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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. 659 for Central and Eastern Africa (Wednesday 28 April 1999)
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Nairobi meeting on "with or without" rebels
The national debate planned by the DRC government in Nairobi next month will take place "with or without" representatives of rebel factions, an official at the DRC embassy in Nairobi told IRIN on Wednesday. He said the intention was to seek a solution "which can satisfy the Congolese". The meeting, due to be held from 8-15 May, is intended to bring together the government, opposition parties, rebels, civil society and observers. [For full story, see separate IRIN item entitled "National debate on "with or without" rebels"].
UN human rights mission "after ceasefire"
The UN Commission on Human Rights on Tuesday adopted a resolution calling for a mission to the DRC "to investigate all massacres carried out on the territory, immediately after the signing of a ceasefire". It expressed concern "at the preoccupying situation of human rights, particularly in the east".
The Commission also "deplored the perpetration of recent massacres, executions, disappearances, torture, beatings, arbitrary arrest, sexual violence against women and children, and other human rights violations" in DRC. It nominated the Special Rapporteur for DRC, Roberto Garreton, to head an eventual inquiry. A previous mission led by Garreton to investigate alleged massacres by troops loyal to Kabila during the first rebellion was consistently stalled by the DRC authorities.
Rwandans ready to return
Meanwhile, thousands of Rwandan refugees are poised to return home to escape the fighting in DRC, according to UNHCR. Some 6,300 have already gone back. And Congolese refugees are continuing to arrive in Tanzania at the rate of 200-300 a day, most of them from the Fizi area, UNICEF reported.
TANZANIA: Burundian refugees to sit school exams
UNICEF is to facilitate "cross-border school exams" for Burundian refugees in western Tanzania. It said that over the next few weeks, the exams would arrive from Burundi and would be returned to the country for grading after refugee schoolchildren completed them in the camps. According to UNICEF, about 6,000 Burundians have entered Kibondo camp since 6 April.
Insecurity halts repatriation of Burundians
WFP said the voluntary repatriation of Burundians from the camp had been suspended, following the recent influx from Burundi. The refugees are said to be fleeing insecurity in Burundi's Ruyigi province which has been wracked by increased rebel attacks of late. UNHCR told IRIN that hundreds of Burundians had been returning home every week.
Bujumbura accuses Tanzania of harbouring Burundian rebels in the camps, a charge denied by UNHCR. The Burundian authorities - who reject the mediation of Julius Nyerere in the external peace process, accusing him of bias - are suspicious of a recent visit by the ex-Tanzanian president to the refugee camps. A UNHCR spokesman told IRIN the visit came within the framework of the peace process and was intended to rally the refugees.
GREAT LAKES: Region launches united approach to tackle AIDS
A conference to launch the Great Lakes Initiative against AIDS (GLIA) was opened in Rwanda on Tuesday by Prime Minister Pierre Celestin Rwigema, the Rwanda News Agency reported. The aim of the initiative, which has an office in Kigali, is to coordinate joint action by Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to control the spread and effects of the disease.
Rwandan Minister for Health, Ezechias Rwabuhihi, told the meeting that the Great Lakes region had 4,326,000 people infected with the AIDS virus, while all the delegates agreed that the disease was a major threat to public health, the agency said.
The initiative is launched in a week when World Bank economist Joseph Stiglitz, speaking at the launch of its World Development Indicators 1999, noted that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is having an enormous effect on life expectancy in Africa - with this one disease "having discernible effects on life expectancies of five, 10 years or more in the case of some particular countries".
UGANDA: UN Commission condemns child abductions
The UN Commission on Human Rights also adopted a resolution on Monday "to condemn [the] abduction of children in northern Uganda, including the murder, rape, torture, enslavement and forced recruitment into the widely condemned Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)", according to a press statement from the agency.
Nairobi, 28 April 1999, 13:55 gmt
[ENDS]
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 17:02:05 +0300 (EAT) From: IRIN - Central and Eastern Africa <irin@ocha.unon.org> Subject: CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA: IRIN Update 659 for 28 April [19990428]
Editor: Dr. Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D
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