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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 235
10 - 16 July 2004


CONTENTS:

GREAT LAKES: Ministers move to revive economic cooperation
DRC: Kabila reshuffles cabinet
DRC: IMF approves US $40 million for economic reform
DRC: Nine die as mine collapses in Katanga
DRC-RWANDA: Congolese army kills 23 Interahamwe militiamen in North Kivu
RWANDA: UN tribunal's appeals chamber upholds genocide conviction
RWANDA: Don't ban rights groups, Kigali urged
BURUNDI: UN mission to speed up ceasefire talks with FNL
ROC: Brazzaville suspended from list of Kimberley Process
UGANDA: Some 300 former rebels join national army
UGANDA: Senior LRA commander captured by the army
KENYA: President declares drought national disaster, appeals for food aid


GREAT LAKES: Ministers move to revive economic cooperation

The foreign ministers of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC) and Rwanda decided on 11 July in the Belgian capital, Brussels, to
resume economic cooperation by reactivating the Economic Community of the
Great Lakes Countries. The community, known by its French acronym CEPGL
(Communaute economique des pays des grands lacs), collapsed in 1998 when
fighting broke out between Rwanda and the DRC.

"The reactivation of the regional economic structures will constitute a
vital complement to the current peace and transitional phases in these
countries," the ministers said in a statement issued at the end of their
meeting.

The CEPGL structures to be re-launched comprise economic, energy,
conservation and social domains. They will include the Development Bank of
the Great Lakes States, based in the eastern DRC town of Goma; the Great
Lakes International Electricity Company, based in Bukavu in eastern DRC;
and the Great Lakes Energy Organisation, based in the Burundian capital,
Bujumbura. Also to be reactivated are the Institute for Agronomical and
Zoological Research, based in the central Burundian province of Gitega,
and social dialogue aimed at reinforcing the partnership among social
partners and to implement conflict prevention mechanisms. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42116 ]


DRC: Kabila reshuffles cabinet

DRC President Joseph Kabila has reshuffled his cabinet, effecting 12
replacements and several transfers from one ministry to another.
Announcing the changes on 11 July in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, Kabila
appointed four new ministers and transferred four others to different
ministries. He also appointed eight new vice-ministers and transferred
another.

Observers said the new configuration of the cabinet did not alter the
balance of power between the various political parties represented in the
transitional government installed in Kinshasa in June 2003 following the
signing of an agreement in South Africa in April 2003.

Kabila made the reshuffle to fill positions left vacant following the
departure of various cabinet members, some of whom were appointed to
regional administrative posts while others had left the government
completely. The cabinet size remained unchanged, with 26 ministers and 24
vice-ministers, as stipulated in an accord signed in Pretoria on 16
December 2002 on the establishment of institutions needed for the
country's transitional process.


DRC: IMF approves US $40 million for economic reform

The IMF approved a loan of $40 million for the DRC on Tuesday, following a
review of its economic performance. The government is to use the loan to
foster growth and reduce poverty. In a statement, the IMF said the DRC
government had stuck to its IMF-backed economic programme.

The Fund's first deputy managing director, Anne Krueger, commended DRC's
authorities in their efforts in 2004 to maintain "a relatively constant
level of security spending while boosting pro-poor spending, and the
continued building up of foreign reserves."

"Nonetheless, major challenges remain in demobilising combatants and
successfully holding elections," she said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42188 ]


DRC: Nine die as mine collapses in Katanga

Nine miners died and several others are still missing following the
collapse of a uranium mine on Friday in Shinkolobwe, Katanga Province,
southeastern DRC.

Mwema Teli, an agent for the department of hygiene and workers' security
in the field of mining, a Congolese organisation fighting the exploitation
of minors in the region, said six survivors had been pulled from the
rubble. Teli, who arrived at the scene one hour after the collapse, said
several other miners remained buried in the rubble.

One miner, who declined to be named, told IRIN on Monday that about 30
people remained trapped inside the mine. The DRC government closed the
Shinkolobwe mine in February. However, a number of freelance miners
continued to work the mine illegally.


DRC-RWANDA: Congolese army kills 23 Interahamwe militiamen in North Kivu

Congolese army troops have killed 23 Rwandan Hutu militia, known as
Interahamwe, in the eastern province of North Kivu, an official told IRIN
on Monday. Gen Obedi Rwabasira, the commander of the Eighth Military
Region of the DRC Armed Forces, said government forces killed the militia
on 9 July in the villages of Rubare and Kingi, north of the provincial
capital, Goma.

"There were 23 dead among the Interahamwe. We also recovered 17 light
weapons, FMGs [folding machine guns] and four boxes of machine-gun
ammunition," Rwabasira said by telephone from Goma.

The UN Mission in the DRC could not verify Rwabasira's statements. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42134 ]


RWANDA: UN tribunal's appeals chamber upholds genocide conviction

The Appeals Chamber of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
(ICTR) on Friday dismissed an appeal by a former minister and affirmed his
conviction and sentence to imprisonment for the remainder of his life. In
a statement, the tribunal reported that the appeals chamber had ordered
Eliezer Niyitegeka, 52, who was the education minister in Rwanda's interim
government in 1994, to remain in the tribunal's custody pending his
transfer to the state in which he will serve his sentence.

The tribunal reported that Niyitegeka's appeal brief contained 53 points
that he argued represented grounds for overturning his conviction. He
challenged all the findings in a May 2003 decision of an ICTR trial
chamber, arguing that a reasonable court could not have reached the
findings and decision, and that his trial was in breach of his statutory
right to a fair trial.

However, the appeals chamber dismissed all of Niyitegeka's points, except
two in which he had argued that he had insufficient notice of facts
underpinning the charges against him. The chamber ruled that the two
points did not invalidate the trial chamber's decision. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42125 ]


RWANDA: Don't ban rights groups, Kigali urged

African Rights, a continental human rights organisation, has urged the
Rwandan government to reject a request to dissolve six of the country's
human rights groups accused by a parliamentary commission of harbouring
genocidal ideas. "We call upon parliamentarians to move beyond the anger
expressed in the heat of the debate and consider how the sensitive and
difficult issues the discussion raised may best be addressed in the
interests of all the citizens of Rwanda," African Rights said in a report
issued on 9 July. It described the commission's decision as
"misconceived".

Among the organisations recommended for dissolution is the League for the
Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (Liprodor), an independent rights
monitoring body, which has in the past been critical of the government's
record on promoting and protecting human rights. The other NGOs include
the Forum des organisations rurales, Abahamya b'izuka, Souvenirs des
parents, SDA-Iriba and 11.11.11, a Belgian-based organisation with a local
agency. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42159 ]

Subsequently, on Thursday, Francois Xavier Byuma, the Liprodor
vice-president, told IRIN that six officials of his organisation had fled
the country for fear of arrest following the parliamentary recommendation
for the Liprodor's disbandment. He said they had fled to Uganda eight days
earlier. "All those fleeing are scared for their security and fear to be
arrested after that report [was] made by parliament," Byuma said. "The
number could grow bigger as most of our members and staff are now scared."

Rwandan police confirmed the departure of the officials. "It is true that
six of their members have fled the country," Theos Badenge, the police
spokesman, said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42193 ]


BURUNDI: UN mission to speed up ceasefire talks with FNL

The newly established UN Mission in Burundi, known by its French acronym
ONUB, will meet the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) rebel faction
headed by Agathon Rwasa this week with a view to expediting ceasefire
talks, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative to Burundi,
Carolyn McAskie, said on Monday. She made the announcement in the
Burundian capital, Bujumbura, when she opened the 19th session of the
Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) of the Peace and Reconciliation
Accord signed in August 2000 in Arusha, Tanzania.

Rwasa's FNL is the only remaining rebel movement yet to sign a ceasefire
agreement with the transitional government of Burundi, which was set up
under the Arusha accord. Three other former rebel movements have signed
ceasefire agreements with the government and are taking part in the
government.

McAskie also announced that a meeting between donor countries and Burundi
would be held on 28 July in Bujumbura, in an effort to revive development,
investment and economic partnership with donors. Among other issues, the
three-day IMC session is to address refugee repatriation, the issue of
prisoners and the country's social and economic development. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42153 ]


ROC: Brazzaville suspended from list of Kimberley Process

The Republic of Congo (ROC) has been suspended from the list of country
participants in the diamond-traceability initiative, known as the
Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). In a statement, the
chairman of the Kimberley Process, Tim Martin of Canada, said the ROC had
been suspended on 9 July following a report submitted by a review mission
sent to the ROC from 31 May to 4 June.

"The findings of the review mission are clear. The Republic of Congo
cannot account for the origin of large quantities of rough diamonds that
it is officially exporting," Martin said. According to the statement, the
ROC authorities were unable to account for a massive discrepancy between
the scale of rough diamond exports and the absence of any reported
production or imports. The review also found that the ROC did not have
adequate procedures to ensure that Kimberley Process certificates were
being issued only for rough diamonds produced in the country.

The ROC mines and energy ministry issued a statement on Monday disputing
the findings of the review mission, maintaining that the country had
respected the terms of the Kimberley Process. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42173 ]


UGANDA: Some 300 former rebels join national army

About 300 former fighters of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) were
integrated into the national army on Tuesday after completing a
three-month retraining programme. The rebels - who included nine women -
whom the LRA had abducted from villages in northern Uganda and forced to
become fighters, graduated from the course at a ceremony in Gulu
officiated by the army commander Lt-Gen Aronda Nyakayirima, according to
the army's spokesman in the region, Lt Paddy Ankunda.

"This is the first exercise to train LRA [fighters who give themselves up]
and integrate them into the army. They are all ready to do a good job and
ready to fight alongside the UPDF [Uganda People's Defence Forces] and end
the [Joseph] Kony [LRA leader] problem once and for all," Ankunda told
IRIN by telephone from the ceremony.

Some humanitarian bodies questioned the wisdom of making these fighters
part of the army, saying they required longer periods of counselling,
because many had been children when they were abducted and forced to
commit atrocities. "These people cannot be in their normal senses to
handle a service like the army. They required months of counselling before
the idea of introducing them to any vocation could arise," said a church
worker in northern Uganda who preferred not to be named. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42154 ]


UGANDA: Senior LRA commander captured by the army

The LRA suffered a setback on Tuesday when a senior commander was captured
in Gulu District. Seventy-year-old "Brigadier" Kenneth Banya, who, army
spokesman Maj Shaban Bantariza said, was the most senior adviser to the
LRA leader, Joseph Kony, was captured following a battle at Okidi, along
the River Unyama in Gulu District. "He has been the heart and spirit of
the rebellion. He is the main military and technical brain behind the
rebel movement. He has been attached to Kony in Sudan," Bantariza told
IRIN.

He said five LRA fighters were killed during Banya's capture and another
five taken prisoner as infantry supported by a helicopter engaged his
group of about 135 fighters, who then scattered.

Banya is a former Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) major. He used to
be President Yoweri Museveni's escort while the latter was a minister in
the government that followed the ouster of former dictator Idi Amin in
1979. He is the first high-profile capture for the army since the
rebellion started some 18 years ago. Banya is a Soviet-trained MIG-21
fighter and MI-17 helicopter pilot who served in Idi Amin's army before
joining the UNLA under former President Milton Obote. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42198 ]


KENYA: President declares drought national disaster, appeals for food aid

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Wednesday appealed for US $76 million to
fund emergency relief operations to help some 3.3 million people affected
by drought, saying crop failure brought on by inadequate rainfall amounted
to "a national disaster". He told reporters in the capital, Nairobi, that
the situation could worsen if the short rains expected towards the end of
the year also failed, in which case the number of affected people would
rise to 4.3 million and the cost of relief operations would soar to about
$90 million.

Some 156,000 mt of assorted food would be needed to feed the hungry from
now until January 2005, the president said, adding that poor rainfall had
led to a 60-percent crop failure in five of Kenya's seven provinces. Help
for the affected people would be offered through general food
distributions, food-for-work schemes and supplementary feeding programmes,
according to the text of the appeal.

Kibaki said 1.5 million of those affected were primary school children,
who would be fed through school feeding programmes, which required 9,500
mt of food at an estimated cost of $2.1 million. Non-food items for the
school feeding programmes would cost another $2.9 million. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42187 ]


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


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