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IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup of Main Events 61 for West Africa covering the period (Friday-Thursday) 7 August - 13 August 1998
GUINEA BISSAU: Joint approach to peace talks
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) this week agreed on a common approach aimed at resolving the conflict between the government of Guinea Bissau and army mutineers, media reports said.
After the meeting in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, the country's foreign minister, Amara Essy, said in a television broadcast: "There is no rivalry. We have have the same vision of how to solve the problem. We have agreed on a common approach." Reuters said, however, that neither Essy, nor Cape Verde Foreign Minister Jose Luis de Jesus, the CPLP spokesman, would elaborate. But Luis de Jesus said that the Abidjan talks had produced "positive results".
The Abidjan meeting followed what officials described as successful talks in Bissau at the weekend in which ECOWAS negotiators, President Joao Bernardo Vieira of Guinea Bissau, and General Ansumane Mane, leader of the army revolt, had participated. The revolt started on 7 June after Vieira sacked Mane following accusations that senior army officers were smuggling arms to separatists in neighbouring Senegal's southern province of Casamance. Senegal and Guinea (Conakry) sent troops to support government forces. A ceasefire was signed on 26 July.
Initial round of talks postponed
After the Abidjan meeting, officials announced that an initial round of peace talks between the protagonists scheduled for 18 August on the Cape Verde island of Sal had been postponed. The Portuguese daily, 'Publico', quoted Essy as saying the talks had been postponed to a date yet to be scheduled so as to "join forces" and avoid parallel mediation by ECOWAS and the CPLP.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan lauded the ECOWAS and CPLP peace efforts. He also congratulated the CPLP for its role in getting the two sides to sign the 26 July ceasefire.
The humanitarian situation
Meanwhile, a UN inter-agency mission, which visited the capital, Bissau, earlier in August, this week reported extensive damage in the city. It cited a lack of water and electricity in most neighbourhoods, and said the downtown market area and all embassies, except that of Portugal, been destroyed. FAO and UNICEF offices were looted, while a newly built UN complex had been hit by a bomb. A WFP report on Thursday said heavy rains had made the roads so impassable that it had been unable to transport 175 mt of relief supplies from Senegal. WFP said, however, that it would send two weekly convoys with 250 mt emergency supplies from Guinea (Conakry).
The UN-OCHA has estimated that there were currently some 350,000 internally displaced people in Guinea Bissau. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday that since the beginning of the mutiny, it had distributed 300 mt of WFP food aid to people camped in the towns of Cacheu, Quinara, Bafata, Tombali, Biombo, the Bijagos archipelago, and to those who remained in Bissau.
In the next three months it planned to distribute a further 2,610 mt food, buckets, plastic sheeting and soap to some 115,000 displaced people.
NIGERIA: Further steps towards democratic reforms
Nigeria's military government this week took further steps towards reform by scrapping major decrees banning trade union activity and inaugurating a new electoral commission to oversee the election of a civilian government.
In a separate development, an international team of doctors confirmed on Wednesday that the prominent Nigerian opposition leader, Moshood Abiola, had died in detention of natural causes.
Anti-labour legislation overturned
Abubakar drew praise this week from the ILO after he signed ten decrees overturning provisions of the previous regime. They included a 1994 order banning trade union activity. AFP recalled that key union leaders, including those of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) had been jailed by the late General Sani Abacha and replaced by state-approved administrators, who quelled strikes and banned political agitation. Abubakar, who replaced Abacha in June, has freed several of these union leaders.
The electoral commission
According to Nigerian Television, the country's new leader, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, directed the electoral commission to draw up a firm timetable for elections, which would be announced within the next two weeks. Abubakar, in a speech to the newly sworn-in members of the electoral commission, said that handing over power in May 1999 to a civilian government was "sacrosanct" to the current administration. Abubakar also urged the commission to invite foreign observers to monitor its work and pledged it the necessary legal, financial, logistical and moral support.
The commission, sworn in on Tuesday, comprises 14 members under the chairmanship of Justice Ephraim Akpata. News reports this week said Akpata called on Nigerians to cooperate fully with the commission. He added he would resign if there was any attempt by the authorities to influence his work. Press reports said Akpata, a former Supreme Court judge, is widely respected and has given the commission a degree of credibility.
Abiola's autopsy report
A team of pathologists from Canada, the US and Britain who spent a month carrying out detailed tests in western Europe and north America announced this week that Abiola had died of natural causes on 7 July when he collapsed and later died of a heart attack in detention. News reports said the team did not suspect foul play as suspected by family members and supporters who requested their examination.
James Young, the Canadian leader of the team, told the BBC : "At this time our final opinion is that death was due to natural causes as a result of his long-standing heart disease". He added that toxicology tests indicated the presence of anti-malaria and anti-inflammatory drugs, but no other drugs or poisons. Abiola, the presumed winner of the 1993 presidential elections, was arrested in 1994 for having declared himself president.
LIBERIA: Taylor plays down crisis over rival
President Charles Taylor of Liberia this week played down fears that his government might try to arrest a key wartime rival and spark a stand-off between former civil war fighters. The issue involves the return home of Roosevelt Johnson, leader of the officially disbanded Krahn wing of the United Liberation Movement for Liberia (ULIMO-J). Humanitarian sources in the capital, Monrovia, told IRIN on Wednesday that Taylor's government had placed full page advertisements in local papers expressing alarm that Johnson had returned unexpectedly and without submitting to "normal immigration procedures".
Monrovia's independent Star Radio reported Taylor had also called for an emergency session of the national legislature to discuss the issue. An attempt to arrest Johnson in April 1996 sparked intense fighting between pro-Johnson forces and Taylor's National Patriotic Front for Liberia (NPFL), backed by ULIMO's rival Mandingo wing (ULIMO-K).
Taylor later publicly assured a group of prominent Liberians that Johnson was not a security threat, an editor at Star Radio told IRIN. Star Radio said Johnson had in fact requested a meeting with Taylor: "Mr Johnson said the meeting is intended to thank the president for government's assistance" towards his medical treatment abroad.
Guinea denies Liberian allegations
In a separate development during the week, AFP reported that Guinea had rejected an accusation by Liberia that Conakry was planning to destabilise it. Guinean National Security Minister Gouryssi Conde was quoted in the local media as saying: "Guinea has no plan to abort the brotherly relationship between the two countries." He made the remarks after leading a high-level delegation to deliver a message from Guinean President Lansana Conte to Taylor.
The visit was prompted by charges last week in which Liberian Defence Minister Daniel Chea alleged Guinea was training about 800 troops to overthrow Taylor's year-old government.
SIERRA LEONE: Aid workers found safe and well
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) told IRIN on this week that six staff members reported missing after a rebel attack last week on the town of Kabala in northern Sierra Leone had turned up safe and well.
Speaking from the capital, Freetown, a CRS official said the six had fled into the bush after fighting between the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the Nigerian-led West African intervention force, ECOMOG. Four other CRS staff members had managed to drive to safety in neighbouring Guinea.
"They were in the middle of the distribution when the rebels attacked," the official said. "But all our staff are accounted for now."
ECOMOG commander seconded to Sierra Leone defence force
The commander of ECOMOG, Brigadier General Maxwell Khobe, has been seconded to serve as chief of staff to Sierra Leone's armed forces, Nigerian radio reported on Thursday. It said he would be replaced by Brigadier Abu Amadou.
UNHCR airlift
UNHCR said this week it had chartered two aircraft for the return of 3,000 Sierra Leonean refugees from camps in neighbouring Guinea. The air operation was organised so as to prevent refugees returning by boat following a ferry accident earlier this month. Ongoing fighting in northern Sierra Leone between the ECOMOG and rebel forces had also cut off direct land access to the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, UNHCR added.
In neighbouring Liberia, meanwhile, UNHCR said the number of refugees from Sierra Leone had been reduced to 39,000 after the return home in recent weeks of at least 20,000.
NIGER: Fifteen political parties form presidential coalition
Supporters of Nigerien President General Ibrahim Bare Mainassara decided to set up a 15-party coalition named the Convergence pour la republique(CPR) to support his efforts towards economic recovery in Niger, according to news reports at the weekend. In a radio broadcast, the CPR, headed by Hamid Algabid, the former Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), announced plans to strengthen democracy and promote human rights.
Municipal elections are scheduled for 22 November. All political parties in Niger have agreed to participate in the polls. The three main political parties in Niger are: The CPR, Alliance des forces democratiques (AFDS) and the Front de restauration et de defense de la democratie (FRDD). Meanwhile, AFP said France welcomed the move and hoped the international community would now step in to help prepare Niger for the and municipal elections.
TOGO: Three journalists detained
Three Togolese journalists, including two editors of independent publications, were arrested and charged with "besmirching the honour of the president and his wife", AFP reported at the weekend. In a dispatch quoting judicial sources, it said they were accused of publishing reports alleging the widow of the late President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, had asked her Togolese counterpart to return "17 trunks of jewelry which disappeared in Lome". The Mobutus had stopped over in Togo on their way to exile in Morocco.
The three detained journalists were: Pamphile Gnimassou, editor of the weekly 'Abito'; Asionbo Augustin, editor of the weekly 'Tingo Tingo' and Hounkali Elias, a writer of the weekly 'Nouveau Combat'.
Low turnout for general strike in capital
Few people heeded opposition calls for a general strike to contest the results of the June presidential elections, which saw the incumbent's mandate renewed for a five-year period, news reports said on Monday.
A coalition of eight opposition parties called the Forces Democratiques, claimed that Gilchrist Olympio, leader of the Union des forces du changement (UFC), had won the elections and not the incumbent, President Gnasssingbe Eyadema, according to radio station Africa no. 1. It said most government offices, petrol stations, banks and pharmacies remained open.
BENIN: Journalists protest
Journalists in Benin have protested against the beating of a fellow reporter by Police during independence day celebrations last week, AFP reported. It said some 1,000 journalists and civic leaders had marched through the capital, Cotonou. Robert Amegah of 'Golf FM' radio station was allegedly handcuffed and beaten after an altercation between security forces and his team of reporters covering the celebrations of 38 years of independence.
The police later confirmed on state media that Amegah had been detained for three hours for an "act of rebellion". "He was looking to cross swords with the security forces," Commissioner Bienvenu Agbidinoukoun said.
Japanese development aid
Japan this week granted Benin some 250 million yen (FFr 16 million) in development aid, news reports said. The funds would support government attempts to improve the balance of payments by reducing agricultural imports through improving the country's food ability to feed itself. Since 1980, Japan has granted Benin nearly FFr 840 million in bilateral aid.
GUINEA: Court completes mutiny examination
A special court in Guinea this week completed the cross-examination of some 88 officers and men implicated in a 1996 coup attempt against President Lansana Conte's government, AFP reported. Some 60 people were killed and 300 injured in the two days of fighting, which started as an army mutiny over pay and conditions.
Abidjan, 14 August, 1998, 14:30 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, 14 Aug 1998 14:43:07 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Weekly Roundup 61, 98.08.14 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980814144046.11691A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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