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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 132
20 - 26 July 2002


CONTENTS:

SIERRA LEONE: Close to 600 repatriated from Liberia by boat
SIERRA LEONE: TRC appeals for preservation of mass-burial sites
LIBERIA: Military court orders government to produce detainees
GUINEA: Election irregularities worry US officials
GAMBIA: Tough media bill passed
NIGERIA: Women end siege of ChevronTexaco facilities
NIGERIA: Villagers continue to flee
WEST AFRICA: Early warning system set up, military bases planned
CAMEROON: Ruling party increases parliamentary majority
NIGER: Cholera reported in the south

SIERRA LEONE: Close to 600 repatriated from Liberia by boat

Just under 600 Sierra Leoneans returned home from Liberia by boat this
week following the resumption of voluntary repatriations by the office of
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). UNHCR reported that 285
reached the capital, Freetown, on Monday. Another 301 arrived on Friday, a
UNHCR source in Freetown told IRIN.

UNHCR said about 4,500 Sierra Leoneans in Liberia had registered for
repatriation by sea. The ship is expected to do a twice-weekly shuttle,
which should allow for an average of 600 returnees per week.

The UN agency had started repatriating the refugees by land in
mid-February and by April, 10,848 had returned home, UNHCR spokesperson
Peter Kessler said on Friday at a press briefing in Geneva. The
repatriations were then stopped, first because of elections in May in
Sierra Leone, and then because of renewed fighting between Liberian
government and rebel forces in western Liberia, Kessler said.

Most of those who returned this week had been living in Sinje, western
Liberia, but fled to the Liberian capital, Monrovia, after an attack on
the area on 20 June. UNHCR said it was working with Save the Children-UK
to handle unaccompanied and separated minors, many of whom were born in
Liberia.

In the meantime, former refugees and Liberians continued to enter Sierra
Leone on foot at a rate of about 1,000 per week. UNHCR said there were now
about 28,500 Liberian refugees in camps in Sierra Leone, some 7,300 in
towns and an estimated 13,700 who had settled spontaneously in border
areas.

SIERRA LEONE: TRC appeals for preservation of mass-burial sites

Sierra Leone's TRC has called on Sierra Leoneans on whose land evidence of
mass graves and killing sites had been found not to return to their
properties yet because vital evidence could be lost if they were tampered
with.

TRC officials told IRIN on Monday they made the appeal following the
one-month investigation by forensic experts who found evidence of mass
graves and killing sites in parts of northern and eastern Sierra Leone.

The team of Argentinian forensic experts had been asked to go to Sierra
Leone to establish patterns of human rights abuses during a ten-year war
civil war after UN forces discovered evidence of mass graves in December.

LIBERIA: Military court orders government to produce detainees

Liberia's Court Martial Board this week gave Liberia's government until 7
August to produce in court three men reportedly held incommunicado since
their arrest a month ago, news agencies reported.

Men in plainclothes arrested the three, who include a newspaper editor, on
24 June on suspicion of "operating a LURD [Liberians United for
Reconciliation and Democracy] terrorist cell in Monrovia". The Court
Martial Board ruled on Thursday that the government must produce the
"living bodies" of the three, the news agencies reported.

Several human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Reporters
Without Borders, had accused the government of violating the men's
constitutional rights by refusing to bring them to court.

On 4 July a civilian judge had ordered them produced in court. However, on
8 July the same judge said President Charles Taylor had declared the three
illegal combatants and therefore the matter was beyond him. Taylor had
described them as "dissidents" and said they would be tried by a military
court.

GUINEA: Election irregularities worry US officials

The US Embassy in the Guinean capital, Conakry, this week congratulated
Guinea on the "peaceful conditions that prevailed" during legislative
elections on 30 June but said it was "deeply concerned about the many
irregularities reported by the independent press and opposition
participants".

"These include the officially reported participation rate of over 72
percent that far exceeds voter turnout reported by various independent
sources, the lack of neutrality of the administration and the widespread
instances of multiple voting," it said in a communiqué dated 22 July.
"Unfortunately this lack of a credible and transparent election follows a
flawed referendum held last November. It creates a disturbing trend that
undermines efforts to enhance democracy in Guinea."

The ruling Parti de l'Unite et du Progres obtained 85 out of 114
parliamentary seats at the election. Five went to two allied parties,
while the so-called "moderate" opposition won 24. Major opposition parties
boycotted the election, which was the second multiparty legislative polls
in the country. The first was in 1995.

The embassy said "a flourishing democracy in Guinea, as evidenced by
credible and transparent electoral processes, would contribute to
stability in the subregion". Recalling that the UN had called on all
political and civil-society groups to become fully engaged in political
processes in Guinea, it expressed regret at the absence of some parties
from the elections.

"We will continue to work to strengthen democracy, and will actively
support the establishment of conditions that allow for a credible and
transparent election planned for 2003", the US Embassy said. "Needed
reforms include: liberalizing the broadcast media (to include private
radio), the use of the single ballot and transparent ballot boxes, and the
presence of opposition observers at every level - to assure accuracy in
the vote count".

THE GAMBIA: Tough media bill passed

The Gambian parliament this week passed a media bill whose opponents it
say will stifle the independence of the country's private media.

The bill, passed on Wednesday, provides for the establishment of a media
commission which will have, among other things, the authority to register
reporters, close down media houses and impose fines for the publication of
"unauthorised government stories".

The Gambia Press Union has vowed to challenge the bill in court if
President Yayha Jammeh signs it into law because it violates provisions of
the country's constitution.

NIGERIA: Women end siege of ChevronTexaco facilities

The last of a series of sieges by women protesters on facilities of
ChevronTexaco in southeastern Nigeria's Niger Delta ended following an
agreement between representatives of the protesters and the US
transnational, company officials said on Friday.

They said under the terms of the agreement signed on Thursday with the
chief of the Gbaramutu community, whose women had occupied four
ChevronTexaco faculties for eight days, the company would build a hospital
and provide fair access to employment for qualified people from the area.

A similar agreement was reached between ChevronTexaco and women from the
Ugborodo community, who began the round of protests on 8 July by staging a
10-day occupation of the company's Escravos export terminal.

NIGERIA: Villagers continue to flee

Residents of two districts in central Nigeria's Plateau State fled their
homes this week after the army issued an ultimatum for weapons taken from
two security officers killed in the area to be returned by Wednesday,
sources told IRIN.

Villagers from Yelwa and Shendan sought refuge in the state capital, Jos,
and in other districts as the ultimatum expired. Some were quoted as
saying they feared reprisals by soldiers.

Up to Friday, there was no indication that anyone had returned the
weapons, which had belonged to a policeman and a soldier. The two men had
been part of a security forces mission deployed to the area stop fighting
between Muslims and Christians in June.

WEST AFRICA: ECOWAS sets up early warning system, plans military bases

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has set up an
early-warning satellite-communication system and plans to establish
military bases to facilitate rapid deployment of peacekeeping troops in
conflict situations.

The ECOWAS secretariat, based in Abuja, Nigeria, reported that the US
$5.3-million communication system was made possible by financial and
technical assistance from the European Union and the United States. "The
network will make it possible to link via satellite the ECOWAS observation
and monitoring centres with communication stations in member states,"
ECOWAS said in a statement on Thursday.

On Tuesday, ECOWAS Executive Secretary Mohammed ibn Chambas said in Abuja
that the regional body planned to set up two military bases, one in a
coastal member state and another in a landlocked member state. He said
troops and equipment from such bases could be deployed to contain internal
conflicts that threatened to cause major humanitarian disasters,
jeopardise regional peace and security or "any other situation decided by
the [ECOWAS] Mediation and Security Council".

He said the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), which has served in Sierra
Leone and Liberia, would be transformed into a standby force for
humanitarian and peacekeeping operations in West Africa.

CAMEROON: Ruling party retains parliament

Legislative elections in Cameroon on 30 June saw the ruling Rassemblement
democratique du peuple camerounais (RDPC - Cameroon People's Democratic
Movement) increase its seats in the 180-member parliament to the detriment
of major opposition parties.

The RDPC had 116 seats in the outgoing parliament, elected in 1997. It now
has 133, according to results announced by Cameroon's Supreme Court on 19
July.

The main opposition Social Democratic Front won 21 seats, down from 43 in
1997; the Union democratique du Cameroun retained its five seats, while
two other small parties each lost the single seat they had in parliament.

The largest setback was suffered by the Union nationale pour la democratie
et le progres (UNDP), an opposition party which agreed in 1997 to join the
RDPC-led government. The UNDP won one seat on 30 June, down from the 68 it
obtained in 1997. In recent times, many of its supporters had criticised
the party's participation in the government.

The 163 legislators are due to take up their seats on 30 July.

The Supreme Court annulled the results in nine constituencies (17 seats)
because of irregularities. Their elections are to be rerun within the next
two months.

NIGER: Cholera reported in the south

Niger's Ministry Of Public Health registered 104 cholera cases, including
eight deaths, in the south of the country between 9 June and 22 July, WHO
reported. The country's health authorities have implemented measures to
control the outbreak, including the intensification of surveillance, with
the support of WHO, the UN agency said.


IRIN-WA
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Fax: +225 22-41-9339
Email: IRIN-WA@irin.ci

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