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 36
8 - 14 September 2001


CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: SADC leaders meet in Harare
ZAMBIA: Opposition gains heart from MMD losses
ANGOLA: Peace ball in Angolan's court - bishop
MOZAMBIQUE: WFP update
LESOTHO: Voters registration extended
COMOROS: World Bank to extend emergency credit
SOUTH AFRICA: Anti-racism declaration finally adopted
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Leaders condemn terror attacks in the US

ZIMBABWE: SADC leaders meet in Harare

President Robert Mugabe faced his harshest critics this week at a regional
summit that took five other heads of state to Harare in a bid to stem
Zimbabwe's political troubles. The leaders of Botswana, Malawi,
Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe met behind closed doors
with a broad cross-section of Zimbabwean society, including the main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The summit marked the
first time that Mugabe had met with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai since the
opposition party was created almost two years ago.

At the end of the two-day summit President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi, the
chairman of the meeting in Harare, said the Zimbabwean government and
opposition would embark on a "national dialogue" aimed at ending 18 months
of violent unrest. He said that SADC would create a special committee to
monitor the dialogue. The committee will include representatives of
Mugabe's government and the opposition.

Speaking at a late-night press conference at the close of the two-day
meeting, Muluzi said regional leaders accepted Mugabe's assurances that
there would be an end to violence and intimidation linked to the transfer
of some 5,000 white-owned farms to landless blacks. However, anxiety
remained within the farming community over Mugabe's commitment amid
reports on Wednesday that ruling party militants assaulted a farmer in
eastern Zimbabwe.

Ball in Mugabe's court - Tsvangirai

Tsvangirai told the southern African heads of state that a regional
initiative to end Zimbabwe's crisis hinged on President Robert Mugabe
allowing a national dialogue to find solutions to the country's problems,
including land redistribution. He said that he welcomed the initiative by
SADC leaders, as well as Commonwealth moves lead by Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo, to help steer Zimbabwe out of its political and
economic crisis.

The opposition leader told IRIN: "We made it clear that while their
initiative was welcome the ball was really in Mugabe - his ZANU-PF party's
- court. That it was up to them to initiate national dialogue with other
stakeholders in the country including the political opposition to find
solutions to the country's problems." Tsvangirai noted that the unequal
distribution of land was only one of the major problems facing the
country. "We told the [SADC] leaders that land was only one of the major
problems but that the real root cause of the Zimbabwe crisis is bad
governance," he said.

"We told the leaders that any solution to Zimbabwe's crisis must
inter-link the central issue of bad governance as well as other key issues
such as the lawlessness and political violence in the country and the
economic decline," Tsvangirai explained. Tsvangirai also urged the SADC
leaders to ensure that the government agreed to the deployment of
international election observes and that opposition parties were given
equal access to the public media.

MDC and ZANU-PF in "secret talks"

The 'Financial Gazette' said on Thursday that ZANU-PF and the MDC were
engaged in secret talks to find a common plan to steer the country away
from the current crisis. The report quoted sources as saying that the
talks were still at a "low level" and had not involved direct contact
between the two leaders of the respective parties. The sources said
dialogue between ZANU-PF and the MDC would focus on how to end Zimbabwe's
isolation by the international community and on how to rebuild confidence
in the country by resolving contentious national issues such as land
redistribution, unemployment and the economic decline.  Tsvangirai was
quoted as saying that he would not deny or confirm that his party was
involved in low-level talks with ZANU-PF. "I cannot deny or confirm that,
but low-level contact is not talks," he said.

Rights groups critical

On the sidelines of the SADC summit, rights groups who have been highly
critical of Mugabe's record said the government had blocked them from
meeting with the visiting heads of state. University of Zimbabwe professor
John Makumbe told a news conference that a coalition of leading rights
groups, grouped under the Crisis Conference Coordinating Committee, had
not been allowed to meet the leaders. He distributed a statement the
coalition had planned to make to the presidents. It called for independent
monitors to oversee Mugabe's commitment to curb violence, as agreed in a
Commonwealth-brokered deal last week. "Civil society believes that
effective monitoring mechanisms must be put in place to ensure that the
government puts a stop to the violence being perpetrated predominantly by
its militant supporters," the statement said.

Meanwhile rights group Amnesty International said in a statement at the
weekend that it was "appealing" to the Commonwealth and the broader
international community to send observers as a matter of urgency to
monitor the human rights situation in Zimbabwe.

UK seeks action to prove Zimbabwe land deal works

The British government said this week that it hoped the deal brokered in
Abuja, the Nigerian capital, would end land invasions in Zimbabwe. It
added, however, that the real test of the agreement would be in action and
not words, news reports said on Monday. "The deal provides a way forward.
The test of that will be events on the ground," a Foreign Office
spokeswoman was quoted as saying. Speaking just before President Robert
Mugabe announced his acceptance in principle on Sunday of the deal
clinched with the British government, Britain's minister for Africa,
Valerie Amos, said Britain wanted to give the agreement time to work.
Asked if Britain would push for Zimbabwe's expulsion from the Commonwealth
if there was no progress by the time the 54-nation organisation met in
Australia next month, she said: "The agreement was only signed on
Thursday. Let's give it an opportunity to work." She was quoted by BBC
radio as saying that "to start to be gloomy at this point in time will not
help the process".

NCA threatens mass action if govt shuns free, fair poll proposals

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) said this week that it would
mobilise Zimbabweans to embark on mass action, and would also lobby
international support against the government, if it refused to guarantee
free and fair presidential polls scheduled for next year. NCA chairman
Lovemore Madhuku said the implementation of minimum requirements needed to
guarantee free and fair elections was a matter of life and death for the
NCA and that the civic group would not back down. "We won't give up. We
will die on that one," he was quoted as saying. Madhuka said the NCA would
present two options to the government.

"The first option will be for the government to adopt and enact our draft
constitution which we will present to them by December. The draft
constitution has permanent mechanisms to guarantee free and fair
elections. If for some reason the government decides to postpone the issue
of the constitution until after the presidential elections, then it would
have to implement the minimum requirements that we have suggested for the
holding of free and fair elections. That will be a fair compromise and we
will agree to that," he told the 'Financial Gazette'. Madhuka added that
if the government did not adopt the NCA constitution, the organisation
wanted an independent electoral commission to run the elections. He said
that the NCA wanted the voters roll to be updated and verified well in
advance of the elections and for equal air time and space to be given to
the opposition in the public media. "It's either that the government
enacts the new constitution or effects these minimum requirements or we
will take to the streets," Madhuku said.

Amnesty International said in their statement that it was "concerned that
the months preceding the presidential election due in 2002 will likely be
marked by an upsurge in human rights violations. Thus the process of
sending monitors should start as soon as possible."

ZAMBIA: Opposition gains heart from MMD losses

In Zambia this week, political analysts told IRIN that the loss of three
straight by-elections by President Frederick Chiluba's Movement for
Multiparty Democracy (MMD) should be cause for concern for the ruling
party in the run-up to general elections possibly later this year. Last
week, MMD lost its Kabwata seat in Lusaka and the Isoka East constituency
in Northern province near the Tanzanian border.

Kabwata went to the Forum for Development and Democracy (FDD), a party
that was formed only in April by renegade MMD members opposed to Chiluba's
alleged bid to run for an unconstitutional third term. Isoka was won by
the former ruling party, the United National Independence Party (UNIP),
which many observers thought was no longer a credible political threat.
Chawama was scooped dramatically in July by the United Party for National
Development (UPND), led by former Anglo America chief executive Anderson
Mazoka.

Fred Mutesa, a political analyst at the University of Zambia's Department
of Development Studies, there had been a perceptible erosion of support
for the party that had ruled Zambia since 1991. That, he added, is likely
to have a significant impact on presidential and parliamentary elections
due to be run before March 2002. "In simple words, people have rejected
the MMD," Mutesa alleged. "And, also, if you can't carry an important seat
in the capital, your chances of being effective in the presidential polls
are highly questionable."

Ngande Mwanajiti of the human rights group Inter-African Network for Human
Rights and Development (Afronet), told IRIN: "Despite all the resources
the MMD had at their disposal they lost all the same. This is because when
they came to power in 1991, people voted on the basis that they [MMD)
would be transparent, corruption-free and accountable, but all that has
been a pipe dream. To me, this is the reason they have been losing in the
past and may continue losing."

For more details: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/safp.phtml

Court hears Chiluba defamation case

Meanwhile, in a separate development, seven opposition party leaders in
court for allegedly defaming Chiluba by calling him a thief argued in the
Lusaka High Court on Tuesday that their arrests were "selective" and
therefore unfair. The leaders were arrested in connection with a series of
news stories, editorial comments and a citizens' petition in which Chiluba
was called a thief. According to a 'Post' newspaper report on Wednesday,
the group contended that they should be freed unless all 2,000 people who
signed the petition were arrested. The leaders, through their lawyers,
argued that their being singled out for arrest was discriminatory and
breached the state's obligation to enforce the law equally and fairly. A
court hearing was on Friday deferred to 15 October.

ZAMBIA: IRIN Focus on HIPC benefits

The alienation of Zambia's rural producers may soon be a thing of the
past, thanks to an ambitious, donor-backed programme to link up the rural
areas to the crop marketing system. The Ministry of Finance announced on
Tuesday that it had released 27 billion kwacha (about US $7.5 million) for
the rehabilitation of rural feeder roads ahead of the planting season in
October.

The national feeder roads rehabilitation programme is funded wholly by
savings made under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, a
World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) -led programme under
which western creditors grant eligible developing countries significant
debt write-offs. Savings made under the HIPC programme are expected to be
channelled into social service delivery and poverty alleviation
programmes.

According to IMF and Zambian government statistics, the country's annual
debt service payments this year will more than halve to US $158 million
from US $436 million as a result of HIPC concessions. Both the Zambian
government and western donors are confident that, if properly used, the
savings under HIPC will go a long away to alleviating poverty. However,
Zambia's civil society organisations - while applauding western creditors
for writing off part of the country's borrowings - are convinced that the
international community could do more to lift the country out of its debt
trap and onto the road to economic recovery. Many are campaigning for a
total write-off of the country's US $6.5 billion debt.

For more details:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/zambia/20010914.phtml

ANGOLA: Peace ball in Angolan's court - bishop

Angola would secure international support for peace initiatives if
Angolans themselves came up with a workable plan, Zacarias Kamwenho,
Bishop of Lubango and president of the Bishops Conference of Angola and
Sao Tome, told IRIN on Tuesday. Kamwenho said the international community
recognised that civil society had changed, particularly with the emergence
of the Inter-Ecclesial Committee for Peace in Angola (Coiepa), which has
been pressuring warring parties to resume peace talks. "So the challenge
is from our side, in a way, to present strategic projects which could
truly benefit the people."

Kamwenho was speaking on his return from Europe, where he met various
senior officials in his capacity as a leading figure in the Angolan peace
process. He told IRIN that he had been invited by the German Episcopal
Conference. He also visited Belgium, where he met with European Union
officials and in Paris met with senior UNITA official Isaias Samakuva.
Kamwenho said that Samakuva had underscored the need for a "bilateral and
simultaneous" ceasefire between the rebel UNITA movement and the forces of
the ruling MPLA party.

UNHCR resettles refugees in DRC

More than 3,000 Angolan refugees who fled to the Democratic Republic of
Congo's (DRC) south-western border town of Kidompolo had by Friday been
moved to more secure areas inland, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski told a
press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. "In the transfer operation, which
ended on Friday, the refugees were taken to Congolese villages south of
the capital, Kinshasa. The refugees are part of a group of nearly 10,000
Angolan refugees who had fled to the DRC in early August in the wake of a
UNITA offensive on the northern Angolan town of Beu. The last group of
refugees left Kidompolo on Friday morning on foot, at the start of a
two-day journey to the settlement villages of Zomfi, Zulu and Sadi, some
50 km from the DRC/Angola frontier," Janowski said.

Janowski said an estimated 4,000 Angolan refugees who arrived in the DRC
during August still remained in other border areas - 2,000 in the town of
Kimvula and a similar number scattered across several other villages. More
than 2,000 others had returned on their own to their homes in areas around
the town of Maquela do Zombo, in northern Angola. Before the recent
influx, the DRC was hosting over 180,000 Angolan refugees. UNHCR is
assisting over 70,000 of them in the Bas-Congo and Katanga provinces.

MOZAMBIQUE: WFP update

Preliminary results from a government crop and food assessment at the end
of August indicated there would be "several pockets" of food insecurity in
the country which would need some kind of relief intervention by the end
of the year, WFP said in its latest emergency report. WFP spokesman in
Maputo, Inyene Udoyen, told IRIN on Monday that the government's disaster
authority - the INGC - had selected several districts in the Maputo, Gaza,
Inhambane, Sofala, Manica and Tete provinces for the assessment. The
update said WFP was already active in most of these areas because they
were "chronically food insecure". It said that in Gaza province, the poor
harvest had been exacerbated by very low levels of rainfall and the
failure of normal coping mechanisms.

The food agency said that in collaboration with World Vision it had
started some food-for-work activities in Caia, about 225 km north of the
coastal city of Beira, and in Morrumbala, about 130 km west of Quelimane,
the provincial capital of Sofala province. "WFP intends to phase out the
general food distributions by the end of September," the update said. "In
other areas, WFP will work directly with district authorities on recovery
activities." WFP said that August food distributions were "seriously
affected" by delayed deliveries, forcing many WFP partners to distribute a
reduced amount of food. It said that over 2,000 mt of food were
distributed during August.

LESOTHO: Voters registration extended

Voter registration in Lesotho, in preparation for general elections next
year, was extended for a further three weeks, SABC's 'Channel Africa'
reported on Monday. Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairperson
Leshele Thoahlane was quoted as saying that the extension was necessary
because of technical and logistical problems which prevented a large
number of eligible voters from registering during the set registration
period.

According to the report, problems included delays in the delivery of
registration materials to registration centres, confusion over the
location of some centres, the depletion of registration materials and the
behaviour of some registration staff which was considered to be in
contravention of public service regulations. Thoahlane said the IEC had
taken necessary steps to ensure efficient registration and that this
included suspending some registration clerks.

COMOROS: World Bank to extend emergency credit

The World Bank was expected to approve a US $12.8 million emergency credit
facility to the Comoros this week, news reports said. The Indian Ocean
archipelago has experienced prolonged economic isolation due to ongoing
separatist turmoil. Comoran leader Azali Assoumani's press service was
quoted as saying that the money would be spent on political reconciliation
efforts in the Islamic republic's islands - Anjouan, Grande Comore and
Moheli.

Meanwhile, reports said on Monday that efforts to finalise a new
constitution for the Comoros islands had collapsed at the weekend. A
diplomat attending the meeting was quoted as saying that a tripartite
commission to examine a draft text of a new constitution had ended in
"total failure".

SOUTH AFRICA: Anti-racism declaration finally adopted

The World Conference Against Racism ended in Durban last weekend with
delegates finally adopting a declaration and action plan to combat racism
and xenophobia. The conference had to be extended until Saturday as
disagreements over two of the most contentious issues, the Middle East and
slavery, kept delegates in Durban a day longer than scheduled.

Canada, Australia, Syria and Iran were among those countries which were
unhappy over the final text relating to the Middle East conflict. The
declaration finally called for the end of violence and the swift
resumption of peace negotiations; respect for international human rights
and humanitarian law; and respect for the principle of self-determination
and the end of all suffering, thus allowing Israel and the Palestinians to
resume the peace process, and to develop and prosper in security and
freedom.

On the question of slavery, the delegates agreed on text that acknowledged
and profoundly regretted the massive human sufferings and the tragic
plight of millions of men, women and children as a result of slavery,
slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, apartheid, colonialism and
genocide. Acknowledging that these were appalling tragedies in the history
of humanity, the conference further acknowledged that slavery and the
slave trade were a crime against humanity and should always have been so -
especially the transatlantic slave trade.

For more details: http://www.un.org/WCAR/

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Leaders condemn terror attacks in the US

Southern Africa leaders this week joined leaders from around the world in
condemning the terror attacks in the United States on Tuesday. President
Thabo Mbeki urged the international community to link hands to defeat
terrorism. "The South African government unreservedly denounces these
senseless and horrific terror attacks and calls on the international
community to unite to defeat global terrorism," Mbeki said in a statement.
Former president Nelson Mandela was "stunned" by the slaughter of innocent
people, his spokesperson said.

Speaker of the National Assembly, Frene Ginwala was to forward the
National Assembly's condolences to the US Congress, after the Assembly had
unanimously condemned Tuesday's attack.

Botswana President Festus Mogae and his Mozambican counterpart Joaquim
Chissano on Wednesday also condemned the terrorist attacks in the United
States. In a letter to US President George Bush, Mogae said attacks on
innocent civilians should be condemned in the strongest terms and conveyed
his condolences to the US people.  "During this most painful, difficult
and trying period our hearts and prayers reach out to the people of the
US, in particular the families, whose loved ones suffered injuries or
perished in this tragedy," he wrote.

Chissano told Radio Mozambique he was "repelled" by the "hideous acts of
terrorism". "I don't know the reasons or who is involved, but whoever and
whatever the motive, it goes beyond all limits of what is acceptable," he
said. Namibian President Sam Nujoma called the attacks a "heinous crime"
and that "no cause can justify this cold-blooded massacre," he said.
Nujoma said the attack was not only directed at US citizens but the entire
international community.

Meanwhile, a South African Muslim cleric told IRIN on Friday that the
Muslim community condemned the attacks and the loss of life that had taken
place. "The vast majority of Muslims have condemned what has taken place.
I think the challenge ahead for Muslims here in South Africa is not two
allow this to divide us and I know many Muslim leaders like myself have
been and will continue to ask people to be calm in the weeks to calm as
the situation is likely to get more tense and in many senses more
polarised as people begin to take sides," he said.


IRIN-SA Weekly - Tel: +2711 880 4633
Fax: +2711 447 5472
e-mail: irin-sa@irin.org.za


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