IRIN-West Africa Weekly Roundup No 71, 98.10.23

tel: +225 21 73 54 fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci

IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup No 71 of Main Events for West Africa covering the period (Friday - Thursday) 16 - 22 October 1998

GUINEA BISSAU: Vieira declares ceasefire as rebels advance

Rebel Guinea Bissau troops tightened their grip on the country on Wednesday when they seized the strategic second city of Bafata, news media reported. Bafata, which was defended by Guinean units and loyalist troops, fell around noon Wednesday, opening the way for the capture of Gabu, the country's third largest city, 50 km to the east, on Thursday.

Meanwhile, as the rebels, who call themselves the Military Council, pressed their attack to within 500 metres of his presidential palace, President Joao Bernardo Vieira on state radio declared a unilateral ceasefire effective 10 p.m. on Wednesday, saying he had taken the ceasefire initiative to end the "sacrifice and suffering of the people". He also offered direct talks with rebel leader General Ansumane Mane.

Earlier on Wednesday, the envoys of France, Portugal and Sweden met Vieira in an effort to end hostilities. They also launced a similar appeal to the rebels.

Thousands flee fighting

As fighting broke out in Bissau last weekend, residents headed for Safim, Nhacra and Bissora to the north, and Prabis, to the west now held by the rebels. Others left in boats for the Bijagos Islands.

An official of a humanitarian agency said some 50,000 people, "probably more" had fled to Prabis. The official told IRIN they faced possible lack of food because of the town's isolated location. Its population had tripled and water supplies were poor. Food and housing remained a problem and health supplies were expected to run low as more internally displaced people flood the town.

The official said an undetermined number had gone to the Bijagos islands. On Wednesday, Reuters put that figure at 10,000.

Humanitarian organisations reported that the movement of civilians northwest to Cacheu was orderly. "There was no panic," one source said. However, Roman Catholic missionaries in the Bafata area described the humanitarian situation as "catastrophic". The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the national Red Cross organised aid teams equipped with vehicles, stretchers and blankets to evacuate the wounded to the main city hospital.

Humanitarian sources told IRIN that an exact number of people fleeing the fighting could not be determined immediately.

WFP warns it may not be able to deliver aid

As the fighting spread and intensified, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday it might not be able to deliver aid to hundreds of thousands of people in Guinea Bissau.

The WFP representative in Guinea Bissau, Hiro Matsumura, said that the fighting would almost halt all WFP food deliveries to 350,000 people. Security permitting, the agency plans to send 100 mt of rice to Bubaque and 300 mt of rice to Cacheu.

Some 40 NGO's and UN agencies have been meeting throughout the week in Dakar, Senegal, to assess and plan a response to the growing problem. The official said plans had been made to position 200,000 mt of food each in Cacheu, to the northwest and Bolama to the south, as well as 100,000 mt in Bubaque, on the Bijagos.

Humanitarian agencies remain concerned that the harvest will be disrupted and food supplies strained with the movement of people. There is also concern at the plight of refugees fleeing the upsurge of fighting in the Casamance, in Senegal, to Guinea Bissau.

Meanwhile, a UN inter-agency mission is scheduled next week to carry out a rapid needs assessment in four locations simultaneously: Bissau city and its surroundings, Cacheu, Bafata and Bubaque. The findings would be used to update a July UN Consolidated Appeal for US $29 million. According to OCHA, the 34.6 percent of the appeal has been met. This review would facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

ECOWAS to send envoy

Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts continued to try and halt the fighting. ECOWAS Executive Secretary Lansana Kouyate said on Wednesday that peace talks co-sponsored with the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) would be restarted.

He also said that ECOWAS chairman, Nigerian head of state General Abdulsalami Abubakar, had decided to send a special envoy immediately to Guinea Bissau "with a view to bringing the parties to see reason and make them respect the ceasefire".

The 16-member Economic Community of West African States is due to hold a two-day summit on 30 October in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

On Tuesday, the CPLP urged ECOWAS to restart peace talks "urgently". It also called on the government and rebels to cease hostilities "immediately" and hold their forces in areas they occupied when they signed the July ceasefire.

UN calls on warring sides to respect humanitarian law

In a statement received by IRIN on Thursday, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Sergio Vieira de Mello, appealed to the belligerents to "respect international humanitarian law and principles and to ensure the safety and security of innocent civilians". He also appealed to them and neighbouring countries to facilitate the delivery of urgently needed aid to the vulnerable populations of Guinea Bissau.

SENEGAL: Diouf defends intervention

Meanwhile, Senegalese President Abdou Diouf, addressing the French National Assembly on Wednesday, said the Senegalese and Guinean intervention in Guinea Bissau had been in favour of the legitimate government. He also told a news conference later that his army would not be bogged down and was optimistic that ECOWAS would find a way out of the crisis.

Senegalese army overruns rebel bases

Earlier this week, the Senegalese army said it had overrun rebel bases in eastern Casamance in a bid to crush the new front of the separatist Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC), AFP reported. It quoted a Senegalese army press release as saying that a large network of rebel bases along the Senegal-Guinea-Bissau border had been "dislocated and neutralised" during the mop-up operation. It claimed 60 rebels had been killed.

Other sources quoted by AFP said the Senegalese army had pounded the bases with heavy artillery and made incursions into neighbouring Guinea Bissau. During its campaign, the army confiscated arms and took an undisclosed number of prisoners.

In a related incident on Monday, two soldiers were killed and several wounded when a Senegalese tank detonated a land mine in the eastern outskirts of the provincial capital, Ziguinchor. Reuters said there was a heavy exchange of fire lasting into the night with the MFDC targeting the village of Tanaff.

The presence of Senegalese soldiers along the Guinea Bissau border and inside that country has pushed the MFDC fighters into eastern zone of Casamance, the agency said

Humanitarian organisations have expressed concern at the plight of refugees fleeing the upsurge of fighting in Casamance to Guinea Bissau.

Casamance separatist leader calls for new peace process

Meanwhile, the MFDC leader, Father Augustin Diamacoune, has called for a new peace process to bring together the various rebel factions. AFP said the lack of a single leader within the MFDC had hindered the resolution of its 16-year old conflict against the government in Dakar for the establishment of a sovereign state.

Rights groups appeal for end to violence

The French human rights NGO, la Federation internationale des ligues de droits de l'Homme (FIDH), on Tuesday appealed to Diouf to re-establish peace in Casamance, AFP reported. An FIDH communique quoted by the agency expressed "strong concern over the continued violence in Casamance and a climate of tension aggravated by the Senegalese intervention in Guinea Bissau". The FIDH also called on the MFDC to "stop all the killing".

In a related development, Amnesty International called on Diouf to halt the army's killing, torture and rape of civilians in Casamance. It also asked him to free all Casamance political detainees. Amnesty said there were more than 160 people suspected of belonging to the MFDC in detention without trial, some held since 1995. Senegal dismissed as a fabrication Amnesty International's report on human rights violations in Casamance in February.

NIGERIA: Pipeline blaze toll rising

Emergency medical teams and a UN agency, UNICEF, have been battling to save survivors of the devastating fuel pipeline fire in a village near the southern town of Warri in Nigeria last weekend, according to UN sources and news agencies. The death toll continued to rise and is estimated at between 700 and 1,000.

A UNICEF report said its team had visited 10 hospitals in and around Warri which had admitted 200 to 300 badly burned patients. It added that a number of patients had discharged themselves against medical advice for fear of prosecution by authorities for alleged involvement in sabotaging pipelines.

UNICEF would be providing Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS), drugs, gauze bandages, hypodermic needles, plastic cups and spoons to the hospitals and health facilities in the area. The medical NGO, Medecins Sans Frontieres, also dispatched a team to Warri to provide first-hand medical support.

Officials said many of the dead were burned beyond recognition and the only way to dispose of them was mass burial. About 2,000 men, women and children were scavenging petrol with cans and buckets from a burst pipeline on Sunday when a fire erupted.

Investigation announced, no compensation for victims

The Nigerian head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who visited the site of the disaster on Monday, promised to pay the medical bills but said there would be no compensation. He also called for an investigation in the matter.

Nigerian officials have blamed the disaster on a growing pattern of vandalisation of pipelines for theft or politically motivated sabotage by restive locals who feel deprived of the wealth pumped from their land, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka said the deaths were "a reflection of the general social malaise which we are all undergoing at the moment," AFP said. He called on the government to solve the fundamental problem of poverty.

Disaffected oil community group takes on government

Meanwhile, the Federated Niger Delta State Izon communities, a movement claiming to represent the Ijaw ethnic group in the oil-rich Delta region, announced it was taking on the Nigerian government and foreign oil companies in a battle over its demand for a local government, AFP reported on Tuesday.

Two weeks ago, members of the militant group reportedly seized some 20 oil flow stations owned by the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Shell, and the US group, Chevron, in the Delta region stopping the flow of fuel to the port for export. According to AFP, the movement was still occupying the sites earlier this week.

AFP quoted the movement's president, Dan Ekpedibe, as saying: "We have not vandalised anything and if the oil companies negotiate with us they can stay on our land. But currently we get nothing from their being here. But our people are not employed, we have no money, no schools, no electricity and our waters are so polluted so we cannot fish." Ekpedibe said he wanted to force the federal government to agree to set up a local authority.

In Nigeria, the local administration controls money and jobs, negotiates with the federal government and ensures that the voice of local communities is heard.

Last week, the federal government threatened tough action against any disruption of oil production activities.

SIERRA LEONE: Government executes 24 soldiers

Sierra Leone's government executed 24 soldiers on Monday convicted of treason earlier this month.

Among those executed were the former chiefs of staff, General Hassan Conteh and General Samuel Koroma, the brother of former junta leader, Johnny Paul Koroma. Koroma is still in hiding.

Ten other civilians also accused of treason were sentenced to life imprisonment. A high court in the capital, Freetown, sentenced 11 civilians, including three women, to death on Wednesday for supporting the AFRC. This brings to 27 the number of people now awaiting execution.

The guilty reportedly included the 75-year old former mayor of Freetown, Nancy Steele, former interior minister and retired general, Leslie Lymon, former Justice Minister Claude Campbell and a businessman, Bashiru Savage. Unlike the soldiers shot, all those condemned Wednesday will have a right of appeal, Sierra Leonean legal sources told IRIN.

Meanwhile, another 21 people, including former head of state Joseph Momoh, and the leader of the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Foday Sankoh, were also expected to receive similar sentences when their treason trials ended, the sources added.

Reactions

Human rights organisations told IRIN the first trial had fallen short of international judicial standards because the soldiers had no legal right of appeal. Amnesty International said: "These executions will contribute nothing to the process of reconciliation in Sierra Leone."

Human Rights Watch added the sentences were doubly disappointing because of Sierra Leone's vocal support for the supremacy of international law.

Although he had appealed for clemency, British Foreign Office Minister Tony Lloyd said he understood the demand within Sierra Leone for "justice to be seen to be done following the appalling and brutal butchery carried out by the junta". He called on the government "to embark on a proper process of reconciliation".

Sierra Leonean sources in the capital, Freetown, said ordinary people had welcomed the executions. "People are calm, but we feel justice has been carried out," one source commented to IRIN. Kabbah commuted the sentences of another 10 military personnel to life imprisonment.

Kabbah defends execution

In a radio address on Monday, Kabbah justified the executions. He said the condemned had "showed no remorse or sympathy after their trial... and they would not hesitate to repeat the same acts if given the opportunity". He added that there was no "justification to interfere with the decision of the court," which had found the defendants guilty of treason for having collaborated with the military junta.

Rebel activity still a concern, UN says

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a UN report submitted to the Security Council, strongly condemned summary executions, torture, mutilations, rapes, looting and other acts of barbarism" carried out by the former junta elements. He called on them to lay down their arms and surrender. The report said the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) had received reliable reports of other forms of atrocities, including the detention of the elderly or incapacitated men in huts, which were then set on fire.

Annan also condemned the senseless acts of terror perpetuated against children, such as the amputation of limbs of young children.

The UN report on the situation in Sierra Leone is issued every two months in order to brief the Security Council on the events in the country. (Second progress report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone: S/1998/960)

CAMEROON: EU grants US $81.7 million for road construction

A European Union official in Yaounde told IRIN on Tuesday that it had given a US $81.7 million grant to Cameroon for the construction of a road linking east and north of the country. He said the 250 km road from Bertoua in the east to the northern town of Garoua was part of a regional integration effort linking the seaport city of Douala in Cameroon to Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR).

The new road is expected to bolster trade between the two countries. The EU official added that this grant was the largest given to a single EU project in Africa. The EU has funded various feasibility studies on the construction of roads between Cameroon and Chad, and Cameroon and Gabon.

UNITED NATIONS: SG calls on African leaders to put their house in order

Speaking at the Second International Conference on Development in Africa convening in Tokyo, Annan, told African leaders on Wednesday that they must establish peace and security if they wanted their countries to develop economically.

He said chronically insecure neighbourhoods did not attract investment. The BBC reported that delegates from 82 nations had adopted a plan of action aimed at halving Africa's poverty by 2015 and boosting health, education and economic growth.

Japan pledged to give nearly US $800 million over the next five years and encourage private investment in Africa. A Japanese government statement quoted by the BBC however warned that: "If the present situation continues, the growing disparity between rich and poor will become a major cause of world-wide social disorder".

Meanwhile, Sadako Ogata, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said the repatriation of millions of refugees who had fled wars in Africa was essential to promoting social and economic development. Out of the 22.4 million refugees world-wide that have been displaced or recently repatriated, over 7.4 million refugees are Africans.

UN urged to check mercenary activity

Enrique Bernales Ballesteros, UN Special Rapporteur on the question of the use of mercenaries, has recommended that the General Assembly urge governments to outlaw the use of mercenaries and private special security firms. "Such companies are today the biggest and most sophisticated threat to the peace, sovereignty and self-determination of the people of many countries," he said in his report.

In the 15-page report, distributed to the 53rd session of the General Assembly in New York last week, he outlined as examples the use of mercenary and private security firms in Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone.

Ballesteros said private security firms viewed security as "just another commodity, subject to laws of the market". He said these firm had "no compunction" about replacing the state in its security and law and order functions, in exchange for juicy contracts and a share in economic, mining and petroleum operations.

UNHCR receives funds for Sierra Leone and Liberia

The UNHCR announced on Thursday it had received US $3 million for its refugee operations in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The head of the UNHCR operations in the region, Abou Moussa, said the timing of the donations was important.

The agency added that US $1.7 would be used for victims of violence in Sierra Leone where rebel fighters have been waging a campaign of terror against civilians. Moussa added that 475 Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea, who have been mutilated or raped, have been receiving treatment. UNHCR is currently assisting 400,000 Sierra Leoneans refugees in Guinea and Liberia.

Abidjan, 23 October 1998, 21:30 gmt

[ENDS]

[The material contained in this communication comes to you via IRIN West Africa, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci for more information or subscription. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this report, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. IRIN reports are archived on the Web at: http://www.reliefweb.int/ or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to <archive@ocha.unon.org>. Mailing list: irin-wa-weekly]

Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 21:38:22 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Weekly Roundup No 71, 98.10.23 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.981023213251.28021A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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