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 54
12 - 18 January 2002


CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: International pressure
MADAGASCAR: Protests resume after court ruling
NAMIBIA: Break in food pipeline looms
LESOTHO: Humanitarian groups distribute food
ANGOLA: UN sanctions monitors in Luanda
COMOROS: OAU salutes the people
ZAMBIA: Refugees on half-ration as food stocks drop

ZIMBABWE: International pressure

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe faced re-renewed international
pressure this week to ensure free and fair presidential elections in
March.

Southern African leaders on Monday delivered their toughest message yet to
Mugabe, winning a commitment from the liberation war veteran to respect
human rights and allow in election observers. However, the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) summit - chided in the past by
critics for its lack of action over the Zimbabwe crisis - refused to
consider sanctions. [See IRIN report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19228&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=ZIMBABWE]

"President Robert Mugabe has made pledges and has to be given a chance to
fulfil them," SADC executive secretary Prega Ramsamy said on Wednesday.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed Mugabe's assurances of a free and
fair elections, but said he was "acutely" concerned by the promulgation of
a battery of restrictive laws. "The Secretary-General is acutely concerned
by the promulgation in Zimbabwe of laws that would severely restrict the
ability of political parties to campaign freely, and would limit the
freedom of the press. He emphasises that freedom of assembly and
association, as well as free and vigorous mass media, protected by a
strong and independent judiciary, are essential building blocks of
democracy," Annan's spokesman said in a statement on Tuesday.

In a hard-hitting report, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group
warned that SADC had to take the lead to avert an upsurge in Zimbabwe's
political violence spilling across the region. "If international pressure
on Zimbabwe to stop state-sponsored violence is to succeed, it must be
championed by those with the greatest influence and stake - namely
Zimbabwe's neighbours," the group said. "Should Zimbabwe's president not
respond adequately, his SADC colleagues should make it clear that his
legitimacy as leader and his historical legacy will be jeopardised.
Regional governments would be advised to prepare contingency plans, in
case Zimbabwe descends into further chaos and a state of emergency is
applied. [View the report:
http://www.crisisweb.org/projects/showreport.cfm?reportid=524]

South Africa's department of home affairs confirmed this week it was ready
to receive refugees "in the event of meltdown in Zimbabwe". Chief
spokesperson Leslie Mashokwe was quoted as saying that Nelspruit had been
identified as the main reception area and provincial home affairs
officials from the Northern Province and Mpumalanga had been meeting
monthly with security personnel in Nelspruit to fine-tune contingency
plans and monitor developments in Zimbabwe.

Press reports this week said that Britain and the United States had
launched an investigation into assets held abroad by Zimbabwe's
leadership, ahead of a possible decision to impose targeted sanctions. The
Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act passed by the United States
late last year aims at imposing sanctions on people responsible for the
breakdown of the rule of law and human rights violations. It provides for
the freezing of their assets and bank accounts.

The Financial Times reported that Washington believed that capital
outflows from top officials in Zimbabwe to tax havens in Europe and the
United States had been increasing in recent months. Ed Royce, the chairman
of the Africa committee of the US House of Representatives, said in South
Africa: "Assets are being transferred out of Zimbabwe by close allies,
military officers close to President Mugabe and, as a consequence of that,
clearly we need to take steps to ensure that we are not a part of
basically looting a national treasury."

However, presidential spokesman George Charamba dismissed the press
speculation as "propaganda" by Britain and the United States.

Meanwhile, the government on Wednesday backtracked on a controversial
media bill in response to representations from what Patrick Chinamasa, the
justice minister, called "objective-minded international media
organisations" and ruling ZANU-PF party MPs. The bill had generated
condemnation at home and abroad, with Zimbabwean journalists vowing to
defy its provisions that aim at bringing the independent media under firm
government control. The bill is expected to be postponed until next week.

MADAGASCAR: Protests resume after court ruling

Thousands of Madagascans returned to the streets of Antananarivo, the
capital, on Friday in support of presidential candidate Marc
Ravalomanana's claims that the results of a 16 December poll were tampered
with.

On Friday 13 January Ravalomanana suspended a week of protests, telling
his supporters to wait instead for the High Constitutional Court to decide
whether it would allow a recount of votes. The court decided this week to
allow the electoral authority to conduct a recount, but Ravalomanana wants
the court itself to hold the recount. He also wants a public hearing to
compare impressions of all the parties which observed the election.

Unofficial government results put Ravalomanana ahead of President Didier
Ratsiraka in the poll - with Ravalomanana, a wealthy businessman and mayor
of the capital, winning 46.6 percent, and the long-standing president
winning 40.4 percent. Ravalomanana, however, with support from local
election observers, claims to have won almost 53 percent of the vote,
making a run-off unnecessary. The UN and the United States have already
urged the tiny southern African state to find a speedy and transparent
resolution to the dispute.

For more details:
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=Madagascar

NAMIBIA: Break in food pipeline looms

The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Monday 14 January that it needed
help urgently to continue feeding about 19,500 mainly Angolan refugees in
Namibia beyond March. WFP spokesperson Penelope Howarth told IRIN the
agency would run out of all food rations at the end of March.

Howarth said WFP's operations in Namibia cost about US $1.4 million last
year. This year the agency needed about US $2 million. "With the number of
people we are feeding increasing all the time, the cost of the operation
keeps increasing too," she said.

For more details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19085&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=NAMIBIA

LESOTHO: Humanitarian groups distribute food

Relief organisations have begun distributing food to about 36,000 people
who are still suffering the after-effects of last year's adverse weather.
Birgitta Karlgren, World Food Programme (WFP) acting country director,
told IRIN on Wednesday 16 January that about 2,200 mt of maize meal, beans
and vegetable oil would be distributed to about 7,000 families over the
next four months. She said food distributions had begun in five eastern,
southeastern and northeastern districts of Lesotho.

Karlgren said that frost and heavy rains had ruined many families' crops
last year, and that with harvests due in April only, "now is real crucial
time for these families". She said WFP had identified beneficiaries
through a survey conducted during July and August last year, but that the
project was only launched this month because the government had not
approved the proposal to assist these families until November. World
Vision, the government and local non-governmental organisation (NGO)
Dorcas are WFP's partners in the project.

In October last year WFP warned that Lesotho was facing a "silent
emergency" as drought-induced food shortages hit poor households. For more
details:
www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=12441&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=LESOTHO

ANGOLA: UN sanctions monitors in Luanda

Members of the UN Monitoring Mechanism on Sanctions against UNITA arrived
in Luanda for a four-day visit on Tuesday to hold discussions with
diplomats, civil society and President Jose Eduardo dos Santos'
government.

Head of the delegation, Chilean diplomat Juan Larrain stressed many times
during the four-day visit that the mechanism believed sanctions had
neutralised UNITA's might in the field and that comprehensive sanctions
monitoring would continue. On Wednesday the Security Council said after a
closed-door meeting on Angola that sanctions against Jonas Savimbi's rebel
group would remain in place.

For more details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19223&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=ANGOLA

At the same time, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said on
arrival at the SADC summit in Malawi on Monday that his government was
ready to resume direct talks with the rebel movement on condition it
agreed to demobilise its troops and hand its weapons over the UN. News
reports quoted several of Dos Santos' ministers repeating this message at
various platforms during the week.

"Katangese" rebels accused of banditry

Meanwhile, in the prevailing lawlessness in Angola's countryside,
"Katangese gendarmes" have been accused of ambushing vehicles and setting
up roadblocks in Lunda Norte province. According to a 9 January Voice of
America report, the Katangese set up roadblocks on the 130 km Dundo-Lucapa
road in the diamond-rich northern province and were charging passing
motorists a toll fee. The newspaper reported that women had been harassed.

The Katangese are descendants of gendarmes from the former Katanga
province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who rebelled and fled
to Angola in the 1960s. They launched two strikes back into the then Zaire
during the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko and were defeated only by the
intervention of foreign forces.

Meanwhile, UNITA rebel activity also reportedly continued in Lunda Norte.
Armed men burned three public transport vehicles at Luxilo, on the
Dundo-Nzagi road in Lunda Norte, 80 km from Dundo. Four people were killed
and several wounded in an incident that survivors blamed on UNITA, news
reports said. The UN World Food Programme said in its latest situation
report that "heavy fighting" was reported between government troops and
UNITA in the central province of Bie, some 35 km from Camacupa municipal
headquarters. Clashes were also reported in Calussinga, 27 km south of the
former UNITA military headquarters of Andulo, and in Cutato, some 20 km
south of the town.

COMOROS: OAU salutes the people

South Africa's Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma on Friday
congratulated the people of the Comoros for their "courage" in moving
towards a new constitutional order in the troubled Indian Ocean islands.

Zuma was opening a meeting of ministers from regional countries set up
under the Organisation of African Unity to monitor events on the volatile
archipelago. The meeting was to review the situation in the Comoros
following the success of a constitutional referendum, the ongoing
discussions among the Comoran parties concerning the formation of a
transitional government of national unity, and the organisation of
presidential and local elections.

"We are very optimistic because of the courage and the work of the people
of the Comoros - they are committed to making sure their country comes
right," Zuma's spokesperson told IRIN.

Comoros President Azaly Assoumani stepped down this week, making way for a
transitional government that will prepare for general elections under the
terms of a unity agreement between the country's three islands, news
reports said. Assoumani said he would stand in the presidential elections
in April, Reuters reported. "I have decided to be among those who will
have the honour of petitioning the votes of the Comoros people at the
Union's presidential elections," said the former military strongman who
took power on the main island of Grande Comore in a coup in 1999.

A new government of national unity, to be put in place on 17-18 January,
will oversee the transition to general elections which are scheduled for
14 April, Reuters reported. Assoumani was entitled to lead the
transitional administration but under the constitution, if he does so, he
forfeits the right to stand at presidential elections.

ZAMBIA: Refugees on half-ration as food stocks drop

Food shortages and an increase in the number of people fleeing to Zambia
has forced humanitarian agencies to put all refugees on half ration.

UN refugee agency UNHCR said in a statement on Thursday that the refugees
came mainly from the neighbouring countries of Angola and the Democratic
Republic of Congo. "Due to the increase in the number of refugees and
insufficient resources, right now we have been obliged to put all the
refugees on half ration, including new arrivals. This has resulted in an
increase in cases of malnutrition, especially among newly arrived
refugees," the statement said.

"The new arrivals are already in bad shape and there is malnutrition,
especially among the children," UNHCR spokesman Kelvin Shimo told IRIN. He
said refugees had been on half-ration for about two weeks, but it was
hoped that the situation would return to normal soon. "By February the
situation will be rectified as we are expecting more food stocks to arrive
in the country," he said.

For more details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19426&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=ZAMBIA

Opposition leader challenges president

Zambia's main opposition party has challenged the outcome of the 27
December elections in court, alleging widespread vote rigging by the
ruling party, AP reported. Ruling party candidate Levy Mwanawasa won the
presidency by a slim margin ahead of 10 other contenders in the most hotly
contested election in the country's history.

Businessman Anderson Mazoka of the United Party for National Development,
who was runner-up to Mwanawasa, filed a petition at the Supreme Court on
Tuesday, asking that election results be declared invalid. Both local and
international observers said some irregularities were noted on election
day. Opposition supporters clashed with police in street demonstrations in
the normally peaceful capital of Lusaka the day before Mwanawasa was sworn
in, but calm has since been restored.

Mazoka said thousands of his supporters in the Southern Province were
unable to vote after polling stations officially closed, while in most
other parts of the country voting continued throughout the night. Not
enough ballot papers were sent to some areas known as opposition
strongholds, Mazoka said in his petition to the court.


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

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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2002


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