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 348
9 - 15 September 2006


CONTENTS:

UGANDA: LRA rebels to sign peace deal
UGANDA: Government to extend LRA talks deadline
RWANDA: One acquittal, one conviction in 1994 trials
RWANDA: UN court reacts to ultimatum over "genocide suspects"
RWANDA: Most-wanted genocide suspect in Kenya
DRC-SUDAN: Sudanese refugees return home
DRC: Supreme Court endorses presidential poll results


ALSO SEE:

UGANDA: 'Beginning of the end' of northern conflict - Egeland 
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55491]


UGANDA: LRA rebels to sign peace deal

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the Ugandan rebel group, promised on 
Wednesday to sign a final agreement to end fighting in the north of the 
country once peace talks with the government were concluded, but said 
its leaders would remain in hiding until arrest warrants are lifted.

"Our delegation will sign an agreement," Vincent Otti, the LRA deputy 
commander, said on local radio from southern Sudan.

The International Criminal Court has indicted Otti, LRA leader Joseph 
Kony and three other commanders on charges of war crimes and crimes 
against humanity for atrocities allegedly committed by the group against 
civilians in northern Uganda over the past 20 years.

[Full Story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55558]

[On the Net: Political dialogue vital to keep the peace: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55546]


UGANDA: Government to extend LRA talks deadline

The Ugandan government is to extend the 12 September deadline for the 
LRA to agree to a peace deal, or its leaders would forfeit the blanket 
amnesty for war crimes, an official said on Tuesday.

A new deadline, the government said, would be set because of significant 
progress at peace talks in southern Sudan. "Consultations are taking 
place now to adjust the deadline to allow the talks to continue," Okello 
Oryem, Uganda's minister for foreign affairs, said in the capital, 
Kampala.

Negotiations to end northern Uganda's 19-year war are expected to resume 
next week in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba and are seen by many 
as the best way to resolve war, which has claimed tens of thousands of 
lives and displaced nearly two million people.

[Full story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55515]


RWANDA: One acquittal, one conviction in 1994 trials

The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda acquitted 
on Monday a former Rwandan mayor of genocide on Monday and sentenced a 
former army officer to 25 years in jail for his involvement in the 1994 
killings.

Judge Jai Ram Reddy said the prosecution had failed to prove, beyond 
reasonable doubt, former Mayor Jean Mpambara's role in the killings 12 
years ago in the eastern Rwandan commune of Rukara in Kibungo 
Prefecture, now part of Eastern Province.

In another judgment, Tharcisse Muvunyi, former commander of Ecole 
Sous-Officiers, a military academy in Butare, southern Rwanda, was 
sentenced to 25 years for failing to use his authority to stop killings 
during the genocide which caused the deaths of 937,000 Tutsis and 
politically moderate Hutus, according to the government.

Since its inception in late 1994, the tribunal has rendered 30 
judgments, involving 26 convictions and four acquittals.

[Full story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55520]

[On the Net: Genocide suspect appears before court 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55084]


RWANDA: UN court reacts to ultimatum over "genocide suspects"

Officials of the tribunal will "soon" meet Rwanda government officials 
to discuss a misunderstand involving a lawyer wanted in Rwanda for 
genocide, the tribunal's spokesman said on Friday.

"We are passing through a period of misunderstanding," Everald O'Doneel, 
the spokesman said in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, the 
tribunal's headquarters.

He was reacting to an ultimatum the Rwandan government issued on 
Thursday, giving the tribunal a "last chance" to take action against 
some of its staff accused of participating in the 1994 genocide or risk 
it severing all ties with the UN court.

O'Doneel said the tribunal would make a decision soon on the issue of 
Callixte Gakwaya, a Rwandan lawyer defending one of the genocide 
suspects on trial before the court.

[Full story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55578]


RWANDA: Most-wanted genocide suspect in Kenya, UN prosecutor says

The most-wanted Rwandan genocide suspect, Felician Kabuga, is hiding in 
Kenya and efforts are under way to arrest him, tribunal Prosecutor 
Hassan Jallow said on Friday.

"All intelligence details point to Kabuga being in Kenya," Jallow told 
reporters during a briefing in Arusha, Tanzania, where the United 
Nations tribunal is located.

Kabuga allegedly helped finance the 1994 genocide, which claimed the 
lives of 937,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, according to Rwandan 
government estimates. The United States government has offered a reward 
of up to US $5 million for information leading to his arrest.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55580]


DRC-SUDAN: Sudanese refugees return home

Hundreds of Sudanese refugees, who had been living in the Democratic 
Republic of Congo, some for two decades, have returned home in the 
latest repatriation undertaken by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, an 
official said on Wednesday.

"At least 400 Sudanese refugees have been repatriated to southern Sudan 
from the Aba area of northeastern DRC," Jens Hesemann, an external 
relations officer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for 
Refugees (UNHCR), said in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.

Aba is the largest Sudanese refugee site in the DRC, accommodating 5,000 
people while the country still hosts 13,000 Sudanese refugees according 
to UNHCR spokesperson, Ron Redmond.

[Full story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55557]


DRC: Supreme Court endorses results of presidential poll, confirms 
run-off date

Congo's Supreme Court ruled on Friday to retain 29 October as the date 
for a second round of presidential elections. The court also confirmed 
the results of the first round of polls held on 30 July.

Friday's ruling overturns the court's ruling on Tuesday that the date 
was unconstitutional.

The court upheld an appeal by the Independent Electoral Commission, 
invoking the principle of absolute necessity, which it was not possible 
to adhere to the constitutional provision that a second round of polls 
be held 15 days after the results of the first round. It ruled that the 
commission would have 50 days from the confirmation of official results.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55581]

[On the Net: Mbeki, Solana bolster process for second-round polls: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55508]

[Parliamentary polls results out, no party gains majority: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55479]


TANZANIA: Zanzibar malaria campaign on target

Health officials in Tanzania's semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar 
predict a drastic drop in the number of malaria cases on the island 
after a successful mosquito control campaign.

The manager of Zanzibar's Malaria Control Programme (ZMCP), Abdallah 
Suleiman, said on Friday the island had met the 90-percent coverage of 
the area targeted for residual spraying in the 54-day programme.

At least 199,344 households out of an estimated initial target of 
216,876 were sprayed with the lambda-cyhalothrin chemical during the 
Indoor Residual Spraying effort to control mosquito breeding, according 
to ZMCP. The spraying will in future be conducted at least once every 
eight months.

[Full story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55582]


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