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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 274
9 - 15 April 2005


CONTENTS:

DRC: Two Ituri militias end war
DRC-UGANDA: Kinshasa, Kampala argue before International Court of
   Justice
UGANDA: Ireland grants US $109 million for poverty reduction, education
   projects
BURUNDI: We are ready for peace talks, FNL rebels say
BURUNDI: Museveni concerned over likelihood of polls delay
BURUNDI-RWANDA: Hundreds flee Gacaca courts
RWANDA: Government destroys 6,000 small arms
RWANDA: IMF, World Bank writes off Kigali's $1.4 billion debt
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Run-off polls set for 8 May
CONGO: EU grants $171,449 for school reconstruction


SEE ALSO:

DRC: The problems of reintegrating child soldiers
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46582 ]

SUDAN: Interview with Caesar Mazzolari, bishop of Rumbek
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46605 ]

CHAD-SUDAN: Government accuses Sudan of backing rebels, suspends Darfur mediation
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46578 ]


DRC: Two Ituri militias end war

Two militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ended on
Wednesday their long-running insurrection in the troubled northeastern
district of Ituri, boosting local and international efforts to pacify
the area.

The Union des patriotes Congolais (UPC), one of the district's strongest
militias, announced on Wednesday an end to its war. "All those who
refuse to adhere to the disarmament process will now be regarded as
outlaws," John Tinanzabo, UPC's secretary-general, said in Bunia,
Ituri's largest town.

Similarly, the remaining 416 militiamen of the Forces armees du peuple
congolais (FAPC) surrendered their guns to UN troops on Wednesday,
effectively dismantling the movement.

"The FAPC no longer exists. This movement is now history," Kwaje Duku, a
Congolese army colonel heading the government-run National Disarmament
Commission in Ituri, said.

The militiamen, loyal to Jerome Kakwavu-Bukande, surrendered at Mount Awa, 25 km from Aru in northern Ituri. They can either enter the programme for disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration into civilian life or be integrated into the new national Congolese army.

FAPC has already said 2,014 of its fighters have disarmed, among them
251 children.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46636 ]


The UN Mission in the DRC, MONUC, had already given a 1 April deadline
for all armed groups in the district to surrender their guns. [Full
story on: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46640 ]

In line with policy, local authorities in Bunia announced on Monday the
arrest of Kahwa Panga Mandro. Congolese judicial authorities, backed by
UN peacekeepers, arrested Kahwa, the leader of a coalition of militias
known as the Parti pour l'unite et sauvegarde d'integrite du Congo
(PUSIC), on Saturday in Bunia.

Ituri District Commissioner Petronille Vaweka said Mandro was accused of
attempting to sabotage the process of disarming the militias that MONUC
begun several weeks ago. He is also accused of murder, arson and misuse
of public funds. Kahwa, 30, is chief of the Bahema Banywagi region north
of the Bunia. He formed PUSIC in 2003.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46597 ]


DRC-UGANDA: Kinshasa, Kampala argue before International Court of
Justice

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, Netherlands,
began hearing a case on Monday brought by the DRC, accusing its
neighbour, Uganda, of invading its territory and committing human rights
violations.

The DRC is seeking "compensation from Uganda in respect of all acts of
looting, destruction, removal of property," the ICJ said on its website.
Uganda denies the accusations.

The hearings are set to continue until 29 April.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46565 ]

[On the Net: Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic
Republic of the Congo v. Uganda)
http://www.icj-cij.org/icjwww/ipresscom/ipress2004/ipresscom2004-36_co_20041206.htm]


UGANDA: Ireland grants US $109 million for poverty reduction, education
projects

The Republic of Ireland is to give US $109 million to Uganda for
education and poverty reduction projects, the head of development
cooperation at the Irish embassy in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, told
IRIN on Monday.

"Ireland will provide $90 million in general budget support to the
Poverty Action Fund and sectorial budget support to the health,
education, justice, law and order sectors, and to the National Adult
Literacy Programme," Liz Higgins said.

Education grants totalling $10 million had also been allocated, she
added.

Higgins said Development Cooperation Ireland - the Irish government's
programme for aid to developing countries - would provide an additional
$9 million for Uganda's Local Government Development Programme and its
National Agricultural Advisory Services. Higgins said all the funds
would be disbursed by 2007.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46619 ]


BURUNDI: We are ready for peace talks, FNL rebels say

Burundi's remaining rebel group, the Forces nationales de liberation
(FNL) headed by Agathon Rwasa, said on Tuesday it was willing to stop
fighting government troops.

"Our movement is ready to enter into serious negotiations with the
interim government and work out a plan for sustainable peace in
Burundi," Ibrahim Ntakirutimana, an FNL representative, said in the
Tanzanian commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.

Reading a statement on the group's position, he added, "We are also
formally announcing to cease fighting."

Ntakirutimana had led an FNL delegation to Dar es Salaam to meet
Tanzanian government leaders and to present the group's position on the
Burundi peace process.

Burundi's transitional government was set up following a Peace and
Reconciliation Accord signed by Burundian parties in August 2000 in
Arusha, Tanzania. Apart from the FNL, several other former rebel groups
have since signed ceasefire agreements with the government and joined in
the country's transitional institutions.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46587 ]


BURUNDI: Museveni concerned over likelihood of polls delay

The chairman of the Great Lakes regional initiative on Burundi, Ugandan
President Yoweri Museveni, has expressed concern over a possible delay
in the holding of general elections in Burundi, an official told IRIN on
Wednesday.

"We are monitoring the situation as we await a detailed explanation from
Burundi's electoral commission," Adonia Ayebale, Uganda's envoy to
Burundi and Rwanda, said from the Burundian capital, Bujumbura.

In his capacity as the representative of the chairman of the regional
initiative on Burundi, Ayebale was in Bujumbura for talks with President
Domitien Ndayizeye over completion of the electoral process. Ayebale
said the two problems that had held up the elections - the lack of funds
and the enactment of electoral laws - had been resolved as donors had
released money and Burundi's parliament had approved the electoral code.

"We are waiting for an explanation from the electoral commission as to
why is has not issued an electoral calendar," Ayebale said. "Until we
get the explanation, the region's position that elections should not be
postponed stands."

General elections are due before the end of April.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46608]

[On the Net: BURUNDI: EU criticises electoral body over poll delay:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46583]

BURUNDI: Senate adopts electoral code:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46613]


BURUNDI-RWANDA: Hundreds flee Gacaca courts

At least 500 Rwandans have arrived in northern Burundi since 29 March,
fleeing prosecution in Rwanda's traditional justice system, known as
Gacaca, local Burundian officials told IRIN on Wednesday.

The governor of Burundi's northern province of Ngozi, Felix Niragira,
said the Rwandans had also fled their country fearing that ethnic
massacres were imminent. He said the Rwandans have sought refuge in
Mwumba, Busiga and Marangara districts in Ngozi, as well as in the
neighbouring Kirundo Province.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46614 ]


RWANDA: Government destroys 6,000 small arms

Rwanda has, for the first time, destroyed 6,000 small arms as part of a
regional initiative to check the flow of illicit guns that have fuelled
conflict in Africa's Great Lakes region, an official told IRIN on
Thursday.

"We set them on fire," Maj Rwakabi Kakira, the coordinator of the
Rwandan effort, said.

The guns - ranging from 5.2 mm to 82 mm in calibre and ammunition - were
taken from former combatants and armed robbers. Others were part of an
obsolete stock left behind by the country's pre-1994 genocide
administration.

A proliferation of machine guns, rifles, grenades, pistols and other
small arms has caused the deaths of millions of civilians in Africa and
the displacement of millions more. These weapons have been used in
conflicts in Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Uganda.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46633 ]


RWANDA: IMF, World Bank write off Kigali's $1.4 billion debt

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank announced on
Wednesday the cancellations of a $1.4-billion debt owed by Rwanda, under
their Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative, designed to ease
excessive debt burdens stifling growth in the developing world.

Rwandan Minister of Finance Donald Kaberuka told IRIN on Thursday in
Kigali that the debt cancellation would enable the country to have
sufficient funds to run its poverty reduction strategies.

A key priority for Rwanda in the short term would be to raise the
economic growth rate, while maintaining macroeconomic stability and debt
sustainability, in order to reduce poverty significantly and advance
toward the UN's Millennium Development Goals. The goals set out to
commit the international community to an expanded vision of development
that promotes human development as the key to sustaining social and
economic progress in all countries.

The IMF also announced it would disburse an $860,000-loan to Rwanda
after completing a review of its recent economic performance. [Full
story on: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46643 ]


CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Run-off polls set for 8 May

The second round of presidential and parliamentary elections in the
Central African Republic (CAR) has been postponed to 8 May, an official
told IRIN on Thursday.

Citing a presidential decree, Alain-Georges Ngatoua, the spokesman of
CAR leader Francois Bozize, said the postponement was to avoid
interference with the marking of Labour Day on 1 May, the date on which
the poll had originally been scheduled. Bozize signed the decree on
Wednesday. Ngatoua said campaigns for the presidential and legislative
polls would begin on 23 April and end on 6 May.

In the first round of elections on 13 March, Bozize obtained 42.97
percent of the votes cast while and Ziguele had 23.53 percent. [Full
story on: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46638 ]


CONGO: EU grants $171,449 for school reconstruction

The EU has pledged a grant of 87 million francs CFA ($171,449) for the
rehabilitation of 17 primary and secondary schools in the capital,
Brazzaville, a local EU official said on Tuesday.

The coordinator of the EU's Micro-Realisation in Urban Environment
Project, Bernard Gay, said the programme was for schools in
Brazzaville's seven districts. He added that parents would contribute 25
percent of the $197,487 required to repair all the schools destroyed by
civil wars in the country, while the EU would contribute 75 percent of
total rehabilitation cost.

The reconstruction would be undertaken during the June-September
holidays, he said, and would beneficiate an estimated 2,500 students
currently studying in deplorable conditions.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46635]


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2005

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