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IRIN-WA Update 170 of Events in West Africa, (Friday) 20 March 1998
LIBERIA: Police apology
Liberia's police director Joe Tate apologised for falsely arresting a senior Nigerian army officer and a group of journalists in the capital, Monrovia, last weekend for espionage and possessing drugs, Reuters reported on Friday. Quoting pro-government Kiss-FM, Reuters said Tate apologised to Nigeria's defence spokesman, Colonel Godwin Ugbo, for "the unfortunate incident". Earlier this week, the commander of the Nigerian-led ECOMOG peace-keeping force in Liberia and Sierra Leone, Major General Timothy Shelpidi, warned the arrests had been an act of provocation.
Local analysts in Monrovia told IRIN on Friday that relations between ECOMOG and the Liberian government had remained strained following the ousting of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) in Sierra Leone last February. "Some of the AFRC were close to Taylor's party," one source explained. "Taylor did not want them removed."
New press guidelines
The Liberian government issued stiff new press guidelines on Friday in what media reports described as an apparent "crackdown" on newspapers and radio stations in the country. According to AFP, the Ministry of Information guidelines require newspapers to hold US$ 10,000 before they can operate. Newspaper editors must also have a university degree and at least 10 years' working experience. Newspapers are required to have a minimum circulation of at least 4,000 copies and can only register in the second week of January each year. Newspapers inciting "chaos, disharmony or public disorder" also face closure.
On Friday, the Monrovia-based 'The News' described the new regulations as "draconian". It said the measures were aimed at suffocating the independent media. According to AFP, the Liberian authorities have frequently been angered by press coverage of embarrassing issues. Coverage of opposition leader Samuel Dokie's murder last year was particularly "worrisome", AFP said.
NIGERIA: Minister attacks foreign critics
Nigeria's foreign minister Chief Tom Ikimi attacked US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Susan Rice on Thursday for criticising plans by Nigeria's Head of State General Sani Abacha for the transition to civilian rule, media reports said. According to Reuters, Ikimi's speech to members of the diplomatic corps in the capital, Abuja, also accused the European Union (EU) of "giving financial backing to dissidents".
Earlier this week, Rice was quoted as saying any victory by a military candidate in the presidential elections slated for August would be unacceptable. "At this stage of our political evolution, Nigerians need no lessons from anyone as to how they should be governed and who their leaders should be," Ikimi said on Nigerian state TV. He added that the Nigerian government regarded Rice's statements as "her personal views and not the official position of her country".
Reuters quoted Ikimi as saying EU funds were also being used to de-rail the transition process. They were "earmarked for the negative and anti-social activities of a coterie of so-called pro-democracy and human rights groups", he said.
According to Nigerian TV, the minister also observed "with dismay the deliberate refusal" of some missions to move to the political capital Abuja.
Amnesty says government repression continuing
The London-based human rights NGO Amnesty International said on Friday that arrests and beatings of Nigerian activists and journalists had continued "shamelessly" in the run-up to Pope John Paul II's visit to the country this weekend. "Even the Pope's visit has not been enough to stop the Nigerian authorities brutally suppressing dissenting opinions in the country," Amnesty said.
According to Amnesty, the authorities in Nigeria had detained human rights lawyers and journalists without charge. Others had been warned not to report on the trial of alleged coup-plotters, which started last month. Amnesty called on the Nigerian government to release all prisoners of conscience and put an end to repeated human rights violations.
Foreign journalists attacked
Two AFP photographers and an Italian television crew were beaten by Nigerian security forces on Friday for attempting to photograph people queuing for fuel in Abuja, AFP reported. According to the news agency, the journalists were covering the run-up to the Pope's visit. Nigerian police and soldiers, who had been organising the fuel distribution, forcibly removed cameras and beat one of the Italian television crew and the two photographers. An angry crowd reportedly accused the journalists of trying to portray Nigeria in a negative light.
According to AFP, Nigeria has been plagued by fuel shortages for months causing long queues to form every time supplies are delivered to service stations. The Nigerian government had promised to improve fuel shortages before the Pope's visit.
GHANA: Energy crisis deepens
An accidental explosion at a new power plant near Ghana's western port city of Takoradi deepened the country's already acute energy crisis, media reports said on Thursday. According to Reuters, the explosion led to the closure of one of the plant's two 100 Megawatt turbines. Because of poor rains, Ghana's main 1072 Megawatt hydro-electric power station on the river Volta had also been running at less than half capacity since the beginning of last month, Reuters said.
A local source in Accra told IRIN on Thursday, strict rationing meant homes and offices in the capital only had power for half the day. According to the source, industry had also been badly affected. "Planning for the shortage has been dreadful and there is little sign of things getting better," the source said. "But Ghanaians are being amazingly patient."
NIGER: Journalists strike
State journalists in Niger started a two-day strike on Friday to demand backpay owed to them from January and February, AFP reported. According to the news agency, total arrears of some six months' salary date back to 1996. The main journalists' union Le syndicat des agents de l'information (SAIFO) said the strike call was largely obeyed throughout the country. According to AFP, only four journalists appeared for work in the capital, Niamey, to maintain a minimum service on national radio.
Niger has suffered from a wave of strikes in recent months over unpaid government salaries. Last month, an army mutiny over backpay was stopped only when the defence ministry flew money to soldiers in the eastern provinces. However, a two-day strike called by 40,000 civil servants ended on Friday without concessions from the government's side, AFP reported. The civil servants had been demanding between five and seven months of backpay.
SAO TOME E PRINCIPE: PM warns wage pact will aggravate economy
Sao Tome e Principe's prime minister, Raul Braganca, said an accord signed between the government and the main civil service union on Thursday would aggravate economic problems in the two-island state, AFP reported. According to Braganca, the agreement to pay three months' backpay to civil servants would raise inflation as money supply increased.
However, the payment of some US$ 150,000 to civil servants might also embarrass the government, AFP reported. Over the past weeks, the government has consistently maintained the nation's coffers were empty.
WEST AFRICA: Africans must build on ECOMOG, Nigerian envoy says
Nigeria's ambassador to the UN, Ibrahim Gambari, told a New York news conference on Thursday that ECOMOG should be the foundation for any future all-African peacekeeping force, media reports said. According to Reuters, Gambari said Western attempts to foster peacekeeping efforts should not divide Africans between former French and British colonies. Several attempts have been made by France, Britain and the United States to train African peacekeeping forces. However, Nigeria has been excluded from joint training exercises over its poor human rights record, analysts say.
Gambari said there was some reluctance on the part of "segments of the international community" to acknowledge Nigeria's leading role in ECOMOG's successful interventions in both Liberia and Sierra Leone. "They like the dance, but not the dancers," Gambari was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Abidjan, 20 March 1998, 19:15 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: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 19:15:42 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 170, 98.3.20 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980320190857.25709A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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