IRIN-West Africa Update 218, 98.05.29

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER

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 218 of Events in West Africa, (Friday) 29 May 1998

NIGERIA: Oil workers taken hostage

Eight employees of an American oil engineering company were held hostage on Friday for the fifth day running by a group of local residents in Nigeria's southern coastal Ilaje region, AFP reported. It said the eight, two of them expatriate staff, were among 200 oil workers who had been held on a coastal barge.

The hostages were all employees of McDermott, a subcontractor for the American oil giant, Chevron. AFP quoted industry sources as saying majority were released on Thursday and that negotiations were still underway to secure the release of the eight who had been taken from the barge to a nearby coastal village. They included two expatriates, one of them an American.

Nigerian media reports said that the Ilaje people had sought compensation from Chevron for alleged environmental damage in their region. The incident marked the fifth since December 1996 in which oil company employees have been held hostage by local residents in southern Nigeria.

Washington delegation to plead with Abacha

Concerned at the prospects of an "implosion" in Nigeria, the United States government planned to send a high-level delegation to plead for democratic reforms with the Nigerian leader, General Sani Abacha, AFP reported on Friday.

It said the delegation to be led by Undersecretary of State, Thomas Pickering, a former American ambassador to Nigeria would include a four-star air force general "to boost its credibility with Nigeria's military government".

The decision, marks a shift in American policy towards a more direct approach with Abacha who is the only candidate nominated by registered political parties for the 1 August presidential election, the dispatch said.

Press watchdog protests to Abacha

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international press watchdog, said on Friday it had written to Abacha to protest the assault by State Security Service (SSS) agents, of 'Vanguard' photojournalist Biodun Ogunleye and the arrest of Sunday Tribune editor Femi Adeoti by SSS agents in Ibadan earlier this month.

"CPJ is deeply alarmed by the Nigerian authorities' ongoing harassment and censorship of the independent media in Nigeria, of which the above are only the most recent examples," wrote CPJ executive director William Orme.

He said it also regarded the action against the two newsmen as "flagrant violations of their internationally protected right to free expression as guaranteed by Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and People's Rights, all to which, we respectfully remind Your Excellency, Nigeria is a signatory."

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Death sentences for alleged separatists

A military court in Equatorial Guinea has passed death sentences on 18 defendants among a group of 117 people accused of separatist attacks in the island of Bioko, Spanish Radio reported on Friday. A broadcast monitored by the BBC, said the court had also served 30-year jail terms on 24 others also found guilty. Four Spanish nationals among those charged were acquitted and released.

During the five-day hearing, according to the radio report and AFP, the defendants who had pleaded not guilty claimed through their lawyers that they had been tortured to extract confessions.

The case stems from a series of alleged attacks in January which claimed nine lives. At the time, the government blamed the attacks on the separatist Movimento para la Autodeterminacion de la Isla de Bioko (MAIB). News organisations said the full verdict would be announced at the weekend.

LIBERIA: Church seeks human rights investigation

The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) of Liberia has asked the government to conduct an urgent investigation of alleged human rights abuses by an ex-soldier and former ally of President Charles Taylor, news organisations reported Friday.

Independent Star Radio and AFP cited reports that "general" Coocoo Dennis commanding a group of 200 armed men in the Grand Gedeh District had been systematically robbing, beating and detaining returning refugees and other local civilians. Dennis was a member of Taylor's faction during the Liberian civil war.

Saying that he be brought to account, the JPC said, "Liberians could not afford to entertain the impression that the justice system has collapsed."

SENEGAL: Opposition demands new voting

With the results of Sunday's parliamentary elections in Senegal still awaited, a coalition if six opposition parties on Thursday demanded fresh polls in constituencies where they claimed the voting had been fraudulent, AFP reported.

Changing their demand earlier in the week that the elections be completely annulled and held again, the coalition said in a statement they would seek a fresh vote organised by a new independent electoral commission only at those polling stations where they claimed the ballot had been rigged. They did not say how many constituencies were involved.

The coalition groups the Renouveau Democratique (RD), a new breakaway of the Parti Socialiste (PS), the And Jef, the Parti de l'Independence et du Travail (PIT), le Mouvement pour le Socialisme et l'Unite (MSU), the Convention Demcratique et Sociale (CDS) and the main opposition Parti Democratique Senegalais (PDS).

RD leader refuses to join a governing coalition

Meanwhile, RD leader, Djibo Ka, a former foreign minister, said he would not join any coaltion government which the PS might propose because it would be a "betrayal" of the country, AFP reported on Friday.

CAMEROON: New hopes for editor's release

Lawyers for a prominent Cameroon newspaper editor, Pius Njawe, said on Friday they had made a new application for his release from prison on medical grounds, AFP reported. Njawe, editor of 'Le Messager' was sentenced to a year in jail earlier this year for publishing an article indicating that President Paul Biya might have heart problems.

In the application to the Supreme Court for his release, the lawyers said Njawe was suffering from diabetes. During a visit to France earlier this month, AFP recalled that Biya had said he hoped "this matter can be settled as soon as possible".

WEST AFRICA: Casamance summit

The leaders of Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Senegal were expected to hold a summit in coming months to discuss the separatist conflict in Senegal's southern Casamance province, AFP reported on Friday.

Quoting a statement to parliament by Gambian foreign minister, Momodou Lamin Sedat Jobe, the dispatch said the summit would get underway once Senegal's election process is settled.

Abidjan, 29 May 1998 1830 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]

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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 West Africa

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

IRIN-WA Update 219 of Events in West Africa, (Saturday-Monday) 30 May - 1 June 1998

NIGER: Army quells mutiny

Army troops stormed the headquarters of Niger's paramilitary Garde Republicaine in the capital Niamey late on Saturday to free a deputy commander who was held hostage in a pay dispute for several hours. Media reports said that as calm returned to Niamey on Sunday, troops also seeking back pay also briefly seized a regional administrator in Agadez, 900 km to the northeast.

There were similar mutinies in three other remote towns. AFP said a presidential aide had interrupted regular television programmes to tell viewers that the army had moved in after a standoff lasting several hours in Niamey. "After the release of the second-in-command by elements of the army," said the aide Colonel Amadou Mousaa Gros, "the other members of the Garde Republicaine agreed to obey the orders of their superiors."

He gave no indication of any casualties. Last February, army troops in outlying districts staged similar protests to press for the payment of salary arrears.

Democracy rally

Despite the army intervention late on Saturday, by Sunday morning an estimated 5,000 people staged a peaceful pro-democracy rally in the capital, Reuters reported.

The rally was sponsored by the eight-party Front pour la Restauration et la Defense de la Democratie (FRDD) and three smaller groups once allied to President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara. Reuters said speakers called for the release of about 40 political activists detained after protests in April.

European Union protests rights violations

The European union (EU) has called on the Mainassara government to release political detainees and lift restrictions on press freedom, media reports said at the weekend. In a communique, Brussels said it "deplored" the continued detention of several political opponents and journalists.

Former president's son gets one year

Meanwhile, Abdoulaye Diori, son of Niger's first president, Hamani Diori, has been given a one-year suspended sentence for assaulting a Court of Appeals judge on 22 May, international news agencies said on Monday. The incident occurred after the judge made his ruling in a suit by Diori to regain control of his father's party from Ide Oumarou, Mainassara's cabinet director.

SIERRA LEONE: Rebels offered amnesty

Rebels loyal to the ousted military junta in Sierra Leone have been offered an amnesty by the government if they surrender within the next two weeks, according to weekend media reports. The offer, broadcast by Interior Minister Charles Margai, said he would personally guarantee the safety of any rebel soldier who surrenders in the next two weeks.

The rebels have continued fighting in the east of the country since the West African intervention force, ECOMOG, drove the regime from power in March. The BBC said the amnesty offer came as casualty figures mount with more than 300 maimed civilians being treated in the post month at hospitals in the capital Freetown and Makeni in central Sierra Leone.

UNICEF said the rebels had been amputating the arms of civilians, mostly women and children, in a campaign of terror.

Rebels terrorise diamond district

Marauding supporters of Sierra Leone's ousted junta were inflicting "terror and havoc" on towns in the diamond-rich Kono area in the east of the country, according to a former minister who fled to the capital Freetown at the weekend. AFP quoted Dominic Musa, a former housing minister, as saying rebels had been attacking the towns as Tombodu, Sukudu, Yomandu and Kayima, 250 km east of Freetown.

He also said rebels were "not only mining illegally for diamonds but also vandalising and ferrying personal belongings left behind by Kono residents including roofing sheets, generators and mining equipment to towns in the north."

NIGERIA: Court says cannot rule on Abacha candidacy

Nigeria's Federal Court of Appeal on Monday said it was not competent to rule on whether the country's authorised political parties were within their rights to choose Nigerian leader General Sani Abacha as sole candidate for the 1 August presidential election. AFP said the decision by the three judges was unanimous.

The court, acting as the country's constitutional court, rejected the suits by two opposition presidential hopefuls, Tunji Braithwaite and Alhaji Dikko Yusufu, in which they challenged the legality of the decision of the country's five approved political parties to nominate Abacha as the sole candidate. The three judges were unanimous in deciding they were not competent to rule on the legality of the issue, AFP added.

Abacha on visit to Lagos

Meanwhile, media reports on Monday said Abacha planned to make a daylong official visit to the country's economic capital, Lagos on Tuesday. AFP said the trip would be his first visit to city since 1994 when his administration relocated from Lagos to the capital Abuja.

The independent newspaper, 'This Day', said he might use the occasion of the Lagos visit to respond to his nomination by the five parties. Lagos is the hub of most opposition groups in the country which are opposed to his candidacy.

Nigerians await decision on alleged coup plotters

Five senior military officers and a civilian sentenced to death for a failed coup plot in Nigeria are still awaiting a decision on their fate more than a month after the verdict, AFP reported on Monday.

It said the Provisional Ruling Council (PRC) was yet to meet to either ratify or amend the sentences served by a military court on General Oladipo Diya, 53, Abacha's former deputy, four other senior military officers and a civilian. The court in Jos, capital of the central Plateau state, sentenced the six to death on 28 April after finding them guilty of treason or conspiracy to commit treason.

Oil hostages freed

Eight employees of an American oil engineering company held hostage a week ago have been released, AFP said in Monday. Their release was announced by a spokesman for the US oil giant Chevron.

The eight, two of them expatriate staff, were among 200 oil workers who had been held on a coastal barge. The hostages were all employees of McDermott, a Chevron subcontractor.

SENEGAL: Official election results

Senegal's ruling Parti Socialiste (PS) won the country's 24 May parliamentary election taking 93 of 140 seats in the national assembly, according to official results announced at the weekend. Media reports said the results, published by the Dakar Appeal Court on Saturday, gave 23 seats to the main opposition Parti Democratique Senegalaise (PDS) of Abdoulaye Wade and 11 to new PS breakaway party, Renouveau Democratique (RD), led by former foreign minister Djibo Ka.

Two other opposition groups, And Jeff, led by Landing Savane, and the Ligue Democratique of Abdoulaye Bathily, won four and three seats respectively, while six other minor parties took one seat each. AFP noted that the PS's share of the vote, at 50.12 percent, was lower than in 1988 and 1993. The PDS lost four seats.

Diouf may offer coalition

AFP on Sunday quoted PS first secretary Ousmane Tanor Dieng as saying President Abdou Diouf, despite his "comfortable majority", might offer a power-sharing deal to the opposition parties.

Although the PS felt this unnecessary, Diouf, he added, would have the last word. The opposition parties last week demanded the annulment of the vote in several constituencies citing fraud, and the RD said even if offered any posts in government it would turn them down.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Authorities confirm 15 death sentences

A military court in Equatorial Guinea condemned 15 people among a group of more than 100 to death at the weekend for separatist attacks in the island of Bioko in January, AFP reported on Monday.

The prosecutors had originally sought 18 death sentences. Quoting the general secretary of the Convergence pour la Democratie Sociale (CPDS), Placido Minko, it said 42 of the accused were each sentenced to 24 years' jail, 22 received 12-year sentences and 11 were jailed for six years each.

When they appeared on trial last week the defendants claimed they had been tortured to extract confessions. The BBC said it was clear from television footage of the court proceedings that some of the defendants appeared to have been tortured.

Journalists asked to leave

Meanwhile, French and Spanish media said the government at the weekend expelled eight Spanish journalists who had gone to cover the trial in which four Spanish nationals were acquitted. The correspondents of El Pais, La Vanguardia, EFE news agency and a television team were put aboard a flight home on Saturday.

The government said they had to leave because their visas had expired, but that they had not been expelled even though the action meant they could not be present the confirmation of the sentencing on Monday, the news reports said.

CAMEROON: Newspaper editor detained

Aime Mathurin Moussi, editor of an independent weekly, 'La Plume du Jour' was arrested by security police on Friday and summoned to appear with other members of his staff at the country's political police headquarters in the capital Yaounde, the press watchdog, Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) said on Monday.

In a letter of protest to President Paul Biya, RSF said it had no further details of why the action had been taken. But it recalled that the newspaper has been banned since September last year for running articles criticising the government and the state prisons system.

WEST AFRICA: Benin and Togo get generators

Benin and Togo have each taken delivery of a 25 megawatt power generator to help alleviate their power shortfalls, AFP reported on Monday. The generators, purchased with the assistance of the West African Development Bank (BOAD) were expected to be operational by mid-June.

Abidjan, 1 June 1815 gmt

[ends]

Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 18:23:47 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 218, 98.05.29 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980529182007.25551A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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