UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-WA Update 581 [19991028]

IRIN-WA Update 581 [19991028]


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 Update 581 for West Africa (Wednesday 27 October 1999)

CONTENTS:

SIERRA LEONE: More diarrhoea cases in Port Loko SIERRA LEONE: HRW calls on leaders to investigate rebel crimes LIBERIA: Sierra Leonean refugees complete exodus from Lofa EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Amnesty launches appeal for political prisoners CAMEROON: Task force set up to clean poison lakes WEST AFRICA: ECOWAS plans subregional rights court

SIERRA LEONE: More diarrhoea cases in Port Loko

Health officials reported 781 cases of diarrhoea within a 14-day period in the northern district of Port Loko, the UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit of Sierra Leone (HACU) said in its situation report of 10-23 October.

Preventive measures suggested by health workers included relocating the District Health Team immediately to Port Loko town, reopening the town's hospital and setting up a therapeutic feeding centre. HACU said a mobile clinic was being organised to service the population.

The health situation in Sanda Magbolontho, a chiefdom in the district, is reported to be desperate, as it is without minimal health facilities. Moreover, HACU said, the area cannot be reached because its ferry service has broken down. As a result, the population there has been without any relief help since December 1998.

SIERRA LEONE: HRW calls on leaders to investigate rebel crimes

Human Rights Watch (HRW) asked Sierra Leone's two rebel leaders on Tuesday to investigate human rights violations by troops under their command and begin disciplinary proceedings.

The New York-based rights watchdog said that over the last two months it had documented numerous rebel violations of the peace agreement the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) signed in July with the government.

HRW Africa Division Executive Director Peter Takirambudde said rebels had committed abuses such as rape, torture and attempted amputations. Other violations, he said, included shooting, abduction, the ambushing of vehicles, and extensive looting of property in the central and western parts of the country.

"These atrocities are not covered by the blanket amnesty, and the perpetrators must be held accountable," Takirambudde said. "The Sierra Leonean people have suffered enough. It is now time to break the cycle of impunity. Koroma and Sankoh must use their new government positions to end the terror."

RUF leader Foday Sankoh and ex-Sierra Leone Army (ex-SLA) leader Johnny Paul Koroma recently returned to Freetown to take up government posts under the Lome Peace Accord. Sankoh has been given a position with vice-presidential status and Koroma is to head the Commission for the Consolidation of Peace.

HRW wrote to both rebel leaders complaining about the atrocities, which violate international human rights law and the provisions of the Lome Accord.

HRW said rebel violations of the accord included those perpetrated during an attack on 15 October on Makeni, an ambush against a government bus on 4 October near Magbondo Village, and numerous raids on villages around the Masiaka and Port Loko areas.

HACU reported witnesses as saying that the RUF moved a force from Kailahun to Magburaka and then, on 15 October, to Makeni, where it ousted the ex-SLA, occupied Teko Barracks and set up checkpoints.

"Witnesses in Makeni said at least five women were taken from their homes to Teko Barracks on Friday, October 15, where they were later raped by RUF soldiers," HRW said. "Two minors, aged fourteen and sixteen, described being raped and beaten by several RUF soldiers in the early morning hours of October 16," Takirambudde said.

In fresh reports of the violation of the peace accords, local and international media reported on Wednesday that some 100 ex-SLA were believed killed during clashes at the weekend with RUF rebels near Makeni.

HRW said it had called on US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who visited Sierra Leone on 17 October, to denounce the rebel actions publicly and put pressure on Sankoh and Koroma to halt rebel atrocities.

LIBERIA: Sierra Leonean refugees complete exodus from Lofa

A final group of 165 elderly and infirm Sierra Leonean refugees were taken on Monday by UNHCR to a new camp at Sinje, 60 kms from Monrovia, at the end of a week-long transfer operation from Kolahun, attacked by armed men in mid-August.

The refugees and their caretakers were the only Sierra Leoneans left in Kolahun, in the troubled northern province of Lofa, after the attack forced aid workers to withdraw from the area, UNHCR said. Over 10,000 other refugees, worried about further violence and the forced absence of humanitarian staff, had already left Kolahun and walked 100 kms to Tarvey, a town closer to Monrovia.

UNHCR had sought permission from Liberian authorities to operate a convoy to Kolahun, as well as an armed escort. Permission was granted 10 days ago and 10 trucks along with medical staff and an ambulance set out for the northern district on 16 October.

UNHCR said road conditions were terrible and heavy, earth-moving equipment had to be used to pull trucks out of the mud. Two trucks broke down en route. There were also repeated delays at military road blocks. Higher-ranking members of the Liberian army, including the minister of defense, had to intervene on several occasions to make sure the convoy was allowed to proceed, it said.

Eight trucks returned to Monrovia on Sunday.

Almost 5,000 Sierra Leoneans who had been in Kolahun have now been transferred to Sinje and about as many remain in Tarvey. There are around 90,000 Sierra Leonean refugees in Liberia.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Amnesty launches appeal for political prisoners

Anmesty International said on Tuesday that it was very concerned about the health of scores of prisoners from Equatorial Guinea's Bubi minority who, it said, were "being held in appalling conditions in Malabo prison".

"Since their conviction in June 1998 they have been held in small, filthy cells," Amnesty said. "...Most prisoners are being denied medical treatment. Eleven have been held in incommunicado detention in Malabo prison since May 1998".

In May 1998, more than 110 people accused of involvement in attacks on military barracks were tried by a military court, which sentenced 15 to death (including four in absentia), and some 70 to prison terms ranging from six to 26 years.

The defendants were predominantly members of the Bubi community, the largest minority in Equatorial Guinea, and the original inhabitants of Bioko Island, where the capital Malabo is located. The vast majority of the country's population are from the Fang ethnic group.

Most of the prisoners appear to have been detained solely because of their ethnic origin, Amnesty said. Many had been forced to make statements under torture, it added.

Several of the prisoners have fallen ill as a result of the harsh prison conditions, Amnesty said. One detainee, 58-year-old Martin Puye, a leader of the Movimiento para la Auto-determinacion de la Isla de Bioko (MAIB - (Movement for the Self-determination of Bioko Island), died in hospital in July 1999, reportedly as a result of ill treatment and lack of adequate medical care.

Another, Digno Sepa Tobachi, died on 20 October as a result of torture and lack of medical care, Amnesty said. His death was also reported by media organisations and Equato-Guinean human rights advocates.

Other Bubi prisoners convicted in May 1998 are seriously ill, Amnesty said.

CAMEROON: Task force set up to clean poison lakes

Cameroon's government on Tuesday inaugurated an inter-ministerial task force to supervise the cleaning of volcanic lakes whose gases killed hundreds of people in 1986 and continue to endanger nearby populations.

Officials at the country's Ministry of Territorial Administration told IRIN on Wednesday that the body, chaired by Prime Minister Peter Musonge, would seek international funds for cleaning up lakes Nyos and Monoum.

An official in the ministry's Civil Protection Directorate said that it was sensitising people living near the lakes to the dangers posed by its gases.

Lake Nyos erupted in 1986 spewing carbon dioxide and killing nearly 1,700 people.

WEST AFRICA: ECOWAS plans subregional rights court

Justice Ministers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) decided on Tuesday to set up a regional court of justice.

'The Guardian' daily in Lagos reported on Wednesday that the proposed court, whose location is yet to be determined, would serve to protect nations' rights and those of the people of the 16 ECOWAS countries.

These are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Togo.

Citizens would be able to sue their governments for perceived violation of their rights, while the institution's brief will also include adjudicating inter-state hostilities.

The decision to establish the court was taken at a meeting of ECOWAS justice ministers that ended on Tuesday in Abuja.

Abidjan, 27 October 1999; 18:44 GMT

[ENDS]

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Item: irin-english-1869

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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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