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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 298
1 - 7 October 2005


CONTENTS:

LIBERIA: Girl power takes centre stage as elections near
COTE D'IVOIRE: African leaders want Gbagbo in the helm another year to
   avert constitutional crisis
CHAD-SENEGAL: Pressure mounts on Senegal to hand over ex Chadian
   president
GUINEA-BISSAU: West Africa calls for world backing as president sworn in
GABON: Opposition cries foul over presidential poll plans
CAMEROON: No time to waste in strengthening fragile dam, warn experts
NIGERIA: Militia leader charged with treason, risks life imprisonment


LIBERIA: Girl power takes centre stage as elections near

With more women than men registered to vote in next week's Liberian
elections, women should have the final say at the ballot box.

The first polls to be held after 14 years of bloody civil war might also
see a woman elected president, in what would be a first not only for
Liberia but also for Africa.

It is no surprise, then, that sisters in this impoverished West African
nation are in jubilant mood.

"For the first time in history, women are at the forefront of the
elections," said Leymah Gbowee, head of the Women In Peacebuilding
Network. "Towards the end of hostilities, Liberian women protested for
peace and that's when the foundation was laid for women to play a more
active role."

The woman leading the charge is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, affectionately
dubbed "the Iron Lady" after Britain's groundbreaking prime minister,
Margaret Thatcher. Sirleaf, a Harvard-educated economist with a resume
boasting stints at the UN, World Bank and Citibank, wants to break a
male stranglehold on power that has lasted almost 160 years.

During the civil war, faction leaders used to rally their drugged-up
foot soldiers with chants about how the enemy were women.

Today, Sirleaf's supporters have turned that on its head. The cry of
"Ellen is our man!" follows the 66-year-old on the campaign trial.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49411



Other stories on Liberia
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49390

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49383


COTE D'IVOIRE: African leaders want Gbagbo in the helm another year to
avert constitutional crisis

ABIDJAN, 7 October 2005 (IRIN) - Laurent Gbagbo should remain president
of war-torn Cote d'Ivoire for up to 12 months beyond his official
mandate, according to African Union leaders who stepped in to avert a
potential constitutional crisis.

"President Gbagbo shall remain head of state," from 31 October and for
no longer than 12 months, his AU peers said in a statement issued after
emergency talks in Addis Ababa called to help find a way out of Cote
d'Ivoire's deadlocked three-year civil war.

Gbagbo, whose mandate expires in just three weeks 30 October, was asked
to appoint a new prime minister for the country with more extensive
powers "acceptable to all the Ivorian signatories to the Marcoussis"
peace deal of 2003, one of a string of accords mired by disagreement and
dogged by delays.

"The capacity of the Prime Minister's office needs to be strengthened
considerably [to implement Marcoussis]" said South African President and
AU mediator Thabo Mbeki as the AU summit closed in the Ethiopian capital
on Thursday.

The new prime minister will lead a government "composed of personalities
proposed by the Ivorian parties [that signed Marcoussis]", said Mbeki.

No deadline has been set for the appointment of the new prime minister
or for the formation of his cabinet. No new election date was proposed
either.

The AU suggestions are to be put to the UN Security Council at a meeting
October 13.


CHAD-SENEGAL: Pressure mounts on Senegal to hand over ex Chadian
president

Pressure is mounting on the government of Senegal to extradite former
Chadian president Hissene Habre, who has lived in exile in the West
African country for 15 years and is wanted for extensive human rights
violations in his own country.

A group of Chadian citizens who say they were victims of torture under
Habre's regime are planning to fly into the Senegalese capital of Dakar
on Thursday to call for the former ruler to be arrested and extradited
to a Belgium court for trial.

"The case of Mr Habre constitutes a symbol of impunity in Africa," said
Boucounta Diallo, the president of Senegal's National Human Rights
Organisation and coordinator of a group of alleged Chadian victims.
"Senegal can no longer avoid its responsibility in judging or
extraditing Hissene Habre. If not, it will be violating the
international convention against torture."

The arrival of the group of Chadians comes in the wake of the issuing of
an international arrest warrant by a Belgian judge on 19 September that
was welcomed by Human Rights Watch as "a groundbreaking move reminiscent
of Spain's arrest warrant for General Augusto Pinochet of Chile".

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49385



GUINEA-BISSAU: West Africa calls for world backing as president sworn in

West African leaders are urging quick international assistance for
Guinea-Bissau, whose new president Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira was sworn
in facing a massive cholera epidemic and fears of continuing political
instability.

"Donors must help Bissau now, and without conditions," Senegal's Foreign
Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio told reporters on Monday.

And last week's one-day summit of the 15-nation Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS) wound up in the Nigerian capital Abuja with
a "call on the international community to fulfill its commitment to
extend financial, technical and material assistance to Guinea Bissau."

But of the 17 heads of state invited to attend Vieira's ceremonial
swearing-in, none was in attendance. As heavily-armed soldiers patrolled
the streets, many of the country's leading politicians too stayed home,
raising fears of a return to years of instability.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49347


GABON: Opposition cries foul over presidential poll plans

Presidential elections have been fixed for 27 November in oil-rich
Gabon, with security forces voting two days early in a move the
opposition says is a ruse for rigging.

The president of the National Electoral Commission, Gilbert Ngoulakia,
announced the double election dates of 25 and 27 November on state
television and radio, explaining that security forces would vote early
in the interest of national security.

"The vote will be held two days after that of public agents who work to
maintain law and order as strong agitation and tension are on the
horizon," said Ngoulakia, reading a communique.

However leading opposition figure, Zacharie Myboto, denounced the move
as a pre-emptive manoeuvre to ease ballot rigging. "Here we have
additional proof of laws being fiddled to keep the ruling regime in
power," said Myboto, a onetime ally of President Omar Bongo who decamped
to the opposition earlier this year.

Although he is Africa's longest serving head of state, Bongo, who turns
70 in December, is hoping to secure another seven-year term at the helm.
The president was to have stepped down this year, but in 2003 the
constitution was amended by a parliament packed with allies to enable
him to seek re-election indefinitely.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49406



CAMEROON: No time to waste in strengthening fragile dam, warn experts

A fragile natural dam in northwest Cameroon needs urgent attention to
prevent its eroded northern wall breaking, releasing a torrent of water
and massive poisonous gas clouds that could kill thousands of people, a
UN expert has warned.

The dam - a plug of volcanic waste on the north side of the lake - is
close to collapse according to Nisa Nurmohamed, one of two UN experts
who have investigated the state of the dam."If we do nothing, the wall
will collapse within ten years but more likely within five," Nurmohamed
told IRIN by telephone from the Netherlands.

But disaster could hit "today, tomorrow or next year," according to a
report co-written by Nurmohamed with UN backing and presented to the
government of Cameroon last week.

Scientists and geologists agree that the natural dam at Lake Nyos, which
lies just over 300 km north of the capital Yaounde, is increasingly
fragile -- though there has been disagreement over how urgent the
situation might be. This prompted a UN team to visit the dam on 25
September.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49362


NIGERIA: Militia leader charged with treason, risks life imprisonment

An influential separatist militia leader from Nigeria's volatile
oil-rich Delta region faces life in jail after being charged with
treason following comments made in a newspaper interview.

As Moujahid Dokubo-Asari heard the charges, hundreds of his supporters
massed outside the court in the capital Abuja, demanding the release of
the leader of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF).

Dokubo-Asari, who was arrested more than two weeks ago for the comments
calling for the break-up of Nigeria, appeared in court to hear charges
including conspiracy, unlawful assembly and "treasonable felony" read to
him before presiding judge Babs Akinwumi.

He pleaded not guilty but will remain in custody until 10 November, the
date set by the court for continuation of the trial. Under Nigerian law
treasonable felony is punished by life imprisonment as it is considered
a lesser charge to outright treason, a capital offence.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49408



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2005


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