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IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup of Main Events 57 for West Africa covering the period (Friday-Thursday) 10 July - 16 July 1998
NIGERIA: More prisoners released
The Nigerian authorities this week ordered the release of hundreds of prisoners detained without trial or still held after completing their sentences. Media reports quoting an official government statement said they included 362 people jailed for financial crimes by special military tribunals set up by the hardline military ruler who died last month, General Sani Abacha.
In another development announced by the media on Thursday, Abubakar, also disbanded three electoral bodies, which were set up by Abacha to oversee the country's transition to democracy. The Transition Implementation Committee, the Committee on Devolution of Power and the National Reconciliation Committee were widely seen as instruments to perpetuate military rule, the BBC said.
The authorities said the detainees were being released in defence to the basic rights and freedoms of individuals and also to ease overcrowding in Nigerian prisons. The countryís new military ruler, General Abudulsalam Abubakar, had already freed about 30 key political prisoners and opposition activists.
Abiola's death due heart disease
However, Moshood Abiola, the country's most prominent political prisoner and presumed winner of the annulled 1993 presidential election, died in detention last week shortly before his release. He was buried on Saturday in the grounds of his Lagos home at a funeral which drew thousands of mourners, news organisations reported. A post mortem conducted by a an international team of pathologists said in preliminary findings this week that he died of a heart attack. "In our opinion the mechanism of death is due to a rapid deterioration in a diseased heart," said a statement by the pathologists carried in news reports.
The pathologists from Britain, Canada and the United States said they had also sent material for further analysis abroad, and that a full report would be available in a month's time. But Abiola's eldest son, Kola Abiola, told AFP, shortly before the pathologists released their findings that their conclusions still left the military open to the charge of "negligence". He claimed that his father had not received any medical attention during his four years in jail.
Coup plotters sentences reduced
In a further conciliatory move, Abubakar's government last Friday commuted death sentences served on a group of officers and civilians earlier this year for allegedly plotting a coup against Abacha. They included Abacha's former deputy, General Oladipo Diya whose death sentence, like those of the others, was commuted to 25 years. On Monday, news agencies said Abubakar told graduating officers at a staff college: "We are committed to taking Nigeria back to its rightful place, among the community of nations, and above all we are committed to taking our military back to its constitutional role of defending the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation," he added.
Pro-democracy groups, EU urge further change
As pro-democracy groups such as the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), United Action for Democracy (UAD), the coalition of 55 parties in the Joint Action Committee of Nigeria (JACON) renewed pressure on Abubakar during the week for a quick transition to civilian rule. In Brussels, Austria's foreign minister, Wolfgang Schussel said after chairing a meeting of European foreign ministers: "We have launched a very clear signal to General Abubakar. If he continues to move towards democracy, we will react positively in terms of sanctions."
NADECO's chairman, Abraham Adesanya, said after a meeting with Abubakar that the opposition had proposed the formation of a government of national unity. He said no agreement had been reached, but Abubakar had promised to consider the opposition's views. No further information was available. Analysts, quoted by the BBC, said while opposition groups in the southwest have called for a government of national unity, politicians in the north want fresh elections. Nigeria has been subject to EU sanctions including an arms embargo and a ban on the issuing of visas to senior officials since November 1995, when the writer Ken Saro Wiwa was executed by the Abacha regime.
New appointments
The Nigerian authorities meanwhile have reshuffled a number of key military posts, according to media reports on Tuesday. In the most important of these, Major General Victor Malu, the former head of the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, was appointed to take charge of Lagos Garrison Command, which controls all troops in and around Nigeria's largest city of eight million people. Lagos is the opposition's bastion, where riots flared last week after Abiola's death.
Fuel shortage grounds aircraft
The fuel shortage in Nigeria has affected both domestic and international flights, AFP reported on Wednesday, quoting airport officials. Dozens of flights have been cancelled in the last few days following crippling fuel shortages. On Monday, two oil tanker drivers were killed and several injured in a brawl over petrol at one of Lagos's main oil depot. Nigeria, through a combination of economic mis-management and corruption has experienced chronic fuel shortages in the last year even though it is the sixth oil-producer in the world.
GUINEA BISSAU: Senegal promises humanitarian corridors
Senegal said it opened humanitarian corridors into war-torn neighbouring Guinea Bissau at the weekend as bitter fighting between army rebels and Senegalese-backed government forces entered its sixth week on Monday.
Diplomatic sources in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, told IRIN the move came after "intense pressure" on the government to release the aid, which had been blocked at Senegal's southern border with Guinea Bissau for some weeks.
A UNHCR spokesman quoted by AFP, said on Tuesday a convoy of 10 lorries had left Niamey, capital of Niger, for Guinea Bissau following an agreement with Senegalese President Abdou Diouf to open its borders. Sadako Ogata, UN High Commissioner for Refugees had written a letter to Diouf last week requesting that Senegal open its border for emergency supplies. The UN estimates that some 350,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.
Negotiators frustrated
Two senior Portuguese officials expressed their frustration this week that efforts to negotiate a ceasefire to the six-week had so far proven fruitless. Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, according to Portuguese media reports, said a further mediation strategy would be planned when the seven nations in the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries meet to discuss the crisis in Cape Verde. The nations are Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and Sao Tome e Principe. "We are always ready," Guterres was quoted as saying. "But the two sides don't want to make peace right now."
Like Guterres, the Portuguese Foreign Minister, Jaime Gama, has repeatedly tried at meetings with Guinea Bissau's president, Joao Bernardo Vieira and rebel army general Ansumane Mane to get them to stop the daily shelling which has largely destroyed the capital, Bissau."It is simply not possible to get a ceasefire in Guinea Bissau right now because the logic of war has not yet ceded to the logic of peace," he said in interview with Portuguese Antena 1 Radio.
Even during meetings with representatives of both sides aboard a Portuguese frigate in Bissau harbour, Gama said the shooting had not stopped. "Naturally we all work for peace, but it is necessary that everyone wants peace." Since the rebellion started on 7 June, the governments of The Gambia and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), have also dispatched envoys to try and mediate an end to the fighting.
UN base established
In the deadlocked artillery battle for the rebel-held Bra army headquarters and the international airport, there have been no overall casualty figures. But these are now believed to be in the thousands. Meanwhile, the UN said it had established a base in the second city, Bafata, from where emergency WFP food supplies would be distributed in coordination with the ICRC and other NGOs.
Missionaries "appalled"
But, in a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Catholic missionaries said more had to be done to alleviate the suffering of displaced people. According to a report on Wednesday of the Vatican's Missionary News Agency (MISNA), it said: "The intention of this letter is to focus the United Nations undivided attention on, to put it mildly, the "apocalyptic drama that is degenerating by the hour." The letter was jointly signed on behalf of the Committee of the Religious Congregations and International Human Rights Organisations in Guinea Bissau.
Saying it was "almost a certainty that thousands will die "from cholera, malaria and meningitis, the letter also said: "Our Committee is appalled by the complete indifference of the international community which seems to evaluate the crisis in Guinea Bissau from a political point of view obviously disregarding the serious humanitarian drama."
SENEGAL: Opposition challenges intervention
In Dakar, Senegal's opposition parties have called on President Abdou Diouf to give a full explanation of the role of the country's army in Guinea Bissau.
Radio France Internationale (RFI) quoted the five main opposition parties as saying the Senegalese intervention had turned into a "real war" and could affect the stability of Senegal itself.
Opposition leader Iba Der Thiam added the intervention was "totally unacceptable", as neither parliament, political parties or the public had been consulted. The matter was "disturbing" considering the loss of human life, he said.
SIERRA LEONE: ECOMOG deploys extra troops
The commander of the West African military intervention force, ECOMOG, General Timothy Shelpidi this week embarked on a four-day visit to Sierra Leone as more ECOMOG troops were transferred from Liberia to Sierra Leone to help crush the rebel insurrection in the north and the east, the BBC reported on Tuesday. AFP said that Shelpidi's visit had renewed speculation that ECOMOG, which has been based in Monrovia, Liberia, since 1990, is to move its headquarters to Freetown.
UN peacekeepers approved
The UN Security Council has voted unanimously to set up a small peacekeeping operation in Sierra Leone for an initial six-months to help disarm forces loyal to the country's former military government, a UN statement said. To be called the UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL), it would consist of 70 military observers, a small medical unit and civilian support staff.
Rebel fighters have been blamed for recent atrocities against civilians, including rape, murder and maiming. The Kenyan envoy to the UN said former junta members were committing "unspeakable atrocities" which served "no military or strategic value." The military observers would work with ECOMOG, and the democratically-elected government of Sierra Leone in re-establishing stability. Analysts, quoted by the BBC, said the presence of military observers would probably make ECOMOG more effective.
The UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) would consist of 70 military observers, a small medical unit and civilian support staff.
National army disbanded
In a another military development this week, AFP reported that the Sierra Leonean national army has been disbanded. "The army had become highly politicised, partisan, corrupt, lacked discipline and had been comprised," said Sidi Alghali, member of the government-appointed National Policy Advisory Committee. He added that the new army would comprise 5,000 men and women, and would not be dominated by any one ethnic group. However, 1,000 members of the old army, mainly technicians, would be retained. Militia groups would also be disbanded and demobilised, but would be used as an auxiliary force.
WFP resumes food deliveries
WFP announced on Tuesday it had resumed the delivery of food aid to some 130,000 Sierra Leoneans refugees in Guinea after a one-month interruption following a travel ban, a WFP statement said. Some 45,000 refugees said to be at a "great risk" were expected to receive the first consignment of food. The travel ban, imposed by the Guinean authorities in mid-June following military incidents along the Guinea-Sierra Leone border, was lifted last weekend.
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Political prisoner dies
One of the 11 alleged separatists in Equatorial Guinea sentenced to death on treason charges last month has died in hospital, news organisations reported this week. An opposition party member, Placido Miko, told the BBC the prisoner, Martin Puye, who belonged to the minority Bubi community, had been suffering from hepatitis and harsh prison conditions.
Spain, the former colonial power, has urged the government in Equatorial Guinea to clarify the causes of his death and also repeated its plea for the remaining ten detainees to be pardoned. They were sentenced to death in connection with separatist attacks on the island of Bioko in January, in which several members of the security forces were killed.The government blamed the attacks on the separatist Movimento para la Autodeterminacion de la Isla de Bioko (MAIB).
Amnesty International
Earlier in the week, Amnesty International, said those remaining on death sentences were in any case condemned to a "slow death" by appalling prison conditions and near starvation. "If nothing is done immediately to improve conditions many could die without even needing to execute them," the statement added earlier in the week.
Opposition criticised for lack of maturity, government
The government of Equatorial Guinea criticised the lack of "political maturity" displayed by opposition leaders, who have accused it of allegedly preparing fraudulent parliamentary elections, AFP reported on Tuesday, quoting Radio Malabo. Reacting to the reports, President Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea reaffirmed the government's commitment to abide by an agreement signed with the opposition on the full participation of all political parties in the electoral process.
The main opposition party, Union Populaire (UP), accused
the government of expelling 50 officials from various
electoral boards in the opposition stronghold in the
province of Kie-Ntem.
CAMEROON: Journalist detained
The authorities in Cameroon have held a newspaper editor in detention since 2 July, the freedom of speech watchdog Reporters sans Frontieres said. In a letter to President Paul Biya, this week it urged him to charge or release Patrick Tchouwa, director of the magazine 'Le jeune detective', which is based in the capital, Douala. It said he had been held in Elig-Essono police station following an article on the embezzlement of public funds.
MAURITANIA: Ministers dismissed
Mauritania's President Maaouya ould Sid Ahmed Taya at the weekend dismissed his minister of foreign affairs, Ould Lebbat, and the rural development minister, Hamma Vezzaz. AFP said no reason was given in a government statement which announced that former prime minister Sheikh Al-Avia Ould Mohamed Khouna had replaced Lebbat, while an academic, Memed Ould Ahmed, took the rural development portfolio.
Currency devalued
Also at the weekend, Mauritania devalued its currency, the Ouguiya, by 11 percent, AFP reported. It said fevered speculation over the new exchange rate between the time banks closed on Friday and reopened on Sunday saw the dollar climb some 33 percent against the Ouguiya on the informal market.
Abidjan, 17 July 1998
[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, 17 Jul 1998 09:33:34 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Weekly Roundup 57, 98.7.17 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980717093028.21369B-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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