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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 207
27 December 2003 - 02 January 2004


CONTENTS:

BURUNDI: Pope's ambassador dies following ambush
BURUNDI: Archbishop Simon Ntamwana will "not give in" to terror
BURUNDI: Some 160 former combatants repatriated
BURUNDI: Lack of medical facilities threatens new malaria treatment
DRC: Gov't, UNICEF introduce child demobilisation certificates
CAR: US drops CAR from trade pact
CAR: Transitional Council approves updated mining code
CAR: Paris to provide "necessary means" to secure electoral process
CAR: Soldier wounds four as crowd hails first lady
RWANDA: Government welcomes UN genocide commemoration
RWANDA: Lawyers call on government to harmonise Gacaca law with constitution
UGANDA: Museveni quits army to concentrate on politics

BURUNDI: Pope's ambassador dies following ambush
 
Monsignor Michael Courtney, the Apostolic Nuncio in Burundi, died on
Monday during surgery at Prince Louis Rwagasore Hospital in the capital,
Bujumbura, to stem serious haemorrhaging following gunshot wounds
sustained during a road ambush, Misna, the Roman Catholic Church's
information service, has reported.

Misna said Courtney was wounded in Minago, 50 km south of Bujumbura, in
the southern province of Bururi, in circumstances that remained unclear.
Courtney was reportedly hit by three bullets - one to the head, one to the
shoulder and one to a limb - and never regained consciousness.

A priest travelling with Courtney reportedly sustained a minor injury,
while the driver and another passenger were unharmed. The bullets also hit
the wheels of the car, which subsequently made it to the capital with
difficulty, Misna said. Earlier on Monday, four people including a child
died in another ambush at Gihanga, about 15 km from Bujumbura, on the road
connecting the capital to the northwestern province of Cibitoke.

Speaking from the hospital on Monday evening, President Domitien Ndayizeye
blamed the killing of Courtney on the Agathon Rwasa-led faction of the
Forces nationales de liberation-Parti de liberation du peuple hutu
(FNL/Palipehutu), the only rebel group not to have signed up to the peace
process. "We should perhaps wait for the inquiry to determine the
responsibilities, but we all know that Minago and Bujumbura Rural are an
FNL/Palipehutu stronghold," Ndayizeye said. The rebels have denied
responsibility. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38644]


BURUNDI: Archbishop Simon Ntamwana will "not give in" to terror

The secretary-general of the Bishops' Conference of Burundi, Archbishop
Gabriel Baregensabe, said on Friday that the Catholic Church would "be
careful", but would not give in to terrorism. Baregensabe was speaking in
response to a threat by a rebel faction to kill a prominent church leader,
Archbishop Simon Ntamwana, unless he left the country within 30 days. "We
cannot give in to terrorism," Baregensabe told IRIN.

On Wednesday, the FNL-Palipehutu faction led by Agathon Rwasa, the only
rebel faction not to have signed up to Burundi's peace process, threatened
to kill Ntamwana, because he had blamed it for the killing of Courtney.

The FNL-Palipehutu spokesman, Pasteur Habimana, told IRIN on Thursday the
group had nothing against the Catholic Church. "We are only against
Ntamwana as an individual for having accused us without any proof, instead
of waiting for the inquiry," he said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38686]


BURUNDI: Some 160 former combatants repatriated
 
Some 160 Burundian former combatants were repatriated from the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) on 28 December via the Gatumba transit site on
the Burundian side of the border, escorted from the eastern DRC town of
Bukavu by Uruguayan soldiers serving with the UN peacekeeping mission in
the DRC, known as MONUC.

The ex-combatants were handed over to Burundi's National Committee for the
Rehabilitation of War Victims. The 161 combatants, including six women who
were either combatants themselves or wives of combatants, served with the
Conseil National pour la Defense de la Democratie/Forces pour la defense
de la democratie (CNDD/FDD) factions of Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye and
Pierre Nkurunziza.

Timothy Reed, in charge of the Disarmament, Demobilisation and
Reintegration (DDR) programme at MONUC's Bukavu office, told reporters at
Gatumba that the repatriation operations would continue. "But we do not
know the exact number of Burundian combatants on Congolese soil," he said.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38630]


BURUNDI: Lack of medical facilities threatens new malaria treatment

The government on Friday said a new malaria therapy using a combination of
the drugs Artesunate and Amodiaquine was "satisfying", but warned that a
lack of medical facilities could compromise its application.

The chairman of the government's technical follow-up committee, Donatien
Bigirimana, said the committee had visited a number of health centres to
check how the therapy, which was launched in Burundi on 10 November, was
being administered. "The medical staff trained to administer the therapy
is doing it perfectly, but there continue to be a number of problems," he
told IRIN. "In many health centres, laboratories are not functioning, so
the medical staff cannot establish the biological diagnosis accurately,"
he said.

In the absence of laboratory testing, Bigirimana said, medical staff were
looking only at the symptoms before administering the treatment, and many
people showing symptoms of malaria ended up taking the drugs, whatever
they were suffering from. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38688]


DRC: Gov't, UNICEF introduce child demobilisation certificates

The government of the DRC, with the help of the UN Children's Fund,
UNICEF, has introduced official demobilisation certificates for child
soldiers, UNICEF said on 26 December. A communique from UNICEF said
certificates were given to the local authorities in Kindu, Maniema
Province, on 23 December, at a meeting attended by representatives of the
Technical Committee for Planning and Coordination - DDR, (which comprises
government officials and UN agencies), and the governor of Maniema, Faray
Selenge.

UNICEF said Selenge promised to present the certificates to children who
were to be reunified with their families before the end of the year.

The event marked the "first step" towards the official adoption of
demobilisation certificates, which would "guarantee children security
against re-enrolment" once they had left armed groups, UNICEF said. The
certificate states that the bearer has the right to be protected according
to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to Article 184 of the
constitution of the transitional government, which says that no one under
the age of 18 can be recruited by the armed forces. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38642]


CAR: US drops CAR from trade pact
 
The US has dropped the Central African Republic (CAR) from its list of
countries eligible for tariff preferences under the African Growth and
Opportunity Act, the White House said on Tuesday. A proclamation issued by
President George W. Bush deleted the CAR, along with Eritrea, from the
list of eligible nations, because the CAR was "not making continual
progress in meeting the requirements" for trade preferences.

AGOA was signed into law on 18 May 2000 and was designed by the US to
offer incentives to African nations to open up their economies. The law
liberalised access to the US market by expanding duty-free benefits to
products including apparel, footwear and certain agricultural goods.

According to the Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa, CAR exports to the
US up to 2002 consisted mostly of minerals and metals, but the country
ranked among the bottom few sub-Saharan exporters. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38682]


CAR: Transitional Council approves updated mining code

The National Transitional Council, the law-advisory body in the CAR, has
adopted an updated mining code to replace the one written during the
colonial era and which had proved obsolete with regard to smuggling and
anti-corruption efforts, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on 26
December.

The new mining code was influenced by the August 2003 national conference
on mining and by the September-October national reconciliation forum, both
of which called for the revival of the mining sector by establishment of
mining brigades in zones rich in precious stones and by better regulation
through the issuance of mining licences. The two conferences also called
for strategies to encourage the mining of stones other than diamonds. The
CAR is believed to have huge deposits of such materials as gold, uranium
and oil, among others, but none of these is exploited to a significant
degree.

Soon after he overthrew Ange-Felix Patasse on 15 March, former army chief
of staff Francois Bozize suspended all mining activities in the country
and ordered audits to unmask corrupt firms. Many of them, including
Patasse's Colombe Mines, were closed and their licences withdrawn. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38631]


CAR: Paris to provide "necessary means" to secure electoral process

The French government will support security efforts to ensure the success
of the electoral process scheduled to close the transition period in the
CAR in early 2005, French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on
Tuesday in the capital, Bangui. "We will provide all necessary means for
that [security of the electoral process], and support the CAR forces in
accordance with the CAR authorities' will," Alliot-Marie told a news
conference after meeting the CAR leader, Francois Bozize.

Alliot-Marie was on a one-day visit to Bangui to see French troops who
have been stationed in the CAR since March 2003, and the 380 peacekeepers
of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States, which is
supported by France.

Alliot-Marie, who left Bangui for Cote d'Ivoire via Mali, said France was
training and equipping the CAR army so that it could secure the country
after a decade of strife. She said the forthcoming elections should take
place "in total serenity and a totally democratic atmosphere".  [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38662]


CAR: Soldier wounds four as crowd hails first lady

Four people were wounded by gunfire on Thursday when a soldier
"inadvertently" shot into a crowd hailing Monique Bozize, the wife of the
CAR leader Francois Bozize, in a suburb of Bangui, state-owned Television
Centrafricaine reported.

According to a statement signed by Communications Minister Parfait Mbay, a
presidential guard inadvertently fired into people gathered to see the
first lady who was visiting a maternity hospital in Boy Rabe suburb. "It
is in no case an attack against Mrs Bozize," Mbay said, adding that the
soldier had been arrested and an investigation begun. A witness in Boy
Rabe told IRIN one of the injured "would not survive, as a bullet hit him
in the head".

The incident took place hours after Bozize said in an address to the
nation that 2004 would be a year of "security rebirth". He said 2004 would
be decisive for the future of the CAR, especially for the transitional
process that is meant to lead to democratic rule in early 2005.

 
RWANDA: Government welcomes UN genocide commemoration

The Rwandan government on Tuesday praised the efforts of the African Union
(AU) in promoting the adoption by the UN General Assembly of a resolution
designating 7 April 2004 as International Day of Reflection on the 1994
genocide in Rwanda, Rwandan Radio reported.

The text, which was adopted by the Assembly on 23 December, was tabled by
Mozambique in its capacity as chair of the AU, the radio said. The date of
the commemoration marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the genocide,
in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by extremist
Hutus over a three-month period.

The Assembly, noting that many of the perpetrators continued to elude
justice, expressed its conviction that exposing and holding them and their
accomplices accountable, as well as restoring the dignity of the victims,
would "guide societies in the prevention of further such violations".  
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38664]


RWANDA: Lawyers call on government to harmonise Gacaca law with
constitution

Rwandan lawyers have called on the government to harmonise the law
governing Gacaca courts with the recently adopted constitution, the Rwanda
News Agency (RNA) reported on Tuesday. RNA quoted the chairman of the
National Bar Association, Jean Haguma, as saying "it is the constitution
that overrules other laws. Relevant authorities should therefore consider
changing the law of Gacaca".

Gacaca courts are based on a traditional method of conflict resolution in
Rwanda, in which the community elects "people of integrity" from the
community to decide the punishment. The law on Gacaca courts was adopted
in March 2001 as a way of bringing justice more quickly to survivors of
the 1994 genocide.

According to RNA, the lawyers are protesting the fact that they will not
be able to render their services during forthcoming Gacaca proceedings.
RNA said lawyers had described as "controversial" a Gacaca law provision
sidelining lawyers during the Gacaca trials. "The constitution is very
clear, we [lawyers] should not be excluded from anything that involves
defence and prosecution parties," RNA reported Haguma as saying.


UGANDA: Museveni quits army to concentrate on politics

President Yoweri Museveni's decision to resign from his military rank of
lieutenant-general in order to concentrate on party politics will have
little effect on the ongoing effort to root out the rebel Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA) from northern Uganda, according to an opposition MP.
The Ugandan media on Wednesday reported that the high command of the
Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) had cleared Museveni to quit the
army, following an application he made in October seeking permission to
retire.

In it, he cited the need to concentrate on running his newly registered
political party, the National Resistance Movement Organisation, Uganda's
independent daily, The Monitor, reported. "I have requested the army High
Command to allow me to concentrate on making the foundation of our
Movement party and, good enough, they have allowed me," the paper quoted
Museveni as saying.

Cecilia Ogwal, the opposition MP for Lira, one of the areas worst affected
by the LRA insurgency, told IRIN that Museveni's retirement from the army
was unlikely to change the current military focus on the rebels, because
constitutionally he was still the UPDF "commander-in-chief". Rather, she
said, the move confirmed Museveni's plan to remain in power even after the
lapse of his second and final term in 2006. "The president's retirement
was predicted," Ogwal said. "It is a clear manifestation of the fact that
he is still interested to continue in active politics." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38684]


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004


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