U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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Integrated Regional Information Network for Southern Africa

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SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 51
22 - 28 December 2001


CONTENTS:

ZAMBIA: Close election on early results
ZIMBABWE: SADC summit to discuss political violence
ANGOLA: Scene set to resume peace talks
SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN Focus on leaders learning to move on
COMOROS: Yes to unity

ZAMBIA: Close election on early results

Zambia's general elections on Thursday ran into administrative and
logistical problems, but results trickling in suggested it was a going to
be a close race. Analysts predicted that if the results remained
neck-and-neck between the key candidates and parties, the country could
see its first coalition government.

Voting in many parts of the country started late on Thursday as the
Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) battled to deliver ballot material to
the over 5,000 polling stations countrywide - some of them cut off by
impassable roads and flooding. Polling was scheduled to end on Thursday
evening, but continued in some areas on Friday.

However, the few results received by mid-Friday suggested that three of
the 11 presidential candidates – Levy Mwanawasa of the ruling Movement for
Multiparty Democracy, Anderson Mazoka of the United Party for National
Development, and Christon Tembo of the Forum for Democracy and Development
- were running close. Political observers said the partial results
suggested it was unlikely that one single party would sweep both the
presidential and parliamentary elections.

"The indications are that two or more parties will have to reach some kind
of compromise. Coalition governments are not unusual, and it is likely
that the leading parties will find themselves being forced by necessity
into forming one," Alfred Chanda, president of the Forum for a Democratic
Process (FODEP), a church-backed NGO that is monitoring the elections,
told IRIN.

For more details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18242&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=ZAMBIA

Election observers had earlier criticised the ECZ's alleged lack of
preparation for the tripartite presidential, legislative and local
government polls. Coalition 2001, an umbrella group of civil society
organisations set up to monitor the elections, said the failure of the
government-appointed ECZ to issue election monitoring groups with
identification cards in good time meant that they would be unable to
monitor voting in parts of the country.

There was also widespread concern by opposition parties and election
monitors that rains would deter many people from casting their ballots.
Voter apathy and organisational problems earlier conspired to reduce the
numbers of people expected to register to vote. Monitors said the fact
that the elections would be held in the middle of the festive season meant
that still more people would not vote, even if the weather permitted.

"There has been a deliberate ploy in place for much of the year to
disenfranchise the voters, especially those in the rural areas of this
vast country and the ruling party is the only institution that has the
resources to get out there in the areas where heavy rains have rendered
the situation impassable," the coalition's spokesman, Ngande Mwanajiti,
reportedly said.

ZIMBABWE: SADC summit to discuss political violence

Southern African Development Community (SADC) chair and Malawian President
Bakili Muluzi has called for an extraordinary two-day summit of the
regional organisation in Blantyre next month in a last ditch effort to
stop the political violence in Zimbabwe, Malawi's Daily Times reported on
Friday 28 December.

The newspaper quoted officials as saying that the summit would take place
from 13-15 January, 2002. The Daily Times added that the meeting was the
result of pressure from South African President Thabo Mbeki, who had grown
seriously concerned with the increasing political violence in Zimbabwe in
the run-up to presidential elections in March.

However, a meeting earlier this month in Harare by a SADC ministerial task
team refused to call the government to order, and the regional grouping
was labelled as irrelevant by Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).

Meanwhile, Leban Chiweta, an MDC member in rural Bindura, died on Tuesday
after being assaulted by armed riot police when they raided a house,
Zimbabwe's Daily News reported on 28 December. Chiweta was the fourth MDC
activist to die in less than six days.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai warned on Wednesday that the earlier killing
of three of his members - allegedly by ruling party supporters - signalled
the start of a violent presidential election campaign.

Trymore Midzi, an MDC youth leader in Bindura, about 60 km north of the
capital, Harare, died in hospital on Monday after being beaten and slashed
through the head with a machete. MDC officials said he was attacked by a
group of ZANU-PF ruling party militants. His death followed the killing of
two other MDC members, Titus Nheya and Milton Chambati, last week.

Tsvangirai said the fact that three MDC people had been killed made it
"obvious now that ZANU-PF is not going to retreat from its campaign of
violence as we head towards the elections" in March. President Robert
Mugabe kicked off his re-election campaign this month announcing a "real
war" against the opposition.

For more details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18201&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=ZIMBABWE

Meanwhile, Tsvangirai has accused the Registrar-General, Tobaiwa Mudede,
of illegally removing names from the voters' roll, the Daily news
reported. In an urgent application filed in the High Court this week,
Tsvangirai said: "I have received scores of complaints by persons who were
previously on the voters' roll and who have been summarily and unlawfully
removed from it by Mudede's officials. These complaints have come from
both Zimbabwean citizens and eligible permanent residents."

ANGOLA: Scene set to resume peace talks

Angola's peace process took a tentative step forward on Friday 21 December
when UN Under-Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari revealed that the
government was ready to allow the United Nations to resume its role of
mediator, and to get UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi back to the
negotiating table.

Briefing the Security Council, Gambari, who is also the UN
Secretary-General's Special Advisor for Special Assignments in Africa,
said that a "convergence of opinion was emerging for the first time that
the United Nations should play a more proactive role in the Angolan peace
process".

Gambari's Council briefing followed his week-long visit to Angola earlier
in December. During the trip he held talks with the Angolan government,
UNITA MPs who have abandoned the armed campaign, civil society and with
the church, which has played a major role this year in coordinating peace
efforts in the country.

For more details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18156&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=ANGOLA

MPLA reviews president's planned retirement

The central committee of Angola's ruling MPLA met in the capital Luanda on
Friday 28 December to discuss, among other things, President Jose Eduardo
dos Santos' decision not to contest the next election.

With the committee still locked in discussion late in the afternoon, a
diplomatic source dismissed a recent press report that Dos Santos was
expected to announce a unilateral ceasefire against Jonas Savimbi's rebel
movement UNITA.

He said that while many people were speculating, the government's
intention was not clear. However, he added: "If this happens it would be a
good sign that the government is sending to the international community
and to UNITA as well."

By Friday, military activity across the country had not decreased in spite
of the positive developments. According to a humanitarian source, hundreds
of internally displaced persons (IDPS) continue to flee to safety this
week.

For more details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18243&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=ANGOLA

Recommendations for conflict diamonds ban

Environmental and human rights NGO Global Witness has released
recommendations to better regulate the notoriously hard to control diamond
trade and halt the flow of conflict diamonds mined by the Angolan rebel
group UNITA.

Controls on the Angolan trade can be improved, the London-based rights
group said in a recent statement, and "Global Witness believes that if
similar measures to those outlined in the report were implemented in all
alluvial diamond producing countries then the problem of conflict and
illicit diamonds could substantially be reduced".

According to a report to the UN Security Council in October by the
Monitoring Mechanism on Sanctions Against UNITA, around US $1
million-worth of embargoed diamonds are smuggled out of Angola each day.
An estimated 20 to 30 percent of the traffic - or US $250,000 a day - is
controlled by the Angolan rebel movement.

The UN Monitoring Mechanism and the Kimberley Process - aimed at agreeing
common standards for the international certification of diamonds - are
measures that seek to stem the flow of conflict diamonds out of Angola.

Among the recommendations for Angola, according to Global Witness, are
that the government should immediately publish the diamond producing areas
under UNITA control. The NGO, which has been at the forefront of the fight
against conflict diamonds, also urged the authorities to "develop detailed
profiles of typical UNITA origin diamonds" which should be publicly
accessible.

To access the report:
http://www.oneworld.org/globalwitness/press/controls.pdf

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN Focus on leaders learning to move on

President Frederick Chiluba finally cast his vote on Thursday in a general
election that will remove him from the presidency after 10 years in
office. He was just one of many leaders in the region this year who were
forced to abandon hopes of re-election.

This week IRIN looked at the "succession debate" which has raged
throughout the region and some of the factors which have pressured leaders
into searching for successors in their parties

For more details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18207&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=SOUTHERN_AFRICA

IRIN Focus on difficult year for media

Southern Africa's media was among the most challenged of any African media
this year by heavy-handed governments, regional analysts and senior
journalists told IRIN this week.

"The media in this region have been challenged by local governments - many
of which are struggling for legitimacy as in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia
- who took issue with news reports and opinions in the enduring legacy of
race politics coupled with emerging problems such as HIV/AIDS and crime
and generally a bleak outlook as far as the economy goes," Yves Sorokobi,
Africa Programme Coordinator from the Committee to Protect Journalists
(CPJ) told IRIN.

For more details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18152&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=SOUTHERN_AFRICA

COMOROS: Yes to unity

Provisional results from the Comoros referendum on Sunday 23 December
showed a 75 percent vote in favour of a new constitution to reunite the
three Indian Ocean islands and to end a secessionist crisis.

The proposed constitution grants the islands of Grande Comore, Anjouan and
Moheli greater autonomy within a new federation.  Anjouan and Moheli
unilaterally seceded in 1997.

News reports said final results were due to be confirmed by the national
electoral commission on 7 January. Turnout was estimated at 75 percent.
The picturesque volcanic islands off the east coast of Africa have a
population of around 714 000, Reuters said.

Meanwhile, two French mercenaries who took part in a failed coup last week
turned themselves in to the Comoran authorities on Tuesday. The men were
the last two members of a group of 13 mercenaries who "invaded" Moheli on
19 December to surrender, prosecutor Soilihi Mahamoud told AFP.


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