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Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 18:38:07 +0200
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Subject: SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN News Briefs [2000412]
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SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN News Briefs, 12 April

CONTENTS:

NAMIBIA: Power lines sabotaged near Angola border
ANGOLA: Two journalists convicted on defamation charges
BOTSWANA: HIV/AIDS tests for students defended
SOUTHERN AFRICA: ICRC assists return of Zimbabwean POW 


NAMIBIA: Power lines sabotaged near Angola border

Suspected Angolan UNITA rebels have blown up electricity pylons, bringing
the construction industry in northern Namibia's Caprivi and Kavango
districts to a standstill, 'The Namibian' reported on Wednesday.

"Jonas Savimbi's rebel movement, UNITA, is believed to be behind the
sabotage which has left a high school and a police station in darkness," it
said. "In addition, two women were injured yesterday after stepping on
landmines believed to have been left by the same people who blew up the
pylons." The newspaper said sabotage of key infrastructure appears to be a
change in tactics by the rebels who have until now raided villages and
attacked motorists in their search for food and supplies. 

The attacks followed Namibia's decision at the end of last year to grant
Angolan government forces the right to launch attacks against UNITA from
Namibian territory. It said nearly 30 people, most of them civilians, have
been killed by unidentified gunmen who robbed them of food and other
belongings this year while scores had lost limbs after setting off
anti-personnel landmines.

ANGOLA: Two journalists convicted on defamation charges

Two Angolan journalists were fined and given suspended sentences this week
for defaming a provincial governor.

News reports said Americo Goncalves and Graca Campo were given suspended
three and four-month sentences respectively, and fined the equivalent of US
$40,000 for an article in the weekly, 'Angolense' in which they reportedly
defamed Manuel Pedro Pakavira, the governor of the Kwanza Norte Province. 

BOTSWANA: HIV/AIDS tests for students defended

The Office of the President of Botswana has defended suggestions that
students sent overseas for training should be tested for the HIV/AIDS and
denied training if the tests proved positive, news reports said on
Wednesday.

A Presidential spokesman said that one in four of the economically active
population in Botswana were HIV positive. He said there was no point in
sending a student for expensive training, when it was most likely that he or
she would not complete the course. It was a question of realism, not human
rights. The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) said the Botswana
government recently had to repatriate government sponsored students with
full blown AIDS at an estimated cost of US $11,000.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: ICRC assists return of Zimbabwean POW

A Zimbabwean soldier serving with Southern Africa Development Community
(SADC) forces in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was
repatriated on Wednesday from Rwanda after serving 17 months as a prisoner
of war, a Zimbabwe defence force statement said.

The soldier, Corporal Wilfred Manembe, 39, was evacuated on medical grounds
aboard an aircraft chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC}. He was captured on 17 September, 1998, in the strategic railway
junction town of Kabalo in Shaba Province.

"He was serving with his unit, 32 Infantry battalion when his squad, a group
of 16 soldiers, was accidentally deployed by aircraft onto an enemy-held
airstrip," the statement said. "The squad fought until it ran out of
ammunition, thus leading to the capture of the first Zimbabweans by the DRC
invaders and rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda." It said he was the second
of the 16 soldiers repatriated on medical grounds.

[ENDS]

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Keyword: Angola