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IRIN-WA Update 97-97 of Events in West Africa, (Thursday) 4 December 1997
[As a supplement to its weekly round-ups of main events in West Africa, IRIN-WA will produce a daily synopsis of reports on the region. IRIN issues these reports for the benefit of the humanitarian community but accepts no responsibility as to the accuracy of the original source.]
LIBERIA: Amnesty expresses concern
Liberian President Charles Taylor, in a nationwide broadcast on state radio on Thursday evening, announced the death of Samuel Dokie, a prominent opposition leader and former ally, who had been reported missing since Saturday. He said flags across the country would be lowered to half mast.
Hours earlier, Amnesty International, in a statement expressing concern for his safety, said Dokie, former deputy speaker of the dissolved Transitional Legislative Assembly, his wife, Janet, the former internal affairs minister, a male relative and a bodyguard, had been arrested in Gbarnga, 160 km northeast of the capital, Monrovia. It added: "The arrests were made by unidentified security officials apparently acting on behalf of the Special Security Service who stated the four were wanted in Monrovia for 'security reasons'. Efforts to trace them in the custody of the police and other security forces have failed."
The Amnesty report followed a statement by Taylor on Wednesday, ordering the government to do everything it could to trace Dokie. "At a time like this when the government is making every effort at development, reconstruction and reconciliation, as well as to win the confidence of the international community, it is disturbing that anyone would want to create an embarrassment of this magnitude by getting involved in the abduction and disappearance of prominent citizens," Taylor's statement said. Taylor visits Nigeria
The Liberian president said after a 24-hour visit to the Nigerian capital on Thursday that he had promised his Nigerian counterpart, General Sani Abacha, that his government would look into allegations that some Nigerian troops in Liberia had been mistreated, AFP said. The troops are with the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, in Liberia. Nigerian newspapers said Taylor had promised to look into allegations by troops returning home of mistreatment by Liberian security men.
SIERRA LEONE: Eight publicly executed
Eight suspected armed robbers were publicly executed by firing squad this week in a football stadium packed to capacity, international news agencies reported on Wednesday. In what a local human rights group called "extrajudicial killings", the eight men were executed in the diamond mining town of Koidu, some 250 km east of Freetown.The military government, claiming an increase in armed robberies and car seizures since its overthrow of the civilian government in May, ordered the executions under a 28 November decree making looting and possession of stolen property punishable by death. The decree was backdated to 26 May - the day after the overthrow of President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.Teddy Cole, of the Society for the Advancement of Civil Rights, said it was not clear whether the men had been tried or even granted legal representation.
Eight die in militia ambushes
Four Sierra Leone army soldiers and two women were among eight people allegedly killed in separate ambushes this week by Kamajor tribal fighters loyal to Kabbah, AFP reported on Thursday. A woman, who was with the soldiers, was also said to have been executed. The ambush was said to have occurred in the eastern Kono-Tongo district, a region rife with sporadic violence since Kabbah's overthrow. The other ambush, on Wednesday, occurred just outside Kenema, 240 km east of Freetown, when Kamajor fighters were reported to have attacked a lorry loaded with bags of rice. A woman and two men were killed. Neither incident, however, was independently confirmed.
Military government seeks end to sanctions
The country's military ruler, Major Johnny Paul Koroma, wrote to the Nigerian leader, General Sani Abacha, in his role as current chairman of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) appealing for an end to sanctions, AFP reported on Thursday. The sanctions, which include a UN oil and arms embargo, were imposed after the May coup and are enforced by ECOMOG.In the letter, Koroma was quoted as saying: "The continuing sanctions and embargo on all commodities entering Sierra Leone makes neither sense, nor can it be in the interests of peace and ordinary people."
NIGERIA: Election postponed in oil-rich Niger River delta
As Africa's most populous state gears up for the election of representatives to the country's 36 state parliaments as part of a key stage in the transition to civilian rule, the vote was postponed in Warri, a midwestern Niger delta oil town, Reuters reported on Thursday.In a dispatch from Lagos, it said the authorities had decided to reschedule the voting after a threat of disruption by ethnic Ijaw politicians. The 'Daily Times' quoted local electoral commissioner Musa Salihu as saying the "fragile peace" in Warri could not guarantee a problem-free poll. A new date for the Warri election was not decided.Scores of people were killed and oil production disrupted in the area last March when the Ijaws, Nigeria's fourth largest ethnic group, complained that new local border demarcations had given the Itsekiri tribe greater influence.
TOGO: Newspaper publisher detained
Citing allegations of "propagating false information offensive to the head of state", the Togolese authorities on Thursday detained the publisher of an opposition newspaper, AFP reported. It said Kodjo Afatsao Siliadin, publisher of the monthly 'Le Nouveau Journal', was being held in connection with an article prepared for the 1 December edition. The article, also carried in the French-based monthly, 'Le Nouvel Afrique-Asie', was alleged to have said that Togolese President General Gnassingbe Eyadema was continuing to provide support for remnants of the former Zairean army of the late Mobuto Sese Seko. The report said his arrest comes at a time the National Assembly has spent the week considering a new press code.
BENIN: Civil service strike hardens
As a strike by labour unions in Benin entered its third day on Thursday, Reuters quoted unions as saying they were considering extending the 72-hour protest. The strike, which started on Tuesday, was called by the civil servants' Confederation Generale des Travailleurs du Benin (CGTB) union and the SYNETP teachers' union to protest aspects of the government's draft budget for 1998.Their demands include index-linked salary increases and higher family allowances. Radio Benin said employees of all ministries in the country, with the exception of the security and interior minister were currently on strike. The action follows a series of similar 48-hour strikes by other unions last week. The dispatches said unions planned to call further strikes if their demands were not met.
NIGER: Former leaders hand themselves in as "political prisoners"
Niger's former president, Mahamane Ousmane, former prime minister Mahamadou Issouffou and the leader of the opposition National Movement for the Development of Society, Tandja Mamadou, this week turned themselves in as "political prisoners", the BBC and Radio France Internationale reported on Thursday. The three main opposition leaders said they had handed themselves over to police to protest the detention of Ali Sabot, a political ally who was detained in October for allegedly criticising President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara. The protest on Wednesday came two days after the announcement of a new government. They also called for a re-run of presidential and parliamentary elections held in the past 18 months.
BURKINA FASO: New budget
The National Assembly on Thursday adopted a 1988 budget providing for a deficit of CFA 26.4 billion (FF 246 million), up 4.16 percent against the 1997 budget, AFP reported.
Abidjan, 4 December 1997
[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-updates]
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 1997 19:58:04 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN - West Africa Update 97-97, 97.12.4 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.971204195252.17463A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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