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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 232
19 - 25 June 2004


CONTENTS:

DRC: International court to investigates war crimes
DRC: Government names suspects in March coup attempt
DRC-RWANDA: Kamanyola back under government control
DRC-BURUNDI: UNHCR responds to influx of Congolese refugees
BURUNDI-TANZANIA: UNHCR opens new border crossing
RWANDA: Traditional courts inaugurated
UGANDA: Kony hiding under Sudanese army's wing, says Kampala
KENYA: Free medical care in public health centres


ALSO SEE:

BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Focus on World Refugee Day - Burundians leaving camps in
droves at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41776


DRC: International court to investigates war crimes

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis
Moreno-Ocampo, will open an investigation into alleged war crimes
committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since 1 July 2002.

Moreno-Ocampo announced his intension in a communique released on 18 June.
An investigation into grave crimes in the DRC would be in the interests of
both justice and the victims, he said.

The court said it had been analysing the situation in the DRC since July
2003, initially with an emphasis on the northeastern region of Ituri. The
ICC added that the DRC government had shown its support and welcomed its
involvement in the country.

"The decision to launch an investigation had been taken with the
cooperation of the DRC, other governments and international
organisations," Moreno-Ocampo said.

He said the investigation would focus on individuals "most responsible for
grave crimes" under the jurisdiction of the court. The court said
international organisations, NGOs and states had reported rape, mass
murder, summary executions, torture, forced displacement and the illegal
use of child soldiers in the DRC. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41842 ]


DRC: Government names suspects in March coup attempt

The DRC government named on Wednesday 13 masterminds behind the March coup
attempt in the capital, Kinshasa, many of whom were military and
ex-presidential guards.

A government commission, formed to investigate the failed coup, said
ex-officers of the army of the late president, Mobutu Sese Seko, had
funded the operation.

"There are officers, who are now abroad, who were connected to the people
who executed the coup attempt," Theophile Mbemba, the interior minister,
said.

"The funding [for the coup] came through Brazzaville and Brussels," a
colonel, who presided over the commission, said.

The colonel, who asked not to be named, added that the commission had
registered 25 shipments of money. The plotters ultimately used the money,
whose value and currency the colonel did not disclose.

A spokesman for the commission said 72 people were in Kinshasa's central
prison awaiting trial on charges related to the failed March coup.


DRC-RWANDA: Kamanyola back under government control

Government forces have re-entered the eastern town of Kamanyola in the DRC
after the withdrawal of dissident soldiers loyal to Col Jules Mutebutsi,
military and humanitarian officials said on Tuesday.

"There was no rebel fighting; they did not leave with bullets flying over
their heads," Sebastien Lapierre, a spokesman for the UN Mission in the
DRC, known as MONUC, told IRIN.

"They left, and the following morning we received word from Rwandan
authorities that Mutebutsi and 300 of his men were in Rwanda," he added.

Lapierre said Mutebutsi's troops had withdrawn during the night of 20 June
from the town in the province of South Kivu. The commander of government
forces in South Kivu, Gen Mbuza Mabe, said his troops had entered it late
on Monday morning.

Lapierre told IRIN that the return of government forces to Kamanyola had
not created a significant refugee or internally displaced person (IDP)
situation. He said residents had fled and become refugees or IDPs long
before dissident soldiers left the town.

Meanwhile, Col Patrick Keregaya, a Rwandan army spokesman, said Mutebutsi
and his 304 men crossed into Rwanda late on Monday and were being held in
a military camp 20 km inside Rwanda's Cyagungu Province, which borders the
DRC.

"Their status is being determined. They have been confined close to a
military camp and we have contacted UNHCR [Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees] and ICRC [International Committee of the Red
Cross] to handle them," he told IRIN, adding that Rwanda had agreed to
give Mutebutsi refuge for humanitarian reasons. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41815 ]

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the Great
Lakes, William Swing, said on Tuesday that the DRC government now had
20,000 troops in the eastern region. He referred to the dissident activity
in the area as the most serious crisis ever experienced by the DRC
government, adding that it had been intensified by rhetoric emanating from
both the DRC and Rwanda.

FromUN headquarters in New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told UN
Radio: "If we are not able to stabilise and the Congo were to revert back
into violence or anarchy, the whole region would pay a price. And this is
why we are focusing so much attention on this issue." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41807 ]


DRC-BURUNDI: UNHCR responds to influx of Congolese refugees

UNHCR was reinforcing its operations in Burundi and working with local
authorities to establish new camps for some 31,000 Congolese refugees who
had arrived in the country over the last two weeks, UNHCR said on Tuesday.

Most of the new arrivals had been from eastern DRC, following fighting
between dissident soldiers, led by Col Jules Mutebutsi and Gen Laurent
Nkunda, and loyal government forces, it added.

"No major new refugee arrivals from the DRC have been reported since last
week, but the reported presence of increasing numbers of troops along the
DRC, Rwanda and Burundi borders is undoubtedly affecting movements,"
Jennifer Pagonis, a UNHCR spokeswoman, said on Tuesday at a news briefing
in Geneva.

Fighting has now ended, with the retreat of dissident troops to
neighbouring Rwanda. However, to cope with the influx into Burundi, the
UNHCR has sent a senior emergency officer to the country. The UNHCR
spokesman in Burundi, Bernard Ntwari, said eight emergency officers would
be sent to Burundi this week. He said the Burundian government had agreed
to provide land for new camps in the province of Cankuzo, some 200 km east
of the border with DRC. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41832 ]


BURUNDI-TANZANIA: UNHCR opens new border crossing

UNHCR announced on Tuesday the opening of a fourth crossing on the
Burundi/Tanzania border. The crossing, from the Kigoma area in Tanzania to
the Burundian province of Makamba, is the first such UNHCR border facility
to be established in southern Burundi.

The opening marks an expansion of a repatriation programme for Burundian
refugees in Tanzania. Since the beginning of the year at least 52,000
refugees have gone home from Tanzanian camps. This brought the total
number of repatriations to 188,000 since the operations began in 2002,
UNHCR said.

As a test run for future operations, UNHCR had on 1 June launched twice
weekly repatriation convoys through the Makamba border centre. Some 500
refugees left the Mtabila refugee camp in Tanzania destined for the
Mabanda transit centre in Makamba. The Mtabila camp is currently host to
approximately 61,830 Burundian refugees. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41824 ]


RWANDA: Traditional courts inaugurated

President Paul Kagame on Thursday launched a nationwide traditional courts
system known as Gacaca, to try tens of thousands of people suspected of
taking part in the 1994 genocide.

Set up in villages, the courts give citizens, prisoners, and families of
victims an opportunity to face each other before a panel of locally
elected judges to discuss their roles and experiences during the 100 days
of genocide. The judges then issue verdicts.

The launch followed a two-year trial period intended to identify and
correct weaknesses in the system.

"Drawing from the experience during the trials, we decided to make
amendments that aim at checking some weaknesses before the courts are
rolled out to the entire the country," Charles ayitana, spokesman for the
National Service of Gacaca Jurisdictions, told IRIN.

Trial runs of the Gacaca courts were conducted in 751 of the nation's
9,010 legal jurisdictions.

During Thursday's launch in the capital, Kigali, Kagame said his
government was absolutely committed to the protection of survivors, many
of whom are lead witnesses in the genocide trials.

"I know witnesses have been intimidated and tortured for revealing the
truth, this should stop," he said. "We are going to put in place penalties
for those who interfere and try to manipulate gacaca proceedings." [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41860 ]


UGANDA: Kony hiding under Sudanese army's wing, says Kampala

Uganda has written to Khartoum asking for help to locate Joseph Kony, the
commander of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), saying he was hiding
beyond the scope of Sudanese territory within which the Ugandan army is
mandated to operate, diplomats said on Thursday.

"The Hon Noble Mayombo [the chief of military intelligence], yesterday
[Wednesday] delivered the letter to the embassy, and we have since brought
it to the attention of our foreign ministry in Khartoum. The Sudanese
defence ministry has also been alerted. Investigations will be carried out
and action taken," Siraj al-Din Hamid Yusuf, the Sudanese ambassador in
Kampala, told IRIN.

The letter was prompted by Uganda's insistence that Kony was hiding near
Sudanese army bases in Nsitu in the south. Uganda said Nsitu was out of
reach for its army, which is deployed under Operation Iron Fist - an
operation agreed by the two neighbours which authorises Ugandan troops to
enter, search and destroy LRA bases within Sudan.

The Ugandan army spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza, told IRIN that President
Yoweri Museveni had directed the defence minister to write the letter. "We
have deployed in southern Sudan, but the LRA has fled to areas under the
control of the Sudanese army. We want the Sudanese government to do
something as per the protocol that indicated that when the LRA flee to
areas under their [Sudanese army] control, then they [the latter] take
over from us," Bantariza said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41867 ]


KENYA: Free medical care in public health centres

In a bid to improve access to medical care for millions of poor Kenyans,
the government on 20 June announced that it would provide free health
services in state-run dispensaries and health centres.

"With effect from 1 July, 2004, all charges for prevention services,
treatment, diagnosis in public dispensaries and health centres must stop,"
Charity Ngilu, the health minister, said at a news conference in the
capital, Nairobi.

Patients, Ngilu added, would only pay a minimal registration fee to get
treatment in the clinics and dispensaries, and children under the age of
five years would be exempted from paying even that fee. She said the
government had set aside Ksh 4.1 billion (US $51.5 million) to implement
the free medical care programme in 2004/5.

"The absolute poor in Kenya, who number about nine million, have no access
to health-care services," Ngilu said. "Even those who live 100 metres away
from a health centre or dispensary die at home because they cannot afford
to pay for health care," she added. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41792 ]


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


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