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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 249
16 - 22 October 2004


CONTENTS:

DRC: Army retakes Katanga mining town
DRC: Kabila begins visit to the east
DRC: Kinshasa recalls ambassador to Belgium
CAR-DRC: Voluntary repatriation begins for 10,000 Congolese refugees
CAR: Voter registration begins
BURUNDI: Transitional government to be extended by six months
BURUNDI: Diseases rife in cantonment camps
BURUNDI: Interim constitution endorsed amidst protests
ROC: Rebels cut train service to coast
UGANDA: Security forces accused of torturing suspects
UGANDA: HIV/AIDS training institute opened


DRC: Army retakes Katanga mining town

Government troops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) recaptured
the mining town of Kilwa from insurgents on 15 Oct, in the southeastern
province of Katanga, killing 20 to 30, Deputy Governor of Katanga Chikez
Diemu told IRIN.

Troop reinforcements came from the nearby town of Pweto.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=43726 ]


The Pweto sector commander of the Mayi-Mayi insurgents, Prince Mulala,
told IRIN his men had seized Kilwa because they had not been integrated
into the unified army in accordance with the April 2003 power-sharing
agreement between the government, several rebel factions and political
organisations.

The seizure of Kilwa caused Medecins Sans Frontieres to evacuate the town
temporarily. In Zambia, officials said some 3,000 Congolese fled into the
country over the weekend across Lake Mweru. Zambian Home Affairs Permanent
Secretary Peter Mumba told IRIN on Monday the arrivals could further
strain the country's limited resources. Zambia has already worked with
humanitarian agencies to hasten the repatriation of some 40,000 Angolan
refugees in Zambia. [On the Net: DRC: Militiamen capture town in Katanga
Province http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=43701 ]


ZAMBIA: Refugees arrive from DRC to escape fighting
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=43729


DRC: Kabila begins visit to the east

President Joseph Kabila began his first visit as head of state to
Kisangani on Saturday in the eastern province of Oriental, scene of some
of the worst fighting during five years of war in the DRC.

"By beginning with Kisangani, Kabila's visit symbolised national
reunification, the end of hostilities and economic revival," Kudura
Kasongo, his spokesman, told IRIN.

He will also visit other former rebel-held areas in the east of the
country. The route will take him to Kindu, the main town in Maniema
Province; Bukavu, the leading town in South Kivu Province; Ituri District,
in Oriental Province; and the northwestern province of Equateur.

[Full report on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=43723 ]


DRC: Kinshasa recalls ambassador to Belgium

Furious over remarks made by the foreign minister of Belgium, the former
colonial power, the government of the DRC announced on Friday that it is
recalling its ambassador from Brussels.

"Insolence!" was the reason that DRC government spokesperson, Henri Mova
Sakanyi, gave IRIN for the diplomatic action.

"There's no use in us keeping an ambassador in Belgium if they see us as
an association or a group of criminals," Mova said on Friday, in reference
to the comments made last week by Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht
after visiting the region. "The minister doesn't regard the DRC to be a
state."

De Gucht was reported to have said there was "no real government in the
DRC". He also reportedly said he was "not very impressed" by many of the
politicians he met there.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=43809 ]


CAR-DRC: Voluntary repatriation begins for 10,000 Congolese refugees

Some 10,000 DRC refugees began on Wednesday a voluntary repatriation from
the Central African Republic, a protection officer for the Office of the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

The UNHCR official, Bettina Gambert, said on Thursday the refugees were
being returned in groups of 100 every day, with the first group having
left from the Molangue Refugee Camp in CAR for the town of Libenge, in the
DRC's northwestern Equateur Province.

A UNHCR spokesman in Geneva, Ron Redmond, said at a news briefing on
Tuesday that Equateur was now safe for the refugees and that UNCHR planned
to repatriate 2,247 of them by the end of 2004.

The refugees had fled there in 1998 during fighting between rebels and
troops loyal to the government of the late President Laurent Kabila.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=43788 ]


CAR: Voter registration begins

Countrywide registration of voters began on 17 October in the CAR with the
Independent Mixed Electoral Commission, or CEMI, setting up around 5,411
electoral posts nationwide.

Registration is due to end on Sunday. The first election in November is to
be a referendum for the new constitution. It will be followed by combined
legislative and presidential elections in January 2005, after which the
transitional period is set to end.

The current military government of Gen. Francois Bozize came to power
following a coup of 15 March 2003 that ousted former President Ange-Felix
Patasse.

The government approved the electoral commission's US $10.8-million budget
in August 2004. The government's contribution to this is $2 million and
the EU has made E3 million ($3.7 million) available.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=43742 ]


BURUNDI: Transitional government to be extended by six months

Burundi's presidential elections, scheduled to take place at the end of
October, will now be held on 22 April 2005, according to a plan published
on Saturday by the National Independent Electoral Commission. The
commission has proposed a calendar in which the current transitional
government would be extended for six months.

A referendum on the country's post-transition constitution that had been
scheduled for Wednesday is now to be held on 26 November, Commission
Chairman Paul Ngarambe announced on national radio and television.

The timetable also includes local elections on 9 February, communal
elections on 23 February and legislative elections on 9 March. Ngarambe
said the dates might still change depending on factors such as the
availability of funds and security conditions.

A regional summit on Burundi held in Nairobi on 15 October, endorsed the
plan with the electoral calendar after receiving a report and
recommendations from the commission.

[Full item on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=43721 ]


BURUNDI: Diseases rife in cantonment camps

Hundreds of combatants from various former rebel groups who are cantoned
at Bulamata Camp in Burundi's northwestern Bubanza Province are suffering
from malaria and diarrhoea and have limited access to medical care,
medical officials said on Wednesday.

Some 700 combatants at Bulamata live in squalor, the provincial health
director in Bubanza, Canesius Havyarimanan, told IRIN.

Bubanza Hospital had treated combatants for four months without getting
paid, Havyarimanan said, but it is now only treating those with
life-threatening diseases.

Leaders of five former rebel movements denounced the poor living
conditions of their combatants at a joint news conference on Wednesday.
The transitional government has failed to honour its pledges, said Etienne
Karatasi, leader of the former rebel Nyabenda Deogratias of the
Palipe-Agakiza.

[Full item on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=43761 ]


BURUNDI: Interim constitution endorsed amidst protests

Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye signed into law on Wednesday a new
interim constitution immediately after it was endorsed by a special joint
session of the National Assembly and Senate.

The constitution will take effect at the end of Burundi's transitional
rule on 1 November. The constitution will remain in force at least until
26 November when Burundian voters are expected to decide in a referendum
whether or not to accept the constitution after the end of the interim
period.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=43787 ]


ROC: Rebels cut train service to coast

Rail service stopped on Monday between the Republic of the Congo's main
port of Pointe-Noire and its capital, Brazzaville, following numerous
attacks on trains in the 250-km stretch of rail line in the Pool region.

"Whenever trains cross the Pool they are attacked," Jacky Trimardeau, the
director for the railway company, Chemin de Fer Congo Ocean, said on
Tuesday at a Brazzaville news conference.

"Under these conditions it is difficult to keep operating," he added.

He said the rebel group known as Conseil National de la Resistance, or
Ninjas, was perpetrating the attacks.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=43749 ]


UGANDA: Security forces accused of torturing suspects

Ugandan security forces frequently torture suspects despite government
admonitions against the practice, the country's Human Rights Commission, a
state-constituted watchdog, said in a its annual report released this
week.

"It [torture] is either presented as part of training, or a learned
practice that is indispensable in the operations of some security organs,"
the report added.

According to the 187-page report, victims often say they are beaten with
metal objects on the limbs and then incarcerated in unknown places for
indefinite periods of time in an attempt to allow the healing process of
the torture wounds to complete, prior to being released.

The commission reported in 2003 that torture complaints accounted for 22
percent of the 2,050 cases of human rights abuse brought before it. It
added that impunity for perpetrators of torture left the impression that
the practice was state sanctioned.

The commission said a government security agency, known as "Violent Crime
Crack Unit", was the main offender.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=43784 ]


UGANDA: HIV/AIDS training institute opened

One of the largest HIV/AIDS training centres in Africa was opened on
Wednesday in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. The institute is designed to
treat people suffering from AIDS and train at least 250 health
professionals annually on how best to care for HIV-infected persons.

Pfizer, one of the largest drug manufacturers in the world, funds the
Infectious Disease Institute, which cost US $15 million to build. Although
just officially inaugurated, the centre started receiving patients in
April.

[Full report on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=43777 ]



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


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