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IRIN-WA Update 247 of Events in West Africa, (Thursday) 9 July 1998
NIGERIA: Southwest calm, but tense after Abiola death
Cities in southwest Nigeria were reported by Radio Nigeria to be calm but tense on Thursday after youths clashed with police following the death this week of Moshood Abiola, the country's most prominent political prisoner.
The BBC reported that at least 19 protesters died in rioting in the wake of of Abiola's death. Meanwhile, it said Nigeria's ruling military council has been meeting on Thursday to consider what steps were needed in order to contain the current crisis, including when to schedule fresh elections.
Post mortem results awaited
Nigeria was anxiously awaiting the outcome of an autopsy, local media reported. An international team of pathologists was expected in Lagos by the end of the week to help establish exactly how the man widely believed to have been the winner of the 1993 presidential elections had died. He collapsed on Tuesday during talks with the country's new head of state, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, and visiting US Under Secretary of State Thomas Pickering. His death, according to state radio, apparently the result of a heart attack, occurred hours before he was due to be released after nearly four years in jail.
Since the death a month ago of the military ruler, General Sani Abacha, who imprisoned him, media reports said Abiola's release had been one of the central reforms demanded from the new government.
Many of Abiola's supporters accused the government of killing him, either by poison or neglect, according to news reports. On Wednesday, PANA said a dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed in Abiola's hometown, Abeokuta, where four youths died in rioting.
Lagos schools closed
Meanwhile, the Lagos State military administrator, Mohammed Marwa, on ordered the closure of all schools in the state in observance of a period of mourning, PANA said. He called on Lagosians to see "Abiola's death as an act of God". The human rights activist, Femi Falana, was quoted as saying this was "not time for violence, but vigilance".
Abubakar was appointed head of state when his hardline predecessor, General Sani Abacha, died a month ago. He dissolved his cabinet after Abiola's death, which he called "one of the saddest moments of our lives." News reports said the composition of a new cabinet would provide the first indication as to how committed the country's military leadership will be on democratic reforms.
US calls for return of "stolen" democracy.
In Washington, White House Spokesman Mike McCurry called on Wednesday for the return of Nigeria's "stolen" democracy and expressed concern at the civil unrest. McCurry said Abiola's untimely death had given rise "to uncertainty about the conditions for the political transition back to the democracy that the United States and the world community so anxiously desires." He added that the US government would continue "to put great emphasis" on the need for the current ruling leadership to release "those who are in prison only for reasons of belief and personal conscience".
Meanwhile, in another visit to Nigeria by foreign dignitaries, including UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who have travelled to the country since Abacha's death, South African deputy President Thabo Mbeki flew to Nigeria on Thursday. The 'Mail and Guardian' in Johannesburg said Mbeki would "advise Abubakar on ways to guide the country towards democracy". He would also meet Abiola's family and opposition figures.
Abiola to be given state funeral, wife says
Dube Onitri-Abiola, one of Abiola's wives, told AFP on Thursday that the Nigerian government promised a "state funeral" in Lagos for her husband once the autopsy had been completed. She said the timing of the funeral was not "certain". In an address to the nation, Abubakar said on Wednesday Nigeria would give a "dignified burial" to Abiola.
GUINEA BISSAU: Peace efforts "stalled"
Diplomats in Senegal's capital, Dakar, told IRIN on Thursday they were concerned efforts to find a peaceful solution to the month-long army revolt in neighbouring Guinea Bissau had "stalled".
One senior Western diplomat said rival Portuguese and regional mediation efforts had lost their momentum, while more and more effort was now going into defeating the rebels by military means alone.
According to the source, conditions for a settlement laid down by beleaguered President Joao Bernardo Vieira were "impossibly hard" for rebel leader General Ansumane Mane to accept. "He is being asked to lay down his weapons with nothing guaranteed in return," the source said. The rebellion started on 7 June when Mane, accused of running weapons to separatists in Senegal's troubled Casamance province across the border, was dismissed as army chief.
Another diplomat told IRIN any move to solve the crisis by force could have long-term negative effects on regional stability. He said Senegalese troops sent last month to prop up Vieira might eventually force the rebels out of the capital, Bissau. "But then they would just continue the fight from the bush," he said.
According to the source, the rebels already controlled most of northern Guinea Bissau bordering Casamance.
Bissau offensive continues
Meanwhile, a week-long offensive by Senegalese troops to re-capture Bissau's international airport to the north of the city continued to make slow progress, media reports said on Thursday.
According to Reuters, Senegalese troops were advancing "methodically" on rebel positions in spite of stiff resistance.
But sources in Bissau told IRIN it was too early to say if the Senegalese offensive was making progress. One humanitarian aid worker told IRIN intense fighting had continued unabated almost all week. "It is too dangerous to go out to find out what is going on," he said.
SIERRA LEONE: War crimes
Emma Bonino, the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, has said that if the proposed International Criminal Court were already in existence, Sierra Leone would provide it with plenty of work. In an article published on Wednesday in the 'International Herald Tribune', Bonino said: "Unspeakable crimes against humanity are occurring in Sierra Leone today. The international community seems largely unaware of what is going on."
Rebels with the ousted military junta's Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and their Revolutionary United Front (RUF) allies, she said, had "engaged in a horrific campaign to terrorise the population through indiscriminate killings, systematic laceration, mutilation or severing of limbs. The victims are men, women and children of all ages."
Bonino said the atrocities in Sierra Leone were not part of traditional warfare in Africa. "They are the result of an orchestrated strategy to terrorise civilians, carried out by troops trained in such barbarous techniques." Saying it was time for the international community to stop the killings in Sierra Leone, Bonino said delegates at the current founding conference in Rome of the new court all agreed that it had to be a deterrent, strong, independent and empowered to act on crimes whether or not any peace treaties were signed.
Amnesty for children
The government of Sierra Leone has said it will grant an amnesty to the estimated 4,000 child fighters attached to various armed groups in the country, AFP reported on Thursday. The dispatch, quoting Vice President Albert Demby, did not give details of the offer other than say children who were members of armed groups during the country's eight years of armed conflict would not be prosecuted.
About 1,000 children have been demobilised from the Sierra Leone army since February, when the West African intervention force, ECOMOG, toppled the AFRC junta and helped reinstate the country's elected government.
Assistance for amputees
Meanwhile, the U.S. charge d'affaires in Freetown, Anne Wright, has handed over+half a million dollars' worth of medical supplies and equipment to the International Committee of the Red Cross to benefit amputees, media reports said. The reports said there were are currently 300 registered amputees camped in Waterloo, Freetown, and other major towns.
LIBERIA: Human rights
Benedict Sannoh, Executive Director of Liberia's Centre for Law and Human Rights, has warned the government of President Charles Taylor that if it did not do more to ensure the protection of human and civil rights, it would lose international credibility. Sannoh, speaking in an interview with independent Star Radio on Thursday, said the government had to investigate recent violations before a 19 July national conference.
He cited the unresolved murder last November of the opposition politician Samuel Dokie and his wife Janet, and the disappearance of six Liberians who reportedly boarded a flight out of the country. "The Dokies murder case was tried in February and the two suspects acquitted. But five other accused reportedly fled over to the Ivory Coast," Star Radio said. Besides losing international credibility, Sannoh said, these questions could undermine Liberia's emerging democracy.
Abidjan, 9 July 1998, 19:30 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]
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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