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Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa

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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 334
3 - 9 June 2006


CONTENTS:

BURUNDI: FNL, Government Peace talks at preliminary stage
CAR: Prime minister declares rule by decree a success
CAR-SUDAN: Talks underway to repatriate Sudanese refugees
DRC: EU military communications advance team arrives
DRC: Humanitarian activities in Ituri suspended for one day
TANZANIA: Zanzibar, Japan sign water development pact
UGANDA: Security in north improved


ALSO SEE:

BURUNDI: Free maternal and child healthcare
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53836]

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Silent crisis in northwest lingers
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53771]

DRC: To vote, or not to vote?
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53804]

UGANDA: Extinguishing the fire of small arms
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53770]


BURUNDI: Peace talks at preliminary stage, FNL official says

Peace talks between the government of Burundi and the country's
remaining rebel group, the Forces Nationales de Liberation (FNL), which
began on 29 May in Tanzania, are still at an informal stage, an official
of the rebel movement said on Wednesday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's
commercial city and the venue of the talks.

"We are still deliberating on preliminary issues and [plan to] come up
with a framework for formal talks," the official, who requested
anonymity, said.

The talks are aimed at bringing the FNL into the government in Burundi,
a country emerging from 12 years of civil war in which at least 300,000
people have died and hundreds of thousands others displaced

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53783]

[On the Net: BURUNDI: Government, rebel group begin peace talks
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53586]


CAR: Rule by decree a success, prime minister says

Prime Minister Elie Dote of the Central African Republic (CAR} declared
a three-month rule by decree in the country a success, on Tuesday,
saying it allowed President Francois Bozize to use "emergency measures"
to streamline the civil service.

"This operation was spread out to cover all aspects of the country's
administration," Dote said. "For example, in the capital Bangui, it
allowed us to discover the enormity of the diverse anomalies in the
financial management of workers in the public sector."

He added: "The assessment of this period speaks for itself; the results
are evident and appreciated by the nation and the international
community alike."

Following a request from the prime minister's office, the CAR National
Assembly had authorised Bozize to rule by decree from 1 January to 31
March.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53835]


CAR-SUDAN: Talks underway to repatriate Sudanese refugees

Talks continue between the Central African Republic (CAR) government and
the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, for the repatriation of an
estimated 10,000 Sudanese refugees, a UNHCR official said on Wednesday.

The UNHCR representative to the CAR, Bruno Geddo, said the repatriation
- scheduled to begin at the end of June - would mark the second phase of
the effort that began on 2 February following the signing of a
tripartite accord between the CAR, Sudan and UNHCR.

"Already some 2,155 refugees have been repatriated and the CAR
authorities have expressed their goodwill for the resumption of the
exercise," he said.

The second phase, targeting 10,000 refugees, was likely to be completed
by early October, he said.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53814]


DRC: Humanitarian activities in Ituri suspended for one day

The humanitarian community in Congo's northeastern Ituri District on
Friday called a one-day suspension of activities, following the killing
of seven Congolese, among them a local employee of a French
non-governmental organisation, Premiere Urgence.

"He was tortured then killed savagely with his compatriots on Monday, 5
June, close to Marabo," the NGOs said in a statement, signed by the
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA).

Marabo is a locality nearly 40km south of Bunia, the main town in Ituri
in Orientale Province. The victims were attacked as they went about
their daily activities. A local government official, who requested
anonymity, said the attackers have not been identified.

A survivor, who also declined to be named, said 17 of the passers-by
were stopped by militiamen who then led them into the bush. The male
survivor said the Premiere Urgence employee was stopped as he rode his
motorcycle towards Bunia.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53840]


DRC: EU military communications advance team arrives

A 20-member advance team of the European Union force charged with
safeguarding the first general elections in 45 years in the Congo
arrived in the capital, Kinshasa, on Thursday, a spokesman for the force
said.

"The team is composed of those who are to prepare the logistics and
communication for the force," Lt-Col Alexandre Bordelius, the spokesman,
said.

The advance unit responsible for communications arrived on Tuesday while
the one in charge of logistics arrived in mid-March.

The deployment of the EU force is part of the Union's efforts to help in
the preparation of the elections. Already, it has contributed 80 percent
of the electoral budget, or US $440 million. The EU has also provided
funding to train police units ahead of the polls.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53818]


TANZANIA: Zanzibar, Japan sign water development pact

Tanzania's semiautonomous island of Zanzibar and the Japanese government
signed an agreement on Wednesday for a US $13-million three-year water
supply project designed to boost provision of the commodity in the
island's urban areas.

The Japanese ambassador, Katsuya Ikeda, who signed the agreement on his
government's behalf, said boreholes, reservoirs and pipelines would be
built under the Zanzibar Urban Water Project Supply Development Project.

The agreement comes a month after Zanzibar President Amani Abeid Karume
assented to a law restricting water use in the island. Water supply for
the majority of Zanzibar's one million people had been free of charge
but the government recently amended the Water Act to enable it to charge
consumers for water supplied.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53791]


UGANDA: Security in north improved, but child protection still an issue
- UNICEF

Despite improved security in northern Uganda, fear and deprivation
continue to plague children in the region, the United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF) announced in a report on 2 June.

According to UNICEF, the 20-year insurgency by the rebel Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA) still deprives the local population - mostly
children and women - of "their rights to access basic healthcare, safe
water, education, protection and shelter". The conflict is concentrated
in the districts of Gulu, Kitgum, Pader, Lira and Apac, where close to
two million people live in 200 camps, relying heavily on humanitarian
aid to survive.

Since 1988, when the LRA took over leadership of the two-year-old
rebellion against the government, it has terrorised the civilian
population by abducting boys and girls into a life of violence, forced
combat and servitude.

"Many abducted girls are allocated to officers in a form of
institutional rape," UNICEF said in the report.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53712]

[On the Net: Account for missing children in the north - SC
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53834]

[Give peace a chance, northern leaders tell ICC
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53685]


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