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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SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 11 covering the period 13-19 March 1999
ZAMBIA: More refugees flee DRC war
The Lusaka office of the UNHCR said that another 1,000 to 2,000 refugees crossed into Zambia through the Kalanda border post over the weekend.
A UNHCR representative in Zambia told IRIN this week that this figure was in addition to the 5,000 other refugees who have entered Zambia's northern province since 5 March. "We estimate that the ongoing influx may swell to 10,000 people over the next few days should the military clashes around the Congolese towns of Pweto and Pepa continue," the representative said.
The representative added that the refugees are presently receiving assistance in Kaputa and surrounding areas: "According to reports from our field officers, the refugees are in a reasonable condition and their health situation is considered satisfactory."
Various transit facilities have been established in Kaputa and in villages along the Kalanda-Sumbu road, the representative told IRIN. "We are planning to move the refugees shortly to a camp site in Mporokoso, some 200 km further inland from the border town of Kaputa."
In the meantime, the representative said the estimated 800 DRC soldiers and policemen among the latest arrivals have been disarmed by the Zambian authorities and separated from the civilian refugees. "We have been informed that the leaders of this group have requested the Zambian government to facilitate their return to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)."
About 400 Congolese refugees had entered Zambia between September last year and February this year following the outbreak of the war in the DRC last August. The UNHCR representative said this group had been transferred to the Meheba refugee settlement. However, the latest influx cannot be accommodated in Meheba and other established settlements, thus the planned move to accommodate them in Mporokoso.
Seven journalists arrested
Zambian police this week arrested seven journalists from the 'Post' newspaper in pre-dawn raids on their homes following a front-page article last week about the country's military capacity. Media sources in Lusaka told IRIN that the arrests followed debate in the national assembly last week Tuesday during which the Deputy Speaker ordered the Defence Minister to take "appropriate" action against the newspaper for what he called an "unpatriotic" article that laid "bare the country's military capacity". The article was based on interviews with senior military officers who expressed serious reservations about Zambia's ability to defend itself against Angola, which has accused its neighbour of gun-running on behalf of the rebel UNITA movement. The officers reportedly divulged details of Zambia's weapons inventory, which the 'Post' published.
Journalists freed unconditionally, buildings remain under siege
The six journalists from the "Post" who were arrested variously on the night of March 9 and the morning of March 10, were this morning unconditionally released. It followed a habeas corpus hearing in the Lusaka High Court, which had been postponed until this morning after the state failed to present the detainees to the court yesterday.
The journalists who were released are: Brighton Phiri, Kelvin Shimo, Joe Kaunda, Amos Malupenga, Lubasi Katunda and Goodson Machona. The whereabouts of a seventh journalists, Macpherson Muyumba, who went missing shortly after the crackdown on the "Post" on March 9 and who was also feared to have been arrested, is still not known.
According to MISA sources, the "Post" security guard who was arrested outside the paper's editorial office on March 11, is still being held.
In ordering their release, Judge Essau Chulu said: "This court will accordingly order that the six be immediately set free. However, it is sad to note the circumstances under which they were detained and the failure by the state to bring them to court. It is my hope that the counsel [for the journalists] can only rely on Mr Donald Kasote [principle State advocate] that the six will continue to enjoy their freedom. ... I thus make an order that the six be released immediately and set at liberty." The Judge ordered the State to pay costs.
One of the freed journalists who spoke to MISA, Amos Malupenga, described his experience as terrible, saying he was jailed in dirty, unhygienic conditions and was not given food for two days. He said the first time he ate since being jailed on March 9 was on March 11 when he was re-united with his colleagues at the police headquarters. He had not been interrogated formally, but was questioned in the car while being transported from one jail to another. He said a security official started probing him about who wrote the contentious article which appeared in the "Post" on March 9 and also wanted to know the sources for their information. He refused to give them any information.
It's believed some of the other journalists where interrogated and allegedly beaten during their detention, but this has yet to be confirmed.
Meanwhile, the police's siege of the "Post" editorial office in the Lusaka city centre and its separately located building housing its printing press continues. MISA sources report, however, that efforts are underway by the Deputy Police Commissioner, Emmanual Lukande, to reverse the siege and withdraw the security personnel stationed outside the two buildings.
BACKGROUND
The six journalists were arrested variously on the night of March 9 and the morning of March 10 after police fanned out across Lusaka to arrest journalists from the "Post" newspaper apparently after an order for them to arrest all "Post" journalists before dawn.
At around 7p.m. (17:OO GMT) on 10 March, police besieged the editorial office of the "Post" and its separately located building housing its printing press, cutting off the power and water supply and changing the locks at the gates. Police began controlling movement to and from the newspaper's premises, preventing those
who were inside from leaving.
Those trapped in the building at the printing press included "Post" editor-in-chief Fred M'membe, reporters Sam Mujuda, Dickson Jere and Alice Mwala, and executive editor Arthur Simuchoba. An unspecified number of administrative and distribution staff were also believed to be in the building. Those holed up in the editorial office in the city centre were photographer Sheikh Chifuwe, production staff members Immanuel Katonga, Joseph Chanda, Andrew Mulenga and Morgan Moyo, as well as three proof readers.
Journalists charged with espionage
Six 'Post' journalists have been summoned to appear in court this week on charges of espionage which, if proved, carry a minimum sentence of 20 years in jail. Media sources in Lusaka confirmed to IRIN that the six had been ordered to appear in front of a resident magistrate to answer charges under section 3 (c) of the State Security Chapter 111 of the Laws of Zambia.
The six were first arrested last week in pre-dawn raids on their homes by Zambian police after the paper published a story detailing the country's military hardware following tensions between Zambia and Angola over the latter's charge that Zambia is gun-running on behalf of the rebel UNITA movement.
They were, however, ordered to be released by a high court judge last Friday. Zambian police had laid siege on the offices of the newspaper as well as its printing works for two days, preventing anybody from entering or leaving the premises and prevented last Thursday's distribution of the newspaper.
The story had caused an uproar in Zambia's parliament, leading the deputy speaker to order the defence minister to take appropriate actions against the 'Post' for what he called "unpatriotic" action that "lay bare the country's military capabilities".
ANGOLA: Aid agencies advised to leave Kuito
The provincial government of Bie on Friday advised aid agencies working in Kuito to leave the area due to the deteriorating security situation.
Relief workers told IRIN this week that the governor of Bie informed aid agencies last Friday that due to the worsening security situation, it would be advisable for them to remove non-essential staff from the town as a precautionary measure.
Relief workers said the situation is desperate in Kuito following the
closure of the airport after it suffered bombardment and heavy rains, making it inoperable. "Some aid agencies have already left Kuito while others are scaling down their personnel presence," the sources said.
The closure of the airport at the weekend, according to the relief workers, will lead to difficulty in transporting food to the people who need it in the province. "The roads are dangerous to transport food to people outside of Kuito as civilian convoys come under constant attack."
The sources said in Kuito alone there are at least 55,000 people who depend on food supplies from aid agencies.
Church vehicles ambushed
The Angolan Press Agency reported this week that one person was killed and eight others injured when two Catholic church vehicles came under fire while travelling on the Ganda-Cubal road in Benguela.
Quoting an authorised source, the agency said the assailants fired at the vehicles at point blank range using RPGs, PKMs and AKMs and looted all the belongings of the 15 occupants of the two vehicles.
Maize output reduced by fighting
Angola's maize output for the season to April is likely to fall by up to 25 percent following disruptions to planting from the renewed civil war, according to the Early Warning Unit, the Harare-based Southern African Development Community's (SADC) food security organ.
Writing in its latest bulletin, the unit said tentative forecasts based on last year's output of 505,000 mt indicate the country requires 322,000 mt of maize to supplement output from the previous planting season, as well as 16,000 mt of wheat and 76,000 mt of rice.
Concerns about malnutrition
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has expressed "grave concern" about the rates of malnutrition amongst internally displaced people in the city of Huambo in southern Angola. A spokesperson for WFP in Angola said that although malnutrition was generally high in Angola, with the resumption of the war last December, certain areas like Huambo had shown higher levels of malnutrition than before. She said that other areas showing high levels of malnutrition included Malanje to the east of the capital Luanda and Kuito the capital city of the Bie province.
WFP said that about 20 percent of the children in Huambo were showing physical symptoms of malnutrition, which included low weight per height and kwashiorkor. Kwashiorkor is a disease that mainly affects children and is caused by a lack of protein in their diets.
A recent joint survey by WFP, the UN's Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the non governmental organisation, Save the Children showed that of this 20 percent at least 3 percent were severely malnourished. This lead to an estimated 1,500 children being placed at extra care centres where they receive highly nutritional food and medical attention.
WFP Representative in Angola, Francesco Strippoli said: "We are working with our partners to provide emergency food three times a day to alleviate the plight of these severely malnourished children."
About 128,000 people have sought refuge in city of Huambo and are living in squalid conditions and with no access to food they are largely dependent on international aid.
MOZAMBIQUE: International response to flooding
In its situation report on the floods in Mozambique, the UN's Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that up to 23 people had died and 70,000 people had been affected by the recent flooding in Mozambique. It adds that about 6,000 people had been displaced by the floods.
OCHA said a first estimate showed that up to 40,000 hectares of arable land had been flooded, but this figure needed to be confirmed by up-dated satellite images. It said the main highway which covers the country from
north to south is under water and where the water had receded, massive craters had opened up. An assessment of the local population is currently being impeded by the flooding of the secondary road network.
It said immediate support in health care needed to be provided to avoid the spread of malaria and diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera. OCHA said the priorities were the rehabilitation of road access and the repair to bridges to allow for the rescue of isolated people and to help reestablish local trade.
Update on SA flood relief
A spokesperson for the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) told IRIN on Tuesday that it had delivered enough food to flood-hit Mozambique for at least 45 days. He said that a decision would be taken on Tuesday as to when the SANDF would withdraw from the area.
The SANDF said that most of the food supplies went to people in the Vilankulos area which has been the hardest hit since flooding began in Mozambique about four weeks ago. The spokesperson confirmed that the SANDF had also delivered medical supplies to the region.
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Malaria cases increasing in the region
The number of people being infected with malaria is rising in the Southern African region, placing millions of lives at risk.
A recent report by UN's World Health Organisation (WHO) Malaria Department in Harare Zimbabwe, said that there were signs of an overall increase in malaria transmission in the region.
The number of cases in Zimbabwe rose from 177,195 by the end of February last year, to 185,026 by the end of February this year. Botswana also saw an increase in the number of reported malaria cases from 8,142 by the end of January last year, to 8,867 by the end of January this year.
South Africa is the only country in the region where there has been a decline in the number of malaria cases. By the end of February 1998 there were 4,021 cases, by the end of February this year this had dropped to 3,826 people.
Malaria is one of the main health care problems in Africa, with an estimated 550 million people at risk of contracting the disease. Each year between 270 and 480 million people contract malaria and it is estimated that between 1.5 and 2.7 million people die annually from the disease.
One of the major difficulties confronting health care workers is that the malaria parasite has developed a resistance to some of the anti-malaria drugs, hindering effective medical treatment.
WHO plans to launch a new initiative later this year, the African Initiative for Malaria Control in the 21st century (AIM), to help combat the spread of the disease on the African continent. The initiative will be implemented in phases and it is expected to reduce the number of cases and deaths by at least 50 percent by the year 2010.
MALAWI: Registrations for elections get off to a slow start
Registration of Malawi's five million potential voters got off to a slow start on Tuesday as administrative glitches hampered the process.
A spokesperson for the Electoral Commission told IRIN on Wednesday that there were 3,700 registration points in Malawi, but that at the moment only 1,000 were operating. He said this was largely because there were only 1,000 cameras available to take photographs for the registration cards that voters needed .
He said this meant that the registration exercise would be a staggered process, but the Commission was hoping for additional cameras early next week which would allow for more registration points to be opened. The spokesperson said that at this stage they were looking at 25 May as
the definite election date, unless something were to happen that would necessitate a change in the date.
The polling date had initially been set for 18 May, but was postponed after a delay in the registration process.
Johannesburg, 19 March 1999 10:40 GMT
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