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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 211
24 - 30 January 2004


CONTENTS:

DRC: UN to investigate reported massacre
DRC: MONUC chief summons militia leader over attacks
DRC: Belgian defence minister launches training of first unified brigade
ROC: Rebel leader sets conditions for disarmament
ROC: Pool's displaced begin journey home
CAR: Polio case detected in Bossembele
CAR-CHAD: ICRC closes family reunification programme in refugee camps
RWANDA: Defence attorneys at UN tribunal begin three-day strike
RWANDA: Privately owned radio stations to begin operations in February
BURUNDI: Demobilisation of child soldiers begins
BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Additional refugee crossing point opens
UGANDA: Government curtails amnesty extension
UGANDA: Security situation in the north and east still volatile - UN
UGANDA: Sexual violence reportedly rising in the north
UGANDA: Government to probe journalists over rebel links

ALSO SEE:

UGANDA: The 18-year-old war that refuses to go away at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39180


DRC: UN to investigate reported massacre

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), MONUC, is to
send a team to investigate a reported massacre in Ituri District, eastern
DRC, a MONUC official told IRIN.

According to local authorities, armed men said to belong to a militia
group called the Front des nationalistes integrantistes (FNL) killed at
least 100 people in Gobu, a lakeside village some 60 km north of the town
of Bunia, the Ituri adminstrative capital.

On 22 January, officials of the FNL, MONUC and the local administration
visited the site of the killings, which occurred on 16 January. The MONUC
spokeswoman, Isabelle Albric, said there were testimonies, but MONUC had
not yet been able to confirm these as it had yet to send an investigative
mission to the area.

Emmanuel Leku, coordinator of the local administration, was among
officials who travelled on Thursday to Gobu, located along Lake Albert. He
quoted witnesses as saying the 24 attackers had joined boats transporting
displaced persons and traders to lakeside villages, and forced them to
land at Gobu.

"When they arrived in Gobu, the rebels separated the men from the women
and children before shooting the men in groups of four, five or 10," Leku
said. The rebels had also raped two women, stolen the passengers'
belongings, then forced the women and children to carry the loot on their
heads. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39099]


DRC: MONUC chief summons militia leader over attacks

The head of MONUC, William Swing, summoned on Wednesday Thomas Lubanga,
the leader of the Union des patriotes congolais (UPC) to express his
indignation over attacks by UPC fighters against UN troops in Ituri, MONUC
spokesman Hamadoun Toure said.

Swing told Lubanga that militia leaders would have to account for their
troops' actions.

"MONUC's role in Ituri is to protect civilian populations and to restore
peace," Toure said. "It will, therefore, continue using appropriate
retaliatory means, for enough is enough."

The latest of the attacks occurred on 15 January when UPC militiamen
opened fire on a Pakistani unit of MONUC in Nizi, 28 km north of Bunia.
Another group of UN peacekeepers, who were in a helicopter, were attacked
by the UPC at Drodro and Iga-Barrière on 19 and 20 January, UN News
reported. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39088]


DRC: Belgian defence minister launches training of first unified brigade

Belgian Defence Minister Andre Flahaut launched on 25 January the training
of the first brigade of the new unified DRC army.

"A country without an army will have no stability," he told the first
intake of 720 troops in the city of Kisangani, Oriental Province.

The recruits were drawn from the main belligerents during the five-year
civil war: the old government army, the le Rassemblement Congolais pour la
Democratie and the Mouvement pour la Liberation du Congo. Each will
provide the 2,500-strong brigade with one battalion - a total of about
1,800 men - with the balance to comprise elements from traditional
militias such as the Mayi-Mayi and other minor movements.

Initially 80 Belgian instructors, with another 30 due to arrive soon to
strengthen the team, will conduct the brigade's training.

"For now, only one battalion will be trained. Training will continue with
the others, depending on the holding capacity of the base," Sylvain Mbuki,
the chief of staff of the DRC land forces, told IRIN.

Belgium has received UN authorisation to conduct the training, but France
and Britain have also expressed interest.


ROC: Rebel leader sets conditions for disarmament

Frederic Bitsangou, alias Pasteur Ntumi, the leader of the Ninja rebels,
said on 23 January that he would only disarm militias allied to him when
the government opened up space within the nation's body politic.

He demanded the formation of a government of national unity in which his
Conseil national de la resistance would take part. Otherwise, he said, he
would impede the peace process. He also rejected a government set quota of
250 for his militiamen into the national armed forces.

"We have close to 50,000 young men. The government quota is only a drop in
the ocean," he said.

"There must be an accord with government on the recruitment of our young
fighters in the security forces and on my status in particular," he said
in Loukouo, his fiefdom some 200 km west of the capital, Brazzaville.

He was speaking at the symbolic start of the disarmament of his Ninja
militia. He said although a political deal had been struck on this and on
the demoblisation and reintegration of militiamen into society in the Pool
area, no date had been fixed for its start. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39140]


ROC: Pool's displaced begin journey home

The first group of 255 people displaced by war from the Pool region of the
Republic of Congo (ROC) returned home on 25 January in a government-led
effort supported by UN agencies and NGOs.

A special train carrying the group arrived in Matoumbou, 45 km southwest
of Brazzaville, for onward transport by truck to Kinkala, the largest town
in the Department of Pool, then to their homes.

The ROC Office of Humanitarian Affairs reported that nearly 500 internally
displaced persons (IDPs) in Brazzaville were offered transport home but
only the 255 accepted. On 25 January, Humanitarian Affairs Minister
Emilienne Raoul distributed basic necessities to the group at Mankokossa,
some 11 km from Kinkala.

The government, the UN Development Programme, the UN World Food Programme,
Medecins Sans Frontieres and the ROC Red Cross are all involved in the
voluntary return of all 500 displaced, living in six sites in Brazzaville.
At the same time, another 1,500 vulnerable people resident in villages, to
which the displaced are being returned, have been given food and non-food
aid. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39142]


CAR: Polio case detected in Bossembele

A case of "wild" polio has been detected in the Central African Republic
(CAR) town of Bossembele, 157 km north of the capital, Bangui, the head of
the Pasteur Institute's polio laboratory, Didier Menard, told IRIN on
Monday.

He said three tests had been carried out on the patient, a girl aged one
year and seven months, to confirm the disease. He said the girl had a
doubtful immunisation background and was first suspected on 16 December
2003 of having polio.

Menard said that the last polio case had been previously detected in the
country in June 2000, and that hopes had been high that the CAR would meet
the 2005 deadline set by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) for the
eradication of polio worldwide. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39117]


CAR-CHAD: ICRC closes family reunification programme in refugee camps

The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) has ended its family
reunification programme in refugee camps in southern Chad, where about
41,000 people from the CAR have been living since March 2003, an official
told IRIN on Saturday.

"All the 81 non-accompanied children whom we had registered have rejoined
their families in CAR either by their own means or within the ICRC
programme," Bruno Legeard, the ICRC representative in the CAR, said.

He said that the ICRC office in Sarh, a town in southern Chad, had closed
after the last two children were flown to CAR on Wednesday. The boys, 12
and 14 years old, reached Bossangoa, 305 km north of Bangui, where the
ICRC handed them over to their parents in the presence of local
administrative authorities. They had been living in Camp Gore in southern
Chad.

Legeard said that three other children who were due to be among those to
be reunified with their families had gone home on their own. He added that
although the programme was closed, the ICRC would continue to collaborate
with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in case other children wished
to rejoin their parents in CAR. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39114]


RWANDA: Defence attorneys at UN tribunal begin three-day strike

Lawyers representing detainees at the UN International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda (ICTR), in Arusha, northern Tanzania, began a three-day strike
on Wednesday to protest against "a serious deterioration" of the rights of
the accused.

Despite ongoing negotiations between tribunal officials and the defence
attorneys, "intemperate decisions of the tribunal's defence management
section" had further reduced the defence's liberty of action, they said in
a statement issued on Tuesday by the Executive Committee for the
Representation of Defence Counsels.

"In consequence, and in full accord with the detainees, we hereby advise
you that effective from Wednesday 28 January 2004, and for three days
thereafter, subject to extension, we shall not attend court," it added.

However, tribunal spokesman Roland Amoussouga told IRIN on Wednesday: "The
[ICTR] president and the registrar received a letter from the lawyers,
raising their concerns and all the parties held a meeting last night to
discuss them." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39167]


RWANDA: Privately owned radio stations to begin operations in February

Several privately owned FM radio stations are to start broadcasting in
February following a cabinet directive to the country's media council to
issue work and broadcasting permits to fully registered stations, a media
council official told IRIN on Wednesday.

The official, who requested anonymity, said at least six stations,
including Radio Contact, Radio Flash, National University of Rwanda-School
of Journalism, Radio Tel-10 and Adecco Radio, had received licences to
compete with the government-owned Radio Rwanda, as well as another, owned
by the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

The newly licensed stations were now waiting for the Ministry of
Infrastructure to allocate them frequencies, the council official said.
Radio Tel-10 has already been allocated its frequency. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39175]


BURUNDI: Demobilisation of child soldiers begins

Some 24 child soldiers were demobilised on 17 January at a cantonment site
in Muyange, 30 km northwest of the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, marking
the official launch of the country's National Structure for the
Disarmament, Demobilisation, Reintegration and Prevention of Child
Soldiers.

The children had been recruited into the Conseil national pour la defense
de la democratie-Forces de defense de la democratie rebel faction led by
Jean Bosco Ndayikengurukiye. They were at the cantonment site together
with 191 former combatants loyal to Ndayikengurukiye and to Alain
Mugabarabona, the leader of a smaller faction of the Forces nationales de
liberation (FNL).

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) representative, Catherine
Mbengué, said the agency would follow up on the demobilised children to
ensure that they do not rejoin armed groups. She said that UNICEF would
work with human rights organizations in an overseeing capacity. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39113]


BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Additional refugee crossing point opens

A new border crossing point opened on Wednesday between Burundi and
Tanzania, facilitating the movement of a convoy of 983 Burundians going
home after years of living in refugee camps in western Tanzania, the
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported.

This crossing point paves the way for more UNHCR-facilitated returns to
areas that were previously inaccessible in Burundi, the agency reported.

The convoy of 22 trucks left Kibondo District, Tanzania, for the province
of Ruyigi in Burundi through the Makamba-Gisuru crossing, said the UNHCR.
It added that the UNHCR deputy director for Africa, Zobida
Hassim-Ashagrie, accompanied the convoy. Some 60,000 refugees in Kibondo
come from Ruyigi, and UNHCR expects around half of them to return home
this year.

Those returning to Muyinga and neighbouring provinces in the north enter
Burundi through the Kobero crossing point, UNHCR said. Those from Cankuzo
Province in the east enter through Murusugamba. The agency added that if
security continued to improve, a fourth crossing point would open later
this year to Makamba Province in the south. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39192]


UGANDA: Government curtails amnesty extension

The government has reduced the period of amnesty granted to rebels of the
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) from six months to three, and is planning to
scrap the amnesty altogether for senior rebel commanders.

"The amnesty law under which willing LRA fighters can give themselves up
in safety has been officially extended by only three months. That is the
prerogative of the minister of internal affairs," Moses Saku, spokesman
for the Uganda Amnesty Commission, told IRIN.

The amnesty was granted on 16 January after parliament passed a six-month
extension to an earlier Amnesty Act on rebels. But on Thursday, the
minister of internal affairs, Ruhakana Rugunda, said he had decided that
three months was "long enough".

Saku said, "I think the government would also like to deny further
opportunities to [LRA leader Joseph] Kony or his top ranks."

He added that the extension by default gave Kony and other senior LRA
fighters amnesty until the law was amended to exclude them.

"It still has to be debated in parliament, but it is likely the Amnesty
Act will be amended [to exclude them], so we're encouraging them to come
out while they can." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39092]


UGANDA: Security situation in the north and east still volatile -UN

The general security situation in some parts of northern and eastern
Uganda is still very volatile, according to United Nations officials.

Addressing a news conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Thursday,
the officials, who included the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator
in Uganda, Daouda Toure, said the UN had reorganised itself to respond
more effectively to the situation, and its recent advocacy efforts had
raised interest in "one of the most forgotten crises" in Africa.

"You are talking about 1.3 million people living in camps without adequate
sanitation and water, of people who are maimed, abducted and raped - let
alone the risks of HIV/AIDS infection - by their own people," Toure said
at the launch of a new book by the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) highlighting the northern Uganda crisis. "You
are talking of children who run away from their homes every night to sleep
in corridors of buildings in town without shelter over their heads."

Entitled "When the sun sets, we start to worry," the book is jointly
published by OCHA's Regional Support Office for Central and Eastern Africa
and the Integrated Regional Information Networks in fulfilment of OCHA's
mandate to assist and advocate for the rights of people suffering in
disasters and emergencies. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39195; an electronic version of
the book is available at: www.irinnews.org/webspecials/northernuganda/]


UGANDA: Sexual violence reportedly rising in the north

Many women and girls amongst the thousands of people in the north who flee
their homes each night to seek shelter in town centres fearing attacks and
abduction by LRA rebels are sexually abused, an advocacy group has
reported.

The New York-based Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children
reported that the "night commuter" girls and women had reported that those
sexually abusing and harassing them were mainly youths and government
soldiers.

But the northern regional police commander, Jerome Baryayanga, told IRIN
by telephone from Gulu on Tuesday that he had received no reports of such
abuse. "We guard the night commuters. At night the girls stay alone, when
they go home they are in groups," he said.

The advocacy group said it had also received reports from the girls that
some schools in Kitgum were being used as venues for rape in the evenings.

"Without adequate security, adolescent girls and women are forced to
choose between their fear of an LRA attack at home and their fear of rape
during their nightly flight into town," said Matthew Emry, the advocacy
group's childrens' and adolescents' project officer, who travelled to
northern Uganda in December. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39143]


UGANDA: Government to probe journalists over rebel links

The government is to probe journalists suspected of collaborating with
rebels, including newspaper editors from the independent daily, The
Monitor, suspected of having links with the LRA.

However, the defence ministry spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza, told IRIN
on Wednesday that nothing was going to happen to the two journalists yet.

"They are not yet accused of being terrorist collaborators until we have
done a proper investigation," he said.

Bantariza said last week that Andrew Mwenda and Wanyama Wangah, the
Monitor editors, had links with the rebels. He told Radio Uganda that the
army had recovered the telephone contacts of the journalists from the body
of an LRA commander who was killed by Uganda troops in the north.

But a source at The Monitor told IRIN that one of the telephone numbers
the army had recovered was the official line of the paper's news editor.

"The telephone number of a news editor is public. It is his duty to answer
all calls, and if a rebel commander calls that number, what should he do?
The same editors, too, have Bantariza's number. Should they be branded
army collaborators?" the source said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39174]


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


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