| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
NIGERIA: Hundreds of prisoners released
As Nigerians anxiously awaited an address on democratic change from the country's ruler, General Abdusalam Abubakar, they awoke to the news on Thursday that he had ordered the immediate release of hundreds of prisoners and disbanded three electoral bodies.
News organisations reported a government statement which said prisoners who had been held without trial or were still in jail after completing their sentences were to be released. They included 362 prisoners who had been convicted of financial crimes by special military tribunals set up by the late leader General Sani Abacha.
Nigerian Chief Press Secretary David Attah, quoted by AFP, said: "This gesture is part of the total effort of the administration to decongest our prisons and its determination to defend and protect the freedom and basic rights of individuals". In May, former interior minister Bashir Dalhatu said there were an estimated 45,000 people held in the country's jails, of whom 26,000 were still awaiting judgement, AFP reported.
In June, Abubakar freed several dozen of political prisoners, including leading activists and opposition politicians.
Government disbands electoral bodies
Abubakar disbanded three electoral bodies set up by Abacha to oversee the country's transition to democracy, news organisations reported on Wednesday. The bodies - known as the Transition Implementation Committee, the Committee on Devolution of Power and the National Reconciliation Committee - were widely seen as instruments to perpetuate military rule, the BBC said. The Transition Implementation Committee, the most important of the bodies had announced shortly before Abacha's death that presidential elections would be replaced by a referendum. It is unclear whether the main electoral body, the National Electoral Commission, would be replaced and whether the five political parties set up by Abacha would be disbanded.
Meanwhile, Nigerian former head of state Olusegun Obasanjo expressed confidence on Wednesday in Abubakar's commitment to returning Nigeria to civilian rule, AFP said. The dispatch quoted Obasanjo as saying that what was required was the establishment of "certain mechanisms, such as independent electoral commission". Speaking from Botswana, Obasanjo was attending an African Leadership Forum conference. Obasanjo was released last month by Abubakar from jail. He was charged in 1995 of plotting a coup against Abacha's government.
GUINEA BISSAU: Government expects speedy resolution
Guinea Bissau's prime minister, Carlos Correia, announced on Wednesday that he expected a "speedy resolution" to his country's bitter six-week civil war, which has devastated the capital, Bissau, and displaced some 350,000 people. Speaking on his arrival in Cape Verde for a scheduled meeting of Portuguese-speaking countries this week, Correia also said he thought the situation in Guinea Bissau was evolving "favourably" for the government, AFP reported.
Army on rebel side
However, diplomatic sources told IRIN on Thursday some 1,500 troops sent by neighbouring Senegal and Guinea to support President Joao Bernardo Vieira's government had "notably failed" to quickly put down the army rebellion led by a former chief-of-staff, General Ansumane Mane. The presence of foreign troops was also galvanising public opinion against Vieira, one source added.
According to this week's edition of the Paris-based 'Jeune Afrique' some 90 percent of Guinea Bissau's army was now with Mane. This made a quick resolution of the conflict in favour of the government "unlikely", UN sources in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, added.
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Political prisoner dies in jail
Martin Puye, one of the eleven alleged separatists in Equatorial Guinea, sentenced to death for treason last month, has died in hospital, news organizations reported on Wednesday. An opposition party member, Placido Miko said Puye, who belonged to the minority Bubi community, had been suffering from hepatitis and harsh prison conditions.
The BBC reported that Spain, the former colonial power, has urged the government to clarify the causes of Puye's death. Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Equatorial Guinea, Miguel Oyono, said Puye had had access to medical treatment, but died following complications arising from hepatitis.
Earlier, Amnesty International had condemned the harsh prison conditions in Equatorial Guinea and demanded the lifting of the death sentences served on the 11 for alleged separatist attacks in the main island of Bioko.
SIERRA LEONE: ECOMOG commander tours Sierra Leone
The commander of the Nigerian-led West African intervention force in Sierra Leone, ECOMOG, began a four-day tour of the country on Wednesday, AFP reported. According to the news agency, Major-General Timothy Shelpidi's visit would include areas of northern Sierra Leone where ECOMOG is currently battling remnant troops of the former military junta. ECOOMOG ousted the military junta from the capital, Freetown, in February.
Shelpidi's visit has also renewed speculation ECOMOG will move its headquarters to Sierra Leone from neighbouring Liberia, AFP reported. ECOMOG withdrew its soldiers from checkpoints around the Liberian capital, Monrovia, last month in protest at what it described as "harassment" from government security forces.
ICRC opens rehabilitation centre
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has opened a new rehabilitation centre outside Freetown to help victims of the seven-year civil war mutilated in attacks by the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
An ICRC spokesman told IRIN on Thursday that the centre located in the former tourist town of Lakke some 27 km outside Freetown would provide physiotherapy and rehabilitation for the many villagers who had lost hands and feet in the centre and north of the country.
ICRC said it was also running a programme of re-constructive surgery in Netland hospital in western Freetown to alleviate what it described as an "overwhelming flow" of casualties to the city's main Connaught hospital.
ICRC recently flew a team of surgeons specialised in treating war wounds to Sierra Leone to help run the programme. The team would also carry out a programme of professional training for Sierra Leonean medical staff, ICRC added.
Abidjan, 16 July 1998, 1700 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: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 17:21:26 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 252, 98.7.16 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980716171446.16605A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
| Previous Menu | Home Page | What's New | Search | Country Specific |