U N I T E D N A T I O N S Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for Southern Africa
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SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 28 covering the period 10 - 16 July 1999
ZIMBABWE: Troops to withdraw from DRC
Zimbabwean troops are to withdraw from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on time under the terms of the Lusaka cease-fire timetable but a training team would remain, presidential spokesman George Charamba told IRIN this week.
"Our withdrawal will fully comply with the terms of the cease-fire agreement," Charamba said. "But there was a standing agreement with the DRC government for a training force." He added: "I don't think it's a point of concern at all. After all it is in the terms of the agreement."
Inflation surges to a new record
Consumer inflation for June jumped by two percent to a record high of 55 percent. Food price increases accounted for an estimated 24 percent of the rise, with non-food items accounting for 30 percent. According to economists, Zimbabwe's inflation is expected to peak at over 60 percent in the third quarter of this year. Zimbabwe's economy is expected to grow by an estimated 1.5 percent this year.
ANGOLA: SADC to underwrite a peace deal
Southern African leaders are considering a fresh initiative to resolve the Angolan conflict, backing their support for a peace agreement with the threat of military force, a senior political source in Zimbabwe told IRIN this week.
At the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit next month in Mozambique, "there is a very strong indication there will be the political will" to resolve the conflict, the official said. At the last SADC summit in Mauritius last year, regional leaders declared UNITA chief Jonas Savimbi a war criminal, "to be hunted down," the Zimbabwean official added.
"This is where the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) pact is very interesting as it was undersigned by neighbouring countries and represents a new vision for peacekeeping in Africa," the political source said. He added that Angola's cycle of peace agreements, broken by the UNITA rebel movement and plunging the country back into war, had to be stopped. SADC would aim for a fresh political accord guaranteed by regional governments.
Cabinda rebels step up attacks
Unable to win international recognition of their cause, Cabinda separatists have stepped up attacks this month on government positions in the oil-rich northern enclave, diplomatic sources told IRIN.
Last week the main secessionist group, FLEC-Renovada, released four foreign hostages they had been holding since March. The kidnappings failed to gain the international attention the group was seeking, or a commitment by Luanda to negotiate over the independence of the enclave. Instead, the separatists settled for ransom money to buy arms to escalate their rebellion, the sources said.
FLEC reportedly recently raided Cabinda Gulf Oil installations in Malongo and warned that all foreigners working in the enclave were a target. The Angolan government has also accused FLEC of the kidnapping and forced recruitment of over 200 youths. At the end of March, Cabinda Governor Amaro Tazi said that in his opinion negotiations between the government and Cabindans over the political status of the enclave were inevitable. However, according to Luanda-based diplomats, the "numerous factions" within FLEC complicate any attempts at dialogue.
UNITA to be disarmed
Meanwhile, UNITA could be among the armed groups in the DRC to be disarmed under the terms of the cease-fire agreement signed on Saturday in Lusaka by regional heads of state.
A draft cease-fire document prepared for signing by regional foreign minister last week stated that the Joint Military Commission (JMC) - comprising representatives of the warring parties - shall, with the assistance of the UN and Organisation of African Unity (OAU), "work out mechanisms for the tracking, disarming and documenting of all armed groups in the DRC," including UNITA. The conditions are to be created "conducive to the attainment of the objective" which may include "the granting of amnesty and political asylum," a copy of the document received by IRIN said.
According to the agreement's timetable, disarmament of non-signatory armed groups - which includes UNITA - is to take place 30 days and 120 days after the signing of the accord to coincide with the deployment of OAU observers and a UN peacekeeping force. "The JMC must sit down and work out how to do this," Cedric de Coning of the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes told IRIN this week.
UNITA faction says peace talks pointless
Meanwhile, the leader of the breakaway Luanda-based UNITA-Renovada faction has called for international intervention to end Angola's civil war. Eugenio Manuvakola told the Portuguese newspaper 'Expresso' that the UNITA movement had been betrayed by its founder, Jonas Savimbi. Manuvakola, formerly a senior UNITA official, said "negotiations now would change nothing. Savimbi will never hand over his weapons."
Fowler wants 40 monitors
And the chairman of the UN Sanctions Committee Robert Fowler told OAU foreign ministers at the weekend that he has recommended the deployment of up to 40 UN monitors in the Southern African region to help stop embargoed supplies reaching UNITA. The proposal was unanimously welcomed by the ministers, but some southern African officials privately expressed reservations over issues of sovereignty, the South African 'Business Day' newspaper reported this week.
SADC: Extended Lome agreement urged
SADC trade officials this week called for European Union (EU) trade concessions for the region to be extended by another 10 years, news reports said. The officials held a two-day meeting in Botswana in preparation for a gathering of SADC trade ministers to discuss a regional free trade area. That agreement would eventually form the basis of trade relations with the EU and replace EU concessions granted under the Lome Convention for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, due to expire in February next year.
"The member states seek a waiver from the WTO (World Trade Organisation) on the current trade arrangement to be continued for another 10 years," SADC chief economist Chingu Mwila was quoted as saying. "But the EU says the trade preferences could only be continued for another five years."
Under the Lome agreement, most ACP products enter European markets duty free - a concession which is not afforded reciprocally to EU goods. "The EU says that arrangement is in conflict with the WTO," an international trade lawyer told IRIN. "Instead of non- reciprocal trade arrangements, they want the ACP on a sub-regional basis to enter into free trade agreements which would be reciprocal."
SADC will hold its August summit in Mozambique, where a new chairman will be elected to replace South Africa's former president Nelson Mandela.
Retrenchment of miners could spark regional crisis
Large-scale retrenchments by South African gold mines as a result of the tumble in international gold prices could spark a regional crisis, analysts told IRIN this week. Last week's liquidation of South Africa's East Rand Propriety Mine (ERPM), one of the oldest mines in the country, saw an estimated 2,500 Mozambican miners retrenched. A further five marginal mines with a workforce of some 12,000 are also under threat.
Around 70,000 Mozambicans are believed to work in South African mines. One analyst told IRIN that it is estimated that one miner on average supports up to 10 people back home.
Apart from the immediate loss of household incomes that layoffs would cause, "struggling economies in the region, simply don't have the capacity to absorb all these unemployed men," the analyst said. Mozambican labour ministry spokesman Pedro Taimo was quoted as saying that the impact of retrenchments would be "significant on everyone from small businessmen to larger corporations."
AFRICA: Arms trafficking and conflict on the continent
Arms trafficking and the conflicts they support are having a devastating effect on sub-Saharan Africa, the US State Department said in a recent report on 'Arms and Conflict in Africa.' According to the report released this month, Africa has more armed disputes than any other continent, with 11 major conflicts taking place on the continent in 1998, producing more than eight million refugees. "The proliferation of light weapons financed by cash, diamonds, or other commodities did not cause Africa's wars, but it has prolonged them and made them more lethal," the report said.
Africa an "attractive market"
The State Department said there has been a fundamental change in weapon sales in sub-Saharan Africa, with the region increasingly seen as "an attractive market" by those countries and manufacturers who found themselves, at the end of the Cold War, with warehouses filled with superfluous arsenals. According to the report, that has led to "the consequent widespread availability of cheap weapons, which are easy to use and maintain." It noted that in some African countries an AK-47 sells for as little as US $6.
It added that in Africa, arms trafficking involves mainly low-maintenance, durable light weapons such as rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortars and land mines. This growth in arms trafficking has coincided with the change in the nature of conflicts that has occurred on the sub continent.
According to the report, "warfare has become more complicated as guerrilla groups have proliferated and divided into warring factions." It added that so called "warfare by proxy" has also helped to spread these conflicts and make them more regional in nature, such as the present conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
According to the report "weapons are flown and shipped into and through Africa by a variety of routes, sometimes directly, often through one or more transhipment points." It cited a number of airfields that have been used. These include Entebbe in Uganda, Goma in the DRC, Kigali, Luanda and Juba in southern Sudan. Seaports are also cited as important entry points, and include Beira in Mozambique, Dar-es-Salaam, Durban, Mombassa in Kenya and Djibouti. It said that upon arrival the weapons are normally sent to theirs destinations by road, rail, air or ferry.
NAMIBIA: SWAPO opposes truth commission
A call by the Namibian National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) for the establishment of a truth commission to examine human rights abuses during the independence struggle has been sharply criticised by the ruling South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO).
A statement from SWAPO received by IRIN said that "the campaign to open old wounds may make some people feel good, but whether it will solve an extremely serious problem of the past is another matter." It added that "those engaged in this reckless adventure should be on notice that the ugly devil would be in the details."
But a spokesman for the NSHR told IRIN that there was a moral and legal need for such a commission. "If South Africa can have such a process why can't Namibia?" asked the spokesman. "We are calling for a public apology to victims and their families. We need to know what happened to those missing people."
In response, SWAPO said it deliberately adopted a policy of national reconciliation at independence in 1989. "The policy was intended to guard against the fact that if the Namibian people allow themselves to engage in witch-hunting and retribution, the consequences of such an exercise will not be in the best interest of peace and stability in Namibia," the SWAPO statement said.
SOUTH AFRICA: AIDS crisis hits development
The AIDS crisis in South Africa is the main reason for the country's drop by 11 places since last year on the UNDP's Human Development Index to 101 out of 174 countries listed.
In its Human Development Report for 1999 released this week, UNDP cautioned that "South Africa has one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in the world. Many of the advances achieved during the short life of the new democracy will be reversed if the epidemic goes unchecked." It added: "The economic costs alone, in labour and sick days are far greater than initially realised."
According to the report an estimated 51 percent of South Africans are not expected to live beyond the age of 60, and South Africa is among four other countries where life expectancy has dropped because of AIDS. The report said that by the year 2010, life expectancy is expected to fall from 60 to 48 years.
MALAWI: AIDS crisis
The UNDP report also said that life expectancy for Malawians will be cut by 20 years by the year 2010 mainly because of the impact of HIV/AIDS and poverty. According to UNDP the situation is compounded by low levels of literacy, lack of clean water and inadequate health care facilities. The report said that at least four out of every ten Malawians will die before they reach the age of 40. Malawi was ranked 159 out of 174 countries on UNDP's Human Development Index.
MOZAMBIQUE: Corridor brings investment, jobs
The Maputo Development Corridor, one of five infrastructure projects undertaken through the regional Spatial Development Initiatives (SDIs), has thus far attracted private sector investment worth US $400 million and generated more than 6,000 jobs since work began in 1998, development experts told IRIN this week.
The corridor was an already existing route from Johannesburg to Maputo. Rehabilitating it, according to Dave Arkwright of the Maputo Corridor Company (MCC), "has used a combination of private and public sector financing to leverage capital improvements to create an integrated infrastructure network."
Arkwright said the first phase of the project was the improvement of the existing road and rail links between Witbank in South Africa's northern Mpumalanga province, and Maputo port. "About 75 percent of these jobs, mainly in the construction sector, have been created in Mozambique and the Witbank to Maputo toll road has already been concessioned for 30 years to the private sector," Arkwright said. "The long-term advantages to business and industry along the corridor include the increased access and decreased transportation costs and delivery time associated with improved infrastructure," he added.
African countries to discuss health care reform
Health experts from 19 African countries will meet in Maputo next week to discuss health sector reform under the auspices of the UN's World Health Organisation (WHO). In a statement received by IRIN, WHO said the economic downturn on the continent in recent years had left many countries "almost in total disarray".
"The social sectors, particularly health and education, were hard hit by the consequences of economic decline and the way economic reform programmes were applied. Not only did they slow down the pace of health development in most countries, they also weakened the health system to near collapse," the statement said.
ZAMBIA: Mines sale on course
The purchase of Zambia's two largest copper mines, Nkana and Nchanga, by mining giant Anglo American "is on track", a spokeswoman for the company told IRIN this week.
The final results of a "due diligence" survey of the mines are expected at the end of the month, and Anglo's prospective partner Cadelco of Chile would then need authorisation from the Chilean government to go ahead with the deal. "It's unlikely anything will be finalised until September, but I think all the partners are very committed to pursuing and finalising as quickly as possible," the spokeswoman said.
Anglo agreed in January to acquire Nkana, Nchanga, and other assets from the loss-making state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) if it could find suitable partners to share the risk in the climate of falling copper prices. With foreign donors making funding conditional on the sale of ZCCM, the Anglo-Cadelco deal is vital to the Zambian government.
Assistance to African refugees insulting, says Chiluba
Zambian President Fredrick Chiluba said on Sunday that the money spent on African refugees per day, compared to their European counterparts in Kosovo was "insulting," the Zambian media reported on Monday. "The UN spends US $1.50 per refugee in Kosovo per day while they spend only 11 cents on African refugees in a day. Honestly where is the sincerity?" Chiluba was quoted as saying. He added that "while refugees were refugees everywhere, those in Africa had more problems than their European counterparts."
Johannesburg, 16 July 15:45 GMT
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