U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa

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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 192
13 - 19 September 2003


CONTENTS:

BURUNDI: WFP begins food distribution to 15,000 IDPs
BURUNDI: Peace summit ends without agreement
BUR: Curfew imposed on five zones in Bujumbura
BURUNDI: Radio suspension lifted, stations end boycott of state functions
BURUNDI: Seed production conference to be held in Bujumbura
CAR: National reconciliation talks begin
CONGO: World Bank rehabilitates Brazzaville blood transfusion centre
DRC: WFP, NGO begin to access populations beyond Bunia
DRC: Bunia calm after Monday's shooting
DRC: RCD-Goma officers, MPs demand protection before reporting to Kinshasa
UGANDA: Teso food aid delayed by assessment difficulties - WFP
RWANDA: EU mission accredited to monitor elections
GREAT LAKES: Region recommits to refugee protection, undecided on burden sharing

BURUNDI: WFP begins food distribution to 15,000 IDPs

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) began distributing food aid on Monday to
an estimated 15,000 internally displaced Burundians in Mubimbi Commune,
Bujumbura Rural Province, an official told IRIN.

WFP official Isidore Nteturuye said on Monday that the agency would
provide a total of 58 mt of food to the displaced over seven days. The
displaced fled rebel fighting in Burundi's western province of Bubanza.
The food aid follows an assessment of Bubanza by a team comprising
representatives of UN humanitarian agencies, following reports that
civilians had fled their homes.

Fighting broke out in Bubanza on 6 September between Forces nationales de
liberation (FNL) and Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD) rebels,
displacing thousands of civilians, local officials told IRIN on Tuesday.
The governor of Bujumbura Rural, Ignace Ntawembarira, said most of the
displaced were at the compound of the Mubimbi communal office. [Full
report on http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36583]

BURUNDI: Peace summit ends without agreement

A regional heads of state summit on Burundi ended Tuesday without an
agreement being reached between the transitional government and the main
Hutu rebel group on the country's political and security issues.

Following the talks, Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, in his capacity
as vice chairman of the Regional Initiative on Burundi, said that there
remained "a couple of hurdles" that needed further "reflection and
introspection".

He told reporters that the talks had been "very frank" and had not
"collapsed". However, Pierre Nkurunziza's faction of the Conseil national
pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie
(CNDD-FDD) rebel group blamed what it said was the Burundian government's
intransigence for the lack of an agreement.

The summit, which began late on Monday, was attended by presidents Joaquim
Chissano of Mozambique and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa; the facilitator of
the Burundi peace process and deputy president of South Africa, Jacob
Zuma, and representatives from countries in the region. [Full story on
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36611]

BUR: Curfew imposed on five zones in Bujumbura

The government has imposed a curfew on five zones on the outskirts of the
capital, Bujumbura, as a security measure for better control of people's
movements in the suburbs, Interior Minister Salvator Ntihabose said on
Friday.

Residents of Kinama, Buterere, Kamenge, Kanyosha and Kibenga Rural must
remain indoors during the daily 7:00pm-5:00am curfew which took effect on
Wednesday.

The measure follows renewed fighting between two rebel groups in the
western Bujumbura Rural Province. [Full story on
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36709]

BURUNDI: Radio suspension lifted, stations end boycott of state functions

Burundi's state regulatory body, the National Communication Council, has
lifted the seven-day ban the minister of communications imposed on the
private broadcaster, Radio Isanganiro, on 13 September.

This allowed Isanganiro to resume broadcasting on Thursday, Radio Bonesha
reported. In response to these developments, Radio Bonesha and another
private broadcaster, Radio publique africaine (RPA), ended their boycott
on reporting all state functions. They had taken that measure in
solidarity with Radio Isanganiro

Communications Minister Albert Mbonerane had signed the suspending order
because the Radio Isanganiro had interviewed the spokesman of Agathon
Rwasa's Forces nationales de liberation. The spokesman, on Radio
Isanganiro's "Mosaique" programme, had commented on the failure of recent
talks in Kampala between President Domitien Ndayizeye and the rebel
Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense
de la democratie faction led by Pierre Nkurunziza.

Mbonerane was quoted as saying that Radio Isanganiro had contravened the
government's ban on all interviews with Rwasa's FNL, the only rebel
faction that has so far refused to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with
the government. [Full item on
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36588] [Also see
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36612]

Bonesha reported on Friday that the communications council had
acknowledged RPA's suspension. The radio said the council had found that
RPA's attitude towards Radio Isanganiro's suspension was "reprehensible"
and that it would decide on the duration of the ban once RPA offered its
defence.

BURUNDI: Seed production conference to be held in Bujumbura

Strategies to produce and distribute high quality, durable seeds to
vulnerable farmers in Burundi will be discussed by representatives from
the government, UN agencies, NGOs and other humanitarian actors operating
in the country at a two-day conference that began on Thursday in the
capital, Bujumbura, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
reported. [Full report on
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36620]

CAR: National reconciliation talks begin

Central African Republic's long-awaited national dialogue started on
Monday, aimed at reconciling a nation deeply divided by years of armed
conflict, coups and ethnic rivalries.

A total of 350 delegates, representing different political, social,
religious and professional affiliations, dedicated the first day to the
adoption of the agenda and the verification of delegates' credentials.

Delegates will discuss and make recommendations on national
reconciliation; political and diplomatic issues; the economy and finances;
educational, cultural and social matters. A 40-member commission, which
received the support of 15 UN experts, has already drawn up agendas for
each of the issues.

The talks are due to end on 30 September. [Full report on
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36591]

CONGO: World Bank rehabilitates Brazzaville blood transfusion centre

The World Bank presented the government of the Republic of Congo on
Thursday with a newly renovated National Blood Transfusion Centre (Centre
National de Transfusion Sanguine) in the capital, Brazzaville.

The operations officer at the World Bank in Brazzaville, Bienvenu
Montebiyoudi, told IRIN on Monday that the objective of the renovation,
valued at 13 million francs CFA (US $21,775), was to improve working
conditions in the building given the role the centre played in the
country's fight against HIV/AIDS.

He said the work, which was part of the bank's $12-million initiative to
help the Congo battle the spread of HIV/AIDS, included the installation of
an air conditioning system, repair of windows and ceilings, and painting
of the building, which had fallen into disrepair.

Repeated civil wars in the Congo during the 1990s left much of
Brazzaville's infrastructure badly damaged or destroyed. [Full item on
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36593]

DRC: WFP, NGO begin to access populations beyond Bunia

As UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo extend their
authority beyond Bunia, the main town of the country's troubled
northeastern district of Ituri, WFP and its partner NGO, German Agro
Action (GAA), have begun to reach some of the thousands of people who had
been inaccessible to humanitarian agencies for months due to inter-ethnic
fighting in the region, WFP told IRIN on Monday.

WFP said it did not know how many people were still hiding in the forests
of Ituri, fearful of armed groups that have terrorised the region for
months. However, some, encouraged by recent political developments and
improved security, were returning to their homes, it said.

"We really don't know what condition we'll find these people in," Felix
Bamezon, the WFP country director, said. "We do know that many of them
have lost everything and will face severe hardship if we can't get food
aid to them as soon as possible. Reaching out into the interior is a
priority."

Continuing reports of ambushes and mines along the main routes into the
interior have prevented large-scale humanitarian access by road, with
thousands of families in need still to be reached in the disputed region
between Bunia and Fataki, 100 km to the north.

Insecurity has also deterred many from returning to their homes and
resuming normal activity, thereby increasing their dependence on
humanitarian aid, WFP said. Almost all agricultural and economic life has
been brought to a standstill by the fighting in Ituri - a fertile area
once famous for its agricultural produce.

Prior to September, WFP's activities in Ituri were largely confined to
feeding the more than 12,000 displaced people from Bunia and the wider
region who had taken refuge in the camp next to Bunia National Airport.
[Full item on http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36602]

DRC: Bunia calm after Monday's shooting

Calm has returned to Bunia after supporters of the Union des Patriotes
Congolais (UPC) rebel group tried on Monday to stop UN troops from
searching for illegally-held guns.

The force commander of the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC), Gen Mountanga
Diallo, told reporters in Kinshasa, the capital, that MONUC had met
Bunia's key personalities as well as representatives of the UPC, and the
Front des nationalists integrationnistes, another rebel group, on the
incident. He also said MONUC had freed all but three of the 100 partisans
of the UPC they arrested during the disturbances. [Full story on
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36674]

Shooting erupted just after the UN peacekeeping mission in the country,
known as MONUC, launched an operation to rid the town of weapons by
conducting house-to-house searches. Witnesses in Bunia told IRIN that UN
soldiers fired in the air to disperse a crowd of Hema protesters, some of
them children under 10 years old, who were throwing sticks and stones at
UN soldiers. They were protesting the UN troops' confiscation of weapons
from a UPC compound and home of the movement's leader, Thomas Lubanga.

However, MONUC spokesman Hamadoun Toure told IRIN in Kinshasa that UPC
combatants fired on UN troops who had begun the search and seizure
operation. "Our forces had to return fire. There were no dead but some
were wounded, although we do not have precise figures," he said. [Full
item on http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36618]

DRC: RCD-Goma officers, MPs demand protection before reporting to Kinshasa

Military officials and members of parliament of the Rassemblement
congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) former rebel movement - now party
to a two-year national transitional government in DRC - have demanded a
general amnesty and security guarantees before reporting to the capital,
Kinshasa, according to a communique from the group, issued on Wednesday.

"Those who have remained in Goma feel that the security measures that have
been put in place for us in Kinshasa are insufficient," Jean-Pierre Lola
Kisanga, an RCD-Goma spokesman, said.

"Before coming to the capital, they need to have a general amnesty to be
reassured that they will not be arrested for their wartime activities," he
added.

Lt-Gen Liwanga Mata Nyamunyobo, the chief of staff of the unified national
military, summoned on 9 September three RCD-Goma officers to appear before
the Military High Court (Haute Cour Militaire) for having refused to take
part in the inauguration of the newly-unified national army. [See IRIN
story, "Three RCD-Goma officers summoned before military court", at
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36504]

A number of RCD-Goma military officers who were named to lead the unified
national army have been accused of serious human rights violations, such
as Laurent Nkunda and Gabriel Amisi, alias "Tango Fort", who were named
brigadier-generals by DRC President Joseph Kabila on 19 August, despite
having been widely accused of leading massacres in Kisangani in May 2002.
[Full story on http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36706]

UGANDA: Teso food aid delayed by assessment difficulties – WFP

WFP has said that delays in the distribution of urgently needed food in
eastern Uganda's Teso region were caused by difficulties in assessing the
numbers of displaced people.

"Our food distribution programmes have definitely been delayed by a lack
of accurate figures on the numbers of displaced and the difficulty of
tracking exactly where they have settled," Ernest Mutanga, the WFP
national programme officer, told IRIN.

Since the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group made its incursion into
eastern Uganda on 15 June, some 240,000 people are estimated to have been
displaced in Teso area, in the east, including 150,000 in the east-central
district of Katakwi. [Full story on
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36682]

RWANDA: EU mission accredited to monitor elections

The EU observer mission in Rwanda has been authorised to monitor
parliamentary elections scheduled to begin on 29 September, the Rwanda
News Agency (RNA) reported on Thursday.

"The observers of the EU have already received the accreditation,"
Chrysologue Karangwa, the president of the National Electoral Commission,
was quoted as saying.

RNA reported that the EU mission had committed itself, in writing, to
respect the commission's instructions during the elections.

The EU mission, headed by Colette Flesch, has been in Rwanda since 22 July
at the commission's invitation. It has five experts based in the capital,
Kigali. An EU statement on 31 July announcing the mission's deployment
said 12 long-term observers and 60 short-term observers would monitor the
country's first multiparty presidential and parliamentary elections since
the 1994 genocide. [Full story on
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36671]

GREAT LAKES: Region recommits to refugee protection, undecided on burden
sharing

A regional conference on refugees ended on Wednesday, with governments
recommitting themselves to refugee protection, but failing to adopt the
principle of "safe havens" and agree on a solution to burden-sharing in
protracted refugee situations.

In a statement issued at the end of the meeting, held in the Tanzanian
city of Dar es Salaam, the region reconfirmed its commitment to preserving
the safety and security of refugees, while providing adequate protection
and aid.

However, sources close to the talks said that there was a divergence of
views over the Tanzanian-proposed policy of introducing safe havens in
conflict-ridden countries as a way of averting large-scale refugee
movements. [Full story on
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36705]


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


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