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Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa
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WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 31 covering the
period 31 July to 6 August 1999
SIERRA LEONE: Secretary-General deplores hostage-taking
Ex-members of the former Sierra Leonean Army (ex-SLA) were on Friday still holding more than a score of UN officials, ECOMOG soldiers, journalists and other persons taken hostage on Wednesday, humanitarian sources told IRIN.
A statement issued on Thursday from UN Headquarters said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was "deeply concerned" by their detention, "deplores this serious incident and urges the armed group to release all detainees immediately and without condition".
"He also calls on the Government of Sierra Leone and RUF leader Foday Sankoh, as well as ECOWAS and its military group ECOMOG to do their utmost to seek the earliest release of all detained personnel and to ensure the safety and security of all international staff assisting the Sierra Leonean people to implement the Lome peace agreement," it said.
The group had gone to the rebel stronghold of Occra Hills, some 70 km from Freetown, on Wednesday to collect abducted children the insurgents had promised to hand over. Seven persons were released between Wednesday evening and Thursday evening, including four members of the UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL), a humanitarian source in Freetown told IRIN on Friday.
The hostage-taking is possibly the most serious incident since the signing of a peace agreement on 7 May in Lome between the Sierra Leone government and the RUF. The abductors complained that the pact had not taken the ex-SLA into consideration and claimed that their leader, Johnny Paul Koroma, was being detained by the RUF.
Koroma headed the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) which ousted Sierra Leone President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in May 1997 and ruled jointly with the RUF until ECOMOG dislodged it in February 1998.
Humanitarian needs expected to triple, Annan says
Meanwhile, the number of people needing help, now 500,000, is expected to triple as humanitarian access increases throughout the country, Annan said in his latest report on Sierra Leone, sent to the Security Council on Monday.
Assessments in various parts of the country have revealed acute shortages of food and medicine resulting in malnutrition and outbreaks of dysentery, cholera, measles and meningitis. Difficult overland access continues to delay food shipments to districts such as Bo and Kenema in the southeast of the country, the report said.
The latest Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal, which requested
US $27.9 million for humanitarian programmes in Sierra
Leone is only 26 percent funded, Annan reported.
In his report, Annan also recommended strengthening
UNOMSIL, including increasing the number of military
observers from 70 to 210 and sending additional civilian,
political, civil affairs and human rights staff.
UN delegation visits Sierra Leone
A UN team was in Freetown on Tuesday to support the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) and a Human Rights Commission (HRC), as provided for in the Lome Agreement. The HRC is designed to strengthen the existing machinery for addressing grievances of victims of rights violations while the TRC will deal with abuses committed since the start of the war in 1991.
Joint Implementation Committee to meet on 9 August
In his report Annan said the implementation of the Lome Peace Agreement would be reviewed periodically by a Joint Implementation Committee (JIC) to be chaired by ECOWAS. The JIC is to meet at least once every three months and its first session is planned for 9 August in Freetown.
Temporary registration of former combatants
UNOMSIL has carried out the temporary registration of 200 ex-combatants, according to a news briefing on 30 July by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General.
Arrangements are underway for their transfer to Lungi
International Airport where the Registration, Disarmament,
Demobilization, Reintegration programme will take place.
OAU gives US $200,000 in humanitarian aid
The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) has donated US $200,000 to help the government of Sierra Leone in "its ongoing efforts to address the grave humanitarian situation in the country," the OAU announced on 30 July.
OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim said the OAU was considering "ways and means whereby it could give more concrete assistance to the implementation of the (Lome) agreement ..."
Otunnu to explore ways of protecting children
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Olara Otunnu, will visit Sierra Leone from 30 August to 3 September to assess the condition of children, examine ways to protect them more effectively and promote the inclusion of their welfare in the peace agenda for Sierra Leone, according to a UN news release.
Census on amputees
A census of people who suffered limb amputations during Sierra Leone's civil conflict is now taking place to determine their health needs, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Freetown told IRIN on Wednesday.
"The government has called on all people to present themselves across the country," ICRC's Paul Fruh said. "Once the results of the census are known, the ICRC will address the priority issue of assessing numbers of people who need emergency surgery to clean up wounds before artificial limbs can be fitted."
The ICRC said it would soon send a surgical team to
Kenema, some 190 km east of Freetown, to assess and
deal with urgent surgical needs there. Fruh said the
ICRC and the government were discussing the setting
up of a surgical centre at a health clinic in Freetown.
Hundreds of Nigerians leave
Some 420 Nigerians affected by the war left Sierra Leone on Tuesday by ship, the Nigerian High Commission in Freetown told IRIN on Wednesday. "The initial projection was 750," a High Commission source said, "but we think that some people changed their minds after the signing of the peace treaty," on 7 July between the government and the RUF rebels.
Boat sinks leaving many dead
Around 30 people are thought to have died after a crowded boat was caught in a storm and capsized on Monday off the Sierra Leone coast, Reuters reported the police as saying on Wednesday. Some 15 people survived the accident, Reuters reported.
LIBERIA: Justice & Peace Commission rejects smear campaign charge
The national chairman of Liberia's Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (JPC), Stephen Wreh-Wilson, told IRIN on Tuesday his organisation's disclosure of wrong-doing by security forces and the poor treatment of prisoners was aimed at alerting government to take corrective measures.
"Government is not fulfilling its promises to the people, especially on security issues," he said.
Wreh-Wilson described as untrue accusations by ranking
state and ruling party officials that the commission
was conducting a smear campaign to discourage foreign
aid to the government.
Human rights abuses blamed on security operatives, Wreh-Wilson
said, included the murder of Criminal Investigation
Department officer George Yalley. "We say that
the culture of impunity must not be encouraged,"
he said.
Wreh-Wilson also decried the conditions in the nation's
prisons and detention centres as inhumane. In Kakata's
Carter High Prison, he said, inmates urinated and defecated
in their cells, which exposed them to all sorts of
diseases. In Sanniquellie, inmates slept in the same
space as goats, while other prisons had no roofs or
windows, prisoners often lacked food and some were
beaten, he said.
SENEGAL: Truth and reconciliation body on torture proposed
A leading Senegalese human rights body, Rencontre africaine pour la defense des Droits de l'Homme (RADDHO), has called for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on human rights violations in the country's southern area of Casamance, AFP reported.
In a report published on Tuesday, RADDHO condemned the existence of torture and inhuman treatment in Casamance, where the Mouvement de forces democratique de la Casamance has been fighting a secessionist war for the past 17 years. AFP did not report whom RADDHO blamed for the abuses, but the NGO has accused government troops of such practices in the past.
BURKINA FASO: Elders call for government of national unity
A committee of elders has asked for a government of national unity in Burkina Faso following its investigations into unpunished political crimes, AFP reported on Monday.
In a report submitted to President Blaise Compaore, the committee also suggested the setting up of a truth commission to achieve national reconciliation. Compaore said he would make a decision on the committee's recommendations after carrying out consultations, AFP reported.
Compaore set up the committee in early June to look into unpunished political crimes committed since independence in 1960.
NIGER: Former prime minister to run for president
Former prime minister Amadou Boubacar Cisse was nominated on 1 August as the candidate for his party, le Rassemblement pour la democratie et le progres (RDP), for presidential elections on 3 October, news organisations reported.
Cisse was prime minister to President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, who was shot dead in a 9 April coup that brought Major Daouda Malam Wanke to power. Wanke has promised to return Niger to civilian rule after a nine-month transition.
CAPE VERDE: Parliament approves revised constitution
Cape Verde's parliament on Friday approved amendments to its constitution, with the ruling Movimento para Democracia (MpD) voting for the revision and the opposition Partido Africano da Independencia de Cabo Verde (PAICV) against, LUSA reported.
LUSA said the main changes related to the judicial system. It said the new constitution also paves the way for Creole, the mother tongue of most of Cape Verdians, to join Portuguese eventually as an official language of the archipelago.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Junta Leader called to testify on role
in conflict
The leader of Guinea-Bissau's Military Junta, Brigadier
General Ansumane Mane, has been asked to testify in
an ongoing investigation into responsibilities for
the country's recent conflict, according to news reports.
LUSA reported Deputy Attorney General Mamadou Balde as announcing on Monday that Mane would be asked to clarify a statement he allegedly made to the effect that he had prepared a plan to "physically eliminate" former president Nino Vieira just before the June 1998 military uprising.
Lisbon to provide uniforms for police
Portugal is to provide uniforms for Guinea-Bissau's 4,000-strong police force and technical support for the planned revision of its public security laws, Lusa quoted Bissau's internal administration minister, Caetano Intchama, as announcing on Monday.
China grants US $6.5 million in emergency aid
China has given Guinea-Bissau US $6.5 million to build houses for veterans of the independence war against Portugal and to repair rural roads, Lusa reported the Guinea-Bissau Finance Ministry as announcing on Monday.
Voter registration dates set
Voters in Guinea-Bissau have between 22 August and 2 September to register for upcoming presidential and general elections, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest situation report.
The country's largest political parties, Resistencia da Guine-Bissau- Movimento Ba- Fata (RGB-MB) and Partido Africano da Independencia da Guine e Cabo Verde (PAIGC) have scheduled party congresses for 13-15 August and 18-22 August respectively.
Presidential and legislative elections are due on 28 November, as part of a peace accord concluded late in 1998 between then president Joao Bernardo Vieira and the leaders of a military revolt which eventually led to his overthrow on 7 May 1999.
PAIGC leader criticises justice authorities
The PAIGC's interim president, Saturnino da Costa, has said recent arrests by authorities investigating participants in the military uprising would do nothing to enhance national reconciliation, Lusa reported on Thursday.
The agency said some 300 people remained imprisoned
on charges related to the conflict, which began on
7 June 1998. Most of the prisoners are soldiers loyal
to Vieira and leading figures close to him.
UNICEF programme on war trauma
UNICEF has sponsored a programme to help sensitise health care employees to the trauma caused by war, OCHA reported. It said a child psychologist spent six weeks training heath staff to detect and treat post-conflict stress disorders in children.
NIGERIA: Panel seeks end to ethnic Ijaw, Ilaje clashes
The government of the southwest Nigerian state of Ondo has set up a panel to try to end fighting between Ijaws and Ilajes after about 50 people died in renewed clashes last week, state officials said.
Fighting broke out in 1998 between the two groups over disputed land thought to be rich in oil and located near the Atlantic coast. Ownership of oil-rich land in the area often yields substantial monetary compensations to local communities, a factor which sometimes aggravates communal disputes there.
Residents of the area, which is only accessible by boat or helicopter, said the latest fighting broke out after some Ilajes tried to retake villages from which they were displaced in 1998.
Senate president under probe
The upper chamber of Nigeria's national assembly voted unanimously on Tuesday to probe an allegation that Senate President Evan Enwerem has a criminal record, which would disqualify him from his post, news reports said.
According to the news reports, Enwerem was convicted of fraud in 1945 while he was a revenue clerk, but he has denied this.
`The Guardian' reported on Wednesday that parliamentary
committees investigating the case had until next Tuesday
to report their findings. The House of Representatives
on Wednesday passed a motion calling on Enwerem to
step down pending the investigation.
Ex-speaker of the House fined US $20
Former speaker of the House of Representatives Salisu Buhari was given a 2,000-naira (US $20) fine or 12 months imprisonment for forgery and perjury, news reports said on Wednesday.
Buhari, 29, had said he was 36 years old in order to
meet the 30-year minimum age to be speaker of the House.
He had also claimed he attended a university in Canada.
He resigned two weeks after admitting that he lied
on both counts.
SAO TOME E PRINCIPE: Contacts with Nigeria over sea
border
Sao Tome and Principe has begun contacts with Nigeria for negotiations over the delimitation of their common maritime border, LUSA reported Sao Tomese Foreign Minister Paulo Jorge as saying on Wednesday.
Jorge said a similar situation had been resolved with
Equatorial Guinea and negotiations were underway with
Gabon. Lusa said a private petroleum company, Hidrocarboneto
SA, had recently complained that Nigeria was selling
rights to off-shore oil in Sao Tome's economic exclusion
zone.
WEST AFRICA: Benin to host meeting on subregional gas
project
Petroleum ministers from Benin, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo are due to meet mid-August in Cotonou, Benin, to review plans to commission the West African gas pipeline before rising costs put the project beyond the reach of these countries, PANA reported on Tuesday. PANA said the meeting would finalise negotiations on the 960-km pipeline designed to bring Nigerian gas to industrial and domestic users in the four countries.
TOGO: Government To collect weapons
The Togolese government plans to collect and destroy
weapons held by civilians in the next few days as part
of the agreement concluded last week with the opposition,
PANA reported.
The government said in a statement on 4 August that "this operation, which will lead to a national reconciliation forum, is aimed at ending armed robberies and hold-ups so as to restore confidence, security and calm among the population". A committee comprising the ministers of justice, defence, interior and security was set up to work out details of the operation.
The government has also called on people who own weapons of war to hand them over voluntarily.
AFRICA: Workshop on Small Arms Trafficking
The United Nations could help further the goal of eradicating illicit arms trafficking by providing technical and financial help for states in developing law enforcement data collection and reporting procedures, participants in a recent workshop said.
The type of data that is important for policy development in this area includes information on the volume and nature of illegal trade in weapons, participants in the 'Workshop on Illicit Trafficking in Small Arms: African Issues' said.
Countries also need help in collecting information such as the national stocks of small arms held by the security forces and other government institutions, and firearms held legally by private citizens, according to a report faxed to IRIN and containing a summary of discussions at the workshop.
Other key information includes statistics on lost and stolen weapons, firearms seizures, estimates of illegally held weapons and data on arms-related deaths and injuries.
The workshop, organised by the Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa of the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs, was held in Lome on 2-4 August and attended by NGO and government representatives from 25 countries.
In West Africa alone, it is estimated that over two million people have been killed by small arms since 1990, more than 70 percent of them women and children, according to information provided at the workshop, which was also attended by researchers and UN officials.
Some 500 million light weapons are in circulation in the world, including an estimated seven million in West Africa alone, participants heard.
However, one of the points which emerged from the workshop was that it is extremely difficult to obtain reliable information on the trafficking of small arms not just because it is illegal but also because even legal arms transfers and existing stocks are treated as sensitive security matters.
What is evident though, the report stated, is that there is a ready supply of small arms available to any individual or group willing to engage in illicit transactions. Many of the weapons used in recent conflicts, post-conflict violence and common crime in Africa were left over from past conflicts on the continent or stolen from legitimate firearm owners.
Participants found that the supply of small arms from northern nations was the most troublesome for African nations since it directly supported conflicts and major crime.
Measures taken by states to curb the flow of illegal arms include laws on ownership of firearms, licensing, police and border controls, weapon collection and destruction programmes and import-export controls.
However, participants said African nations needed international
technical and financial assistance to help them develop
and implement the most basic law-enforcement, legal,
border-control and security infrastructure to deal
with small-arms trafficking.
The UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
is preparing a protocol to help control the import
and export of firearms and the meeting highlighted
the need for African nations to participate in the
negotiations process to make sure Africa's needs are
fully considered.
Abidjan, 6 August 1999; 15:45 GMT
[ENDS]
[ UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1372
[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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