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 West Africa Tel: +225 22-40-4440 Fax: +225 22-41-9339 e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ciWEST AFRICA IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 49 1-8 December 2000
CONTENTS: AFRICA: Agreement on measures to curb small arms BURKINA FASO: Body set up to monitor arms imports CAMEROON: Amnesty condemns impunity CAMEROON: Parliament approves new electoral body; opposition walks out COTE D'IVOIRE: Thousands protest against exclusion of ex-prime minister COTE D'IVOIRE: EU, US criticise Ouattara's exclusion from poll COTE D'IVOIRE: UN halts electoral assistance; no OAU observers COTE D'IVOIRE: UN Commission of inquiry into massacres GUINEA: UNHCR office destroyed in fighting in Guekedou GUINEA: Fighting jeopardises refugee relocation GUINEA-BISSAU: Opposition calls for proof of coup allegations MALI: Bandits kill soldier in the north NIGERIA: Doctors continue strike NIGERIA: Troops deployed in southeastern town SIERRA LEONE: WFP distributes food to over 75,000 people SIERRA LEONE: Russian army officials visit Freetown SIERRA LEONE: Czech Republic donates US $54,800 SIERRA LEONE: Ten RUF commanders killed SIERRA LEONE: Missionaries freed WEST AFRICA: Annan stresses importance of dialogue AFRICA: Agreement on measures to curb small arms African nations have reacted to rising violent crime and insurrection on the continent by adopting a common approach to curbing the illegal trade and proliferation of small arms. Participants at a two-day ministerial meeting that ended on 1 December in the Malian capital, Bamako, agreed to increase their ability to identify, seize and destroy illicit weapons at the national, subregional and continental levels. The ministers recommended that the international community make laws and regulations to control arms transfers by manufacturers, suppliers, traders, brokers, and shipping and transit agents. The meeting was held under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity to prepare a collective African position on small arms at a UN conference to be held in New York on 9-20 July 2001. BURKINA FASO: Body set up to monitor arms imports Burkina Faso has agreed to set up a body to monitor weapons imports following persistent allegations that it has been smuggling arms to anti-government forces in Sierra Leone and Angola, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported on 3 December. It reported the Burkina Faso Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying the committee's duration should be three years. The government has banned visits by its nationals to Sierra Leone and Angola, except those on official government business, the BBC said. It has also prohibited trade in conflict diamonds. CAMEROON: Amnesty condemns impunity Amnesty International has expressed concern about a mass grave with more than 36 bodies found near the Douala international airport in Cameroon in early November. "The discovery of this mass grave heightens the fears about the fate of large numbers of people who have 'disappeared' during the last eight months after being detained by security forces," Amnesty said on Monday. Nine other bodies were discovered in early May close to the village of Petit Dimbaba, south of Douala. Civil society groups, religious leaders and the media in Cameroon have repeatedly criticized the inconsistency of the government response to allegations of summary killings by the special security force, the Commandement opérationnel, particularly in Douala, Amnesty said. CAMEROON: Parliament approves new electoral body; opposition walks out Five opposition parties stormed out of Cameroon's parliament on Wednesday as the house passed a bill creating an election-monitoring body known as the Observatoire national des elections (ONEL), according to news reports. Lawmakers from the ruling Rassemblement democratique du peuple camerounais and the allied Union nationale pour la democratie et le progres voted in favour of the bill. Together they hold 126 of the 180 seats in the legislature, AFP reported. Opposition lawmakers described the bill as anti-constitutional. Union democratique de Cameroon (UDC) President Adamou Ndam Njoya was quoted as saying that the 11-member body, as proposed in the draft law, would not be sufficiently independent and impartial given that its members are to be appointed by the president. COTE D'IVOIRE: Thousands protest against exclusion of ex-prime minister Thousands of supporters of the opposition Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) protested this week against a Supreme Court ruling that RDR leader Alassane Ouattara was ineligible for legislative elections on 10 December. The court said Ouattara had not provided admissible evidence that he was an Ivorian citizen. A human rights organisation, the Mouvement ivoirien des droits de l'homme (MIDH), said 33 persons died in unrest between Monday and Wednesday. On Monday evening, the government announced a state of emergency and a curfew from 21:00 GMT to 06:00 GMT from 4 to 12 December. Some 340 people were detained, Interior Minister Emile Boga Doudou said on state television on Wednesday. COTE D'IVOIRE: EU, US criticise Ouattara's exclusion from poll The European Union (EU) said on Thursday that it deplored "the restrictions imposed on voters' freedom of choice" by the Ivoirian Supreme Court's decision to bar Alassane Dramane Ouattara from running for election to parliament on Sunday. The EU said the decision "mars preparations for those elections as it could lead to the absence of a significant portion of Cote d'Ivoire's electorate from the electoral process". It urged the Ivorian authorities "to do everything possible to re-establish national cohesion and take account of the balance of all the country's political forces". It also called on "the authorities and on all political forces to act responsibly and ban all forms of violence". The US State Department said the decision "calls into question the government's commitment to promoting genuine national reconciliation." Deputy Spokesman Philip Reeker said on Thursday: "We continue to urge all parties to participate in the December 10 elections and call on the government to ensure these elections are free, fair, transparent and inclusive." COTE D'IVOIRE: UN halts electoral assistance; no OAU observers The United Nations announced on Tuesday the suspension of its technical electoral assistance to Côte d'Ivoire's government following the disqualification of opposition leader Alassane Dramane Ouattara from parliamentary elections on 10 December. "The United Nations is of the view that the conditions are no longer conducive for the involvement of the United Nations in the forthcoming legislative elections in Côte d'Ivoire," a spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement released in New York. According to the statement, the UN also plans to withdraw its offer to coordinate the activities of international observers, but plans to maintain the regular activities of UN agencies and programmes in the country. On Wednesday, the Organisation of African Unity said it had decided not to send observers to the polls. COTE D'IVOIRE: UN Commission of inquiry into massacres UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Ambassador Colin Granderson of Trinidad and Tobago as chairman of an international commission of inquiry he intends to send to Côte d'Ivoire to help look into serious human rights violations that took place there in October, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday. The appointment was made following a request from Abidjan. GUINEA: UNHCR office destroyed in fighting in Guekedou UNHCR said on Thursday that a humanitarian catastrophe was looming in Guinea and reported that its branch office in the southern town of Guekedou was destroyed during fighting between government troops and rebels. The refugee agency said its officials were trying to determine the status of UNHCR local staff in the town, which rebels attacked on Wednesday morning. There were no international UNHCR workers in Guekedou. Initial reports received on Thursday indicated the UNHCR office was burned during the fighting and eight vehicles were destroyed. Unconfirmed reports said hundreds of civilians were killed in the town of 31,000 people. "UNHCR and the government of Guinea have been warning for months that the international community must take urgent action to secure this volatile border region," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata said. "We are now on the verge of a major humanitarian catastrophe in which both refugees and tens of thousands of local residents may be displaced within Guinea itself." Guinea is host to Africa's second-largest refugee population, including 130,000 Liberians and 330,000 Sierra Leoneans. GUINEA: Fighting jeopardises refugee relocation Preparations by UNHCR to move refugee camps in Guinea from border areas to locations further inland are being jeopardised by the fighting in the Guekedou area, the agency said. UNHCR said on Thursday that its Conakry office had set up an Emergency Relocation Operation Task Force to begin preparing for the movement, "which now appears increasingly risky in view of the renewed fighting". Guinea's government approved a UNHCR proposal to move 30,000 refugees from Macenta to Nzerekore, and another 80,000 from Guekedou to new sites in Kissidougou. Those already in Nzerekore are to be transferred to other sites within the same region. These sites are former camps that need to be rehabilitated. GUINEA-BISSAU: Opposition calls for proof of coup allegations Nine opposition parties in Guinea-Bissau asked Malian President Alpha Konare on Tuesday to help persuade the government to provide evidence to back its claim that late military strongman General Ansumane Mane had attempted a coup, Portuguese radio reported. Mane had declared himself head of the armed forces on 20 November but was killed after loyalist forces regained control of the military. President Kumba Yala claimed Mane had attempted to overthrow the government. Opposition representatives met Konare, the chairman of the Economic Community of West African States, during his visit to Bissau on Tuesday. MALI: Bandits kill soldier in the north Bandits in northern Mali killed one soldier and captured four others on Sunday as they escorted health workers in a door-to-door vaccination campaign in Tin-Sako, a locality in Kidal region, Lt-Col Abdoulaye Coulibaly told IRIN. "This is regrettable because the armed forces are taking part in the humanitarian mission across the country," Coulibaly said on Tuesday. Coulibaly, who is head of military information, said two other soldiers were missing. The attack came two weeks after an army sweep across the region to clear Mali's northern territories of marauders who often attack locals and aid workers, and seize their vehicles. NIGERIA: Doctors continue strike Doctors in state-owned hospitals in Nigeria have been on strike for three months to force authorities to resolve key issues they believe must be dealt with for the health system to survive, especially poor pay and conditions of service. Threats and cajoling by President Olusegun Obasanjo have so far failed to resolve the impasse. Accurate figures on the effect the strike are not available. However, a senior medical official was quoted by local newspapers as saying about 2,500 people had died in the southern states of Rivers and Bayelsa in the first six weeks of the strike, including victims of a clash between protesters and security forces at an oil facility. The situation is unlikely to be very different in other parts of the country since state-owned hospitals are the only health institutions to which the vast majority of Nigerians have access. NIGERIA: Troops deployed in southeastern town Several people were injured at the weekend in the southeastern town of Okigwe after the Nigerian government deployed soldiers to curb the activities of a secessionist movement allegedly usurping law enforcement duties in the area, local residents said on Monday. They said the heavily armed soldiers, who arrived in Okigwe on Friday, were apparently pursuing Ralph Uwazurike, leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). His followers were said to have been enforcing the sale of fuel at controlled prices. SIERRA LEONE: WFP distributes food to over 75,000 people The World Food Programme said on Friday it distributed 619 mt of assorted food commodities to 76,396 beneficiaries in Sierra Leone from 29 November to 6 December. Most of these distributions were near or in Freetown. The largest amount of food - enough for 20,000 beneficiaries - went to the IDP Camp in Port Loko, some 60 km northeast of Freetown. An estimated 1,200 former refugees are arriving in Freetown from Guinea by boat each week and are receiving WFP food aid assistance, it said. SIERRA LEONE: Russian army officials visit Freetown Col-Gen Vitaly Pavlock arrived in Sierra Leone on 4 December at the head of a six-member Russian delegation to inspect the Russian air group assigned to the UN peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). According to UNAMSIL, the delegation will also meet UN military and civilian personnel. It is scheduled to leave on 19 December. The Russian contingent, which is based in the town of Lungi, north of Freetown, consists of 115 servicemen and four Mi-24 helicopter gunships. SIERRA LEONE: Czech Republic donates US $54,800 The Czech Republic, through UNICEF's National Committee, has donated US $54,800 to Sierra Leonean children, Jagmeet Uppal, a communication officer for UNICEF, told IRIN. The money is to help children who have been victims of the rebel war, he said. SIERRA LEONE: Ten RUF commanders reported killed Ten Revolutionary United Front (RUF) commanders were killed when their boat exploded in the Moa River near Manowa, in the eastern district of Kailahun, the Sierra Leone News Agency, SLENA, reported on Monday. It said that the rebel commanders were returning from a meeting in Buedu, seven km from the border with Liberia, when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded and split the boat in two. SIERRA LEONE: Missionaries freed Revolutionary United Front rebels have freed two Roman Catholic Missionaries they abducted on 6 September during an attack on the Guinean border town of Pamelap, the Missionary Service News Agency, MISNA, reported on Tuesday. Reverends Franco Manganello, 62, and Vittorio Mosele, 65, reached Freetown on Tuesday. They were in Guinea caring for Sierra Leonean refugees when RUF fighters detained them. The report said the priests were well treated during their captivity. The Bishop of Makeni, George Biguzzi, told MISNA that the priests "were, in fact, allowed to carry out their pastoral ministry". WEST AFRICA: Annan stresses importance of dialogue UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday in Benin that Africa has much to learn from its own traditions - referring to groups such as village communities that traditionally reach decisions by consensus after free discussion. Annan was speaking at an international conference on democracy while on the second leg of a four-nation African tour. He said his visit to Sierra Leone at the weekend was to support local and international efforts to buttress the peace process after it nearly collapsed in May. Abidjan, 8 December 2000; 19:05 GMT [IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 22-40-4440; Fax (Admin): +225-22-40-4435; Fax (Editorial Desk): +225-22-41-9339; e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci] [This item is delivered in the "africa-english" service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. 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