governing the administration of
services for the population, the embassy said.

Meanwhile, about two million Burundians will this year benefit from a
E15-million (US $16.1 million) aid package from the EC, the commission's
Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) reported.

In a statement issued on 14 February in Brussels, ECHO said the funds
would help meet humanitarian needs in the country. ECHO said the funds, to
be channelled through partner organisations working in the field, would
target the most vulnerable population groups in the country, these being
displaced people and their host communities, refugees, returnees, women
and children. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32326]

BURUNDI: Malaria the leading cause of death

Malaria, which for years plagued only the low-lying parts of Burundi, has
now surfaced in the highlands, and constitutes the leading cause of death
in the country, health officials said on Tuesday at an annual event held
to mark efforts to eradicate the disease.

Iteka, a Burundi human rights organisation, said the number of cases had
grown from 200,000 in 1984 to three million in 2002. It said malaria
patients accounted for half the number of people seeking medical
attention, and between 30 percent and 50 percent of hospital patients were
suffering from malaria. However, the battle against malaria was being won,
it said, by virtue of the drug, Co-artem. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32389]

UGANDA: Museveni approves multiparty politics

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's decision to open up the country to
political parties has been received with a mixture of optimism and
scepticism.

On Tuesday, Museveni recommended that Uganda should open up to multiparty
politics as opposed to the current "Movement" system. He made the decision
despite concerns among high-ranking movement officials that opening up the
country to political parties would lead to the National Resistance
Movement's disintegration or lead the country to political chaos, Uganda's
largest independent daily, the Monitor, reported.

"The challenges will be a new kind of political struggle, which we will
undertake in order to realise our vision," the paper quoted him as saying.
Cecilia Ogwal, the MP for Lira, northern Uganda, and a long-term critic of
the Movement system, said the step was a "positive change of heart in the
right direction". [Ful story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32388]

UGANDA: WFP to send food to drought-stricken Karamoja region

The UN's WFP said this week it would start delivering relief food worth US
$1.8 million to the drought-stricken northeastern region of Karamoja,
where some 300 people have reportedly died from hunger-related diseases.

WFP's Uganda country director, Ken Davies, said at a news briefing in
Kampala on Tuesday that between 4,000 and 5,000 mt of food would be made
available to the Karamoja region between March and June. The relief food,
comprising cereals and cooking oil, will be distributed based on an
assessment of needs in the three Karamoja districts of Kotido, Moroto and
Nakapiripirit.

"Come March this year, there is really a need to provide food to the
region of Karamoja," Davies said. "By next week, the first batch,
consisting of about 1,000 tonnes [of] food rations will be arriving in
Karamoja to be distributed to the people in the area." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32378]

TANZANIA: Food situation in refugee camps "dire"

Lack of funding to feed the 500,000 refugees in Tanzania's refugee camps
is leading to a "dire" situation, the UNHCR and the WFP told IRIN on
Wednesday. Both described the situation as the "worst ever", and said it
had led to repeated calls for donor action.

Furthermore, the Tanzanian authorities have reacted by warning that they
might expel the refugees if the situation were to get out of hand. WFP
said it would do its best to ensure that - although rations had already
been halved - it would never run out of food.

"Physically running out of food is not an option, and it will not happen,"
Mario Leeflang, a WFP official, told IRIN. He said a 16,000-mt shipment of
food from the US was due to arrive in June. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32398]

TANZANIA: Group launches first annual human rights report

Tanzania's first annual home-grown human rights report has highlighted
continued abuses of police power, low levels of awareness about human
rights, abuses of economic and cultural rights and the tabling of several
constricting bills in parliament amongst its major concerns.

The main thrust of the report is to "draw up the positive developments and
the negative trends in 2002", the Dar es Salaam-based Legal and Human
Rights Centre said at the launch of its report on 14 February.

On the positive side, the centre reported that systematic and large-scale
abuses of human rights were not the norm. It said that the establishment
of the Tanzanian Commission on Human Rights should be seen as a positive
development and that there had been some commendable progress in the
resolution of the political conflict on Zanzibar.

"In general, human rights are taken seriously in Tanzania, but there is a
need to push and promote them, because if we are complacent, the situation
will not only remain as it is but it will deteriorate," Palamagamba
Kabudi, a director at the centre, said while presenting the report. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32349]

KENYA: Government urged to probe past human rights abuses

The human rights body, Amnesty International (AI), has urged Kenya's new
government to launch thorough investigations into all alleged human rights
abuses committed in the past, as part of its commitment to uphold the rule
of law and stamp out impunity.

In a memorandum sent to the government, AI said it was encouraged by the
"positive signs" for human rights in Kenya expressed by the National
Rainbow Coalition (Narc) government. "As the new government takes office,
Amnesty International calls on the newly-elected leaders to commit
themselves to respect and uphold the fundamental rights and freedoms of
the people, enshrined in domestic law as well as in the international
human rights treaties signed and ratified by Kenya," the human rights body
said.

In particular, Amnesty urged the government to act on the human rights
abuses described in the Akiwumi Commission report, which investigated
politically motivated ethnic clashes in the country between 1992 and 1997,
as well as all political assassinations and "disappearances". [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32354]


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003


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