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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 214
14 - 20 February 2004


CONTENTS:

AFRICA: First ladies vow to fight mother-to-child HIV/AIDS infection
AFRICA: Leaders set timetable for peer review
GREAT LAKES: More effort needed to achieve regional stability 
CONGO: Major construction programme launched in Pointe Noire
DRC: President gets promises of aid during European tour
DRC: MONUC focusing troop deployment in eastern regions
DRC: Journalist spends year in detention without trial
RWANDA: Dutch NGOs urge donors to freeze aid to Kigali
BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Thousands of refugees return home
TANZANIA: Political parties trade accusations over threat to mainlanders
UGANDA: Advocacy and peace groups raise concerns over LRA prosecution
UGANDA: IDPs in the east contemplate going home
UGANDA: Road accidents claiming many lives - police


ALSO SEE:

AFRICA: Focus on EU/ACP trade conference in Addis Ababa at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39491

AFRICA: Interview with EU International Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39543

KENYA: Focus on primary schools dealing with HIV-positive pupils at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39499


AFRICA: First ladies vow to fight mother-to-child HIV/AIDS infection

Five African first ladies and representatives from four other countries
have vowed to redouble their efforts to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS on
the continent and, in particular, to prevent mother-to-child infections.

"The first ladies emphasised the need for urgent action in scaling up both
HIV prevention and care services," a communiqué issued on Monday in the
Rwandan capital, Kigali, after a two-day conference of the first ladies,
said.

The conference, facilitated by UNAIDS, the UN World Health Organization
and the UN Children's Fund, ended on 14 February. It was attended by the
first ladies of Gabon, Kenya, Rwanda, the Republic of Congo (ROC) and
Senegal. Those from Ghana, Mali, Mauritania and Uganda sent
representatives.

The first ladies and officials of two pharmaceutical companies - Abbott
Laboratories and Boehringer-Ingelheim - agreed to increase cooperation in
expanding access to prevention-of-mother-to-child treatment (PMTCT)
services for greater numbers of HIV-positive mothers and their children.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39519 ]


AFRICA: Leaders set timetable for peer review

African heads of state and government have agreed to start a review
process on the key areas of good governance, democracy, human rights,
transparency and domestic business environment under the peer review
mechanism of the New Partnership for Africa's Development.

At a two-day conference that ended on 14 February in Kigali, the leaders
agreed to review their economic and political policies, with the aim of
winning over donors and wooing foreign investors.

The countries whose review is expected to take place in 2004 are Ghana and
Rwanda, in April and June respectively. Kenya and Mauritius will also to
be reviewed, but the process for these nations is expected to end in early
2005.

"The most important thing is that we can start the review process now,"
President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria said.

Angola became the 17th African country to sign up for the peer review
mechanism. It joined Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana,
Gabon, Kenya, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, ROC, Senegal,
South Africa and Uganda. Full srtory at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39504; also see:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39484 ]


GREAT LAKES: More effort needed to achieve regional stability - UN
official says

Despite significant progress in the peace processes in Burundi and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), much more work needed to done to
ensure stability in the Great Lakes region, an official told the UN
Security Council on Tuesday.

Assistant UN Secretary-General for Political Affairs Tuliameni Kalomoh
said advances achieved in the two countries in the past six months had
created a new momentum towards holding an international conference on the
Great Lakes region. He made the remarks when he introduced UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan's progress report on the implementation of
recommendations made by the council's mission to central Africa in 2003.

Kalomoh said relations between the DRC and its neighbours were improving,
and that the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of fighters
from Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda had proceeded faster than expected.

Regarding plans for the international conference on the region, Kalomoh
said with the launching of a preparatory process in Nairobi in June 2003,
the region's core countries had put in place a framework for dialogue and
discussion on key issues in coming months. The core countries of the Great
Lakes Conference are Burundi, the DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and
Zambia. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39551 ]


CONGO: Major construction programme launched in Pointe Noire

President Denis Sassou-Nguesso launched on Thursday a 15-billion franc CFA
(US $30-million) rehabilitation programme for the Republic of Congo’s
second largest city, Pointe Noire, state-owned radio reported.

The six-month long project, financed entirely by the government, is aimed
at improving the city’s roads, sanitation, and water and electricity
delivery systems. The work will include rehabilitation of the city’s
public buildings, schools, health centres, airport and ocean port, Public
Works Minister Florent Ntsiba said. He added that other cities and towns
of Kouilou Department, of which Pointe Noire is the capital, would also
benefit. [Full story at http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39613 ]


DRC: President gets promises of aid during European tour

President Joseph Kabila of the DRC ended a four-nation European tour on 11
February with promises of debt cancellation, the training of his new
unified army, police; and help with the organisation of multiparty
elections at the end of a two-year transitional government of national
unity.

In France, where he began his visit, Kabila met potential French investors
with whom he had a working lunch, Pascal Perenec, the French embassy press
attaché in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, said.

"President Jacques Chirac has, among other promises, cancelled Congo's
E620 million [US $794 million] debt to France, if the transition process
goes according to plan," Perenec said.

French Cooperation Minister Pierre-Andre Wiltzer had also announced €50
million in bilateral aid to the DRC.

In London, Kabila had received British assurances of $38 million in annual
budgetary support that ends in March, Britain's ambassador to the DRC, Jim
Atkinson, said. In addition, EC President Romano Prodi had promised Kabila
that he would accelerate the disbursement of €5 million, and promised to
train the DRC's new unified police force, Bernard Piette, head of
information at the EC office in Kinshasa, said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39485 ]


DRC: MONUC focusing troop deployment in eastern regions

MONUC, as the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC is known, is now focusing
its troop deployment in the eastern regions of the country following
improved security conditions elsewhere, according to the head of the
mission, William Swing.

"The situation has improved to such a degree that today the front line
that once separated former belligerents is now a part of history," he told
reporters on Wednesday. "MONUC will therefore adapt the deployment of its
troops to areas where they are most needed."

Swing said most of the 10,800-strong MONUC force was currently deployed
throughout a zone ranging from Ituri District in the northeast of the
country, southward through provinces of North and South Kivu, down to
northern part of Katanga Province in the southeast - roughly the same area
where the majority of armed elements from neighbouring Burundi, Rwanda and
Uganda remain.

"The second brigade, known as the Kindu [the main city of Maniema
Province, eastern DRC] Brigade, which will ultimately consist of some
4,000 soldiers, is currently being deployed, while the Ituri Brigade,
comprising 4,700 peacekeepers, is already deployed in Ituri," Swing said.

He added that the Kindu Brigade would be involved in the disarmament of
Congolese armed groups and in enforcing an arms embargo throughout east of
the country. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39559 ]


DRC: Journalist spends year in detention without trial

A journalist in the DRC has spent one year in preventive detention at
Kinshasa's Penitentiary and Re-education Centre, national media rights NGO
Journaliste en danger (JED) reported on 13 February.

It recalled that on 14 February 2003 National Intelligence Agency officers
arrested Bamporiki Chamira, a journalist with the daily La Tempete des
Tropiques in the capital, Kinshasa.

Chamira was accused of plotting to kill Kabila, trying to overthrow the
government and seeking to avenge the death of Commander Anselme Massasu.
After spending 40 days imprisoned in the agency's cells, Chamira was
brought before the State Security Court on 25 March 2003 and was
subsequently transferred to the penitentiary. His trial started on 17 June
2003 at the court, where he was formally charged with "direct or indirect
participation in a plot aimed at eliminating President Joseph Kabila and
direct or indirect participation in Commander Doris Mbenge's escape" from
custody.

Citing numerous irregularities in Chamira's detention, JED said the
journalist was "being deprived of his freedom unfairly, in violation of
Article 15 of the country's transition Constitution". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39549 ]


RWANDA: Dutch NGOs urge donors to freeze aid to Kigali

Four Dutch NGOs have urged Rwanda's development partners - the
Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom - to freeze parts of their
government aid to the country and to stop current negotiations on new
memorandums of understanding with the Kigali administration, pending the
fulfilment of two requirements.

In a report evaluating developments in Rwanda in 2003, the NGOs called for
the aid freeze pending independent investigations into the disappearance
in early 2003 of five people, including political opponents to the ruling
Rwandan Patriotic Front, and until the government gives a credible
reaction to accusations made by a UN team that investigated the role
Rwanda played in the exploitation of natural resources in eastern DRC.

The NGOs released the 62-page Rwanda monitoring report, entitled "Tell our
government it is OK to be criticised!", on 10 February from The Hague. In
it, they detailed the benchmarks used in their evaluation and the
recommendations to be implemented in order to "make aid possible in a
context conducive to an effective development process".

"After 2003, we are compelled to stare the reality in the face," the NGOs
said in an opening statement to their report. "As this report will show,
space for political debate has nearly disappeared, a climate of fear,
abuse of power and exclusion is now dominating [Rwanda]." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39569 ]


BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Thousands of refugees return home

At least 10,000 Burundian refugees have returned home since January from
camps in Tanzania, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) reported on Wednesday. It said 9,125 refugees returned home in
UNHCR-organised movements while another 897 returned on their own.

It said that 5,200 of the refugees returned through a new border crossing
point at Gisuru opened in late January, which had allowed the UNHCR to
organise returns to Burundi's eastern province of Ruyigi, which had
previously been inaccessible for security reasons.

"Given the success of the returns through Gisuru so far, and the interest
among the refugees to return home to Ruyigi, UNHCR is increasing the
number of weekly convoys along this route to four starting this week," the
agency reported. "Each convoy transports around 1,000 refugees back home."

It said refugees staying in camps in the Ngara region, northern Tanzania,
had been returning in twice-weekly convoys through other border crossing
point at Kobero in Burundi's northeastern province of Muyinga. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39571]


TANZANIA: Political parties trade accusations over threat to mainlanders

The ruling party in Zanzibar, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), has continued
trading accusations with the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) over
claims that mainlanders are being asked to leave the Zanzibar in the
lead-up to the establishment of a permanent voters' register.

The CCM claims that CUF supporters have made verbal threats and, more
recently, distributed leaflets in an attempt to scare off mainland
Tanzanians from registering to vote in the 2005 elections.

A member of CCM's central committee and the party's treasurer on Zanzibar,
Yusuf Hemed Mansour, told IRIN on Monday that CCM had for several months
been monitoring these activities, which had escalated recently.

"Our investigations have found those responsible to be CUF members," he
said.

But CUF denied the claims, saying they were part of a propaganda campaign
mounted by the intelligence and security services to discredit the CUF.
CUF Chairman Ibrahim Lipumba told IRIN on Monday that the allegations were
baseless.

"This is propaganda that is being handed out by CCM, as well as the
intelligence and security services. All they are interested in doing is
tarnishing the image of CUF," he said. "Our position has been very clear.
We have many members who have come from the mainland - our vice-chairman
is even from the Coast Region [on mainland Tanzania]. We do not harass
anyone from the mainland." [For full story see:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39510 ]


UGANDA: Advocacy and peace groups raise concerns over LRA prosecution

Save the Children, has warned that the children in northern Uganda may
suffer most if the International Criminal Court (ICC) decides to prosecute
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels for war crimes, unless questions of
child protection are raised before it proceeds to investigate the rebels.

In a statement issued last week, the organisation said that since
"children are by far the main witnesses (and victims)" of war crimes
committed by the LRA, the LRA leadership "might apply even more strict
discipline to prevent witnesses from escaping".

"They could also easily convince the children that they will be subject to
prosecution by the ICC if they do so. In other words, their hold and
control over the child hostages can be increased, as well as the risks to
children associated with escaping from LRA," the NGO said.

Meanwhile, commenting on Uganda's amnesty law for the rebels, Sheik Musa
Khalil, the chairman of the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative, a
group working to try and start peace talks between the government and the
rebels, said any attempts to doctor the law so that it excluded the rebel
leaders would be a disaster for peace in northern Uganda.

"Without an amnesty for instigators of rebellion, it will be impossible
for those of us still engaged in luring the LRA leadership into peace
talks with the government to do so. It will close the door to [talks], as
it has been the case in most conflicts worldwide," he added. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39497 ]


UGANDA: IDPs in the east contemplate going home

Thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the eastern Teso
region, who fled rebel attacks on their villages and sought refuge in
urban areas, have started going home, according to government and
humanitarian officials. The IDPs were displaced in 2003 by fighting
between the government and the LRA.

However, the minister of state for disaster preparedness in the prime
minister's office, Christine Aporu, told IRIN on Tuesday that while the
IDPs were contemplating resettling in their villages, they were still in
dire need of food and agricultural inputs. Some of them, especially in
Katakwi District, were sleeping hungry, she added. She said most of the
90,000 IDPs who had camped in Soroti, the main town in the region, 347 km
east of the capital, Kampala, had moved out of the town centre.

"We are trying to verify the numbers of those who are still encamped,"
Aporu added.

Soroti district officials said that at least 20,000 of the estimated
300,000 IDPs in the region had resettled in their villages, following
recent reports of increasing stability in Teso, where local militia groups
have been armed to fight the rebels. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39529 ]


UGANDA: Road accidents claiming many lives - police

Police have expressed concern over fatal road accidents frequently
occurring on the highways, especially that between the eastern town of
Jinja and the capital, Kampala. At least 30 people died in the latest such
accident on Saturday.

Police Inspector of Traffic James Mukooli said the latest accident, like
many in Uganda, had been partly the result of reckless driving. Another
frequently cited cause of accidents was the fact that counterfeit driving
licences were easily obtained in Uganda, he added.

The minibus involved in Saturday's accident, police added, had collided
with a fuel tanker in the Mabira forest, 60 km from Kampala. The vehicle
was overloaded. Ugandan minibuses are licensed to carry 14 people.

Initial reports said 20 people had been burned alive when the tanker
exploded. "The minibus was speeding and tried to overtake on a blind
corner," Mukooli said.

He added that many of the bodies were dismembered, rendering an accurate
estimate of the death toll impossible without better forensic equipment.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39495 ]


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