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
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[The weekly roundup is based on IRIN daily updates and other relevant information from UN agencies, NGOs, governments, donors and the media. IRIN issues these reports for the benefit of the humanitarian community, but accepts no responsibility as to the accuracy of the original sources.]
Central and Eastern Africa: IRIN Weekly Round-up 12-98 covering the period 13-19 Mar 1998
GREAT LAKES-SOUTH AFRICA: Rebels armed by South African black market - paper
The regional weekly 'The EastAfrican' alleged on Monday that South African blackmarket weapons are being smuggled to rebels in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. The paper claimed the gun-running operation is organised by three South African-based former Zairean generals - Mavua Madima, Kpama Baromoto and Ngbana Nzimbi. According to the weekly, the arms are bought in Johannesburg and transit through Zambia to the Lake Tanganyika port of Nsumbu. From there they are shipped to smaller lake ports and into the Kivus.
An analyst at the Johannesburg-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS) told IRIN of mounting concern in South African security circles over a clandestine arms link with the Great Lakes region. However, "we are yet to receive any real proof," he added. The analyst, who visited Zambia late last year in an attempt to trace the alleged smuggling routes, said: "South African involvement operates much more as one of brokerage than supplying." South African individuals, utilising apartheid blackmarket arms links with the countries of the former Eastern bloc, are putting together deals for various rebel groups in the region. These weapons are usually transported from Mozambique or Tanzania to Lake Tanganyika rather than through South Africa, he added.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Ministers agree to examine human rights plan
DRC government ministers last Friday agreed to examine proposals to curb human rights violations. The programme, put together at a meeting jointly sponsored by the UN, comes ahead of an annual review of abuses by the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Reuters reported. According to the news agency, some UN officials and diplomats described the three-day meeting as a breakthrough in collaboration with the authorities, even though ministers attending the meeting did so in a non-official capacity.
Among other recommendations, officials proposed the abolition of a controversial military tribunal with powers to prosecute civilians, and the demobilisation of thousands of child soldiers recruited during Kabila's bush war. Plans were also announced for an inter-ministerial committee to ensure respect for human rights and to monitor related international undertakings.
RWANDA: Kigali slams Amnesty International statement
The Rwandan government has reacted with outrage to an Amnesty International (AI) press statement last Friday which accused the army of fresh civilian massacres and "disappearances". Army spokesman Major Emmanuel Ndahiro said the London-based rights group was "championing the cause, if any, of diehard Hutu extremists," the private Rwanda News Agency reported. "AI's report is still alleging. It has not yet proven the charges against our army.'' He added that Amnesty does not take account of government efforts to stamp out extra-judicial killings by the army.
Total of 200 rebels killed in Gitarama
Fifteen rebels were killed in clashes with the army last Friday in the central Gitarama prefecture, local media reported. According to Ndahiro, the army were tipped off by residents. The security forces also announced that a rebel commander - codenamed "Ninja" - was killed in the prefecture on Thursday, and an ex-FAR officer captured. According to an AFP despatch quoting government figures, 200 rebels have been killed in Gitarama in the past two weeks and 11 taken prisoner.
Government blasts French inquiry as hoax
The Rwandan government has strongly criticised an investigation by a French parliamentary committee into France's role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide as "a hoax", saying all the information was already available. "This fact-finding mission is useless because the information it will be looking for is already there," said Patrick Mazimhaka, a minister in the Rwandan president's office. "This commission is just a hoax," he told the independent Rwanda News Agency on Wednesday. A French parliamentary committee investigating links between France's military and the Rwandan genocide of 1994 said on Wednesday it would begin hearings on 24 March.
Mass trial of genocide suspects
Fifty-one people accused of genocide and related crimes went on trial in the Rwandan town of Byumba on Wednesday, AFP reported. It is the largest number of defendants to date to face trial for their alleged role in the 1994 slaughter. They are jointly accused of criminal association, looting and genocide. The defence team includes seven Rwandans and seven members of the international association Avocats Sans Frontieres. "It's very courageous of Rwandan lawyers to defend the genocide suspects, in the current context, because Rwandans find it hard to understand or accept the right to a defence," the ASF mission head in Rwanda, Marielle Hallez, told AFP.
UGANDA: Museveni says Sudanese "terrorism" on Clinton's agenda
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said alleged Sudanese "terrorism" will be addressed by US leader Bill Clinton' during his Kampala visit next week. "I think terrorism is mentioned in the proposed draft joint communique," Museveni told AFP on Wednesday. "So if Sudan has been engaged in terrorism, I think we shall address that problem too." Museveni, in Gulu to boost army efforts to counter a 12-year-insurgency by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), said Sudan was "not a big problem" to regional security. He declared: "They have done all the destabilisation they can do. But we have defeated them, and we shall defeat them even more if they continue with their schemes." He added: "If we work with America, it will be because of our own interests. Our interests may coincide with theirs, but they will not be using us."
SUDAN: Humanitarian agencies warn of deteriorating food security
The local population in Bahr el Gazal is facing severe food shortages, humanitarian sources told IRIN during a visit to the region this week. Relief flights are limited to only four locations by the Sudanese government. Those living beyond the reach of relief assistance are being forced to live mainly on the wild foods they can forage. Displacement caused by recent fighting in Wau and Aweil has compounded the problems facing people who have suffered two consecutive bad harvests due to drought and insecurity.
SPLA official says fall of government closer
A senior member of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) has claimed the forces opposed to Khartoum "are in the last phase on the road" to overthrowing the government, AFP reported. Pagan Amun, a member of the national executive council of the SPLA, told the Egyptian daily 'Al-Hayat' that a Sudanese opposition conference in Asmara on Wednesday, would focus on improving military cooperation. "We will also discuss what we will do after we enter Khartoum, such as (forming) the government, preparations for an interim period and the constitution," Amun said.
TANZANIA: Refugees protest over reduced rations
WFP's latest Emergency Report says the railway line near Kigoma, the main route for food deliveries to the refugee camps in Kasulu, is flooded and passenger services have already been suspended. An interruption in the cargo service is also feared. The weekly report adds that food distribution in Nduta camp was suspended when the refugees violently protested against the reduced cereal ration being distributed. It was later agreed that a double ration of pulses would be distributed to compensate for the half cereal ration. Nduta hosts close to 30,000 Burundian refugees.
Similar incidents occurred in Lugufu camp in Kigoma, hosting approximately 26,000 Congolese refugees, when some of the refugees refused to receive their half rations. The situation was solved after meetings with the refugee community and the distribution resumed. The official refugee caseload in Tanzania at the beginning of March stands at 344,091 persons, including 263,614 Burundians and 69,131 Congolese.
GREAT LAKES: Transport disruption forces new food distribution strategy
A WFP survey of the Great Lakes region transport corridors notes that weather-related damage to the Tanzanian transport infrastructure continues to disrupt essential transport links along the southern rail corridor. Over 60 percent of the Tanzania Railways Corporation rolling stock remains trapped in Dar es Salaam. During February, only 57 percent of the 6,000 mt of food planned could be moved from Dodoma to Kigoma, Isaka and Tabora, the agency said. In order to ensure that the required food commodities reach those in need, WFP has been forced to adopt new logistical arrangements, not envisaged in the original regional emergency operation. These include the immediate airlifting of 700 mt of essential food commodities from Dar es Salaam to Burundi.
BURUNDI: Team of experts set to go to Ruyigi
Following reports of an outbreak of a mysterious disease in Burundi's Ruyigi region, a ministry of public health/WHO mission was due to arrive this week for a four-day evaluation mission. The infection causes swelling of the feet to the extent the sufferer is unable to walk. It is said to be very painful. According to humanitarian sources, three scouting trips from Ruyigi hospital have found 110 people infected in Butaganzwa commune. There is speculation transmission is through the soles of the feet.
ANGOLA: Hurdles still remain in peace process UNITA was due to demobilise its last 193 military officers on Thursday in its central stronghold at Bailundo, completing the demilitarisation of the movement, news reports said. On Wednesday the UN representative in Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye, went to the central city of Andulo for talks with UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi, who affirmed his commitment to completing implementation of the protocols by 1 April. For its part, the government began disarming civilians in Luanda with the aim of assuring security as UNITA sets up headquarters in Luanda. Several other tasks remain to be completed by 1 April, a deadline observers say will be difficult to meet despite widespread optimism that final implementation is in the offing.
Nairobi, 20 March 1998
[ENDS]
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