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IRIN-WA Update 249 of Events in West Africa, (Saturday-Monday) 11-13 July 1998
NIGERIA: Tense atmosphere as Abiola buried
Nigeria's most prominent political prisoner, Moshood Abiola, who died last week, was buried on Saturday in the grounds of his Lagos home at a funeral which drew thousands of mourners, news organisations reported. An internationally vetted autopsy confirmed that he had died as a result of heart disease.
Although police barricaded roads near the Abiola home to prevent thousands of mourners and anti-government demonstrators disrupting the funeral, no violence was reported.
Abiola died on Tuesday 7 July on the eve of his release after collapsing during a meeting with the US Under-Secretary of State Thomas Pickering. His death sparked unrest last week in southwestern Nigeria where Abiola loyalists attacked northerners resulting in the deaths of at least 60 people, AFP reported.
Abiola was the presumed winner of the 1993 presidential elections, which were annulled by the then military government. He was arrested in 1994 and jailed for treason after proclaiming himself president.
Abiola died of "natural causes", pathologists
The preliminary findings of a post mortem conducted by international pathologists on Abiola concluded on Saturday that he died of a heart attack, news organisations said. "In our opinion the mechanism of death is due to a rapid deterioration in a diseased heart," a statement by the pathologists said.
The pathologists from Britain, Canada and the United States said they had also sent material for further analysis abroad, and that a full report would be available in a month's time. Speaking on CNN, the US Ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Bill Richardson, said his government accepted the autopsy report.
Meanwhile, Abiola's eldest son, Kola Abiola, told AFP, shortly before the pathologists released their findings that their conclusions still left the military open to the charge of "negligence". He claimed that his father had not received any medical attention during his four years in jail.
Calls for rapid move towards democracy
Pro-democracy groups have reiterated their call to the Nigerian military government to bring about democratic change, news organisations said. The Chairman of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), Abraham Adesanya, urged the establishment of a civilian transition government representing all six regions in Nigeria. He added that: "The best thing is for the military to go - and hand over the governance of this country". Meanwhile, Olisa Agbakoba, leader of the United Action for Democracy (UAD), said if Nigeria did not have a government of "national unity, we (Nigeria) shall crash".
But the new Nigerian leader General Abdulsalam Abubakar repeated on Friday his commitment to restore democracy and said he would soon address the nation with a specific plan, Reuters reported.
Abubakar told graduating officers at a staff college in the northern city of Kaduna that the challenges the Nigerian armed forces faced could only be met in a stable political environment. "We are committed to taking Nigeria back to its rightful place, among the community of nations, and above all we are committed to taking our military back to its constitutional role of defending the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation," he added.
South African confident of democratic plans
Meanwhile, the latest high-level foreign dignitary to visit Nigeria, South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki ,said he was confident the Nigerian military government would keep its word and move Nigeria to democratic rule, news agencies reported at the weekend. "The view we got and heard was that the military wants to return to the barracks and we shall be hearing some announcement in the next few days," Reuters reported. After a two-day visit to Nigeria, Mbeki said he held positive talks with Abubakar as well as pro-democracy groups.
Abiola claimed presidential mandate, letter says
The pro-democracy group, NADECO, issued a letter purportedly written by Abiola, shortly before his death, in an attempt to "dispel the rumour" that Abiola had allegedly "traded-off" his presidential mandate for an "unconditional release", a Nigerian Democratic Movement statement said on Sunday. The letter allegedly written by Abiola on 5 July to NADECO chairman, Abraham Adesanya, and carried by the media, claimed that both the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku had asked Abiola for a "signed statement" that he would not declare himself president thus paving the way for his "unconditional release".
GUINEA BISSAU: Senegal opens aid corridor
Senegal opened humanitarian corridors into war-torn neighbouring Guinea Bissau at the weekend as bitter fighting between army rebels and Senegalese-backed government forces entered its sixth week on Monday.
Diplomatic sources in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, told IRIN the move came after "intense pressure" on the government to release the aid, which had been blocked at Senegal's southern border with Guinea Bissau for some weeks.
According to humanitarian agencies some 350,000 people displaced by the fighting in the capital, Bissau, and central parts of the country are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
Humanitarian sources also told IRIN on Monday that aid flights from The Gambia into the central town of Bafata had been given permission to use Senegalese airspace. "We hope this will be the last obstacle before full-scale operations start," the source said.
Meanwhile, the UN completed an assessment at the weekend of Guinea Bissau's outlying Bijagos islands, to which an estimated 10,000 people have fled. Team leader Andrew Marshal told IRIN the joint WHO, Food and Agriculture Organisation, UNICEF and UNDP delegation found the local community was well organised to meet immediate needs, but "desperately" short of drugs, fuel and shelter.
President attacks Portugal
Guinea Bissau's beleaguered President Joao Bernardo Vieira has attacked Portugal for giving rebel leader Ansumane Mane a satellite telephone so that he can speak to its foreign minister, Jaime Gama, Lusa news agency reported on Monday.
Accusing Gama of violating Guinea Bissau law, Vieira reportedly told Portuguese television Gama should follow the example of Bissau's Bishop Septimus Ferrazzeta and go and see the rebels on foot if he wanted to meet them.
News agencies reported Bissau was calm on Monday following intense exchanges of shellfire at the weekend.
MAURITANIA: Ministers dismissed
Mauritania's President Maaouya ould Sid Ahmed Taya has dismissed the foreign affairs, Ould Lebbat, and rural development minister, Hamma Vezzaz, AFP reported on Sunday. No reason was given in a government statement quoted by AFP.
Former prime minister Sheikh Al-Avia Ould Mohamed Khouna replaced Lebbat at foreign affairs, while an academic, Memed Ould Ahmed took the post of rural development minister.
Currency devalued
Mauritania devalued its currency, the Ouguiya, by 11 percent at the weekend, AFP reported. It said fevered speculation over the new exchange rate between the time banks closed on Friday and reopened on Sunday saw the dollar climb some 33 percent over the Ouguiya on the informal market.
However, AFP reported the rate dropping on Sunday after the announcement that Mauritania's central bank had intervened to prop up the Ouguiya and stop the speculation.
WEST AFRICA: US Treasury secretary begins Africa tour
US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin met Cote d'Ivoire's prime minister, Daniel Kablan Duncan, on Monday at the start of a five-nation African tour, which would also take him to South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique and Kenya, the BBC reported.
Rubin, on his first visit to Africa, was scheduled to address the African Development Bank, which has its headquarters in the commercial capital, Abidjan.
Abidjan, 13 July, 1745 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]
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 18:31:55 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 249, 98.7.13 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980713182151.11842A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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