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SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 25 covering the period 19 - 25 June 1999
ANGOLA: UNITA resumes shelling of cities
The UNITA rebel movement has resumed the shelling of government-held cities, media reports said this week. The city of Malanje, where an estimated 150,000 displaced people are crammed, has come under sporadic long-range shelling. The central highland city of Huambo also suffered shelling where UNITA has been targetting the airfield since last Saturday, diplomatic sources told IRIN.
Meanwhile, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has denied media reports that it has suspended aid relief to the central Angolan city of Huambo. Spokeswoman Maria Flynn told IRIN this week: "We have suspended flights to the airport because it has been closed," but added that there was about 15 days' worth of food stocks in WFP's warehouses.
Booby trap mines threat
A new generation of landmines that target the engineers sent to clear them are in use in Angola, heightening the risk for deminers operating in the embattled country, mine experts told IRIN this week. Colin King of the London-based 'Jane's Intelligence Review' said the booby trap devices are no bigger than a cigarette packet, can be motion or light sensitive, or can be set off by the magnetic influence of a deminer's detector. World Bank praises government
The Angolan government's recent move to abolish the dual currency rates has met with approval from international finance institutions. "There are indications that this move will attract finance institutions to make commitments to the Angolan economy," one analyst said.
Last week the World Bank announced that Angola had stabilised the servicing of its debt to the Bank. Barbara Kafka, the Bank's director for Angola, was quoted on Angolan TV as saying she was pleased with the economic reforms introduced by the government, which, she said, would enable the Bank to make new investments in the country.
The World Bank is currently funding 10 projects in Angola amounting to US $250 million and has put on hold its earlier decision to close its Luanda offices.
UNITA feels the pinch
The UNITA rebel movement may now be feeling the pinch of a UN sanctions policy which in the long term could have an impact on the Angolan conflict, international observers said this week.
Alex Vines of the London office of Human Rights Watch told IRIN: "From what I can see it's quiet on the sanctions-busting front." Vines pointed out that the diamond multinational De Beers has made clear its intention to work with the Angolan government and abide by a UN resolution passed last July embargoing the trade in unofficial diamonds, UNITA's main source of revenue.
Apart from a suspected trickle of military spare parts, there has recently been little in the way of significant violations of sanctions on military equipment to UNITA. Also under UN embargo is fuel supplies for the rebel movement.
MALAWI: Muluzi faces an opposition parliament
President Bakili Muluzi may be in for a rocky ride over the next five years after his party failed to win an overall majority in last week's general elections, diplomatic sources told IRIN.
Muluzi, leader of the United Democratic Front (UDF), won the presidential poll with 51 percent (2,442,685) of the vote while Gwanda Chakuamba of the opposition coalition of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) polled 44 percent (2,106,790).
In the 193-member parliament, the alliance took a total of 95 seats and the UDF 93. Independent parties won four seats, while one is under dispute. Meanwhile, only 16 women were elected to parliament, scoring only an eight percent representation in the assembly.
Post-election violence
At least three people were reported killed, mosques and shops gutted, and families forced to flee their homes in an outbreak of political violence in the northern Malawi town of Mzuzu following the announcement of voting results last week.
The sources said about 60 families from Mzuzu fled to Blantyre last Sunday, claiming their lives were threatened because of their allegiance to the UDF. The sources added that at least 35 arrests have been confirmed by the police following the violence.
SOUTH AFRICA: New foreign minister says peace a priority
South Africa's new foreign minister Nkosazana Zuma said peace in the southern African region and on the African continent are "especially high" on her list of priorities. Zuma said South Africa would continue to support the efforts of President Frederick Chiluba of Zambia who is chairing the Southern African Development Community (SADC) initiative to settle the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
ZIMBABWE: Strike confusion
Confusion surrounded last week's strike call by Zimbabwe's civil servants to back their demand for a 20 percent cost-of-living increase, a trade union official told IRIN this week.
The Public Service Association (PSA) announced the strike last Wednesday after the government failed to meet its deadline for the increment. But the partially-heeded strike action was called off on Thursday at the request of the acting Minister of labour, John Nkomo, as a precondition for talks.
However, teachers continued with industrial action on Friday,forcing school closures, and were backed by some nurses. On Saturday, the PSA leadership scaled down its demand to 12 percent, but the ministry of labour offered only a 10 percent rise.
Millers warn of food shortages
Zimbabwe's millers have threatened to stop producing the national staple maize meal unless the government allows them a 60 percent hike in its retail price, news reports said this week.
The millers said the state-owned Grain Marketing Board (GMB) this year increased the price of maize by 63 percent, from an equivalent of US $79 per tonne to US $129. But the millers were last week allowed only a 20 percent maize meal price increase, with the promise of another 20 percent in September. The millers have demanded an immediate 62 percent hike.
Pessimism over DRC peace
Rwanda's failure to "halt its military aggression" in the DRC offers little hope for an early peace settlement in the embattled country, a senior Zimbabwean government official told IRIN.
"I don't think the situation on the ground merits any confidence at all," presidential spokesman George Charamba said. "Our forces have come under severe fire, and for us that's where we get our cue. That means Rwanda intends to fight."
Charamba said that "all along the allies have never been intent on a full-scale war" and their intervention in western DRC was "meant to send a signal to Rwanda and Uganda" which was not headed. He described the allies' current role in eastern DRC as a "reluctant deployment" after rebel advances forced "a political decision". "All along we have maintained lines of communication with the invaders."
But Charamba stressed that unless real progress was made this week in the meeting between regional foreign and defence ministers in Lusaka, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe would not attend Saturday's scheduled summit.
More troops to the DRC
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe deployed an additional 3,000 troops to the DRC last week, boosting its military commitment to an estimated 11,000 soldiers, the 'New Financial Gazette' reported this week. The newspaper, citing military sources, said the fresh troops were new recruits that had just completed a six-month training stint.
Mortuaries to stay open 24 hours
Harare's main hospitals are to keep their mortuaries open around the clock to cope with the AIDS-related death toll, 'The Herald' newspaper reported this week. The new 24-hour mortuary facilities at Harare and Parirenyatwa hospitals are due to begin in August. Zimbabwe's death rate now stands at an average of 340 people per day, about 240 of whom die from AIDS-related diseases, the newspaper said.
NAMIBIA: Model for regional water management
Drought-prone Namibia could serve as a model of water demand management in a Southern African region facing perennial water shortages, according to resource economists.
Ben Groom of the department of water affairs told IRIN this week: "Windhoek has some good examples of water demand management."
These include sliding tariff charges to cut demand, restrictions on water use, the recycling of water, installation of water-efficient equipment in all new buildings, water metering for residential blocks, and even the mandatory covering of swimming pools to avoid water loss.
LESOTHO: Cereal shortage forecast
Lesotho faces a cereal shortage of over 162,000 mt in the 1999/2000 season, a report by the national early warning unit in the Lesotho Disaster Management Authority said this week.
According to the report, major millers in Lesotho have indicated that they would import an estimated 135,000 mt of maize and about 71,000 mt of wheat to help cover the projected shortfall, with the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) expecting to receive about 23,000 mt of food aid for distribution.
MOZAMBIQUE: Food shortage
Mozambique needs an estimated 325,000 mt of food to cover a forecast deficit for the 1999/2000 cropping season, media reports said this week.
Jose Egidio Paulo, director of the National Commerce Bureau, said so far rice production was only 116,000 mt, compared to a yearly consumption of 250,000 mt. He added that the country needed to import 60,000 mt of maize, 175,000 mt of wheat and 150,000 mt of rice in the coming year.
AFRICA: IMF gold sales criticised
A proposal by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to sell off its gold reserves to assist debt relief has been sharply criticised from the World Gold Council (WGC).
According to the WGC, the proposal by the IMF to sell 10 percent of its gold stocks is flawed, and the recent fall in the price of gold is a direct consequence of those plans. The price collapse has already lost developing nations more than US $150 million in annual export earnings, more than they stand to gain from the IMF's proposed sale, the WGC said.
Sub-Saharan Africa, which includes 33 of the 41 Highly Indebted Poor Country's (HIPC), produces about 25 percent of the world's gold. The metal comprises about 7.8 percent of total exports, earning the region an estimated US $6.8 billion in 1997.
SADC: Maize deficit
Southern Africa faces a maize deficit/import requirement of up to 2.18 million mt, Reuters reported this week. Maize output in the region's 1998/99 cropping season is estimated to have declined by four percent to 15.14 mt due to incessant rains and subsequent long dry spells, the Harare-based SADC Regional Early Warning Unit said. South Africa was one of the few countries in the region expected to produce surpluses and was considered capable of exporting 797,000 mt of maize, the unit said.
SADC: Human rights abuses continue
Amnesty International's annual human rights report this week warns that abuses in the southern African region continued unabated in 1998, and "those responsible for these abuses were rarely brought to justice."
Casey Kelso, Amnesty's director of media relations, told IRIN this week that four major trends emerged in southern Africa last year, the first being issues surrounding the quality of policing. He said there had been "a number of cases where political killings were traced back to the police."
In Zambia, Amnesty alleged that torture and ill-treatment by the police remains widespread. According to the report, between June 1997 and May 1998 the Permanent Human Rights Commission received information about 73 cases of torture, ill-treatment and unlawful detention,"including 17 deaths apparently at the hands of the police." However, Amnesty acknowledged that there had been an increase in the number of police officers prosecuted for abuse.
A second trend, Kelso pointed out, was the concern over the quality of the justice system and the related debate over the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. Kelso said the effectiveness of the justice system was "linked to the professionalism of the police service."
Another trend which emerged was what Kelso described as "identity based discrimination". He said this was especially related to gay and lesbian communities in the region. In March this year, the UN Human Rights Committee expressed concern over Zimbabwe's discrimination against homosexuals.
The final trend was the domestic effects that the war in the DRC was having on countries like Zimbabwe and Namibia. Kelso said in these two countries the war had brought about a greater clampdown on freedom of expression: "Whenever there were any criticisms or questioning about Zimbabwe and Namibian involvement in the DRC, the response from the state was increased repression."
Johannesburg, 25 June 1999, 14:00 GMT
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