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: +2711 880 4633 Fax: +2711 880 1421 e-mail: irin-sa@irin.org.za
Southern Africa: IRIN Weekly Round-Up 4 covering the period 21-27 Nov 1998
ANGOLA: UN Secretary-General reports to the Security Council
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan this week told the UN Security Council he was "extremely concerned" at the deteriorating humanitarian situation and increased tensions in Angola between the government and the UNITA rebel movement led by Jonas Savimbi.
The Angolan peace process was now stalled, while implementation of the UN-brokered Lusaka Protocol of 1994 was "paralysed", he said. He said the situation in Angola now was worse that which prevailed at the time of his last report to the Security Council on 15 October. Despite "the absence of any progress" on implementing the Lusaka Protocol, Annan recommended that the UN Observer Mission (MONUA) remain on in Angola at least until 30 June next year. Should both sides still remain deadlocked, and the situation deteriorate, he warned that he would recommend the withdrawal of the mission.
"The dialogue between the government and Mr Savimbi has ceased. The joint mechanisms, including the Joint Commission, are not functioning and preparations for a military showdown continue," Annan said. "As a result, MONUA is unable to carry out most of its mandated tasks and the prospects of reactivating the peace process look bleak."
Annan urges renewed cooperation
In a 14-page report, a copy of which was sent to IRIN in Johannesburg, Annan said both parties, which have been in conflict since independence in 1975, needed to cooperate more closely with UN Special Representative Issa Diallo. The government he said, had been "reluctant" to allow Diallo to establish direct contacts with Savimbi, while UNITA had failed to take steps to take concrete action to implement its commitments under the peace accords. Last week, Diallo had visited South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Gabon to discuss ways of reviving the Lusaka accords.
Stiffer sanctions
"The leaders visited by Mr Diallo were critical of Mr Savimbi's attitude and stressed the need to increase international pressure on him," Annan said. Reiterating their support for the Lusaka process and the continued presence of the UN Angola, he added: "Most regional leaders stressed the need for a political solution in Angola, but also felt that the existing sanctions regime should be strengthened."
Security precarious, human rights violations on increase
He said security was precarious throughout the country, especially in the northern, and northeast regions where both sides were conducting "extensive" military operations. He also reported renewed fighting was also in Lunda Sul, Benguela, and Cunene provinces. The deterioration in security had resulted in increasing reports of human rights abuses against the civilian population in many areas, while humanitarian agencies were now no longer had access to half the country.
"I am extremely concerned by the dire living conditions of the vulnerable groups in Angola. Recent findings indicate that the health, education and social service sectors have been severely affected by the protracted conflict," Annan said. He said most public health facilities lacked equipment and supplies forcing people to buy medicines at exorbitant prices on the black market.
ZAMBIA: New refugee influx from Angola and Congo
As the situation in Angola continued to deteriorate, the UNHCR said this week it was concerned at the increasing number of refugees crossing into Zambia from Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo with which it shares borders. UNHCR representative to Zambia, Oluseyi Bajulaiye, said that in recent days up to 200 refugees had arrived in the Luapula and Northern provinces of Zambia following an increase in military tensions in southern Congo. He also said 69 refugees fleeing fighting in Angola had crossed the border to Chavuma in Zambia's North West province during the past week, and the numbers of Angolans fleeing had been rising steadily since July.
He said: "We are in a pre-emergency state and the gradual increase in new arrivals from both the DRC and Angola is of some concern since Zambia shares a long border with the two countries."
He said UNHCR had arranged contingency plans of emergency measures to be activated incase of a sudden, large influx. Dominik Bartsch, UNHCR's spokesperson in Lusaka, said the agency had identified transit facilities in most provinces to accommodate refugees should they start crossing the border in large numbers.
Bartsch said UNHCR was working closely with the office of the Commissioner for Refugees in Zambia where protection and assistance is currently being provided to 167,000 refugees in the southern African nation.
ZIMBABWE: Former president flees to Botswana
Zimbabwe's former president, The Reverend Canaan Banana, fled to neighbouring Botswana on the eve of a court judgment on Thursday in which he was found guilty in absentia of alleged sex crimes. A Zimbabwe government spokesman told IRIN a warrant had been issued for his arrest. In Gaborone, capital of Botswana, the foreign ministry said the 62-year-old Methodist clergyman who served as president of Zimbabwe between 1980 and 1987 was in Botswana under the protection of the Anglican Church.
"We have been informed by the Anglican Church that he is here en route to another country," Botswana foreign ministry spokesman, Mustaq Moorad said. "Should an extradition request be made, it will depend on whether he is still here and on the normal course of the law in these matters. Reverend Banana has not formally requested asylum."
During a controversial 17-day trial in June in which he was charged with 11 counts of sodomy and homosexual assault, the court heard explicit details of how he had allegedly abused his position during and after his term of office.
Strike called off
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) called off the third of a planned series of weekly one-day strikes over fuel price increases so that the government would have a chance to respond to union demands. ZCTU Secretary-General Morgan Tsvangirai, warned, however, the union would reconsider its position next week.
For two weeks running, the country has been brought to a virtual standstill by one-day stoppages each Wednesday called in protest against the impact of a 67 percent fuel price hike and the country's military intervention in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The ZCTU said it was hoping for a meeting with government, business and labour leaders before 30 November and would then review its position. At the weekend, the union stepped up its demands on the government, going beyond earlier claims for 20 percent pay rises for all workers and the cancellation of the fuel price increase.
Tsvangirai said public expenditure had to be cut by reducing the size of the cabinet from 55 to 15 members. The union also called on the government to explain the cost of Zimbabwe's military involvement in the DRC, where 6,000 troops have been sent to back President Laurent-Desire Kabila against a Tutsi-led rebellion. It has also demanded parliamentary monitoring of government spending, and said all funds lost through a series of corruption scandals involving housing, payments to war veterans and the collapse of a bank had to be recovered.
SWAZILAND: Security stepped up following bomb threats
The authorities in the landlocked kingdom of Swaziland this week stepped up security across the country after two recent bomb blasts were followed by threats telephoned to government offices. The measures include daily police sweeps of all government premises.
The extra security was ordered after anonymous telephones calls on Monday to a government complex and a public library resulted in the evacuation of hundreds of people.
A previously unknown group calling itself "The Tigers" last week claimed responsibility for a blast last Friday in which a security guard was killed at the deputy premier's office. Opposition political parties in Swaziland, which lies between Mozambique and South Africa, were banned in 1973.
LESOTHO: Suspected army mutineers held
The Lesotho government said this week it had arrested three soldiers suspected of involvement in an army mutiny which prompted a South African-led military intervention. A Lesotho Defence Force statement said their arrests brought to 42 the number of soldiers held for questioning over alleged involvement in the mutiny.
The statement added that six other soldiers who had been were released on Thursday last week after questioning. Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili
called for a South African Development Community (SADC) intervention at the time to stop what his government called a coup in the making. The statement said more arrests and more releases could be expected and that once investigations were completed, charges would be brought.
SOUTHERN AFRICA: UNHCR urges more tolerance on refugees
The UNHCR is urging governments and the media in Southern Africa to do more to combat xenophobic attitudes and prejudices against refugees, even though the region has relatively few asylum seekers when compared to central, east and west African nations.
Nicolas Bwakira, UNHCR Director of Operations, Southern Africa Region said he was concerned that government policies were emerging in the sub-continent with the aim of placating public sentiments because of "negative perceptions" about outsiders entering their borders.
"It is a cause of great concern that in countries currently developing refugee legislation, as is the case for South Africa, or those where existing legislation is being reviewed, as in Botswana, Malawi and Zimbabwe, stricter regimes are clearly being favoured by governments," Bwakira said.
He said that while abuse of the asylum systems or violence and criminal acts by refugees could not be condoned or tolerated, the failure or unwillingness of governments to take measures to stop xenophobia or irrational violence against refugees also had to be countered. " Refugees, he said, should not be drawn into the national discourse and rhetoric on illegal immigration.
World AIDS Day
UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS will release a new report on the AIDS epidemic in Africa at a news conference in Johannesburg on Monday, 30 November on the eve of World AIDS Day. The speakers will include Dr Peter Piot, Executive Director, UNAIDS.
UNAIDS press officer, Anne Winter, told IRIN that among other issues, the conference would address the fact that the AIDS epidemic in Africa continues to dwarf the rest of the world, with over 70 percent of those who became infected with AIDS this year living in sub-Saharan Africa. It is also the region where four-fifths of all AIDS deaths have been reported so far this year.
Southern African countries now the hardest hit
The latest UNAIDS report says that Southern African countries are the worst-affected. In Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe, current estimates show that between 20 percent and 26 percent of people aged 15-49 are living with HIV or AIDS.
"South Africa, which trailed behind some of its neighbours in HIV infection levels at the start of the 1990s , is unfortunately catching up fast: one in seven new infection on the continent this year are believed to be in this one country," the report said. "Zimbabwe is especially hard-hit. There are 25 surveillance sites in the country where blood taken from pregnant women is tested anonymously as a way of tracking HIV infection. The most recent data, from 1997, show that in only two of these sites did HIV prevalence remain below 10 percent. In the remaining 23 sites, some 20-50 percent of all pregnant women were found to be infected. At least one-third of these women are likely pass the infection on to their baby."
Johannesburg, 27 November 1998 10:30 GMT
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