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IRIN-WA Update 472 of events in West Africa (Wednesday 26 May)
SIERRA LEONE: RUF, ECOMOG commanders meet in the bush
Military commanders from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and ECOMOG met on Tuesday some 40 km from Freetown, ECOMOG spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukulade told IRIN on Wednesday.
Olukulade said the rebels had sent a boy soldier aged about seven years with a message to one of the ECOMOG (ECOWAS Peace Monitoring Group) field commanders in the area, Colonel Ralph Apata, saying the insurgents wanted to surrender and "were tired of being in the bush".
However when the two sides came face to face, Olukulade said, the rebels "wanted to play to the gallery of journalists and observers present" and instead of surrendering, discussed the exchange of prisoners of war and other issues relating to the peace process.
Meanwhile the UN food agency, the World Food Programme (WFP) appealed on Wednesday for "safe and unimpeded access by humanitarian organisations to all people in need of food and other aid".
[See separate item: irin-english-898, headlined "RUF, ECOMOG commanders meet in the bush"]
Peace talks delayed
Direct negotiations between delegates of the RUF and the government have been delayed due to "procedural issues", Reuters reported on Wednesday.
"There is no programme. We don't know when or how things are going to proceed," Reuters quoted Solomon Rogers, Chairman of the People's War Council and leader of the RUF delegation, as saying. Togo's Foreign Minister, Joseph Koffigoh, whose country is hosting the talks, said direct negotiations were likely to start by Wednesday evening, according to Reuters.
The talks were officially launched on Tuesday in Lome.
After a prayer by Catholic Bishop Giorgio Biguzzi, the RUF delegation sang their rebel anthem while members of the government negotiating team "sat motionless", AFP reported.
Rogers repeated the RUF calls for a four-year transitional government, a blanket amnesty for RUF members and freedom for the movement's leader, Foday Sankoh, news organisations reported.
The head of the government's delegation, Justice Minister Solomon Berewa, said that the right of the Sierra Leonean people to choose how they are governed needed to be respected: President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah was democratically elected in February 1996.
NIGERIA: Few details on Obasanjo's game plan
With just days to go before president-elect Olusegun Obasanjo is sworn in as Nigeria's new democratically elected head of state, there is little detail on the programmes his administration plans to adopt to heal a country brutalised by 15 years of military misrule, analysts say.
"The president-elect has not been talking about specifics because he's not in office," Obasanjo's campaign manager Onyema Ugochukwu told IRIN on Wednesday. "He's careful to get there first, but things will move quickly after that."
However, for civil liberties and opposition groups, the concern is that Obasanjo - a former military head of state who handed over to a civilian government in 1979 - may not offer fundamental change.
[See separate item: irin-english-896, headlined "Few details on Obasanjo's game plan"]
Meanwhile, Nigerian foreign policy towards Liberia under a new civilian government is likely to stress international sanctions in an attempt to "ring fence" President Charles Taylor, regarded as a source of regional instability, policy analysts told IRIN.
"Nigeria has to show Taylor one way or another that Liberia can be punished," said Oche Ogaba, a research fellow at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, a government advisory body. "If it can be established that Taylor is providing arms and funding the rebels in Sierra Leone, sanctions can be employed punitively.."
Nigeria, Britain and the United States have accused Taylor of directly supporting the Revolutionary United Front rebels, which represents a direct challenge to Nigeria, the regional superpower, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), who back Sierra Leonean President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.
[See separate item: irin-english-897, headlined "Sanctions being considered against Taylor"]
NIGER: ECOWAS asked to help with elections
West African foreign ministers have asked their highest regional economic body, ECOWAS, "to lend active support" to Niger's plans for democratic elections later this year.
In their final communique published on Tuesday, following an emergency meeting on crises in West Africa, the ministers recommended that ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) Executive Secretary Lansana Kouyate take part in the preparation and supervision of elections promised for December by the military government.
Niger is run by a 14-member Conseil de reconciliation nationale, headed by Major Daouda Wanke, whose unit killed then president Ibrahim Bare Mainassara in a 9 April coup.
A technical committee set up by the new military rulers has drafted a new constitution and electoral code, which are to be examined by a new consultative body.
GUINEA BISSAU: Army destroys 2,000 land mines
Guinea Bissau's military destroyed at least 2,000 land mines on Tuesday in what it termed a "gesture" to call international attention to the need to make the area around the capital safe, news reports said.
The operation was conducted in the neighbourhoods of Enterramento and Plaque-2, formerly controlled by the Military Junta that ousted President Joao Bernardo Vieira, AFP reported.
Residents of both neighbourhoods were asked to evacuate the area before the mines were destroyed by military engineers, the Junta said on radio.
The Junta had accused the pro-Vieira forces of having
planted thousands of mines in a vain effort to stop
Junta forces from breaching the capital's defences.
ABIDJAN, 26 May 1999, 18:00 GMT
[ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-899
[This item is delivered in the "irin-english" service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information or free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or fax: +254 2 622129 or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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