Weekly Round-Up - IRINWA-294: 16-Sep-05
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
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e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci
WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 294
10 - 16 September 2005
CONTENTS:
LIBERIA: Anti-graft plan endorsed to cheers from world donors
MAURITANIA: First wave of one-time dissidents return home in sweeping
amnesty
SIERRA LEONE: Civilian war casualties urge government to provide
reparations
NIGER: Over one million receiving food rations, immediate and long-term
challenges loom
COTE D'IVOIRE: Former president calls for Gbagbo to hand over to a
transitional government
DRC-NIGERIA: Obasanjo recalls police team in DR Congo over alleged sex
abuses
LIBERIA: Anti-graft plan endorsed to cheers from world donors
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49093&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=LIBERIA
Liberia's transitional government has endorsed a far-reaching and
controversial plan to combat graft that includes placing outsiders in
key administrative positions over the next three years.
This week's signing of the so-called Governance and Economic Management
Assistance Programme (GEMAP), despite resistance from some Liberian
leaders, was widely welcomed at a press conference held by the country's
international partners.
"The US welcomes the signing of the GEMAP and we intend to ensure that
the revenue of Liberia is captured for the people of Liberia and to
ensure the funds get expended correctly," said US Ambassador to Liberia,
Donald Booth.
Representatives of the World Bank and European Union also welcomed the
adoption of GEMAP under which all operational and financial matters of
the Central Bank and five main revenue generating agencies must be
co-signed by a "suitable international expert" selected by the
International Monetary Fund. They were quick to make assurances,
however, that the programme would not impinge the national sovereignty
of Liberia.
MAURITANIA: First wave of one-time dissidents return home in sweeping
amnesty
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49052&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=MAURITANIA
Jubilant mobs rushed the airport and lined the streets of the
Mauritanian capital to greet 30 former dissidents returning from exile,
days after the country's new military rulers called a sweeping amnesty
for those imprisoned or banished by ex-President Maaouya Ould Taya.
The former opposition leaders and rebel army officers are the first of
scores expected to return to Mauritania in the coming days and weeks.
Among the arrivals were Mohamed Ould Cheikhna and Mohamed Ould Saleck,
leading members of the "Knights of Change," which allegedly carried out
coup attempts in 2003 and 2004.
"It is very difficult to express in words the joy we feel," Ould Saleck
told IRIN at the Nouakchott airport. "I am here to participate in the
reconstruction of our country."
SIERRA LEONE: Civilian war casualties urge government to provide
reparations
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49090&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=SIERRA_LEONE
Civilians who lost limbs in Sierra Leone's atrociously brutal war are
mobilising to ensure promises of aid to victims do not remain mere words
on paper.
"Our hearts still bleed with tears because we are not satisfied," one
amputee told a forum which was the culmination of two months of meetings
of amputees and other war victims organised by the national human rights
group, Forum of Conscience.
Reparations for amputees and victims of the decade-long civil war which
ended in 2002 - including free health care and monthly pensions - is one
of the recommendations of Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC), whose final report was presented to the government
last October. Civil society and human rights groups have since been
pushing for the government to act on the TRC recommendations.
NIGER: Over one million receiving food rations, immediate and long-term
challenges loom
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49074&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=NIGER
The television cameras all but gone, aid agencies in Niger continue to
tackle life-and-death needs and seek lasting solutions to a food crisis
that aid workers say was already well in swing when the world rushed in
to help.
While donor response to the Niger crisis was late, a spurt of
contributions in July and early August allowed UN World Food Programme
(WFP) to tackle a first round of emergency food distributions, with a
targeted 1.8 million people deemed the most at-risk, an official at the
organisation said.
One international aid group, however, says in some regions the number of
acutely malnourished children is steady or even rising. Medecins Sans
Frontieres (MSF) this week reiterated its worry that free food is not
getting to people who need it most urgently.
COTE D'IVOIRE: Former president calls for Gbagbo to hand over to a
transitional government
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49018&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=COTE_D_IVOIRE
Opposition leader and former president Henri Konan Bedie, fresh back in
wartorn Cote d'Ivoire after a year in self-imposed exile in Paris, has
called on President Laurent Gbagbo to hand over power to a transitional
government if, as expected, planned elections do not take place on 30
October.
"When one has spent five years governing and when one has not been able
to organise democratic elections, how can one demand [the mandate] to be
prolonged?" Bedie said.
Gbagbo has said since April that should elections not take place for any
reason, he will remain in his post. Under peace deals signed since
January 2003, presidential elections were to have been held on 30
October - the end of the incumbent's five-year term. But foot-dragging
in preparation for the polls from all sides in Cote d'Ivoire's
three-year civil conflict, means the ballot cannot take place as
planned, according to UN chief Kofi Annan who told RFI the UN Security
Council will review possible sanctions on Ivorian political leaders.
DRC-NIGERIA: Obasanjo recalls police team in DR Congo over alleged sex
abuses
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49017&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=DRC-NIGERIA
President Olusegun Obasanjo's government ordered the return of 120
Nigerian police officers serving in the United Nations peacekeeping
mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo after some of them were
accused of sexual abuses, police officials said on Monday.
Haz Iwendi, Nigerian police spokesman, said a senior police officer had
gone to the Congolese capital Kinshasa to bring back the contingent and
receive full details of allegations against some members of the team.
"Sexual misconduct is part of the allegations," Iwendi told IRIN.
"Though only 10 people are accused, the whole team has been ordered to
come home."
A report released in July by New York-based Human Rights Watch said
corruption, torture and killing of suspects by police officials was
rampant in Nigeria and largely went unpunished.
In August, Obasanjo made an unusual public acknowledgement of police
atrocities, listing violations including extrajudicial killings and
torture. He pledged government action to end the trend.
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