UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 16-1999, 4/23/99

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 16-1999, 4/23/99

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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Central and Eastern Africa: IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 16 covering the period 17-23 Apr 1999

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Museveni, Kabila sign ceasefire accord

President Laurent-Desire Kabila and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni have put their names to a ceasefire accord, brokered in Sirte, Libya by the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Also present at the weekend meeting were the presidents of Chad and Eritrea, Idriss Deby and Isayas Afewerki. According to the Libyan news agency Jana, the agreement also provides for the deployment of peacekeeping forces in the Great Lakes region, the withdrawal of foreign troops and urges a national dialogue in DRC with the participation of all sides.

Great Lakes analyst Filip Reyntjens told IRIN on Monday details of the ceasefire agreement were still sketchy, but as a first analysis, the situation was "probably better than a week ago", given that rivals Museveni and Kabila were both present. However, he pointed out that past ceasefire agreements had failed to hold. The fact that Museveni had unilaterally gone to Libya was "not friendly to Rwanda", Reyntjens said, and probably signalled a difference of opinion between the two countries. It was possible Museveni might want to opt out of DRC, as public opinion at home was unfavourable to Uganda's involvement in the war which was very costly.

Another regional analyst said Museveni was "playing for time" and "waiting for Kabila to fall by himself". There has been increasing unrest in Kinshasa as the economic constraints of the war take their toll. By signing this peace accord, Museveni hoped to stop Libya's flow of arms to Kabila via Chad and "therefore involve Libya in peace efforts rather than confrontation".

Kabila says Libya meeting "serious"

On his return home, Kabila described the talks in Libya with Museveni as serious. Speaking over DRC state television on Monday night, he said: "Mr Museveni made us understand he was prepared to withdraw his troops". Asked whether he thought Uganda would abide by the deal, he replied that "when one makes a pledge and signs an agreement of one's own free will, one is forced to honour one's words".

However, he cautioned that "we must prepare for war because the invaders will not leave until they are forced to quit". "We cannot claim to make peace when an entire half of the country is occupied by the invaders," he said.

War goes on, rebels say

A military official of the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD), Commander Ilondo, told IRIN on Tuesday the movement was not interested in the peace deal because it was not a signatory. "The war will continue because Zimbabwean and Angolan troops are still fighting," he said. Speaking by satellite phone from eastern DRC, he added that the accord contained no guarantees for the rebel movement. Regarding proposed inter-Congolese talks under the auspices of the Catholic Sant'Egidio community in Rome, he said the RCD would consider attending, but "some changes" had to be made to the agenda first. "We have to be in agreement," he stressed.

Addressing journalists in Kinshasa on Sunday, DRC Information Minister Didier Mumengi announced the Rome meeting would begin on 30 April and the deliberations would be concluded in Nairobi, Kenya, DRC television reported. He described the talks as "crucial for the destiny of our country".

Professor Reyntjens told IRIN the fact that some 150 delegates had agreed to take part in the internal dialogue was "positive". He believed the ceasefire agreement should be linked to the Rome meeting. "It could strengthen Kabila's position," he said. "If they [DRC sides] settle their differences in Rome, there will be no justification for outside interference."

ADFL dissolved

President Kabila has announced the dissolution of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (ADFL) which swept him to power in 1997, accusing some of its members of "opportunism" and "self-enrichment". Addressing the first congress of the "Comites du pouvoir populaire (CPP)" on Tuesday, in a ceremony broadcast live by state television, he said the "disappearance of the ADFL was a matter of time", according to Congolese media reports.

Kabila went on to explain the role of the CPPs as "giving power to the people". "Power will be fully exercised from the grassroots level," he said. "The CPPs will always be able to solve problems that the old system of government was unable to solve, because then the initiative was not in the hands of those who really had the power to act," Kabila told the meeting.

RWANDA: Libya accord "null and void"

Rwanda meanwhile dismissed the Libya accord as "null and void", Rwandan radio reported. A government statement said the agreement was "not binding" on Rwanda as it had not been consulted.

Arrested bishop appears before court officials

Bishop Augustin Misago of Gikongoro prefecture, who was arrested last week on suspicion of involvement in the 1994 genocide, has appeared before court officials in Kigali, where he was ordered to be detained for two months, the Rwanda News Agency reported on Wednesday. During this period, his file will be completed and he may be judged within that time.

2,000 detainees freed since October

Some 2,000 people, detained in Rwanda on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, have been freed since October 1998, according to a report by the Ligue rwandaise pour la promotion et la defense des droits de l'homme (LIPRODHOR). The report, cited by the independent Hirondelle news agency, recalled that they had been released because there were no case files against them. A programme, entitled Programme de suivi des accuses de genocide mis en liberte (PSAG), had been set up to keep a watch on the released inmates in a bid to protect them. The report noted that they were at risk. It said in Butare prefecture, for example, 24 freed people had been killed. Local officials, interviewed by LIPRODHOR, said however, the freed prisoners were generally well-received by the community.

End to transitional government in sight

Vice-President Paul Kagame has spoken of the "beginning of the end" of the transitional government, the Rwandan weekly 'New Times' reported. Speaking at a news conference, he hailed the recently-held local elections and said if such events continued successfully the transition could end "within two or three years". But he pointed out, there were still "certain specific problems" that must be overcome before that time.

BURUNDI: Peace talks should conclude before year-end, minister says

Burundi's Peace Process Minister Ambroise Niyonsaba said in Arusha on Thursday that while he hesitated to name a date for the conclusion of talks, it should be before the end of the year. He told Hirondelle news agency that the methodology of the current session of talks - by which serious points of disagreement were noted while the discussion forged ahead - was speeding things up.

However, a representative of the Tanzanian facilitators' of the peace talks warned that donors' patience may run out "given the slow rate of progress". Anthony Nyaki, head of the secretariat at the Office of the Facilitator, told journalists: "The fact that we are still at Agenda One, Item One does show the kind of problems we have to overcome to reach a settlement".

UGANDA: Aid workers pull out of Bundibugyo

The western Ugandan district of Bundibugyo is tense and the situation is deteriorating, media and humanitarian sources said on Thursday. A Ugandan defence ministry spokesman told IRIN the government had called on relief agencies to halt deliveries in the area because of insecurity. However, he added that "the situation is under control and it is only a matter of time".

On Monday night, rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) attacked Bundibugyo itself after surrounding he town on many sides. But the defence ministry spokesman maintained that the increased presence of rebels in the area had resulted from the government's tactic of flushing them out of their bases in the DRC.

LRA in disarray as leader "arrested"

The Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), has been wracked by internal division and a high-profile resignation in recent weeks. In the latest blow, its leader, Joseph Kony, was on Saturday reported to have been apprehended by government authorities in Sudan. The Ugandan semi-official newspaper 'New Vision' reported that Kony was no longer at his base at Jablein in southern Sudan and was under house arrest at an unknown location. Other LRA officials had their passports seized, and another senior LRA member, Yassin O'jwang, had fled to Aden, in Yemen, the paper added.

Cautious welcome for scaling down protected villages

A Ugandan government plan to scale down "protected villages" in the rebel-hit north, while basically welcomed, has also attracted criticism that it is no solution to the army's protracted war against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). "It is not a question of scaling down," Gulu area MP Norbert Mao told IRIN on Monday. "The villages should be dismantled and the government come up with a firm policy to step up security." The deputy editor of the independent daily 'The Monitor', David Ouma Balikowa, said the concept of protected villages had failed and local communities blamed them for the destruction of family units and human rights violations.

GREAT LAKES: Food situation "precarious"

An FAO report on the food outlook for Africa has described the situation in the Great Lakes region as "precarious". Efforts to increase food production were hampered by "persistent insecurity, sporadic violence and bad weather," FAO said in a news release on Wednesday. In Burundi, it said food difficulties were particularly serious for some 550,000 people still living in regroupment camps. Burundi, Rwanda, the DRC, Tanzania and Uganda are among 17 sub-Saharan countries listed by the FAO as facing "exceptional food emergencies". [Press release available on IRIN-Extra service].

SUDAN: Rebels "surprised" by talks postponement

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement said it was surprised by the Sudanese government's failure to turn up in Nairobi for peace talks due to have begun on Tuesday under the mediation of the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD). Its spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN the SPLA/M delegation was "in Nairobi and ready for talks". A spokesman at the Kenyan foreign ministry told IRIN on Tuesday that the Sudanese government had cited "technical reasons" in seeking the postponement, and that the request was for a delay of "two to three weeks, so not indefinitely".

Displaced people suffering from lack of food, shelter

Inter-factional fighting, rebel activity and conflict along Sudan's border with Eritrea have caused further population movements in various parts of the country, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Wednesday. This has left some of the displaced with no food or shelter. A recent joint WFP/government registration exercise recorded 8,300 war-affected persons in need of relief food in the central Jonglei region.

WFP said it also planned to provide food relief this month to about 6,000 people displaced by insecurity near the Eritrean border. Humanitarian agencies have warned of a possible influx of people from northern Bahr al Ghazal to the Safaha area. Operation Lifeline Sudan said 100 families had already arrived, requiring agency interventions.

Meningitis outbreak threatening lives

A meningitis outbreak is threatening several parts of Sudan, with 7,482 cases and 611 deaths so far reported by UNICEF. According to Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), the worst hit areas are South, North and West Darfur, Sennar and Kordofan. A WFP report noted that in the White Nile area, 31 people - most of them children - died, while 210 others were admitted at Kosti hospital. Health agencies are carrying out vaccination campaigns in the affected areas.

SOMALIA: Kidnap of aid worker strongly condemned

The international humanitarian community on Thursday "condemned in the strongest possible terms" the abduction of an Italian aid worker in the Lower Juba Region of southern Somalia, and recommended the suspension of aid activities in the region. The man, a veterinarian working with the Italian NGO, Terra Nuova, was kidnapped on Friday in the town of Hagar by an armed militia whose identity is as yet unknown.

In January another Terra Nuova veterinarian, Dr Manmohan Bhogal, who was working on the same animal vaccination programme in the Gedo Region of southern Somalia, was murdered. Nobody has yet been held to account for that killing.

ERITREA: Mass round-up of "draft dodgers" denied

The Eritrean government has denied reports that it mounted a weekend round-up of hundreds of people in Asmara for allegedly trying to escape national service. A spokesman at the Nairobi embassy told IRIN on Thursday that the number of people picked up for questioning had been inflated and the operation, which was "perfectly legal", had been "sensationalised by the media".

Meanwhile, Ethiopia has denied allegations by Ethiopian captives in Eritrean prisoner of war camps that they had been forcibly recruited and sent to the front. A spokesman at the Ethiopian embassy in Nairobi told IRIN it would not make sense for Ethiopia to do so when it was "inundated with volunteers willing to serve their country".

Nairobi, 23 April 1999, 12:15 gmt

[ENDS]

Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 15:20:24 +0300 (EAT) From: IRIN - Central and Eastern Africa <irin@ocha.unon.org> Subject: CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA: IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 16-1999 [19990423]

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

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