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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 137
17 - 24 August 2002


CONTENTS:

LIBERIA: Reconciliation conference opens without opposition
SIERRA LEONE: UNAMSIL still investigating July incident
WESTERN SAHARA: WFP and UNHCR appeal for aid
NIGERIA: Shari'ah sentence draws outcry; senate calls for Obasanjo probe
NIGERIA: Government fuels conflict,  say rights groups say
TOGO: CPJ slams proposed media bill

LIBERIA: Reconciliation conference opens without opposition

Liberia President Charles Taylor on Saturday opened the country's peace
and reconciliation conference, an event that was marked by a noticeable
absence of the opposition and other exiled politicians. Chances were small
that they would come to Monrovia before the conference ends.

Analysts told IRIN that, because of the opposition's absence, the
conference was unlikely to achieve anything significant in terms of peace
and reconciliation.

Apart from government officials, diplomats accredited to Monrovia,
representatives of the African Union and the UN, local civil society,
youth and private sector groups attended the conference at the Unity
Center, Virginia in the outskirts of the capital.

Although he did not discuss the ongoing war with the Liberians United for
Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), the armed group fighting to overthrow
him, his speech was marked by statements such as "They think we will pack
up and go, but we are not going anywhere"; "I ask you to lay down your
arms because you cannot win this war", and "The LURD are terrorists who
cannot win a war, who say I should pack my bags and go. But I am here to
stay."

During the month-long process, delegates would visit various parts of the
country seeking views on lasting peace and reconciliation before
reconvening for further consultations. They would also try to identify a
national language for Liberia, in accordance with Taylor's wishes that
Liberia gets its own national language within 10 years.

Those who snubbed the conference included Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, leader of
the opposition Unity Party of Liberia, who lives in Cote d'Ivoire; former
Interim President Amos Sawyer; lawyer Samuel Kofi Woods of the
International Human Rights Law Group in Sierra Leone; Conmany Wesseh,
executive director for the Center for Democratic Empowerment also based in
Cote d'Ivoire and former senator Charles Brumskine who lives in the United
States.

See related analysis: LIBERIA: Focus on peace and national reconciliation
conference
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29617&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=LIBERIA

SIERRA LEONE: UNAMSIL still investigating July incident

The UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) said it was pursuing its
investigation into the July 18 incident in which two people died and three
others were wounded. Sierra Leone's consortium of NGOs last week issued a
report saying UN peacekeepers, who had been deployed to restore order,
used "disproportionate force" in quelling the incident.

Violence and looting erupted in the capital Freetown after a Sierra
Leonean black-market trader was found dead, allegedly murdered by Nigerian
criminals, news organisations reported.

The online news provider, Sierra Leone Web, reported that eyewitness
accounts and medical evidence suggested that the victims were hit by
direct bullets.

UNAMSIL official Behrooz Sadry said the ongoing fact-finding mission would
transform into an investigation if any of the information provided by the
NGOs proves to be "of value". According to UNAMSIL, its earlier
fact-finding committee had come up with "insufficient factual
information".

Other stories on Sierra Leone this week included: SIERRA LEONE: IOM
shelter project targets the displaced
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29557&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=SIERRA_LEONE
WEST AFRICA: Training on children and adolescents in refugee situations
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29557&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=SIERRA_LEONE

WESTERN SAHARA: WFP and UNHCR appeal for aid

WFP and UNHCR on Thursday appealed to international donors to fund current
gaps in the food aid pipeline for to Western Sahara refugees in order to
fend off looming malnutrition.

"Some 155,000 Western Saharan refugees almost entirely dependent on
humanitarian aid provided through the UN World Food Programme (WFP) are
living in the four remote camps, and fresh contributions are urgently
needed for their survival," WFP and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) said in a joint statement. The most affected would be children,
half of whom suffer from acute or chronic malnutrition, pregnant women and
lactating mothers.

The UN World Food Programme said it needed 8,336 metric tons valued at US
$3.7 million while UNHCR operations in Western Sahara remained largely
under-funded.

The bulk of the refugees live in remote camps along the border with
Algeria and are victims of the 27-year old conflict between Morocco and
the Polisario Front, an armed organisation fighting for independence for
Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, that was annexed by Morocco in
1975, prompting the Polisario to take up arms to fight for independence.
The UN, since 1991, has been working to broker a solution between the two.

NIGERIA: Shari'ah sentence draws outcry; senate calls for Obasanjo probe

This week in Nigeria the death-by-stoning verdict imposed on a woman
sparked an outcry. At the same time the senate voted to probe President
Olusegun Obasanjo for breaches of the constitution.

The national and international outcry over the Shari'ah verdict imposed on
30-year old Amina Lawal for having a child out of wedlock attracted the
voice of the United Development fund For Women (UNIFEM) which condemned
the sentence.

Last week, a Shari'ah appeal court, in the northern state of Katsina,
upheld a March verdict that condemned the woman.

UNIFEM said this week that the Nigerian government was obliged to honour
its moral and legal obligations to protect the rights and lives of all its
citizens, including "those like Amina who are poor, uneducated and
female."

The government has said a position, saying it would appeal the case.

Related items include: NIGERIA: Focus on Shari'ah sentence controversy
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29613&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=NIGERIA
NIGERIA: Man faces death by stoning as appeal date passes
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29587&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=NIGERIA

On the political front, Nigeria's senate on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly
to probe President Obasanjo on grounds that he had violated the
constitution. The vote by the upper chamber of parliament, which was
passed by a vote of 76 to five, came one day after the expiry of a
two-week ultimatum by the lower chamber, the House of Representatives that
Obasanjo should resign or be impeached.

Interestingly both arms of parliament are dominated by Obasanjo's People's
Democratic Party.

The representatives have appointed a seven-member committee to fine-tune
their allegations of incompetence, violations of the constitution and
corruption against the president. These will be presented to the House
when it reconvenes on 4 September.

The latest developments came after a national broadcast by President
Obasanjo on Sunday, in which he said he had survived the impeachment
threat, thanked his supporters and described the ultimatum by the House of
Representatives as "a joke taken too far".

NIGERIA: Government fuels conflict, say rights groups

The spate of violence and human rights violations in Nigeria over the last
two years had been fueled by the government and its security agencies, the
Geneva-based World Organization Against Torture and the Lagos-based Center
for Law Enforcement Education reported on Monday.

The organizations said the government bore the responsibility for
thousands of victims of extra-judicial executions. However, they said, the
local and international media's portrayal of the situation as
ethno-religious in nature had shielded the government from full
responsibility for their occurrence.

The report, which documents numerous cases of rights violations, analyses
the legal framework for holding the government responsible at all levels.
It also made recommendations to the government, the UN, the African
Commission on Human and People's Rights on ways to end the culture of
impunity which, they said, had betrayed the hope ushered in by the
Obasanjo government.

The full report is available at http://www.omct.org

TOGO: CPJ slams new proposed bill

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Wednesday urged President
Gnassingbe Eyadema to "do everything within your power to repeal" a
proposed press law which would hand down stiff sentences to journalists
for "defaming or insulting" the president, state institutions, the courts,
the armed forces and public administration bodies.

Among other penalties, under the new law, a journalist who "insults" the
Head of State would get between one to five years in jail and pay a fine
as high as five million CFA (US $7,500). Penalties ranging from three
months to three years in jail could be handed to media persons who
insulted among others the prime minister, the national assembly speaker,
armed and security forces and civil servants.

The New York-based organisation fears that the bill would further hamper
Togolese journalists' ability to do their job. CPJ already deems that the
present press law too restrictive. In addition to repealing the proposed
law, CPJ asked the government not to interfere in the work of independent
news organisations and to allow journalists in Togo to practice their
profession without fear of criminal prosecution and fines.


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