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NIGERIA: Annan announces release of all political prisoners
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced on Thursday that the Nigerian government would release all political prisoners at an "appropriate time".
Speaking at a news conference in the capital, Abuja, Annan did not specifically name Mooshod Abiola among those to be freed, but said the opposition politician no longer believed he could claim the presidency. On Wednesday, Annan met Abiola, the jailed presumed winner of the 1993 presidential elections which were annulled by the then military government. Annan said Abiola was more "realistic" than some of us outside, AP said. The UN chief said Abiola had told him that he was not "naive enough to think that I can come out and be president". Some of Abiola's supporters have called on him to head a civilian government.
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Secretary General Emeka Anyaoku also held private talks with Abiola on Wednesday for more than an hour, news organisations said. The BBC quoted Anyaoku as saying that Abiola's political standpoint had changed very little in the last few years and he appeared in "apparent good health".
Annan and Anyaoku were the first international observers to have met Abiola in over two years, according to the BBC.
Abiola, 60, a millionaire businessman, apparently won as much as 60 percent of the vote in 1993. He described the poll results as an "overwhelming mandate" from the Nigerians.
Releases after 8 July
However, the new Nigerian leader, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, said the releases would not occur before the end of an official mourning period on 8 July, news agencies reported on Thursday.
A one-month mourning period was declared after General Sani Abacha died of a heart attack on 8 June. Meanwhile, an unnamed senior Nigerian official, quoted by Reuters, said Abiola, by giving up on his mandate, had paved the way for "his imminent release".
Human rights reaction
Nike Ransome-Kuti, a prominent human rights activist, told IRIN that for most Nigerians the release of political prisoners was a "foregone conclusion". She said the military regime could not have done otherwise if it wanted to demonstrate clearly that it was markedly different from the previous administration.
She added that it was standard practice for the military to curry favour in the early stages. Ransome-Kuti said she was disappointed the UN had not obtained Abiola's release with no conditions attached.
Abubakar cancels all government contracts
In another departure from Abacha's legacy, Abubakar announced on Thursday that "henceforth laid down procedures should be followed in considering new contracts" and cancelled all government contracts awarded since his predecessor's death, Reuters reported, quoting the News Agency of Nigeria.
GUINEA BISSAU: New fronts open amid renewed fighting
The month-long battle between military rebels and Senegalese-backed government forces in Guinea Bissau has extended beyond the devastated capital to two new fronts in the countryside, diplomats told IRIN on Thursday. They also confirmed media reports of a resumption of intense shelling in Bissau city, the capital, late on Wednesday after a second round of peace talks aboard a Portuguese frigate appeared to have failed.
The latest attacks, a diplomat said, indicated that "Senegal may well now be racing against time to rescue this operation".
With an estimated 400,000 people on the run in Guinea Bissau, according to humanitarian organisations, the diplomats said there appeared to be no end in sight to the showdown which started on 7 June, when President Joao Bernardo Vieira sacked his former armed forces chief, Ansumane Mane, for allegedly trafficking weapons to separatists across the border in Senegal's southern Casamance province.
The loud explosions of artillery shells in Bissau were reported again on Thursday as Senegalese-backed government forces renewed their attempts to dislodge rebel forces from the Bra military headquarters overlooking Bissau and the international airport.
The new fronts
According to the Vatican's Missionary News Agency (MISNA) and diplomats in Dakar, Senegal, the new fighting between Senegalese troops and rebels flared in Mansoa, 70 km northeast of Bissau, early on Thursday. Although details were scant, it said it was concerned for the safety of 50,000 people who had fled Bissau to Mansoa and 15 Italian missionaries with them.
"The fighting is incessant and we fear the worst," the MISNA dispatch said. It also reported that three key towns near the Casamance border, Ignore, Bula and Bigene, were under rebel control.
Senegalese may be trapped
In the Senegalese capital, Dakar, a West African military analyst told IRIN on Thursday it appeared that Senegalese troops, who had landed at the southern port of Buba earlier in the week, were trying to link up with 1,300 Senegalese troops "trapped" in Bissau. "They must take Mansoa to turn west and get to Bissau," the source said. "All indications suggest this is what Senegal is trying to do."
Humanitarian needs "great" says UN
In the country's second city, Bafata, some 100 km northeast of Mansoa, a United Nations team with UNDP, UNICEF, WHO and WFP experts returned from a three-day humanitarian mission this week and reported that there were some 280,000 people camped about the town after fleeing fighting in Bissau.
The UN team leader, Andrew Marshall, told IRIN: "There is clearly a great need for humanitarian assistance. The capacity of local people to cope with housing and feeding so many is already under considerable strain."
Abidjan, 2 July 1998, 18:15 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/ or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha.unon.org . Mailing list: irin-wa-updates]
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