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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
CONTENTS:
SIERRA LEONE: NGO leaders welcome rebel bosses' return GUINEA-BISSAU: UN Secretary-General appeals for aid LIBERIA: Press union, rights advocates worried about abuses COTE D'IVOIRE: University students released COTE D'IVOIRE: Police to learn less aggressive methods
SIERRA LEONE: NGO leaders welcome rebel bosses' return
Sierra Leonean civil society leaders on Monday welcomed the return to Freetown of Revolutionary United Front(RUF)leader Foday Sankoh and Johnny Paul Koroma, head of the former Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC)junta.
The two men flew in from Monrovia on Sunday, nearly three months after the RUF and the government signed a peace accord in Lome.
"Their return is long overdue," Zainab Bangura, coordinator of the non-governmental Campaign for Good Governance, told IRIN. "They contributed to the destruction of our country. They must now help us rebuild it."
President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared in a statement that Sunday was "indeed a great day for the people of Sierra Leone". He said: "By this symbolic occasion we have demonstrated to our people that the war is over."
[See separate item titled 'SIERRA LEONE: IRIN Focus on rebel leaders' return home'.]
GUINEA-BISSAU: UN Secretary-General appeals for aid
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged countries that pledged money for a UN trust fund for Guinea-Bissau to pay up so as to enable the UN Peace-building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNOGBIS) to succeed in consolidating peace there.
In a report on the West African country, released on Saturday, Annan appealed to donors to act because of the political situation in the country which he said continued to be fragile. He said the interim government's hold on power was tenuous, as many of its senior members were appointed by the self-styled Military Junta.
Guinea-Bissau, he said, was still without a functioning police, small arms were widely available and acts of banditry were increasing.
Annan said UNOGBIS had already helped reconcile the parties to the conflict that broke out in June 1998 when part of the military rose up against then president Joao Bernardo Vieira, whom it eventually overthrew in May this year.
The United Nations has also helped improve confidence and tolerance among Guinea-Bissau's political forces and prepare the country for general elections on 28 November.
LIBERIA: Press union, rights advocates worried about abuses
The Press Union of Liberia (PUL) has expressed concern at human rights abuses by state security forces which, a senior official of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission told IRIN, have been occurring frequently.
Star Radio quoted PUL President Suah Deddeh as saying
on Thursday at a forum marking his union's 35th anniversary
that the large number of unsolved crimes, including
murders, and rights violations in Liberia had a negative
effect on the government's image and created insecurity
in society.
James Cervier, assistant director of the Catholic Justice
and Peace Commission, told IRIN his organisation had
received several complaints of abuses by Liberia's
security forces.
The Commission sometimes receives two or three complaints of arbitrary arrests per month, Cervier said. Other reported abuses include police brutality and forced disappearances, he said.
According to Cervier, the Commission is now looking into a report that young men from the minority Krahn ethnic group picked up two weeks ago were being held in the Barclays Training Centre military barracks in Monrovia and that they had been flogged during their detention.
COTE D'IVOIRE: University students released
Cote d'Ivoire's government has pardoned 200 university students arrested for causing damage to public property during demonstrations in the 1998-1999 school year.
President Henri Konan Bedie signed the pardon ahead of the new school year, which began on Monday, the secretary general of the government, Adolphe Djidji, said in a communique published at the weekend.
The Federation estudiantine et scholaire de Cote d'Ivoire (FESCI) which organised the demonstrations, called on Monday for a continued boycott of classes. The federation is demanding the construction of new university halls of residence and the readmission of expelled students.
Ivorian universities have been a hotbed of discontent for years and the 1998-99 academic year was marked by several protests that forced many faculties to annul the school year.
The students called for improved lodging conditions and stipends and, after arrests that accompanied the first protests, the liberation of their comrades.
COTE D'IVOIRE: Police to learn less aggressive methods
Ivorian policemen, reputed for their tendency to draw their side arms, will have to learn new, less aggressive policing methods to better protect the public, Security Minister Marcel Kone announced on Friday.
"Goodbye to the whistle, goodbye to the baton, goodbye to the (tear gas) grenade, and far less drawing of weapons," he said at a news conference. The police are to be retrained by French instructors.
Abidjan, 4 October 1999; 18:40 GMT [ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1711
[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, free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org 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
Subscriber: afriweb@sas.upenn.edu Keyword: IRIN
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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