UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-West Africa Update 169, 98.3.19

IRIN-West Africa Update 169, 98.3.19


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 West Africa

Tel: +225 21-73-54 Fax: +225 21-63-35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci

IRIN-WA Update 169 of Events in West Africa, (Thursday) 19 March 1998

SIERRA LEONE: 1,500 held in connection with toppled junta

The authorities are holding some 1,500 people, including former head of state Joseph Momoh and 224 women, accused of collaborating with the toppled junta, AFP reported on Thursday. Attorney General Solomon Berewa visited the detainees, including two Lebanese nationals as well as many military officers and former ministers, who will all be indicted in about a fortnight. Civilians charged with collaboration will face treason trials, the military will be court-martialled while other detainees will be treated as prisoners of war. Quoting "prison sources", AFP said Momoh claimed his detention violated his constitutional rights, and had insisted he be placed instead under house arrest like former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda.

Sierra Leone's ambassador to the United Nations, James Jonah, also visited the prisoners "to ensure that their human rights are respected", AFP reported. He told the prisoners the allegations against them would come under "thorough investigation" after which "those who must be tried would be tried, and those with no case to answer would be immediately released." At least 40 detectives are working on the cases which involve murder, financial malpractice, looting and other crimes, AFP said.

Extraditions from Guinea

About 40 soldiers and other officials connected with the ousted junta who took refuge in neighbouring Guinea were to be extradited on Thursday, AFP reported. Among those to be extradited are the junta Secretary General Colonel Abdul Sesay, junta Transport and Communications minister Cecil Osho Williams, junta-appointed Freetown Mayor Wiltshire Johnson and about 40 soldiers arrested by the Guinean authorities.

ECOMOG advances towards rebel territory

The West African intervention force, ECOMOG, is moving towards rebel-held territory in eastern Sierra Leone in a bid to quash the last remnants of rebel militias, Major-General Timothy Shelpidi, ECOMOG Commander, told IRIN on Thursday. Shelpidi would not elaborate on ECOMOG movements and noted that Monrovia, where the force has its headquarters, was a good base in terms of logistics, especially for eastern Sierra Leone. The force has a base in Sierra Leone, but would relocate its headqurters there only upon instructions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Shelpidi said Ghana and Guinea had promised to contribute troops to the Nigerian-led force to facilitate the disarmament and demobilisation process in Sierra Leone, where ECOMOG helped restore democracy over the past few weeks.

The ECOMOG commander also confirmed earlier UNHCR reports that rebel Revolutionary United Forces (RUF) militias had taken hostages along the border between Sierra Leone and Liberia to carry ammunition and undertake other tasks.

LIBERIA: Imminent Nigerian protest over journalists, radio says

Nigeria will lodge a protest to Liberia shortly over the arrest of two Nigerian journalists in Monrovia, independent Star Radio reported. Local police arrested two Nigerian army journalists at their hotel in the Liberian capital last Saturday on suspicion of espionage and possessing narcotics. The ensuing investigation proved the allegations false but the two reportedly sustained injuries and their money was stolen. Describing the incident as an act of provocation, Major-General Timothy Shelpidi, Commander of the Nigerian-led ECOMOG peacekeeping force, said his country's silence did not mean weakness and warned ECOMOG would not hesitate to defend itself in the future if a similar situation is repeated. He noted that anti-Nigerian sentiment was currently running high in Liberia, where ECOMOG has been stationed since the country's seven-year civil war started in 1990.

CHAD: Government acknowledges 49 killed in south

Chad's Communications Minister and Government Spokesman Haroun Kabadi said in N'Djamena on Wednesday that 49 people were killed in the oil-rich south last weekend in clashes involving the army and rebels of the Forces Armees de la Republique Federale (FARF), media organisations reported. Kabadi was quoted by Reuters as saying security forces had killed 31 rebels, one canton chief and two village heads, while rebels killed 15 civilians in raids in the Logone area at the beginning of March. Thirty government troops had died in the area over the same period, he added.

According to AFP, Kabadi dismissed claims by the human rights NGO Amnesty International (AI) that the army had summarily executed 100 people in Logone earlier this month. "The toll is false. This organisation (AI) has no proof,", he said. But he did admit that the army had killed 29 people in "excesses" and searches linked to the release of four French hostages in February. He added that 12 prisoners had been brought to N'Djamena for trial and 32 people, including a member of Chad's human rights league, had been arrested in the southern town of Sahr.

On Gabon's Africa No 1 radio, Kabadi said "in view of this serious situation and the widespread insecurity in the region created by FARF" the government had sent security forces to the region to restore peace and would remain there until they had done so.

Local sources alleged government action in the area was aimed at eliminating opposition to Franco-American plans for a lucrative 1,000-km-long oil pipeline between Doba, south of Moundou, and the Cameroonian port of Kribi. Commercial exploitation of the rich oil reserves discovered by Western companies in southern Chad is expected to begin in 2001 once the pipeline has been completed.

NIGER: Government employees on two-day strike

Thousands of civil servants reportedly went on strike on Wednesday and Thursday to protest against five to seven months of unpaid wages, news agencies reported. According to AP, services in the capital Niamey and throughout the country were effectively paralysed as workers responded to a call for industrial action launched by the trades union congress Union Syndicale des Travailleurs Nigeriens (USTN), which is predominant in the country and among its 40,000 civil servants. This was Niger's second such strike in three weeks. AFP said Revenue and Treasury employees launched their own two-day stoppage on Tuesday claiming two months' wage arrears. According to AP, they threatened to follow this through with a "go slow" protest. Strikers ignored the government's prior threat to take unspecified legal action against them.

In a related development, editorial staff with the government media are threatening to go on an all-out strike over two months' unpaid wages.

The University of Niamey has been closed for nearly two weeks after students demonstrated over 21 months' unpaid grants. In February, unpaid soldiers along the eastern border with Chad and Nigeria staged a brief mutiny. UN agencies rank Niger as one of the world's poorest countries.


Abidjan, 19 March 1998, 19:10 gmt

[ends]

[The material contained in this communication comes to you via IRIN West Africa, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci for more information or subscription. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this report, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. IRIN reports are archived on the Web at: http://www.reliefweb.int/emergenc or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha.unon.org . Mailing list: irin-wa-updates]

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 19:20:59 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 169, 98.3.19 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980319191239.18123A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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