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 Southern Africa

Tel: +27 11 880 4633 
Fax: +27 11 880 1421 
e-mail: irin-sa@irin.org.za


SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 17
22-29 April 2000



CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: Britain and Zimbabwe fail to reach agreement
ZIMBABWE: Police invoke special powers
ZIMBABWE: Farmers concerned
ZIMBABWE: British evacuation plan
ZIMBABWE: Tobacco auction disrupted
ZIMBABWE: Mbeki cancels state visit
ANGOLA: New report cites alarming humanitarian situation
ANGOLA: ICRC cites further displacements in central highlands
ANGOLA: Landmines kill 33
ANGOLA: Three killed in ambush
ANGOLA: New oil output
MOZAMBIQUE: New appeal for post-floods reconstruction
MOZAMBIQUE: Agriculture recovery to cost US $64m
NAMIBIA: Nujoma pledges to crush Angolan rebels
NAMIBIA: US peace envoy to meet Nujoma
ZAMBIA: Appeal to help refugees
SOUTH AFRICA: Concern at shortage of TB drugs
SOUTH AFRICA: Chinese leader ends visit

ZIMBABWE: Britain and Zimbabwe fail to reach agreement

Britain and Zimbabwe this week failed to reach agreement on a land reform
package after more than eight hours of talks in London. 

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told a news conference: "The ball is
now in their court. I made it crystal clear there would be no further talks
until the end of occupations. An end to the violence (against opposition
activists) and the occupation of the farms is the essential next step." 

More than 600 white-owned farms in Zimbabwe have been occupied by veterans
of the independence war and followers of President Robert Mugabe's ruling
ZANU-PF party since Mugabe lost a referendum in February that would have
allowed the government to requisition the land. In a series of violent
incidents that ensued, a dozen members of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and two white farmers have been killed as the
country prepares for new parliamentary elections next month.   

Although the talks ended without an agreement on ending the violence or a
date for parliamentary elections scheduled next month, John Nkomo, the
leader of the Zimbabwe delegation was more upbeat: "It is not a failure. We
have broken the ice." 

The BBC quoted Conservative shadow foreign secretary Francis Maude as saying
that following the failure of the discussions, the Government should freeze
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's overseas assets and begin moves to
suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth. 

ZIMBABWE: Police invoke special powers

On Thursday, as the talks in London got underway, police in Zimbabwe invoked
sweeping new powers to crack down on political violence by restricting the
activities of political parties. 

Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri invoked the controversial
pre-independence Law and Order Maintenance Act which gives police the power
to restrict the movement of party supporters and ban public gatherings that
threatened law and order. 

"In short, it is illegal to ferry supporters to meetings, public gatherings
or processions unless such events are being officiated by presidents of
political parties," Chihuri said at a news conference.

Chihuri also said Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition MDC were
equally to blame for the political violence.

ZIMBABWE: Farmers concerned

The Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU), said this week the atmosphere in the
commercial farming sector was not conducive to farmers resuming normal
operations. 

CFU director David Hasluck said despite a truce reached last week between
the CFU and the veterans to end violence on farms, invasions were still
taking place and operations were still being disrupted by violent mobs.

"The situation is not conducive yet to normal farming. We hope the situation
will improve to allow farmers to carry out their normal work," Hasluck said.

ZIMBABWE: British evacuation plan 

Amid fears of increasing violence in Zimbabwe, British Defence Secretary
Geoff Hoon told the BBC that contingency plans had been prepared to evacuate
British passport holders. 

He told BBC One's Question Time programme: "If circumstances deteriorated so
badly, there are certainly contingency plans in place where we would want to
help British passport holders to get to safety." 

The Foreign Office later said these were not special arrangements but
applied to 170 countries worldwide. 

ZIMBABWE: Tobacco auction disrupted

The occupation of farms seriously disrupted the annual tobacco auction which
started this week.

Officials told IRIN that the first day of the selling season started with
3,000 bales of flue-cured tobacco, a third below normal. The Zimbabwe
Tobacco Association (ZTA) and the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) both cited
the farm occupations and concerns  that the Zimbabwe dollar had not been
devalued.

Although Zimbabwe growers produced a record crop this year of 220 million kg
of flue-cured tobacco, the ZTA said in a statement that producers should try
to deliver tobacco - the country's main foreign exchange earner - next month
instead.

"While this recommendation is subject to individual grower's decisions,
consistent deliveries of tobacco before this date are highly unlikely," the
statement said. ZTA President Richard Tate said continuing farm invasions
and diesel shortages in some areas were likely to keep many farmers from the
auction floors until early May. 

Tate told a news conference buyers would look to other markets, such as
Brazil, Zimbabwe's main competitor.

Zimbabwe is the world's third largest tobacco producer and the crop is its
main export. The ZTA also said the status of this year's crop was unclear,
and that the disruption had already cost the county millions of dollars in
lost revenues.

During a visit to some of the farms last week, farmers told IRIN normal work
had been rendered difficult, if not impossible, by the occupations. They
also said they could not afford to sell until the Zimbabwe dollar is
devalued.

ZIMBABWE: Mbeki cancels state visit

South African President Thabo Mbeki has cancelled a state visit to Zimbabwe
scheduled for next week until after the parliamentary elections. 

Mbeki's spokesman Parks Mankahlana said the postponement was mutually
acceptable to both Mbeki and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. He said
that South Africa did not feel it was fair to host a state visit while
preparing for elections. "It makes more sense to postpone the visit on the
eve of the elections," he said. 

Earlier in the week, one of South Africa's leading weekly newspapers, 'The
Sunday Times' said Mbeki had brokered a deal with Mugabe to end the land
invasions.

It said Britain and the United States have agreed to help fund a structured
land reform programme. The plan would also involve the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) restoring relations with the Zimbabwean government and
helping the country's cash strapped state-owned electricity and fuel
companies.

The reports said that the deal followed a week of "intense behind-the-scenes
diplomacy" in which Mbeki spoke by telephone to US President Bill Clinton,
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and European Union executive commission
president Romano Prodi.

At a regional summit in the tourist resort of Victoria Falls last Friday,
Mbeki, Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano and Namibia's Sam Nujoma were
reported to have "warned" Mugabe that Zimbabwe's spiralling lawlessness
would destabilise the region. They also told him that his policy of
sanctioning the illegal occupation of farms would undermine the region's
economic revival. 

Further details on the Zimbabwe crisis can be seen at:

ANGOLA: New report cites alarming humanitarian situation

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned
this week that the plight of hundreds of thousands of people displaced by
fighting between government forces and UNITA rebels in Angola could turn
from crisis to tragedy unless urgent measures are taken to alleviate their
suffering.

In some cases, it said, people driven from their homes are being forced to
eat worms and grass to survive, while health, sanitation, access to clean
drinking water and overcrowding in shelters and camps for displaced people
in many areas of the country are such that these locations themselves
present a threat to those who have so far survived in a civil war which has
endured since the country's independence from Portugal in 1975.

Insecurity remains rife with landmines widespread around the perimeters of
provincial capitals. The country's roads are either poorly maintained or too
dangerous because of ambushes and land mines, while many air fields - often
the only means of delivering humanitarian assistance - are badly damaged
through overuse.

These are just some of the findings presented in a detailed 38-page rapid
needs assessment carried out during the first week of April. The
inter-agency assessment team of UN, government and non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) was led by the UN Emergency relief Coordinator, a.i.,
Carolyn McAskie. 

"It is important for the international community and the government of
Angola to react promptly if we are to avert the current crisis from becoming
a major humanitarian tragedy," McAskie said in a statement.

The full report can be viewed on the ReliefWeb internet site at:
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf 

ANGOLA: ICRC cites further displacements in central highlands

In a related development, the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) reported this week that sporadic clashes in Angola's central
highlands have forced more and more people to flee their homes. 

ICRC said that since the beginning of the year, it had been distributing
food aid mainly comprising maize flour, beans, oil and salt to more than
300,000 local residents and displaced persons living on the outskirts of the
country's second city, Huambo.

"During this period sporadic clashes in the central highlands have led to a
significant increase in the number of beneficiaries," it said. "The coming
harvest is expected to be poor, owing mainly to a lack of fertiliser and to
the fact that the area under cultivation has been reduced for security
reasons."

ANGOLA: Landmines kill 33

Angolan authorities this week said 33 people were killed and 17 injured in
two landmine explosions in the northern province of Uige.

Humanitarian sources and Angolan state radio said two civilian vehicles
carrying traders set off two anti-tank landmines on Sunday. It said the two
explosions occurred on the same road about six km apart, and blamed the
rebel UNITA movement of Jonas Savimbi for planting the mines.

ANGOLA: Three killed in ambush

In a separate incident, three civilians were killed and five others were
wounded when suspected UNITA rebels ambushed three vehicles near the
country's second city of
Huambo on 24 April, the Angop state news agency reported.

It said the attack occurred in the Boas Aguas region, about 32 km east of
Huambo. "The  vehicles were damaged," it said. "It has been reported that
large quantities of cooking oil, salt, dried fish and other products were
stolen." Those wounded were hospitalised in Huambo.

ANGOLA: New oil output

Crude oil production from the Kuito field in the deep waters offshore Angola
is expected to reach 100,000 barrels per day during the second quarter,
according to a statement this week by Chevron.

It said output reached 70,000 bpd in April. The field, the first deepwater
oil project in Angola, started production in December.

MOZAMBIQUE: New appeal for post-floods reconstruction

Mozambique is to ask donor governments meeting in Rome next week for US $450
million to assist with reconstruction following devastating floods brought
on by two cyclones in February and March which claimed 650 lives and left
more than half a million people
homeless.

The International Reconstruction Conference for Mozambique is to be held in
Rome on 3-4 May. In a statement on Thursday, UNDP said the funding is
intended to help restore and improve education, health care, infrastructure
and agriculture as well as revitalise the private sector. 

Participants in the conference will include representatives of donor
governments, UN agencies, development banks, non-governmental organisations
and the private sector, and neighbouring countries. The conference is
organised by the Governments of Italy and Mozambique and supported by the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Mark Malloch Brown,
Administrator of UNDP and Leonardo Simao, the Foreign Minister of
Mozambique, will co-chair the meeting. 

Details of the appeal can be viewed on the ReliefWeb internet site at:
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf

MOZAMBIQUE: Agriculture recovery to cost US $64m

Meanwhile, Mozambique's agriculture minister, Helder Muteia, announced at
the weekend
that his ministry would need about US $64 million to minimise the effects of
the floods on the agricultural sector.

Muteia said about 10 to 15 percent of the country's agricultural production
had been affected and that it would take up to two years for the sector to
recover fully from the effects of the floods.

The World Bank announced at the weekend that it had approved a US $30
million loan to help Mozambique finance equipment for rebuilding damaged
infrastructure. The loan would be used to import construction materials,
school and medical supplies as well as petroleum and fuel products.

NAMIBIA: Nujoma pledges to crush Angolan rebels

Namibian President Sam Nujoma has pledged to "leave no stone unturned" in a
drive to  crush suspected UNITA rebels from Angola who have launched
cross-border raids. 

"We will leave no stone unturned until we wipe them (UNITA) out," Nujoma
said after delivering his annual state of the nation address. "We are here
to defend this country, its territorial integrity ... we have the capacity,
I want to promise you that."

The UNITA raids have increased since November last year when Nujoma invited
Angola to attack rebel positions from Namibian territory. In the latest
incident, an army base at Divundu near the border was shelled by suspected
rebels a week ago. There have also been landmine incidents which have
wounded people in the northern Kavango and Caprivi Strip border zones.

NAMIBIA: US peace envoy to meet Nujoma

United States peace negotiator Howard Wolpe held talks Nujoma this week on
the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where Namibia has
deployed an estimated 2,000 soldiers on the side of DRC President
Laurent-Desire Kabila against a rebellion supported by Rwanda and Uganda.

Wolpe also held separate meetings with Namibia's defence minister Erkki
Nghimtina and acting foreign minister Tuliameni Kalombi, 'The Namibian'
reported. He was due to visit neighbouring Angola afterwards.

ZAMBIA: Appeal to help refugees

Zambian Foreign Minister Keli Walubita this week appealed to the
international community to help the Zambian government take care of Angolan
refugees in the country's Western province.

"We would like to appeal for international assistance for food, medicines,
clothing and education materials," he said. Walubita added that an urgent
need is for a reliable boat that will shuttle between Senanga and Kalongola.
"The government will do everything possible on the situation but we still
require international assistance," he said.

SOUTH AFRICA: Concern at shortage of TB drugs 

South Africa could face a tuberculosis epidemic because of a shortage of
vaccines, the South African daily 'The Star' reported this week.

According to the report, the government had run out of supplies and new
imports were not expected to arrive until September. It said that private
hospitals and clinics were also battling to acquire the necessary TB
vaccines.

The reports quoted a letter from the Department of Health which said
that depots had run out of supplies of BCB percutaneuos vaccine (the TB
vaccine given to babies) last month. Recent studies by the Medical Research
Council showed that TB infection rates had doubled in most of the country's
nine provinces in the last five years and were expected to increase
five-fold by 2005.

SOUTH AFRICA: Chinese leader ends visit

Chinese President Jiang Zemin ended a four-day visit to South Africa on
Wednesday after visiting Robben Island, off Cape Town, where former
president Nelson Mandela was jailed. Diplomats said President Thabo Mbeki
did not raise China's human rights record during the visit.

Jiang returned home after a 15-day world tour that also took him to Egypt,
Greece, Turkey and Israel. 

Johannesburg, 29 April 10:15 GMT


IRIN-SA - Tel: +27-11 880 4633
Fax: +27-11 447 5472
Email: irin-sa@irin.org.za 


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