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IRIN-WA Update 320 of Events in West Africa (Tuesday 20 October 1998)
GUINEA BISSAU: Civilians continue to flee capital
More residents fled the Guinea Bissau capital today
(Tuesday) as heavy artillery and machine-gun fire once
again broke out between loyalist and anti-government
forces, humanitarian sources in the city told IRIN.
"We have as few people in the town as on 7 June,"
one source said.
Independent estimates now put the number of people still in the city at between 20,000 and 30,000 people out of a former population of some 200,000 and has effectively ended a gradual return since a 27 July ceasefire.
Residents have also begun fleeing the second city, Bafata, with the breakdown of the ceasefire four days ago. Fighting reached Bissau on Sunday forcing residents to head for Safim, Nhacra and Bissora to the north, and Prabis to the west.
Other people have been leaving Bissau in boats for the Bijagos islands. The airport is still in rebel hands.
Humanitarian sources told IRIN that an exact number of people fleeing the fighting could not be determined immediately. One source said a centre might be established in the Bijagos for food deliveries to Bolama and Prabis. Other deliveries might be made from the Gambian capital, Banjul, and to Cacheu and Canchungo.
Another humanitarian source said they would consider temporarily relocating fleeing Bafata residents to the eastern Senegalese town of Tamacounda, then to Gabu in northeast Guinea Bissau.
Portugal, the former colonial power in the country, said it was preparing to evacuate its 150 nationals still trapped by the fighting, Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama said on radio in Lisbon.
NIGERIA: No compensation for oil fire victims
Nigerian military leader General Abdulsalami Abubakar said yesterday (Monday) there would be no compensation to relatives of some 500 people killed in an oil pipeline fire at the weekend, media reports said.
These reports said the government has decided to withhold compensation because most of the victims were scavenging fuel. Abubakar blamed the oil spillage at the village of Jesse, where the disaster occurred, on sabotage.
The government has said it would pay the medical bills of the injured but the BBC reported that many hospitals lacked resources and were "having to turn away the injured".
Reuters reported that most local news media put the death toll above 500 and said many other victims were unlikely to survive. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said through a spokesman yesterday he was shocked to learn of the deaths.
Nine parties cleared to contest elections
Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday approved nine of the 26 political associations which had applied to contest elections designed to end decades of military rule, media reports said.
The parties, which will be allowed to partake in local elections on 5 December are the All Peoples Party, Alliance For Democracy, Democratic Advance Movement, Movement for Democracy and Justice, National Solidarity Movement, Peoples Democratic party, Peoples Redemption Party, United Democratic Party and United Peoples Party.
PANA reported that a party must gain at least 10 percent of the votes cast in the local council polls to be able to contest the remaining elections at state and presidential levels.
SIERRA LEONE: Kabbah defends execution
Sierra Leone President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah justified in a radio address yesterday the public execution of 24 soldiers convicted of treason for human rights abuses they had committed under the junta, news agencies reported.
The 24 military officers and soldiers, including a woman sergeant, faced a firing squad near a military base southwest of Freetown.
Kabbah said the condemned had "showed no remorse or sympathy after their trial ... and they would not hesitate to repeat the same acts if given the opportunity". He added that there was no "justification to interfere with the decision of the court," which had found the defendants guilty of treason for having collaborated with the military junta. The junta was ousted by the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, in February and Kabbah's elected government reinstated.
UN sources in Freetown told IRIN that the general sense after the execution was that justice had been "meted" out. Local newspapers showed pictures of those executed and provided a list of names, but did not provide much comment on the executions.
Among those executed were the former chiefs of staff, General Hassan Conteh and General Samuel Koroma, the brother of former junta leader, Johnny Paul Koroma. Koroma is still in hiding.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Office Minister Tony Lloyd regretted that the execution of 24 soldiers had been carried out by the Sierra Leonean government, a statement received by IRIN said today.
However, Lloyd said he understood the demand within Sierra Leone for "justice to be seen to be done following the appalling and brutal butchery carried out by the junta". He called on the governmment "to embark on a proper process of reconciliation".
Lloyd had spoken personally to Kabbah on 16 October to request for clemency for officers.
A human rights NGO, Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement received today said: "This will not sow the seeds of national reconciliation, nor help to establish a state based on respect of international human rights standards". Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) told IRIN yesterday that they were very disappointed by the sentence which had been carried out.
Meanwhile, 16 civilians, convicted and sentenced to death by civilian courts on 25 August, have appealed the convictions, but no dates have yet to be set for the hearings.
Rebel activity still a concern, UN says
Annan, in a UN report submitted to the Security Council, strongly condemned summary executions, torture, mutilations, rapes, looting and other acts of barbarism" carried out by the former junta elements. Annan called on on them to lay down their arms and surrender.
The report said the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) had received reliable reports of other forms of atrocities, including the detention of the elderly or incapacitated men in huts, which were then set on fire.
Annan also condemned the senseless acts of terror perpetuated against children, such as the amputation of limbs of young children.
Rebel activity "continues to cause the dislocation of the local population". The UN-OCHA office in Freetown has recorded up to 250,000 persons who have left their homes. However, proper registration of the internally displaced has been hindered by security constraints.
The UN report on the situation in Sierra Leone is issued every two months in order to brief the Security Council on the events in the country. (Second progress report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone: S/1998/960)
UNITED NATIONS: Global crisis setback for world's poor
The deepening global economic crisis and reduced growth prospects have been a severe setback for poverty reduction efforts, UNDP said in a report released this week.
Speaking at UN Headquarters in New York, the director of UNDP's Social Development and Poverty Elimination Unit, Thierry Lemaresquier, said his report had been designed as a global overview of progress since the 1995 World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen.
However, many countries now faced loosing a second decade for poverty eradication because of the world economic slowdown.
"Stronger action is needed to protect poor people from the onslaught of recession and to mobilise their energies and creativity for recovery," Lemaresquier said.
Nevertheless, official development assistance had now fallen to an all-time low, representing just 0.22 percent of the gross domestic product of industrialised countries.
"It is as if there is a collective default by the international community on commitments - particularly those to eradicate absolute poverty - made at the Copenhagen summit," Lemaresquier continued.
Nevertheless, Oxfam told IRIN today that it saw "no room for despair". Oxfam said poverty alleviation targets set in Copenhagen were still achievable, however, donor governments had to make painful decisions to put the process back on track.
"But patently insufficient action is taking place at the moment," an Oxfam spokesman said.
UNDP Administrator, James Speth, is currently in Japan attending an international conference on African development.
Abidjan, Tuesday 20 October 1998 18:00 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: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 18:04:48 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 320 for 1998.10.20 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.981020180337.4154A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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