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IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup of Main Events 68 for West Africa covering the period (Friday-Thursday) 25 September - 1 October 1998
NIGERIA: Independence anniversary marked by new optimism
In a nationwide radio and television speech on Thursday marking Nigeria's 38th independence anniversary following his ground-breaking round of meetings with Western leaders, the country's military ruler, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, urged civilians who will regain power next year to learn from the mistakes of successive military administrations.
Abubakar said: "I pray and hope that our civil leaders on whom the mantle of national leadership will fall in a few months' time have learned useful lessons from our past travails."
Abubakar, who assumed power on 9 June after the sudden death of his hardline predecessor, General Sani Abacha, also pledged to end the two-tier foreign currency exchange rate and to finalise a new draft constitution designed to end decades of military rule. Reuters said the abolition of the dual-rate system of exchange was one of the main conditions for improved relations with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It said the measure could also eventually lead to relief of external debts of more than $30 billion.
Earlier in the week, Abubakar in his address to the 53rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, took the opportunity to appeal for an end to international sanctions to support what he called the "silent and peaceful revolution" taking place. British Prime Minister Tony Blair reportedly told Abubakar last week that he was confident that all sanctions against Nigeria, including those imposed by the European Union (EU), would be lifted soon, with the exception of the arms embargo. The EU development commissioner, Joao de Deus Pinheiro, also said he favoured easing sanctions against Nigeria. US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, however, had reportedly been non-committal on lifting trade restrictions.
Soyinka demands further reforms
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka reportedly told Abubakar during their meeting on Friday last week that he was reluctant to return home to Nigeria before the reform process was complete. News agencies quoted him as saying he had given Abubakar a memorandum on issues he felt important for the restoration of democracy. Soyinka was concerned that innocent Nigerians were still in prison. "Only their immediate release can effectively establish a path to reconciliation and healing in Nigeria," the BBC quoted him as telling Abubakar.
Ruling council gets three new members
On his return to Nigeria, Abubakar swore in four new members to the Provisional Ruling Council (PRC), Nigerian state television announced on Tuesday. At a PRC meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, members also voted to declare their assets in what AFP called a bid to end the long history of corruption in Nigeria. The four new PRC members were named as Rear Admiral Peter Ebhaleme, Assistant Inspector General of Police Musihiu Smith, Air Vice Marshal Mohammed Umoru Ndasu and Major General Yonana Nom.
US links closer military ties to political reform
The US Assistant Secretary of State of Defence for International Security Affairs, Franklin Kramer, said this week that Washington expected to re-establish "closer military contacts" with Nigeria once a democratic civilian government was back in power, news agencies reported. Speaking during a two-day visit to Nigeria, Kramer reportedly told military leaders at the National War College that "their support for a transition to civilian rule would be the basis for a closer military relationship with Washington". He is the first ranking US defence official to visit the country in the five years since such visits were stopped in protest at Abacha's policies. Kramer also said he wanted Nigeria to take part in a planned African Centre for Security Studies.
Police withdraw after five officers killed
Police have withdrawn from an area around the town of Apata in southwestern Nigeria following the killing of five colleagues earlier this week, AFP reported. The agency quoted a report in the Nigerian 'The Guardian' newspaper saying that the five policemen had been sent to the town to keep the peace between the feuding Ilaje and Ijaw communities. Clashes between the communities in the Apata region of Ondo State broke out on 19 September over the ownership of oil wells in the town. Police reported last week that 23 people died, but villagers put that number at 200, AFP said.
Army removes roadblocks in Ogoniland
Meanwhile, the Nigerian army has removed road blocks around the Ogoniland area of the Niger Delta, AFP reported this week, quoting a statement by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). The movement, founded by the Ogoni rights activist and writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed in 1994 with eight fellow activists during the Abacha regime, said however that the army's Rivers State task force should withdraw from the region entirely.
Shell outlines new communities strategy
The Royal Dutch/Shell oil company has said it will change the way it does business with local communities in southeast Nigeria following disturbances that have cut output by as much as 20 percent a day in some parts of the country, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Shell's external relations manager in eastern Port Harcourt, C.O.P. Nwachukwu, was quoted as saying Shell was trying to move away from "giving out" projects and had put together a new team of outside experts to find out what the communities wanted and how development projects could be sustained. According to the dispatch, impoverished villagers have long accused oil companies of funding projects "for glossy publicity brochures and then walking away".
LIBERIA: U.S. embassy remains closed
France's Jacques Chirac officially welcomed President Charles Taylor to Paris at the start of a week during which Liberia's relations with its historical partner, the United States, remained strained following a shooting incident at the US embassy in Monrovia on 19 September, media reports said.
Independent Star Radio quoted US charge d'affaires in Monrovia, John Baumann, as saying his government was re-assessing its relations with Liberia and a decision would be made whether to continue, scale down, or close the embassy operations pending a full apology by the Liberian government.
The embassy was closed when the former faction leader, Roosevelt Johnson, sought sanctuary there after his ethnic Krahn stronghold in central Monrovia was raided by government forces. The US maintains that Liberian forces shot into the embassy compound in pursuit of Johnson. But Taylor recently denied this, saying all firing had taken place on Liberian soil.
Taylor begins three-day French visit
Meanwhile, Taylor had already arrived in Paris, where he was welcomed at the airport by French junior Health Minister Bernard Kouchner. After later meeting with Chirac, Taylor said that he wanted to revive bilateral co-operation with France dating back more than 140 years. He told a news conference that a development agreement signed between Napoleon Bonaparte and the first president of independent Liberia would be reactivated and that he also hoped to encourage new French investment.
France's co-operation minister, Charles Josselin, meanwhile, recommended a review of the West African ECOMOG peacekeeping force in Liberia and the arms embargo imposed on the country, AFP reported. It quoted Josselin as saying: "I want you to know that you can count on France's support among the international bodies dealing with questions of the utmost importance for the sovereignty of your country."
Liberia's foreign minister, Monie Captan, also used the opportunity of his address to the 53rd session of the UN General Assembly last Friday in New York to press for an end to the arms embargo. Captan said it was "patently unfair" to maintain the ban now that the civil war was over.
Taylor says return of NGO's conditional
In a related development, Taylor also said non-governmental organisations, which recently pulled out non-essential staff out of the country would have to re-apply to return, Star Radio reported this week. At a news conference, Taylor criticised the NGOs' action and called on Liberians to do more to feed themselves, thereby reducing their dependence on foreign aid for food. NGOs removed non-essential international staff from Liberia following the fighting on 18 September.
SIERRA LEONE: ECOMOG appeals for reinforcements
West African peacekeepers in Sierra Leone appealed this week for some 2,000 extra troops they said were needed for ECOMOG to defeat the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and end seven years of civil war, media reports said. AFP quoted an ECOMOG spokesman in the capital, Freetown, Lieutenant Colonel Jimoh Okunlola, as saying neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia and Mali had all promised to help, while Star Radio said Britain and the United States had given some US$ 7 million for logistical support. The radio also quoted Okunlola as saying that Germany would be providing similar help, but ECOMOG needed more men to flush out remaining RUF bases.
According to media reports, Nigerian troops, with smaller Guinean and Ghanaian contingents, have made up the majority of ECOMOG's 5,000-strong Sierra Leone force. However, Okunlola refused to confirm how many troops ECOMOG now had, saying only that his force controlled some 90 percent of Sierra Leone. He also dismissed reports that ECOMOG offensives around Kabala, Kono and Kailahun in the north and east of the country had lost momentum. Nevertheless, humanitarian sources working in eastern and northern Sierra Leone told IRIN that ECOMOG has also relied heavily on traditional Sierra Leonean Kamajor hunter-militia to boost its troop numbers.
Half a million refugees still exiled
The UNHCR director for West, Central and East Africa, Albert-Alain Peters, has said that there are some 500,000 refugees from Sierra Leone in neighbouring Liberia and Guinea. In a statement last weekend, Peters said many were in a state of desperation or had been traumatised by the fighting they had fled in Sierra Leone. Peters said that at the camp of Kissidougou in Guinea, 700 of the refugees whose hands, limbs or ears had been mutilated by rebel soldiers were being provided medical and social care. Peters, whose statement was made after a meeting of UNHCR regional staff in Conakry, Guinea, also said that the UNHCR had repatriated 10,000 refugees with key qualifications and skills to Sierra Leone. He said, however, that large-scale repatriation, especially of rural refugees, would only commence once the UNHCR was convinced the security situation was improved.
Court acquits civilians
Sierra Leone's high court last week freed 23 civilians accused of collaborating with the former military government for lack of evidence against them, AFP reported. They included Jengo Stevens, the son of former President Siaka Stevens, the former justice minister, Frederick Stevens, and other ex-officials including a former ambassador to Egypt and Betty Toma-Elias, the mayor of Sierra Leone's second city, Bo. In August, the court sentenced 16 other civilians, including a number of journalists, to death drawing intense criticism from the international community. The sentences have not been carried out so far.
GUINEA: Army mutineers jailed
Guinea's state security court on Thursday last week sentenced 30 soldiers to gaol terms ranging from seven months to 15 years after finding them guilty on various charges arising out of an army mutiny in February 1996, AFP reported this week. Court president Mamadou Sylla freed 53 other defendants, including two civilians. Earlier this month, the prosecutor, Lieutenant-Colonel Sama Panival Bangoura, sought death sentences for five of the accused, who were charged with murder during the uprising in February 1996. Official reports at the time cited over 50 deaths and 300 injured in an incident which shook President Lansana Conte's government.
SENEGAL: Senegal gives Guinea Bissau casualty figures
The Senegalese authorities have disclosed that they dispatched 2,000 troops to neighbouring Guinea Bissau in June to help the government of President Joao Bernardo Vieira put down a military rebellion, AFP reported this week. In a dispatch quoting the government-owned daily 'Le Soleil', it said that some 40 men had died and 280 wounded in fighting that lasted until a ceasefire at the end of July. 'Le Soleil' quoted a Senegalese military doctor in Bissau, Major Boubou Sarre, as saying the casualties were "in line with international averages" in such military interventions. AFP recalled that in July the government formally declined to disclose its troop levels or provide casualty figures.
Court rules against detained trade unionists
An appeal court in Senegal has turned down an appeal for the release of a group of trade unionists detained in July following a strike by electricity workers in the Syndicat unique des travailleurs de l'electricite (SUTELEC), AFP reported on Thursday. It said the unspecified number of detainees, including the SUTELEC leader, Mademba Sock, were accused of sabotaging installations of the Societe national d'electricite (SENELEC) during a strike in protest against privatisation plans. It said lawyers for the detainees would make a fresh appeal, while other trade unions were considering further protests in support of the SUTELEC detainees.
Meanwhile, Senegal has been experiencing extensive power cuts this week because of problems at the country's main power plant, Reuters reported. A combination of generating capacity and industrial action by SENELEC employees opposed to the company's planned privatisation has led to several daily cuts in power since July.
BENIN: UN-OCHA investigating flood devastation
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) has said that a multi-donor mission has visited Benin to investigate reports that some 20,000 people might have been rendered homeless by recent floods. It said that it expected to review the situation in coming days with "a detailed account on the flood impact and requirements for international assistance". Last week, news reports quoted the government as saying that "more than 2,500 people had been left homeless and 20,000 tonnes of grain destroyed" in the floods about 500 km northwest of the capital, Cotonou.
Meanwhile, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has granted Benin an aid package of CFA 3 billion (Ffr 30 million) for the development of cattle farming, AFP reported this week, quoting a government announcement.
CHAD: Opposition condemns Congo force
Two opposition parties in Chad have condemned the dispatch of 1,000 troops to help President Laurent-Desire Kabila put down a rebellion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), AFP reported on Wednesday. AFP quoted the Front national du Tchad renouve (FNTR) and the Conseil democratique revolutionaire (CDR) as saying the intervention was a dangerous development which risked embroiling Chad in international conflicts.
According to media reports, Chad's government only acknowledged that it had already sent troops to help Kabila earlier this week, saying the action was in support of "efforts to preserve peace" in DRC. The agency cited an unnamed government spokesman as saying that Chadian troops had joined Angolan, Namibian and Zimbabwean contingents supporting the government.
CAMEROON: Government criticises corruption report
The Cameroonian government protested at what it called "crude" allegations by an international corruption watchdog which last week branded it the most corrupt country in the world, AFP reported. "The government protests against this campaign of denigration, whose objective is to tarnish the image of Cameroon abroad, by dint of crude, derisory, ridiculous allegations, which have no scientific basis," a presidential communique was quoted as saying. The Berlin-based watchdog, Transparency International, listed Cameroon as the most corrupt country in the world this year ahead of Paraguay and Honduras.
WEST AFRICA: ACP-EU talks open in Brussels
The European Union (EU) and the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations started talks in Brussels on Thursday at which they were expected to re-negotiate the Lome Convention, one of the world's biggest aid and trade agreements. Media reports said the EU is proposing the negotiation of free trade areas with the 70 ACP countries between the year 2000 and 2005.
The reports said that while the 41 poorest ACP countries would continue to benefit from the 23-year-old Lome Convention, 21 other nations, including Southern African countries, would have to work out a new arrangement. EU sources in London were quoted as saying this could lead to "heated debate". The present convention is due to expire in February 2000.
Meanwhile, ACP ministers condemned what they described as the inhuman practices to which their citizens are subjected in Europe, news organisations reported last weekend. Speaking after the death of a Nigerian woman asylum-seeker, Semira Adamu, who died after Belgian police used a cushion to muffle her screams as they bundled her aboard a Nigeria-bound aircraft last week, ACP ministers said the incident highlighted "the numerous problems and harassment ACP immigrants face in European Union countries contrary to the spirit and letter of the Lome Convention". The Belgian interior minister, Louis Tobback, resigned this week.
Abidjan, 2 October 1998, 19:00 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/emergenc or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha..unon.org. Mailing list: irin-wa-weekly]
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 19:06:37 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Weekly Roundup No 68, 98.10.2 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.981002190354.30613A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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