| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
IRIN-WA Update 254 of Events in West Africa, (Saturday-Monday) 18-20 July 1998
NIGERIA : Government releases ten alleged coup plotters
As Nigerians anxiously waited on Monday for the country's
ruler General Abdulsalam Abubakar to make a major address
on the government's transition programme to democratic
rule, he pardoned 10 people convicted of allegedly
plotting a coup against his predecessor, General Sani
Abacha, and ordered their "immediate release,"
news organisations reported.
The 10 persons pardoned were Sheu Musa, Ben Charles Obi, Sanusi Mato, Felix Ndamaigida, Mathew Popoola, Julius Badelo, George Mba, Kunle Ajibade, Moses Ayegba, and Rebecca Ikpo.
The BBC said three of them -- Obi, Mba and Ajibade -- were journalists, whose detention had caused concerns over press freedom. The others were civilians arrested apparently because they were simply associated with people accused by Abacha in the alleged coup plot. A number of those convicted of involvement, including a former head of state, Olusegun Obasanjo, were released last month.
Meanwhile, the Lagos-based 'National Concord' reported
that another detainee, Major General Abdulkarim Adisa,
was in a "frightening condition of health"
linked to hypertension. Adisa, a former works and housing
minister, was sentenced to death in April this year
by a military tribunal after he was convicted of plotting
to overthrow Abacha. The report said Adisa was receiving
medical treatment in northern Nigeria.
High-level visits continue
The Secretary-General of the Organisation of African
Unity, Salim Ahmed Salim, visited Nigeria over the
weekend in the latest of a series of high profile visits
by world statesmen, news agencies reported. Salim said
he was encouraged by the recent developments in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, French Aid minister, Charles Josselin met
with Abubakar on Monday. Reuters quoted a European
Union official in Lagos as saying that the French government
was going to find it harder to "compete now that
the Americans have publicly put so much confidence
in the new regime".
Human rights group says 404 political prisoners held
in Nigeria
Femi Falana, leader of the Committee for the Defence
of Human Rights, has claimed that the Nigerian government
was holding 404 political prisoners, AFP reported at
the weekend. Falana said they included those accused
of plotting to overthrow the government, pro-emocracy
and human rights activists. He said his organisation
had written to the police on the plight of the detainees
presently "languishing in various prisons and
detention camps in the country". Last month, Abubakar
ordered a complete list of the country's political
prisoners, and last Wednesday he ordered the release
of hundreds of prisoners, whose prison term had expired
or who had not been sentenced.
Nobel laureate warns of civil unrest
But despite the measures, Nigerian Nobel Prize winner
Wole Soyinka warned on Saturday that a "violent
wave of civil unrest" would hit the country if
the military regime did not stand down, AFP reported.
Speaking from the US, Soyinka said, however, he hoped
Nigeria could "survive as a whole" and would
not break up. Soyinka has been living in exile since
1994. He was charged with treason in absentia in 1997
for allegedly planning bomb attacks against military
targets.
Pro-democracy group to become political party
A Nigerian pro-democracy group said on Sunday it would
reform as a political party as soon as the ban on party
politics was lifted, AFP reported. Emma Ezeazu, leader
of the Democratic Alternative (DA), a pressure group
formed four years ago to press for the military to
leave power, said "the absence of people's power"
had been identified as the main problem by his organisation.
Ezeazu called for immediate elections and a 12-month
transitional government to oversee real genuine "democratic
change in the country".
Police out in force during Abiola's memorial service
Armed Nigerian police and soldiers deployed in force
around a Lagos square on Saturday to head off trouble
after the local police chief banned a Moslem memorial
prayer for Moshood Abiola in the city centre, news
reports said. Police took up positions around the Tafewa
Balewa Square to prevent any crowd from gathering.
Abiola, Nigeria's most prominent political prisoner,
died two weeks ago in custody.
GUINEA BISSAU: Mediation favoured in lieu of force
As a bloody mutiny entered its seventh week on Monday,
President Joachim Chissano of Mozambique, announced
that the newly established lusophone "contact
group" would meet with representatives of Guinea
Bissau to determine how it could assist in finding
a peaceful solution, while taking into account initiatives
of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
In an interview with Radio Africa no.1 , Chissano said:
"We have decided to set up a contact group whose
first duty will be to contact Guinea-Bissau as a sovereign
country to know how it can be helped in solving this
problem, first, through dialogue. We are pleased because
the Guinea Bissau government and the rebels are both
open to dialogue." He added that he was convinced
that " dialogue would prevail."
In a related development, Gambian Foreign Minister Mamadou
Lamin Sedat Jobe said ECOWAS would discuss its strategy
with UN Security Council members before taking any
decision on military intervention by the Nigerian-led
peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, Reuters reported on Friday.
The West African view
Meanwhile, General Abubakar told the visiting OAU Secretary General that Nigeria favoured mediation over the use of force to end the fighting in Guinea Bissau, AFP reported at the weekend. A statement released by the Nigerian presidency said Abubakar referred to the need for "caution" in the matter.
The Secretary of State of the Vatican, Angelo Sodano,
quoted by the Catholic news agency, MISNA, said it
was seeking to achieve three things in Guinea Bissau:
A ceasefire, the opening of humanitarian corridors
and negotiations. He added that the Church would not
take a position for or against any side and would not
indicate any "political solutions to the conflict".
The conflict started on 7 June after President Joao
Bernardo Vieira of Guinea Bissau sacked army of chief
Ansumane Mane over allegations that Mane had a hand
in arms trafficking to the Senegalese's southern separatist
province of Casamance prompting a mutiny.
Senegal and Guinea to reinforce troops and arms
The Portuguese news agency, Lusa, reported on Monday
that Senegal and Guinea had decided to reinforce their
troops and arms supplies in support of Vieira. The
troops are part of an Integrated Multinational Force
under the command of Senegal made up of 1,500 Senegalese
and 300 Guinean soldiers fighting alongside pro-government
forces.
Shelling kills eight in Bissau
Bissau , the capital, was hit by shells killing at least
eight people and setting ablaze the market place, Lusa
reported on Friday. The report said the shelling appeared
to have come from positions held by rebel fighters
in the Cumere region in the northern section of the
capital. AFP said more than 50 shells struck the centre
of town with a couple falling near the residence of
the Portuguese ambassador.
SIERRA LEONE: Eastern town captured from rebels
Loyalist troops in Sierra Leone have captured the key town of Kaiyama, in the eastern Kono from supporters of the ousted military junta, according to a statement at the weekend by the Nigerian-led West African intervention force, ECOMOG. AFP quoted ECOMOG commander, Brigadier General Maxwell Khobe, as saying the town's capture "is indeed a relief to the large population" of surrounding districts.
Khobe added that ECOMOG was now in control of the eastern districts of Kailahun, a traditional stronghold of rebels allied to the junta that ECOMOG ousted in February, Kono, a diamond mining centre, and Koindadugu. Many soldiers of Sierra Leone's now-disbanded army surrendered to ECOMOG and have been deployed to bolster the continuing "mopping up" operations.
Intervention force gets more troops
Meanwhile, ECOMOG's commander in chief, Major-General Timothy Shelpidi, said there were currently some 9,000 ECOMOG troops in Sierra Leone, and that an undisclosed number of Gambian troops had arrived in Monrovia en route to the country, AFP reported. ECOMOG has been headquartered in Liberia since 1990 but is shortly expected to move its base to Freetown.
Clash near the the capital
In what was described as the first clash near the capital Freetown since its recapture in February, ECOMOG forces arrested 15 rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) after an hour-long gun battle early on Sunday, AFP reported. The fight in the suburban Malama district, near the homes of foreign diplomts, followed increasing reports of armed robberies in the area. An ECOMOG spokesman said troops had to chase rebels into thick forest and deploy artillery fire before they were able to capture the 15 whom, it said, were handed over to police.
LIBERIA: National conference
A national conference on rebuilding Liberia opened in the capital, Monrovia, on Monday with the Reverend Jesse Jackson, President Clinton's special envoy for democracy and human rights in Africa, as the principal foreign guest, media reports said.
The Liberian government led by President Charles Taylor has put up banners and billboards with slogans calling for national unity, reconciliation and good governance. The BBC said critics of the conference called by President Charles Taylor were concerned he would use it to promote his own political future instead of addressing real issues.
Kabbah also attends conference
Another key foreign guest at the conference, President Alhaji Amhad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone arrived in Monrovia on Monday in what media reports called a new attempt to improve relations soured by accusations that Taylor had backed outsted military junta in Sierra Leone.
Taiwanese envoy
Meanwhile Taiwan also sent a special envoy to the conference in Liberia which is one of the few countries which recognises Taiwain instead of mainland China. Media reports said Hsu Shui-teh, head of the Examination Yuan which runs Taiwan's civil service, was visiting as the special envoy of President Lee Teng-hui.
BENIN: Child labour
The traffic of small children from poor families sold as virtual slave labourers in neighbouring countries had reached "disturbing" proportions in recent years, according to Benin's minister of justice, Joseph Gnonlonfoun. In a statement at the weekend carried by AFP, he said that police in Benin had stopped traffickers from taking 1,630 small children to neighboring states as farm workers in the last three years.
"Poor families hand over their children to smugglers from Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Togo, Gabon and Cameroon offering sums of up to 25,000 CFA francs (about US$ 40 US) for each child and undertaking to educate them," the report said. "The dealers then take the children to their home countries and sell them to farmers for sums of up to 400,000 CFA francs (about 650 US dollars.) Once in the new country, the children are put to work on coffee, cocoa and sugar cane plantations."
WEST AFRICA: Compaore visits Tripoli
President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, current chairman of the Organistion of African Unity (OAU) flew into the Libyan capital Tripoli on Monday. A brief official statement by the Libyan news agency, Jana, did not say whether he had sought clearance from the United Nations to forgo its ban on flights to and from Libya. It also did not say how long he would be visiting the north African nation.
Abidjan, 20 July 1900 gmt
[ends]
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Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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