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 66
06 - 12 April 2002


CONTENTS

MADAGASCAR: Analysts warn of descent into lawlessness
ANGOLA: Unite for peace, church tells UNITA
LESOTHO: Emphasis on conflict resolution in run-up to election
ZIMBABWE: MDC launches court bid, evictions and arrests continue
MALAWI: IMF to review Malawi's performance
MOZAMBIQUE: No structural adjustment rewards for poor yet
ZAMBIA: Three months' of half-rations for refugees in Zambia
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Donors still needed for food emergency - WFP
AFRICA: Rich rob poor of US $100 billion a year - Oxfam

MADAGASCAR: Analysts warn of descent into lawlessness

The week ended in Madagascar with analysts warning of a "slow and steady"
descent into lawlessness if the political deadlock which has been
crippling the island state's economy for the past three months was not
broken soon.

News reports said frustrated supporters of the island's two rival leaders
were resorting to war tactics to break the deadlock. On Friday, a Roman
Catholic missionary was killed in political clashes in the country's third
town of Fianarantsoa, AFP reported. The death of the Canadian monk came as
supporters of self-declared president, Marc Ravalomanana, tried to storm
the governor's residence. Civil rights groups say almost 30 people have
died since the conflict began to escalate in February. More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27247

On Monday IRIN reported that another attempt at a diplomatic solution to
the crisis had failed. The visit by Indian Ocean Commission Secretary
General Wilfred Bertille was expected to bring the two rival candidates to
the table, but his departure was instead marked by an upsurge in violence
as the political stalemate continued.

Bertille's visit came almost a month after the Organisation of African
Unity recommended that the men form a transitional unity government. Both
camps have yet to comment on the six-point plan put forward by the
delegation. More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=27156

Madagascar, compared to many of its African neighbours, has enjoyed
relative political stability since independence in 1960. The three-month
long secessionist crisis engulfing the Indian Ocean island began with a
disputed elections in December 2001. IRIN this week published a chronology
of defining political events in the country. More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=27191

ANGOLA: Unite for peace, church tells UNITA

Headlines in Angola this week centred on emerging differences among the
leadership of UNITA, which is negotiating a peace settlement with the
government after signing a ceasefire agreement on 4 April.

The ceasefire signed by UNITA and Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) commanders
ended Africa's longest-running civil war and came in the wake of Jonas
Savimbi's death in combat on 22 February.

On Thursday 11 April, prominent Angolan cleric Reverend Daniel
Ntoni-Nzinga urged UNITA's leaders to resolve their differences so they
could contribute "in a viable way" to the historic peace process under way
in the country.

"We recognise there are tensions, but they still have a chance to work
them out. It is normal for people who have been away from each other for
almost 10 years. They still have that golden opportunity to unite ... [and
it is the] hope of all of us that the achievement of peace is not held
hostage by tensions among themselves," Ntoni-Nzinga, executive secretary
of the Inter-Ecclesiastical Committee for Peace in Angola (COIEPA), told
IRIN.

Leaders of UNITA-Renovada, who split from Savimbi and joined the Angolan
parliament as the official opposition in 1998, and UNITA military
commanders who remained loyal to Savimbi to his death, are pitted against
each other in the dispute. More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27235

Meanwhile, international medical relief group Medecins Sans Frontieres
(MSF) said on Monday 8 April that with the new peace agreement allowing
the movement of previously trapped populations, an image of devastation
was beginning to emerge.

"With the opening of zones previously inaccessible to humanitarian
organisations, the devastating consequences of this 27-war on the health
of the population are beginning to be seen. MSF is preparing for a medical
and nutritional emergency," it said in a report. More details:
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/6686f45896f15dbc852567ae00530132/855e99
7e3d040b7ac1256b9500346ce9?OpenDocument

LESOTHO: Emphasis on conflict resolution in run-up to election

With Lesotho's elections set for 25 May, the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) is focusing on conflict resolution initiatives to avoid a
recurrence of the unrest that followed 1998's poll.

The UNDP says special emphasis will be placed on the mobilisation of
political parties, NGOs, traditional leaders, church and women's groups to
"play an active role in the electoral and democratisation processes". The
UNDP itself "would remain committed to maintaining its role as a neutral
mediator and facilitate dialogue within Lesotho", it said in a report
presented at the Lesotho High Commission in Pretoria, South Africa, on
Thursday 12 April.

More details: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27233 On Monday
IRIN reported the UNDP as saying that voter education was a priority. More
details: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27157

ZIMBABWE: MDC launches court bid, evictions and arrests continue

The first legal challenge to President Robert Mugabe's election victory
dominated the news in Zimbabwe this week alongside reports of continued
farm evictions and arrests of anti-government demonstrators.

After rejecting the March election result, which returned Mugabe to office
for another six years, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Friday
lodged a petition with the Harare High Court, starting a process of
ultimately seeking court sanction for fresh elections. MDC spokesman David
Coltart told IRIN that after Friday's action, next week papers would be
served on Mugabe, the Minister of Justice, the registrar general and the
chairman of the electoral support committee.

The court action will run parallel to the party-to-party ZANU-PF and MDC
talks facilitated by South Africa and Nigeria. The talks began on Monday
with the parties taking opposing views on whether there should be new
elections and were postponed to May 13. More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27204

On Thursday 11 April Zimbabwe's liberation war veterans said they had
stepped up their campaign and had issued ultimatums to about 800 white
farmers ordering them to leave their properties. Jenni Williams,
spokesperson for the Commercial Farmers Union said farmers had received
the letter was from Andrew Ndlovu, national secretary for projects in the
Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWA), who had
advised farmers to leave their property immediately as they had been
supportive of anti-Mugabe groupings.

Earlier in the week a Zimbabwe Mirror report said the ZNLWA could face a
leadership crisis as the 11-month old interim executive had not yet
appointed a new leader following the death of previous leader Chenjerai
Hunzvi.

Almost 30 members of the National Constitutional Assembly appeared in
court early in the week after being arrested last Saturday during
anti-government protest marches. They were arrested in terms of the Public
Order and Safety Act and were later freed, but arrests like those formed
part of the motivation for a European Union draft resolution on Zimbabwe,
submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Commission on Wednesday. More
details: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27241

Reports also resurfaced of children of opposition supporters being pushed
off food queues because of their parents' political beliefs. Shari Eppel
of rights group Amani Trust said that in the course of helping torture
victims, she had been told that children of Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) supporters were being denied access to school food queues in
Mberengwa East, in the far south of the country.

Sam Mlilo, district chairman of Mburengwa East, told IRIN he had seen
children driven out of the queue for the supplementary meal at the
Chamakudo Primary School, near Mataga, because of their parents' political
beliefs. He also alleged that ZANU-PF structures were being used to
distribute food.

Eppel said a report on the victimisation of the children would be compiled
with information from various regions, and would be presented to the donor
agencies to investigate. More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27163

MALAWI: IMF to review Malawi's performance

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) told IRIN on Wednesday 10 April that
it had yet to complete a review of Malawi's fiscal discipline and could
not release a further US $47 million in Poverty Reduction and Growth
Facility (PRGF) funding.

IMF representative Girma Begashaw said the lender could not release any of
the US $58 million in PRGF funding promised to Malawi - apart from an
initial US $8 million in December 2000 - because a review of Malawi's
economic reform programme had not been completed.

Many of Malawi's donors, who have for the most part withheld aid to the
country, have waited for signals from the IMF before deciding whether to
recommit themselves. In late February the British government reiterated in
Lilongwe that it would continue to withhold at least US $18,6 million
until the IMF approved the country's macro-economic policy. More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27215

MOZAMBIQUE: No structural adjustment rewards for poor yet

IRIN reported on Wednesday 10 April that ordinary Mozambicans had not yet
seen any real changes in their daily lives despite official World Bank
figures suggesting that the country had performed well under the heavily
indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative.

An Economist Intelligence Unit report said Mozambique had satisfied the
stringent conditions set by the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund (IMF), and was in line to receive a further US $4,2 billion reduction
of its foreign debt - the remainder of promised debt relief. As a result,
its debt service obligations would fall to only six percent of exports and
10 percent of government revenue over the 2010 period, compared with 2023
percent in 1998, it added.

Analysts, however, caution that while US $4,2 billion may sound like a lot
of money, debt repayment remains unsustainable for many of the poor
countries targeted under the HIPC initiative. The initiative, sponsored by
the World Bank and the IMF, aims to reduce the money some of the world's
poorest countries owe to foreign creditors. "Even assuming that all the
projections are correct, 10 percent of government revenues is still an
enormous amount for a poor country like Mozambique to be paying out to
foreign creditors ...," senior research fellow of Africa Action, William
Minter, told IRIN. More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27214

Earlier, however, donors told IRIN that Mozambique was beating its
neighbours at attracting aid and investment because of its transparent
government of funding.

"The attraction is basically of their own making. Throughout, and in spite
of the war, Mozambique has continued with development plans even though
they couldn't always put them in practise because of the war. After the
war one can feel that the authorities know what they want," Guido van
Hecken, Belgium's Chief of Cabinet for the State Secretary for Development
Co-operation, said on Tuesday 9 April. More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27190

ZAMBIA: Three months' of half-rations for refugees in Zambia

IRIN reported this week that about 130,000 refugees in Zambian camps have
been on half-rations for more than three months because of logistical
problems and a lack of money.

"Refugees are on half-rations since January because incoming contributions
have been delayed for all sorts of reasons ... so it's taking a lot of
time to get the food into the camps," Jorge Fanlo, WFP Deputy Country
Director, told IRIN on Tuesday 9 April.

He said the agency had only managed to secure 9,689 mt of the 52,122 mt of
food needed to feed the refugees properly, resulting in a "truck-to-mouth"
operation over the past three months. WFP was trying to supplement the
diets of child refugees under five years old by providing high energy
protein supplements and working through NGOs, he added.

However, Fanlo said the worst was probably over as the lean season had
ended. There would soon be a joint WFP/United Nations Refugee Agency
(UNHCR) assessment to determine refugees' needs. More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27196

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Donors still needed for food emergency - WFP

At least 2,6 million people in Southern Africa are desperate for food, yet
the World Food Programme (WFP) has still not received any new donations
towards the US $69 million it needs to help them. WFP regional information
officer Laura Melo told IRIN on Monday that no money had come forward
since the UN food agency made the appeal on 26 March.

At the time WFP said in a press release that a combination of factors -
from floods and drought to political and social developments - had eroded
millions of people's ability to cope with yet another bad harvest in the
region. It said donor responses to WFP appeals had been sluggish and the
agency urgently needed the money (which could buy about 145,866 mt of
food) to "ward off an imminent break in food supplies, particularly for
people in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe".

Melo told IRIN that while one "can't talk of a famine [yet] in the region,
[we] are trying to raise the alarm bells" to prevent the situation from
deteriorating. She said while assessments were still being conducted in
Swaziland and Lesotho, WFP had initiatives under way in Malawi, Zimbabwe,
Mozambique and Zambia. More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27159

Meanwhile, the great disparities in economies means that the complete
regional economic integration sought by the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) states is unlikely unless all the nations are stable and
peaceful, economists warned this week.

"The record speaks for itself," Samuel Matise, a Johannesburg investment
broker who advises clients on where their money might obtain good returns
in the region, told IRIN on Tuesday. "When a country is wracked by
internal violence or conflict, economic performance suffers so greatly the
nation would be like a stone dragging down other economies tied to it."

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zimbabwe offer the best
illustrations of how nations in crisis suffer economic setbacks that would
damage a fully integrated regional economy. Even with the incipient trade
links that exist today, the Zimbabwe crisis has contributed to the
devaluation of currencies throughout Southern Africa, and exacerbated
inflation.

"There is no way to get around the need for regional peace and stability,
and institutions to ensure this, as prerequisites for economic
integration," said Walter Johnson, a consultant with Mozambique's finance
ministry. More details: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27189

AFRICA: Rich rob poor of US $100 billion a year - Oxfam

"For every dollar we give in aid, two are stolen through unfair trade,"
says David Gallagher of Oxfam. Gallagher was speaking in Johannesburg,
South Africa, on Thursday 11 April at the launch of Make Trade Fair, a
global campaign aimed at changing the rules of trade. He said the flouting
of international trade rules by rich countries cost the poor world more
than US $100 billion a year.

The campaign in Africa was launched in Johannesburg and Dakar
simultaneously, as the 144 member states of the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) starts to work on a new agenda for trade negotiations that will
determine how world trade will be regulated in the future. In a report
titled "Rigged Rules and Double Standards", Oxfam revealed some
interesting statistics on Thursday. Campaign details and the full report
can be found at http://www.maketradefair.com and the full IRIN story at
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27232


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

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