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GUINEA-BISSAU: New offensive against rebel-held airport
As shelling resumed on Monday, marking the third week of a showdown between Senegalese-backed government forces and military rebels in Guinea Bissau, international efforts aimed at achieving a ceasefire were intensified. News reports said Lansana Kouyaute, executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), on Monday started a tour of the countries most closely involved in the conflict - Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea and Guinea Bissau itself. Its aim, AFP said, would be to deliver a message from the new Nigerian leader, Abdulsalam Abubakar, to the leaders of each country. ECOWAS had expressed "deep concern" at the situation and strongly condemned the mutiny. After the failure of a bid last week by Lamine Sedat Jobe, foreign minister of The Gambia, to mediate a ceasefire between Guinea Bissau's president, Joao Bernardo Vieira, and the leader of the rebellion, General Ansumane Mane, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata called on regional heads of state in a letter on Friday to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Guinea-Bissau. She warned that tens of thousands of people had fled the capital, Bissau, and the confrontation could "generate a major humanitarian crisis". According to Portuguese newspaper and radio reports, and the Vatican's Missionary Service News Agency (MISNA), the Bishop of Bissau, Settimio Ferrazzetta, said he believed the rebel camp were ready to negotiate, and that the government ought to talk instead of continue fighting. The Bishop said that if the current situation continued there was a danger of the rebels turning their struggle into a guerrilla war. "We lived through the colonial war," the BBC quoted him as saying, referring to the struggle for independence against Portugal, "and we don't want to see such suffering again."
Major new offensive launched
But AFP reported that Vieira's forces backed by Senegalese troops sent to help him, had launched a major new offensive on Sunday against the rebel-held international airport. The dispatch said the focus of the fighting - mainly exchanges of artillery fire - had shifted from the Bra barracks overlooking the deserted and now largely destroyed city, to the airport which lies on the only road linking the coastal capital with the interior. The fighting started on 7 June after a new army chief was named to replace Mane. The dispatch said at least 10 Senegalese soldiers, including several officers had been killed in the offensive at the airport on Sunday, while 30 pro-government fighters suffered heavy casualties. This brings the death toll of Senegalese soldiers to 20, according to AFP, which said rebel forces had also sustained heavy casualties. However, no independent casualty figures were available.
Looting reported
The Portuguese ambassador to Guinea Bissau, Francisco Henriques da Silva, quoted by Portuguese Antena 1 radio reported looting in certain districts of Bissau, even though a quarter of a million people, comprising two-thirds of the city's population, had fled in the past two-and-a-half weeks. He said hospitals were facing serious shortages while increasing numbers of injured people were seeking help.
Government demands ceasefire as pre-condition for talks
A spokesman of the Guinea Bissau government, Malal Sale, in the meantime, reiterated that the government would only hold talks with the rebels if they declared a unilateral ceasefire, news agencies reported on Sunday. In a fresh mediation initiative between the Guinea Bissau government and the rebels, the government demanded that rebels surrender and promised clemency.
First consignment of food aid refused
A Portuguese Air Force C-130 carrying a consignment of 20 mt of food was not allowed to drop relief supplies over the town of Bafata, 150 km north of Bissau, on Monday, according to Portuguese Antena 1 radio. The government had refused permission for the drops. No more details were provided, it said.
NIGERIA: Obasanjo says he was "framed"
Former Nigerian head of state General Olusegun Obasanjo has said his conviction for plotting to overthrow the country's late military ruler, General Sani Abacha, was a "frame-up", media reports said on Sunday. The general, who was sentenced to fifteen years in gaol in 1995, was freed last week along with eight other prominent political detainees raising hopes others would also be released. According to the BBC, Nigerian newspapers quoted Obasanjo as saying the conviction had been designed to silence him, and was ordered at "the highest level" of government. However, Obasanjo reportedly vowed to continue the fight for "democracy, justice and good governance". He also called for a monument to be set up to victims of Nigeria's "most atrocious regime in history", AFP said.
Transition plan should continue
Meanwhile, another former head of state Alhaji Shehu Shagari called on Nigeria's new military leader, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, to implement as scheduled Abacha's plans for a transition to democracy by October, Nigerian radio reported on Sunday. Describing Abacha's death as a "national tragedy", Shagari said Abubakar should not allow "sycophants" to derail the programme. However, media reports have said Abacha's plans had been discredited after each of Nigeria's five registered parties picked him to stand in August presidential elections as their consensus candidate.
Government of national unity considered
AFP reported on Sunday that Abubakar might instead try and create a government of national unity. Quoting excerpts from the Lagos daily, 'The Guardian', AFP said discussions between Abubakar, the political parties and Abiola last week had suggested a unity government was the most attractive option for resolving Nigeria's "political log jam". There had been no official confirmation of a meeting between Abiola and Abubakar, AFP said, but quoted 'The Guardian' as saying Abiola had been reassured the government was "concerned" at his continued detention. According to 'The Guardian', Abubakar's government has formed teams to travel to Nigeria's six political constituencies to conduct further discussions with traditional and community leaders about how to set up a national unity government.
TOGO: Government and opposition both claim election lead
The ruling Rassemblement du peuple togolais (RTP), and the opposition Union des forces du changement (UFC) have both claimed a lead in Sunday's presidential elections, according to AFP. With the official count still under way and the results thus still to be announced, the interior minister, Seyi Memene, said on Monday it nevertheless looked as if President Gnassingbe Eyadema was headed for victory. Sub-Saharan Africa's longest-serving head of state, Eyadema has been in power since 1967. The UFC secretary-general, Jean-Pierre Fabre, quoted by AFP, claimed on the contrary, that Gilchrist Olympio, Eyadema's main challenger, was headed for victory. The BBC quoted UFC officials as saying that Olympio would remain in Ghana, where he has been living since an attempt was made on his life in 1992. News organisations reported that logistical problems had plagued the election, forcing dozens of polling stations to remain open later than scheduled. Several hundred people demonstrated in Lome against the way the elections were conducted. Authorities said delays had affected 60 out of 4,000 polling stations. Four of the five challengers had requested on Friday that elections be postponed following problems with the distribution of voter cards.
SIERRA LEONE: ECOMOG reinforcements promised
Nigeria and The Gambia will send troops in July to reinforce the West African intervention force, ECOMOG, in Sierra Leone, AFP reported on Saturday. Speaking to journalists in Freetown at the end of a tour of ECOMOG-member countries, Force Commander Major General Timothy Shelpidi also announced the deployment of a Ghanaian air force contingent. Shelpidi did not say how many troops each country would be sending. Meanwhile, mountainous and heavily forested terrain in eastern Sierra Leone had continued to hamper ECOMOG attempts to "flush out" the remainder of Sierra Leone's ousted Armed military junta, the general was quoted as saying.
MALI: Municipal elections
Local elections were held on Sunday in main towns and cities in Mali in the last phase of an electoral process which began in early 1997, according to news organisations. AFP, quoting informed sources in the capital, Bamako, said one person was killed and another injured in a hand grenade attack incident in Segou, 150 km north of Bamako. It was not immediately clear whether the explosion was directly connected with the poll. News reports recalled that the municipal elections were boycotted by the mainstream opposition parties. They have also refused to recognise the results of presidential and legislative elections that gave victory to the ruling Alliance pour la democratie pour le Mali (ADEMA). News organisations reported that there was evidence of fraudulent voting practices. The ruling party and opposition groups have traded accusations and counter-accusations on the alleged rigging, according to AFP. Thirty-one political parties and 35 independent candidates were contesting the elections.
LIBERIA: Seven arrested in attack
Liberian authorities have arrested seven people for allegedly stoning and wounding two ethnic Mandingo Muslims as they prayed in the north of the country, AFP reported on Thursday. According to a Monrovia newspaper quoted by the news agency, the incident took place in Sacleipea in Nimba County, where a spate of recent mosque burnings has been attributed to growing animosity between Mandingoes and traditional rivals from the Gio and Mano tribes. A prayer meeting in June was also disrupted by stone-throwing, a Mandingo spokesman said. Mandingoes have also reportedly blamed members of the Lorma group for preventing them from resettling in neighbouring Lofa County, AFP said. Mandingoes largely backed Alhadji Kromah's wing of the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO-K) during Liberia's seven-year civil war. ULIMO-K lost heavily to President Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front for Liberia (NPFL) in July 1997 elections.
Missing faction members in Gambia
Meanwhile, Liberian government officials said six missing members of another former faction, the Krahn-dominated ULIMO-J, were actually in The Gambia, independent Star Radio reported on Saturday. News reports suggested last week that the men had been abducted by security forces after they attempted to flee Liberia. But Acting Justice Minister Leroy Urey said a passenger flight manifest proved at least five had used one-way tickets to board a plane for The Gambia, Star Radio said. The Catholic-sponsored Liberian Justice and Peace Commission said the growing number of incidents where disappearances were linked to the security forces showed "every citizen" was at risk. It called on the government to ensure the men's safety, Star Radio reported.
Abidjan, 22 June 1998, 20:00 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 54 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/ or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha.unon.org . Mailing list: irin-wa-updates]
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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