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WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Update 597 (Thursday 18 November 1999)
CONTENTS:
SIERRA LEONE: UN encourages disarmament efforts SIERRA LEONE: New peacekeeping force expected soon SIERRA LEONE: New Special Representative proposed GUINEA-BISSAU: Portuguese electoral material arrives GUINEA-BISSAU: Army proposes Magna Carta MALI: Toxic waters threaten thousands of Tuaregs LIBERIA: National policy conference on children
SIERRA LEONE: UN encourages disarmament efforts
The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) is continuing to encourage former rebel leaders to bring their constituencies under control, Fred Eckhard, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General said on Wednesday in New York.
Johnny Paul Koroma, leader of the former Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), went on a sensitisation programme to the Occra Hills to meet with his field commanders and get them to register in the disarmaments programme, Eckhard said. It is the first time that Koroma has been in his rebel stronghold since his return to Freetown on 3 October.
Koroma was accompanied by the commander of the West African Peace Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) and UNAMSIL's Chief Military Observer, Brigadier General Subash Joshi, the UN reported.
Several thousand rebels are still in the Occra Hills and are believed to be holding abductees and child combatants, the UN said, despite a provision in the 18 May ceasefire agreement signed in Lome, Togo, which stipulated the "immediate release of prisoners of war and non-combatants".
SIERRA LEONE: New peacekeeping force expected soon
The arrival and deployment of the 6,000-strong UN peacekeeping force is due to begin next week, UNAMSIL said on Tuesday.
Reconnaissance and logistical teams from Indian and Kenyan battalions are due in the capital, Freetown, in a few days. They will, with the government, ECOMOG and UNAMSIL, finalise plans for the arrival of the troops. UNAMSIL said planning for the assimilation of four ECOMOG battalions into the UN force - three Nigerian, one Ghanaian and a Guinean company - is also underway.
The UN force has been mandated by the Security Council to cooperate with the government in the implementation of the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration plan; ensure the security and freedom of movement of UN personnel, the delivery of humanitarian aid and protect civilians under threat of violence.
UNAMSIL said it will perform its role in cooperation with ECOMOG, which will retain responsibility for the security of Sierra Leone.
SIERRA LEONE: New Special Representative proposed
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is to reassign his Special Representative, Francis Okelo, and replace him with Oluyemi Adeniji from Nigeria, currently UN Special Representative to the Central African Republic, UNAMSIL said. The proposal is subject to approval by the Security Council. Okelo has been in Sierra Leone since 1997.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Portuguese electoral material arrives
Portuguese supplied electoral material weighing 13 mt arrived in Bissau on Wednesday for Guinea-Bissau's presidential and legislative elections due on 28 November, information sources told IRIN on Thursday. The material, valued at US $400,000, includes ballots promised by the Portuguese at the international donors conference in May, Lusa reported.
The agency said 25 Portuguese election monitors were due to fly to Bissau on 21 December. Observers are also expected from the CPLP group of Portuguese-speaking (nations known as the Communidade dos Paises da Lingua Portuguesa), Sweden and the Vatican, an information source said. The source also said that locally based international NGOs will team up with the international for the polls.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Army proposes Magna Carta
General Ansumane Mane, the supreme commander of the
self-styled Military Junta that ousted Joao Bernardo
Vieira from power, has proposed a
"Magna Carta" that would oblige political
leaders to consult the Junta on key appointments to
the government, news reports and sources said.
The document, described by one local analyst as a pseudo-constitutional amendment, requires the president and parliament to consult the military before appointing the prime minister, secretaries of state and of ministries, as well as cabinet members. The prime minister would have to inform the president and military on affairs dealing with internal and foreign affairs.
The meeting to consider the proposal, involving the Junta and political leaders, that was to have taken place on Wednesday has been rescheduled to Friday. Mane is in Cape Verde where, an information source said, he had gone to thank the government for its support for the Junta.
MALI: Toxic waters threaten thousands of Tuaregs
An urgent clean up of pesticide contaminated wells in three villages in northern Mali is needed if thousands of Tuaregs are to be saved from ill-health or death, Refugees International, a US based NGO, said in its latest bulletin on 17 November.
Villagers in Anefis, Tin-Essako and Aguelhoc have no choice other than to use wells tainted by pesticides. The chemicals were left behind after the end of an internationally financed locust control programme over 20 years ago, the NGO said. Some 160,000 litres of these chemicals stored in tanks and barrels, scattered over a wide area, are now leaking into local water sources through the soil.
A Refugee International team visited Anefis, 250 km northeast of Gao, on 7 November. In this village of 8,000 it found a rusting and leaking 10,000 litre tank holding 400 litres of pesticide.
"Traces of pesticide have been found in a nearby well which is the primary water source for the surrounding area," the agency said.
Worse still, it said, was the situation in Tin-Essako where a contaminated well was the only water source for miles.
It cited a USAID study released in September that found high levels of toxic chemical, particularly Dieldrine, at all three sites. Goat milk was tested and found to contain the pesticide.
Worsening the problem, it said, international aid agencies were reluctant to dig wells for fear they would be contaminated.
Therefore, well digging has been suspended, Refugee International said, while a dozen additional sites in northern Mali and possibly in neighbouring countries also hold obsolete pesticides.
Recommendations
Refugees International has proposed actions to overcome the danger. It wants international donors and the Mali government to pledge resources and work together to eliminate health and environmental dangers proposed by the stored pesticides.
The agency wants contaminated well closed immediately and alternative one dug and tested while education the villagers on the hazards of toxic water. The agency suggests studies be make of other pesticide storage sites in Mali and neighbouring countries. It also calls on international aid agencies to continue water supply projects in the arid north for the population and their livestock.
LIBERIA: National policy conference on children
A national policy conference to discuss issues affecting children opened on Wednesday in Virginia on the outskirts of Monrovia, independent Star Radio reported.
The three-day meeting, jointly organised by the United Nations Childrens' Fund (UNICEF) and the Liberian government, aims to develop a framework for policies on issues affecting children.
Delegates will review the conclusions of a recent nationwide survey, conducted by a local management consultant firm on behalf of the government, on children's access to education, safe drinking water, health, nutrition and child protection, Star said.
Abidjan, 18 November 1999; 19:30 GMT
[ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1989
[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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