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GUINEA BISSAU: Little hope of early ceasefire
Military sources and diplomats in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, told IRIN on Friday that neither side had made important advances in a bloody deadlock between Senegalese-backed government forces and mutineers leading an army rebellion in Guinea Bissau.
Although the artillery shelling which has devastated the capital, Bissau, resumed on Friday, military sources told IRIN that in the past three days there had been no significant development. The sources said Senegalese troops appeared to have "given up" their bid to recapture two large army bases at Bra overlooking Bissau and the international airport which lies on the main road leading out of the harbour city towards the interior. A Western diplomat said the situation had left Senegal in a "difficult" position. Dakar, he added, had now pinned its hopes on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which will discuss the crisis at a meeting in Cote d'Ivoire on Monday.
International relief agencies reported during the week that about a quarter of a million people had fled Bissau since 7 June, when General Ansumane Mane launched the rebellion after President Joao Bernado Vieira replaced him as armed forces chief of staff.
But the Vatican's Missionary News Agency (MISNA) said on Friday it now estimated that over 400,000 people had been forced to flee their homes. It said the Committee of 12 Religious Congregations in Guinea Bissau had appealed to the European Union (EU) and Pope John Paul II to help achieve a ceasefire before next week. Barring that, it appealed for a "humanitarian truce" so that aid routes could be opened with permission for international relief agencies to start helping.
UN, EU assistance
After continued mediation attempts by the government of Gambia and the Roman Catholic Church failed to secure a ceasefire so far, the United Nations and the European Union stepped up efforts on Friday to get aid to tens of thousands of people forced to flee the fighting and get the two sides to lay down their arms.
A high-level UN team arrived in Dakar on Thursday to assess humanitarian needs in Guinea Bissau and neighbouring countries receiving refugees. The head of the UN team, Martin Barber, told IRIN he would also be looking into ways how the UN could support efforts by ECOWAS and the Organisation of African Unity (OAO) to secure a ceasefire.
"We will be working very closely with agencies on the ground and government authorities to recommend how to contain the crisis," Barber added. "But we must first secure access to people in need in Guinea Bissau itself. This is critical."
In a related development, AFP said the EU humanitarian commissioner, Emma Bonino, was also seeking a way of getting aid into Guinea Bissau. It quoted her as saying she was in "close contact" with the authorities in Bissau and that a senior EU official would visit the country on Saturday in a fresh attempt to negotiate an end to the fighting.
Vieira ready for talks
Meanwhile, the Portuguese Lusa news agency said on Friday that Vieira had told a news conference in Bissau he was ready to open talks with army mutineers if they laid down their weapons. Lusa said his announcement came as Bishop Settimio Ferrazzetta on Friday attempted for the second time this week to talk to both sides with a view to achieving a ceasefire.
NIGERIA: More political prisoners released
Drawing further praise from Europe, the United States and the Commonwealth, Nigeria's new military leader, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, has announced the release of 17 more prominent political prisoners. Their release was announced in a nationwide radio and television broadcast on Thursday evening.
Reuters quoted Abubakar as telling a gathering of traditional leaders in the capital Abuja earlier: "I have taken over when there are many turbulent waters, many dissenting voices in the country, so it is very, very necessary that all...Nigerians, should get together, give peace a chance, so that we can move forward."
Those released brought to 26 the number of political prisoners freed since Abubakar was appointed head of state following the death of General Sani Abacha on 8 June. They included Olu Falae, former finance minister and leader of the opposition National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), Dr Frederic Fasheun, a physician and prominent human rights activist, and Olisa Agbakoba, a human rights lawyer and president of the opposition United Action for Democracy (UAD). AFP noted that at least 10 of those released on Thursday had been held on the same treason charges as those against the 1986 Nobel laureate in literature, Professor Wole Soyinka.
Although the list did not include Nigeria's most prominent detainee, Moshood Abiola, presumed winner of the annulled 1993 elections, it was reported earlier in the week that Abubakar's administration was consulting with him on his own release and that of others still behind bars.
Western partners encouraged
Britain, the Commonwealth, the European Union and Washington moved quickly during the week to lift the diplomatic isolation imposed on Nigeria during Abacha's five-years in power. The Abiola case, Reuters said, was expected to top the agenda when British junior Foreign Office minister Tony Lloyd was scheduled to meet Abubakar on Friday on behalf of the EU.
The United States, which like the EU and the Commonwealth imposed limited sanctions on Abacha's regime, said it would send a high-level delegation headed by Under Secretary of State Thomas Pickering to Abuja as soon as the military government could meet it. On Wednesday, Nigerian news reports said The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) had published a list of 274 political prisoners or detainees still held at various prisons around the country.
TOGO: Relations with EU and US deteriorate
Police using tear gas clashed for the third day running on Friday with anti-government demonstrators protesting against the election victory of President Gnassingbe Eyadema, AFP reported. It said 30 people, nine of them policemen, were injured. In a brief dispatch, it said the demonstrators, wearing red head bands, had taken to the streets in the capital, Lome. There were no immediate reports of any arrests.
The clashes occurred as Togo's relations with the EU and the United States deteriorated this week after international observers linked Eyadema's victory in Sunday's voting to electoral fraud.
"More than a diplomatic tiff, the row is set to deprive Togo of some US$ 50 million in EU aid and to fuel opposition claims Eyadema in fact lost Sunday's poll," an AFP dispatch said.
In power for 31 years, Eyadema is sub-Sahara Africa's longest serving head of state. The EU, which largely funded and monitored the presidential election, said in a statement earlier in the week that European aid, cut during unrest in 1992, would only be resumed if the poll was judged free and fair. The interior ministry declared that Eyadema had won 52.3 percent of the vote, while his main challenger, Gilchrist Olympio, who is exiled in Ghana, claimed 59 percent.
AFP quoted a statement by the French Socialist Party as saying, "Eyadema accepted external financing for these elections but he did not want to accept being placed in the minority by the people of his country."
United States "deplores" irregularities
The United States government had also sent observers to Togo. In Washington, State Department spokesman James Rubin said: "We deplore the many irregularities in the electoral process and the voting, which call into question the legitimacy of the outcome." Washington also urged the government to "respect its own laws".
SIERRA LEONE: Humanitarian appeal
The UN on Friday appealed for US$ 20.2 million to help meet humanitarian requirements of people forced to flee fighting and attacks by rebels loyal to Sierra Leone's ousted military junta. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that in the past three months more than 237,000 Sierra Leoneans had fled into neighbouring Liberia and Guinea, swelling refugee populations to over half a million. A further 50,000 people were roaming the countryside in Sierra Leone itself.
"Although the return of the democratically-elected government in February 1998 has brought a level of peace and stability, the consolidation of peace remains a difficult task," the OCHA statement said. Besides what it called life-sustaining aid for people in distress, OCHA said there was also a need to support emergency priorities and objectives of the government, as well as facilitate peace and reconciliation.
NIGER: China provides military aid
Chinese General Fang Zuqin, political chief of the Nanjing military district, has pledged to step up military aid to Niger, AFP reported on Thursday. In a brief dispatch, it said the general had held talks with President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, at which he pledged "important assistance" the Niger army. It quoted a newspaper report as saying the Chinese had also offered to finance a military transport company in eastern Niger.
After the meeting, AFP said Mainassara had left on Thursday for the Nigerian capital Abuja on his first official visit to that country since the death of the military ruler General Sani Abacha.
WEST AFRICA: Yellow fever conference
The first international seminar on yellow fever opened on Thursday in Dakar, Senegal, to discuss the resurgence of the disease which currently affects 468 million people in 34 sub-Saharan African countries, the PANA news agency reported. The three-day meeting, organised by the Association for Assistance in Preventive Medicine, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, has drawn participants from Africa, North and South America, Asia and Europe. It quoted Jean-Pierre Digoutte of the Dakar-based Pasteur Institute as saying that in West Africa yellow fever had mainly manifested itself in the form of high-mortality rates in urban centres.
Abidjan, 26 June, 17:00 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 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/ 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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