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DRC: UN Security Council mission on 10-day visit
The UN Security Council mission which left for the Great Lakes region on Tuesday, went there to lend support to the parties implementing the Lusaka accord to which they had agreed in 1999, France's permanent representative to the UN, Jean-David Levitte who is also leading the team, told journalists in New York on Monday. He said the visit of the 12-member mission was expected to last 10 days, and was taking place now, "because a new stage had been reached in implementing the Lusaka agreement". He said the Council's first task was to bring together the disengagement force so that disengagement itself would be completed during the mission's visit. Council members would help resolve problems, especially those that arose in connection with setting up an interim administration for those zones in which a vacuum was created by the removal of foreign forces.
"A temporary administration had to be set up before the foreign forces left. It was up to the government to decide how it would manage the zones once the foreign forces left. The Security Council could only help [in the process]," he said. Levitte said the parties involved were taking steps to achieve the disengagement with regard to two key considerations. A joint military committee representing all parties to the conflict would meet on 16 and 17 May to agree on a total withdrawal plan for all foreign involvements, since the time-line had changed from the original Lusaka agreement. The military committee would also consider a comprehensive plan for disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of military elements, based on information provided by the involved governments. "Once the military agreed on both those plans, state ministers would meet with Council members on 22 May when the disengagement force phase would yield to the Lusaka implementation phase," he said.
Levitte also said the mission would meet with the head of each state involved in the conflict. In addition to assisting in resolving problems, it would help bring together all the main actors in the field and help meet the pressing need for national dialogue. It would also involve itself in efforts to revive the economy, help consider the situation in Burundi, and keep an eye on the planned regional conference for the Great Lakes.
DRC: UNDP, government launch development project
UNDP and the DRC government have launched an initiative "to strengthen management of new development activities" as progress towards peace continues, the agency said in a statement. "The US $4 million project marks a shift from dependence on humanitarian assistance towards working for longer-term development in a country torn by two wars during the past decade, the second still simmering," UNDP said. It described the toll of the war on the country as "staggering". The International Rescue Committee (IRC) estimated in a recent report that some 2.5 million people had died in less than three years due to conflict in areas of eastern DRC largely cut off from assistance. "The country's institutions, infrastructure and economy are in a shambles," UNDP noted.
It said that since January, the new authorities in Kinshasa had indicated a readiness to end the devastating conflict. It added that the effectiveness of the ceasefire agreement and preparations for political negotiations had also demonstrated a commitment to peace, setting the stage for new development efforts. "UNDP's project aims at supporting three essential functions of management and good governance, namely steering the economy, management of public finances and administrative and judiciary management," UNDP's Resident Representative Bouri Sanhouidi said. The project would also help strengthen the ability of the civil society organisations to contribute to the reconstruction process, UNDP added. Sanhouidi indicated that the agency would assist the government in mobilising the financial resources needed to support the implementation of the national emergency programme for capacity building which was initiated by the DRC government.
DRC: Minister bans newspaper
Minister of Communications and Press Kikaya bin Karubi has banned the publication of the newspaper 'La Libre Afrique', as well as its supplement 'Le Derby' and its satirical supplement 'Incognito' throughout the DRC, freedom of press NGO Journaliste en danger (JED) reported from Kinshasa on Tuesday. Citing a law on the exercise of press freedom in the DRC, the minister said that "the administrative documents received by the newspaper 'La Libre Afrique' and its supplements 'Le Derby' and 'Incognito' were issued on the basis of false statements made to the administration with regard to the newspaper's and its printer's addresses, as well as the publication director's status as a professional journalist." Moreover, Kikaya added that "'La Libre Afrique' does not fulfil its legal obligation to publish the name or the address of the printer in each copy of the newspaper, which would allow for the verification of the newspaper's administrative and jurisdictional acts."
JED called the minister's decision "illegal, insofar as it violates Article 44 of the above-mentioned law [which states] that 'the publication ban on a newspaper or periodical can only be delivered by the high court, by request of the wronged party'". JED noted that while Article 44 recognises the right of the competent administrative authorities to ban or seize an incriminating issue of a publication, nevertheless it "must submit a plausible report within 48 hours - a time-frame which can be lengthened due to delays explained by geographical distance - to the closest public prosecutor's office, which, if necessary, can alert the tribunal".
"While expressing reservations about the journalistic practices of 'La Libre Afrique', based on the law in question, JED asks the minister to cancel his decision. If he feels wronged, the minister should refer the matter to the judicial authorities responsible for delivering bans," the JED statement concluded.
BURUNDI: Six abducted humanitarian workers released
Six humanitarian workers of the Dutch-Burundian relief organisation Memisa-Coped abducted on 11 May by the Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD) were released today, according to AFP. The six arrived in the southeastern Kayogoro area region safe but in poor condition, "because they were forced to walk great distances", a Memisa-Coped official told AFP.
The six NGO workers were abducted near Bukeye, in Makamba Province, while travelling to treat people displaced by the civil war. According to eyewitnesses, they were taken towards Nyamugari village in Tanzania. Their vehicle was later found in Makamba Province, about two kilometres from the Burundi/Tanzania border.
The six - five health workers and their driver - have been identified by the Azania news agency as four women - Henriette Ntishimirwa, Immaculee Gahimbare, Jeanne Inarukundo, Gaudence Nifasha - and two men - Sebastien Karenzo and Ayubu Radjabu.
No information was yet available regarding two youths from Kibago village who were also kidnapped.
The FDD, one of two main ethnic Hutu rebel groups fighting the country's Tutsi-led army and government, refused to sign a peace accord in Arusha, Tanzania last year. The FDD has recently stepped up attacks in Burundi, where civil war has raged since 1993 when Tutsi soldiers assassinated the Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye, and has claimed some 200,000 lives, most of them civilians.
The FDD is believed to have bases in the Burundian refugee camps sited just across the border in Tanzania. Burundi President Pierre Buyoya has claimed that Tanzania is allowing rebels to use its territory as a springboard for attacks inside Burundi, a claim the Tanzanian government has denied.
BURUNDI: Buyoya nominates commission members
Burundi's President Pierre Buyoya on 11 May signed a decree nominating members of a commission charged with drafting the texts of laws provided for in the Arusha accord, the Burundian news agency Net Press reported on Tuesday. The 10-member committee, whose president is Eugene Nindorera and vice-president Elyse Ndaye, will draft within three months "texts highly sensitive to the public and which will definitely create controversies", Net Press noted. "The commission is to draft five texts on constitutional arrangements relating to the transition, the law on political parties, the law organising the National Assembly, the law on provisional immunity for politically motivated criminals and the law on the pursuit of perpetrators of genocide and different crimes against humanity committed in Burundi," the agency said. "These texts, provided for in the Arusha accord, have seen a long delay in their implementation," it added.
According to Net Press, ethnic groups are equally represented on the commission, "although it does not comprise members of the Tutsi opposition". The other members of the commission are: Stanislas Makoroka, Venerand Nzohabonayo, Venerande Kiyogoma, Ernest Ndikumukama, Fabien Segatwa, Fidele Ntirushwa and Gerard Ndayisenga.
BURUNDI: Security "restored" in Kayanza Province
Security has been "restored" in the northwestern Kayanza Province following last week's spate of attacks on several communes by rebels believed to be members of the Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD), the Burundian news agency Net Press reported on Tuesday. The rebels had attacked the communes of Matongo, Muruta, Gatara and Kayanza to take "revenge" against provincial administrative officials who had, with the help of the national army, made frequent incursions into the Kibira forest on Burundi's border with the DRC. The Kibira forest has been used by the rebels as their hide-out, although the civilians have also fled to it as a "refuge". "Matongo Commune was particularly targeted since it had repatriated the biggest number of civilians who had taken refuge in the Kibira forest - 8,500 people out of a total of 11,000, including 5,000 who had become combatants," Net Press said. Military and local sources confirmed to IRIN that there had been attacks in Kayanza Province all through last week, but now "calm has been restored". According to a military source, the rebels moved into Kayanza from the Kibira forest.
BURUNDI: Five rebels killed by youth vigilante
Meanwhile, four rebels were killed and several others wounded by the Rumonge peace maintenance forces after the rebels attacked the Kayange and Gitanga areas of Burambi Commune, southwestern Burundi, on Monday. The Burundi news agency ABP said the peace maintenance group destroyed four rebel positions and seized several caches of food, medicines, transistor radios and household goods. They also seized five grenades during the swoop. ABP quoted administrative authorities as saying that in a different operation conducted on 12 May in the Muhanda and Buruhukiro areas, the peace forces killed one rebel and wounded several others before recovering gallons of palm oil stolen in the Murembwe river valley.
RWANDA: Six genocide suspects acquitted
Six genocide suspects in southern Rwanda's Gikongoro prison were acquitted after "residents emphasised they did not commit crimes levelled against them". Rwandan radio said the six were among 13 people presented to the residents in Karaba district "so as to gather evidence from the public". "The rest seven were accused by the people to have had a role in genocide and crimes against humanity," the radio noted. It said the procedure was in the justice ministry's policy to publicly try suspects without complete files. The procedure was expected to continue on Tuesday in Rukondo in Gikongoro prefecture.
RWANDA: WFP operations continue to face "serious" food shortage
World Food Programme (WFP) operations in Rwanda have continued to be hampered by a serious shortage of food commodities during April, according to the WFP's monthly report from Kigali. The current pipeline problems facing WFP- Rwanda have forced some nutrition centers to provide smaller rations for therapeutic- and supplementary-feeding programmes. Staff at these centres said they had insufficient cereals to supply therapeutic-feeding patients, and were using porridge prepared for the supplementary-feeding programme. Due to "a complete pipeline rupture", WFP is substituting corn-soya blend (CSB) requirements with maize meal. However, WFP is also facing an acute shortage of maize meal for nutrition and refugee programmes.
A WFP assessment mission to the provinces of Kibungo, Kigali Rural (Bugesera Region), and Umutara, the regions hardest hit by last year's drought, found that with the exception of Bugesera, the harvest of January had been relatively good, and that rains had been favourable to crop development so far. In the most affected area of Kigali Rural, farmers have planted early, and their May sorghum and bean harvests are expected to be good if rains continue. Nevertheless, WFP found that a percentage of households were so severely affected by the drought that, to cope with hunger, they had had to sell assets such as goats and iron roofing sheets. WFP warned that this population would remain highly vulnerable, and said that most of Bugesera remained vulnerable to food insecurity as a result of insufficient household food reserves following three years of consecutive poor harvests. The mission also found that the rates of child malnutrition in parts of Bugesera had not declined during the last six months, noting that an epidemic of a virulent strain of malaria had contributed to the static malnutrition situation. The mission recommended that recovery programmes should focus on reducing food shortages in the long run through interventions such as soil-erosion control, agricultural intensification, and poverty alleviation
During the month of April, WFP-Rwanda distributed 1,094 mt of food aid to 86,634 beneficiaries.
GREAT LAKES: Regional conference on AIDS held
Countries in the Great Lakes region last week held a meeting in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, to discuss ways of strengthening their collaboration in tackling the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the region. The meeting, known as the Great Lakes Initiative on AIDS, tried to "harmonise programmes and approaches" along major trucking roads linking the Great Lakes countries, Rwandan radio reported. The conference brought together communications experts from the national AIDS control programmes, commissions and project implementation agencies of Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, Tanzania and Uganda, and representatives of the International Transport Federation and the International Office for Immigration (IOM). Countries in the Great Lakes region have been particularly affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, with prevalence rates ranging between four and 15 percent in the adult population, making the region one of the hardest hit in sub-Saharan Africa, Rwandan radio added.
Nairobi, 16 May 2001
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