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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 220
27 March - 2 April 2004


CONTENTS:

DRC: Government united and in control, minister says
DRC: Annan expresses concern over rising factionalism
DRC: MSF calls for national protocol on sexual violence
DRC: Jailed journalist freed
RWANDA: Bizimungu trial begins
RWANDA: First private radio since genocide launched
RWANDA: EU to grant €8 million for renovation of parliament
RWANDA-UGANDA: 1,000 refugees return from Uganda
UGANDA: Mixed reactions to Barlonyo service
UGANDA: Army rejects reported rebel offer for talks
UGANDA: HRW says government violating rights of the opposition
BURUNDI: AU urges UN to deploy troops
BURUNDI: Parties agree to scrap ethnic political groupings
TANZANIA: Opinion differs over cause of Zanzibar bombings
TANZANIA: Human rights body decries massive corruption


ALSO SEE:

UGANDA: Interview with US Ambassador Jimmy Kolker at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40259

BURUNDI: Focus on displaced pygmies at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40311


DRC: Government united and in control, minister says
 
Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba said on Monday the government remained
united and in complete control despite attacks by assailants on several
military and civilian installations in the capital, Kinshasa.

"The cohesion of the government has not been affected, as you can see we
continue to work together," he said.

He was speaking in Kinshasa as loyal army officers paraded 17 captured
attackers before reporters. Diplomats in Kinshasa said the attackers were
most likely remnants of the defunct Zairean Armed Forces, once loyal to
the late President Mobutu Sese Seko.

Government spokesman Vital Kamerhe said the group attacked several
military and civilian installations, among them Camp Tshatshi, where
Kabila's office is situated; the government conference room, the military
logistics base of Kokolo; the Ndolo Air Base; and the Naval base along the
River Congo. Loyal troops repulsed the attackers, killing one assailant
and wounding two. On Monday, the entire cabinet met after President Joseph
Kabila made a nationwide broadcast during which he described the attackers
as terrorists and called on residents to go about their normal activities.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40296 ]


DRC: Annan expresses concern over rising factionalism

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said increasing factionalism in the
transitional government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is
disquieting and that continuing reports of militia atrocities against
civilians is a matter of concern, UN News reported on Tuesday.

"I remain deeply concerned about continuing reports of massacres and other
atrocities committed against civilians, including reports of horrendous
widespread sexual violence being used as a weapon of intimidation and
war," he said.

UN News reported that Annan had decried the slow pace of normalisation of
relations between the DRC and its neighbours. It also quoted Annan as
condemning the fatal shooting on Monday of South African peacekeeper
Mothapo Seakalala, in the eastern town of Bukavu, as an attempt to deter
the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, from fulfilling its mandate.

Annan's report said that eight months after the establishment of a
transitional government, "the most crucial issue concerns the ability of
the transitional leaders to act as a truly unified government and to
overcome the persistent atmosphere of distrust". The government's first
priority should be to pass legislation governing security sector reform,
extension of the state administration, elections, disarmament,
demobilisation and reintegration, especially of the Mayi-Mayi militia into
the national army, Annan said in the report. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40338 ]


DRC: MSF calls for national protocol on sexual violence
 
A national protocol on sexual violence in the DRC is needed to end rapes
that are going on despite the end of the civil war, Medecins Sans
Frontieres (MSF) said on Thursday in a new report.

"The impunity of the perpetrators of sexual violence is unacceptable, and
to a large extent is the reason why sexual violence continues today in the
DRC," Maria Jose Mora, the MSF representative in the DRC, said in a
statement issued to coincide with the launch of the report.

The MSF report, entitled "I have no joy, no peace of mind", was launched
simultaneously in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in the DRC capital,
Kinshasa, and in Amsterdam, to highlight the medical, psychosocial and
socioeconomic consequences of sexual violence in the DRC and the use of
rape as a weapon of war.

MSF urged the integration of medical treatment for victims in the
reconstruction of health services in the DRC, and recommended that
political authorities should ensure laws related to rape were implemented
so that perpetrators were brought to justice. The DRC authorities should
make sexual violence a key element in the improvement of the justice
system in the country and in the reconciliation processes that are
planned, MSF said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40363 ]


DRC: Jailed journalist freed

The publications director of the satirical Kinshasa biweekly Pili-Pili,
Jean-Denis Lompoto, has been released from prison in the DRC after posting
a US $100-bail bond, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists
reported on Monday. "We welcome Lompoto's release," Anne Cooper, the
committee's executive director, said.

Lompoto was released on 27 March. He had been detained on 19 March for
defaming Mines Minister Eugene Diomi Ndongala by publishing a report on
corruption allegations levelled against him. The paper's editor, Prosper
Dawe, and reporter Angwalima. Others were similarly charged.

Cooper said criminal prosecution of journalists continued to be a serious
problem in the country and urged the government to remove criminal
penalties for media offences.


RWANDA: Bizimungu trial begins

Former President Pasteur Bizimungu appeared before the Court of First
Instance on Thursday at the beginning of his trial, nearly one and a half
years since his arrest on treason-related charges.

Bizimungu and his co-defendant, former Public Works Minister Charles
Ntakirutinka, denied the charges of threatening national security by
inciting civil disobedience, attempting to form a militia group and being
in illegal possession of firearms.

However, the trial was postponed to 20 April because the presiding judge
was absent. Previous attempts to start the trial failed when Bizimungu
filed two appeals in the Supreme Court: one seeking bail and the other
seeking the dismissal of the case.

Attorney-General Emmanuel Rukangira said Bizimungu also faced the charge
of diverting to his local bank account some US $100,000 given to the
Rwandan government by the Organisation of African Unity, now known as the
African Union. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40370 ]

 
RWANDA: First private radio since genocide launched

The first privately owned radio station since the 1994 Rwandan genocide
was launched on Thursday in the capital, Kigali, the Rwanda News Agency
(RNA) reported.

"This radio has come at the right time when the Rwandan community really
needed another radio station," Laurent Nkusi, the information minister,
was quoted as saying when he presided over the launch of Radio 10.

He said there was a need to build media in Rwanda that would be viewed as
a pillar to development.

The proprietor of Radio 10, Eugene Nyagahene, called upon the Rwandan
business community to support radio stations as part of boosting the
economy through advertising. He added that Radio 10 would not air any
political views or programmes, citing lack of experienced journalists to
handle such programmes.

Nkusi said five more radio stations had been granted broadcasting licenses
since the government decision to liberalise the airwaves, RNA reported.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40269 ]


RWANDA: EU to grant €8 million for renovation of parliament
 
The EU has signed an agreement with Rwanda for a €8-million (US $9.7
million) grant for the renovation of the parliamentary complex and for a
new building for the Ministry of Justice and Supreme Court, the EU
Ambassador to Rwanda told IRIN on Monday.

The agreement was signed on 26 March in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. EU
Ambassador Jeremy Lester said that the grant would be disbursed as soon as
the tendering process for construction was completed.

"The five buildings of the parliamentary complex will be rehabilitated to
offer a modern, equipped framework for work," he said.

He added that work on the parliament was expected to begin within three
months. When complete, the building will house the Senate and the Chamber
of Deputies.

The parliamentary building, which was severely bombarded during the 1994
Rwandan genocide, will consume €5 million while the remainder will go to
the Ministry of Justice and Supreme Court buildings. The EU also signed an
agreement with the Kigali City Council for money to repair 12 km of roads
in the city. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40308 ]


RWANDA-UGANDA: 1,000 refugees return from Uganda

At least 1,000 Rwandan refugees have gone home from Uganda since January,
in a repatriation programme organised by the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the agency reported on Monday.

Some 228 of the returnees left Nakivale Camp in the southwestern district
of Mbarara in Uganda on Monday, aboard five UNHCR trucks. "The returnees
were visibly happy to be back," UNHCR reported. "Many had not seen their
home country in at least 10 years, while their children had been born in
the settlements and were setting foot in Rwanda for the first time."

The agency reported that two more convoys, of a similar size, from
Oruchinga and Kyaka II camps were scheduled to follow this week. Of the
3,000 refugees who have registered for the UNHCR return programme, the
agency expects that more than half will have returned home by the end of
this week. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40309 ]


UGANDA: Mixed reactions to Barlonyo service

A marble monument to the victims of the 21 February killings in the
Barlonyo camp for internally displaced persons by Lord's Resistance Army
(LRA) rebels was on 27 March unveiled alongside a mass grave where 121 of
the victims were buried.

President Yoweri Museveni, who presided over the state funeral service,
told a crowd of about 400 local people and officials in Barlonyo, near the
northern town of Lira: "I want to take this opportunity to refute lies to
the effect that the government has neglected the north. This is not true."

Relatives of the victims, however, criticised the government. "How can
they ever expect us to believe them when so many people have died?" said
Helen Apieu, 30, who lost four relatives in the Barlonyo attacks. "This is
just government talking."

Some local religious and cultural leaders boycotted the service, rejecting
it as a publicity stunt. "For me, this is just a political game," Sebhat
Ayele, a prominent Roman Catholic priest in Lira, told IRIN. "We in Lang'o
don’t care about this politicking. Why all the big fuss now? They should
instead be learning from their mistakes and actually protecting people."
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40291 ]


UGANDA: Army rejects reported rebel offer for talks

The Ugandan army has rebuffed a move by Joseph Kony, the LRA leader,
suggesting that he wants to open the way for peace talks towards ending
the country's 18-year-long war.

The army said the offer was insincere. Kony is alleged by the army to have
ordered his spokesman, Sam Kolo, to seek contact with the government for
talks to end the conflict that has devastated northern and parts of
eastern Uganda, displacing nearly 1.5 million people.

"We are rejecting his offer," Maj Shaban Bantariza, the army spokesman,
told IRIN on Tuesday. "These are insincere efforts whose aim is to deceive
those who are weak-minded - to deceive those who do not know Kony's
history. He has come under intense pressure from our forces in Sudan, and
he wants to tell lies that he wants peace talks in order to get a
breathing space."

Bantariza told IRIN that Kony had also ordered his troops to stop
attacking camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) because "too many
of his men were being lost in the attacks and ensuing pursuits by the
army". [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40317 ]


UGANDA: HRW says government violating rights of the opposition

The government has admitted that torture and other human rights abuses
constitute a problem in the country’s security services, but said such
cases involved rogue individuals acting without state sanction.

"These are cases of high-handedness by individuals which are being wrongly
portrayed as if they were institutionalised," Ofwono Opondo, a National
Resistance Movement government spokesman, told IRIN on Tuesday.

He was responding to questions on a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report
accusing government security forces of systematically violating the rights
of political prisoners.

The HRW report, issued on 27 March, said the government was using its
security and "anti-terrorism" forces as a cloak for cracking down on and
intimidating political opponents.

"Uganda set up a shadow sector of security operations to contend with
armed rebel groups and crime waves," the report quoted Jemera Rone, a
Uganda researcher for the HRW, as saying. "But now the security system
serves to punish and deter political opposition by detaining and torturing
their supporters."

Opondo, however, said HRW had "based its findings on a mixture of press
cuttings and anecdotes from the alleged victims, but these allegations are
tainted with political motivations".

He added: "They don’t research properly. If they could give specific
people and names of places where they stayed, then check the prison
registry to ensure what they are being told concurs with records, this
would be better." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40346 ]


BURUNDI: AU urges UN to deploy troops

The African Union (AU) has renewed for another month the mandate of its
peacekeeping mission in Burundi, and appealed to the UN Security Council
to authorise the early deployment of UN troops to the country as proposed
by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the AU reported on 25 March.

It said it had renewed the mandate of its mission, known as AMIB, from 2
April to 2 May, on the understanding that the UN Security Council would
deploy peacekeepers before the end of this period.

In a statement issued after a meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis
Ababa, by its Peace and Security Council on the situation in Burundi, the
AU said considerable progress had been made in Burundi's search for peace
that a conducive environment had been created for the deployment of UN
troops. It announced that it had decided to send a mission of its Peace
and Security Council to Burundi, "to assess the situation on the ground".

On 22 March, the UN Security Council urged the AU to keep its troops in
Burundi while it considered a UN deployment. The Security Council made the
announcement after it deliberated on a proposal by Annan urging it to
approve the deployment of 5,600 peacekeepers. AMIB has 2,523 troops in
Burundi drawn from Ethiopia, Mozambique and South Africa. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40261 ]


BURUNDI: Parties agree to scrap ethnic political groupings
 
At a meeting to work out the modalities of a democratic general election,
Burundian politicians agreed to scrap ethnic political groupings, to
alternate power at the presidential level and to keep the Senate as an
institution in charge of ensuring ethnic balance, the Burundian news
agency, ABP, reported on Tuesday.

The politicians agreed on the three issues on Monday during the meeting
chaired by President Domitien Ndayizeye. The meeting continued on Tuesday
to examine the 2000 Arusha peace accord in order to improve some of its
provisions, ABP reported. Most parties and movements agreed that the G7
and G10 groupings should be scrapped because these "sacrificed Burundi on
the altar of tribalism", ABP reported. Some politicians proposed a
coalition to replace these groupings.

"All parties were in agreement that alternation between various tribes at
the helm would be reassuring for everyone," ABP reported.

Participants at the meeting included representatives of registered
political parties and armed movements that have signed ceasefire
agreements with the government. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40336 ]


TANZANIA: Opinion differs over cause of Zanzibar bombings
 
Following a turbulent month on the semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar,
there continued to be disagreement over who is behind a recent spate of
bombings and attacks and what their motives might be.

While the Tanzanian government said the violence was politically
motivated, the police maintained that they could not yet rule out extreme
religious groups that were potentially being supported and funded from
abroad.

However, the Civic United Front, the main opposition party, said it
believed that those responsible for the violence were people concerned
about the implementation of democratic systems of government on Zanzibar.

"I am really wondering whether those responsible don't want the successful
implementation of the Muafaka [agreement] and the establishment of a
permanent voters' register," Ibrahim Lipumba, the CUF chairman, told IRIN
on 26 March.

"These could be people within the system who have something to lose if
this progress continues," he said.


TANZANIA: Human rights body decries massive corruption

A Tanzanian human rights body has expressed concern over the high level of
corruption in the country, which, it said, was continuing unabated and was
curtailing people's human rights.

However, in its 2003 report, released on Tuesday, the Legal and Human
Rights Centre said some steps had been taken to tackle the vice, notably
in the strengthening of the Prevention of Corruption Bureau and the
prosecution of some government officials, but that this was merely
"scratching the surface".

"The government it still trying to do something, but it is still a massive
problem on the ground," Helen Kijo-Bisimba, the centre's executive
director said. "Just five percent of corruption cases reported to the
regional offices over the last five years have actually been sent to
court."

She added: "We have begun the dialogue, which is good. But people are
saying, 'Yes, it is a bad thing, but there is nothing we can do about it."

The government has so far declined to comment, saying that it has not yet
seen the report. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40371 ]


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


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