ReliefWeb

01 Apr 1998

Peru
Visits to detainees and aid for victims of El Niño

Report

— ICRC

ICRC NEWS 13
To help combat a cholera epidemic in La Merced prison, the ICRC last week provided the detaining authorities with cleaning products, chlorine and rehydration salts.

Over the past few weeks, ICRC delegates have visited 1,380 detainees (about 60 of them for the first time) in places of detention under the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice. They also saw some 80 people (20 of them for the first time) held in facilities run by the Ministry of the Interior, and visited a dozen detainees in places

01 Apr 1998

Tajikistan
Renewed outbreak of violence

Report

— ICRC

ICRC NEWS 13
The fighting that has been raging around Kofarnikhon, 20 km east of the capital Dushanbe, has already claimed close to 100 victims since violence flared up again on 24 March. More than 30 wounded have been registered in hospitals in Dushanbe which have received ICRC emergency medical supplies. As security conditions are preventing ICRC delegates from reaching Kofarnikhon, the local branch of the Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan has delivered medical aid to the local hospital, which is reportedly treating several dozen war wounded.

The ICRC has been working in the country

01 Apr 1998

Malaysia
Air pollution in Malaysia worsens

Report

— Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Residents in the Malaysian town of Miri have been advised to stay home and wear masks as air pollution hovers at dangerous levels

The air pollution index in the town in Sarawak state on Borneo island has been over the hazardous 500-mark for the past four days

Pollution has worsened as smoke billows in from fires in neighbouring Sabah state and the Indonesian province of Kalimantan.

Natural disaster relief officials have advised polluting industries such as quarries, mines and sawmills to cut operations

The state government is also appealing

Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

01 Apr 1998

Democratic Republic of the Congo
UN massacre probe in Congo faces fresh problems

Report

By Arthur Malu-Malu
KINSHASA, April 1 (Reuters) - Relations between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a U.N. team hunting for evidence of massacres of Rwandan Hutu refugees in the former Zaire have taken a turn for the worse -- with forensic experts leaving for home.

Team leader Atsu-Kofi Amega of Togo told Reuters on Wednesday that investigators still faced problems in the eastern town of Goma and that an incident over a mass grave in the northwestern town of Mbandaka had led the four forensic experts on the team to pull out of the country on Saturday.

Reuters - AlertNet:

For more humanitarian news and analysis, please visit www.trust.org/alertnet

01 Apr 1998

Rwanda
Rwanda mourns April 1994 genocide victims

Report

KIGALI, April 1 (Reuters) - Rwanda has devised a new way of helping citizens commemorate the dark days of its 1994 genocide -- a map showing areas where the worst killings took place.
The map shows more than 100 administrative communes across the central African country in which hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered in a three-month genocide that began four years ago on April 6.

Rwanda on Wednesday began a week of mourning to commemorate the slaughter of an estimated 800,000 people Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu extremists.

"Foreign guests will be invited

Reuters - AlertNet:

For more humanitarian news and analysis, please visit www.trust.org/alertnet

01 Apr 1998

Somalia
UN Expresses Concern Over Renewed Fighting

Report

— Inter Press Service

By Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Apr 1 (IPS) -- The United Nations has expressed concern over renewed fighting in Somalia, saying this will affect relief work and impede progress towards national reconciliation.

The United Nations Representative in Somalia, Dominic Langenbacher, said inter-clan clashes in the city of Kismayo and a rise in banditry and insecurity in the capital, Mogadishu, would only compound the suffering of the Somali people.

''In the city of Kismayo, ongoing inter-clan

01 Apr 1998

Angola + 5 others
Bulletin quotidien no 386 d'information sur l'Afrique Centrale et de l'Est

Report

— IRIN

NATIONS UNIES
Bureau de la coordination des affaires humanitaires
IRIN - Afrique Centrale et de l'Est
Tel: +254 2 622 147
Fax: +254 2 622 129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org

IRIN: Bulletin quotidien no 386 d'information sur l'Afrique Centrale et de l'Est (du mardi 31 mars 1998)

BURUNDI :

Fermeture d'une agence de presse, saisie d'un journal d'opposition

Les autorites burundaises ont convoque le directeur de l'agence de presse Net Press, pour avoir publie une depeche sur la saisie des exemplaires d'un journal de l'opposition, a rapporte

IRIN:

A selection of IRIN reports are posted on ReliefWeb. Find more IRIN news and analysis at http://www.irinnews.org

Une sélection d'articles d'IRIN sont publiés sur ReliefWeb. Trouvez d'autres articles et analyses d'IRIN sur http://www.irinnews.org

This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. Refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use.

Cet article ne reflète pas nécessairement les vues des Nations Unies. Voir IRIN droits d'auteur pour les conditions d'utilisation.

01 Apr 1998

Angola + 4 others
IRIN Update No. 387 for Central and Eastern Africa

Report

— IRIN

UNITED NATIONS
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network
for Central and Eastern Africa
Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@dha.unon.org

IRIN Update No. 387 for Central and Eastern Africa (Wednesday 1 April 1998)

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Draft constitution under debate

President Laurent-Desire Kabila is considering a draft constitution, handed to him yesterday (Tuesday) by a constitutional committee. According to media reports, the draft envisages a five-year

IRIN:

01 Apr 1998

Burundi + 1 other
Security incidents force Burundians to flee to DR Congo

Report

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Wednesday that approximately 15,000 Burundians had fled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in March as a result of security incidents around Bujumbura.
UNHCR said that around 3,000 people had sought refuge near Sange and Kiliba, 40 and 25 kilometres north of Uvira respectively. The United Nations refugee agency said that the refugees had told of renewed fighting in the Buganda, Murwi and Gihanga communes in Burundi.

UNHCR said that it was planning to open

01 Apr 1998

Angola
Peace process in Angola is not completed as scheduled

Report

A United Nations spokesman said on Wednesday that the peace process in Angola has not been completed as scheduled.
United Nations Spokesman Juan Carlos Brandt told reporters that Tuesday was to have marked the conclusion of the 1994 Lusaka Protocol, but that did not prove to be the case. Radio Vorgan of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) continued to broadcast on Wednesday morning, in spite of assurances given by UNITA that it would cease on 31 March. "So as far as this particular issue is concerned, we will believe it when we don't hear it," he

01 Apr 1998

Liberia + 1 other
IRIN-WA Update 178 of Events in West Africa

Report

— IRIN

UNITED NATIONS
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network
for West Africa
Tel: +225 21-73-54
Fax: +225 21-63-35
e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci

IRIN-WA Update 178 of Events in West Africa, (Wednesday) 1 April 1998

SIERRA LEONE: Commonwealth delegation meets president

A high-level Commonwealth delegation arrived in the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, on Monday for talks with President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, media organisations reported. The

IRIN:

01 Apr 1998

United Republic of Tanzania
Heavy rains disrupt delivery of aid to refugee camps in Tanzania

Report

Heavy rains have disrupted delivery of aid to the refugee camps along unpaved roads between Kigoma and Ngara in the United Republic of Tanzania, the United Nations refugee agency said on Wednesday.
In its latest update on the Great Lakes region, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that it had worked with non- governmental organizations to make the worst sections near Kibondo passable. However, sections of the road to the Lugufu camp, which is sheltering 30,000 people, were underwater causing routine

01 Apr 1998

Brazil
Rain douses Brazil's Amazon fires but risk persists

Report

By William Schomberg

BRASILIA, April 1 (Reuters) - Rain has put out virtually all the fires raging in the savannah and jungles of Brazil's northern Amazon, but one official warned on Wednesday there was still a risk of new outbreaks.

Satellite images showed that more than 95 percent of the worst Amazon fires on record had been extinguished by heavy rains on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (Embrapa) said.

"We're out of the crisis phase," said Evaristo de Miranda, an environmental researcher at Embrapa. "It's

Reuters - AlertNet:

For more humanitarian news and analysis, please visit www.trust.org/alertnet

01 Apr 1998

Tajikistan
IMF approves second emergency post-conflict credit assistance for Tajikistan

Report

— International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved a credit for the Republic of Tajikistan equivalent to SDR 7.5 million (about $10 million) -- the second for Tajikistan under the IMF's emergency post-conflict assistance -- to support the government's economic program for 1998. The first credit, also for SDR 7.5 million (about $10 million) was approved on December 19, 1997.
Background

31 Mar 1998

Burundi + 7 others
Bulletin quotidien no 385 d'information sur l'Afrique Centrale et de l'Est

Report

— IRIN

NATIONS UNIES
Bureau de la coordination des affaires humanitaires
IRIN - Afrique Centrale et de l'Est
Tel: +254 2 622 147
Fax: +254 2 622 129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org

IRIN: Bulletin quotidien no 385 d'information sur l'Afrique Centrale et de l'Est (du samedi 28 au lundi 30 mars 1998)

REPUBLIQUE CENTRAFRICAINE (RCA) :

L'ONU va depecher une force de maintien de la paix

Le Conseil de securite de l'ONU a vote vendredi, a l'unanimite, l'envoi en Republique Centrafricaine d'une force de maintien de la paix, composee de 1 350 soldats. La force de l'ONU, appelee

IRIN:

31 Mar 1998

Sierra Leone
Rawlings Calls For Assistance For Sierra Leone

Report

— Pan African News Agency

ACCRA, Ghana (PANA) - President Jerry Rawlings has called for international assistance for Sierra Leone, saying reinstating President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah should not be taken as the end of the problems in that country.
The ousting of the military junta, he said, is the beginning of a long war which could be won through massive support from the international community as well as the ability of Kabbah to reconcile the various groups.

Rawlings was Monday meeting a Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, on a three-day visit to Ghana.

The eight-member group was set up after

Pan African News Agency:

All PANA content and graphics is protected by copyright and international treaties and may not be copied, reproduced or re-used for any purpose without written permission.

31 Mar 1998

Somalia
Outflow of Somali boat people

Report

— UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Briefing Notes
This is a summary of what was said by the UNHCR spokesperson at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations.

The drama of Somali boat people heading from northeastern Somalia to Yemen continues. 180 Somali boat people are reported to have drowned in a tragic incident off the coast of Yemen which we think took place on 25 or 26 March. Taken together with previous incidents, this brings to a total of 220 persons believed to have drowned this month alone en route to Yemen. Many Somalis use the services of smugglers to make the trip, and pay large sums for the journey

31 Mar 1998

Brazil
Rains fall on burning Amazon after shamans' ritual

Report

By William Schomberg

BRASILIA, March 31 (Reuters) - Rain fell on Tuesday in various areas of Brazil's northern Amazon ravaged by huge savanna and forest fires, just hours after two Indian shamans performed an ancient ritual to bring on the storm clouds.

"In general terms, the rain has been of great help and has reduced the number of fires," said army Col. Jorge Fraxe, a spokesman for Brazil's biggest firefighting effort.

"But all the troops remain in the area and they will continue to work," Fraxe said by telephone from

Reuters - AlertNet:

For more humanitarian news and analysis, please visit www.trust.org/alertnet

31 Mar 1998

Somalia
SC members urge Somali factions to exercise restraint in wake of resumption of fighting

Report