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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 285
25 June - 1 July 2005


CONTENTS:

DRC-RWANDA: AU may need 45,000 troops to disarm militias
DRC: Seven killed in demonstrations, hundreds arrested
RWANDA: Kigali welcomes court decision to deport genocide suspect
CAR: AU lifts coup sanctions
KENYA: WFP appeals for food aid for thousands of refugees
KENYA: Nearly 4,000 illicit small arms destroyed
UGANDA: Police disperse opposition demonstration
BURUNDI: Army arrests scores of child soldiers
CONGO: Lead NGO pulls out of the human rights commission


DRC-RWANDA: AU may need 45,000 troops to disarm militias

Up to 45,000 African Union (AU) peacekeepers could be needed to disarm
an estimated 15,000 Rwandan Hutus in eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC), according to a 19-page report issued on 25 June by the
chairman of the continental body.

The AU force would expect "forcible disarmament" and "a degree of
resistance", Alpha Oumar Konare, the chairman, said in the report.

Armed groups of Rwandan Hutus have had bases across the border from
Rwanda in the DRC provinces of North and South Kivu since the Rwandan
genocide occurred in 1994. Some members of the group are accused of
having taken part in the genocide. The groups are also accused of
murdering, raping and kidnapping civilians.

In January, the AU pledged it would send 7,000 troops but AU Peace and
Security Commissioner Said Djinnit said on 25 June, after the meeting,
that none of the 53 African country that make up the AU had so far
committed troops.

In July, the AU will send an advanced team to fine tune estimates of the
number of troops needed of the mission as well as to establish estimated
costs. The Rwandan special envoy to the Great Lakes, Richard Sezibera,
who was also at the meeting, later told reporters that the AU force was
long overdue because people were dying every day.

"They needed to be there yesterday," he said.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47834]

[On the Net:
DRC-RWANDA: EU may support military action against Hutu rebels, Ajello
says: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47814 ]

[International Crisis Group: The Congo: Solving the FDLR Problem Once
and for All: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3426&l=1 ]


DRC: Seven killed in demonstrations, hundreds arrested

At least seven protestors were killed and hundreds more arrested in
demonstrations on Thursday in Kinshasa, capital of the DRC, and in other
urban areas nationwide, witnesses said.

The protests are against a delay in national elections which were to
have been held before Thursday. Last week the parliament of the
transitional government extended the election timetable by at least six
months.

In Kinshasa some policemen beat up demonstrators and robbed them of
their possessions. At least one person was killed and several injured
when police fired bullets and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. In
Tshikapa, a town 700 km southeast of Kinshasa in the province of Kasai
Occidental, six demonstrators were killed, a witness said.

The Union pour la democratie et le progres social (UDPS), headed by
Etienne Tshikedi, called the demonstrations. The UDPS says the leaders
of former armed groups who are now among President Joseph Kabila four
vice-presidents have no interest in ending the transition process.

In a broadcast on state television on Wednesday, and in anticipation of
the demonstrations, Kabila appealed to the nation for calm. He
reiterated his determination to end the transitional process and let the
population freely choose their leaders.

In Mbuji-Mayi, the capital of Kasai-Oriental, five people were killed in
an exchange of gunfire between police and prisoners escaping from the
local jail.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47905]

RWANDA: Kigali welcomes court decision to deport genocide suspect

Rwanda's chief prosecutor, Jean de Dieu Mucyo, has said his country
welcomes the deportation order the Canadian Supreme Court issued on
genocide suspect Leon Mugesera, state-owned Radio Rwanda reported on
Wednesday.

The court voted 8-to-0 to expel Mugesera, a resident of Quebec City
since 1993, on the grounds that he promoted hatred, genocide and crimes
against humanity, Canadian Press reported. The court said there was
well-founded evidence that Mugesera helped to incite the 1994 genocide.

The case against Mugesera hinges upon a speech he gave in Rwanda in 1992
"in which he allegedly called on his Hutu followers to exterminate their
Tutsi opponents ", Canadian Press said. In his defence, Mugesera said
that his words were misinterpreted and that he was only exhorting Hutus
to defend themselves against Tutsi aggression.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47869]

Meanwhile, also on Wednesday, a Belgian court sentenced Rwandan
businessman Etienne Nzabonimana and his half-brother, Samuel
Ndashyikirwa, to 12 and 10 years imprisonment respectively. They were
convicted of directing Hutu militias in killing some 50,000 Tutsis and
politically moderate Hutus in Rwanda's southeastern province of Kibungo
during the 1994 genocide.

A Brussels daily newspaper Le Soir reported on Thursday that they were
found guilty of providing "weapons, vehicles and beer" to the militias
as well as supervising killings in churches and markets.


CAR: AU lifts coup sanctions

The AU Peace and Security Council has lifted the sanctions it imposed on
the Central African Republic (CAR) two years ago, after the March 2003
coup in which Gen Francois Bozize seized power.

"In view of March 2005 elections which formalised the return of
constitutional order, the suspension of the Central African Republic
which followed the coup d'etat of 15 March [2003] should now be lifted,"
the council said.

The coup-plagued country was suspended from all AU activities in March
2003 when Bozize stormed to power after a six-month rebellion, ousting
President Ange-Felix Patasse.

The council welcomed what it said was the positive evolution of the
situation in the country and called all member states and the
international community at large to provide the necessary support so
that the root causes of the country's recurrent instability could be
overcome.

"In addition, the African Union should support the efforts being
deployed to mobilise the international community to provide to the
Central African Republic much-needed assistance for its socioeconomic
recovery," it said.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47829]

KENYA: WFP appeals for food aid for thousands of refugees

An estimated 231,000 refugees living in camps in Kenya are in dire need
of food, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday, when it
appealed for US $6.7 million to feed them until the end of 2005.

The agency said maize, pulses, corn-soya blend and oil for rations would
run out by October unless funding was received quickly.

Wheat and salt would also be exhausted by November, leaving the Kakuma
Refugee Camp in the northwest and the Dadaab camps in the east with no
food for distribution.

Some 11,720 tonnes of food were needed, WFP said in the appeal. It noted
that despite an agreement in January to end a 21-year war in southern
Sudan, the number of Sudanese refugees in Kakuma was still rising.

Nearly 5,000 additional refugees, who said they had fled inter-clan
violence and limited resources such as food, shelter, schools, health
facilities and employment opportunities, had arrived in Kakuma Camp
since January, it added.

The newcomers brought the number of refugees in the camp to more than
91,000.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47859]


KENYA: Nearly 4,000 illicit small arms destroyed

Kenyan authorities have set on fire nearly 4,000 illicit small arms
recovered by police during the past two years, in an ongoing effort to
curb the proliferation of illegal light weapons in the Horn of Africa
and the Great Lakes regions.

"The proliferation and movement of these fire arms within and across the
borders have left a trail of agony and destruction," said Kiraitu
Murungi, the justice and constitutional affairs minister, who lit the
fire to destroy the guns in Nairobi on Wednesday.

Kenya is a signatory to the Nairobi Declaration on the Problem of the
Proliferation of Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great Lakes
Region and the Horn of Africa, which was signed in 2000. The destruction
of the weapons was in line with the Nairobi Protocol for Prevention,
Control and Reduction of Small Arms and Light Weapons signed by states
in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa in 2004, among them Kenya. [Full
story on: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47922 ]


UGANDA: Police disperse opposition demonstration

Police fired tear gas and water cannons on Tuesday to disperse dozens of
demonstrators in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, who had taken to the
streets to protest against a plan to amend the constitution to remove
presidential term limits.

The protestors claimed the plan was intended to allow President Yoweri
Museveni to seek another five-year term in office.

Defying police orders to desist from staging the protest, the
demonstrators carried placards and banners denouncing the proposal by
some members of parliament to remove a clause in the constitution that
limits the president's tenure to two five-year terms, ahead of elections
in 2006.

Under the current constitution, Museveni, who seized power in 1986 after
waging a five-year guerrilla war against previous regimes, cannot run
again because he would have served two terms as an elected president.

Museveni has not openly declared his intention to run for a third term.
However, several senior government officials - believed to be closely
allied to him - are leading the controversial parliamentary campaign to
lift the limit on presidential terms.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47855]


BURUNDI: Army arrests scores of child soldiers

Burundi's army said on Friday that some 100 child combatants had been
arrested in the last two weeks at various locations around the country.
They had been recruited by the only active rebel movement in the
country, the Forces national de liberation.

Some were arrested as they crossed into Burundi from eastern DRC where
they were undergoing military training, army spokesman Maj Adolphe
Manirakiza said in Bujumbura, the nation's capital. Others were arrested
in Bujumbura and the provinces of Bujumbura Rural, Bubanza, Kayanza,
Muramvya and Muyinga. They were all preparing to disrupt the 4 July
legislative elections, he said.

He said the majority of those arrested were between 10 and 15 years old,
who the FNL had recruited since May after it signed of the cease-fire
agreement with the government.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47925]


CONGO: Lead NGO pulls out of the human rights commission

The main human rights NGO in the Republic of Congo, the Congolese Human
Rights Observatory (OCDH), pulled out of the state-sponsored National
Commission of Human Rights on Thursday to protest what it says is the
commission's inaction on known abuses and lack of government
independence.

Announcing the NGO's decision at a news conference in Brazzaville, OCDH
Executive Director Roger Bouka-Owoko said another reason OCDH had
withdraw from the national commission was that the government had failed
to provide the state's rights body with adequate funding.

He also urged the government to release 17 members of the state's
security forces who, he said, had been detained illegally since January.
He said they were arrested following the disappearance of weapons and
had been "secretly detained" in violation of their human rights.

The OCDH has been a member of the national commission since September
2003.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47919]


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


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