U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa

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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 264
29 January - 4 Febraury 2005


CONTENTS:

DRC: Residents of burnt out village begin to return
DRC-UGANDA: Refugee influx into Uganda ebbs, close to 10,000 return home
DRC-UGANDA: Kampala denies arms embargo violation charge in UN report
UGANDA: Government declares 18-day truce with rebels
UGANDA-SUDAN: Refugees reluctant to repatriate to southern Sudan, UN
   agency says
BURUNDI: Rebel group says yes to negotiations but rejects Zuma as mediator
BURUNDI: NGO launches centre for vulnerable children
BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Uncertainty, rains, undermine refugee repatriation
TANZANIA: NGOs form coalition against female genital mutilation
KENYA: Human rights violations persist, lawyers say


DRC: Residents of burnt out village begin to return

Some 2,500 half-naked people have so far returned to their ruined homes, 
one week after militias burnt down the village of She in northeastern 
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the spokeswoman for the UN 
peacekeeping mission in the area, Rachel Eklou, said on Tuesday.

UN troops were deployed to the village for two days on Saturday, enabling 
humanitarian workers to enter She, 60 km northeast of Bunia, the main town 
in Ituri District, Orientale Province. One humanitarian body, German Agro 
Action, delivered food rations to the returnees on Tuesday, and MONUC has 
been using helicopters to provide clean drinking water.

Hema witnesses told MONUC that the rival Lendu militia had attacked their 
village, and presented MONUC with a list of 15 people they said were 
killed during the attack. Some 30 others were reported missing, presumably 
taken hostage by the attackers.

MONUC is investigating the circumstances surrounding the attack and who is 
responsible. The l'Union des patriotes congolais militia group, headed by 
Thomas Lubanga, and the Front des nationalistes integrationnistes, have 
accused each other.

Full report


DRC-UGANDA: Refugee influx into Uganda ebbs, close to 10,000 return home

An influx of Congolese refugees into western Uganda that was precipitated 
by fighting in parts of eastern DRC in January has reduced as close to 
10,000 of them are thought to have returned home, an official of the UN 
refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Thursday.

"The refugee influx has reduced considerably and no new arrivals have been 
reported since 24 January," Roberta Russo, the agency's spokeswoman, said.

She told IRIN that there were still 2,000 registered refugees at Nkondo, 
the southern tip of Lake Albert on the border with the DRC, while another 
2,700 had been moved to the settlement of Kyaka in the western district of 
Kyenjojo. She said there were no longer any refugees at Ishasa, near Lake 
George, also on the border with the DRC.

Refugees fled Congo's eastern province of North Kivu following renewed 
fighting between former rebels-turned-government soldiers and former 
Mayi-Mayi militias, also integrated into the Congolese national army.

Full report


DRC-UGANDA: Kampala denies arms embargo violation charge in UN report

Uganda's Defence Ministry denied on Tuesday claims in a UN report that it 
had continued to violate a UN-imposed arms embargo in eastern DRC.

Instead, the ministry accused the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, 
of failing in its duties.

"The UN should just stop haranguing us for their failures," Maj Shaban 
Bantariza, army spokesman and an aide to the defence minister, told IRIN. 
"Whom would we be arming in eastern DRC, for sure? We are one of the best 
promoters of the DRC's political dispensation; therefore we would be the 
last people to disturb the nurturing of that political trend in Congo."

The recent report by a panel of experts, appointed by the UN Security 
Council, listed Uganda as one of the DRC's neighbours continuing to funnel 
weapons and military support into eastern Congo, despite the arms embargo. 
The study claimed that eastern DRC continued to be the pawn of Uganda and 
Rwanda, as well as renegade army troops, militia leaders and "shadowy" 
businessmen, who have all routinely violated the UN arms embargo put in 
place in 2003.

Full report


UGANDA: Government declares 18-day truce with rebels

The Ugandan government said on Thursday it had decided to halt its 
military operations against Lord's Resistance Army rebels for 18 days on 
condition that they confined themselves to a designated area in the north, 
as efforts to revive peace talks continue.

"The president has declared a ceasefire in an area where people in the 
bush can be as part of support from government to end the conflict in the 
north peacefully," said Interior Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, who heads a 
government team trying to engage the rebels in peace talks.

The truce takes effect on Friday, Rugunda told IRIN.

Another member of the team, Junior Security Minister Betty Akech, said the 
"ceasefire zone" would give rebels time to consult, and that they could be 
supplied with necessities like food by people they trusted as they waited 
for peace talks between the government's peace team and LRA 
representatives.

Full report


UGANDA-SUDAN: Refugees reluctant to repatriate to southern Sudan, UN 
agency says

Thousands of Sudanese refugees living in camps in northern Uganda are 
reluctant to consider repatriation for a variety of reasons, including the 
lack of facilities in southern Sudan, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, told 
IRIN on Tuesday.

It reported that the refugees felt the landmark peace agreement signed in 
December 2004 in Nairobi, Kenya, was not inclusive of all Sudanese groups.

The UNHCR spokeswoman in Kampala, Roberta Russo, said many refugees raised 
the lack of the infrastructure in southern Sudan as a major concern, 
especially health facilities and schools for their children.

"They told us that there were no facilities in the region, and they were 
not yet sure about their security," she said.

An estimated 200,000 registered Sudanese refugees are housed in 
southwestern and western Uganda. However, UNHCR says an estimated 40,000 
others who are not registered with the agency have been living in Ugandan 
border towns, while others are in the capital, Kampala.

Full report


BURUNDI: Rebel group says yes to negotiations but rejects Zuma as mediator

Burundi's remaining active rebel group, the Forces nationales de 
liberation (FNL), said on Thursday it was ready for talks with the 
transitional government, on condition that South African Deputy President 
Jacob Zuma does not act as mediator.

FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said Zuma, who is also the facilitator of 
Burundi's peace process under an initiative of the Great Lakes regional 
heads of state, had in the past rejected FNL's proposal to hold talks with 
the Burundian government.

"Proposing to mediate between the government and the movement now seems, 
therefore, untimely," Habimana said.

Instead, he said, the FNL preferred that the Special Representative of the 
UN Secretary-General to Burundi and head of the UN mission there, Carolyn 
McAskie, who made contact with the FNL in 2004, mediated in the proposed 
talks.

Full report


BURUNDI: NGO launches centre for vulnerable children

The NGO Maison Shalom launched in the Burundian capital on Monday a centre 
for orphaned and other vulnerable children.

"It is crucial that the children be assisted in their environment," Maggy 
Barankitse, the director of Maison Shalom NGO, said in reference to the 
centre, known as 'Amani House' (Peace House) in the Kigobe neighbourhood 
in the north of Bujumbura. The NGO targets mainly street children and 
orphans for assistance.

Amani House is a branch of Maison Shalom, which is based in the 
northeastern province of Ruyigi. It houses orphans and street children 
"who have been wandering in Bujumbura, and even those from the 
countryside", Barankitse said.

Full report


BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Uncertainty, rains, undermine refugee repatriation

Uncertainty over Burundi's security situation and rains are undermining 
the pace of ongoing voluntary repatriation of refugees from camps in 
western Tanzania, the UNHCR spokeswoman in Tanzania, Bulow-Olsen Mia, said 
on Tuesday.

Since the voluntary repatriation began in March 2003, she said, the agency 
had helped some 153,000 refugees to return home, a majority of whom did so 
in 2004 when prospects for lasting peace in the central African nation 
looked bright.

"Last year, 80,000 refugees were helped to return home after signalling 
their desire to go back," she said. "In the middle of the year [2004], up 
to 11,000 people were leaving in a month, but the figures started going 
down towards the end of the year."

Full report


TANZANIA: NGOs form coalition against female genital mutilation

Seven NGOs in Tanzania have formed a coalition to fight female genital 
mutilation (FGM), a practice that is still widespread in the East African 
country.

The coalition is to be launched on Sunday to coincide with the 
International Day on Zero Tolerance to FGM. The national marking of the 
day will take place in Tanzania's administrative capital, Dodoma.

NGOs in the coalition include the Tanzania Women Lawyers' Association, 
Tanzania Media Women Association, Anti-Female Genital Mutilation Network, 
Women Wake Up, Network Against Female Genital Mutilation, and the Dodoma 
Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting Health of Women 
and Children.

The coalition's coordinator, Hellen Kijo-Bisimba, said in Dar es Salaam on 
Friday that studies have shown that at least 18 percent of women in 
Tanzania are victims of FGM. The practise, she added, was rampant in 
central and northeastern Tanzania where, in some communities, up to 100 
percent of women undergo the ritual, which involves the removal of parts 
of the female sex organ.

Full report


KENYA: Human rights violations persist, lawyers say

The Law Society of Kenya said on Tuesday in its 2004 human rights report 
that violations were continuing, despite the government's earlier pledges 
that it would strive to entrench respect for civil liberties.

The law society criticised the government for failing to curb the frequent 
extrajudicial killings and torture of suspects by the police. "The gunning 
down of suspects by the police continues to be the norm," the law society 
said.

According to the report, Kenya had "shown hesitation" in committing itself 
to the abolition of the death penalty, although capital punishment was 
last carried out in 1987.

"This means that a de facto moratorium [on legal execution] has been in 
force in the country for 17 years," the law society said.

The Kenyan government spokesman, Alfred Mutua, denied the charges, saying 
the country was now more democratic than it had been two years ago, and 
the government was introducing reforms in the police force to make it more 
aware of human rights issues.

Full report


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