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

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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 227
15 - 21 May 2004


CONTENTS:

BURUNDI: Thousands more displaced in latest fighting
BURUNDI: Refugee numbers in Tanzanian camps at six-year low
RWANDA: Belgium pledges E75 million for development
DRC: Ituri militia leaders commit themselves to peace, transition
DRC: Appointment of governors hailed as important political step
CAR: Journalist released from prison
UGANDA: Rebels attack IDPs camp in Gulu District
UGANDA: Rebels abduct Kitgum bishop from church compound


BURUNDI: Thousands more displaced in latest fighting

An estimated 20,000 people have been displaced in the western province of
Bujumbura Rural, following fresh fighting between the army and Forces
nationales de liberation (FNL) rebels loyal to Agathon Rwasa, Provincial
Governor Ignace Ntawembarira told IRIN on Monday.

Most of the displaced have sought refuge in schools and at a health centre
in the commune of Kabezi, where the administrator, Felix Ntahombaye, said
another 30,000 displaced people had sought refuge in April.

"Fresh fighting between the FNL and the army last week discouraged those
who were attempting to return to their respective villages," Ntahombaye
said.

The deputy army spokesman, Maj Adolphe Manirakiza, announced on 14 May
that nine rebels had been killed and five weapons seized during the latest
clash between the army and FNL rebels in an area near the communes of
Kanyosha, Kabezi and Mutambu in Bujumbura Rural.

Full story


BURUNDI: Refugee numbers in Tanzanian camps at six-year low

The number of Burundian refugees living in camps in western Tanzania has
fallen to a six-year low, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) reported on Tuesday from Geneva.

UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said more than 40,000 refugees had returned to
Burundi since the beginning of the year, bringing the number of those
remaining in the camps to less than 300,000.

He said Tanzanian authorities estimated that almost 200,000 Burundian
refugees remained in settlements outside the camps, in addition to another
300,000 who had already settled in Tanzanian villages on their own.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the country over the course of
Burundi's 10-year-old civil war between the minority Tutsi-dominated
government against various Hutu rebel groups. At least 300,000 Burundians
have died since 1993.

Full story


RWANDA: Belgium pledges EÀ75 million fordevelopment

The Belgian government has pledged EÀ75 million (US $90 million) as
bilateral support for Rwanda'Òs health and education sectors, as well as
rural development, Belgian Cooperation Minister Marc Verwilghen said on
Tuesday.

He told reporters after a meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame in
Kigali, the Rwandan capital, that the money would be disbursed over a
three-year phase.

"Since all the formalities have been finalised, we are immediately going
to release EÀ14 million for Rwanda to use in any of the mentioned
sectors," he said.

The Rwandan minister for cooperation, Protais Mitali, told IRIN that the
Belgian government had endorsed a new bilateral convention in which it
would only fund projects recommended by the Rwandan government.

"We have renewed our cooperation and have put in place new modalities on
how to channel aid to strategic sectors as laid out in government
programmes," Mitali said.

He said that under an agreement signed in 1962, Belgium reserved the right
to fund any project in the country, even if it were not among the
government's priority projects.

Full story


DRC: Ituri militia leaders commit themselves to peace, transition

Representatives of seven armed militia groups from the embattled Ituri
District in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) signed an
agreement with the government on 14 May to disarm and participate in the
country's transitional process towards democracy.

The minister for internal affairs, decentralisation and security,
Theophile Mbemba, represented the DRC government during the signing of the
agreements in the capital, Kinshasa.

"This is the end of the war in Ituri," Azarias Ruberwa, one of the DRC's
vice-presidents, told the militia leaders. "It is inconceivable that there
can be any fighting between you and the people, the UN or the army and
police that will soon be deployed."

The UN, which now has 4,800 of its peacekeepers in Ituri, facilitated the
week-long talks between the militia and the transitional government. The
head of the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) and special representative of
the secretary-general to the DRC, William Swing, congratulated the leaders
on their "sincere" commitment to disarmament and reintegration into the
community, and their pledge to participate in the transitional process and
in the rebuilding of Ituri.

Full story


DRC: Appointment of governors hailed as important political step

The appointments are six months late and the political infighting revealed
the fragile relationships within the transitional government of the DRC,
but the nomination of provincial governors on 16 May has been heralded as
an important step in the country's return to peace and democratic
elections in July 2005.

"The announcement of the list is a great step towards reunification of our
country," Crispin Kabasele, a spokesman for Rassemblement congolais pour
la democratie-Goma (RCD-Goma), said. "This is an important step in the
restoration of the authority of the state in our country."

MONUC said on Monday that the newly appointed governors should be able to
bring new impetus to the restoration of national administration in the
country.

"MONUC acknowledges the significant steps that have shown that
considerable progress can be made with a little political will and the
readiness to compromise," MONUC said.

The new governors in the country's 11 provinces were named after months of
bartering between former rebel groups, representatives from civil society,
the political opposition and the former government.

Full story

for full list of governors see DRC: List of
provincial governors


CAR: Journalist released from prison

A journalist in the Central African Republic, who had been jailed for
libelling the CAR leader, Francois Bozize, has been released after serving
two months of his six-month sentence, the Committee to Protect Journalists
(CPJ) reported on Monday.

The New York-based CPJ said Judes Zossé, the publication director of the
privately owned daily newspaper L'Hirondelle, was released on 14 May under
a presidential pardon.

CPJ reported that Zossé was sentenced to six months in prison on 12 March
for "insulting the head of state" after his newspaper reprinted an article
from the opposition news Website Centrafrique-presse.com.

The report had alleged that Bozize, who came to power after a March 2003
coup, had personally taken over the collection of taxes in the country,
prompting two senior treasury officials to contemplate resignation.

Full story


UGANDA: Rebels attack IDPs camp in Gulu District

Rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) attacked a camp for internally
displaced persons (IDPs) in war-ravaged northern Uganda on 16 May, killing
scores of people and abducting others, Ugandan army officials and
humanitarian workers reported.

The army spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza, told IRIN that 18 bodies had
been found near the camp in Pagak, 18 km north of Gulu town, while three
other civilians and three rebels had died in cross-fire between the army
and the rebels.

"A group of rebels attacked Pagak displaced people's camp in three prongs:
one attacked the camp, a second one attacked the soldiers guarding it and
the third one concentrated on the patrol units," Bantariza said. "The
group that attacked the camp set ablaze dozens of grass-thatched huts to
create confusion, then looted food and abducted people whom they forced to
carry their loot for a distance before they killed them along with their
babies."

An official of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which was carrying out
programmes at the camp, said that 29 civilians were reported dead,
including one who died at nearby Lacor hospital, where 12 wounded had been
taken for treatment.

"We have confirmed 29 civilians dead, but we don't know the figures for
either the rebels or the army. Some people who were abducted were killed a
distance from the camp and their bodies were found there," Caroline Ort,
the NRC programme manager, who had just returned from the scene, told IRIN
on phone from Gulu.

Full story

also see UGANDA: Death toll
in rebel attack on IDPs camp rises to 39


UGANDA: Rebels abduct Kitgum bishop from church compound

LRA rebels abducted on Wednesday an Anglican bishop and 11 other people in
the northern town of Kitgum, 460 km north of the capital, Kampala, in an
attack on a church compound, according to Bantariza.

Bishop Benjamin Ojwang, however, escaped unhurt after four hours in
captivity when the army engaged the rebels, Bantariza told IRIN.

"A group of rebels attacked the church [house], harassed the bishop, then
left with him after looting household property and nine goats," Bantariza
said.

Meanwhile, 77 LRA fighters surrendered to the army on Tuesday. Father
Carlos Rodriguez, a Roman Catholic priest in Gulu, told IRIN by telephone:
"Over 70 rebels went to Pajule trading centre in Pader District and asked
the people there to escort them to the military barracks nearby, saying
they wanted to surrender."

In a related development, the Ugandan army deployed in southern Sudan on
Monday used a helicopter gunship to raid a group of about 250 LRA rebels
carrying food, killing 54 of them, about 60 km inside Sudan, Bantariza
said. This is the largest number of rebels killed inside southern Sudan
since the army was deployed there in 2002 to pursue the LRA. The fighting
took place near Magwe [in Eastern Equatoria], on the main road to
Al-Jabalayn, and surviving LRA rebels fled.

Full story


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