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

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 189
23 - 29 August 2003


CONTENTS:

DRC: Ituri militias agree to work with transitional government
DRC: EU-led force to bolster MONUC in Bunia handover
DRC: UN rapporteur on human rights begins 10-day mission
DRC: Parliament launched
RWANDA: Kagame wins 95 percent of presidential vote
BURUNDI: South African forces to remain despite funding shortfalls
BURUNDI: Power-sharing talks adjourned
BURUNDI: FAO increases aid to 125,000 people in Kayanza Province
CAR: Bangui closes border with DRC
CAR: Archbishop resigns as coordinator of national reconciliation, replacement appointed
CAR: Warrant out for former president's arrest
TANZANIA: World Bank approves US $70 million HIV/AIDS grant
TANZANIA: Government appeals for 45,000 mt of maize
TANZANIA: NGOs repeat call for NGO Act to be reviewed
UGANDA: Report urges changes in food aid policies in north

ALSO SEE:

DRC: IRIN interview with Ituri militia leader Thomas Lubanga at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36263

RWANDA: Focus on ethnicity in the presidential election campaign at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36138

DRC: Ituri militias agree to work with transitional government

Militias in the embattled Ituri District of northeastern Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) have agreed to work together with the newly
inaugurated transitional government in restoring state authority across
the region, Thomas Lubanga, the head of the Union des patriotes congolais,
told IRIN on Monday.

The agreement followed several days of talks held last week in the
capital, Kinshasa, between 29 representatives of numerous rival militias
and the new national government, aimed at including the armed groups in a
peace and reconciliation process from which they had complained of being
excluded.

In a memorandum of understanding signed at the end of the talks, the Ituri
militias pledged to end hostilities in the region and to bring an end to
"uncontrolled" groups that have continued to perpetrate massacres despite
the signing of several ceasefires.

"We decided to put past stumbling blocks behind us in favour of focusing
on ways in which we could participate in restoring peace in the region,"
Lubanga said, after a meeting with DRC President Joseph Kabila. "We met
with the president in an effort to work towards what is most important for
the Congolese people: the reunification of the country." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36173]

DRC: EU-led force to bolster MONUC in Bunia handover

The UN Security Council on Tuesday authorised the EU-led multinational
peace-enforcement mission in Bunia, the main town in Ituri District, to
provide assistance to the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, known as
MONUC, as the former withdraws and the latter is reinforced and deployed
in and around Bunia.

Under Resolution 1501, adopted unanimously by the 15-member council upon
the recommendation of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, this assistance is
intended to ensure a smooth transition as MONUC assumes the
responsibilities of the force, whose mandate ends on 1 September and whose
withdrawal is due to be completed by 15 September. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36219]

DRC: UN rapporteur on human rights begins 10-day mission

The UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the DRC,
Antoanella-Iulia Motoc, arrived in Kinshasa on Tuesday to begin a 10-day
mission that will also take him to the towns of Bunia and to Bukavu in the
east, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR)
told IRIN.

In Kinshasa, Motoc is scheduled to meet with members of the country's
newly installed two-year transitional government, including Kabila;
National Assembly President Olivier Kamitatu; Senate President Pierre
Marini Bodho; Foreign Minister Antoine Ghonda Mangalibi; Justice Minister
Kisimba Ngoy; and Human Rights Minister Madeleine Kalala.

UNHCHR added that the special rapporteur would also meet with UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative to the DRC, William
Swing, who also heads MONUC, as well as heads of UN agencies, the
diplomatic corps and civil society representatives. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36222]

DRC: Parliament launched

The National Assembly and Senate of the two-year transitional government
of the DRC were opened on 22 August in Kinshasa, presided over by Kabila
and his four vice-presidents.

"This meeting is very important, because it's the last stage of
installation for the transition in Congo," Olivier Kamitatu, the president
of the National Assembly and member of the Mouvement de liberation du
Congo former rebel group, told IRIN.

The National Assembly comprises 500 members from the numerous parties to
the inter-Congolese dialogue, namely the former Kinshasa government, the
unarmed political opposition, civil society and former rebel movements.
The Senate, headed by civil society leader Pierre Marini Bodho, comprises
120 members from the various parties to the national power-sharing accord.

"All members of parliament will have an important role to play in
consolidating the reunification and the pacification of Congo, and to
adopt more than 60 laws regarding the constitution - among them laws on
nationality, functioning and organisation of political parties, elections
law, and institutional management," Kamitatu said.

In his remarks, Marini said that there would no longer be impunity for the
massacres and murders the Congolese people had suffered during nearly five
years of war, while Kamitatu said that one of parliament's first
priorities would be to discuss a general amnesty. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36165]

RWANDA: Kagame wins 95 percent of presidential vote

Incumbent President Paul Kagame stormed to a landslide victory on Monday
in Rwanda's first multiparty presidential poll with 95.05 percent of the
votes, the National Electoral Commission announced.

"The electoral commission is pleased to announce Paul Kagame as the
winner," Chrysologue Karangwa, president of the commission, told reporters
on Tuesday.

The commission, which certified the final results, said runner-up Faustin
Twagiramungu received 3.62 percent of the votes and the third candidate,
Jean-Nepomuscene Nayinzira, secured 1.33 percent. Some 96.5 percent of the
country's 3.9 million registered voters took part in the election, the
first presidential poll since Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

Kagame, 45, ran on the ticket of the Rwandan Patriotic Front party. He
termed his win "a giant step" in the democratisation of the country and
added: "Our victory sends a message to the world that Rwanda is on the
right path."

However, Twagiramungu charged there was voter intimidation and vowed to
challenge the result at the Supreme Court. "Why should I applaud this
election when there was threatening, harassment and insulting of my
supporters during the campaign period," he said.

However, an election observer group made up of members of parliament from
Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and the Amani Forum,
endorsed the poll. Around 70 EU observers, as well as dozens from the
African Union and countries such as Canada, Norway and Switzerland, also
monitored the vote. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36214] [Also see
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36283]

BURUNDI: South African forces to remain despite funding shortfalls

South African troops participating in the African peacekeeping mission
will stay in Burundi despite funding shortfalls, the South African
National Defence Force chief, Gen Siphiwe Nyanda, told IRIN on Wednesday
at the end of a four-day inspection.

"We are aware of the difficulties the peacekeepers are faced with, but we
do not have an alternative, we will continue to do our job until all
combatants come to the cantonment areas," he said in Bujumbura, the
Burundi capital.

He added, "We are here to protect them in the cantonment areas, disarm
them, demobilise them by sending them back to their homes and helping them
to integrate into new security forces."

Of a 3,099-strong peacekeeping force that was supposed to have been
deployed in Burundi since June 2003, only 1,600 South Africans have
arrived. Although Mozambique agreed to provide 202 troops and Ethiopia
1,297 troops, their deployment has been delayed due to a lack of money.
However, Nyanda said he expected they would be arriving "in the coming
days". [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36227]

BURUNDI: Power-sharing talks adjourned

The first face-to-face talks between Burundian President Domitien
Ndayizeye and rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza ended on Thursday with all
parties expressing satisfaction with the progress made so far, according
to the office of South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

The talks, chaired by Zuma, were on power-sharing between the transitional
government and Nkurunziza's faction of the Conseil national pour le
defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie
(CNDD-FDD), the largest rebel movement in Burundi.

Discussions centred on elements of a ceasefire agreement both sides signed
in December 2002. Under the terms of that document, the CNDD-FDD is to
enter the government and take part in national institutions such as the
national assembly and in the security apparatus.

"The implementation talks were aimed at working out the areas of
participation and integration," Zuma's office said.

Zuma said he was confident that agreement would be reached soon, given the
frank and focused nature of the discussions that covered all the proposals
tabled by delegations, his office reported. The talks that began on
Tuesday were held at the KwaMaritane Game Reserve in Rustenburg, in South
Africa's North West Province.

"Outstanding issues are to be discussed further ahead of a regional
summit, whose date is to be advised by the Great Lakes regional
leadership," Zuma's office said.

BURUNDI: FAO increases aid to 125,000 people in Kayanza Province

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) announced on Monday
increased aid to thousands of vulnerable households in the northwestern
Burundi province of Kayanza.

FAO said it planned to distribute additional supplies of beans, maize and
vegetable seeds to a total of 25,000 households in the province, before
the 2004A cropping season begins in September/October 2003. These
households, representing some 125,000 people, will also receive farm
inputs such as hoes, shovels and watering cans.

"This increased aid to an additional 5,000 households will make Kayanza
Province the largest recipient of FAO inputs in the country," the agency
said.

FAO said that hunger in Kayanza was caused by increased political
instability since the beginning of 2003. In addition, it said, a shortage
of hard currency and the destabilisation of traditional import mechanisms
in Burundi had led to a scarcity of imported fertiliser. This, the FAO
added, had in turn exacerbated the food security situation country-wide.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36170]

Also on Monday, Fidele Niyonkuru, the administrator of Mpanda Commune in
the northwestern Bubanza Province, told IRIN that 21,860 war-displaced
people in his commune urgently needed humanitarian aid as they had been
without adequate food and shelter for two weeks. He said their
displacement had been caused by fighting between the army and rebel
groups, adding that that humanitarian organisations were yet to respond to
a request for aid by local authority officials.

An official at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,
Nathalia Kabirori, who is in charge of humanitarian affairs in the western
provinces of Bujumbura Rural, Bubanza and Cibitoke, told IRIN that the UN
agency was awaiting improvement in security before organising aid
distribution in Mpanda. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36174] [Also see
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36278]

CAR: Bangui closes border with DRC

The government of the Central African Republic (CAR) has closed its border
with the DRC, halting transportation of goods and people across the River
Oubangui, according to state-owned Radio Centrafrique. The Oubangui forms
the border between the two countries for at least 1,500 km.

Quoting an inter-ministerial decision signed on Thursday by Col Paulin
Bondeboli the minister of public security; Marcel Malonga of territorial
administration; Sonny Pokomandji of transport; and the secretary of state
for defence, Col Jules Wande, the radio said traffic had been suspended
across the river between the CAR capital, Bangui, and the northwestern
Congolese town of Zongo.

The radio did not give a reason for the border closure. However, it comes
days after another inter-ministerial decree prohibiting the importation,
sale and use of mobile phones supplied by a DRC-based telecommunication
operator. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36135]

CAR: Archbishop resigns as coordinator of national reconciliation,
replacement appointed

Archbishop Paulin Pomodimo, recently appointed by the Vatican to head the
archdiocese of Bangui, has resigned as coordinator of the CAR's national
political conference due to be held from 10 to 25 September, according to
Radio Centrafrique.

"I felt incapable of bearing on my shoulders both the coordination of the
national dialogue and [my duties as head of] the archdiocese of Bangui,"
he was quoted as saying.

His announcement followed a meeting on 22 August with the CAR head of
state, Francois Bozize. Pomodimo said he had handed his resignation to
Nicholas Tiangaye, Speaker of the National Transitional Council, the
country's law advisory body.

Pomodimo, 51, had been heading the dialogue coordination since November
2002, when former President Ange-Felix Patasse appointed him and Henri
Maidou to prepare for the talks, aiming at ending Bozize's rebellion.
After a six-month war that ravaged the north, Bozize overthrew Patasse on
15 March. Although he kept Pomodimo as the head of the national talks,
Bozize said there would be changes to the agenda. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36158]

Bozize on Tuesday appointed a new 11-member team to coordinate the
national conference, due to open in September and aimed to bring about
national reconciliation. Citing a presidential decree, Radio Centrafrique
reported that the Rev Isaac Zokoe, assisted by the Rev Josue Binoua, would
head the coordination team, thereby replacing Pomodimo and Maidou. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36221]

CAR: Warrant out for former president's arrest

Earlier, on Monday, Radio Centrafrique reported that Firmin Feindiro, the
Bangui state prosecutor of Bangui, had issued an international warrant for
the arrest of Patasse, now in exile in Togo.

Speaking during a news conference, Feindiro said the warrant had resulted
from the work of a joint judicial commission set up on 1 August to
investigate embezzlement and corruption under Patasse's administration.

The warrant for Patasse comes only days after his former minister of state
of communications, Gabriel Koyambounou, was arrested for his alleged
involvement in an embezzlement scandal. Koyambounou is also a
vice-chairman of Patasse's political party, the Mouvement de liberation du
peuple Centrafricain. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36192]

TANZANIA: World Bank approves US $70 million HIV/AIDS grant

The World Bank approved on Wednesday a US $70-million grant for Tanzania's
multisectoral HIV/AIDS project, which is aimed at reducing the spread of
the disease through working with government, nongovernmental and community
organisations and civil society.

The money is intended to support the country's National Programme for
HIV/AIDS and will sustain activities "in the priority areas of prevention
and the mitigation of the health and the socioeconomic impact of HIV/AIDS
at individual, household and community levels", the bank reported.

The sectors targeted for the project are social mobilisation and community
level response; public sector programmes in prevention, care and support;
support for the Tanzanian Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS); and the
implementation of similar programmes on Zanzibar.

"This is not the first large World Bank donation to Tanzania, but because
of its purpose, I think this is very timely," Judy O'Connor, the bank's
country director for Tanzania and Uganda, said on Wednesday. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36252]

TANZANIA: Government appeals for 45,000 mt of maize

The government of Tanzania has appealed for 45,000 mt of maize to meet
part of the 77,500-mt-food aid requirement identified during a recent
vulnerability assessment, FEWS NET reported on 22 August.

The assessment, conducted in June and July by government officials, UN
agencies and NGOs found that just fewer than two million people in 46
districts would be at risk of severe food shortages between October 2003
and March 2004.

To meet the remaining needs, Prime Minister Fredrick Sumaye announced that
his government planned to sell 32,000 mt from its strategic grain reserve
at highly subsidised prices in the areas of need. However, additional
donor aid would be required to cover the costs of transport.

Sumaye also asked donors to provide seed assistance amounting to 3,200 mt
in maize equivalent for use during the October/November 2003 planting
season. This aid, to be distributed to severely food insecure households,
would be necessary because these families had no reserve seed from this
year's harvests and could not afford to pay for commercial seed.
Furthermore, supplies from the domestic seed industry are far less than
normal because of poor rainfall. Sumaye added that donor assistance would
also be required in procuring and distributing about 40,000 mt of
fertiliser. [For the complete report, go to www.fews.net]

Subsequently, on Tuesday, the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) reported
that "a large number of people" were experiencing food shortages caused by
poor and erratic rainfall in the 2002-2003 season that had affected crop
production in most parts of the country. In a statement from an umbrella
organisation, Action by Churches Together (ACT) said the situation was
"estimated to be comparable with that of the 2000/2001 famine".

ACT is a Geneva-based worldwide network of churches and related agencies,
of which CCT is a member, providing humanitarian relief.

ACT reported that a June/July vulnerability assessment of some 52
food-insecure districts found that 320,026 households (1.94 million
persons) would experience high food insecurity from October 2003 to March
2004. It added that continuing drought would further diminish pastures and
water sources and consequently affect livestock production. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36216]

TANZANIA: NGOs repeat call for NGO Act to be reviewed

NGOs in Tanzania have reiterated their calls for the 2002 NGO Act to be
amended, saying that it is restrictive and allows for too much
governmental control.

Legal and human rights organisations followed suit, saying that while the
2001 NGO Policy reflected the government's recognition of NGOs as
partners, the 2002 Act does not create a favourable environment within
which these organisations can work.

"There are many gaps in the act and we are demanding that the government
makes these changes so NGOs can operate in a suitable environment," Nestor
Mabwe, a programme officer with the Tanzanian Association of NGOs, told
IRIN.

"The law controls them rather than lets them act democratically and the
result is that the people these organisations help will feel the impact of
these restrictions," he said.

He was speaking at the closing of the 2003 NGO Forum in the Tanzanian
commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. NGOs from across the country gathered
for the three-day forum last week to discuss the Act that was signed in
November 2002, as well as other issues. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36257]

UGANDA: Report urges changes in food aid policies in north

A report by Save the Children UK (SCUK) has called for more discussion
with camp elders on how food should be distributed in camps for internally
displaced people in northern Uganda.

In a 43-page report, it outlined areas where food distribution could be
improved, particularly in the long-term planning of food aid in the north
where a 16-year rebellion by the Lord's Resistance Army has displaced
hundreds of thousands of people.

"In particular, we are concerned about the one-size-fits-all approach that
seems to be used regardless of family size," Hussein Murson, a SCUK
spokesman, told IRIN.

He also said administrative problems were derailing the distribution
process. "On many occasions, we have been told by families in the camps
that they registered with their Christian names and then went to get food
under their family names and were refused because the names didn't match,"
he said.

The report raises the issue of the extremely poor within the camps, who
have nothing to offer in exchange for having their food milled, prepared
or cooked.

"The poorest people in this camp are having to sell their food at
extortionate prices to get it milled or for a bit of cooking oil. This
issue of relative poverty amongst those on less than a dollar a day needs
to be addressed," Murson said. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36241]


[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to
change your keywords, contact e-mail: Irin@ocha.unon.org or Web:  
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

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


distributed by
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International                  web: www.cidi.org
    Disaster Information             listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Central/East Africa             www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/ceafrica