UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN News Briefs [19991112]

IRIN News Briefs [19991112]


WEST CENTRAL AFRICA: IRIN News Briefs (Thursday 11 November)

CONTENTS:

CAMEROON: Amnesty wants Commonwealth to take action EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Government accuses Spain of destabilization EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Hundreds of ghost workers GABON: Bongo offers to host DRC peace SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: Portuguese Team to Audit Central Bank

CAMEROON: Amnesty wants Commonwealth to take action

The Commonwealth should reinforce recent recommendations by the UN Human Rights Committee on Cameroon and give a clear signal to that country that it must comply with its international human rights obligations, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

On 5 November, the UN Human Rights Committee expressed concern that Cameroon's authorities were persistently violating the rights guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The worst abuses it identified included widespread extrajudicial executions, the continued imposition of death sentences, and torture and other abuses by the police.

Commonwealth heads of state and government meet in Durban on 12-15 November.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Government accuses Spain of destabilization

Equatorial Guinea's foreign minister, Santiago Nsobeya Efuman, said on Wednesday that reports in the Spanish media that President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is suffering from cancer were aimed at destabilizing his country.

"Our country is resolutely engaged on the path of democracy and the promotion of the rule of law and respect of liberties," he said on the Gabonese radio station, Africa Numero 1. "We are, therefore, neither against the freedom of speech nor the media.

"On the other hand, we are against provocation, denigration, mind-poisoning, and manipulation. We are faced with unacceptable interference of Spain in our country's affairs, and we are particularly against Spain's determination to contribute towards the destabilization of our country."

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Hundreds of ghost workers

Paymasters in three ministries in Equatorial Guinea are under investigation following the discovery of some 1,300 ghost workers, AFP reported on Tuesday, quoting a source close to the Finance Ministry.

The fictitious jobs - 822 in the Education and Health Ministries, and 567 in the Ministry of Defence, were discovered during an two-month-old review of the public sector workforce, according to AFP.

Equatorial Guinea has an estimated 5,000 public servants for a population of around 450,000, according to a 1993 census, AFP reported.

GABON: Bongo offers to host DRC peace

President Omar Bongo of Gabon has offered to host a summit whose aim would be to end wars in Central Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and ensure that fighting in the Great Lakes does not spread to other areas, Reuters reported on Tuesday, quoting Gabonese Vice President Didjob Divungi Di Dinge.

SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: Portuguese team to audit Central Bank

A team of Portuguese experts which arrived on Tuesday in Sao Tome and Principe was scheduled to begin on Thursday an audit of the island nation's central bank, Lusa reported.

The team was called in by the government after a series of financial scandals at the bank related, among other things, to the issuing of treasury bonds and the embezzlement of US $1 million in late 1998 and early 1999, Lusa said.

[ENDS]

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Item: irin-english-1959

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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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