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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 259
1 - 7 January 2005


CONTENTS:

DRC: Aid starts to reach the war-displaced in North Kivu
DRC: Abuses continue around UN buffer zone
DRC: IDPs in Equateur Province begin returning home
BURUNDI: Some three million registered to vote
BURUNDI: Renewed fighting displaces thousands in Bujumbura Rural
BURUNDI: Integrated national army, reconciliation commission set up
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Bozize repeals court ban on some presidential
   candidates


ALSO SEE:

BURUNDI: Progress, but will it be enough? //Year ender//
[http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=44908 ]

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Court clears five to run for president http://
[http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=44873 ]

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Long, hard road to democracy //Year ender//
[http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=44941 ]


DRC: Aid starts to reach the war-displaced in North Kivu

Humanitarian workers have ventured into jungles in eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) since Thursday to deliver food and non-food relief
aid to thousands of war-displaced people in North Kivu Province, a UN
official told IRIN.

"We have been distributing biscuits, protein food stuffs and providing
medical assistance to the wounded and sick," Patrick Lavand'homme, head of
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Goma,
capital of North Kivu, said on Tuesday.

He added that UN troops escorted the trucks carrying the aid to the
forested slopes around the North Kivu towns of Kanyabayonga, Bitonghe,
Kayna, Lubero and Kirumbi. These towns, particularly Kanyabayonga, which
is 150 km northeast of Goma, bore the brunt of the latest violence between
troops loyal to the Kinshasa government and dissident soldiers of the
Congolese army. Most of the towns were deserted at the height of clashes
in mid-December.

At least 100,000 people fled their homes for the forests during the
fighting. Lavand'homme said registration of the displaced started on
Thursday.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=44902]


DRC: Abuses continue around UN buffer zone

Combatants are committing human rights violations near the town of
Kanyabayonga in the east of the country despite an uneasy calm following
the creation of a UN buffer zone, a UN official said on Thursday.

"The insurgents have not yet returned to the positions they held before
the fighting broke and deserters from the regular Congolese army in the
area continue to sow disorder, pillaging and committing human rights
violations," Eliane Nabaa, a spokeswoman for the UN Mission in the DRC,
known as MONUC, said. "Many of the civilians displaced by the fighting are
not returning home."

MONUC estimated that 150,000 people in Kanyabayonga and other towns in
North Kivu Province had been displaced by the recent fighting.

MONUC reported that human rights also deteriorated in December in
Walikale, an area 140 km west of Goma, capital of North Kivu, with summary
executions and abductions by members of the former rebel faction
Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) and former Mayi-Mayi
militiamen. Both groups have officially been integrated into the national
army. [Full report on: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=44969 ]


DRC: IDPs in Equateur Province begin returning home

The first of thousands of war-displaced people in Equateur Province have
started to return home as part of a pilot project being undertaken jointly
by the government and the UN.

On 31 December, 375 left Equateur's capital, Mbandaka, for their homes in
and around the town of Basankusu, 240 km to the northeast, Social Affairs
Minister Ingele Ifoto told IRIN. They are travelling by barge, provided by
MONUC, on the Congo and Lulonga rivers.

Almost three million people displaced by five years of war have still not
returned to their homes in various parts of the DRC, despite a December
2002 peace agreement between the government and all rebel groups and the
creation, in June 2003, of a government of national unity.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=44889 ]


BURUNDI: Some three million registered to vote

The long-awaited lists of registered voters for Burundi's forthcoming
elections have been created and will be published on Monday, according to
the chairman of the National Independent Electoral Commission, Paul
Ngarambe.

The lists consist of the names of 3.14 million Burundians who have
registered to vote, he said on Tuesday at the news conference in the
Burundian capital, Bujumbura. Voters will have 10 days to consult the
lists that will be posted at various local government offices. People can
lodge complaints if their names had not been included, he said.

A referendum on the constitution had been delayed twice because electoral
lists had not been ready. Ngarambe said this was initially because of
logistical problems with the registration process and later because
"inputting of data was slow, as many of the commission's employees are not
very good at typing".

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=44948 ]


BURUNDI: Renewed fighting displaces thousands in Bujumbura Rural

Thousands of civilians were displaced following fierce fighting on 1
January in the western province of Bujumbura Rural, provincial Governor
Ignace Ntawembarira said.

Fighting was reported in the communes of Isale, Nyabiraba and Kanyosha,
east of the capital, Bujumbura, between the rebel faction Forces
nationales de liberation of Agathon Rwasa, and a coalition of the
Burundian army and troops loyal to Pierre Nkurunziza, leader of the former
largest rebel faction in the country, the Conseil national pour la defense
de la democratie-Forces de defense pour la democratie.

The total number of new IDPs in the province is unclear. According to a
local radio station, there are at least 25,000. However, Ntawembarira said
he did not have an exact figure, nor did any other official contacted by
IRIN.

Ntawembarira said 6,000 IDPs were known to be in the Bujumbura
neighbourhood of Ruyaga in Kanyosha and another 5,000 in Vugizo, a town on
the outskirts east of Bujumbura.

Until the fighting started, refugees and IDPs had been returning to their
homes in record numbers. Many IDPs returned to their homes in Bujumbura
Rural in the last two weeks.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=44911 ]


BURUNDI: Integrated national army, reconciliation commission set up

Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye has signed two decrees establishing
new national military and police forces in the country, as well as a Truth
and Reconciliation Commission.

In his 31 December decree, Ndayizeye said Burundi's army and police would
now comprise members of the government forces and those who had served in
former rebel groups, which had signed peace agreements with the
transitional government.

He signed another decree on 27 December creating the 25-member National
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is due to investigate serious
acts of violence committed in the country since its independence from
Belgium 41 years ago. It will be charged with qualifying the types of
crimes - acts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The
commission, with a two-year mandate, will also be responsible for
arbitration and reconciliation. It will decide on restitution of stolen or
destroyed property as well as compensation.

Members of the commission will be Burundians, aged at least 35 years, of
integrity and good social standing. They will be appointed by the head of
state, in consultation with the vice-president and the two chambers of
parliament. Nominations to the commission have not begun.

Both decrees were in accordance with a Peace and Reconciliation Agreement,
signed by Burundian parties in August 2000 in Arusha, Tanzania, under
which the transitional government was set up. The agreement stipulates
measures to be taken to move Burundi from its transitional phase to
democracy. General elections, ending the transition, are due to be held in
April 2005.


CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Bozize repeals court ban on some presidential
candidates

Central African Republic leader Francois Bozize has decided to allow three
candidates, barred by the country's transitional court, to take in part in
presidential elections set for 13 February. They are Jean-Paul Ngoupande
of the Parti de l'Unite Nationale, Martin Ziguele - an independent, and
Charles Massi of the Forum pour la Democratie et la Modernite.

The move, Bozize said in a speech broadcast on state-owned Radio
Centrafrique on Tuesday, was designed to preserve peace and support from
CAR's international donor organisations for the electoral process.

Local and international groups had widely condemned Thursday's decision by
the constitutional court to allow only five of 15 candidates to run for
the presidency. One of the five candidates is Bozize who, after leading a
six-month rebellion, seized power on 15 March 2003 from President
Ange-Felix Patasse. Patasse is among the candidates barred from running.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=44926 ]


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2005


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