UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN Update 462 for 5/12/99

IRIN Update 462 for 5/12/99


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 462 of events in West Africa (Wednesday 12 May)

GUINEA BISSAU: Sanha chosen as interim president

Malam Sanha, president of Guinea Bissau's legislature, the Assembleia Nacional Popular, was chosen on Tuesday as interim president until new general and presidential elections are held in November, news reports said.

Sanha was nominated at a meeting he had on Tuesday with Military Junta leader Brigadier General Ansumane Mane and political parties. Lusa said the assembly was expected to meet on Wednesday to ratify his appointment as successor to President Joao Bernardo Viera, ousted on Friday after just over 11 months of political and military turmoil.

In an effort to head off possible international isolation of Guinea Bissau, Sanha, speaking over Portuguese Renascenca radio, appealed to the former colonial power, Portugal, to "do as it has done up to now": make the international community understand that there was no coup and rally international support for the West African country.

"I, myself in particular, will do my upmost to ensure that this uprising will be for the good of the people of Guinea Bissau and, above all, for the consolidation of democracy and development," Lusa quoted Sanha as saying.

His fears appear to be well founded. Nations like France and Mali have condemned the Junta's action. So too have the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan. Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said on Tuesday that the UN was "reviewing the options" with regard to its involvement in the peace process.

The UN had opened a Peace-building Support Office (UNOGBIS) in the country and recently appointed Cameroonian diplomat Samuel Nana-Kinkam as its head.

Assembly to vote on Vieira's fate

Meanwhile, Lusa reported that a decision on Vieira's fate was to be announced on Thursday. However, it said the discernible mood at Tuesday's meeting was that Vieira must stand trial before leaving the country. Lusa reported the Junta as saying it allowed Vieira to seek refuge in the Portuguese Embassy on condition that he be turned over for trial if Guinea Bissau's current leaders so decided.

However, the agency quoted a Portuguese Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that the Junta never made such demands on the government in Lisbon.

Forces calling for Vieira's trial said he must be made accountable for his alleged crimes against the country. Others said he should be allowed to go into exile in Portugal.

Sanha said the best thing for the country would be for Vieira to leave so that the international community would not turn its back on Guinea Bissau. For his part, Prime Minister Francisco Fadul said Vieira was politically dead and that the country had neither the time, money or patience to keep him. Mane, one of Vieira's comrades in arms during the liberation war, said there was no need to kill his personal friend against whom he revolted.

SIERRA LEONE: RUF submits peace proposal to Eyadema

Sierra Leone rebels called on Tuesday for the release of their leader, Foday Sankoh, as a condition for negotiations on ending the conflict, news organisations reported.

"Our leader must be freed unconditionally in order for him to participate in the negotiations," Reuters quoted Solomon Rogers as saying after holding strategy talks with Sankoh in Lome, Togo.

Rogers, head of a delegation of rebel field commanders, handed over the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)'s proposals for peace to Togo's President Gnassingbe Eyadema, current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Eyadema is leading regional mediation efforts to end the war in Sierra Leone.

"We can assure you that we are committed to peace. We are ready to negotiate," news organisations quoted Sankoh as telling Eyadema at a ceremony in Lome.

According to AFP, Eyadema said that the rebel demand for the "unconditional release of Sankoh" would be "one condition, among others, to be thrashed out at the negotiating table".

RUF and government representatives were expected to start direct negotiations at the end of the consultations in Togo but on Tuesday neither side said when these talks would begin, Reuters reported.

Malian peacekeepers killed during attack on Port Loko

News reports say that between seven and nine Malian soldiers serving in the ECOMOG peacekeeping force were killed by rebels during fighting around the town of Port Loko last week. Three Malian soldiers were also reported missing after the attack on the town, some 58km northeast of Freetown.

Malian and Nigerian ECOMOG troops protecting Port Loko fought against rebels last Friday with heavy losses reported on both sides, Reuters reported diplomats as saying. However, an ECOMOG spokesman told IRIN this week that they had suffered only "a few casualties".

A spokesman for the RUF, Omrie Golley, urged Mali to withdraw its troops from Sierra Leone after their involvement in the recent fighting, Reuters reported.

Mali sent over 400 troops to Sierra Leone in February following the rebel attack on Freetown on 6 January. Mali's involvement in the conflict was unpopular at home even before news of the latest casualties, according to the BBC.

Hundreds displaced after fighting

Meanwhile hundreds of civilians who fled the fighting in Port Loko have arrived just outside Freetown, AFP said on Tuesday. They were "malnourished women and children seeking temporary shelter in need of food, medicine, blankets and mats," AFP reported an aid worker as saying.

NIGERIA: Pressure group wants some foreigners out of Niger Delta

A militant community group has warned nationals of countries with oil interests in the troubled Niger delta in south-eastern Nigeria to leave the area within a week, news media have reported.

According to AFP, the warning came in a message which the Federated Niger-Delta Ijaw Communities sent on Tuesday to embassies and media houses in Lagos.

Foreign oil companies operating in Nigeria include the Anglo-Dutch group Shell, Elf and Total of France, Agip of Italy and Texaco, Mobil and Chevron of the United States.

The warning followed an upsurge in unrest in Warri, a main Delta town, where some 25 people have been killed in clashes since the end of last week between Ijaws and another local community, the Itsekiri, in what has been reported as a land dispute.

Naira loses 10 percent of its value

Meanwhile, the naira has lost 10 percent of its value this year, according to PANA, which reported that the Nigerian currency slipped on Friday from 90 to the US dollar to 94.88 to the dollar.

AFRICA: First ladies call for peaceful resolution of conflicts

African first ladies on Tuesday appealed to the continent's political leaders to show more commitment to "non-violent options in the resolution of political conflicts", PANA reported.

In a 15-point declaration issued at the end of a two-day meeting in Abuja, they also drew attention to the "misery and deprivation of refugees and displaced persons" created by the many conflicts on the continent.

The meeting was attended by the first ladies of Chad, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda, who appealed for greater responsiveness by governments, the international community, NGOs and people of goodwill "to help assuage the sufferings of this class of people", PANA added.

The first ladies also underlined the importance of "promoting fundamental human rights and democracy as means of creating peaceful and viable societies", PANA said.

Abidjan, 12 May 1999, 17:05 GMT

[ENDS]

Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 17:17:57 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN Update 462 for 12 May [19990513]

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

Previous Menu Home Page What's New Search Country Specific