U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 352
7 - 13 October 2006


CONTENTS:

BURUNDI: Joint truce verification mechanism launched
CAR: Civilians flee clashes in the north
CONGO: Human rights report on illegal detentions
DRC: Two militia leaders appointed army colonels
RWANDA: Ruling party to vote on abolishing death penalty
UGANDA: Rebels propose federalist solution at Juba talks
KENYA-SOMALIA: Refugee camps expanded as more Somalis arrive


ALSO SEE:

TANZANIA: Zanzibar winning its fight against malaria
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55879]


BURUNDI: Joint truce verification mechanism launched

The Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism, charged with overseeing
the implementation of the ceasefire accord between Burundi's government
and the last active rebel movement, the Forces nationales de liberation
(FNL), was officially launched on Wednesday in the capital, Bujumbura.
FNL representatives did not attend, however.

The facilitator in the Burundi peace process, South Africa's minister of
safety and security, Charles Nqakula, who launched the monitoring
committee, said the verification mechanism would ensure the ceasefire
agreement was implemented.

"It incorporates important elements with respect to the building of
durable peace in Burundi," Nqakula said.

[Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55909]


CAR: Civilians flee clashes in the north

Thousands of people have fled their homes around the town of Wandago in
northern Central African Republic over the past three weeks after an
outbreak of fighting between government troops and rebels, witnesses
said.

Humanitarian officials in Bangui said they had reports of people fleeing
the conflict, but aid workers were not immediately able to confirm the
number of people involved. Jacques Gonemandji, a motorist who arrived in
Bangui from Kaga-Bandoro, a town near Wandago, said on Saturday
thousands of people had run into the bush or sought refuge in
neighbouring towns.

[Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55870]


CONGO: Human rights report on illegal detentions

Several military personnel and civilians are being held illegally for
prolonged periods and often under inhumane conditions, according to the
human-rights watchdog (L'observatoire congolais des droits de l'homme)
in the Republic of Congo.

In a new report, the organisation denounced the arrest in February 2005
of 13 army officers and warrant officers for the alleged theft of
weapons from a military camp south of the capital, Brazzaville.

"We do not know the real reason for their arrest because they were never
questioned. There was no proper procedure," Roger Bouka-Owoko, the
executive director, said.

[Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55885]


DRC: Two militia leaders appointed army colonels

Two militia commanders have been appointed colonels in the Democratic
Republic of Congo army in a bid by the government to pacify the troubled
northeastern district of Ituri, Defence Minister Adolphe Onusumba said
on Tuesday.

"The objective of these nominations is the pursuit of peace," he said.
Peter Karim had been leader of the Front des nationalistes et
integrationnistes and Martin Ngudjolo head of the Mouvement des
revolutionnaires Congolais. They each commanded about 3,000 fighters.
Onusumba said eight other fighters from these groups had also been
commissioned into the regular army.

[Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55907]


RWANDA: Ruling party to vote on abolishing death penalty

Rwanda's ruling party will push for a law abolishing the death penalty
in the east African state, Rwandan Patriotic Front spokesman Servilien
Sebasoni said on Thursday.

Outlawing capital punishment would clear the way for the UN
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and western countries to
extradite genocide suspects to Rwanda. Sebasoni denied suggestions that
the party had made the decision to facilitate extradition of suspects to
Rwanda.

"They have not requested us to abolish capital punishment completely,
all they wanted were guarantees that the suspects they sent would not be
liable to capital punishment," he said.

[Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55929]


UGANDA: Rebels propose federalist solution at Juba talks

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) suggested on Wednesday the country
adopt a federalist system as a way of ensuring peace after 20 years of
conflict in northern Uganda.

In the revised LRA proposals, made under the talks' second agenda on
comprehensive solutions, the rebels say Uganda should be governed under
a federal system of government, insisting that this would ease tensions
and ensure general stability. The talks resumed last week after a
fact-finding team investigated rebel claims that government troops had
surrounded surrendering rebels.

[Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55906]


KENYA-SOMALIA: Refugee camps expanded as more Somalis arrive

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is expanding
camps for Somali refugees in eastern Kenya to accommodate an increasing
number of people fleeing the troubled Horn of Africa country.

"We are really concerned about the large number of refugees who continue
to arrive every day," Emmanuel Nyabera, spokesman for the UNHCR in
Nairobi, said. An estimated 2,000 have arrived in Kenya from Somalia via
the Liboi border post since Friday, Nyabera said. "As it is now we are
expanding the existing camps, but if the numbers continue to rise we
will have to discuss with the government the possibility of opening new
camps," he said.

[Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55884]


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