U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa

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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 120
20 - 26 April 2002


CONTENTS

LIBERIA: Human rights lawyer detained
LIBERIA: Renewed fighting displaces thousands
SIERRA LEONE: Accountability standards for humanitarian workers
SIERRA LEONE: Special court personnel appointed
NIGERIA: Militants free 43 hostages, leave oil rig
NIGERIA: Polio on the decline, river blindness in north
NIGERIA: Local elections postponed to 10 August
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Human rights situation still serious, UN envoy says
MALI: Malians to vote for new president
WESTERN SAHARA: Annan calls for Security Council decision
GHANA: Authorities declare war on armed robbers
WEST AFRICA: Risk of conflict still high
WEST AFRICA: Regional efforts to fight tuberculosis underway
AFRICA: Ministers to review new drug control strategy


LIBERIA: Human rights lawyer detained and tortured

One of Liberia's most prominent human rights lawyers, Tiawan Gongloe, was
arrested and detained without charge on Wednesday and subjected to brutal
treatment in police custody, humanitarian sources in the Liberian capital,
Monrovia, told IRIN.

Gongloe, who was taken to the SDA Cooper Hospital in Monrovia on Thursday
for treatment, was reportedly severely beaten, had bruises all over his
face and complained of pains in his back and sides, the sources said.

Police guards remained near his hospital bed and the police director has
announced that Gongloe would remain in police custody pending an
investigation, New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Friday.

Gongloe appears to have been arrested in connection with a speech he gave
at a March conference in neighbouring Guinea on peace in the Mano River
Union. The speech dealt with ways in which civil society groups could
participate in the peace process and condemned the use of violence as a
means to state power, HRW said. The international rights body said
Liberian president, Charles Taylor, was using violence "to silence
independent voices speaking about about Liberia's deteriorating human
rights record".

On Wednesday the Monrovia-based Movement for the Defence of Human Rights
(MODHAR) condemned Gongloe's detention.

Meanwhile, sources in Monrovia told IRIN on Thursday that the authorities
had closed the offices of the Analyst newspaper, which had printed
Gongloe's speech, and its staff were in hiding. The sources said the paper
was closed by virtue of a state of emergency declared on 8 February after
the Liberian government claimed that armed fighters were moving closer to
Monrovia with the intention of overthrowing Taylor.


LIBERIA: Renewed fighting displaces thousands

Fighting last week between pro-government troops and dissidents has led to
an estimated 7,289 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in central Liberia
fleeing their camps in Bellefanai, Bong County, the UN Office for
Coordination of Humanitarian Activities (OCHA) in Liberia, reported.

The IDPs have sought refuge in Weinsu, 15 km south of Gbarnga, the main
town in Bong. Humanitarian organisations have not been allowed to reach
Weinsu to give assistance to the IDPs, although MSF France has been able
to provide drinking water, sources said on Friday.

The security situation in Bong remains tense and skirmishes are still
being reported. A number of civilians and soldiers were killed or wounded
during the 19 April fighting, humanitarian workers reported.

IDPs were continuing to arrive in CARI and the TV Tower on Friday, camps
also located in Bong, a number of whome were suffering from diarrhoea. The
total number of new arrivals in both camps since the latest attack is some
4,300. The World Food Programme is providing food rations and MSF France
and Belgium have set up mobile clinics and water bladders, sources said.

Meanwhile the UN Security Council said on Monday that it would review
sanctions against the Liberian government by 6 May after further
discussions within the UN Sanctions Committee on Liberia.

The Committee briefed the Council on Monday on the findings of a panel of
experts mandated to probe the Liberian government's compliance with the
Council's Resolution 1343 of March 2001. This imposed sanctions on
Monrovia for its links with the former rebel Revolutionary United Front in
neighbouring Sierra Leone.

The panel recommended the maintenance of an arms embargo imposed during
the 1990s at the height of Liberia's civil war and extended by Resolution
1343 because, it said, there was credible evidence that the government was
buying weapons in violation of the restrictions. However, the panel
recommended the review of other sanctions such as a travel ban on top
Liberian officials.

In response, Liberian Foreign Minister Monie Captan said that there was
"no justification" for continuing the sanctions and that "any
consideration of sanctions would undermine the Security Council's
credibility in the eyes of the Liberian people," PANA reported him as
saying.

The International Crisis Group (ICG), a leading conflict prevention body,
reported this week that Liberia remained the main cause of instability
among the three Mano River Union countries which also include Guinea and
Sierra Leone.

In its report, "The Key to Ending Regional Instability" published on
Wednesday, the ICG said that Sierra Leone's "fragile peace" was being
threatened by the war in neighbouring Liberia.

Amongst its recommendations the ICG urged the international community to
apply a two-track approach to correct the situation: pressure such as
sanctions and principled engagement to obtain a negotiated end to
Liberia's conflict and one that secures fundamental rights of its
citizens.

[Full ICG report available on http://www.crisisweb.org]


SIERRA LEONE: Accountability standards for humanitarian workers

Standards of accountability which humanitarian and development workers in
Sierra Leone are required to meet were announced on Thursday, the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.

Included within the guidelines is a requirement that humanitarian and
development workers promote fundamental human rights without
discrimination of any kind, treat all persons with respect, courtesy and
according to the laws, and refrain from any act that could result in
physical, sexual or psychological harm.

The guidelines were developed in response to recent allegations of sexual
abuse and exploitation of beneficiaries by humanitarian workers and UN
peacekeeping forces. They were drawn up by a joint committee of NGOs, UN
agencies, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), and the Sierra Leonean
government, OCHA reported.

Meanwhile, a new radio series that aims to sensitise Sierra Leone's
population about May's general elections went on air on Monday, Margaret
Novicki, spokesperson for the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), told
IRIN.

'Election Watch' can be heard on Radio UNAMSIL, Mondays to Fridays from
7:30 to 10:30 on FM 103 and SW 6140 KHZ.


SIERRA LEONE: Special court personnel appointed

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed a senior attorney with the
US Department of Defence, David Crane, as the chief prosecutor of the
Special Court for Sierra Leone, UN News reported on 19 April. Robin
Vincent of the UK was appointed registrar of the tribunal, which will try
those accused of committing war crimes during the 10-year armed conflict
in the West African nation.

The deputy permanent representative of Sierra Leone to the UN Allieu
Ibrahim Kanu and UN Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Hans Corell
last week exchanged the instruments that brought into force the 16 January
agreement, signed by the UN and the Sierra Leonean government, that
allowed the Special Court to be set up.


NIGERIA: Militants free 43 hostages, leave oil rig

Militants in Nigeria's southern oil region have released unharmed 43
hostages they seized from a US ChevronTexaco oil rig, ending a four-day
stand-off. The youths left the rig, located some eight kilometres
offshore, on Wednesday, a senior company official told IRIN on Friday

Some 40 youths from the onshore Ilaje community, to the west of the Niger
Delta, had boarded the rig on Sunday and held 88 foreign and Nigerian
workers on board hostage, to press demands for jobs and amenities.

Following negotiations with ChevronTexaco officials and local leaders, 45
of the hostages were allowed to leave on Tuesday with the remaining 43
still held as talks continued. But officials would not reveal details of
the deal with the militants to end the stand-off.

Meanwhile, a 555-strong anti-corruption squad was inaugurated on Monday at
police force headquarters in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. The action is
part of an effort to reform the police, the Lagos-based Guardian newspaper
reported.


NIGERIA: Polio on the decline, river blindness in north

The spread of the polio virus has declined sharply in Nigeria but river
blindess is affecting tens of thousands of people in the north of the
country.

The UN Children's Fund said this week that 57 cases of poliomyelitis were
recorded in 2001 against 2,000 in the previous year. Nine cases have been
recorded this year from a surveillance of 12 of Nigeria's 36 states,
UNICEF added on Thursday. About 40 million children under five years were
immunised against the virus in 2001, achieving over 95 percent coverage.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous country with some 120 million
inhabitants.

However, onchocerciasis (river blindness) continues to be a problem in
Nigeria. Tens of thousands of people in over 700 villages in Kano State in
the north of the country may be infected by the disease, The Guardian
newspaper reported the state governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, as saying
last weekend. He said that some 18 local governments had been affected and
federal government efforts to eradicate the disease would have to be
doubled.

River blindness, which is transmitted by the black fly, causes
inflammation of the skin and can lead to blindness.


NIGERIA: Local elections postponed to 10 August

A controversy over local elections in Nigeria, originally scheduled for 18
May, was resolved on Wednesday with all stakeholders agreeing on a
postponement to 10 August.

The decision to defer the polls - so as to accommodate a revision of the
voters' register and new political parties - was made at a meeting chaired
by President Olusegun Obasanjo. The country's 36 state governors,
officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission and leaders of
state legislatures attended the meeting.

The state governments had chosen the May date following a Supreme Court
ruling against the national legislature's extension of the tenure of local
councils from three to four years. The ruling also affirmed that states
had constitutional control over local governments.

Meanwhile Obasanjo announced in the capital, Abuja, on Thursday that he
would run for re-election in April 2003.


EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Human rights situation still serious, UN envoy says

Massive detentions of political opponents have occurred since March in
Equatorial Guinea, a UN official said on Tuesday.

Gustavo Gallon Giraldo, the former UN special investigator for Equatorial
Guinea whose mandate was terminated last week by the UN Commission for
Human Rights, said that the human rights situation in the country "was
still serious" and deserved close monitoring.

African countries on the Commission, chaired by Nigeria, had asked it to
terminate Giraldo's mandate, saying the situation in Equatorial Guinea had
improved.


MALI: Malians to vote for new president

Malians go to the polls on Sunday to choose a new president out of a field
of 24 contenders. Analysts predict a second round of voting and say that
although there is no clear-cut favourite the frontrunners include former
president, Amadou Toumani Toure, former prime ministers Ibrahim Bouacar
Keita and Mande Sidibe and Soumaila Cisse of the ruling Alliance pour la
Democratie au Mali (ADEMA -Alliance for Democracy in Mali).

Outgoing president, Alpha Oumar Konare, came to power in 1992 in Mali's
first multiparty elections and was re-elected five years later. His
successor is scheduled to take office on 8 June


WESTERN SAHARA: Annan calls for Security Council decision

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the Security Council to decide
on the future of UN involvement in the peace process in Western Sahara,
pending the expiry in April of the mandate of the United Nations Mission
for the Referendum in Western Sahara or MINURSO, the UN reported on
Tuesday.

The dispute between Morocco and the Popular Front of the Liberation of
Sagui el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario Front), over Western Sahara
started in 1975 when Morocco annexed the territory, after the colonial
power, Spain pulled out. But Polisario declared that the area was not part
of Morocco and launched a war for independence. The OAU recognised the
territory's independence - which Polisario proclaimed as the Sahrawi Arab
Democratic Republic - forcing Morocco to pull out of the continental body.
In 1991, the two sides signed a cease-fire, paving the way for the
deployment of MINURSO but efforts to organise a referendum on the
territory's future have since failed.

Morocco's King Mohammed V1 again on Wednesday rejected any idea to
partition the territory, the official news agency, Maghreb Arabe Presse,
reported.


GHANA: Authorities declare war on armed robbers

The authorities in Ghana have "declared war on armed robbery and general
indiscipline in the society", media organisations reported Defence
Minister and Acting Interior Minister Kwame Addo-Kufuor as saying in the
capital, Accra, on Monday.

Addo-Kufuor, who met the media shortly after a closed-doors meeting with
regional police commanders and senior military officials, said "a free and
democratic society is not one where anarchy reigns." He said that the
security services had resolved to make life "uncomfortable" for armed
robbers and assured the public that the security forces were "in charge of
affairs and would not let anyone disturb the peace."


WEST AFRICA: Risk of conflict still high

The risk of conflict developing or escalating in the West African
countries of Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone exists, but
in varying levels, according to an April 2002 assessment by the Country
Indicators for Foreign Policy (CIFP) project.

The 'Conflict Risk Assessment Report' was based on nine issues identified
as underlying the potential for conflict development in each country.
These were a history of armed conflict, governance and political
instability, militarisation, population heterogeneity, demographic stress,
economic performance, human development, environmental stress, and
international linkages.

CIFP used a scale of risk indices ranging from 0 to 12, with 0-3.4
considered low risk, 3.5-6.9 medium risk, 7-9.5 high risk, and 9.5-12 very
high risk. It found that Sierra Leone had the highest risk with an overall
index of 7.2 followed by Liberia at 6.4, Guinea (5.4), Senegal (5.3) and
The Gambia (5.0). Overall, the risk rating was medium to high.

Several indicators were highlighted in the report, including number of
refugees produced over a period of time, durability of the countries'
political regimes, military expenditure, ethnic diversity and population
growth, GDP growth rates and debt, access to improved water and
sanitation, diseases and life expectancy and school enrolment.

The report is available on http://www.carleton.ca


WEST AFRICA: Regional efforts to fight tuberculosis underway

Regional efforts are underway to fight tuberculosis with last week's
creation of the West Africa Tuberculosis Control Initiative (WATCI).

One of the ways WATCI aims to foster joint efforts to combat tuberculosis
is through the exchange of information. It aims to set up a joint
tuberculosis data base as well as the publication of a twice-yearly
scientific bulletin on the disease.

WATCI was created in Togo at a 16-18 April meeting that brought together
the heads of anti-tuberculosis programmes and departments from Benin,
Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Togo.


AFRICA: Ministers to review new drug control strategy

The first ministerial meeting organised by the Organisation of African
Unity on drug control in Africa will be held on 6-11 May in the Ivorian
capital, Yamoussoukro, the UN International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP)
said in a news release. The ministers will review a proposed drug control
strategy developed by African experts and UNDCP, and commit their
governments to more decisive action against drug trafficking and abuse.


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