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

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


SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 38
22 - 28 September 2001


CONTENTS

ANGOLA: UNITA attacks power station near Luanda
ZIMBABWE: Land talks "collapse"
MALAWI: Girls still dropping out from school
COMOROS: Soldiers arrested after foiled coup on Anjouan
LESOTHO: Project to benefit water-starved households
MOZAMBIQUE: IMF/World Bank gives additional debt relief
NAMIBIA: Government tables law curbing media military coverage
ZAMBIA: Zambians to go to polls as early as October - election official


ANGOLA: UNITA attacks power station near Luanda

Suspected UNITA rebels attacked a power station on the outskirts of the
Angolan capital, Luanda, early on Tuesday - bringing the rebel movement's
current wave of attacks closer to the capital than ever before.

An explosion took place at the substation in the Viana municipality, about
20 km from the centre of Luanda. A gun battle ensued between the attackers
and soldiers of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA), during which at least
three people were killed. Power supplies were interrupted in the capital
on Tuesday morning, and places up to 60 km away were reported to be
without electricity.

A day after the Viana attack, UNITA released a statement saying it had
also attacked the Government Military Deployment of Cabiri, about 40 km
south of Viana, on Sunday. The statement, issued by UNITA armed forces
chief of staff Geraldo Abreu, said the attack showed UNITA's ability to
infiltrate the capital. It said 23 government soldiers and two UNITA
fighters died in the fighting. "Thus, the UNITA Armed Forces, FALA, are
capable of carrying out military strikes in all the country’s provinces,"
the statement added.

For more details:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/angola/20010925.phtml

Suffering follows 25,000 displaced

Humanitarian officials told IRIN this week that about 25,000 people had
arrived at the Caxito camp for displaced people since the beginning of
September - more than initially expected. The camp is situated about 60 km
northeast of Luanda. The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) at first prepared for 5,000 arrivals, and plans had to be
revised rapidly. Shelter and sanitation are the most pressing concerns,
humanitarian officials said.

These people had fled their homes in the Nambuangongo area in the north of
Bengo province following a UNITA attack. For most of them, this was the
second time they were forced to leave their homes - so they walked more
than 200 km to Caxito. They headed for the Caxito camp where many of them
previously lived for six years.

For more details:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/angola/20010926.phtml

Oxfam blasts government and rebels

Meanwhile, relief agency Oxfam on Tuesday accused Angola's government and
UNITA rebels of diverting the country's oil and diamond wealth to fund a
26-year-old civil war. "The government, in spite of the war, can and
should do more for its people," Fred Kumah, Oxfam Angola programme
operations manager said. The war has killed about a million people and
forced almost four million more from their homes.

In its 15-page briefing paper, UK-based Oxfam said the Angolan government
must increase social spending and the international community must press
both sides to strive for peace. "Seventy eight percent of the rural
population lives in deep poverty, and one child in three never reaches the
age of five," the briefing paper said. "And yet, Angola could be one of
the richest countries in the developing world."

According to the briefing paper - titled Angola's Wealth: Stories of War
and Neglect - budget figures showed that Luanda spent 41 percent of its
funds on defence in 1999, but just 4.8 percent on education and 2.8
percent on health. The figures, according to Oxfam, were desperately low,
even for a developing country.


For more details:
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/6686f45896f15dbc852567ae00530132/26541835a70f3e6785256ad30067e24f?OpenDocument

ZIMBABWE: Land talks "collapse"

Land talks between the Zimbabwean government and the Commercial Farmers
Union (CFU) collapsed on Wednesday, news reports quoted both sides as
saying. Representatives from the CFU met Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa after the Zimbabwean Supreme Court last Friday ordered the two
sides to meet and find a solution themselves. The government had asked the
court to overturn a November ruling which declared the land reform
programme unconstitutional and which ordered the police to evict
supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF party who had invaded white commercial
farms.

"There is a divide that cannot be bridged," state attorney Bharat Patel
was quoted as saying after the two sides met and returned to the Supreme
Court. Adrian de Bourbon, attorney for the CFU, told the Supreme Court:
"In light of the attitude of the minister of justice, it is regretted no
progress was made at all and the door has been closed to approaches to
others in government."

CFU officials said they had hoped to reach agreement on how the
Commonwealth-brokered deal reached in Abuja last month could be
implemented. Under the Abuja agreement, Britain agreed to fund land reform
to correct historical imbalances in land ownership while Zimbabwe
committed itself to implementing a lawful land reform programme and "to
take firm action against violence and intimidation". Earlier this week
Zimbabwe government spokesman Jonathan Moyo said that the deal had not
committed the government to ending violence in farming districts.

For more details:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/zimbabwe/20010927.phtml

Violence continues to shut down farms - CFU

As the Abuja agreement came unstuck, some 350 mainly white-owned farms had
shut down because of occupation by pro-government militants, while another
550 were only able to function partially. AFP reported that according to
new figures from the CFU, 900 of the 1,150 farms under occupation were
unable to continue normal operations.

According to the report, the CFU said 20 farms were invaded after the
Zimbabwean government signed the Abuja agreement. It added that 25 farmers
had been forced off their property. The CFU also said another five farmers
had either been kidnapped or barricaded in their homes, while beatings and
evictions of farm workers, extortion, arson, poaching and theft had
continued. The Zimbabwean government agreed during the Abuja talks to end
farm invasions and violence in return for financial help from Britain for
its land reform programme.

IMF declares Zimbabwe ineligible for future funding

At the same time, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a
statement on Tuesday that it had barred Zimbabwe from future IMF loans or
use of its general resources. The decision followed the IMF Executive
Board's review of Zimbabwe's financial obligations to the organisation.

The board "declared Zimbabwe ineligible to use the general resources of
the IMF and removed Zimbabwe from the list of countries eligible to borrow
resources under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF)," the
statement said. The PRGF facility allows countries to borrow money at low
or reduced interest rates to implement poverty reduction programmes in
their respective countries. The IMF said that since mid-February Zimbabwe
had fallen behind by about US $53 million in its payments to the
organisation.

ZANU-PF wins by-election

Earlier in the week, ruling party candidate Bernard Makokove won a weekend
by-election in Zimbabwe, beating Oswald Ndanga of the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) by 15,570 votes to 5,207, state television
reported on Monday. Two candidates from smaller parties secured a total of
512 votes, the report said.

For more details:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/zimbabwe/20010925.phtml

MALAWI: Girls still dropping out from school

Pupil enrolment increased a staggering 63 percent when Malawi introduced
free primary school education in 1994, but education authorities were
still battling to keep young girls in class, officials told IRIN this
week.

"Girls opt for early marriages. As a poor country, Malawi is experiencing
a great deal of girls who drop out from school because they are enticed by
men to marry or because they get pregnant," Kuthemba Mwale, Director for
Education, Planning, Policy and Budget, told IRIN. He said Malawi had a
drop-out rate of 18 percent in its primary schools - one of the highest in
the southern African region. The majority of these drop-outs were girls.

For more details:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/malawi/20010927.phtml

COMOROS: Soldiers arrested after foiled coup on Anjouan

Police arrested about 10 soldiers, including two army captains, on the
separatist Comoros island of Anjouan after an attempted coup on Monday.
Major Mohamed Bacar, the head of the army's police wing on Anjouan, told
the island's radio on Wednesday that while some soldiers were detained,
"others turned themselves over to loyalist forces".

Diplomatic sources in the Comoros capital, Moroni, told IRIN on Wednesday
that the triumvirate which had been ruling Anjouan since a 9 August coup
were once again in control. The two captains arrested were both members of
the Rapid Intervention Section (SIR) which served as the personal guard of
Lieutenant-Colonel Said Abeid Abderemane, who ran Anjouan until he was
ousted in the August coup. Reports said the army police were still looking
for Major Combo Ayoub, the Anjouan-born deputy head of the Comoran army's
general staff, who was blamed for instigating the coup attempt on behalf
of the Moroni government.

Anjouan unilaterally declared independence from the rest of the
archipelago in 1997 and diplomatic bids, led by the Organisation of
African Unity, to get it back into the fold and establish a loose
confederation among the islands have constantly run into trouble.

For more details:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/comoro/20010925.phtml

LESOTHO: Project to benefit water-starved households

About 15,000 households would benefit from a US $8.7 million water supply
project launched in June, news reports from Lesotho said on Wednesday. The
Maseru Peri-urban Water Supply Project was expected to serve at least
85,000 people and would be conducted in two phases, one report said.

According to the report, the first phase would include a new pumping
station at the Maseru water treatment plant. Communities from at least 13
suburbs were expected to benefit, the report said. It added that the
second phase would involve the installation of a reticulation network of
pumping stations, a transmission line reservoir and house connections to
at least seven other areas.

Launching the project, Prime Minister Mosisili said the government
intended to provide potable drinking water to poor inhabitants. He was
quoted as saying that the project would deliver treated water from Maseru
to the Lesotho Sun water reservoir, and then through a 380 km network to
peri-urban areas in the Maseru district. Minister of Natural Resources,
Monyane Moleleki, was quoted as saying that the project was vital because
it would go a long way towards meeting the World Health Organisation's
(WHO) requirement that a human being should not walk more 150 metres to
fetch water.

MOZAMBIQUE: IMF/World Bank gives additional debt relief

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank this week gave
Mozambique additional debt relief under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor
Country Initiative (HIPC), making it eligible for an extra US $600
million. "As a result of the HIPC assistance and bilateral debt relief
already committed, Mozambique's external debt is reduced by some 73
percent, and possible additional bilateral relief could raise this
figure," a statement from the two organisations said this week. Mozambique
becomes the third country after Bolivia and Uganda to have reached this
point.

NAMIBIA: Government tables law curbing media military coverage

The Media Institute of Southern Africa said in a statement on Wednesday
that it was "gravely concerned" about the restrictive provisions contained
in the proposed Defence Bill. The Namibian government on Tuesday tabled a
law aimed at limiting media coverage of security and defence issues.

Defence Minister Erkki Nghimtina told parliament the law would make it an
offence to publish or broadcast information "calculated or likely to
endanger national security or the safety of members of the defence force".
He added that the media was not "security conscious" and that their
actions could "compromise the security of the country and the safety of
our members if not controlled".

The draft law also authorises military personnel to seize cameras and
films if they think they have been used to photograph military sites.
Analysts said sections of the proposed law were unconstitutional and in
conflict with sections of the constitution which dealt with the freedom of
expression.

"MISA holds the opinion that everyone has the right to information from
public authorities, including information relating to national security.
We believe that no restriction on this right should be imposed on the
grounds of national security, unless the government can demonstrate that
the restriction is prescribed by law and is necessary in a democratic
society to protect a legitimate national security interest," the MISA
statement said.

ZAMBIA: Zambians to go to polls as early as October - election official

A Zambian election official said on Tuesday that a general election could
be held as early as next month. According to reports, the official said
the provisional voters' roll was ready for inspection.

The provisional register would be open for inspection for a seven-day
period, but dates had not been finalised, the official added. During that
time, political parties and registered voters would be able to check that
their personal details and those of party members had been correctly
entered. "We have now completed working on the provisional voters roll,"
the official told AFP. "Those whose particulars might not need any
corrections must collect their voter cards," the Electoral Commission of
Zambia (ECZ) said in an advertisement placed in local newspapers.

Cereal deficit threatens household food security

In a separate development, Helen Samatebele, the acting director of the
Programme Against Malnutrition (PAM), said last Sunday that the current
cereal deficit was threatening household food security.

Samatebele said during the launch of the 2001/2002 agricultural inputs
distribution programme for targeted food security packs (FSP), that this
season would determine the success of the FSP, the Zambian newspaper
reported. The FSP is a government-funded programme to provide household
food security to about 200,000 vulnerable but viable small scale farmers,
the report said. Samatebele said one of the ways of reducing the negative
impact of the last farming season was to distribute inputs early this
season. The country this year has a food deficit and has to import about
300,000 mt of maize.


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


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