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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 85
30 March - 05 April 2002


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA: Poverty linked to terrorism, US congressman says
ETHIOPIA: Appeal for calm in Oromiya
ETHIOPIA: No "unnecessary measures" after border ruling
ETHIOPIA: IMF approves $30 million loan
ETHIOPIA: Campaign to stamp out polio under way
ERITREA: Media watchdog urges release of journalists
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Military commission meets in Djibouti
SOMALIA: New UN humanitarian coordinator assumes post
SOMALIA: TNG minister to be "deported" from Somaliland
SOMALIA: US officials in Mogadishu
SOMALIA: Over 90 drown in boat disaster
DJIBOUTI: At least one dead in toxic leak
SUDAN: UN rights expert records little tangible progress
SUDAN: WFP back helping war-affected in Raga


ETHIOPIA: Poverty linked to terrorism, US congressman says

Fighting poverty is a key weapon in the global war against terrorism, a
congressional US aid delegation to Ethiopia said on Thursday. "I think we
should be careful in how far we go in saying poverty leads directly to
terrorist attacks, but clearly it provides a breeding ground in which
terrorist groups can find fertile soil," senior Congressman Jim Kolbe told
a press conference in the capital, Addis Ababa. "So alleviating poverty,
helping to increase the standard of living in a country, is important,"
said Kolbe, who sits on a counter-terrorism committee. "Escaping poverty
itself is not necessarily the answer, there are other driving forces
behind terrorism, but certainly it is one of the things we need to do."

Although the visiting congressional delegation will focus on health and
education, its members said they would thank Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
for Ethiopia's help in fighting terrorists and providing intelligence.
"Ethiopia has been very much at the forefront of the fight against
terrorism and we are very grateful for the support it has given to the
American people after the terrible events of September 11th," Kolbe said.
"We are very grateful for the support Ethiopia has given in all of our
efforts, gathering intelligence about Al-Qaeda and other terrorist
movements."

Fellow Congressman Dan Miller said the US had learnt in the aftermath of
11 September that it needs to "share its wealth among friendly countries
like Ethiopia".

The delegation is touring five African countries including Ethiopia, Mali,
Swaziland, Mozambique and South Africa. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27120]

ETHIOPIA: Appeal for calm in Oromiya

At least two students were killed after rioting broke out in the Oromiya
region of southern Ethiopia last week, and the regional authorities have
appealed for calm. Ethiopian officials have blamed the rebel Oromo
Liberation Front (OLF) for orchestrating the riots, but the OLF says the
students are protesting against the "grave political conditions" under
which the Oromo people are living. An OLF statement, received by IRIN,
said at least 10 students had been shot dead by police and security forces
in the towns of Nekemte, Ambo, Gudar, Bedeellee, Gimbi and Shambu. But
according to the regional authorities, two students died in Shambu when an
unidentified gunman opened fire in self-defence.

The protests, which broke out late last week, began in Ambo, which is 80
km from the capital Addis Ababa, before spreading to the other towns.
According to the regional authorities, the students were protesting
against hardships facing local farmers who have been hard hit by falling
coffee prices.

Suleiman Dedefo, a spokesman for the Oromiya Council which governs the
state, told IRIN the students "do not have any problems". "The problem is
not with the students, it is with the opposition organisations - outside
the students - the OLF," he said. "They are inciting the students...the
OLF is trying to use students as a weapon, as a means of struggle to
create unrest and instability in this country."

However, the OLF accused the Ethiopian government of "making a futile
attempt to discolour the true political picture in Oromiya". "The student
resistance against the Ethiopian oppression clearly demonstrates the level
the Oromo struggle has reached," it said. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27104]

ETHIOPIA: No "unnecessary measures" after border ruling, gov't says

The Ethiopian government has pledged not to take any "unnecessary
measures" that could lead to further conflict with Eritrea after a ruling
on their common border is announced next week. "Ethiopians will not take
unnecessary measures that could lead the country to an endless conflict
and bloodshed," a statement by the information ministry said on Thursday.
"The Ethiopian people should take a balanced decision on every national
issue that can defend the interests of the country in a sustainable
manner."

An independent Boundary Commission in The Hague is due to announce its
decision on border delimitation between Ethiopia and Eritrea on 13 April.
The ruling will be "final and binding", and both sides have pledged to
abide by it. The two countries fought a bitter two-year war over a border
dispute which erupted in 1998. A peace accord was signed in Algiers in
December 2000.

The Ethiopian government's commitment comes after rallies by the
opposition Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP) demanding that access to the
Eritrean port of Assab be included in the border arbitration. The EDP,
which is planning to send a petition to the United Nations, is angry that
the government has agreed to border demarcation based on colonial
treaties.

ETHIOPIA: IMF approves $30 million loan

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has granted Ethiopia access to US
$30 million to help fight poverty. The IMF's executive board approved a US
$20 million loan to "help mitigate the impact on the balance of payments
of a continued deterioration of the terms of trade". The money was
announced as part of the second review of Ethiopia's performance under the
Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) arrangement. A further $10
million was made available - totalling $30 million - by the IMF after it
granted a waiver to the National Bank of Ethiopia.

Shigemitsu Sugisaki, deputy Managing Director at the Washington-based IMF,
said in a statement that Ethiopia's performance under the PRGF had been
"commendable". The PRGF - part of the IMF's fight against poverty in the
third world - was approved in March last year and totals $109 million. So
far Ethiopia has borrowed $44 million.

"Most of the performance criteria and benchmarks were observed," Sugisaki
said. He added that despite a poor world trade climate, the real Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) for Ethiopia rose to an estimated 7.9 percent -
outstripping previous estimates. Low inflation and bumper cereal crops,
coupled with large inflows of food aid, also helped drive down the
country's current account deficit to 4.2 percent of GDP.

The loans are repayable over 10 years, with a five-and-a-half year grace
period, and with an interest rate of 0.5 percent. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27097]

ETHIOPIA: Campaign to stamp out polio under way

Ethiopia must wipe out polio by the end of the year to meet global
standards, the World Heath Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday. A final
vaccination programme involving over three million children has been
launched to stamp out the last remaining pockets of the virus. "This is
the most critical year for Ethiopia," WHO social mobilisation coordinator,
Mohammed Idris, told IRIN. If the country is to meet the 2005 Global Polio
Eradication Initiative it must ensure Ethiopia is polio free. "The virus
must be contained by the year 2005," said Mohammed. "If we get a case this
year you have to wait three years. Cases are always considered with a
bracket of three years - you cannot say within three years that you have
eradicated it. We have to get rid of it this year."

"That means Ethiopia could be the last polio eradicating country. It will
really draw us back from the world," he added.

Last year there were four reported cases of polio in Ethiopia. The 11,000
vaccination teams in Ethiopia are targeting Afar, Somali, Oromiya and
Benishangul Gumuz states where the cases were found. The immunisations
began last Friday and are expected to end this week. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27105]

ERITREA: Media watchdog urges release of journalists

The Paris-based media watchdog, Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF), has
called on the Eritrean government to free 10 detained journalists
immediately. The plight of the 10 came to the fore earlier this week when
they announced they were beginning a hunger strike to protest against
their detention without charge for over six months. "They are being held
in very bad conditions and we are worried about their health," said RSF
Secretary-General Robert Ménard on Thursday. "All they have done is
express their opinions, and nothing justifies their lengthy imprisonment.
As far as we know, they have not been formally charged with anything and
their detention is arbitrary and illegal."

A press release issued by the Eritrean Journalists' Association in Exile
(EJAE) on 3 April said the journalists had spent 72 hours without food and
water. In a message passed from inside their prison, the journalists said
they would continue refusing food and water "until they got justice", the
EJAE reported. RSF noted that dozens of journalists had fled the country
after the government closed down the private press last September,
accusing it of "endangering national security and unity". Private
publications were accused of carrying the opinions of government
dissidents, 11 of whom are also in detention.

An Eritrean National Assembly session held in January addressed the issue
of the private press and set up a commission to establish a "responsible"
independent press. The Eritrean government has stressed that the ban on
the private press amounts to a "temporary suspension" and that its
commitment to the growth of a free press is on track.

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Military commission meets in Djibouti

The 12th meeting of the Military Coordination Commission (MCC) was held on
28 March in Djibouti, a United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea
(UNMEE) press release has said. During the meeting, the MCC, which
comprises representatives of the Ethiopian and Eritrean armed forces, the
Organisation of African Unity and UNMEE, was briefed on the military
situation in the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) separating the two sides,
and in the adjacent areas.  According to the press release, the MCC was
informed that while there had been no overall changes in deployment, there
has been troop rotations involving the Kenyan, Bangladeshi, Italian, and
Indian contingents.

UNMEE Force Commander Maj-Gen Patrick Cammaert told the meeting that,
following the delimitation decision of the Border Commission (due on 13
April), the peace process would enter its next phase. He also said that
the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Legwaila Joseph
Legwaila, had been meeting Ethiopian and Eritrean leaders to initiate
discussions on a variety of issues related to the implementation of the
delimitation decision, according to the press release.

UNMEE would increase its monitoring of the TSZ, the adjacent areas, and
the redeployed armed forces of the parties in the period leading up to and
following the delimitation decision, Cammaert told the meeting, said the
press release. The meeting was chaired by Cammaert, and the participants
agreed to hold the next MCC meeting in Djibouti on 22 April.

SOMALIA: New UN humanitarian coordinator assumes post

Maxwell John Gaylard this week officially assumed his post as the new UN
representative for Somalia, according to a UN press statement. Gaylard, an
Australian, on Wednesday began work as the UN Development Programme
(UNDP)-Somalia Resident Representative and UN Humanitarian Coordinator.
During a first meeting with his staff on Thursday at his Nairobi office he
said: "It is important to remember that we are all here to serve the
Somali people."

UNDP spokeswoman Sonya Green told IRIN that Gaylard was currently engaged
in "consultative meetings with UN agencies and international NGOs working
in Somalia". He was expected to go to Somalia later this month, she added.
Prior to his new posting, Gaylard served in Sudan as Chief of the Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

SOMALIA: TNG minister to be "deported" from Somaliland

A minister from Somalia's Transitional National Government (TNG), who was
detained by the authorities of the self-declared republic of Somaliland,
was due to be "deported" to Mogadishu on Thursday. Somaliland's
Information Minister Abdullahi Muhammad Du'ale told IRIN the TNG's junior
minister of posts and telecommunications, Abdullahi Jama Ali, was detained
on Tuesday because he did not have permission to be in Somaliland.
According to Du'ale, the authorities had no prior knowledge of his
arrival. Du'ale said Jama had been "mingling with some people and trying
to leave some message", but the issue was primarily an "immigration
problem". He added that Jama had been accommodated at a hotel in the
capital, Hargeysa, "for his own security" and had spoken to his family.

The TNG authorities have confirmed Jama's arrest. The chief of staff in
the prime minister's office, Ahmed Ise Awad, told IRIN he was detained
while transiting through Hargeysa airport on his return to Mogadishu from
a conference in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. Jama is a member of the Habar
Je'lo sub-clan of the Isaq clan, the predominant clan in northwestern
Somalia.

According to Awad, TNG Prime Minister Hasan Abshir Farah "regrets the
incident and calls on the Somaliland authorities to release the minister
immediately".

SOMALIA: US officials in Mogadishu

A group of US officials has arrived in the Somali capital Mogadishu for
talks with the TNG and faction leaders opposed to it, a senior TNG
official told IRIN on Wednesday. Ahmad Ise Awad, chief of staff in the
prime minister's office, said the team would have "a working lunch with
the prime minister at 1300 local time today [Wednesday]". On the agenda
for discussion were "the reconciliation process and terrorism issues", he
said.

On Thursday, the US officials will meet the National Task Force for
Security and Anti-Terrorism to discuss American concerns over the
possibility of "suspected terrorists on Somali territory", the official
added. Also on Thursday, they would meet the interim president, Abdiqassim
Salad Hassan. While in Mogadishu, the US delegation would hold talks with
civil society groups and faction leaders opposed to the TNG, local sources
told IRIN.

The six-member team visited the town of Baidoa, 240 km northwest of
Mogadishu, on Tuesday and spent the night there, Horn Afrik radio reported
on Wednesday. According to the radio, while in Baidoa, the Americans held
discussions with the newly elected president of the self-declared
autonomous State of Southwest Somalia, Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud. The
delegation is expected to leave Mogadishu on 4 April for the self-declared
republic of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia. US embassy officials
contacted by IRIN in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, said they had no
information about the delegation.

SOMALIA: Over 90 drown in boat disaster

A boat carrying over 100 Somalis seeking a new life in Yemen capsized last
week in the Red Sea halfway through its voyage. Over 90 people were
believed to have drowned after the boat sank, a local journalist told IRIN
on Tuesday. Bile Mahmud Qabowsade of the Yool newspaper in Bosaso, the
commercial capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland,
northeastern Somalia, said the vessel was carrying some 120 passengers. It
had been part of a convoy of four which left the beach port of Marero, 30
km east of Bosaso, for Yemen.

Trouble started when the vessel's engine stalled "near some islands
between Yemen and Somalia", Bile said. Other boats in the flotilla "threw
a rope for the captain and three crew members and left the rest to fend
for themselves", he added. "We have no accurate figures of the dead right
now, but there is very little hope that any survivors will be found, given
the fact that the boat was on the high seas when it sank," he told IRIN.

The fate of the captain and three crew members is uncertain. However, Bile
said he believed they had survived and "are here already or will be here
soon". "We already have information that people on the other boats have
contacted their kin to tell them they are safe," he said. Most of the
passengers on the doomed vessel were from southern Somalia, "mostly young
people of both sexes, with a sprinkling of families", Bile said. Most of
them had paid up to US $500 for the trip to Yemen, from where they hoped
to move on to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states in search of work.
"Almost everybody paid between $300 and $500 for the trip," he told IRIN.
A similar incident in May last year claimed the lives of over 80 Somalis.

DJIBOUTI: At least one dead in toxic leak

A toxic leak in the port of Djibouti has still not been completely
contained, and health fears are growing as the rainy season approaches
this month. At least one person has already died. The latest report on the
situation by the UN's OCHA said that nearly three months after the spill
was initially discovered on 9 January, the leak had still not been
stemmed. It said efforts were focused on securing the leaking containers
and cleaning up five contaminated sites at the port.

The leaking substance, a wood preservative known as chromated copper
arsenate (CCA), is highly toxic, corrosive and possibly carcinogenic.
There has been at least one death, although a direct link to chemical
exposure still has to be established, the OCHA report said. According to
latest figures from the World Health Organisation, up to 350 people claim
to have been exposed to the chemical.

"The prolonged presence of CCA in ground water and the possible impact on
marine environment is of great concern," the report stressed. "Assessment
of the situation has indicated that Djibouti does not have the technical
expertise to manage the situation beyond what has already been
undertaken." The Djibouti authorities have stated that the leak is
confined to the port itself and international experts earlier stressed
that the spill did not constitute a widespread public health problem.

SUDAN: UN rights expert records little tangible progress

Gerhart Baum, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in
Sudan, has again expressed concern over the situation in the country and
said a long-term, unified initiative for peace in Sudan is the only
approach that will succeed. It was critical that the root causes of the
Sudanese civil war be addressed, that careful political follow-up be
carried out, that all relevant actors of society be included in peace
negotiations and that concerted efforts were needed to bring about
confidence-building and democratisation, a statement from the UN Media
Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, quoted Baum as saying.

Introducing his report to the UN Commission on Human Rights on 30 March,
Baum said he had paid two visits to Sudan in the past year and noted
changes which could lead to an improvement in the rights situation. Among
these, he said, were: recent involvement by the US, which had brokered a
cease-fire agreement for the Nuba Mountains, arranged "days of
tranquillity" to allow for the eradication of a number of diseases, raised
the topics of slavery, abductions and forced servitude, and raised the
point of aerial bombardments against civilians. There also had been work
done on the creation of a national human rights institution and the
strengthening of civil society, in cooperation with the office of the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights, according to Baum.

Though these developments were encouraging, the human rights situation had
not yet changed, and no tangible improvement could really be noted, the UN
statement quoted him as saying. [see
http://www.unog.ch/unog01/Files/002_media/f2_cmq.html]

On the debit side, a state of emergency remained in force allowing for
flexible and arbitrary security measures; and an amendment to the National
Security Forces Act effectively allowed for incommunicado detention for
six to nine months, according to Baum. Moreover, freedom of the press was
still limited, and journalists were sometimes temporarily imprisoned;
there continued to be cases of discrimination against Christians; and
allied militias on both sides (of the conflict) continued to cause
widespread insecurity, making no distinction between military and civilian
targets and often resorting to recruitment of child soldiers. Women
continued to suffer disproportionately from the conflict and the
application of discriminatory laws, according to Baum.

Within areas controlled by the rebel Sudanese People's Liberation
Movement/Army, there appeared to be a widespread continuation of human
rights violations, although information was difficult to obtain, he said.
The exploitation of Sudan's oil resources was clearly exacerbating the
conflict, as a fight was under way for the control of power and resources
worth a great deal of money, the UN statement quoted him as saying. [Full
report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27057]


SUDAN: WFP back helping war-affected in Raga

The World Food Programme (WFP) has announced that it is planning to carry
out a series of food deliveries to assist war-affected people in Raga, a
strategic town in western Bahr al-Ghazal, southern Sudan, which government
troops seized from the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in
mid-October 2001. Laura Melo, a WFP spokeswoman, told IRIN on Wednesday
that most of the people to be assisted in Raga were internally displaced
persons (IDPs) - some of them returning to Raga after their dispersal in
the bush - whose nutritional condition was fragile after spending months
in forests and villages, where they had survived on wild fruits,
vegetables and game meat during heavy fighting in and around Raga.

The Khartoum Monitor newspaper reported in Sudan on 27 March that WFP had
completed its first food distribution assistance to the war-affected
people in the town five days earlier. This was the first food delivery to
help re-establish the population in Raga since the government recaptured
it, the report said. Melo said that, although the initial food
distribution had targeted 8,134 people, WFP was expecting that number to
increase as more people returned to the town. The agency was planning to
begin its second food distribution in the second week of April, since the
initial rations had only been sufficient for 15 days, she added.

"For the time being, we don't know when conditions will improve. More
returnees are still expected. At the time they were displaced, many of
them missed their harvests and are in dire need of nutritional support,"
she told IRIN. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27095]


IRIN-CEA
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Fax: +254 2 622129
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