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

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 216
28 February - 5 March 2004


CONTENTS:

DRC: MSF decries attacks on civilians in northern Katanga
DRC: High-level delegation in Ituri pushes for disarmament
DRC: MONUC deploys 3,500 soldiers to Bukavu to help restore calm
DRC: Kinshasa gets US $200 million World Bank credit
DRC-RWANDA: Kigali appoints ambassador to Kinshasa
RWANDA-ZAMBIA: Rwandan refugees reluctant to return home
CAR: Bangui grants Aristide temporary asylum
CAR: Civil servants to take pay cut as Bangui goes broke
BURUNDI: Upsurge in fighting hampers food delivery, WFP warns
BURUNDI: Kinama storm victims still waiting for aid
BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Refugee body begins assessment mission
TANZANIA: Japan waives $115-million debt
UGANDA: SPLM/A clash with LRA rebels in Sudan


DRC: MSF decries attacks on civilians in northern Katanga

The international relief NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) denounced on
Thursday what it said was widespread violence against civilians in
northern Katanga Province of southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC).

In a statement, MSF teams in Kitenge, northern Katanga, said they were
concerned over the fate of 10,000 to 20,000 people who had been displaced
by fighting in the area, and whose precise whereabouts could not be
determined.

MSF teams were able to assist some 9,000 people in areas south and east of
Kitenge town, after having been prevented from doing so for 10 days by
fighting. However, MSF said areas north of Kitenge remained inaccessible
because of continuing fighting and dangerous roads. [Full story at
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39837 ]


DRC: High-level delegation in Ituri pushes for disarmament

A delegation comprising members of the DRC transitional government, the
ambassadors of France, Norway and Spain, and William Swing, the UN
secretary-general's special representative to the country, has visited the
nation's troubled northeastern Ituri District to urge armed groups to
disarm, demobilise and reintegrate, the UN Mission in the DRC, MONUC,
reported on Wednesday.

Insecurity has persisted in Ituri despite the inauguration on 30 June 2003
of a government of national unity, ostensibly bringing an end to nearly
five years of war.

The MONUC spokesman, Hamadoun Toure, said at a news conference in the
capital, Kinshasa, that the delegation had begun discussions on Tuesday
with various armed groups, civil society organisations and the local
residents. "The delegation agreed to help reintegrate the combatants into
civilian life, and then see if any of them are interested in joining the
unified army," he said.

Meanwhile DRC Interior Vice-Minister Paul Musafiri, a member of the
delegation, declared Ituri an arms-free district. Musafiri also reported
that Kabila had invited leaders of armed groups in Mahagi to come to
Kinshasa for negotiations with the transitional national government before
the end of the week. [Full story at
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39818 ]


DRC: MONUC deploys 3,500 soldiers to Bukavu to help restore calm

MONUC deployed 3,500 soldiers on Tuesday to the eastern city of Bukavu,
South Kivu Province, to help restore calm following an eruption of
hostilities, Toure said at a news conference in Kinshasa.

"Normal activity has resumed in the city. The objective of our forces is
to apply Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, as is already the case in
Ituri," he said on Wednesday.

UN Security Council resolution 1493 enables MONUC to act under Chapter
Seven of the UN Charter, which authorises the use of "all necessary means"
to fulfil its mandate in Ituri District, as well as North and South Kivu
Provinces. The deployment coincided with the end of three days of "ville
morte", during which shops remained closed and residents stayed at home.
The action was organised by civil society and members of the Mayi-Mayi
militias, now party to the national transitional government, to protest
against last week's release of Maj Joseph Kasongo.

Kasongo, an officer of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie
(RCD-Goma), a former rebel movement now party to the national transitional
government, had been found guilty in absentia of involvement in the murder
of DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila, and more recently had been accused
of involvement in arms trafficking. Kasongo was released following
pressure from RCD-Goma, which threatened to pull out of the government and
related transitional institutions. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39816 ]


DRC: Kinshasa gets US $200 million World Bank credit

The World Bank has approved a US $200-million credit for the DRC
government, under its International Development Association (IDA)
programme. The money would go towards supporting the DRC's economic and
recovery programme, the bank said on 27 February.

"The post-reunification economic recovery credit will facilitate the
implementation of urgent reforms in critical areas, including initiating a
civil service reform," the bank reported. "It will help the government
deal with the country's debt situation by making resources available to
support the government's settlement of domestic arrears and payment to its
utility suppliers."

It said the money would also be used for structural reforms aimed at
fostering efficiency and enhancing productive capacities. The credit would
provide the government with the resources to facilitate extensive
transitional and reintegration adjustments across the country. {Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39779 ]

Subsequently, on Thursday, the IMF announced that it had approved a
$39-million disbursement to foster growth and reduce poverty in the DRC
under the country's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility. The IMF said
this latest disbursement brought the total amount drawn under the
arrangement to about $740 million. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39874 ]


DRC-RWANDA: Kigali appoints ambassador to Kinshasa

The Rwandan government has appointed Juru Antoine Munyakazi as its
ambassador to the DRC, the first time since Kigali invaded its vast
mineral-rich neighbour in 1996, Gregoire Karambizi, the secretary-general
in the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Thursday.

The measure marks a significant thaw in relations between the two
countries since Rwandan and Ugandan troops first invaded DRC in 1996 to
oust one of the longest-serving African leaders, Mobutu Sese Seko. Rwanda
and Uganda again sent their forces into the DRC in August 1998, following
a breakdown in relations with their former ally, the late President
Laurent-Desire Kabila. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39851 ]


RWANDA-ZAMBIA: Rwandan refugees reluctant to return home

A senior Zambian official said on Wednesday the authorities would continue
to persuade Rwandan refugees that it was safe to return home.

"There has been some resistance from the Rwandan community to the
repatriation process, mainly because they fear persecution by the
government. But there's really no evidence of this, which makes the
current situation very difficult for all the parties concerned," Jacob
Mpepo, the Zambian commissioner for refugees, told IRIN.

Hundreds of thousands of mainly Hutu Rwandans fled the country after the
genocide in 1994, which claimed the lives of more than 800,000 moderate
Hutus.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began
repatriating the estimated 5,000 Rwandans from Zambia in May 2003, after a
tripartite agreement was signed between the agency and the governments of
Zambia and Rwanda. But since the repatriation began, just 123 Rwandans
have returned home. Mpepo said the government and UNHCR would step up
their education efforts, which he hoped would allay some of the concerns
raised by refugees. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39814 ]


CAR: Bangui grants Aristide temporary asylum

Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, 51, who resigned on 28
February after a popular uprising, arrived in Bangui, the CAR capital, on
Monday.

Foreign Minister Charles Wenezoui told IRIN on Thursday that Aristide
could remain the Central African Republic until he finds a new
destination. Aristide's flight into exile was his second. [Full story at:
[http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39749 ]


CAR: Civil servants to take pay cut as Bangui goes broke

Salaries for civil servants in the CAR will be reduced, at a rate yet to
be determined, in a bid to slash state expenditure that has gone beyond
the government's capacity to meet, a government minister announced on
Thursday.

Finance Minister Jean Pierre Lebouder said the move would not affect civil
servants in lower pay categories. Currently, the highest pay category for
civil servants is about 3.5 million francs CFA ($6,776) while 17,000
francs ($32) is the lowest.

Despite its huge mineral and timber resources, the CAR has failed to pay
civil servants for four months. Lebouder made the announcement at a
four-hour meeting called by CAR leader Francois Bozize with the country's
stakeholders. He added that the government’s salary expenses had nearly
doubled with the integration of thousands of former exiles "in the name of
national unity and reconciliation".

"We have reached the bottom of the pot," Bozize said at the meeting. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39877 ]


BURUNDI: Upsurge in fighting hampers food delivery, warns WFP

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) reported on Thursday that an upsurge in
fighting in recent weeks in parts of Burundi had prevented it from
delivering food aid to thousands of newly displaced people.

"WFP is extremely concerned about the nutritional status of displaced
Burundians, as well as the limited ability of the already poor and
struggling communities hosting them to cope," Zlatan Milisic, the WFP
country director in Burundi, said.

WFP said continued insecurity forced it to cancel last week's planned
emergency food aid distributions to 13,000 people who had recently fled
their homes in Muhuta Commune, a rural area near the capital, Bujumbura.
WFP said the last time it had access to these people was on 19 February,
during a joint needs assessment it conducted with the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the UN Children's Fund. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39844 ]


BURUNDI: Kinama storm victims still waiting for aid

Two weeks after a storm destroyed their homes, some 15,000 residents of a
suburb of the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, are still waiting for aid to
rebuild their homes, a local official told IRIN on Wednesday.

"The Ministry of Social Action and Women's Promotion came to assess the
needs and promised to supply the people with iron sheets, but it keeps
telling us that it is still collecting them," Jean Pierre Ntigacika, the
chief of Kinama suburb, said.

He added that no other government agency or NGO had so far offered to
help. The storm hit the northern suburbs of Bujumbura on 20 February,
destroying at least 300 homes in the low-income neighbourhood of Kinama.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39808 ]


BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Refugee body begins assessment mission

The advocacy group Refugees International launched a 25-day humanitarian
assessment mission on Thursday, focusing on the situation for internally
displaced people (IDPs) in Burundi and whether appropriate conditions had
been put in place for them and for refugees in Tanzania to return home.

"The political instability and pervasive insecurity have caused
displacement, with about 280,000 Burundians displaced internally and
another 800,000 refugees outside the country, most of them in Tanzania,"
Refugees International reported on Wednesday.

It said this would be its first mission to Burundi since 2001, although it
had regularly assessed the situation in refugee camps in Tanzania.
[Refugees International item on the Web: www.refugeesinternational.org ]


TANZANIA: Japan waives $115-million debt

The government of Japan announced on Tuesday that it had waived 12.1
billion yen (about $115 million) of debt Tanzania had incurred with the
Japan Bank for International Cooperation for up to 20 years, the head of
economic cooperation at the Japanese embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tatsuo
Hirayama, told IRIN.

The debt cancellation only applied to Overseas Development Assistance
loans accumulated over the last 20 years, but Hirayama said discussions
were "ongoing" on the cancellation of Tanzania's commercial loans. [Full
story at http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39841 ]


UGANDA: SPLM/A clash with LRA rebels in Sudan

Fierce fighting has erupted in southern Sudan between the Sudan People's
Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army
(LRA) rebels, a senior SPLM/A official told IRIN on Wednesday.

George Riek Machar, the SPLM/A spokesman in the Ugandan capital, Kampala,
said scuffles broke out after the LRA ambushed an SPLM/A position near the
front line with Sudanese government forces. "We fought back and chased
them out," he told IRIN. "We lost two men when they brought reinforcements
for a counterattack, but we have since taken some prisoners."

Machar said the LRA had been killing civilians and looting food and cattle
in the area. He said pursuit of the group was part of increased SPLM/A
pressure on the LRA in the run-up to the expected peace deal with the
Sudanese government.

"The LRA are killing more people in Sudan than in Uganda," he said. "All
the displacement near the border is because of them. The SPLM/A would very
much like to finish them once and for all. Once the peace deal is in
place, our full attention will turn to the LRA." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=39809 ]


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