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IRIN-WA Update 192 of Events in West Africa, (Wednesday) 22 April 1998
SIERRA LEONE: 23 charged with treason, accounts frozen
Twenty-three more people were charged with treason Tuesday for allegedly collaborating with the former military government, news organisations reported. The new indictments bring to 59 the number of defendants facing treason charges. Treason is punishable by death.
In another development, Attorney General Solomon Berewa Tuesday ordered banks to freeze the accounts of 93 people, mainly businessmen, the media reported. The list includes Lebanese, Indian, western and African nationals as well as Sierra Leoneans who allegedly collaborated with the junta. Quoting bank sources, Reuters said the sums frozen amounted to millions of US dollars. The agency noted that over 20 foreign nationals had already been expelled for collaboration and defrauding the state.
Retrained soldiers jailed for atrocities
Some 250 Sierra Leonean soldiers, "retrained" to help fight remnants of the ousted junta, have been jailed after civilians accused them of atrocities, AFP reported Wednesday, quoting ECOMOG chief Colonel Maxwell Khobe. As the soldiers passed through the southern city of Bo last week, angry citizens claimed they had murdered, raped and maimed residents during the nine months of army rule, Khobe said. Those now detained in Freetown were among a first batch of former soldiers who had been deployed alongside the ECOMOG intervention force after surrendering to it when it ousted the junta from the capital in February.
SENEGAL: Eleven die in Casamance clash
Ten rebels of the Mouvement des Forces Democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) and one government soldier were killed Tuesday in a clash in Senegal's troubled southern province, AFP reported. The clash took place in the village of Sanoun, some 70 km east of Ziguinchor, following a rebel attack. AFP added the situation in the southern province has been confused since MFDC leader Augustin Diamacoune launched a new peace appeal in early January, because hardliners in his movement are increasingly opposed to any talks with the Dakar government. Fighting has diminished in the region, but armed attacks by separatists or bandits have been frequent against villagers and travellers, the report said.
Rebel warning over election
Also Tuesday, MFDC spokesman Mamadou N'Krumah Sane told AFP the rebel movement "was not and would never be concerned" by Senegal's forthcoming general election. Those Casamance people willing to cast their vote on 24 May would be free to do so, but MFDC forces would stand up against the Senegalese army if the latter tried to force people into voting, the spokesman warned.
IMF grants US$ 144 million facility
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Tuesday approved a US$ 144 million, three-year loan to help Senegal carry out economic reform, news agencies reported. The loan, the second such to Senegal, is offered under the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) of concessionary credits to developing countries. The programme includes raising educational standards and assumes growth rates of 5.3 per cent in 1998, to 6.5 per cent in 1999 and 6.0 per cent in 2000. The IMF said Senegal's economy remained impeded by deep-seated structural rigidities, was vulnerable to external shocks, and continued to experience widespread poverty.
LIBERIA: New Health Minister
Liberian President Charles Taylor Tuesday appointed the nation's former chief physician, Dr Peter Coleman, as minister of Health and Social Welfare, PANA reported. Coleman will be replacing Fahn-boah Dakinah, an opposition politician who will now co-chair a newly created presidential task force for the productive engagement of manpower. The 15-member task force was set up by Taylor on Monday to "ensure the development of multiple work opportunities at the community level and the implementation of sustainable income-generating turn-key projects." It is headed by the director of the cabinet, Blamo Nelson.
Star Radio quoted Taylor as saying the US$ one million of a three million Taiwanese grant the government has already received for ex-combatants would be used for agriculture, health and education programmes supervised by the task force. Ex-combatants will repair schools and clinics and participate in agricultural and public works programmes, said Taylor.
Controversy over Rights Commissioner
Police Director Joseph Tate Tuesday failed to appear before the National Human Rights Commission over allegations he ordered the flogging of a member of the commission, Star Radio reported. Kromah Bryemah said he was arrested, beaten and detained by police on Tate's orders as he tried to by-pass an accident scene Sunday evening in Monrovia. The Commission described the assault as unlawful and a breach of rights. Police spokesman Singbe Johnson denied the assault and said Bryemah had only been invited for questioning for excessive speed. The radio said Bryemah was to appear in court on charges of failing to comply with police instructions, reckless driving, and driving without a license.
WEST AFRICA: Drugs meeting in Nigeria
The heads of drugs law enforcement agencies from throughout Africa are holding a four-day conference in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to discuss ways to combat drug trafficking, the BBC reported Tuesday. Money laundering is one of the biggest problems under consideration by the delegates, who urged bankers and lawyers to assume greater responsibility in preventing the movement of illegal funds. According to the BBC, Nigerian trafficking organisations alone control an estimated 50 per cent of all the illegal heroin in the world.
NIGERIA: AI concerns on arrest of detainees' relatives
Nine women and 16 children arrested in northern Nigeria, could suffer ill-treatment in detention because of their relationship to four political prisoners, London-based human rights NGO Amnesty International (AI) said Tuesday. The women and children were arrested on 19 April 1998 and detained without any reason given. They include Zeenah Ibrahim, wife of the jailed Shia Muslim preacher, Ibrahim Zak-Zaky. Zak-Zaky is a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist opposition group in northern Nigeria, and is currently on trial with three others in Kaduna on charges of inciting public disaffection and sedition. Their trial, which started in October 1997, has been repeatedly adjourned, AI added.
At least one person was killed Sunday in Kaduna in protests against the arrests of the women and children, the BBC reported.
Fresh raid on publisher
Forty-six heavily armed State Security Service (SSS) agents on Monday stormed offices of 'The News' and 'Tempo' magazines and the daily 'P.M. News' in Ikeja, Lagos state, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said. The agents arrested senior writer Austin Uganwa and senior project writer B. Osoba. Ten other employees were also arrested. None has been released. According to the report, the agents had a list of senior editorial staff earmarked for arrest but none of them were on the premises at the time of the raid.
The SSS agents also went to the premises of the company's printers in Ikeja, where they stopped the printing of Monday's edition of 'P.M News'.
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Over 200 arrested
More than 200 opposition activists were arrested in a police crackdown in mainland Equatorial Guinea, AFP quoted an opposition spokesman as telling Spanish external radio Tuesday. Popular Union (UP) spokesman Baltasar Abaga said the arrests last week, in the areas of Nsork-Nsomo, Micomiseng, and Anisork, followed their refusal to join forces with the ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE). Abaga said police were also harassing fishermen in Malabo by attacking them and extorting money during ship inspections.
UN Commission calls over human rights
The UN Commission on Human Rights Tuesday called for continuing and expanded efforts to protect human rights in Equatorial Guinea. In a resolution, the commission encouraged the Malabo government to pursue efforts to integrate women into the process of socio-economic, cultural and political development. The commission also called upon the government to take appropriate measures to avoid any form of discrimination against ethnic groups, and encouraged it to take necessary measures to avoid acts of torture.
BENIN: Amnesty law flounders again
For the second time the Constitutional Court Wednesday rejected a law to amnesty people convicted of politically-motivated crimes under former president Nicephore Soglo, AFP reported. The court reprimanded the parliament for having violated a procedural rule. The original amnesty law was promulgated in September 1997 by President Mathieu Kerekou, then rejected by the court on procedural grounds. AFP said more than 30 people would have benefitted from the amnesty, mostly soldiers from the north of the country, now all out of jail.
CHAD: Students on strike over grants
N'Djamena university's 2,000 students Wednesday went on strike over six months' grant arrears, AFP reported. They occupied the university compound and said they would remain on strike until authorities met their demands.
Abidjan, 22 April 1998, 18:45 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: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 18:49:23 +0000 (GMT) Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 192, 98.4.22 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980422184656.457A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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