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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 221
3 - 9 April 2004


CONTENTS:

CHAD-SUDAN: Government and rebels sign 45-day ceasefire
COTE D IVOIRE: UN to send experts to investigate rights abuse
NIGERIA: Regulator bans live relay of foreign news broadcasts
BURKINA FASO: Coup plotter admits wanting to topple President Compaore
GUINEA-BISSAU: WFP seeks $5.7m to feed school children and farmers
MAURITANIA: Haidalla supporters create new opposition party
SIERRA LEONE: Electoral officials charged with corruption


CHAD-SUDAN: Government and rebels sign 45-day ceasefire

The Sudanese government and two rebel movements in the country’s western
Darfur region have agreed to a 45-day ceasefire to allow humanitarian
assistance to reach several hundred thousand people affected by the
fighting.

The ceasefire is due to come into force on Sunday. It was agreed on
Thursday night after two days of talks in N’djamena, the capital of
neighbouring Chad.

The ceasefire was signed in the presence of Chadian President Idriss Deby
and was immediately welcomed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. He had
warned only a day earlier that international intervention might be
necessary if the two sides could not settle their differences.

A spokesman for Annan said in New York: “He trusts this agreement will
result in an immediate cessation of hostilities and an end to attacks
against civilians, as well as full humanitarian access to all people in
need of assistance and protection.”

The ceasefire agreement represents a breakthrough for Chadian government
mediators who spent a week trying to persuade the Sudanese government
delegation and representatives of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)
and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to meet face-to-face.

The delegations finally agreed to sit down together on Tuesday night after
the Chadian mediators proposed discussing humanitarian issues before
moving on to the political agenda.

For IRIN coverage of Chad-Sudan see:
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCou
ntry=Chad


COTE D'IVOIRE: UN to send experts to investigate rights abuse

The UN human rights commission named on Thursday a panel of three experts
that will travel next week to conduct an independent investigation into
the fatal confrontations that took place on 25 March when protesters
staged anti-government marches in the West African country's commercial
and political capitals.

In a statement on Wednesday, an alliance of Cote d’Ivoire’s rebel movement
and main opposition parties urged the UN to establish an international
tribunal to investigate killings and human rights violations committed in
the country since Laurent Gbagbo was elected president nearly four years
ago.

The "G7" group, which brings together the rebel movement occupying the
north of Cote d’Ivoire and the four main opposition parties in parliament,
said that it had written to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan demanding the
"creation of an international penal court for Cote d'Ivoire" to punish
those responsible for serious violation of human rights in the West
African country since October 2000.

It said the tribunal's remit should include the investigation of the
security forces heavy handed repression of a banned opposition
demonstration on 25 March which led to street clashes and house-to-house
manhunts during which dozens of people were killed.

The government says 37 people died in the disturbances, during which
police and soldiers fired live ammunition at civilian protestors, but
opposition parties say up to 500 people perished.

For IRIN coverage of Cote d'Ivoire see:
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Cote_d_Ivoire


NIGERIA: Regulator bans live relay of foreign news broadcasts

The Nigerian authorities have banned local radio and television stations
from relaying foreign news broadcasts live.

This move has stopped the BBC from broadcasting news and programmes on FM
in four Nigerian cities, depriving listeners across the country of a
popular source of national and international news.

The ban on live relay broadcasts was imposed by the government’s radio and
television regulator, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), with
effect from 1 April.

One Nigerian radio station hit particularly hard is Ray Power FM, which
had been relaying BBC programmes live in Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna and Port
Harcourt. Its output included the popular news programmes 'Network Africa'
and 'Focus on Africa.'

Nigeria has a lively independent local media, which is not afraid to
criticise the government.

However, the Nigerian move could serve as a justification for other
African countries, where there is less press freedom, to clamp down on
relays by foreign broadcasters.

Meanwhile, tension gripped the volatile northern Nigerian Kaduna State
early this week, after irate Muslims razed several churches and a police
station in a remote town, alleging that a Christian youth had desecrated
the Koran, residents and police officials said on Tuesday.

Trouble broke out last Saturday in the town of Makarfi, 150 km north of
the state capital Kaduna, when a mentally disturbed Christian youth whose
family came from the Christian southeast Nigeria was accosted by some
Muslim youths as he tore up a copy of the Koran, witnesses said.

As news of the incident quickly spread through Makarfi a mob assembled at
the police station demanding that they be allowed to deal with the boy,
eyewitnesses said.

Overwhelmed by the ever-increasing mob, the policemen at the station took
the youth out through a backdoor and fled as well, they added.

The angry mob responded by setting the police station alight and then went
through the town setting on fire at least eight churches belonging to
different Christian denominations.

For IRIN coverage of Nigeria see:
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Nigeria


BURKINA FASO: Coup plotter admits wanting to topple President Compaore

The alleged mastermind of a foiled coup plot, army captain Luther Diapagri
Ouali, admitted to a military court on Wednesday that he had seriously
considered "removing President Blaise Compaore from his seat" in order to
bring social justice to Burkina Faso.

"Since 2000 I had the idea to make things move in my country by removing
Compaore who is the only evil in Burkina Faso," Ouali told the court as
the trial entered its second day in the capital, Ouagadougou.

Ouali is one of 11 soldiers and two civilians facing trial for an alleged
coup plot to overthrow Compaore, which was uncovered by the security
services in September last year. Most of them are on trial for conspiracy
and plotting to endanger state security. They were arrested in September
and early October.

For IRIN coverage of Burkina Faso see:
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Burkina_Faso


GUINEA-BISSAU: WFP seeks $5.7m to feed school children and struggling
farmers

The World Food Programme (WFP) appealed on Tuesday for US $5.7 million to
feed school children and farmers rebuilding irrigation and drainage
systems in Guinea-Bissau.

Abdou Dieng, the head of WFP in Guinea-Bissau, told IRIN that donors had
so far only contributed $1.2 million towards the 15-month programme, which
aims to provide food aid to 238,000 of the country’s 1.3 million
population.

WFP launched its appeal for food aid following parliamentary elections on
March 28, which marked a key stage in Guinea-Bissau’s return to democracy
following a bloodless coup in September last year.

For IRIN coverage of Guinea-Bissau see:
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Guinea-Bissau


MAURITANIA: Haidalla supporters create new opposition party

A group of prominent Mauritanians who backed former president Mohamed
Khouna Ould Haidalla in his failed bid to regain power in last year’s
presidential election, filed papers for the creation of a new political
party on Wednesday.

Opposition political sources said papers seeking to legalise Ould
Haidalla’s new Party for Democratic Convergence were submitted to the
Interior Ministry in the capital Nouakchott.

If the party is allowed to exist, it is likely to become a major
opposition force to the ruling Republican Social Democratic Party of
President Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya who has been in power for the past
20 years.

Ould Haidalla was overthrown by Ould Taya in a 1984 coup. He was
officially declared runner-up to the incumbent head of state in the
November 2003 presidential election, which the opposition denounced as
riddled with fraud.

Haidalla and several of his supporters were arrested immediately after the
poll and charged with plotting a coup. They were released a few weeks
later.

For this story and other stories on Mauritania see:
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCou
ntry=Mauritania


SIERRA LEONE: Electoral officials charged with corruption

A British-born judge brought in specially to try corruption cases has
imposed stiff bail on two electoral officials accused of embezzling public
funds in a high profile case being heard during the run-up to Sierra
Leone’s local government elections.

At a court hearing on Monday, Justice Robert Schuster set bail of 128
million leones (US $43,000) for Joseph Aruna and Francis Hindowa, two
former electoral commissioners in Sierra Leone’s Eastern Region, for
misappropriating more than $1,000 of public funds each.

According to state prosecutor Alusine Sesay, Aruna and Hindowa both
misappropriated funds meant to buy office furniture and refurbish official
buildings.

Both men pleaded not guilty. Along with the $43,000 bail they were to
provide two sureties and also surrender their passports to the
Anti-Corruption Commission.

This is the third high-profile anti-corruption case to reach the courts
since a special Anti-Corruption Commission was established by act of
parliament in 2000.

The Commission was established with British support. It focuses
particularly on corrupt payments to government officials and the
misappropriation of public and donor funds.

For this story and other stories on Sierra Leone see:
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Sierra_Leone


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