UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-West Africa Update 317 for 1998.10.15

IRIN-West Africa Update 317 for 1998.10.15


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

tel: +225 21 73 54 fax: +22521 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa africaonline.co.ci

IRIN-WA Update 317 of Events in West Africa (Thursday 15 October 1998)

NIGERIA: Exiled Soyinka returns to tumultuous welcome

Nobel literature laureate Wole Soyinka ended four years of exile and returned home yesterday (Wednesday) to an enthusiastic welcome from thousands of chanting and dancing supporters. "His coming will help define direction for political groups," Akin Akingbulu, head of Nigeria's Independent Journalism Centre in Lagos, told IRIN today (Thursday).

Soyinka has called for a national conference to discuss Nigeria's future. However, military ruler General Abdulsalami Abubakar has already rejected that idea, saying the military would hand over power to an elected civilian president on 29 May 1999.

Akingbulu said he expected Soyinka "to focus on transparency and consistency of the military so that they don't plant mines in this transition". He added that Soyinka, who is the leader of the United Democratic Front of Nigeria, would likely consult with the political class on ways of maintaining momentum in completing the transition process.

Meanwhile, the International Freedom of Expression Exchange Clearing House in Toronto, Canada, listed yesterday one journalist still in prison, one whose whereabouts were unknown and a third whose manner of death was being contested by his family.

Rights group plan to sue Chevron over deaths

Lawyers for human rights activists plan to sue US oil giant Chevron for their alleged complicity in the deaths of two protesters on an offshore oil rig in May 1997, Reuters has reported.

The agency said on Monday a New York law firm, The Centre for Constitutional Rights, was reviewing the case for the concerned families, "with a view to filing suit". Reuters reported that the dispute arose over the occupation of Chevron's Parabe offshore rig in the southeastern Niger Delta late in May by some 100 demonstrators.

The complainants claim that two youths were shot dead by military and police personnel while the protestors were in negotiations with Chevron officials over compensation for environmental damage. Chevron declined to comment to IRIN today on the affair or any other issue concerning its operations in Nigeria.

Chevron, Reuters said, disputed the protestors' account that they were surprised early on 28 May and that Navy and police "opened fire and began bayoneting without warning."

Youths seize two Chevron flow stations

Meanwhile, other news reports said youths seized two Chevron flow stations at Abiteye and Olero Creek on Monday, bringing production at these facilities to a halt. Both facilities pump oil to the Escravos terminal in the delta. Chevron also refused to comment on the reported detention of on Monday of 30 workers at the two sites.

Youths in the Delta, mostly from the Ijaw community, last week seized 15 flow stations belonging to the Anglo-Dutch giant, Shell, the largest producer in the area. The actions locked in some 378,000 barrels of oil daily.

The youths have been protesting pollution and the lack of physical development in their areas. The oil companies have said the protestors, sometimes armed, say their grievance is against the government and not the oil giants. The firms say they have sought negotiation as a means of overcoming seizures of their facilities.

An official at the UN Economic Commission for Africa told IRIN that if the disruptions to supplies continue it would take less than one year before Nigeria begins to feel its effects. He added that, meanwhile: "Nigeria is likely to lose 25 percent of its budget revenue because of a fall in oil prices."

Benchmark crude slipped below US $13 on Wednesday. Nigeria earns 90 percent of its foreign revenue from oil sales.

SIERRA LEONE: Security a source of heightened concern

Political analysts told IRIN today that the security situation in Sierra Leone was tense and a cause of concern within the international community. The sources mentioned reports of Liberian fighters moving "en masse" into the Kailahun district in Sierra Leone in an alleged bid to bolster the remnants of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and allies, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) against the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, and the Sierra Leonean army. They have been waging war against the rebels in an attempt to flush them out of eastern and northern Sierra Leone. Analysts say the rebels continue to carry out a campaign of terror on the civilian population by maiming, raping and looting.

One source estimated that over 5,000 fighters had crossed the border into Sierra Leone. However, the reports have not been verified or substantiated independently.

Sankoh calls Kabbah as defence witness

The leader of Sierra Leone's rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) has called President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah as a defence witness in his treason trial, media reports said yesterday. The BBC quoted Foday Sankoh as saying Kabbah and two of his ministers, Dr Julius Spencer and Shirley Gbujama, had vital documents relevant to his case.

Sankoh reportedly rejected judge Justice Samuel Ademsu's proposal that Kabbah could tender the documents without appearing in person. Sankoh also stated his intention to call the chairman of Sierra Leone's former military junta, Lieutenant Colonel Johnny Paul Koroma, who is still at large and wanted by the civilian government for joining the RUF in a May 1997 military coup.

A Western legal expert told IRIN today, however, that Sankoh must have access to defence witnesses for his trial to meet international judicial standards. "If Kabbah refuses to come to court and there is no way to get hold of Koroma, Sankoh may have a case that he has not been given a fair trial. At the very least, he could demand a lengthy adjournment or show grounds for appeal," he said. Sankoh was expected to begin his defence on Friday, the BBC said.

LIBERIA: Human rights group rejects "incitement" charge

Liberia's leading human rights group, the Justice and Peace Commission (JPC), told IRIN today that it "totally rejected" ministry of information accusations earlier this week that it has "incited the people" against President Charles Taylor's government.

The row broke out following fighting last month in the capital, Monrovia, between government troops and supporters of Taylor's main civil war rival, General Roosevelt Johnson. The JPC issued a statement calling on the government to investigate the origins of the conflict and demonstrate there had been no subsequent campaign of reprisals against Johnson's ethnic Krahn group.

However, the government reportedly took exception and summoned leading JPC members to account for their statement, issued a warrant for JPC director Samuel Kofi Woods, and impounded one of the group's vehicles.

Woods told IRIN he was also "concerned" that the government had earlier claimed the matter had been settled amicably, but had now demanded evidence to support allegations by JPC of mass graves.

Government bans Web papers

In a separate development, Liberia's government has banned its national press from publishing information on the Internet, independent Star Radio reported today.

The Monrovia-based broadcaster quoted the ministry of information as saying papers had been "operating news agencies on the Internet" without permission and running "unauthenticated newspaper articles and gossip columns".

Liberia was only connected to the Internet last month, however at least five Monrovia papers have started publishing regular Web editions.

NIGER: Schools stay shut over teacher pay dispute

Schools remained shut today as three teachers' unions continued their boycott of classes over unpaid August salaries, AFP reported. Only students reported for classes in many schools in the capital, Niamey. AFP reported that some teachers attended a mass union meeting while others queued at the post office and the Ministry of Education in the hope of getting paid.

Education Minister Moumoumi Aissata said over radio that government had started paying teachers' salaries yesterday. Niger's school attendance level is 30 percent. The government has said it wants to raise this figure by two percentage points in 1999.

WEST AFRICA: WFP says food crises are on the rise

WFP said in a press release yesterday that food crises round the world were on the rise with many more people suffering from malnutrition and hunger compared to a year ago.

WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini said it had increased its food aid to millions of people because of the impact of natural disasters, economic emergencies and man-made catastrophes on their lives. She said the El Nino phenomenon had exacerbated drought and flooding in Africa and other parts of the world.

Bertini said it was more important than ever to bring the "hunger agenda" to the attention of the international community as people could be thrown into the hunger trap at a moment's notice.

Wagdi Othman, WFP Regional Information Officer in Abidjan, told IRIN today that food aid needs had increased substantially in West Africa. The conflict in Guinea Bissau which threw some 350,000 people on the streets in June has resulted in WFP feeding some 300,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Meanwhile, WFP has a caseload of 1.3 million beneficiaries in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea: 300,000 cases in Sierra Leone, and 500,000 in Liberia and Guinea respectively.

UN warning over the world's poorest

A report issued by the UN Conference and Trade and Development (UNCTAD) warned yesterday that the recent economic progress made by the poorest countries in the world was likely to be wiped out by the double burden of natural disasters and the threat of global recession. It said although the economies of the least developed countries grew in 1997, world-wide economic conditions had deteriorated since then and would impact them negatively. Most of the 48 States are in Africa.

Abidjan 15 October 1998 19:00 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 or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to <archive@ocha.unon.org> - mailing list: irin-wa-updates]

Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 19:37:28 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 317 for 1998.10.15 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.981015193501.3374A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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