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IRIN-WA Update 233 of Events in West Africa, (Friday) 19 June 1998
GUINEA BISSAU: Renewed fighting after failed mediation
Heavy arms fire resumed in Guinea Bissau's capital on Friday after the failure of Gambian mediation to end nearly two weeks of fighting between government troops and rebel soldiers backing the country's sacked armed forces chief of staff, news organisations reported. AFP said from nearby Senegal that diplomatic sources in contact with Bissau confirmed reports that some two dozen shells apparently fired by rebels exploded in the centre of Bissau at around 5 a.m.
A mediation bid by Gambia's Foreign Minister, Lamine Sedat Jobe, failed and his team sailed home aboard a French naval ship after meeting only the government side in Bissau, according to the diplomatic sources. The Portuguese daily 'Publico' quoted the bishop of Bissau as saying he was "dismayed" at the failure of the mediation attempt. Reuters reported from Dakar that the renewed firing appeared to signal a fresh push by Senegalese soldiers backing loyalist troops to dislodge the rebels from their final bastion.
A military source in the Senegalese capital was quoted by Reuters as saying the rebels, who took up arms against President Joao Bernardo Vieira nearly two weeks ago, appeared to be in disarray. "It is almost a rout on the rebel side. We are advancing methodically towards our objective, the airport," the source said. The airport is vital for food and other supplies.
The rebellion erupted on 7 June, a day after armed forces chief General Ansumane Mane was sacked following the suspension of several army officers accused of selling arms to separatist rebels in Senegal's southern province of Casamance. Hundreds of Senegalese troops were sent to Guinea Bissau to help put down the uprising, which has devastated much of the capital and sent tens of thousands of inhabitants fleeing.
Rebels claim public support
The rebels holding out in Bissau's international airport in the north of the capital said on Friday that they had majority support from the country's public and war veterans, AFP said in a report from the embattled facility. President Vieira "knows that the people are no longer behind him - more than 60 percent of the combatants are on our side," said a rebel leader, Major Gomes Fernandes, according to the AFP report.
Rebels at the airport told AFP they had dropped their allegiance to Vieira, a former freedom fighter hero in the country's war of independence from Portugal, because he had betrayed them. "The Nino of today is not the Nino of before," one rebel said, using the president's nickname.
Mystery plane
A mystery aircraft took off on Friday from the rebel-held airport, heading for an unknown destination, AFP reported from Dakar, quoting what it called a reliable source. The plane, an Antonov, could not have taken off without the approval of army mutineers led by Mane, AFP said. It quoted observers speculating that with the airport itself the target of an offensive by loyal troops and soldiers from Senegal, Mane himself was likely to be on the plane. There was no confirmation of the report.
France, Portugal pledge aid
France and Portugal said on Friday they were sending food and medicines to Guinea Bissau, Reuters reported from Lisbon, quoting French junior cooperation minister Charles Josselin. France would send food aid worth some one million French francs as well as medicines. Further help would follow, he told a joint news conference with Portuguese Secretary of State Luis Amado. The Portuguese minister reaffirmed his country's intention to help the former colony as soon as logistical details had been settled but did not say what help would be offered.
NIGERIA: Former detainee files law suit
One of Nigeria's nine recently released political prisoners has filed a lawsuit against the military government for unlawful arrest and detention, Nigerian opposition radio reported on Thursday.
Radio Kudirat said opposition Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) member Olusegun Mayegun named Nigeria's attorney-general and the department of state security as co-respondents in the 5 million naira (US$ 60,000) claim. Kudirat said "military agents" kidnapped Mayegun in May.
General Abdulsalam Abubakar, who replaced the late strongman, General Sani Abacha, as Nigeria's new ruler this month, had earlier won cautious praise from critics at home and abroad for releasing the political detainees.
But opposition parties have demanded he free remaining prisoners, including the presumed winner of 1993 elections annulled by the military, Chief Moshood Abiola. Media reports have said this would be more difficult because of Abiola's claim to the presidency.
IMF urges reform
The IMF has urged Nigeria to improve relations with the outside world and make economic reforms, Reuters reported on Thursday. Quoting a letter released in the capital, Abuja, by Nigerian finance minister Anthony Ani, Reuters said the IMF letter told Nigeria to "unify its dual exchange rates system, sell off some state enterprises, improve economic policy co-ordination, and sort out its multi-billion dollar debt".
Under Abacha, Nigeria reportedly stabilised the naira and reduced inflation from 80 percent to single figures. But the late general had failed to implement other liberalising reforms the IMF had requested before it addressed Nigeria's estimated US$ 35 million of external debt, Reuters said.
Nigeria should now seize its "window of opportunity", the IMF letter reportedly said.
SIERRA LEONE: Rights group calls for help for refugees
The New York-based rights group, Human Rights Watch, said it was concerned at the desperate situation of Sierra Leonean refugees fleeing to Liberia, media reports said on Thursday.
AFP quoted Africa executive director Peter Takirambudde as saying over 30,000 refugees were in urgent need of food and medicine. But international organisations had been slow to help, he reported.
This was apparently due to the risk of international aid being diverted to supporters of Sierra Leone's ousted military government, Takirambudde explained.
Humanitarian sources in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, told IRIN on Friday, however, that the international community had made repeated attempts to improve conditions for the refugees. But the remoteness of the Vahun camp, in Liberia near the Sierra Leone border, had made adequate assistance operations impossible. "You cannot force refugees to move," one source explained. "Many refugees have unfortunately insisted on staying put until it is almost too late," another source said.
TOGO: Government rejects demands to postpone elections
The BBC reported on Friday that the Togolese government had rejected opposition demands that it postpone presidential elections because of problems linked to the distribution of voter registration cards. The Togolese minister of interior said any mistakes that had been made had already been rectified and the elections would go ahead as planned.
Two presidential candidates of the Togolese opposition called for the postponement of the elections in light of irregularities, Radio France Internationale reported. Yao Agboyibor, leader of the Comite d'action pour le renouvellement (CAR) and Zarifou Ayeva, leader of the Parti pour la democratie et le renouveau (PDR), also complained of censorship by the state media.
EU raises "serious doubts"
European Union (EU) observers, charged with monitoring Sunday's presidential election, said they had serious doubts about the honesty and fairness of the electoral process, AFP reported, quoting a confidential EU report. It said there had been improvements in certain "processes", but these did not "measure up to the scale of problems encountered". The head of the election observers, Paolo Salvia, was quoted as saying the elimination of these problems was essential "to preserving" the integrity of the polls.
CHAD: European parliament demands opposition release
Members of the European Parliament have demanded the release of leading Chad opposition member of parliament Ngarledji Yorongar. According to a parliamentary human rights resolution passed on Tuesday, Yorongar was unfairly arrested for defamation in June after criticising a joint Chad-Cameroon oil extraction project which, he said, threatened local communities in the area.
The European Parliament called for Yorongar's immediate release and urged Chad's government to respect "democratic discussion" in the future. The resolution also expressed concern at the wider human rights situation in Chad, including the massacre in March of 100 unarmed civilians in Logone region, in the south of the country.
Special Report
This update is accompanied by an IRIN special report previewing the presidential election in Togo on Sunday, 21 June. Subscribers who may not have received this report can request it by e-mail to irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci with "togo special" in the subject line.
Abidjan, 19 June 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]
From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980619190802.13205B-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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