UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN Update 434 for 10 June 98.6.10

IRIN Update 434 for 10 June 98.6.10

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 Central and Eastern Africa

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IRIN Update No. 434 for Central and Eastern Africa (Wednesday 10 June 1998)

RWANDA: Rebels attack refugee camp, kill at least 29

At least 29 people were killed and some 20 others injured when about 1,000 "infiltratrators" attacked Kinihira refugee camp in Kayove commune in the northwest prefecture of Gisenyi, Rwandan radio reported yesterday (Tuesday). The attackers, consisting of young men, women and children, were armed with machetes, spears and pangas, witnesses were quoted as saying. They added the assailants numbered over 1,000 and attacked the camp, which shelters about 300 refugees, in three successive waves at around one p.m. local time on Monday. In a separate incident overnight Monday, 11 other people were killed by rebels in Mushubati and Buringa communes in Gitarama prefecture, the radio added.

Government plans to sell off state enterprises

The Rwandan government plans to raise some about 1.6 billion Rwandan francs ($5.3 million) for its 1998 budget through divesting, liquidating and hiring out state-owned enterprises under a three-year privatisation programme of public enterprises. On 29 May, the Rwandan news agency reported the government raised some $3 million after the cabinet endorsed the sale of four parastatals, including two hotels and two processing factories.

Mali police arrest Rwandan ex-justice minister

Police in Mali have arrested Rwanda's former justice minister and genocide suspect, news organisations reported on Tuesday. Quoting informed sources, they said Mathieu N'Garoupatse, who was a minister in the government of Juvenal Habyarimana, was in detention in Bamako. Nearly 20 Rwandans, including some suspected of leading roles in the 1994 genocide, fled to Bamako after the Rwandan Patriotic Front took power.

SUDAN: Three aid workers killed in Nuba mountains

The UN said today (Wednesday) three humanitarian aid workers were killed and three others wounded in a shooting incident in the Nuba mountains of South Kordofan state in Sudan. Two of those killed were officers from WFP and the third was a staff member from the Sudanese Red Crescent Society. The three injured people also work for the Sudanese Red Crescent, the UN said in an official statement. All six were Sudanese nationals.

The UN said the incident took place during an assessment of humanitarian needs in government villages in the area, including a WFP registration and food distribution. The victims were in a WFP vehicle which was shot at while moving between the villages of Arie and Hadab in Kadugli province. The assailants fled the scene and their identity is unknown. The UN said a full investigation of the incident would be conducted in the coming days.

Garang says he spurned peace offer - AFP

Sudan rebel leader John Garang said yesterday he had turned down an offer to make peace with the Sudanese government, AFP reported. According to the agency said Garang had said in a telephone interview his former deputy Riak Machar spent two hours trying to persuade him to join the peace process at a meeting last weekend in Uganda. Machar, who left the SPLA last year, returned to Kampala on Tuesday, state television reported. He said his discussions had focused on the next round of peace talks, slated for later this year in Addis Ababa. Meanwhile, the war continues. On Tuesday, SPLA said in a statement issued in Nairobi that it had captured two army garrisons from government troops in the eastern state of Kassala since the weekend. The statement said Haladet and Nhalalob garrisons, north of Kassala town, were captured in two offensives, launched concurrently, last Friday.

BURUNDI: WFP distributes to displaced people in Islale

WFP is distributing 30-day rations to 19,000 displaced people in Isale and 15-day rations to 16,000 displaced in Mubimbi and Bujumbura Rurale, according to a UN humanitarian report. It said 30-day distributions had also been completed to 19,784 people in Murwi and 15,015 people in Bukinyanyana in Citiboke commune.

The weekly OCHA report also said that at the end of May, 6,419 people in Bubanza were benefiting from supplementary feeding provided by Children's Aid Direct (CAD) through six health centres and an additional 3,087 pregnant and lactating mothers were also receiving similar assistance.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Kabila appoints new ADFL head

DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila has named a new general-secretary for his Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (ADFL) movement, the Agence congolaise de presse (ACP) reported yesterday. Vincent Mutomb Tshibal, until last week's government reshuffle youth and sports minister, replaces Deogratias Bugera who became Minister of State in the Office of the President. Bugera is one of the four founding members of the ADFL created in Lemera, South Kivu, in October 1996. ACP quoted ADFL deputy general secretary and Minister of State for Internal Affairs Gaetan Kakudji saying that the nomination "aimed at re-energizing the movement's activities and making it shine among the masses".

Kasa-Vubu accused of disloyalty

Justine Kasa-Vubu, who was dismissed last week as DRC ambassador to Belgium, was recalled because of her failure to support the Kabila government, ACP reported. The agency said she failed to welcome personally Foreign Minister Bizima Karaha during a recent visit to Brussels and refused to accredit two diplomats sent to her embassy. Kasa-Vubu, daughter of the first post-independence Congolese president, was for several years the Brussels representative of the opposition UDPS (Union pour la democratie et le progres social).

UNHCR continues with repatriations

UNHCR had repatriated 1,000 Congolese refugees from the Kyaka II refugee camp in western Uganda by 1 June since the resumption of the exercise 10 days ago. A UNHCR spokesperson told IRIN that the voluntary repatriation programme, which was suspended in mid-May, due to a cholera outbreak and poor road conditions, was expected to last for several months before all the remaining 9,000 refugees who have registered for the exercise are repatriated. A total of 2,000 refugees have been so far repatriated. There are still 13,000 Congolese refugees in two camps in Uganda.

UGANDA: Museveni vows to crush rebels

President Yoweri Museveni on Tuesday called for action to crush rebels following a reported massacre of more than 40 students in an attack on a technical college in Kabarole in western Uganda. "Grounds for wiping out these (rebel) groups exist but those small weaknesses here and there that persist must be eliminated," Reuters reported Museveni as saying at celebrations to mark a national holiday. "It is my ultimate responsibility ... to ensure that these weaknesses are eliminated," he said. "At the end of the day those who have caused so much suffering to the people of Uganda will themselves pay for what they have done." Meanwhile, AFP quoted a senior military official as saying bungling by soldiers allowed the attack by rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) to take place. "If the commanding officer had put up a fight then reinforcements would have come from different detachments," AFP quoted the official as saying. The ADF rebels torched the students' dormitories. Estimates of the death toll have varied from 40 to 60, but 37 students are still missing, believed abducted.

Nairobi, 10 June 1998 14:30 GMT

[ENDS]

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Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 17:47:57 +0300 (GMT+0300) From: IRIN - Central and Eastern Africa <irin@ocha.unon.org> Subject: Central and Eastern Africa: IRIN Update 434 for 10 June 98.6.10 Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.91.980610174712.1238A-100000@dha.unon.org>

Editor: Dr. Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D

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