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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 185
26 July - 01 August 2003


CONTENTS:

DRC: MONUC gets a stronger mandate, troops increased to 10,800
DRC: New government to make resolution of Ituri conflict a priority
DRC: Fighting erupts between RCD-Goma and Mayi-Mayi in South Kivu
DRC: US$10 billion debt cut, $150-million loan
BURUNDI: UN relaxes security rating for Bujumbura
BURUNDI: Rebels release kidnapped MPs
RWANDA: Ex-president to remain in prison, court rules
RWANDA: Kigali records economic gains, despite constraints
CAR: UN mission to assess humanitarian situation in north
CAR: France to train Bangui security forces
UGANDA: One in three below poverty line
UGANDA: Food aid needed for 1.6 million people
KENYA: Serious shortcomings in ethics act, says watchdog


DRC: MONUC gets a stronger mandate, troops increased to 10,800

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted on Monday a resolution giving
the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), known as
MONUC, a stronger mandate and increasing its authorised strength from
8,700 to 10,800 troops.

The council also extended the mission's mandate for another year, until 30
July 2004. In a statement from its New York headquarters, the UN said that
in adopting Resolution 1493 (2003), the 15-member council also instituted
a 12-month arms embargo against foreign and Congolese armed groups in the
east of the country.

The move was aimed at preventing "the direct or indirect supply, sale or
transfer" of arms to armed groups and militias operating in North and
South Kivu and in Ituri, areas that have been hit by heavy fighting in
recent months.

The council's resolution enables MONUC to act under Chapter Seven of the
UN Charter, which authorises the use of "all necessary means" to fulfil
its mandate in eastern DRC - Ituri District and North and South Kivu. It
authorises MONUC to take the necessary measures in the areas of deployment
of its armed units to protect civilians and humanitarian workers under
imminent threat of physical violence and to protect UN personnel and
facilities.

The Security Council statement is available online at: www.un.org; also see: Full story

Meanwhile, angry residents of Bunia, the main town of Ituri District,
stoned six people to death on Wednesday MONUC reported. "The Red Cross
recovered the bodies of five men of Lendu ethnicity, and the body of one
woman of Nande ethnicity," Leocadio Salmeron, the MONUC spokesman, said.
He added, "While the precise reason for these stonings remains unknown, it
could be because of their ethnicity."


DRC: New government to make resolution of Ituri conflict a priority

During its first meeting on 25 July, the newly inaugurated ministers of
the DRC transitional government vowed to make resolution of the conflict
in Ituri District a major priority.

"We decided to make a priority the issue of Ituri, where fighting
continues despite the peace and unity that now exists in Kinshasa," Lands
Minister Venant Tshipaka, from the unarmed political opposition, said in
the capital. "We plan to send as soon as possible a police force and even
a combat force, because we must put an end to the fighting, the rape, the
robbery and other human rights violations that are being committed there."

Economically driven ethnic strife in Ituri District between Hema and Lendu
militias had caused between 200,000 and 350,000 people to flee when
fighting worsened in May, humanitarian sources said. Due to prevailing
insecurity, however, MONUC has been unable to deploy military observers
outside Bunia, while the EU-led peace-enforcement mission sent to
reinforce MONUC is not mandated to act outside the town.


DRC: Fighting erupts between RCD-Goma and Mayi-Mayi in South Kivu

Fighting erupted between the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie
(RCD-Goma) and Mayi-Mayi militias in South Kivu Province. Environment
Minister Anseime Enerunga, a Mayi-Mayi representative, on Tuesday
denounced the fighting, saying it could threaten the just-inaugurated
government intended to lead to democratic elections in two years. He also
accused the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) of having redeployed in various
regions of the Kivus, a claim that both RCD-Goma and Rwanda have
repeatedly denied.

"The RPA has redeployed forces in all the areas from which it had
withdrawn," Enerunga said. "The assailants are trying to retake their
positions in Mwenga, Bunyakiri and Shabunda. We are calling on the United
Nations to redeploy its observers in the region to investigate, because
these attacks are a threat to the transition."

MONUC had earlier withdrawn its military observers from this region.
RCD-Goma has confirmed fighting in the region, but said Mayi-Mayi militias
together with Burundian rebels of the Conseil national pour la defense de
la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) launched
the attacks.


DRC: Kinshasa gets $10 billion debt cut, $150 million new credit

The DRC's total external debt is to be reduced by about 80 percent under
the IMF/World Bank's Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative,
the IMF reported on Monday. "Debt relief under the enhanced HIPC
Initiative from all of the DRC's creditors will amount to approximately US
$10 billion in nominal terms (or $6.3 billion in net present value terms)
over time," the institution reported from its headquarters in Washington
D.C.

The move follows a declaration by the IMF and World Bank's International
Development Association (IDA) that the DRC had taken the steps necessary
"to reach its decision point" under the HIPC Initiative. The IMF said the
DRC had become the 27th country to reach its decision point under the
enhanced framework of the HIPC Initiative.

The World Bank's country director for the DRC, Emmanuel Mbi, said the
bank's executive directors had warned of the high risks the DRC faced in
making economic progress and called for "determined action" by its
authorities and concerted support from the international community to
ensure that the economic recovery "attains a stronger foothold and the
economy begins to realise it enormous potential".


On Tuesday, the World Bank reported that it had approved a $120-million
credit for the DRC to boost the country's investment climate and support
reform of public enterprises in key economic sectors. The money would be
used, under the Private Sector Development and Competitiveness Project, to
facilitate growth and rebuild the economy devastated by a decade-long war
and years of mismanagement, bank said. The DRC was awarded a 10-year grace
period before repayment, with a maturity period of 40 years, the bank
said.

Among those selected to benefit from the credit are public enterprises in
mining, telecommunications, finance, transport and energy sectors, the
bank said. The project also aims at supporting changes in the country's
tax, legal and judiciary systems.


BURUNDI: UN relaxes security rating for Bujumbura

As the UN relaxed on 25 July the security rating of the Burundian capital,
Bujumbura, from Phase Four to Phase Three, the African Union (AU) decried
inadequate financial and logistical support for its peacekeeping mission
in the country.

In its situation report for 21-27 July, the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs in the country (OCHA) said the revision of the
capital's security rating allowed for the return of all UN staff and the
resumption of programmes that were affected by the declaration of the
higher security rating on 8 July.

The AU, in a statement issued on 25 July, said inadequate funding was
hampering the completion of the deployment of the African Mission in
Burundi (AMIB), which is mandated to monitor the implementation of
ceasefire agreements signed between the rebels movements and the
government, and to ensure a smooth change from a transition period to
democracy. The AU said the continued "woeful inadequacy of financial and
logistic resources" for AMIB "could undermine the results thus far
achieved in the implementation of the peace and reconciliation process in
Burundi".


Meanwhile, some 890 children separated during recent fighting in Bujumbura
have been reunited with their families, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)
reported on Monday. With the support of Burundian NGOs Arche de Noe
(Noah's Ark), the Association pour la Promotion des Desherites du Burundi
and the Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation, some 898 of a total 965
children have been returned to their families, while efforts were
continuing to reunite the remaining 67 children, UNICEF said.


BURUNDI: Rebels release kidnapped MPs

Rebels loyal to Pierre Nkurunziza released on 26 July three MPs of the
Front pour la demoratie au Burundi, whom they had kidnapped on 29 June in
the eastern province of Ruyigi. A nun of the Roman Catholic Episcopate in
Ruyigi, who requested anonymity, told IRIN that the MPs were released at
12:30 (10:30 GMT).

"They were received by a delegate of the Apostolic Nuncio in Burundi, and
immediately escorted by government soldiers to Bujumbura," she said. She
added that acting on a request by the CNDD-FDD, no government
representative was at the site of the release.


RWANDA: Ex-president to remain in prison, court rules

Detained former Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu and a former minister
will remain in prison to answer afresh charges brought against them by the
government, the Supreme Court of Rwanda ruled on Wednesday.

Dismissing an appeal by Bizimungu and the former minister, Charles
Ntakirutinka, for their immediate release, Judge Hodari Ntsinga ruled that
the appeal had no legal basis and ordered them to remain in detention,
pending trial before Rwanda's Court of First Instance.

The two were charged in May 2001 with threatening state security and
inciting civil disobedience when they attempted to launch a new political
party, the Democratic Party for Renewal-Ubuyanja.

"The two had appealed to the Supreme Court to dismiss these charges
because they were politically motivated," Serafina Bizimungu, the former
president's wife, told reporters after the ruling.

"I am frustrated by the outcome of this decision because my husband is
innocent."


RWANDA: Kigali records economic gains, despite constraints

Rwanda's economy grew 9.9 percent in 2002, but this result, achieved in a
region in turmoil, belies the continued difficulties that restrain
development, the UN Economic Commission For Africa (ECA) reported on
Wednesday.

In its Economic Report on Africa for 2003, the ECA said one factor that
explained Rwanda's economic growth during the year under review had been
good weather that boosted agricultural output to 14.4 percent growth. The
normal picture was that agricultural productivity was sluggish, the ECA
said, although the sector was the mainstay of the economy.

But while the agriculture sector remained robust, the ECA said, the "GDP
was supported by rapid expansion in construction, growing at 15 percent".
It added that this was partly due to home building by returnees. On the
whole, it said, there had been little diversification of the economy and
non-agricultural sectors remained limited, with growth in these sectors
being of "minor significance".


CAR: UN mission to assess humanitarian situation in north

A UN mission left the Central African Republic (CAR) capital, Bangui, on
Monday to assess the humanitarian situation in the north of the country,
where most of the hostilities took place between October 2002 and March
2003.

UN System Coordinator Stan Nkwain is heading the delegation on the
three-day mission to the towns of Bouca, 286 km north of Bangui;
Bossangoa, 305 km north of Bangui; Paoua, 506 km northwest of Bangui;
Bozoum, 384 km northwest of Bangui; and Bouar, 454 km northwest of Bangui.

The UN coordination officer in Bangui, Silvia Chiarucci, told IRIN on 25
July that the team would include officials from the UN World Food
Programme (WFP) and the UNICEF.

Apart from Bouar, which received thousands of displaced people from the
north, all these towns suffered from heavy fighting during the six-month
rebellion led by the former army chief-of-staff, Francois Bozize, who
ousted President Ange-Felix Patasse on 15 March.


CAR: France to train Bangui security forces

France will train and equip three battalions of the CAR army and
gendarmerie units to help restore security in the country, French Foreign
Minister Dominique De Villepin said in Bangui on Tuesday.

"The first battalion will be trained and equipped before the end of the
year," he said at a news conference at Bangui M'poko Airport after a
three-hour visit.

Noting that the transitional government's priority was the restoration of
security, De Villepin said that a gendarmerie mobile unit would be trained
and equipped, as well as territorial units across the 623,000-sq-km
country.

"Thirty territorial brigades will be targeted for training, 15 of them
before the end of the year," he said.

De Villepin arrived Bangui after touring Libreville and Brazzaville,
capitals of Gabon and the Republic of Congo (ROC). He held talks with
presidents Omar Bongo of Gabon and Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the ROC on the
restoration of stability in the CAR.


UGANDA: One in three below poverty line

One in three people continued to live below the poverty line in Uganda in
2002, despite progress made in recent years which has lifted over four
million Ugandans out of impoverishment, says a new report issued on
Wednesday by the ECA.

"Sound macroeconomic management" generated higher growth and enabled
Uganda to raise the living standards of much of its population, according
to the Economic Report on Africa 2003. However, these improvements were
made in central and western Uganda, whereas the north, disadvantaged by
remoteness, conflict, unfavourable agro-climatic conditions, the
displacement of about a million people, and a lack of investment, remained
significantly poorer than the rest of the country.

Defence spending had risen to 5.3 percent of GDP in 2001/2002, from 4.2
percent in the previous three years, the ECA reported. "The growth in the
defence budget - especially the spending over and above the budget - is
raising concerns for some donors," it added.

Despite the vast inequalities in the distribution of wealth and resources
along geographical and urban-rural lines, Uganda had made progress in a
number of areas on a national level, the ECA reported. Infant mortality
had declined from 88 per 1,000 births in 1995 to 81 in 2000, full
immunisation coverage of one-year olds had risen from 66 percent in 1995
to over 90 percent in 2002, and access to health care was up to 80 percent
in 2001.

For the full report go to www.uneca.org; also see: Full story


UGANDA: Food aid needed for 1.6 million people

Food aid is urgently needed for over 1.6 million people in northern and
eastern Uganda in the worst humanitarian crisis the country has seen for
years, the WFP reported on Tuesday.

Those most in need were 820,000 displaced people in the north, 655,000
drought victims in Karamoja region, and 147,000 refugees from the DRC.
While food stocks were available for August, there would be a "pipeline
crisis" by September, a WFP spokeswoman, Lara Melo, told IRIN.

Over one million people are currently displaced by the ongoing conflict
with the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the north, not all of whom
were accessible by humanitarian workers, she said. Currently WFP was
unable to reach about 150,000 displaced people around Katakwi in eastern
Uganda, she added.

Meanwhile, the major roads outside Gulu, Kitgum and Pader in the north
remained so insecure that food aid could not be delivered without a
military escort, which in some cases was not available, Melo told IRIN.

The fears of abductions by the LRA - 8,400 from June 2002 to June 2003 -
killings and looting have also severely hampered people's ability to
produce or even buy food. This was the second planting season to be
severely disrupted by fighting, WFP said. Since June 2002, the conflict
has spread beyond the traditional areas of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader
districts further south to Lira, Apac, Soroti, Katakwi, Kumi and Kotido.


KENYA: Serious shortcomings in ethics act, says watchdog

Kenya's public officer ethics act, aimed at stemming corruption by forcing
public officials to declare their wealth, has "serious shortcomings" that
threaten its effectiveness, the anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency
International, said on Thursday.

A major weakness in the act was that it required each of the eight
commissions gathering the information from Kenya's officials to keep the
declarations confidential, thereby preventing any public scrutiny, the
organisation said at a news conference in Nairobi.

By requiring all public officials and government employees, from ministers
to messengers, to make declarations in a "one-size-fits-all remedy", the
act had also created "a monumental administrative task".

The most recent survey from the Ministry of Planning had found that in
2002, no less than 659,000 people were employed in the public sector in
Kenya. Furthermore, the act failed to provide for essential monitoring
procedures. Neither did it deal with assets held outside Kenya nor those
belonging to children of public officials over the age of 18, leaving the
act wide open to abuses, Transparency International said.

But Kenya's assistant justice minister, Robinson Githae, defended the act,
saying it provided "adequate mechanisms" for fighting corruption and was a
compromise between two opposing views - that of the government which was
keen to see public declarations of wealth, and that of the former ruling
party, the Kenya African National Union, which was keen to keep the
information secret.


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