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IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup of Main Events 63 for West Africa covering the period (Friday-Thursday) 21 - 27 August 1998
GUINEA BISSAU: Ceasefire accord
The government of Guinea Bissau and representatives of army rebels signed an accord on Wednesday reaffirming a ceasefire agreement reached last month, news organisations reported.
The new accord provided for the reopening of the international airport in the capital, Bissau, so as to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and allow for the return of people who fled the country and those internally displaced by the three-month conflict. AFP said the two sides also "reaffirmed public recognition of democratic and legal institutions".
The agreement came after a long day of talks on Tuesday under the auspices of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
AFP and the Portuguese news agency, Lusa, quoted Cape Verde's foreign minister, Jose Luis de Jesus, as saying fresh two-day talks would also be held on 11 September in Abidjan, the economic capital of Cote d'Ivoire, to prepare an agenda for negotiations and discuss the deployment of a military observation group.
The rebellion broke out on 7 June after President Joao Bernardo Vieira sacked his armed forces chief of staff, General Ansumane Mane, for alleged gunrunning to separatists in Senegal's troubled neighbouring province of Casamance. In fighting that ensued until the 26 July ceasefire, the UN said an estimated 350,000 people had fled their homes.
Bishop hails the accord
Settimio Ferrazzeta, the bishop of Bissau, who has frequently called for a halt to the conflict, was quoted by the Portuguese daily, 'Diario de Noticias' as saying he was "very satisfied" with the new accord. He also called for a European "co-operation plan" to help rebuild the country. The parliamentary leader of the country's main opposition group, the Bafata Movement, similarly hailed the accord. Speaking in an interview with Portugal's Antena 1 radio station, Helder Vaz also called for the withdrawal of Senegalese troops deployed to help the government stop the rebellion.
Senegal's military presence justified
However, Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama said the presence of Senegalese troops was justified by the security situation in Casamance, which shares its border with Guinea Bissau, Portuguese Radio Renascenca reported Thursday last week. The separatist Mouvement des Forces Democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) has been engaged in an intermittent campaign against the Senegalese army since the Eighties.
NIGERIA: Abubakar rules out standing in presidential elections
Nigeria's new head of state, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, ruled out standing in presidential polls slated for 27 February 1999, two months ahead of the date set for the military to hand over power to a civilian government, media reports said on Tuesday.
Speaking during a three-day visit to South Africa, Reuters quoted Abubakar as telling parliament in Cape Town that he welcomed the announcement by the chairman of the new electoral commission, Ephraim Akpata, that polls would go ahead. He said his government had chosen democracy as the "preferred option of governance: "Nigerians want nothing less than true democracy in a united and peaceful country".
Election guidelines
Nevertheless, Akpata also stipulated that only parties with broad-based national support would be allowed to contest the elections. A government decree on election guidelines issued on Wednesday stated in addition that political parties should not use ethnic, religious or regional symbols, and party funding had to be strictly accounted for.
AFP said the guidelines reflected fears of historic regional divisions which led to the country's bloody 1967-70 civil war.
The new Peoples Democratic Party formed
Within 24 hours of Akpata's announcement, AFP reported that a coalition of prominent Nigerian politicians had joined forces with 65 small associations to form what they hoped would become the leading political party. The politicians from a coalition known as the Group of 34 (G34), which emerged in March to challenge continuing military rule, announced the formation of the new Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). A former information minister, Professor Jerry Gana, one of the leading G34 figures, was named as the party secretary
The last elections in Nigeria were held in 1993, but the military annulled the poll before the results were announced. Chief Moshood Abiola, who died in July 1998 while in detention, was widely believed to have won the majority of the votes.
Abubakar names ministers
On Saturday, the eve of his departure to South Africa, Abubakar named a 31-member cabinet in which he scrapped the key petroleum resources portfolio. News organisations said the oil portfolio was transferred to the presidency because it had become a target of criticism over fuel shortages in the domestic market and the rampant corruption in its dealing with the industry.
Abubakar warned the new ministers that they faced "enormous responsibilities" overseeing the transition to democratic rule, news organisations said. Speaking at a ceremony at the presidential palace in Abuja on Saturday, Abubakar was quoted by Nigerian state television as saying he was determined that the new ministers would not be "associated" with corrupt practices and warned that they would be "closely monitored" to ensure that their assignments were not used as springboards for a launch into "criminal affluence".
SIERRA LEONE: High court passes death sentences
Sierra Leone's high court passed death sentences on 16 civilians convicted earlier this week of collaborating with the ousted military government, media reports said on Wednesday.
The BBC reported that the 16 included a former spokesman for Sierra Leone's Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), Allieu Kamara, and several journalists - among them a former presenter on the BBC's Africa Service, Hilton Fyle, and the former head of state radio, Gipu Felix-George.
Death sentences criticised
Britain's Foreign Office Minister, Tony Lloyd, said on Thursday that he planned to appeal personally to Kabbah for clemency. The international freedom of expression watchdog, Reporters sans Frontieres, also called for the sentences to be commuted.
Meanwhile, Article 19, the international centre against censorship, expressed its particular "disquiet" over the death sentences of five journalists amongst the 16 found guilty of treason. Article 19's executive director, Frances D'Souza, said: "we are concerned that the line between treason and collaboration with the former military regime may have become blurred". She added that "the peaceful expression of opinions, however, obnoxious they may be to many people, should in no circumstances be construed as treason".
However, Sierra Leone observers in the capital, Freetown, told IRIN it was not clear whether President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah would be able to commute the sentences easily.
They said Kabbah was under domestic political pressure to demonstrate a tough line against the AFRC and its allies from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), who ruled Sierra Leone from May 1997 until they were forcibly ousted by ECOMOG in February this year.
The defendants have three weeks to appeal against the verdicts.
ECOMOG reports losses in battle
The West African intervention force, ECOMOG, said its troops and rebel fighters had suffered heavy casualties last week in clashes in northeastern Sierra Leone, news agencies reported. Reuters quoted ECOMOG Force Commander Brigadier-General Abu Ahmadu as saying that "ECOMOG and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels had suffered heavy casualties" during three separate clashes in the Kono and Koinadugu districts.
Ahmadu did not give a detailed breakdown of casualty figures. But he said several Guinean soldiers with ECOMOG had been killed in a battle in the town of Alkalia in the Koinadugu district.
LIBERIA: Taylor rival seeks talks
A former wartime rival of Liberia's President Charles Taylor, Roosevelt Johnson, reiterated a call for talks with Taylor following a search of his home in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, last week by security men, independent Star Radio reported on Tuesday.
In a dispatch quoting an interview with the Voice of America, it said Johnson, the wartime leader of the Krahn wing of the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO-J), had criticised the search as a violation of his rights. Analysts described the issue as particularly sensitive because some of the worst fighting during the Liberian civil war had resulted from an attempt to arrest Johnson in April 1996.
More recently, local residents fled the neighbourhood in March this year during an incident in which presidential guards were alleged to have attacked Johnson's home. At the time, ECOMOG soldiers had to intervene with armoured vehicles to keep the calm.
Market stalls closed down
On Monday, Star Radio reported that police in Monrovia had demolished an estimated 1,500 city market stalls as part of a controversial month-long operation.
It said the police had been breaking down "makeshift" structures and pavement stalls, prompting calls by the Liberia Marketing Association to stop the operation.
Junior minister released
The Supreme Court of Liberia on Thursday last week ordered the release of deputy information minister Milton Teahjay, who was detained on contempt of court charges, news agencies reported. No official reason was given for Teahjay's release two days before completing the five-day sentence. He was convicted for describing the judiciary system as "rotten" during a talk show.
SENEGAL: Casamance ambush
Two gendarmes were killed and two wounded on Friday night last week, when they were ambushed in an attack blamed on separatists in Senegal's southern province of Casamance, AFP reported. The dispatch quoting informed sources said the incident occurred near Kolda, 170 km east of the regional capital, Ziguinchor. It added that the gendarmes were ambushed on their way back from patrolling an area where a number of civilian vehicles had been attacked in recent weeks.
TOGO: Opposition demands election re-run
Two opposition parties have demanded a re-run of Togo's controversial June elections, which saw President Gnassingbe Eyadema win a final term in office, AFP reported on Friday last week. Quoting a letter from the leaders of the Comite d'action pour le renouveau (CAR) and the Parti democratique pour le renouveau (PDR) to Togo's prime minister, Kwassi Klutse, AFP said the opposition had rejected Eyadema's offer to join a new unity government headed by Klutse.
Klutse had earlier urged the two parties to discuss the issue. But both reportedly told Klutse that the government's running of the elections had plunged Togo into political crisis and they should be re-run.
According to media reports, opposition parties claimed the exiled veteran opposition leader, Gilchrist Olympio from the Union des forces du changement (UFC), in fact won the poll.
GABON: President's Swiss bank account frozen
Judicial authorities in Switzerland investigating the French oil giant, ELF, have frozen the bank account of Gabon's President Omar Bongo, AFP reported on Thursday.
The news agency said Judge Paul Perraudin ordered the seizure of the account, held in the name of one of Bongo's advisors, in May in connection with an alleged diversion of funds and money laundering by ELF. However, Bongo had now identified himself as the real account holder, invoking his presidential immunity to stop the investigation, it said.
MALI: Bamako election shows way for presidential race
Elections for mayor of Mali's capital, Bamako, have set off an open struggle to succeed President Omar Alpha Konare within the ruling Alliance pour la democratie au Mali (ADEMA), AFP reported on Thursday. The news agency said the victory of ADEMA's secretary general, Ibrahim Ndiaye, over his rival, Boubacar Ba, was a defeat for the prime minister, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, whose clan supporters voted for Ba.
WEST AFRICA: FAO food cites regional food problems
A UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report released on Thursday said several West African nations were facing "exceptional food emergencies" as conflict, adverse weather and poor harvests took their toll.
It said the countries worst affected included Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone.
Abidjan, 28 August 1998, 15:00 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]
From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> ubject: IRIN-West Africa Weekly Roundup 63, 98.8.28
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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