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BURUNDI: Coup attempt ahead of regional summit
Army mutineers staged a coup attempt in Bujumbura on the night of Sunday, 22 July, ahead of a regional summit on the future of Burundi which opened in the Tanzanian town of Arusha on Monday. Residents of the Burundian capital told IRIN that shooting broke out in what Defence Minister Cyrille Ndayirukiye described as a coup attempt. "A group of soldiers, that we call mutineers, have attempted another coup," Ndayirukiye said over state radio on Monday. "These mutineers are against the Arusha peace accords and do not know the need for the accords." He went on to say that the situation was normal, the coup had failed, and loyalist soldiers were in control of the situation.
According to the radio, the rebel soldiers - who fled north from Bujumbura - had surrendered to the authorities in the northern province of Ngozi, and five officers taken hostage by the renegades had been released. The minister named one of the coup leaders as Lieutenant Kamenyero, saying that he already been arrested. He also blamed certain politicians for trying to exploit "problems" within the army. "The root cause [of the crisis] is not the army, but the politicians," he stated. President Pierre Buyoya, who returned to the country on Monday after the Arusha summit, commented that coup attempts "never lead anywhere". [For more details, see separate IRIN update on Burundi issued 24 July 2001]
BURUNDI: Summit endorses Buyoya as transitional leader
Regional leaders who met in Arusha on Monday announced that agreement had been reached on President Pierre Buyoya's presidency for the first 18 months of the transition period, due to commence on 1 November, news organisations reported. Peace mediator Nelson Mandela, who arrived in Arusha on Monday, had stated on arrival that the "overwhelming majority of the parties negotiating have accepted this decision" and "we are not going to reopen the matter", the Hirondelle news agency reported. Buyoya will be assisted by Hutu Vice-President Domitien Ndayizeye for the first half of the three-year transition period, after which the roles will be reversed. Hirondelle recalled that implementation of the Arusha peace accord, signed last August, had been blocked by the absence of a ceasefire and by lack of consensus among signatory parties on who should lead the transition. According to Reuters, four presidents attended - Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, Kenya's Daniel arap Moi, Tanzania's Benjamin Mkapa and Burundi's Pierre Buyoya. Other invited countries have sent representatives.
The Burundian negotiating sides had been meeting in Arusha, ahead of the regional summit, and a threatened boycott of the meeting by Tutsi parties opposed to Buyoya appeared to have been averted. Over the weekend, delegates in Arusha discussed the distribution of ministerial posts and the conditions attached to Buyoya's presidency, as announced by peace mediator Nelson Mandela in Pretoria earlier this month. The parties were allowed to modify these conditions - which include reforming the army, inviting international peacekeepers and freeing political prisoners - but only by consensus.
BURUNDI: Mandela "really exhausted"
The Burundi peace mediator, Nelson Mandela, would not meet CNND-FDD leader Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye and other officials of the group in Pretoria, South Africa, on Thursday, his spokeswoman, Zelda la Grange, said on Wednesday. She said Mandela was "too weak" after receiving therapy for prostate cancer. She described him as "really exhausted" after receiving the first of his seven-week radiotherapy course, adding that they expected him to be out of action for a few days. "Mandela's fine - it's just an adjustment for his body," she said, as quoted by Reuters. "So we thought for the first few days we thought it better that he rests."
La Grange said that South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who was scheduled to join Mandela for the meeting, would continue with the discussions. Burundi President Pierre Buyoya and Gabonese President Omar Bongo were also expected to attend. She said DRC President Joseph Kabila would not attend the talks.
BURUNDI: Council welcomes agreement on transitional leadership
Members of the UN Security Council on Wednesday welcomed the announcement of the agreement reached in Arusha on the transitional government in Burundi. "Members of the Council hope that all parties in Burundi will support this government," the Council's president, Ambassador Wang Yingfan of China, said in a press statement.
The statement followed a closed-door session during which the Council was briefed on the situation in Burundi by UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast. The statement strongly urged the armed groups to cease hostilities immediately and join the peace process already under way and asked the international community to continue to provide assistance to the transitional government once it was set up. Council members also expressed their support for the efforts by the facilitator of the Burundi peace talks, Nelson Mandela, and the leaders of the Great Lakes region.
RWANDA: Over 2,000 confess to role in genocide
Some 2,340 prisoners at Ntsinda prison in Kibungo Province, southeastern Rwanda, recently confessed to their roles in the 1994 genocide, according to the Rwanda News Agency (RNA). They also promised to cooperate during gacaca traditional justice trials. "We are eagerly waiting for the gacaca programme," they were quoted as saying, adding that they were ready to reveal the truth so that innocent people could be released. Rwanda's Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo was quoted as saying during his visit to the prison that there was a need to confess and cooperate in telling the truth about what happened during the 1994 genocide. "We are not forcing anybody to confess, but you should understand the importance of cooperating with all judicial sectors, particularly gacaca courts, so as to bring criminals to justice," he said. Ntsinda prison has some 13,239 inmates, RNA said.
RWANDA: Another rebel commander captured
The "intelligence chief" of the Interahamwe militia, a second lieutenant in the former Rwandan army, Major Joseph Nandizimana, was captured on 20 July by the Rwandan army, Rwandan radio reported on on 21 July. It said Nandizimana, known as Major Nyundo, was arrested in the Bugarura District of the northern Ruhengeri Province. Nyundo, who crossed from the DRC at the end of June, was captured with his escorts, according to the radio. It noted that his capture followed that of an Interahamwe chief-of-staff, Peter Habimana, commonly known as Colonel Bemera.
RWANDA: Another endangered mountain gorilla killed
Another endangered mountain gorilla (gorilla beringei beringei), died in a crossfire in the forested Virunga volcanoes which straddle the borders of Uganda, Rwanda and eastern DRC, a statement from the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) said. AWF quoted the director of the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP), Annette Lanjouw, as saying that Rugendo [the dead gorilla], was shot dead during clashes between the military and Interahamwe militia groups on 15 July. It was the dominant male silverback of one of the groups on the Congolese side of the border. "The loss of Rugendo is another tragedy for conservation for the efforts being made in Congo, Rwanda and Uganda to protect the gorillas from the consequences of the war, and to protect this endangered species for the future," Lanjouw said. "Personally, the loss of Rugendo is a double tragedy as he was the first gorilla I ever saw in the wild, leading his own family as a young silverback," she noted. Lanjouw said that Rugendo had been habituated since 1986 and had, over the years, allowed hundreds of tourists to visit him and approach his family.
The Virunga region is home for one of the two remaining populations of the endangered mountain gorillas; the other population resides in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. Together, these two groups represent a world population of mountain gorillas of just over 650 individuals.
DRC: Government rejects UN official
The DRC government has rejected the nomination of a British official, Matthew Kahane, as the country's UN humanitarian coordinator, the BBC reported on Wednesday. Up to now, no reason has been given for the rejection of Kahane who works for the UN Development Programme. The UN has urged the Congolese government to reconsider. A western diplomat told the BBC that President Joseph Kabila had asked for a list of alternative candidates. Some diplomats suggested that the Congolese government "may be flexing its muscles at a time when it feels vulnerable to takeover by international agencies like the UN", the BBC added.
The Security Council, meanwhile, called on all parties in the DRC to comply with the Lusaka peace agreement. In a statement on Tuesday read by its president, Wang Yingfan, the Council said it was unacceptable that more than a year after the adoption of its resolution demanding the complete demilitarisation of Kisangani, the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie had so far failed to comply. The Council called on it to fully implement its obligations, noting that continued failure to do so might have future implications. The Council also reminded all parties of their obligations to cooperate fully with the UN Mission in the DRC, and reiterated support for the inter-Congolese dialogue, facilitated by former Botswana president Ketumile Masire.
DRC: Opposition activists dispersed
Police blocked an opposition party meeting in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday. Some 60 to 70 party activists arrived at a church hall in Kinshasa for a press conference, but were confronted by a squad of police and found the door was locked. The meeting would have been the first joint public conference held by the major opposition parties since the president announced the lifting of a ban on their activities on 17 May. The activists chanted abuse against the president and others in his entourage, but were dispersed. [For more details, see separate IRIN story of 25 July headlined: "Demonstration blocked in Kinshasa"].
DRC: Opposition rally rescheduled for 30 July
Following what journalists told IRIN was the "violent dispersal" of the Wednesday press conference in Kinshasa by the Union des forces congolaises pour le respect integral de l'Accord de Lusaka et la tenue du dialogue inter-congolais (UFAD), a coalition of political opposition parties that support full respect of the Lusaka peace agreement and the pending inter-Congolese dialogue, UFAD has called upon "all the Congolese people to take to the streets for a peaceful and massive demonstration in favour of peace and the inter-Congolese debate," Joseph Olenghankoy of the Forces novatrices de l'union sacree (FONUS) opposition party told Radio France Internationale (RFI). "There is growing tension in the DRC today. Two days ago, the government declared on national television that the restrictions on political parties' activities were lifted contrary to the orders given by the minister of interior. Now, there is repression," Olenghankoy told RFI.
The incident occurred while Roberto Garreton, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DRC, is in the middle of a fact-finding mission to the DRC for a report on the current status human rights and political and press freedom to be submitted to the UN in early August. In addition to FONUS, UFAD includes the Union pour la democratie et le progres social headed by Etienne Tshisekedi; the Mouvement populaire de la revolution headed by Catherine Nzuzi; the Mouvement national congolais-Lumumba headed by Francois Lumumba; and the Pionniers de l'independance.
DRC: Civil society selection for dialogue completed
With the selection on Wednesday of eight representatives from Kinshasa, the civil society delegate election mission for both the dialogue and its preparatory meeting has been completed, the office of the facilitator of the inter-Congolese dialogue, Ketumile Masire, a statement from his office said on Thursday. Of the total 54 civil society representatives chosen from all 11 provinces of the DRC to participate in the dialogue, 14 will be present at preparatory talks scheduled to begin on 20 August in Gabarone, capital of Botswana.
Meanwhile, Masire's office was trying to resolve questions related to the representation of political opposition organisations, another contingent of the dialogue. The three signatories to the Lusaka peace agreement who will participate in the inter-Congolese dialogue, namely the government of the DRC, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD), and the Mouvement de liberation du Congo, will begin representative selection on a date yet to be announced. The issue of representation of the RCD, which has splintered in to several groups since the signing of the accord, has yet to be resolved.
DRC: Sixty reported dead as ferry sinks in Kasai River
An estimated 60 people are believed to have drowned on the night of 21 July in the Kasai River in Kasai Occidental Province when a ferry carrying some 120 people capsized in a whirlpool, the Kinshasa daily 'Le Phare' reported on Monday. The incident occurred near Katoka, some 50 km from Tshikapa. According to a witness at the scene, the "Wembley II" is believed to have capsized due to a combination of factors. It was overloaded with passengers and goods, nocturnal navigation of the river is difficult, and the captain was allegedly drunk, 'Le Phare' reported. The newspaper noted that the number of boating accidents and resulting fatalities on the Kasai River had increased in recent months due largely to difficulties with nocturnal navigation and intoxication of boat captains.
Nairobi, 27 July 2001
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