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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 266
12 - 18 February 2005


CONTENTS:

DRC: Prosecute ex-militia leaders, Kinshasa urged
DRC: Tens of thousands of newly displaced people in Ituri need aid
DRC: Moroccan UN peacekeepers arrested over sex abuse claims
DRC: Strike at government hospitals causes 1,366 deaths in Kinshasa
BURUNDI: Ex-rebel leader back home after 10 years in exile
KENYA: Cabinet shuffled amid calls for action on graft
UGANDA: Government warns of pending offensive should LRA talks collapse
RWANDA: Refugees return after 11 years in Uganda
GREAT LAKES: Ministers chart ways of implementing regional security pact


ALSO SEE:

UGANDA: Army explains recruitment of former rebel child fighters
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45610 CENTRAL AFRICA: Congo
River Basin, a reservoir of biodiversity threatened with extinction
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45563

DRC: Prosecute ex-militia leaders, Kinshasa urged

The International Centre for Transitional Justice has urged the
Congolese government on Tuesday to vet and prosecute former militia
leaders instead of appointing them to high-ranking positions in the
newly integrated national army.

"If the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC] is to achieve a lasting
and sustainable peace, it must not appoint individuals to the army when
there is evidence that they may be responsible for serious abuses," Juan
Mendez, the centre's president and UN Special Adviser to the
Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, said.

He issued the statement in New York, just days after a military court in
the DRC capital, Kinshasa, sentenced 21 soldiers to death for atrocities
they committed in the east of the country.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45599 ]

DRC: Tens of thousands of newly displaced people in Ituri need aid

Relief aid agencies say they are struggling to provide basic needs to
tens of thousands of civilians in Ituri District, in the northeastern
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), who have fled their homes because of
recent fighting.

"People are sleeping outdoors; they lack food and cooking facilities.
They even lack clothes," Modibo Traore, the humanitarian affairs officer
for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),
told IRIN on Monday.

Many, he said were getting sick from drinking untreated water from the
lake and there are concerns that cholera has broken out.

"Some are in areas that are too dangerous for relief workers to reach,"
Traore said. "Some are hiding in remote areas where there are no roads."

Traore said the number of displaced people could be as high as 80,000,
though aid groups were currently only able to reach 55,000 of them.
Relief groups are operating at five sites; three of which are on the
shores of Lake Albert, which borders Uganda. Around 2,000 people are
reportedly crossing the lake daily to seek refuge on the Ugandan side.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45550 ]


DRC: Moroccan UN peacekeepers arrested over sex abuse claims

UN troops in DRC. Six of their Moroccan colleagues arrested for sexual
abuse scandal.

Six Moroccan soldiers serving on the UN Mission in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) have been arrested in an ongoing sex abuse
scandal, the official Moroccan news agency, the Maghreb Arabe Presse
(MAP), reported on Monday.

Quoting a communique by the Moroccan permanent mission to the UN in New
York on 12 February, MAP said the commander of the Moroccan peacekeeping
contingent and his deputy were also dismissed. Their victims identified
the servicemen.

The arrests follow an investigation by the UN's internal watchdog, the
UN Office of Internal Oversight, into allegations that UN peacekeepers
in the DRC had sexually exploited and abused women and girls. Following
the investigations, the UN introduced a no-fraternisation policy,
banning its peacekeepers from having sex with local people.

Morocco sent 805 troops to the DRC as part of the UN peacekeeping force,
which totals 14,000 men from 48 countries.

[Full story on: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45530 ]
[On the Net: Morocco strongly condemns any act hurting UN noble mission
in Congo: www.map.co.ma]


DRC: Strike at government hospitals causes 1,366 deaths in Kinshasa

A month-long strike by doctors, nurses and other medical personnel
demanding better pay in government hospitals has resulted in 1,360
deaths in the capital, Kinshasa, an official of local human rights NGO
said on Wednesday.

Amigo Gonde, president of the Association africaine de defense des
droits de l'homme (African Association for Human Rights), said the dead
were recorded at the morgue of the 1,500-bed Kinshasa General Hospital.
The association carried out its survey of the hospital for the period of
10 January to 8 February, in an effort to gauge the impact of the strike
on the public.

Doctors initiated the strike also demanding the same status accorded
other public servants who are entitled to salaries from US $30 to $70
monthly. Three weeks after their walkout in December 2004, the doctors
were promised better pay and received a one-time premium of $170 to
$361, before they returned to work.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45618 ]


BURUNDI: Ex-rebel leader back home after 10 years in exile

Former rebel leader and founder of the Conseil national pour la defense
de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD),
Leonard Nyangoma, returned to Burundi on Saturday after 10 years in
exile.

Upon arrival, Nyangoma told reporters at a news conference in the
capital, Bujumbura, that he was back because the main objective of his
armed struggle had been achieved. Burundi, he said, had taken a
"significant step" towards democracy as it prepares for elections in
2005, while the army undergoes drastic reforms with the formation of a
new defence force that incorporates former rebel combatants.

Nyangoma founded the CNDD-FDD after the 1993 assassination of the
country's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye.

[Full story on: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45542 ]


KENYA: Cabinet shuffled amid calls for action on graft

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki shuffled his cabinet on Monday, just days
after western donors had urged his government to act on reports of
corruption and bad governance.

In a statement announcing that two permanent secretaries had been
dropped, the president said the changes were aimed at improving
government service delivery, accountability and efficiency, and called
for greater transparency and speedy implementation of social programmes.

Among others, the changes saw Chris Murungaru go from the ministry for
internal security in the president's office to the transport portfolio.
John Michuki, who had been the transport minister, replaced him. Several
other junior ministers were also moved, while some departments merged.

On Thursday last week donors had said graft was hurting Kenya and
affecting efforts to put the East African country on track to achieving
development goals.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45580 ]


UGANDA: Government warns of pending offensive should LRA talks collapse

The Ugandan government said on Monday it would pursue its military
option against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) should the rebel group
rebuff peace overtures.

"We are certain of victory," Amama Mbabazi, the defence minister, told
parliament.

However, he also said the government welcomed the current peace effort,
"mainly initiated by some LRA rebel commanders".

Mbabazi, who depicted a picture of relative peace in the country, was
giving the general state of security in the East African country, whose
northern region has been devastated by an 18-year war between the
government and the LRA.

Emphasising the government's conviction that the LRA had been decimated,
he said the rebel group was estimated to have 300 to 400 active fighters
remaining. In the 13 months from January 2004, the UPDF said, it had
killed 2,077 rebels, captured 448 and recovered 1,402 rifles. Meanwhile
3,064 abducted children had been rescued, it said, while 1,030 LRA
officers and men had defected to the army.

The conflict in northern Uganda has seen tens of thousands killed and up
to 20,000 children abducted to become soldiers or sex slaves of the LRA
commanders. An estimated 1.6 million people have been displaced from
their homes by the war.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45586 ]


Meanwhile, the LRA's principal negotiator in the protracted talks with
the government, Sam Kolo, surrendered on Wednesday, army spokesman Maj
Shaban Bantariza said. Bantariza said Kolo's surrender came as a result
of a disagreement with LRA leader Joseph Kony, who subsequently issued
an order for Kolo's execution.

Kolo, the LRA's chief spokesman since 1999, was a "brigadier" in the
rebel ranks. He is now the highest-ranking LRA rebel commander to
surrender to the army. Three other LRA commanders have surrendered or
have been captured by government forces over the year.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45612 ]


RWANDA: Refugees return after 11 years in Uganda

A group of 481 Rwandans, who have been living as refugees in Uganda for
the past 11 years, returned home on Thursday, Sebastian Apatita, the
head of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the
northeastern Rwandan province of Byumba, said. The group fled Rwanda
during the 1994 genocide in which up to 937,000 Tutsis and politically
moderate Hutus died, according to Rwandan government estimates.

Rwanda, Uganda and UNHCR signed a tripartite accord in 2003 for the
voluntary repatriation of up to 20,000 Rwandan refugees who have been
staying in Uganda. However, since then, just about 2,500 Rwandans had
voluntarily returned home.

[Full story on: RWANDA:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45637 ]


GREAT LAKES: Ministers chart ways of implementing regional security pact

Eleven foreign ministers of countries in Africa's Great Lakes region met
on Thursday in Kigali, Rwanda, to map out strategies of implementing a
regional pact on security, stability and development signed in November
2004 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The ministers, meeting under an initiative of the UN and the African
Union (AU), reviewed - among other things - efforts to improve peace and
security in the region, including proliferation and circulation of small
arms and light weapons, border security, disarmament of combatants and
defence and security cooperation among countries in the region. [Full
story on: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45635 ]


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


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