Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 14:21:06 +0000 (GMT)
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Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Update 773 [2000803]
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U N I T E D  N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa

Tel: +225 22-40-4440
Fax: +225 22-41-9339
e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Update 773 (Wednesday 2 August)

CONTENTS:

SIERRA LEONE: Annan recommends extension of UNAMSIL's mandate
SIERRA LEONE: UN announces inquiry into arms/diamond link
SIERRA LEONE: Humanitarian workers released
GUINEA-BISSAU: Meeting on tension along border with Senegal
COTE D'IVOIRE: Human Rights groups condemn repression
GUINEA-BISSAU: Former Vieira loyalists returned to prison
GHANA: No Sankoh trial here, says president
NIGERIA: Militant Delta youths hold Shell workers hostage
NIGERIA: Delta Community wants insurance for oil damage
NIGERIA: Jigawa to adopt Sharia
BENIN: President grants prisoners amnesty

SIERRA LEONE: Annan recommends extension of UNAMSIL's mandate

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended an extension of the UN
operation in Sierra Leone, according to a report to the Security Council
on the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).

Achieving durable peace throughout the country remains the goal of the
international community, Annan said in his report, issued on Monday. This,
he said, would not be achieved solely by political means nor just through
a purely military option. "The preferred collective approach, therefore,
should be to concentrate efforts for a political solution based on a
robust and credible international military presence," Annan said.

He recommended that UNAMSIL's mandate, which expires on 7 August be
extended by six months. He said he thought it would be necessary to
further strengthen the UN force and would soon submit proposals to the
Security Council.

The report also draws attention to the continuing suffering of Sierra
Leoneans from the ongoing fighting in many parts of the country and voices
deep concern over reports of abductions, rape and sexual abuse,
destruction and looting of civilian property, and forced recruitment of
children.

He said he fully supported efforts to hold accountable and prosecute those
responsible for such crimes and called on all parties to end the culture
of violence and violation of human rights.

SIERRA LEONE: UN announces inquiry into arms/diamond link

The Chairman of the UN Security Council Sanctions committee on Sierra
Leone has announced the composition of a panel to look into possible
violations of sanctions and the link between the trade in diamonds and
arms, the UN reported on Tuesday.

The announcement followed the first public hearings by the Committee on
the link between diamonds and the conflict in Sierra Leone.

Participants included interested governments such as Sierra Leone, Liberia
and Burkina Faso, the diamond industry, regional and international
organisations, and individual experts, according to the Chairman of the
Security Council's Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Anwarul Karim
Chowdhury.

The five-member panel, expected to report back to the Sanctions Committee
by the end of October, will be chaired by Martin Chungong Ayafor of
Cameroon, the UN said. The four other members include diamond expert Ian
Smillie of Canada; an expert on arms and transportation, Johan Peleman of
Belgium; Interpol expert Harjit Singh Sandhu of India and an expert from
the International Civil Aviation Organisation, Atabou Bodian of Senegal.

The UN Secretary-General will notify the Security Council of the panel's
composition shortly, the UN said.

[See also separate item titled 'SIERRA LEONE: Efforts to curb illegal
diamond trade continue']

SIERRA LEONE: Humanitarian workers released

Four Sierra Leonean aid workers missing since 21 July have been found, the
NGO Christian Health Association of Sierra Leone (CHASL) reported on
Tuesday.

They were captured by "West Side dissidents between Mile 38 and Masiaka",
east of Freetown, on their way to the southern town of Mattru and released
on Monday, Marion Morgan, executive director of CHASL said.

The West Side Boys are a group comprising mainly former Sierra Leone Army
soldiers.

GUINEA-BISSAU: Meeting on tension along border with Senegal

Ranking civil and military officials in Guinea-Bissau met on Tuesday to
discuss continued tension along the border with Senegal, LUSA reported,
quoting a source in the president's office.

The agenda focused on the two-week closure of the northern border post
linking the town of Bafata in Guinea-Bissau to Kolda in Senegal, LUSA
said. It quoted Bafata Governor Antonio Roberto da Silva as saying that
the border was "effectively closed" from the "other side": Senegal.

He is due to meet again with his counterpart from Kolda this week in the
border town of Cuntima, 110 km northeast of Bissau. Discussions are to
focus on 65 Guinea-Bissau nationals allegedly detained in Kolda under
suspicion of being members of the Mouvement des forces democratiques de
Casamance, which is fighting for independence from Senegal.

Senegalese villagers along the border closed off the area, AFP reported,
following attacks on them by armed bands from Guinea-Bissau. The closure
has caused a shortage of food and petrol in Guinea-Bissau, the agency
added.

COTE D'IVOIRE: Human Rights groups condemn repression

Cote d'Ivoire's human rights league, la Ligue Ivoirienne des Droits de
l'Homme (LIDHO), has condemned the repression unleashed on demonstrators
on Monday and a decision by the ruling CNSP to reinstate a travel ban on
politicians.

The declaration, dated 31 July, followed the beating, humiliation and
detention by the military of young people who had tried to stage a
demonstration in favour of statements by French Cooperation Minister
Charles Josselin.

Among other things, Josselin had called on the Ivoirian government not to
exclude eligible candidates from the presidential race in September. This
led some groups to demonstrate last week against him and the French
government.

LIDHO also condemned the travel ban, lifted on Thursday then reinstated on
Friday, as a violation of freedom of movement.

GUINEA-BISSAU: Former Vieira loyalists returned to prison

Former military officers loyal to the ousted president, Joao Bernardo
Vieira, have been returned to prison on the insistence of military chiefs
who toppled him in May 1999, AFP reported.

The decision to return the 31 officers to prison was taken in a meeting
between President Kumba Yala and the military brass, AFP said, quoting
authorised sources. They are accused of having smuggled arms to Mouvement
des forces democratiques de Casamance, which is fighting for an
independent state in southern Senegal, it added.

GHANA: No Sankoh trial here, says president

President Jerry Rawlings said on Tuesday he would not allow the trial of
Sierra Leonean rebel leader Foday Sankoh to be held in Ghana, news reports
said.

Sankoh could be tried in other countries, PANA reported him as saying on
receiving UN Secretrary-General Kofi Annan. Rawlings' statement put to
rest media reports that Sankoh might be brought to Ghana, PANA added.
There is considerable international and national agreement to try Sankoh
for war crimes and violation of the Lome peace accord of July 1999.

Late in July this year, the Sierra Leonean government welcomed a UN
Security Council draft resolution to set up an international tribunal for
people accused of committing crimes against humanity. Under Sankoh's
leadership, his RUF rebels conducted a policy of limb amputations, rape,
looting and arson mostly against the civilian population.

"We want those who committed these heinous crimes to be brought to
justice," Septimus Kaikai, the Sierra Leonean presidential spokesman, had
told IRIN.

NIGERIA: Militant Delta youths hold Shell workers hostage

Militant youths are holding about 165 oil workers hostage on oil rigs in
Bayelsa State, southeastern Nigeria, a Shell spokesman in Lagos told IRIN
on Wednesday.

The hostages, about 145 Nigerians and 20 expatriates, "are restricted to
their rigs", he said, adding that the expatriates are of various
nationalities, including Americans, British, Australian and Lebanese.

[See also separate item titled 'NIGERIA: Over 150 Shell workers held on
rigs']

NIGERIA: Delta Community wants insurance for oil damage

Communities living in the oil-producing Delta State have asked the federal
government to provide them with a comprehensive insurance scheme against
personal injury and damage to property following oil spills, 'The
Guardian' reported on Wednesday.

The appeal, made by a delegation of the Ughelli community in Delta State
to the state governor, noted that such an insurance policy would encourage
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries to
be more cautious in their operations, the daily said.

"This is pertinent because every town in Ughelli produces large quantities
of crude oil and natural gas," the Ughelli statement said, adding that
they wanted a public apology to the families of the victims of recent oil
fire disasters and to all the people living in the Niger Delta for calling
them criminals. They also want adequate compensation paid to the families
of those who died in fires as well as those whose farmlands, ponds and
livestock have been destroyed.

The daily said their demands followed the public admission of Jackson
Gaius-Obaseki, managing director of NNPC, that staff working for its
subsidiary, the Pipelines and Petroleum Marketing Company (PPMC),
collaborated with vandals in rupturing the pipelines which led to the fuel
leakages and fires. The Ughelli people said this demand proved that those
who died in oil fires were not thieves and economic saboteurs, the daily
reported.

NIGERIA: Jigawa to adopt Sharia

Another state in northern Nigeria adopted Islamic Sharia law on Wednesday
declared a public holiday, the BBC reported.

Busloads of Sharia supporters turned up in the state capital, Dudsi, many
bars have closed down, hotels have stopped selling alcohol and prostitutes
have fled, the BBC reported. Hundreds of people have died in fighting
between Muslims and Christians since the beginning of the year over the
introduction of Sharia. Christians are in a minority in Jigawa, a rural
and conservative state, and have accepted its introduction because they
feel they have no choice, the BBC added.

Jigawa State follows in the footsteps of Katsina State which formally
adopted Sharia on Tuesday. Four other northern Nigerian states imposed
Islamic law earlier this year: Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger and Kano.

BENIN: President grants prisoners amnesty

President Mathew Kerekou granted amnesty to prisoners on Tuesday to mark
Benin's 40th independence anniversary, PANA reported. In a message to the
nation on Monday, he highlighted issues such as the state of the economy.
He also urged Beninese to fight ethnocentrism, regionalism and instead
focus on a common vision for the nation.

Abidjan, 2 August 2000; 17:50 GMT

[ENDS]

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