Great Lakes: IRIN Update 136, 3/26/97

U N I T E D N A T I O N S Department of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for the Great Lakes

Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: irin@dha.unon.org

IRIN Emergency Update No. 136 on the Great Lakes (Wednesday 26 March 1997)

* Zairean Vice-Prime Minister Banza Mukalay announced that a power-sharing agreement would be offered to the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (ADFL) in a transitional period leading to elections. Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko has also appointed a seven-member negotiating committee comprising the presidency, the judiciary, the government, parliament and opposition. However, ADFL representative Bizima Karaha told the BBC that the ADFL would "never, ever enter in any power-sharing arrangement with the government in Kinshasa".

* Opposition politicians in Kinshasa are debating who should replace Kengo wa Dondo as Zaire's Prime Minister. The Sacred Union of the Radical Opposition and Allies (USORAL) was to meet late Tuesday to nominate a successor, reported Zairean radio. ADFL official Kongolo Mwenze told AFP that "anyone who accepts to be Prime Minister will automatcially become our enemy."

* In attendance at the OAU Summit in Lome on Zaire are the heads of state of Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The presidents of two Great Lakes countries, Rwanda and Uganda, are not attending. Delegations from the ADFL and the Zairean government are not expected to meet face-to-face.

The meeting is being held under the auspices of the OAU Central Organ for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution. Members of the Central Organ are: Algeria, Cameroon (chairing), Comoros, Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Malawi, Mauritinia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Secretaries-General of the UN and the OAU will also attend, as well as observers from other countries.

The summit at Lome is to consider proposals put forward by a meeting of Foreign Ministers in Lome yesterday, which aimed to narrow the gap between the positions of Mobutu and the ADFL, on a possible ceasefire and talks.

* Even as talks began in Lome, the ADFL "justice minister" said that preparatory meetings for negotiations with the Zairean government might take place in South Africa in early April. Kongolo Mwenze told AFP the Lome summit could be a "first step towards meeting Mobutu."

* Up to 18,000 refugees on the outskirts of Kisangani (at "Kilometre 7") received food supplies from ADFL forces yesterday, reports indicate, and today were due to receive food from WFP. A train thought to have left Kisangani yesterday, carrying 120 MTs of food destined to refugees north of Ubundu was delayed, and is still in Kisangani.

* Sudanese President Omar al Bashir plans to raise allegations of "Ethiopian-Eritrean-Ugandan aggression" against Sudan while attending the Lome summit, AFP reports.

* ADFL leader Laurent-Desire Kabila's hostile remarks about the buildup of foreign forces in Brazzaville on standby for possible evacuations from Zaire were rejected by Congolese President Pascal Lissouba in Paris. Kabila had said on Tuesday that the troops amounted to "neo-colonial intimidation". While denying the claim, Lissouba called for an African peacekeeping force for Zaire in an interview published in France today.

* UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Zaire, Roberto Garreton is expected to arrive in Goma tomorrow. On March 6, the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jose Ayala Lasso said he was "deeply concerned" about reports of human rights abuses in eastern Zaire, and asked Garreton to make a preliminary investigation.

* Five people were killed Monday in a clash between Rwandan security forces and and Hutu militia in Runda commune southwest of Kigali, Radio Rwanda reports. The dead comprised one soldier, one militiaman and three civilians.

* Uganda's independent Crusader newspaper reported yesterday that Juma Oris, leader of the West Nile Bank Front (WNBF) was in Juba, south Sudan. Ugandan Minister of State for Defence, Amama Mbabazi was quoted as saying that Oris had been in the southern Sudanese town of Kaya before it fell to Sudan People's Liberation Army troops two weeks ago.

* A WHO report on the monkeypox outbreak in Kasai region of Zaire (see IRIN Special Feature on monkeypox) says that rodents and squirrels, rather than primates, may be a more likely source of virus transmission. Sixteen animals were captured and tested by an inter-agency mission in late February. Over eighty percent of the monkeypox-infected people found by the recent mission had eaten squirrel, rat and monkey meat in the past year and over half had had contact with the animals' raw meat.

Nairobi, 26 March 1997, 14:50 GMT

[ENDS]

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Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 17:51:31 +0300 From: UN DHA IRIN - Great Lakes <irin@dha.unon.org> Subject: Great Lakes: IRIN Update 136 for 26 Mar 1997 97.3.26 Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.95.970326175158.30223C-100000@amahoro.dha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali Dinar, aadinar@mail.sas.upenn.edu