UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-West Africa Update 261, 98.7.29

IRIN-West Africa Update 261, 98.7.29


U N I T E D N A T I O N S Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa

Tel: +225 21-73-54 Fax: +225 21-63-35

e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci

IRIN-WA Update 261 of Events in West Africa, Tuesday 29 July 1998

GUINEA BISSAU: Lusophone observers to monitor ceasefire

The Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries has announced that it would dispatch a group of military observers to monitor this week's ceasefire in Guinea Bissau, media reports said on Wednesday.

The decision to send the observers immediately followed claims and counter-claims by the government and army mutineers of ceasefire violations since the truce was signed on Sunday ending two months of devastating artillery exchanges. Portugal, the former colonial power in Guinea Bissau, appealled to both sides to show restraint and a spokesman described violations reported on Monday as isolated incidents.

The fighting between Senegalse-backed government forces began on 7 June after President Joao Bernardo Vieira sacked his chief of staff, General Ansumane Mane, for alleged gun smuggling to separatists in the neighbouring Senegalese province of Casamance. The mutineers have accused the president of corruption and concentrating power in his own hands. The showdown virtually destroyed the capital Bissau and resulted in a huge exodus.

Church demands both sides stick to truce

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Bissau, Settimio Ferrazzetta, said in an interview with the missionary Misna news agency on Wednesday that the truce was holding. "The only precise report, was of an exchange of accusations between the two sides." Bishop Ferrazzetta said a local "goodwill group" comprising representatives of the National Assembly, Church, Muslim and "traditional" communities would help the Lusophone contact group and insist on "an absolute guarantee that the truce will not be broken." He said they would also demand security guarantees for humanitarian aid.

Senegal's role

News reports on Wednesday said there was no clear indication from Dakar of Senegal's continued role in the crisis. Although a military spokesman in Dakar confirmed to IRIN on Tuesday that the estimated 3,000 Senegalese troops in the country would observe the ceasefire, Dakar has not said whether it will withdraw from Guinea Bissau.

Guinea Bissau's defence minister, Samba Lamine Mane, was quoted by AFP as saying there was "no question that the troops allied with Guinea Bissau will leave now". He added that Dakar's intervention was legal under a joint defence pact

Humanitarian aid

The WFP said on Wednesday it would double its weekly food deliveries by road from neighbouring Guinea Conakry and that local communities had determined that 288,000 people were in need of assistance. It said 156,000 people were concentrated urban areas, and that 134,000 camped in the countryside. It also said it would be sending food via Senegal which had opened a new aid corridor to Guinea Bissau.

NIGERIA: Abubakar reiterates democracy pledge

The Nigerian leader, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, has reiterated his pledge to hand power to a democratically elected civilian government in May next year, news organisations reported on Wednesday.

In remarks at a news conference in the capital Abuja, Abubakar was asked whether the transition plan was "for real". He responded by saying: "For real, we hope, come 29 May, 1999, we will hand over to a democratically elected government."

Since taking on the Nigerian leadership in early June after the sudden death of the hardline military ruler, General Sani Abacha, Abubakar has released scores of political prisoners, abolished the five official parties established by his predecessor, allowed Nigerians to form new parties and political alliances, and invited the international community to monitor next year's election.

New parties

In Nigeria's southwestern Edo State rival politicians have taken advantage of the Abubakar offer and formed two new interest groups to fight for the Edo cause, AFP reported on Wednesday.

Tony Anenih, an Edo and the former chairman of a political group which ran in the country's last elections in 1993, announced the formation of the Edo People's Congress, it quoted the 'Vanguard' newspaper as saying. Another prominent politician, Samuel Ogbemudia, announced the formation of a group tentatively named the Edo Mass Movement.

Meanwhile, key figures in one of the Abacha parties dissolved last week, have regrouped as a new political party, according to news reports. AFP said some 2,000 officials of the defunct United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) had voted to name their new party the United Nigeria People's Party (UNPP). Abubakar has said that all new political parties would have to register with an independent commission.

Muslims seek release of leader

In northern Nigeria, Muslim activists have demanded the release of their leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Zak Zaky, the BBC reported on Tuesday. Zaky, arrested two years ago and charged with stirring up religious strife, was described by his followers as a prisoner of conscience detained for his religious beliefs. The activists said no members of their group, the Muslim Brotherhood, had benefited from the Abubakar amnesties.

SIERRA LEONE: Ceasefire edges closer

The commander of the Nigerian-led West African intervention force in Sierra Leone, General Maxwell Khobe, has welcomed the unilateral ceasefire declared two days ago by gaoled Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader Foday Sankoh, media reports said on Wednesday.

In an ECOMOG statement released in the capital, Freetown, Khobe said the time for war was passing and that he would also consider joining the ceasefire. According to the BBC, the statement followed Sankoh's appearance in handcuffs on state television last Sunday. Sankoh called on his RUF supporters fighting ECOMOG in the north and east of the country to lay down their arms.

The BBC's correspondent in Freetown described recent developments as the best chance for peace Sierra Leone has had in years.

But humanitarian sources told IRIN on Wednesday it was not clear RUF fighters would listen to their leader or believe the statement of a man constrained by handcuffs.

LIBERIA: Unity conference deplores insecurity

Delegates at Liberia's national unity conference called on the government on Tuesday to do more to guarantee security and attract Western investors, media reports said.

According to Reuters, prominent speakers told the conference on re-building Liberia after seven year of civil war that "trigger-happy" security forces were undermining President Charles Taylor's effort to win foreign investment.

A long-time advisor in Liberia, retired US general Robert Yerks, deplored what he described as the continued arbitrary arrest and detention of Liberians. A former Liberian ambassador to the US, George Toe Washington, also told the conference the "heinous murders and disappearances of citizens" must stop.

"We cannot be recognised as a nation with all these vicious things obtaining," Reuters quoted him as saying. In the 12 months since the conflict ended with Taylor's landslide presidential election victory, Liberia has been rocked by a series of incidents of armed violence by government security forces.

According to media reports, the continued circulation of weapons and failure of factions, including Taylor's National Patriotic Front for Liberia (NPFL), to disband has further heightened security fears.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Government seeks radio closure

The governing Parti Democratique de Guinee Equatoriale has asked the Spanish government to close down the "provocative" 'Radio Exterior' broadcasting station, AFP reported on Tuesday. The Spanish-based shortwave station "contributes nationally and internationally at discrediting our authorities and our people," party spokesman Santiago Ngua was quoted as saying in an interview with 'Radio Exterior' itself. "It can provoke troubles with unforeseen consquences for our country and it should be closed."

The government of Equatorial Guinea, which recently drew criticism from Amnesty International and European governments for the conduct of a treason trial arising out of alleged separatist attacks in the main island of Malabo in January, has repeatedly asked Madrid to close the station down. But Madrid has consistently declined.

AFP said the radio station is the only means the outlawed opposition have at their disposal to make their views known in Equatorial Guinea," the AFP report said. In 1992, President Obiang Nguema ordered the closure of the Malabo relay of another broadcasting station claiming it was serving the cause of the opposition.

CHAD: French deputy demands colleague's release

The visit to France of Chad's president, Idriss Deby, has been marked by fresh demands for release from prison of the parliamentarian Ngarledjy Yorongar, AFP reported on Tuesday.

It said the French Green Party's member of parliament for the Gironde region, Noel Mamere, sent a letter to Deby insisting Yorongar was set free "unconditionally".

Yorongar was reportedly unfairly sentenced to three years in gaol earlier this month after criticising a joint Chad-Cameroon oil extraction project managed by the French oil giant ELF, which he said threatened local communities in the area.

"ELF no longer makes the law in Africa," AFP quoted Mamere as saying.

Abidjan, 29 July 1998 18:45 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: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 19:01:13 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 261, 98.7.29 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980729183758.17379A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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