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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 286
2 - 8 July 2005


CONTENTS:

CAR: Disarmament, reintegration extends to the northwest
DRC: UN troops sweep area near park to clear armed groups
DRC: NGO to suspend operations in camp for 7,000 IDPs
DRC-RWANDA: At UN court, lawyers finish their oral arguments over
   jurisdiction
UGANDA: ICRC begins war-injury training in the north
UGANDA-RWANDA: Kampala, Kigali refute Amnesty arms traffic report
RWANDA: New debt relief worth US $224 million announced
BURUNDI: Winning the legislature, former rebels vow to negotiate peace


ALSO SEE:

KENYA: Thousands left homeless in forest evictions
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47982


CAR: Disarmament, reintegration extends to the northwest

Ex-combatants began voluntarily handing over their weapons to UN and
government officials on Friday in the Central African Republic's
northwestern district of Nana-Grebizi. The measure is part of a
nationwide effort begun on 18 June to disarm and reintegrate thousands
of ex-combatant into civilian life.

"If there's a gap between the disarmament and the start of
reintegration, the ex-combatants will loose confidence and violence
might return," Jonas Mfouatie, the UN Development Programme's (UNDP)
chief technical adviser on reintegration of ex-combatants, said on
Wednesday.

The disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme is being run
by UNDP. The agency has contributed US $1.25 million mainly for the
disarmament, while the World Bank is funding $9.77 million specifically
for reintegration and community support.

In the country's capital, Bangui, 733 ex-combatants have so far been
demobilised including 314 women, with 181 of them already reintegrated,
Mfouatie said.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48040]

DRC: UN troops sweep area near park to clear armed groups

UN troops in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) launched on
Monday what commanders codenamed Operation Falcon Sweep to drive all
armed groups from a locale in the territories of Walungu and Kabare,
close to a national park in South Kivu Province, a UN military spokesman
said.

"The objective of Falcon Sweep is to prepare for the deployment of
permanent UN troops to Ninja. It will last as long as there are armed
groups in the area," Lt Col Thierry Provendier, the spokesman for the UN
Mission in the DRC (MONUC), said on Tuesday in Kinshasa, the nation's
capital.

He said the operation in the two territories near the Kahuzi-Biega
National Park was being spearheaded by 70 Guatemalan UN troops
specialised in night operations. They are being supported by units of
the UN South Kivu Brigade and 12 Congolese regular army troops.
Provendier said the operation was primarily dissuasive but that the
UN-led force would "neutralise" any armed group resisting.

Local Mayi-Mayi militiamen, the Rwandan Hutu rebel groups the Forces
democratiques pour la liberation du Rwanda (FDLR) and the Rasta operate
in the area and have been frequently plundering, raping and killings
civilians.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47965]


DRC: NGO to suspend operations in camp for 7,000 IDPs

Humanitarian NGO Atlas Logistic has said it has suspended all aid to
internally displaced people at Camp Aero, adjacent to the Bunia's
airport, in the troubled northeastern district of Ituri in the DRC.

"We think that for the moment there has been considerable progress in
efforts to restore the socioeconomic and security situation in Bunia and
in the rest of Ituri District so we prefer, right now, to encourage
people to return to their homes," Hellene Robin, the head of the NGO in
Bunia, told reporters on Wednesday.

She said the suspension would last until 31 August. Those who agree to
return home would be given two months food rations, agricultural tools
and cooking utensils.

Camp Aero, on the south side of Bunia, was set up in May 2003 and has
hosted some 20,000 IDPs. The number of people in the camp has dropped
considerably over the past few months since the army and UN troops began
confronting armed groups in the area. The operations has weakened the
armed groups and encouraged most IDPs to return to their homes. Now,
only 7,000 remain at the camp.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48036]


DRC-RWANDA: At UN court, lawyers finish their oral arguments over
jurisdiction

After four days of oral arguments at the International Court of Justice
(ICJ) in The Hague, lawyers representing Rwanda said they were confident
that they had convinced the judges not to go further with the case that
the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is seeking to bring against
Rwanda.

However, lawyers representing the DRC said they were upbeat that they
had convinced the judges to the contrary.

"We brought convincing arguments to the court that it has jurisdiction
to judge the case and that our application is admissible," Richard
Lukunda, assistant to the DRC's lawyers, told IRIN on Friday after the
hearings.

Lawyers for the two countries each had two days to present and defend
their arguments.

The DRC frequently submitted that it had brought the case to the ICJ
because Rwanda had sabotaged its efforts to negotiate bilaterally.
However, Rwanda said it had never been invited.

"They never produced any documentary proof of their attempt to
negotiate," Martin Ngoga, Rwanda's deputy chief prosecutor, said after
the hearings.

The DRC first filed its complaint against Rwanda in May 2002, accusing
it of "massive, serious and flagrant violations of human rights and
international humanitarian law" during its 1998-2002 occupation of the
eastern part of the DRC.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48047]


UGANDA: ICRC begins war-injury training in the north

Medical personnel treating the war-wounded in the north of the country
began training on Wednesday in skills to handle those casualties in the
region's protracted conflict, the International Committee of the Red
Cross said.

ICRC spokesman Juan Carlos Carrera said on Thursday the training, with a
focus on the treatment of both war casualties and general surgery, would
be for military doctors and health staff, including medical personnel at
Gulu District Hospital, about 350 km north of the capital, Kampala.

Carrera said ICRC's regional surgeon, usually based in Nairobi, would
also perform operations on patients from different parts of Gulu
District, many of whom had waited for surgery for a long time.

Northern Uganda has for close to two decades witnessed a civil war in
which tens of thousands have either died or been severely wounded. The
conflict pits the Uganda government against the rebels of the Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA).

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48020]


UGANDA-RWANDA: Kampala, Kigali refute Amnesty arms traffic report

The governments of Rwanda and Uganda have denied a recent report by the
human rights NGO Amnesty International that they are involved in
trafficking arms to eastern DRC.

"It is absurd that these reports continue to surface without our part of
the story and we disagree with the contents," Protais Mitali, Rwanda's
regional cooperation minister, said on Wednesday in Kigali.

In releasing the report on Tuesday, Amnesty's research manager for arms
and security trade, Brian Wood, said: "International arms flows into the
region have been channelled by powerful agents close to the governments
of the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda to various armed groups and militia in
eastern DRC who practise banditry and show little or no respect for
human rights."

However, Uganda's information minister, Nsaba Buturo, said in Kampala
the charge about his country was untrue. "It does not help to make
blanket statements," he said. "We believe that long term stability
cannot be attained through arms proliferation."

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48011]


RWANDA: New debt relief worth US $224 million announced

The African Development Fund, the concessional window of the African
Development Bank, announced on Wednesday that it would provide Rwanda
with US $224 million in debt relief.

"Rwanda will be released from up to 80 percent of annual debt service to
the Bank Group until the entire amount is delivered in July 2032," the
bank said in a statement from its Tunis headquarters.

It said the boards of directors decided that Rwanda had satisfactorily
implemented reforms agreed to under the enhanced framework of the
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. The conditions included
implementing its poverty reduction strategy; maintaining macroeconomic
stability; implementing structural reforms in the tea sector and
improving social indicators related to education, gender equality and
health.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48013]


BURUNDI: Winning the legislature, former rebels vow to negotiate peace

One of the former rebel groups during Burundi's recent civil war has won
most of the votes in the legislative elections and pledged on Wednesday
to enter into talks with the sole rebel force still fighting the
government, the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL)led by Agathon
Rwasa.

"We will negotiate immediately with the Palipehutu-FNL," Jeremie
Ngendakumana, spokesman for the winning Conseil National pour la defense
de la democratie-Forces nationales pour la defense de la democratie
(CNDD-FDD) party of Pierre Nkurunziza, said in Bujumbura.

Provisional results announced on Wednesday by the chairman of the
National Electoral Commission, Paul Ngarambe, show that the CNDD-FDD won
between 60 percent and 70 percent of the vote. The party of current
President Domitien Ndayizeye, the Front pour la democratie au Burundi,
or FRODEBU, came second followed by the Parti de unite pour le progres
national, or UPRONA. Ngarambe said the CNDD faction led by Leonard
Nyangoma came fourth and the Movement pour la restoration de
lacitoyennete, fifth.

The FNL did not take part in Monday's elections.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47989]


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


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