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IRIN-WA Update 452 of events in West Africa (Wednesday 28 April)
SIERRA LEONE: Government buys combat helicopters
President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone has announced the purchase of two new helicopter gunships designed to confront "internal and potential external aggression", a government spokesman told IRIN on Wednesday.
Kabbah made the announcement at a ceremony marking the country's 38th independence anniversary on Tuesday in which he was quoted as saying the helicopters would be used in the country's war against rebels and "to warn those interfering in the sovereignty of our country that we are now preparing for any external aggressors".
The helicopters, which military analysts identified as Ukrainian-built Mi-24 gunships, would be used "to ensure the security and stability" of Sierra Leone, presidential spokesman Septimus Kaikai told IRIN.
Analysts interpreted the announcement as a "warning" to President Charles Taylor of neighbouring Liberia. Since the outset of the Sierra Leone conflict eight years ago, Liberia has been blamed by Freetown and other countries for supporting rebels of Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and a group of army renegades called the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) in their war against Kabbah's democratically elected administration.
Security situation
Kaikai also told IRIN that since the rebels had been ousted from the capital Freetown after an invasion in January, the West African peace monitoring force, ECOMOG, and other pro-government units had managed to cut off rebel units from each other.
Links between groups in the north and the diamond mining east, as well as those between rebels in the east and the biggest RUF base on the Liberia border had been severed. An ECOMOG source told IRIN that pro-government forces had also made "tremendous progress" on the battlefield.
ECOMOG Force Commander Major General Felix Mujakperuo has visited forward positions and found that rebel resistance in Sierra Leone was becoming "more and more feeble".
Against this background and the possibility of RUF dialogue with the government, Kaikai told IRIN: "The government was not going to engage in any dialogue from a position of weakness."
Kaikai said as soon as the pro-government forces cleared the highway from Freetown to Kenema in the east, and once the western part of the country was under control, the government would approach donors about rebuilding the devastated capital.
GUINEA BISSAU: Rebels reject nominee prosecutor
Guinea Bissau's Military Junta has rejected a presidential nominee for public prosecutor, marking renewed tension in the country's shaky implementation of a 1998 peace agreement, Reuters reported.
The junta, which comprises army rebels now in control of most of the country after a military rebellion last year against President Joao Bernardo Vieira, had objected to the nomination of Luis Cabral on Monday because it had not been consulted.
A spokesman added that the appointment was thus in contravention of the peace deal signed in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, between Vieira and his rival, the junta leader General Ansumane Mane.
The new controversy comes in the wake of a non-violent but tension-filled confrontation on Friday between rival forces over the sacking of the mayor of the capital Bissau, a Vieira appointee.
SENEGAL: Dakar rejects referendum on Casamance
Senegal has rejected a suggestion by Guinea Bissau's caretaker Prime Minister Francisco Fadul for a referendum for self-rule in the southern Casamance area. Dakar dismissed the idea as "a flagrant and unacceptable interference" in the country's affairs, PANA reported.
Fadul, in a message to the government in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, said the referendum was one way of ending the civil war waged by guerrillas of the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC).
But PANA said the Senegalese Ministry of Communication had branded Fadul's suggestion as contrary to "the rules of good neighbourliness which Senegal has always gone all-out of to maintain with Guinea Bissau".
Until recently, tension was high between Fadul's backers, the Military Junta, and Dakar which had sent troops to back President Vieira against Mane's rebellion.
CAMEROON: Former presidential doctor jailed
The Cameroon Court of Appeal has upheld a 15-year jail sentenced served in 1997 against the former personal doctor of President Paul Biya, AFP reported on Tuesday.
In a dispatch from the Cameroon capital, Yaounde, it said the doctor, Titus Edzoa, a former health minister, had been tried for embezzlement in 1997 after deciding to run against Biya in presidential elections.
The court upheld the convictions against Edzoa and an assistant, Thierry Michel Atangana, for "joint misappropriation of funds" arising out of a road project they allegedly directed from the presidential office. They were also ordered to pay a fine amounting to US $580,000 to make up for the money allegedly embezzled.
AFP quoted their lawyer as saying the verdict was "political" and that he would lodge a further appeal to have the case quashed.
NIGER: Former premier urges support for new military rulers
Mahamadou Issoufou, a former prime minister and opposition leader has told a rally in the Niger capital Niamey that although he "regretted" the assassination of President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara on 9 April, the public should support the new military government because it had pledged a return to democracy.
In remarks on Monday carried by Gabonese 'Africa No 1 Radio' in broadcast monitored by the BBC, Issoufou said the international community which criticised the coup led by the country's new military ruler, Major Daouda Mallam Wanke, should bear in mind that Wanke had promised a nine-month transition to elections and civilian rule.
"There is a new opportunity that the people of Niger must seize before creating the conditions for the establishment of stable republican institutions in order to create the conditions that should respond to the profound aspirations of the Niger people to democracy," he said. "The nine-month transition period envisages free and transparent elections - something that we have always demanded in Niger."
It said more than 2,000 people had gathered to hear Issoufou and other former opponents of Mainassara.
TOGO: Opposition party defies protest ban
Celebrations by the opposition Union des forces de changement (UFC), a party led by the exiled politician, Gilchrist Olympio, went ahead in the Togolese capital on Tuesday without incident despite a government ban, news organisations reported.
Togolese Interior Minister General Seyi Memene had banned the ceremony which was called to mark the 39th independence anniversary. AFP said more than 1,000 UFC supporters had turned out for a church service and to hear a message broadcast by Olympio from exile in neighbouring Ghana.
The UFC which has been demanding a re-run of the June 1998 elections, said it had wanted to test the right to freedom of assembly.
Abidjan, 28 April 1999 18:25 GMT
[ENDS]
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 15:31:51 +0300 (EAT) From: IRIN - Central and Eastern Africa <irin@ocha.unon.org> Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN Update 452 for 28 April [19990429]
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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