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IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup of Main Events 39 in West Africa covering the period (Friday-Thursday) 6 March - 12 March 1998
SIERRA LEONE: President hails "new era"
President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who arrived back
in Freetown this week, said his re-instatement ushered
in "a new era" and called for Sierra Leone
to "concentrate on reconciliation". Tens
of thousands of residents packed Freetown's National
Stadium on Tuesday to hear Kabbah. This was the president's
first speech since he was restored by ECOMOG, the Nigerian-led
intervention force of the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS).
Kabbah was given a hero's welcome after ECOMOG toppled
the junta which seized power in May 1997. He blamed
"greed and treachery" as the underlying causes
of the coup and pledged that equality, fairness and
justice would inspire his policies. "Our country
and economy are in ruins but if we all work and pull
together as a team we can surely restore our former
prosperity and happiness." he added. Calling
for reconciliation, he said: "Now is the time
for healing." Kabbah also said he would cut the
number of cabinet members from 45 to 15 and would form
a policy advisory committee.
Kabbah said Nigerian President Sani Abacha was "a great friend to Sierra Leone. To him we owe our survival." Abacha, who accompanied Kabbah on his flight home, stressed that "for the first time in African history", a concerted effort of the sub-region managed to restore a government that had been overthrown. Malian President Alpha Konare, Guinean President Lansana Conte and President of Niger Ibrahim Bare Mainassara were also present at the welcoming festivities.
UN Secretary General urges donor generosity
In a special message delivered on his behalf by Ibrahim
Fall, UN assistant secretary general for political
affairs, the UN Secretary General said he would seek
approval from the Security Council for "a number
of UN military observers to deploy alongside ECOMOG
to assist in the process of normalisation." Kofi
Annan said he was strengthening the Office of his Special
Envoy to the country. He urged the donor community
to "respond generously" to the urgent appeal
for humanitarian assistance launched by the UN earlier
this month, and said he was establishing a Trust Fund
for Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, in Washington, a State Department spokesman
said the US government "welcomed" Kabbah's
return and looked forward to working with the government
and the international community towards the country's
reconstruction.
Re-instated government faces "huge problems"
Two days after Kabbah was formally re-instated, government officials said they were confronted by "huge problems". Seven years of civil war have left the country devastated, and the military junta which toppled Kabbah in May 1997 had left government coffers practically empty after spending an estimated US$ 70 million of public monies. A British cargo plane flew into Freetown carrying some 600 MTs of hardware, vehicles and office equipment for the government. Another consignment worth US$ 656,000 is due on Sunday.
More food aid arrives
A WFP report said a second WFP-chartered vessel carrying 730 mt of food arrived in Freetown on Monday for some 80,000 vulnerable people. Another consignment of food, mainly rice, donated by Britain had been airlifted to Bo and Kenema in eastern Sierra Leone.
An OCHA official told IRIN Britain had also pledged US$ 3.24 million to the newly established UN Trust Fund for Sierra Leone. The fund established by the UN Security Council is another mechanism for donors to contribute voluntarily towards a variety of aid programmes.
Meanwhile, ECOMOG announced that two key roads were
now open to civilian traffic. The opening of the road
from Freetown to Makeni, 140 kms northeast of Freetown,
was a sign the AFRC has lost its hold in many parts
of the country. The second road to be secured links
the Guinean border city of Pamalap to Kambia, 120 kms
southwest of Freetown.
More ECOMOG troops needed to provide security
Meanwhile, ECOMOG Chief of Staff Abdul One-Mohamed on
Monday said more troops would be needed to restore
security nationwide. Reuters quoted One-Mohamed as
saying ECOMOG currently had about 10 or 11 battalions
but needed more soldiers if it were to "dominate"
the whole countryside. He added many of the rebels
had come out of the bush and surrendered their weapons.
ECOMOG has provided food and cash to those who turned
themselves in, he added.
Rebel leader vows to continue fighting
Colonel Sam Bockarie, commander of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), vowed to continue fighting against ECOMOG. Speaking from an undisclosed location, Bokari said he was in command of both AFRC and RUF components of the rebel forces. He dismissed reports of fighting between the RUF and those AFRC forces wishing to surrender to ECOMOG in Daru, 270 kms east of Freetown.
WEST AFRICA: ECOWAS divided over joint force
Two days after it had formally restored democracy in Sierra Leone, the Nigerian-led West African intervention force ECOMOG became a focus for controversy between Nigeria and the rest of the region. Foreign, defence and interior ministers of ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, met on Wednesday night in the Ivorian political capital, Yamoussoukro, to set up a regional mechanism for the prevention and management of future conflicts.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Tom Ikimi told the meeting that ECOMOG was "not perfect" and required "strengthening." He added: "We must counter any initiative that would seek to weaken and divide us." He was referrring to a recent French-led joint manoeuvres involving Mali, Mauritania and Senegal along the border between the latter two. The ten-day exercise also involved troops from Britain and the United States and finished on 1 March. Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Conakry and Guinea-Bissau sent observers.
NIGERIA: Catholic bishops call for release of political detainees
Catholic bishops called on the Nigerian government to release all political prisoners in a move towards reconciliation. A statement issued at the end of the bishops' conference in eastern Nigeria said they hoped the pontiff's visit to Nigeria, scheduled for 21 to 23 March, would promote reconciliation in the country. Such a process was "urgent" in a "critically ill" country. The bishops also called for a wise use of votes in the presidential elections scheduled for August.
Meanwhile, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said on Thursday it was "morally and democratically wrong" for General Sani Abacha, the Nigerian ruler, to stand as a civilian candidate for the presidency. In a related development, the Concerned Nigerian Organisation (CNO) called on the Pope in an open letter to examine the "grave abuses of authority by a military dictatorship that had driven civilians from power and prevented them from regaining it."
Abacha ousted an unelected civilian government in 1993 and pledged to restore democracy in October 1998. A presidential election is scheduled in August.
Opposition unveils anti-Abacha plan
The opposition group, the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), unveiled a programme of action to prevent General Sani Abacha's election as president in August. NADECO leader Abraham Adesanya said Nigerians would be mobilised in a comprehensive, non-violent campaign. NADECO challenged Abacha to allow "alternative views of Nigerians to be voiced openly without harassment, intimidation and assassination if he was sure of his popularity," the radio said.
At the weekend, the United Action for Democracy (UAD), a coalition of 26 opposition groups, announced it would organise strikes and demonstrations to make Nigeria "ungovernable".
Serious fuel scarcity grips Lagos
A serious fuel shortage has gripped Lagos, Nigeria's
economic capital, and its environs. The situation took
a turn for the worse on Monday when long queues of
motorists formed in front of the limited number of
petrol stations. No official reason was given for the
scarcity. However, minister of petroleum resources,
Chief Dan Etete, denied newspaper reports saying that
the current fuel scarcity in some parts of the country
would continue until September. Instead the government
hopes that repairs can return refineries to full capacity
before the end of its current tenure.
LIBERIA: Taylor meets US assessment team
Liberia's President Charles Taylor told a US assessment team in the capital, Monrovia, that Liberia would remain open to "international scrutiny". Speaking to Ambassador Howard Jeter, Taylor said Liberia would strive to improve all forms of democratic government to gain acceptance and aid from the international community. Earlier, Defence Minister Daniel Chea said Liberia would also seek US assistance in re-training the army.
Taylor pledges "step by step" development
Liberian president Charles Taylor said his government was not interested in large-scale loans and instead favoured "step by step" development. In a speech he made in the Jrao district in Grand Kru County, Taylor said Liberia was already over-burdened with debt, which is estimated at over US$ three billion.
MALI: Coup plot trial opens
A former Malian minister and six army officers have gone on trial in the capital, Bamako, accused of plotting to overthrow President Alpha Konare in 1996. The former minister of health, Maddy Diallo, was charged with paying the officers to carry out planned attacks on government officials. If found guilty, the defendants could receive life sentences. In a separate trial last week, Diallo was found guilty by the same court of embezzling at least US$ 72,000 during his tenure as minister. He was sentenced to three years in jail.
NIGER: "Nowhere near the end of crises," premier says
Niger is "nowhere near the end of its crises," the country's prime minister, Ibrahim Hassan Mayaki, said on Thursday, a day after the capital's university was closed for "security" reasons. Talking to the press in Paris after speaking to local businessmen, Mayaki said the government must "adopt a crisis-control strategy based on open dialogue, whether it be with students or with the military, whose demands are mostly of a material nature." Mutinies stopped earlier this month when the government paid two months' salary arrears. Meanwhile, Niger Planning Minister Yacouba Nabassoua announced that US $200 million had been pledged to help combat poverty.
GHANA: Rawlings urges France to boost regional ties
Ghana's President, Jerry Rawlings, called on France on Thursday to refrain from "encouraging the emergence of parallel groups" and instead to "strengthen regional co-operation." Rawlings made the call as he met Antoine Pouillieute, director-general of French development aid fund Caisse francaise de developpement (CFD). The Ghanaian president's comments coincided with the ECOWAS ministerial meeting in Yamoussoukro. Rawlings stressed to the French official that the emergence of "parallel" groups, such as the West African economic and monetary union (Union economique et monetaire ouest-africaine, UEMOA), could undermine larger regional groupings such as ECOWAS.
BURKINA FASO: All-party pre-election talks
The government and political parties met in Ouagadougou on Wednesday to discuss various practical aspects of the mid-November presidential election. An administrative census is currently under way and voters' registers will be established beginning next month, the interior minister said. However the government and opposition parties were at odds over the need for a new, independent electoral commission. The government is happy with the existing body while the opposition wants a new commission to monitor the entire electoral process.
WEST AFRICA: Bakassi hearings over
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague closed preliminary hearings on Wednesday in the case opposing Cameroon and Nigeria over the Bakassi peninsula. The hearings started 10 days ago. The ICJ said it would take about four months to decide whether Nigeria's objections to Cameroon's claims were receivable. Meanwhile, Nigeria claimed last Friday that Cameroon had deployed at least 5,000 troops, heavy weapons and vehicles along the disputed Bakassi peninsula border between the two countries.
Abidjan, 13 March 1998, 12:30 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/emergenc or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha..unon.org. Mailing list: irin-wa-weekly]
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 12:52:09 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 39, 98.3.13 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980313124919.16279A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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