UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 19-1999 [19990515]

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 19-1999 [19990515]


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

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 19 covering the period 8-14 May 1999

GUINEA BISSAU: Vieira loyalists freed, new rulers settle in

Guinea Bissau's new rulers freed 186 soldiers loyal to ousted President Joao Bernardo Vieira on Thursday.

The soldiers, aged between 15 and 20 years, were released at a ceremony in Bissau attended by diplomats and ECOMOG troops. Some of the pro-Vieira troops had been trained in neighbouring Guinea before joining the loyalist ranks in October, Lusa said. Others, it added, were pressed into service shortly before the Junta unleased its final drive against Vieira, overthrown on Friday 7 May.

Attention was focused this week on demands for Vieira's handover to the victorious Military Junta, who want him tried for what they say are crimes against the state. Portugal, however, has vowed to protect Vieira whom it has granted asylum.

Junta consolidates power

The Junta on Wednesday named Malam Becai Sanha, the speaker of parliament, as interim president while the transitional prime minister, Francisco Fadul, continues as head of government. Both men will serve until elections scheduled for 28 November.

Nevertheless, these measures initially failed to stem the tide of international criticism. Condemnations came from the United Nations, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS - which has ceasefire-monitoring troops in the country), France and Mali.

Border closed, humanitarian deliveries by land blocked

The authorities in Bissau declared the borders closed this week in a bid to restore security. With that action, humanitarian aid cannot reach Guinea Bissau by land. Other humanitarian sources told IRIN on Thursday that trucks with seeds, tools and fertilizers could not be delivered. The items are for distribution by the end of May to coincide with the early June planting season.

SIERRA LEONE: RUF wants partnership with civil society

The Revolutionary United Front (RUF), battling to oust Sierra Leone President Alhadji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, wants to play an "integral role in a new transitional government which would be a partnership of civil society and the people", RUF legal advisor Omrie Golley told IRIN on Thursday. He added that the RUF "did not want to power share".

He was referring to a RUF demand for the establishment of a four-year transitional government. The demand was made in a report the rebels presented on Tuesday - following internal consultations they held in Togo - to Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema, who is leading regional efforts to end the conflict.

A key demand is the unconditional release of Foday Sankoh. Golley said Sankoh, as RUF leader, had "an extremely important role to play in a transitional government".

Sankoh, awaiting an appeal against his treason conviction, was freed temporarily from prison for the intra-RUF consultations, which were to set the tone for proposed peace talks with Kabbah's government. However, it remained unclear when the peace talks would begin.

RUF attack on Port Loko repulsed

Meanwhile, ECOMOG repelled an RUF attack on 7 May on Port Loko, a town some 58 km northeast of Freetown and defended by Malian and Nigerian units.

News reports quoted Western diplomats last Sunday as saying there were heavy casualties on both sides and that between seven and nine Malian soldiers were killed and three missing.

ECOMOG spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Olukulade told IRIN on Monday that ECOMOG suffered "a few casualties". He could give no estimate of civilian and rebel casualties but said that "a number of civilians from nearby villages were rounded up, some were abducted and some amputations took place".

NIGERIA: Pressure group wants 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.

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

LIBERIA: UN, ECOWAS try to decide fate of surrendered weapons

The UN and ECOWAS are examining how to dispose of large numbers of weapons left over from Liberia's seven-year civil war, a UN official told IRIN on Thursday.

The weapons had been handed over to ECOMOG by the former rebel groups and the national armed forces during a disarmament exercise in 1997.

The UN Secretary General's Special Representative, Felix Downes-Thomas, said two options were under consideration: one possibility would be to destroy all of the weapons. The other, put forward by the Liberian government, would be to destroy all unserviceable weapons while serviceable arms would be "the subject of discussion between the government and the UN".

LIBERIA: UN Mission to look into US Embassy shooting

A UN fact-finding team is to visit Liberia soon to gather information on a shooting incident in Monrovia on 18 and 19 September 1998 that affected the US Embassy, UN sources said.

The five-member group led by James Ngobi, a former director of the Africa 1 Division at UN Headquarters, is due in Monrovia on Sunday and complete its mission on 22 May.

The team, sent in response to a request by Liberia, left New York last weekend for Nigeria for "contacts with individuals who now reside in Nigeria and who were involved in the 18-19 September incidents," one source told IRIN.

On 18 September 1998, a gun battle erupted in Monrovia between Liberian government security forces and supporters of former faction leader Roosevelt Johnson. He and some of his group then fled to the US Embassy, where they sought refuge. The US and Nigerian government later flew Johnson to Nigeria under protective custody.

BURKINA FASO: Zongo report to be submitted to justice authorities

Burkina Faso decided on Monday to hand over to the country's justice authorities a report naming presidential guards as suspects in the murder of the journalist Norbert Zongo, AFP reported.

The decision was announced at the end of an extraordinary cabinet session called to discuss the report, prepared by an independent commission set up early this year to investigate the death. The commission released its findings last Friday and recommended that the matter be submitted to the judicial authorities.

Following the publication of the report, demonstrators marched through the streets of the city on Monday demanding the arrest of the suspects. Police stopped the demonstrators form reaching the city centre.

Zongo, who published critical articles about corruption, was found dead in his car along with three other men on 13 December 1998. In its final report, the commission found that Zongo "was murdered for purely political reasons".

WEST AFRICA: Special humanitarian assistance body proposed

Military and civilian officials from ECOWAS have called for the creation of a special body within the community to coordinate responses to emergencies in the region.

The call capped a seminar on the 'Coordinated Use of International Military and Civil Defence Assets in Emergency Management', held on 2-7 May in Yamassoukro, Cote d'Ivoire.

TOGO: Tentative agenda for talks between government, opposition

Representatives of Togo's government and the opposition have agreed to hold negotiations in Lome, according to a team of facilitators who visited Lome last week to help defuse the ongoing political crisis.

The dispute between the opposition and the presidential bloc concerns presidential elections held in June 1998 and won, according to the official results, by Eyadema. The opposition maintains that the results were rigged.

WESTERN SAHARA: Moroccans, Polisario agree on referendum

The UN Security Council welcomed on Wednesday the formal acceptance by Morocco and the POLISARIO Front of a UN-brokered package that would allow preparations for a referendum on Western Sahara to go forward, the world body reported.

The Council's reaction followed a briefing on the latest developments on Western Sahara by the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, Bernard Miyet. He told the Council that with the acceptance by both sides, the process of identifying eligible voters could resume on 15 June. Appeals, he said, could start in July.

AFRICA: First ladies call for peaceful resolution of conflicts

African first ladies appealed on Tuesday 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, the Nigerian capital, they also drew attention to the "misery and deprivation of refugees and displaced persons" created by conflicts in Africa.

The meeting was attended by the first ladies of Chad, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda. 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, 14 May 1999, 17:51 GMT

[ENDS]

[ UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]

Item: irin-english-827

[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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