| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
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IRIN-WA Update 531 of events in West Africa (Wednesday 18 August)
LIBERIA: Thousands reported displaced by fighting
Thousands of civilians have fled fighting in north-western
Liberia, the programme officer for the Liberia Refugee,
Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC), Cleophus
Pearson, told IRIN on Wednesday.
"Around 11,000 civilians have arrived in the town of Zorzor and we have already got a team on the ground to conduct an assessment of their needs," Pearson said.
The LRRRC said many of the internally displaced people (IDPs) were from the towns of Foya, Kolahun and Voinjama, which are within the zone where government troops and rebels have been fighting for about a week.
The IDPs have been arriving in Zorzor, on the edge of the zone and some 230 km north of Monrovia, since the rebels, whose identity is still unclear, invaded the north-western county of Lofa and captured several towns and villages.
"The situation in Zorzor is calm now but no-one can say whether more people will arrive," Pearson told IRIN.
Information Minister Joe Mulbah said on Tuesday that government troops had retaken Kolahun and Foya, but were still fighting for Voinjama. However, a rebel told the BBC his "resistance group" was still in control of towns they had captured in Lofa and had lost no territory.
News organisations reported on Tuesday that the government had lifted the state of emergency imposed last week in Lofa although the clashes continued. President Charles Taylor, in an address to the nation, described the situation as "still fluid" and said that the security forces were doing everything possible to contain it.
He urged Liberians throughout the country to be on the alert and report any unusual movement to the security forces, according to Radio Liberia International (RLI). He added that he would seek approval from the national legislature for a budget to underwrite the cost of the war.
UNHCR evacuates staff
Aid workers were evacuated by helicopter from Vahun, also in the northwest, to Monrovia on 15 August after warnings from the Liberian military in Vahun, Judith Kumin, UNHCR spokeswoman, said at a news briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
Some 22 UNHCR and NGO staff were evacuated to the capital
on Sunday, the spokeswomen said. Earlier reports indicated
that 15 staff were evacuated on Saturday.
Last week a group of six international and three local
aid workers in Kolahun were abducted by armed men and
taken to the border with Guinea. The Liberian military
warned UNHCR that rebels could move on Vahun, so the
staff were relocated to Monrovia, Kumin said.
Both Vahun, which holds around 12,000 Sierra Leonean refugees who fled to Liberia in early 1998, and Kolahun, which hosts some 20,000 refugees, are close to the border with Sierra Leone. UNHCR expressed concern that the absence of humanitarian personnel and the reported looting of food stocks might cause difficulties for the refugees.
Aid agency stocks and offices were pillaged during similar attacks in Lofa in April, although vehicles were later recovered. There were some reports that undersupplied elements in the army helped themselves to food stores, Kumin said.
Meanwhile, UNHCR is talking to the government about the security situation and the conditions for a quick return of aid workers to Lofa.
The instability has also affected the repatriation to that area of Liberian refugees, due to be completed by the end of the year. So far some 120,000 Liberian refugees from Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea have returned with the help of UNHCR while more than 200,000 others have gone back on their own.
GUINEA-BISSAU: National reconciliation conference
Representatives of political and civil-society groups in Guinea- Bissau stressed their commitment to a return to constitutional order at a conference that marked the first time such a broad cross section of forces have met there since the civil war.
"The national reconciliation conference resembled those held in other parts of Africa (earlier in the decade) in that all political and civil society forces were present," a humanitarian source told IRIN on Wednesday.
It provided a forum for dialogue between these forces and for coming up with "principles and recommendations which, from now on, should be applied in the future governance of Guinea-Bissau," the source said.
Guinea-Bissau was wracked in 1998 by a war between the government of then president Joao Bernardo Vieira and a Military Junta headed by Brigadier-General Ansumane Mane. Under a peace agreement signed at the end of 1998, an interim government was set up early this year, but the Military Junta overthrew Vieira on 7 May 1999.
One of the principles agreed on by participants in the conference, held on 12-14 August at the Junta's headquarters - the military barracks in Bissau - was that there should be reconciliation without excluding anyone. However, there should be no impunity. Justice must be done, but there should be no vengeance, they noted in a set of recommendations and proposals faxed to IRIN.
They also stressed that the return to institutional and constitutional normalcy should be based on free elections, and urged the government to do everything in its power to have the polls held on 28 November 1999, as provided for in the 1998 peace agreement.
They also called on interim President Malam Bacai Sanha to veto Article 5 of a new draft constitution, approved in July by the National Assembly, which states that only people whose parents were nationals can become president.
If upheld, the requirement would exclude about half the nation's people, many of whom are of Cape Verdean, Guinean, Senegalese and Malian origin, the source said, adding that "it has created deep political malaise".
Freedom of expression should be guaranteed and "no one must be arrested simply because he or she belonged to the former regime", participants in the conference said. The trials of people who committed abuses during the war should also include the Junta, they added, since it also committed crimes during the civil war.
The conference urged the Junta to stick to its decision to keep the military in the barracks and to make sure all the military are, in fact, back in their barracks before 28 November.
A source told IRIN that officially the military had gone back to the barracks but, in practice, they were still running the country. "It's a military regime capped by civilians," the source said.
The conference was organised by the Movimento Nacional da Sociedade Civil para a Paz, Democracia e Desenvolvimento - an umbrella created last year by civil society groups - with support from the UN Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNOGBIS), which provided US $30,000 for the meeting.
It was attended by more than 300 persons representing the Military Junta, armed forces, government, religious communities, grassroot groups, traditional chiefs, ex-combatants, women's associations and youth organisations.
The conference urged the United Nations to keep - and strengthen - UNOGBIS, which has 11 members of staff, until political and constitutional normalcy are guaranteed. According to a participant, the event demonstrated the role UNOGBIS played in consolidating peace and, in particular, in safeguarding the credibility of the UN system.
The United Nations' credibility in Guinea-Bissau, the source said, was strongly damaged during the rushed evacuation of UN officials during the upheavals there, an action criticised by the population.
NIGERIA: Military to be slashed
Nigeria will, over the next four years, slash its armed forces from the current 80,000 to 50,000 in a cost-cutting measure also aimed at professionalising the military, Defense Minister Theophilus Danjuma told reporters on Tuesday.
The measure will result in a leaner, better equipped military completely subordinate to civilian authority after decades of military rule, `The Guardian' newspaper quoted him as saying.
The army's strength will be 30,000, while the navy and air force will each have 10,000 troops.
Danjuma said this would imply reduced Nigerian participation in the West African regional force, ECOMOG. "The dominant role Nigeria is playing in ECOMOG, which is akin to America's role in NATO, though commendable, is not in our long-term interest because of its enormous cost to our national economy," Danjuma was quoted as saying.
Defence spending - the largest single element in Nigeria's budget - accounts for 16.7 billion naira (US $160 million), compared to 13.3 billion naira (US $127 million) for education, AFP reported.
Danjuma seeks help with training
Danjuma called on the international community, especially the United States and Britain, to help demobilise the military by providing training for self-employment. He also asked them to place Nigerian officers in their military institutions - particularly in schools of armoury, artillery, signals and infantry.
"This becomes imperative because the crops schools in Nigeria need to be refurbished, and their equipment rehabilitated," `The Guardian' reported. It said the United States was working with Nigerians in preparing schedules for training the trainers.
Oil marketing contracts restricted
Nigeria has slashed from 41 to 16, the number of companies licensed to market the country's crude oil as from 1 October, news reports said.
An official in the office of Rilwanu Lukman, the presidential adviser on petroleum, told AFP the measure was an attempt "to bring a bit of sanity back to the market".
State-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which issued the new licences, said 10 companies were major international trading concerns, three were refinery operators in Africa (Ghana, Kenya and South Africa) and three were NNPC joint venture partners, AFP reported.
In July, the NNPC cancelled the 41 contracts in a move to expel from the sector front companies set up by people with links to past military administrations and announced new conditions for companies seeking contracts.
Under these guidelines, the companies are required to be major players in the oil industry with a minimum annual turnover of US $100 million, and a net worth of at least $40 million.
Digital phones for 20 cities
The government has ordered the Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications Limited (M-Tel) to introduce immediately a Global System of Mobile communications (GSM) in at least 20 cities in the country, `The Guardian' reported.
GSM is digital, unlike the present analogue system M-Tel operates. The newspaper reported that the company had asked Telnet Nigeria Limited and Telia of Sweden for a design and survey of the 20 cities for the GSM network.
The two companies are to serve as consultants and present their final reports in October when the supply of the facilities will be subjected to international competitive bidding, the newspaper said.
The newspaper, quoting an unnamed source, added that although M-Tel has completed a 7,000-line GSM network for Abuja, government has insisted "on proper survey and design of the GSM network before supply and installation to give room for proper planning that will allow for easy future expansion".
M-Tel is test-running the Abuja network, which will serve as a prelude to the national network expected to serve such cities as Lagos, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Warri, Abuja, Kano, Aba, Bauchi, Maiduguri, Enugu, Onitsha and Jos.
IMF officials pledge to help
The newly appointed resident representative of the International Monetary Fund in Nigeria, Christopher Browne, has promised to work with the government to improve the battered economy and living standards, news reports said. He made the commitment on Tuesday to Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Brown, expected to take up his post in October, was appointed following an agreement by the fund and Nigeria for a stand-by IMF arrangement.
Under this deal, the IMF would monitor, closely, the management of Nigeria's financial affairs. Agreement had also been reached on debt relief for Nigeria, which has a US $30-billion external debt, Reuters reported, quoting government officials.
WEST AFRICA: Obasanjo calls for more cooperation with
SADC
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has called for
deeper and wider cooperation between the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS).
Obasanjo was speaking at a luncheon in the Mozambique capital, Maputo, as a special guest at the SADC summit which opened on Wednesday.
In remarks carried by the South African daily, 'Business Day', he called for closer cooperation in conflict resolution, backing up previous statements in which he indicated his readiness to contribute to peacekeeping efforts in SADC..
As a first step towards tighter cooperation, he proposed institutional links between the two regional bodies. He also raised the contentious issue of freedom of movement of people within SADC as applies in West Africa. This could lead to a relaxation of controls on the movement of citizens between the two regions, he added.
Obasanjo also called on SADC leaders to draft a plan outlining the areas of SADC-ECOWAS cooperation, and cited trade, manufacturing, mining, energy and communications as key areas. "Thereafter we would sign a memorandum of understanding that would cement the envisaged areas of understanding," Obasanjo said.
SADC chairman, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, said he was sure measures would be taken to see how SADC nations could respond positively.
NIGER: Revised election dates
Legislative and presidential polls in Niger will be held between mid-October and late November, the official Voix du Sahel radio in Niamey quotes the Conseil electoral national independant (CENI) as announcing.
The first round of the presidential poll, originally set for 3 October, will be held on 17 October. The second round, along with the legislative election, will take place on 24 November, CENI Chairman Issaka Souna announced at a news conference on Tuesday.
Niger's ruling Conseil de reconciliation national seized
power on 9 April in a coup in which then president
Ibrahim Bare Mainassara was killed.
Abidjan, 18 August 1999; 18:50 GMT
[ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1443
[This item is delivered in the "irin-english" service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information or free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or fax: +254 2 622129 or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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