UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN Update 445 for 4/19/99

IRIN Update 445 for 4/19/99


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@ocha.unon.org

IRIN-WA Update 445 of events in West Africa (Monday 19 April)

SIERRA LEONE: RUF commanders still awaited for Lome talks

Rebels commanders of Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) were still to arrive in Lome, Togo, for consultative talks with their detained political leader, Foday Sankoh.

Tchabode Adgagbe, the Togolese Foreign Ministry spokesman told IRIN on Monday: "Some are in Liberia and others still in the Sierra Leonean bush."

The RUF group, comprising between 14 and 20 individuals, is due to discuss with Sankoh peace proposals for presentation to the Sierra Leonean government. This RUF meeting, on neutral ground, was a condition set by the rebels for participating in peace talks with the government in Freetown.

Sankoh arrived in Lome on Sunday escorted by UN officials from the capital, Freetown, where he is being held pending an appeal on a treason conviction. Sankoh was met by Togolese Foreign Minister Joseph Kokou Koffigoh, Reuters reported. Sierra Leone President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah released Sankoh for the meeting in an effort to break the battlefield impasse in Sierra Leone.

"The Revolutionary United Front is convinced of the need for peace and they know that they have to make some sacrifice," Sankoh told reporters as he boarded the Lome-bound UN plane at Freetown's Lungi International Airport.

The RUF has been demanding Sankoh's release for months but Kabbah has said the courts would decide Sankoh's fate. However, more recently, Kabbah has said he would pardon Sankoh if that would guarantee lasting peace in the country.

Rebels propose coalition government

Meanwhile, the independent Liberian station, 'Star Radio' reported on Monday that the RUF was proposing a coalition with the government in an effort to promote national reconciliation.

It said the proposal was contained in a document the RUF delegation has prepared for talks with the Sierra Leone Government after the RUF consultations in Lome. In the document, made available to Star radio, the RUF said a new political order in Sierra Leone "must involve rural and urban residents in the running of Sierra Leone".

On disarmament, the RUF and its ally, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) also said the exercise had to include the pro-government Kamajor militia and other civil defense forces created during the conflict.

The rebels, consistently accused of inflicting mutilations on the civilian population, added "the current cycle of wickedness" must not be allowed to expand, Star radio reported. "They also want vengeance discouraged."

The RUF and its junta allies said they had not been willing to cooperate with the Government because Kabbah lacked sincerity in the peace process. The rebels said the desire for peace would fail if people continued to prepare for war, Star radio said.

British back peace talks

Meanwhile, the British Foreign Office said its minister, Tony Lloyd, would chair a meeting of the international Contact Group on Sierra Leone later on Monday in New York. The gathering was scheduled to discuss the international community's response to the political, security and humanitarian situation in Sierra Leone and provide international backing for the Lome talks.

"Britain and the rest of the international community will stand with the peacemakers. We call on all involved in this conflict to follow our lead," Lloyd said.

Nigeria's president-elect pledges troops till peace returns

Nigerian President-elect Olusegun Obasanjo said his nation's troops in ECOMOG, the West African peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone, would remain until security was restored.

Speaking on Saturday in Kara, northern Togo, he said "one could not give a date" for their withdrawal, which depended on circumstances.. During his presidential campaign he promised voters he would withdraw troops from Sierra Leone as soon as possible. Obasanjo is to be inaugurated on 29 May.

British, Canadian support for ECOMOG

In a related development, ECOMOG announced on 16 April it had taken delivery of logistics material donated by the British and Canadian governments. The donation comprising tents, water treatment equipment, electricity generating equipment, medical supplies, ration packs and other items had been given to the Ghanaian and Nigerian contingents for the 15,000-strong multi-national force.

NIGERIA: Abubakar due to meet governors-elect to stop strike

Nigeria's military ruler, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, might meet in the capital Abuja on Tuesday with the country's 36 governors-elect to discuss an indefinite public sector strike over minimum wage levels which started last week.

The independent daily, 'The Guardian', said on Monday that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had indicated its willingness to call off the strike in any affected state immediately the government "puts in motion relevant machinery" for implementing the 3,000 naira (US $32) minimum wage. Workers said they would not call off the action unless the state governments agreed to the new package.

The NLC has accused state administrators of "instigating the crisis" by their failure to pay the minimum wage, despite a federal government directive last Friday instructing them to do so, 'The Guardian' added.

Meanwhile Nigeria's main teaching union called on its members to start strike action on Monday in support of their colleagues in the public sector, AFP reported.

Obasanjo hints at broad-based government

Nigeria's president-elect, Olusegun Obasanjo, has hinted he will form a broad-based government when he takes power on 29 May, news organisations reported on Monday.

Obasanjo, speaking to reporters on Sunday, said he wanted a government that would take in both "friends and opponents", hinting at the possibility of roles for other political parties, 'The Guardian' said.

However, he has not yet said who might join his first cabinet when civilians start to run the country for the first time in more than 15 years, AFP reported.

Islamic leader's warning

The removal of a provision for Islamic Sharia law from the new Nigerian constitution could "destroy the country", AFP quoted Lateef Adegbite, a leading member of the Islamic community, as saying.

Adegbite, secretary-general of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, said that the military ruler, General Abubakar, was wrong to say Sharia law would not be included. He was reacting to remarks by Abubakar at the weekend that no provision would be made in the new constitution being prepared for the incoming civilian government.

Some 50 percent of Nigeria's 108 million people are Muslims, the remaining 40 percent are Christians and 10 percent animists.

GUINEA BISSAU: President called to answer charges

Guinea Bissau's parliament has voted to have President Joao Bernado Vieira answer charges that he had been aware last year of illegal arms shipments to separatists in the troubled neighbouring Senegalese area of Casamance.

Sources in the capital, Bissau, told IRIN on Monday, that 74 of the 90 members of parliament present on Friday upheld the conclusions of a parliamentary commission that Vieira should face a supreme court trial on charges that he was aware of the arms smuggling by a number of his aides, most of them army officers, but that he had done "nothing against it".

The recommendations were that Vieira and the aides in question stand trial within a month.

It was just ahead of a parliamentary debate on arms trafficking in June last year, that Vieira sacked his army chief, General Ansumane Mane, sparking a military rebellion that resulted in six months of fighting. The parliamentary inquiry cleared Mane of involvement in the arms dealing.

By late Monday, the sources said, Vieira had not reacted to the parliamentary vote.

TOGO: Government resigns

Togolese Prime Minister Kwassi Klutse and his government resigned on Saturday but have been asked by President Gnassingbe Eyadema to continue in a caretaker role, AFP reported.

The president's office said Klutse's team would continue to handle outstanding business. The government's resignation followed the publication of the 21 March general election results by the Constitutional Court in which the Rassemblement du peuple togolaise (RPT) won 77 of the 79 seats. Independent candidates won the other two seats.

Klutse's cabinet was formed after Eyadema won presidential elections in June 1998 whose results were contested by the opposition.

NIGER: New cabinet announced

The new military government in Niger has announced a 20-member cabinet only two of whom are army officers, the official state radio, 'Voix du Sahel', reported at the weekend.

Analysts said the duties of the new government, however, would remain in the hands of Major Daouda Mallam Wanke, who assumed power last week after the presidential guard unit which he commanded assassinated President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara.

IRIN West Africa has published a full list of the cabinet, in which a woman, Aichatou Mindaoudou, was named foreign minister. It is also available at the website http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN

Abidjan, 19 April 1999, 17:45 GMT

[ENDS]

Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 18:40:16 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN Update 445 for 19 April [19990419]

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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