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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e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 215
21 - 27 February 2004


CONTENTS:

KENYA: Thousands of refugees threatened by food shortage
KENYA: Women praise Kibaki's directive to drop tax on sanitary towels
DRC: 15,000 Kitenge residents flee May-Mayi militia
ROC: Brazzaville says it reducing its military presence in Pool
CAR: Electoral process under way
BURUNDI: Fighting displaces thousands in Bujumbura Rural
BURUNDI: UN mission favours takeover of AMIB
RWANDA: ICTR convicts Imanishimwe, acquits Ntagerura and Bagambiki
RWANDA: President Kagame declares his wealth

ALSO SEE:

UGANDA: Focus on LRA attack on Barlonyo IDP camp at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39678

KENYA: Interview with Miloon Kothari, UN independent special rapporteur on
adequate housing at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39621

TANZANIA: Youth air their concerns at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39632


UGANDA: Rebels massacre more than 200 in Lira IDPs camp

In the most devastating attack on civilians in northern Uganda for nearly
10 years, rebels who have waged war in northern Uganda for 18 years,
killed at least 200 people in an internally displaced persons (IDPs) camp
on Saturday, witnesses said.

Father Sebhat Ayele, a Roman Catholic priest who visited the scene shortly
after the attack, told IRIN that about 300 Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)
rebels, dressed like regular Ugandan army soldiers and armed with assault
rifles and artillery, had attacked the Barlonyo camp, 26 km north of Lira
town, and overpowered the local Amuka militia posted there to protect it.
"The estimate of the dead that we have is now over 200," Ayele told IRIN
in Lira town, 380 km north of the capital, Kampala, on Monday.

Survivors of the massacre told IRIN at the hospital that the rebels,
stormed the camp at about 17:00 GMT. They fired a recoilless gun into a
barracks housing the 35 Amuka militiamen before moving into the camp,
which houses 4,800 IDPs and is sited in the bush off the main road. Most
of the IDPs who died, the survivors said, were burned alive when the
rebels set fire to their thatched huts after ordering them into their
houses at gunpoint. Others trying to flee were shot, bludgeoned or hacked
to death by rebels wielding clubs, machetes and AK-47s. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39622 ]

Earlier, on 19 February, residents of Lira Municipality, told IRIN that
this, northern Uganda's once most economically prosperous town, had been
brought to a near standstill by the spate of LRA attacks by rebels on its
surrounding areas. Local leaders said social services had been
overstretched by an influx of people displaced from rural areas seeking
shelter the attacks. Traders and small business owners in Lira said trade
with neighbouring districts had dwindled sharply because of the
insecurity.

The mayor of Lira, Peter Owiny, told IRIN that the town's schools and
hospitals, which had flourished since the beginning of the 1990s, were now
crumbling under the pressure brought to bear on them by the increased
population.

"The population of Lira is officially 90,000, but with the displaced, it
is now up to 350,000. The little revenue we collect is not enough to go
around," he said, "The schools we used to have for 2,000 children now
squeeze [in] 5,000. The hospital designed for 200 is overcrowded to
bursting point." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39604 ]

Scores more of IDPs living in camps near Lira town, fled on Tuesday for
refuge in the town centre, alongside students from a nearby boarding
school who also flocked in to join the thousands of other IDPs already
living there, relief workers and local officials said. At Oguk trading
centre near the stricken Barlonyo camp, UN agencies and NGOs are
registering and giving aid to at least 2,500 IDPs who fled Saturday's
killing. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39659
]

On Wednesday, five people were killed in Lira town as thousands protested
the government's "failure to protect its people from insurgency" and the
LRA. Godfrey Aropet, the Lira District police commander, told IRIN that
one man was killed by a mob and four were shot dead. It was, however,
unclear how the four had been shot, he said. At least 10 other people were
wounded, Uganda Red Cross officials added.

"The police tried to handle the situation with as much restraint as
possible, but the organisers of the march failed to take charge," Aropet
said.

Sources said some Acholi homes within Lira town had been set ablaze by
Lang'i tribes people who were among the protestors. Numbering over 10,000,
the protestors flooded in from the town and surrounding areas, running,
and chanting slogans in the Luo language against both the government and
the LRA. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39680
]

Uganda's parliament on Wednesday declared the districts of the north and
east humanitarian disaster areas. The declaration was intended to ease
humanitarian access, the MPs, who were debating the Barlonyo killings. The
disaster area will comprise the Acholi, Lang'o and Teso regions, where the
LRA has displaced about 1.4 million people. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39702 ]


KENYA: Thousands of refugees threatened by food shortage

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) says thousands of refugees in northern
Kenya face food shortages in the coming months unless the organisation
gets immediate help.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the WFP said it "urgently requires US
$14 million to prevent cuts in food rations and to continue feeding
221,000 refugees in Kenya up to the end of December 2004." It said that
"if further donations are not made immediately" by April, the agency would
be short of cereals and by June would have no food supplies for the
refugees.

"The imminent cut in food rations will put at risk the health and lives of
refugees, especially women and children," the statement quoted Tesema
Negash, the WFP country director in Kenya, as saying. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39686; also see:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39639 ]


KENYA: Women praise Kibaki's directive to drop tax on sanitary towels

Women in Kenya have praised President Mwai Kibaki's promise to waive heavy
taxes levied on women's sanitary towels as a move that will greatly
enhance women's reproductive health and reduce the costly burden of
hygiene on poor women.

"There is no need of tax at all," Beatrice Elachi, a project officer with
the grass-roots body the National Council of Women of Kenya, told IRIN on
Monday. "Why should the government tax women on sanitary towels, yet this
is a natural issue and not out of choice?"

Women leaders led by Health Minister Charity Ngilu had on 20 February
called on Kibaki during the country's first National Women's Conference on
HIV/AIDS held in the capital, Nairobi, to intervene and reduce the cost of
sanitary towels for women, the majority of whom were resorting to
unhygienic practices such as the use of rags and toilet paper, thereby
exposing themselves to infections. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39627 ]

DRC: 15,000 Kitenge residents flee May-Mayi militia

At least 15,000 people have fled the village of Kitenge in the southern
province of Katanga, where Mayi-Mayi militiamen have killed 100 people
since 1 January, local human rights officials told IRIN.

"Kitenge residents live in fear and in trauma. They can no longer go about
their normal business, because the Mayi-Mayi are extorting, looting,
raping, burning homes, cutting off fingers and the private parts and pubic
hairs of their victims," Bin Masudi, the coordinator of the Katanga-based
Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, said.

Survivors have fled to localities surrounding Kitenge and to the
provincial capital, Lubumbashi, 700 km to the south. Masudi said the IDPs
were now living with relatives and friends. He said there were no
humanitarian aid structures available, because militiamen had looted all t
he health and humanitarian facilities. Medecins Sans Frontieres France
withdrew from the village after it was thoroughly looted in November 2003.

Mmilitary authorities have confirmed the killings, attributing them to a
splinter faction of the Mayi-Mayi. "For us, this is a group of armed
bandits who continue to kill, loot and rape, but we cannot understand why
the Mayi-Mayi would continue to act this way when their supreme commander
has ordered them to regroup in readiness for integration into the new
unified national army," Gen Dieugentil Mpia Nzambe said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39662 ]


ROC: Brazzaville says it reducing its military presence in Pool

Military leaders in the Republic of Congo insist they are reducing their
presence in the country's Pool region, contrary to reports that they are
increasing it, Col Michel Nsamoungana, military commander of the Pool
Department, told IRIN on Wednesday.

"That is just pure disinformation being disseminated by certain
ill-intentioned individuals who find pleasure in creating panic," he said.
"Our military presence in the department is in the process of being
reduced."

For the past several weeks, there have been reports of the military
sending reinforcements into Pool, and that another eruption of hostilities
was imminent.

"Quite to the contrary, it is the rebels who are increasing their
activity," he added. "They have retaken a large amount of territory,
particularly along the rail line and national highway that link the port
city of Pointe Noire to Kinkala, capital of the department. Many people
travelling these routes have complained of the rebels' behaviour, who
demand bribes." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39712 ]


CAR: Electoral process under way

The electoral process in the Central African Republic got under way on 20
February, with the country's law advisory body, the National Transitional
Council, beginning a session due to last until 31 March. During this
period, it is expected to approve bills that will facilitate the
establishment of electoral organs.

In a speech inaugurating the session, council Speaker Nicolas Tiangaye
said the law advisory body would examine a bill instituting a joint
independent electoral commission, which would oversee presidential and
parliamentary elections as well as announce the poll results. The
elections are due to be held late 2004 and in early 2005.

Tiangaye said that the council would also examine a draft of the country's
constitution to be presented at a referendum planned for October-November.
The new constitution would replace the one enacted in 1995 that Francois
Bozize abrogated when he seized power on 15 March 2003. The council is
also due to examine the electoral code and laws governing political
parties as well as local administrative structures. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39624 ]


BURUNDI: Fighting displaces thousands in Bujumbura Rural

Fresh fighting between a rebel movement headed by Agathon Rwasa and the
regular army has displaced thousands of people in Bujumbura Rural
Province, a local administrator said.

The administrator of Kanyosha Commune in Bujumbura Rural, Ernest
Ndabakeneye, told IRIN on Wednesday that the entire population of the
Muyira and Ruyaga sub-counties had fled their homes following Monday's
battle between the forces of the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) and
the army.

He said panic-stricken residents of Mboza, Buzige, and Busumba in Ruyaga
sub-county also fled their villages and sought refuge at Kanyosha town,
the administrative centre of Kanyosha Commune. Residents of Muyira
sub-county also fled to Buhonga and Muyira centres.

"I don't have the exact number but the total population that fled in the
two sub-counties might near 20,000," Ndabakeneye said.

The governor of Bujumbura Rural, Ignace Ntawembarira, had earlier said
that all residents from areas neighbouring Nyabiraba Commune who had fled
had since returned home. Wednesday's fighting in neighbouring Kabezi
Commune has, however, provoked a new wave of displacement. The
administrator of Kabezi, Felicien Ntahombaye, told IRIN that the FNL
attacked on Wednesday military positions near Kabezi town, Masama and
Mubone. He said two people were killed and four wounded. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39704 ]


BURUNDI: UN mission favours takeover of AMIB

A UN evaluation team said on Thursday, at the end of its two-week visit to
Burundi, that it favoured converting the African peacekeeping mission in
Burundi (AMIB) into a UN operation. The team, headed by Deputy Special
Representative for the Secretary-General for the DRC Behrooz Sadry, was in
Burundi to ascertain the progress made in the peace process between the
transitional government and its present and former armed opponents.

Sadry said the team came at the invitation of the government and South
African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who is the facilitator in the Burundi
peace process. Sadry said they wanted to know if the UN would sustain the
African mission.

"The response to this request is positive and strong," he said. If the UN
Security Council gave the go-ahead, he said, there would "simply be the
change of helmets" of the 2,870 AMIB troops from Ethiopia, Mozambique and
South Africa.

The UN team held consultations with Burundi authorities, former armed
groups and other international partners who, Sadry said, also wanted the
UN to take over the peacekeeping role. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39713 ]


RWANDA: ICTR convicts Imanishimwe; acquits Ntagerura, Bagambiki

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Wednesday
sentenced Samuel Imanishimwe, a former commander in the Rwandan armed
forces, to 27 years in prison after convicting him on six counts of
"genocide, crimes against humanity and serious violations of Common
Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions and of Additional Protocol II", the
court reported from Arusha, Tanzania.

However, it acquitted Andre Ntagerura, a former minister of transport and
communications, and Emmanuel Bagambiki, the former prefect of Cyangugu, of
similar charges.

The court found that Imanishimwe, as the commander of Karambo military
camp, authorised soldiers to arrest, detain, mistreat, and execute
civilians. He was also found criminally responsible for extermination and
for failing to prevent or to punish his subordinate soldiers'
participation in the massacre at the Gashirabowba football field on 12
April 1994. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39689 ]

On Thursday, a Rwandan official, Edda Mukabagwiza, said her government had
condemned the ICTR's acquittals of Ntagerura and Bagambiki. "The judgment
that was handed down is unsatisfactory and a shock to us," she said. "We
are going to help the prosecution in launching an appeal."

She added that the government was also displeased with Imanishimwe's
sentence. "We want the prosecution to launch an appeal on all the three
cases," she said. "We are ready to provide any evidence that the tribunal
wants on these characters. This was a group of extremists that should not
be let free." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39708 ]


RWANDA: President Kagame declares his wealth

President Paul Kagame declared on Wednesday his personal and family assets
to the state ombudsman, as part of efforts to promote transparency and
curb corruption in the country.

In doing so, he becomes one of the first senior government officials to
declare his wealth, an event that is to be carried out annually. However,
under Rwandan law, details of Kagame's assets cannot be made public unless
the ombudsman finds discrepancies between what is officially declared and
what Kagame possesses.

The ombudsman's office is an independent national body that investigates
citizens' complaints against public officials, their government or its
administration. In many countries, it has no powers of prosecution.
However, under Rwanda's constitution, the ombudsman's office is charged
with "fighting injustice, corruption and related malpractice in public and
private entities". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39707 ]


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