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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 208
3 - 9 January 2004


CONTENTS:

AFRICA: Hopes for peace in Africa gaining ground, says AU chairman
DRC: ECHO to increase aid to €40 million due to improved conditions
DRC: Judges suspend their two-month strike
DRC: Nine reporters get prison sentences for defamation
DRC-RWANDA: Refugees, ex-combatants return from DRC
DRC-UGANDA: MONUC's intermediary role hailed
UGANDA: Nile explorers set to highlight challenges facing communities
BURUNDI: Ex-rebel movement in plea over landmine use
BURUNDI: Ndayizeye appoints members of joint military command
BURUNDI: Vaccination campaign targets 275,000 babies
BURUNDI: Oxfam-GB pulls out
CAR: Annan "gravely concerned" about rampant insecurity
CAR: Aid for disarmed civilians following vocational training
ALSO SEE:

DRC: Interview with Foreign Minister Antoine Ghonda Mangalibi at: 
  http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38807
DRC: Chronology 2003 at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38718
ROC: Chronology 2003 at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38708
RWANDA: The state of demobilisation, reintegration of ex-combatants at: 
  http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38797
BURUNDI: Chronology 2003 at: 
  http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38776
CAR: Chronology 2003 at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38806
TANZANIA: Chronology 2003 at: 
  http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38809 


AFRICA: Hopes for peace in Africa gaining ground, says AU chairman

Glimmers of hope are appearing on Africa's horizon as peace replaces
conflict on the war-ravaged continent, the chairman of the African Union
(AU), Alpha Oumar Konare, said on 2 January.  He said "compromise, mutual
concessions and relinquishment" would further lay the foundations of
peace, which were vital for development in Africa.

In a speech marking the New Year, Konare said peace deals were being
struck around the continent, citing Angola and Rwanda as examples.
Moreover, a final end to the 20-year civil war in Sudan was in sight and
also offered hope.

"Although faint, the present glimmers of hope are quite significant, and
we have to keep them alive. The most protracted conflicts in the continent
are quietening down," added Konare, who was president of Mali for 10 years
until 2002.

However, he also said that many hurdles lay ahead, including those of
resolving the crises in Somalia, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC). "Unfortunately, there are still some areas of concern,"
he said in his speech, delivered from AU headquarters in Addis Ababa,
capital of Ethiopia. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38709]


DRC: ECHO to increase aid to €40 million due to improved conditions

The EC's Humanitarian Office (ECHO) will increase its aid to the DRC in
2004 by €5 million (US $6.3 million) over 2003 to €40 million "as recent
improvements in the security situation allow aid agencies to gain access
to more people in need", ECHO announced on Monday.

ECHO said recent progress on both the political and military fronts
presented "a unique window of opportunity for the pacification of the
Great Lakes Region", and that its adoption of the €40 million plan for
2004 demonstrated its "sustained commitment to the vulnerable people of
DRC during this delicate transition process".

ECHO said an approach linking relief rehabilitation and development was
"of utmost importance", with funds to be used not only to alleviate the
immediate suffering of vulnerable populations but also to stimulate a
resumption of economic and social life.  Key domains of ECHO's
intervention will include the health sector, food aid, nutrition and
support for rehabilitation and resettlement activities to assist returning
populations and pave the way for sustainable recovery. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38739]


DRC: Judges suspend their two-month strike

Judges across the DRC suspended on Monday a strike they had begun at the
end of October, demanding better pay and working conditions, as well as
greater independence of action.

According to Sambay Mutenda Lukusa, the president of the Gombe Court of
Appeals and president of the judges' union that called the strike, said
its suspension would enable the parliament and government "to negotiate
seriously and undisturbed with the third power that is the judiciary".

Sambay said, "We have returned to work, because we were satisfied that the
other powers were beginning to take the issue of judicial independence
seriously."

The 1,700 judges who had been on strike have resumed their duties without
any resolution of their demands for higher salaries; an issue they said
was closely linked to independence of the judiciary.

"The financial question was part of our larger concern of ensuring an
independent judiciary," Sambay said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38744]


DRC: Nine reporters get prison sentences for defamation

Nine reporters of the DRC's state broadcaster, Radio-television nationale
congolaise (RNTC), have been sentenced to one year in prison, without
parole, for defamation, a local journalist organisation reported on
Wednesday.

In a statement, Journaliste en danger (JED) reported that a Kinshasa/Gombe
court sentenced the reporters on Monday for defamation and "slanderous
denunciations" against a former communications and press minister, Kikaya
bin Karubi.

The court also ordered the reporters, who were not in court during the
sentencing, to pay Kikaya US $2,500 each in damages and interest. JED
reported that the judgement followed a suit filed by Kikaya in March 2003,
accusing the reporters of having defamed him in a letter they wrote to DRC
President Joseph Kabila after a stormy meeting of RTNC employees in
February that year.

According to JED, the reporters and other RTNC employees called for
Kikaya's resignation during a general meeting in February 2003, and the
reinstatement of suspended RTNC Director Luboya Mvidie. A cameraman was
suspended soon after the meeting for filming and airing images of angry
RTNC employees at the meeting. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38803]


DRC-RWANDA: Refugees, ex-combatants return from DRC

A total of 1,455 refugees, including former Hutu combatants, returned to
Rwanda from the DRC in November and December 2003, the official UN Mission
in the DRC, known as MONUC, told IRIN on Monday.

The MONUC Disarmament, Demobilisation, Rehabilitation, Reinsertion and
Reintegration officer in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, Chimene Mandakovic,
said some 207 refugees, among them 155 former combatants, had returned to
Rwanda between 17 November and 31 December.

The highest number had been registered from 17 to 31 November 2003, with a
total of 1,183 refugees returning home, Mandakovic said.

Most of the returnees fled Rwanda at the height of the 1994 genocide and
have mainly been living in the war-ravaged provinces of North and South
Kivu in eastern DRC. Mandakovic attributed the increase in the numbers of
returnees to an improved political and security situation in eastern DRC,
and to the return in November of the Hutu rebel commander, Paul
Rwarakabije. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38712]


DRC-UGANDA: MONUC's intermediary role hailed

Ugandan authorities have praised the UN's intermediary efforts in
persuading Ugandan rebels operating inside neighbouring DRC to go home
under a government amnesty.

The Ugandan army spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza, said on Tuesday that the
UN Security Council’s decision in 2003 to upgrade MONUC's role to include
peace enforcement had empowered the UN mission to engage, effectively,
rebel groups seeking to destabilise Uganda. He was reacting to reports
stating that MONUC was involved in talks with the Uganda Amnesty
Commission (UAC) on the possible repatriation of 600 former fighters of
the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group which has been operating in
western Uganda from bases in eastern DRC.

Ganyana Miiro, a commissioner with the Kampala-based UAC, told IRIN on
Tuesday that plans were well advanced for the return of the former
fighters who, on arrival in Uganda, would undergo rehabilitation and be
given resettlement packages.

"The MONUC people have informed us that our message has been received
well, and maybe the whole group will come. They will have to be airlifted
in batches. We are ready," he said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38748]


UGANDA: Nile explorers set to highlight challenges facing communities

A team of explorers is set to navigate the White Nile from its source in
Jinja, Uganda, to the Mediterranean to highlight the challenges facing
communities living along the river and to promote peace and goodwill in
Uganda, Sudan and Egypt, which are linked by the waterway, according to a
relief organisation that is supporting the venture.

CARE International said this week it had teamed up with an expedition of
explorers from South Africa, New Zealand and Britain, who will navigate
the 6,690-km length of the river for the first time in history.

The expedition, sponsored by private companies and humanitarian agencies,
is expected to depart from the source of the Nile in Jinja on 17 January,
on a journey that will take it through some of the harshest and remotest
terrain.

"At any point between Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean, the banks of
the river have an abundance of historical sites, [and sites rich in]
cultural heritage and natural beauty, mixed with astonishing stories of
war, famine and drought," CARE reported. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38792]


BURUNDI: Ex-rebel movement in plea over landmine use

The former rebel movement Conseil national pour la defense de la
democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) appealed on
Monday to the Burundian army and the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL)
rebel faction led by Agathon Rwasa to stop using landmines.

"Mines constitute a danger to the life of the civilian population. Reports
indicate that four people are killed by mines every month in the southern
province of Makamba," Hussein Radjabu, the CNDD-FDD secretary-general,
told a news conference in the capital, Bujumbura.

He added that most of the victims were refugees coming home from
neighbouring Tanzania.

"We take this opportunity to announce that our movement is going to
destroy all its stock of mines and clear those we had laid in different
areas," he said. "We want the army and the FNL, who are still fighting, to
do the same. In particular, we ask the government of Burundi to respect
the Ottawa Treaty prohibiting mines, which it ratified on 22 October
2003." [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38734]


BURUNDI: Ndayizeye appoints members of joint military command

President Domitien Ndayizeye signed on Tuesday a decree appointing 33
members of the Joint Military High Command, 20 from the army and 13 from
the former rebel movement CNDD-FDD led by Pierre Nkurunziza.

Although the CNDD-FDD faction led by Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye and the
Forces nationales de liberation faction of Alain Mugabarabona have signed
ceasefire accords with the transitional government, they are not included
in the joint command.

Ndayizeye also signed another decree on Tuesday, outlining the mandate of
the joint command. The command is expected to propose to the government
the size and structure of the new National Defence Forces. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38783]


BURUNDI: Vaccination campaign targets 275,000 babies

The Ministry of Health launched on Thursday a vaccination campaign against
hepatitis B and meningitis, targeting a total of 275,662 babies aged up to
11 months.

"The objective is to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with
chronic infections of the hepatitis B virus, including cirrhosis and other
complicated diseases such as meningitis related to haemophilic influenza
type B," Dr Jean Kamana, the minister of health, said when he launched the
free-of-charge campaign in, Bujumbura.

He said the babies would be injected with new vaccines - a combined
tetravalent DTC-Hib liquid for meningitis - from February. Each child
would receive three doses per injection, he added.

Kamana said the vaccination would be administered in stages: The first
injection at six weeks after birth, the second at 10 weeks and the third
at 14 weeks. "At the end of 2004, we want to reach the figure of 275,000
babies who will have been vaccinated against hepatitis B and meningitis,"
he said. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38810]


BURUNDI: Oxfam-GB pulls out

Oxfam-GB (Great Britain) has decided to close its country office and
operational programme in Burundi with effect from January 2004, the
international relief and development NGO informed IRIN on 2 January.

"Oxfam-GB is withdrawing from Burundi because at the present time we are
not able to operate effectively in the country. The insecure environment
has made it very difficult to secure appropriately experienced and
qualified staff to manage the programme," the agency reported. "In spite
of every effort, it has not been possible to overcome this. This has
affected our ability to manage an effective programme in the country that
benefits the poor people of Burundi."

However, Oxfam-GB said that two Oxfam International affiliates - NOVIB
(Oxfam Netherlands) and Oxfam Quebec - would continue to work in Burundi
in support of projects and partners. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38719]


CAR: Annan "gravely concerned" about rampant insecurity

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says he is "gravely concerned" by the
re-emergence of rapes, hold-ups, and violations of the right to life being
perpetrated in the hinterland of the Central African Republic (CAR) and in
its capital, Bangui, and is appealing to the international community to
lend its support to efforts to restore security.

In his latest report, covering the period from July to December 2003,
Annan called on the international community for a "gracious response" to
the UN's consolidated annual appeal for both humanitarian and electoral
assistance to the CAR.

"If this concern is not taken into account, the Central African Republic
will return to a situation of instability, with incalculable consequences
for its people and the entire subregion, where peace remains fragile," he
said.

Annan said gaining control of the security situation remained an essential
prerequisite for the normal functioning of the state and the holding of
elections. It was therefore "essential that deployment of the defence and
security forces be supplemented by a strengthened CEMAC [Central African
Economic and Monetary Community] multinational force, both in terms of
equipment and troops, so that it can operate in the interior of the
country while also helping to restore security to Bangui". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38777]


CAR: Aid for disarmed civilians following vocational training The
UN-supported National Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reinsertion
Programme in the CAR has begun its distribution of work tools to 220
civilians who voluntarily surrendered firearms and had undergone four
months of vocational training in the capital, Bangui, an official told
IRIN on Friday.

Each trainee received tools worth US $500 in the distribution that started
on Monday, the director of the disarmament programme, said.

He said the disarmed civilians underwent training in automobile mechanics,
electricity and carpentry, among other trades.

"At the end of training in late December [2003], the trainees also
underwent courses in management, project design, marketing, accountancy,
cost estimation and business planning," Harouna said.

[Full story at http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=38828]


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


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