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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 186
02 - 08 August 2003


CONTENTS:

DRC: Outbreaks of fighting in Ituri continue, MONUC to act 
DRC: Two killed, 60 homes burned in fighting near Tshikapa
DRC: MONUC head condemns killing of 11 civilians near Baraka
DRC: First river convoy reaches Kisangani since end of war
DRC: Agreement reached on division of military zones
CAR: UN warns of possible famine in north
BURUNDI: Zuma pleased with progress made in peace talks
BURUNDI: Ethiopian peacekeepers delayed, violence continues
RWANDA: Twagiramungu complains of harassment of his supporters
RWANDA: Court sentences 11 to death for genocide
RWANDA: Kigali calls for change in UN tribunal's mandate
RWANDA-UGANDA: Kampala to send back 25,600 Rwandans
KENYA: Food crisis for refugees averted - WFP

ALSO SEE:

BURUNDI: 100 days of Ndayizeye's presidency at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35845

DRC: Outbreaks of fighting in Ituri continue, MONUC to act

The Belgian and French defence ministers, saying they are pleased with the
work of the EU-led peace-enforcement mission in the Ituri District of
northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), have pledged
continued support for the peace and stability efforts in the country.

The announcement followed a two-day visit to the DRC, during which the
ministers, Andre Flahaut of Belgium and Michele Alliot-Marie of France,
inspected the EU force in Bunia, the main town of Ituri.

"We are convinced that the multinational force has fulfilled its mission
and will continue to do so until [the end of its mandate on] 1 September,
when MONUC [the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC] is due to take over,"
Alliot-Marie said on 2 August. "What we have seen in Bunia is reassuring:
normal activities have resumed in the town."

Meanwhile, however, massacres were reportedly continuing elsewhere in
Ituri, with the latest occurring in the town of Fataki, some 70 km
northeast of Bunia. Radio Okapi reported an unknown number of people
having been buried alive. The broadcast follows other recent reports of
scores of civilians killed by militias in the towns of Drodro and Nizi.
Due to prevailing insecurity, MONUC has been unable to deploy outside
Bunia, while the EU-led mission sent to reinforce MONUC is not mandated to
operate beyond the confines of the town. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35780]

Another attack on Fataki was reported to have taken place on 2 and 3
August, according to the Missionary Service News Agency (Misna). Misna
said on Monday that the attack was believed to have been carried out by
ethnic Lendu militias that control the area.

Witnesses told Misna that the local orphanage, hospital, market, church
and convent were all pillaged and destroyed by armed men who appeared to
be drugged or drunken. The agency reported that it had not yet received
any information regarding casualties. It said it had also received reports
of fighting in the Ituri towns of Bula, Ka and Sombuso. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35795]

On Tuesday, nine civilians were "brutally murdered" in Nyanda village, 20
km north of Bunia, according to MONUC. In Bunia, Leocadio Salmeron, the
MONUC spokesman, told IRIN that the victims were primarily women and
children. He said the attackers were Lendu militiamen, who, witnesses
reported, were armed with guns, machetes, spears and other weapons.

"The population identified the combatants as belonging to the Forces
Nationalistes Integrationnistes political-military movement, led by
someone known as Engudolo," Salmeron said. "The [EU-led] Artemis force
sent a helicopter to the village, even though this was outside its
mandate. The assailants fled when they saw the helicopter approaching," he
said. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35814]

On Monday, Radio France International quoted the new head of MONUC,
William Swing, as saying the mission's troops were ready and sufficient to
secure Ituri. In an interview regarding a recent UN Security Council
resolution extending MONUC's mandate by one year and increasing its
powers, Swing said about 2,000 MONUC troops would be in Ituri by
mid-August. The Security Council also authorised a force level increase
from 8,700 to 10,800 troops.

MONUC plans to have 3,800 troops in Ituri in early September, "and this
will be sufficient with the mandate under Chapter Seven [of the UN
Charter], along with robust rules of engagement - more or less similar to
those of Artemis, the current EU-led multinational force," Swing told the
radio. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35789]
 
DRC: Two killed, 60 homes burned in fighting near Tshikapa
 
Fighting between a local militia and the national army on 2 August
resulted in two deaths and some 60 homes being burned down in the village
of Mutshima, about 50 km southeast of the town of Tshikapa in Kasai
Occidental Province.

Most residents of the village reportedly fled the fighting between the
army and local police on one hand and, on the other, a local militia known
as the "Red Army", witnesses in the diamond-rich region said. Saustaine
Kambidi, the local coordinator of a national NGO called Journaliste en
danger, told IRIN on Tuesday that the militia were armed with 12-bore
shotguns and burned 57 homes, primarily in the local military camp.

"They pillaged and stole everything they could take," Kambidi said.

He and other residents of Tshikapa said the militia's action was a
reprisal attack for an operation that the army and police had earlier
launched against them.

"There were two dead among the militia following an exchange of fire
between the two sides," Kambidi said.

Tshikapa Mayor Hubert Mbingho confirmed this, adding that the army and
police were defending a mining concession against pillage.

"The well-known militia calling themselves the "Red Army" came as usual to
steal diamond chippings and other materials in the mining concession, but
they encountered resistance from soldiers that the owner of the concession
had hired for security," Mbingho said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35791]

DRC: MONUC head condemns killing of 11 civilians near Baraka

William Swing, on Wednesday condemned the killing of 11 Congolese
civilians near the town of Baraka in South Kivu Province.

He told a news conference in the capital, Kinshasa, that he had received
confirmation of the deaths of the Congolese who had been taken hostage in
Kafulu, near Baraka. Swing, who is also the UN secretary-general's special
representative in the DRC, said reports indicated that the 11 had been
killed on 24 July by fighters belonging to an alliance of the Forces pour
la defense de la democratie (FDD), a Burundian rebel group, members of the
former Rwandan army, and Congolese Mayi-Mayi militias in the area.

One of the victims, Evariste Maheshe Chisagala, was a hydraulic engineer
employed by the UK NGO Tearfund, while the other 10 were employed by the
Water Committee of Baraka. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35849]

DRC: First river convoy reaches Kisangani since end of war
 
The first commercial cargo convoy since the installation of the national
transition government in the DRC reached the northeastern city of
Kisangani on 3 August following a one-month voyage up the Congo River from
the capital, Kinshasa.

"The eight barges, which were an initiative of the FEC [Federation des
entreprises du Congo] in collaboration with MONUC, were carrying flour,
salt, cement and thousands of bicycles, at a total value of some US $10
million," Jean Bamanisa, the FEC vice-president, told IRIN from Kisangani.

Until the installation of a government of national unity on 30 June,
Kisangani had been under the control of the Rassemblement congolais pour
la democratie (RCD-Goma), a former rebel group.

Bamanisa appealed to the transitional government to design a "Marshall
Plan" to help compensate the Congolese people for years of financial
losses, and to seek debt relief that would help revitalise economic
activity.

"We hope that concrete steps will be taken to grant compensation to the
people of Kisangani, victims of numerous armed combats, losses of family
members, houses and other properties," he said.

Bamanisa said that the eight barges would return to Kinshasa with palm oil
- a major product of the region - as well as rice and other foodstuffs.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35790]

DRC: Agreement reached on division of military zones

Former belligerent parties reached agreement on Wednesday on the division
of military zones in the DRC.

"The agreement we reached will enable President Joseph Kabila to name,
very soon, the chief of staff of the unified national army, as well as
other leaders of the military forces," Atanase Matenda Kiela, spokesman
for the Follow-up Committee of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, said.

The committee is a body in which all parties to the Congo's power-sharing
accord are represented.

That plan now accepted by all parties allocates control of the DRC's 10
military regions as follows: three to the former Kinshasa government; two
to RCD-Goma and the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC); and one region
each to RCD-Kisangani/Mouvement de liberation and RCD-National, and to the
Mayi-Mayi militias.

The formation of a national army unifying the forces of the former
Kinshasa government and those of the various rebel movements had remained
one of the final stumbling blocks to allowing the two-year transitional
government, inaugurated on 30 June, to move forward. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35837; also see:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35771]

CAR: UN warns of possible famine in north
 
Tens of thousands of people in northern Central Africa Republic could face
famine in January unless "emergency measures" are taken now, the
coordinator of the UN system in the country has said.

In April, the UN had made a "flash appeal" for US $9.1 million after
realising that the entire farming season in many northern regions had been
lost to fighting between rebels and government troops. The appeal included
$4.85 million for food aid to war-affected populations and for the
provision of crop seeds to 150,000 farmers.

"The flash appeal has received no response," Stan Nkwain, the coordinator,
said on 1 August.

Nkwain was speaking a day after ending a tour of six northern towns with
officials of the UN Development Programme, the UN World Food Programme
(WFP) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). The delegation visited Bouca,
Paoua, Bossangoa, Bozoum, Bossemptele and Bossembele, all hundreds of
kilometres north and northwest of the capital, Bangui. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35765]

BURUNDI: Zuma pleased with progress made in peace talks

South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma ended on Wednesday a visit to
the Tanzanian commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, where he presided over
talks between the transitional government of Burundi and the Conseil
national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la
democratie (CNDD-FDD) rebel faction led by Pierre Nkurunziza, his office
reported.

The office said Zuma, the facilitator of the Burundi peace process, was
encouraged by the "spirit of cooperation prevailing between the two
parties", and that he was confident that the issues discussed would be
finalised "soon" to further advance the implementation process.

The discussions on Tuesday and Wednesday were on proposals made by the
transitional government and the rebel faction on power-sharing and
transformation of the Burundi army. The government delegation was led by
the senior presidential adviser, Ambroise Niyonsaba, while that of the
CNDD-FDD was led by the group's secretary-general, Hussein Rajabu.

The Dar es Salaam talks were held days after a CNDD-FDD delegation ended a
five-day visit to Burundi. The delegation was the first to the country by
CNDD-FDD officials based in Dar es Salaam. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35820]

BURUNDI: Ethiopian peacekeepers delayed, violence continues

Ethiopian peacekeepers are still awaiting deployment to strife-ridden
Burundi, two months after they were supposed to arrive to help restore
order. The 1,297 strong peacekeeping force, which was due to arrive in
June, has been held up because of a lack of cash, officials within the
African Union (AU) told IRIN.

The AU estimates that the peacekeeping operation will cost US $186 million
a year, but admits that backing from the international community has been
poor. "So far we don't have much in the way of resources," one official
said. "Any delay in the mobilisation of resources could undermine the
peace process."

Officials at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa told IRIN they were now
hoping the peacekeepers would be in place by September - but this would be
dependent on finances. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35787]

Meanwhile, on Monday, a Burundian human rights NGO, Iteka, condemned
continued fighting, the recruitment - sometimes forcible - of fighters by
rebel groups, and widespread human rights violations in Burundi, including
rape, abductions and pillage.

"The most fundamental of human rights continue to be violated in the
country," Iteka said in a communique.

"Fighting between the army, on one side, and the Conseil national pour la
defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie of Pierre
Nkurunziza and the Forces nationales de liberation of Agathon Rwasa on the
other, has continued despite numerous appeals for a cessation of
hostilities," the NGO said. It added that the fighting had "resulted in
the deaths of civilians and perpetual displacement of people in many
places across the country". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35815; for the complete
communique, available only in French, go to www.ligue-iteka.bi]

RWANDA: Twagiramungu complains of harassment of his supporters

An opposition candidate for Rwanda's presidency, Faustin Twagiramungu, has
expressed concern over the 25 August poll being free and fair, saying that
supporters of incumbent President Paul Kagame were making his supporters
"fearful" of openly backing him.

He told reporters on Tuesday in the capital, Kigali, that local government
officials and Kagame's supporters were harassing his supporters and had
detained some of his agents who were on the campaign trail across the
country.

Twagiramungu, 58, is considered the strongest opponent to Kagame in the
country's first presidential poll after the 1994 genocide of 1994. Two
other candidates are also contesting the presidency.

Twagiramungu said he had received reports that the police had arrested
some of his agents "under the guise of fomenting ethnic divisions within
the population to win him votes".

"Ethnicity is being used as a shield to openly silence, intimidate and
harass my supporters," he said. "I don't mind RPF [Rwanda Patriotic Front]
supporters backing their candidate [Kagame], but let them stop harassing
my campaign agents."

Police spokesman Tony Kuramba told IRIN that Twagiramungu's claims were
unfounded, and that the police had only questioned some politicians
involved in talk or acts of fuelling ethnic divisions between the majority
Hutu and minority Tutsi communities. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35792]

Meanwhile, the Rwandan High Council of the Press ordered that all four
presidential candidates be given the same access to the media during the
official campaigning period that began on 1 August and would continue
until 24 August, a day before the elections, the Rwandan News Agency (RNA)
reported.

Citing a five-page document issued by the council, RNA said on 2 August
that "each candidate has a right to three minutes of news every day and
four minutes twice a week" on Radio Rwanda and Rwanda Television. All
candidates would also be entitled to five magazine broadcasts on Radio
Rwanda totalling four hours and 20 minutes, as well as four magazine
broadcasts totalling two hours on Rwanda Television during the campaigning
period.

Furthermore, two government newspapers, the Kinyarwanda-language, Imvaho
Nshya, and the French-language, La Nouvelle Releve, would offer free and
equal amounts of space to the four candidates. The presidential candidates
are Kagame, Twagiramungu, Alivera Mukabaramba and Nepomuscene Nayinzira.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35770]

RWANDA: Court sentences 11 to death for genocide

A court in Rwanda's southern province of Butare on 1 August sentenced 11
people to death and 73 others to life imprisonment in a mass trial
involving 142 people accused of involvement in the 1994 genocide.

The Court of First Instance found the convicts guilty of genocide and
crimes against humanity committed in April and June 1994. The court also
sentenced 21 people to between one and 25 years in prison and acquitted 37
others, who included women and a Roman Catholic archdeacon.

"I think it was a fair trial though I still expected better results,"
Innocent Neshimana, one of the defence lawyers, told reporters. "We plan
to appeal in the cases where the death penalty was handed down."

Gikonko District, where the sentences were passed, lost at least 50,000
ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the genocide. At least 100,000
genocide suspects are in Rwandan jails awaiting trial. The government
opted for large joint genocide trials in order to reduce the backlog of
pending cases. In 2002, the country introduced a traditional form of
jurisdiction, known as "Gacaca" to speed up the trials. Gacaca involves
trial of the suspects by communal courts. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35768]

RWANDA: Kigali calls for change in UN tribunal's mandate

The government of Rwanda has urged the UN Security Council to appoint a
separate prosecutor for the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
(ICTR) and to change the court's statutes to make it more efficient and
accountable, according to the foreign ministry.

In a statement on Thursday, the government urged the council to organise
"as soon as possible" a debate on the comprehensive review of the
performance, mandate and future of the tribunal, based in Arusha,
Tanzania.

It said the tribunal should be transformed into a "Sierra Leone type" of
international court or to allow the transfer of some of its cases to
special chambers of Rwanda's domestic courts.

"Considering that the completion strategy of the ICTR already envisages
the transfer of the bulk of the cases of the persons indicted by the ICTR
to Rwanda's domestic courts, the government of Rwanda calls upon the
members of the Security Council to consider, for example, whether the time
is not appropriate to alter the statute of the tribunal," the ministry
said.

The government said the transfer of the cases would speed up trials for
alleged perpetrators and masterminds of the 1994 genocide, and bring
international justice closer to the genocide victims. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35840]

RWANDA-UGANDA: Kampala to send back 25,600 Rwandans

The Ugandan prime minister's office has announced the government's
intention to repatriate 25,600 Rwandan refugees following an agreement
among Kampala, Kigali and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees, according to The New Vision.

State Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Christine Amongin
told Members of Parliament on Thursday that repatriation would begin on 1
November, the state owned newspaper reported on 1 August. The repatriation
agreement was signed last week, the daily added. It said there were some
26,000 Rwandans in refugee camps, mostly in western Uganda.

"Sources said Rwanda has the highest number of refugees in Uganda,
followed by Sudan with over 15,000," the newspaper reported. "Other
refugees in Uganda come from Congo, Somalia, Tanzania, Burundi, Ethiopia,
Eritrea and Kenya."

Meanwhile, thousands of Congolese refugees who have been living in a
temporary camp near Lake Albert, on the Uganda-DRC border, have begun to
relocate to an inland settlement in Uganda with the help of the Office of
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the agency reported on
Wednesday.

Initially, the refugees had refused to move to the UNHCR's Kyaka II
settlement following claims that there were poisonous snakes, man-eating
lions and blood-sucking insects in the area. UNHCR recently took a number
of the refugees to Kyaka II to verify for themselves the conditions of the
settlement.

"This is where there is food, shelter, a place to grow crops, schools,
health care, Alice Litunya, a UNHCR official, was quoted as saying. "We
want them to come here. Of course if things change in the DRC, we will
help them go home." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35836]

KENYA: Food crisis for refugees averted - WFP

The WFP says a food crisis in Kenya's refugee camps has been averted
"thanks to the donor community's generous and timely response".

In a statement on 2 August, it said contributions from the US, Japan,
Germany, Finland, Denmark and Italy had allowed WFP to restore the levels
of food aid being distributed to the refugees. Food rations had been
reduced due to a lack of funds during the first half of 2003.

In March, at the peak of the crisis, stocks to feed 220,000 refugees in
the Kakuma and Dadaab camps were so low that WFP was forced to cut food
rations to levels below the nutritional standard.

"For many refugee families - the majority of whom come from Sudan and
Somalia - WFP food is the only asset they have access to," the statement
said. "By law, refugees are not allowed to leave the camp and engage in
any income-generating activity. Hence, the almost total dependency of
refugees on WFP food aid."


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