Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 18:19:00 +0300 (BEAUT)
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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 Central and Eastern Africa

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org

IRIN-CEA Update 1,011 for the Great Lakes (Thursday 14 September)

CONTENTS:

DRC: Relative calm returns to Butembo
DRC: Three journalists sentenced to prison
BURUNDI: Much fighting reported
BURUNDI: Mandela on economic recovery initiative
BURUNDI: Forest fire rages
BURUNDI: FAO emergency coordination unit launches campaign
RWANDA: Former justice minister returns from exile
POVERTY: World Bank report highlights plight of millions

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Relative calm returns to Butembo

An uneasy calm has settled on Butembo after two days of heavy fighting
earlier this week, residents have reported. They said, however, many
bodies littered the streets following intense battles between Mayi-Mayi
militias and the Uganda-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie
- Mouvement de liberation (RCD-ML).

Local sources told IRIN the fighting erupted after followers of Mbusa
Nyamisa, previously one of the top leaders of the RCD-ML, demanded his
reinstatement and return from Kampala where he was sent after he fell out
with rebel leader Wamba dia Wamba.=20

Meanwhile, UNICEF has announced that Friday 15 September will be the
inaugural day of the third phase of the national vaccination campaign and
has appealed to all belligerents in DRC to cease hostilities for a period
of 15 days in order to allow the people carrying out the vaccinations to
do their job in safety and to "facilitate access to all children up to
five years old."

DRC: Three journalists sentenced to prison

In a letter to Justice Minister Mwenze Kongolo, the Paris-based Reporters
sans frontieres (RSF) has protested strongly over the sentencing of
Emile-Aim=E9 Kakese Vinalu, editor of the weekly 'Le Carrousel' and
Jean-Pierre Mukuna Ekanga, editor of the newspaper 'La Tribune de la
Nation', to two years in prison and of Richard Nsamba Olangi, publisher of
the newspaper 'Le Messager Africain', to a one-year suspended prison
sentence.=20

The organisation asked the minister to release the first two. RSF noted
that in an 18 January 2000 report, the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights had stated that "imprisonment as punishment for the peaceful
expression of an opinion constitutes a serious violation of human rights".=
=20

"Once again the authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo have
sentenced journalists to prison. Since (President) Laurent-D=E9sir=E9 Kabil=
a
came to power in May 1997, more than 120 journalists have been imprisoned
in this country," added Robert M=E9nard, the secretary-general of the press
freedom watchdog.=20

According to information obtained by RSF, on 12 September, Kakese and
Mukuna were sentenced to two years in prison by the Court of Military
Order (Cour d'ordre militaire, COM) in Kinshasa/Gombe. They were taken to
the Kinshasa Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre. As for Nsamba, he was
given a one year suspended prison sentence. The COM, which acts as a court
of first and last resort, found them guilty of "high treason" and
"publication of articles hostile to the government". [for full statement
see: http://www.rsf.fr]

BURUNDI: Much fighting reported

Humanitarian sources on Thursday told IRIN there had been a lot of
fighting between Burundi's army and rebels in different parts of the
country and most recently around Bujumbura rural since the signing of the
Burundi peace accord at the end of last month in Arusha. "There was a
fight in Cibitoke [northwestern Burundi] between the army and rebels of
FROLINA and another one in Bujumbura rural between the army and the rebels
of the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) and some Forces de defense
pour la democratie (FDD)," one independent source said. According to this
source, more fighting was expected ahead of a 20 September meeting between
the belligerents in Nairobi. "Armed groups are trying to get deeper into
the land to say that they 'are in control' as the army tries to push them
to the border to prove that the rebels are 'weak'," the source added.=20

Army Spokesman Colonel Longin Minani reiterated on Thursday that the
government was expecting an "increase" in the attacks. "From 14 to 20
September they [rebels] will try to show they are there," he told IRIN.
"The only problem is that their target is never the military but the
civilians."  He dismissed one rebel group's claim that the army had killed
hundreds of civilians as "pure lies". "What kind of government can kill
its own civilians whom it is supposed to protect?"=20

Recently, the rebel Conseil national pour la defense de la
democratie-Forces de defense pour la democratie (CNDD-FDD) issued a
statement from Brussels, saying the Tutsi-dominated army was involved in
an "odious massacre" of the (largely Hutu) civil population. The statement
said that more than 300 people had been killed in Bujumbura Rural, more
than 150 in Rutana, and some 400 in Cankuzo.=20

BURUNDI: Mandela on economic recovery initiative

The facilitator of the Burundi peace process, Nelson Mandela, on Wednesday
told journalists in Johannesburg that he had already engaged several
international countries to look at ways of reviving Burundi's economy. He
said that he had asked French President Jacques Chirac to call an
international conference and invite donors to help transform the Burundi
economy, the South African News Agency (SAPA) said.=20

He has also requested ambassadors from Belgium, France and Germany to
accept large numbers of young Burundians and train them in how to run the
economy of their country. "This was one of the major plans that will
revive Burundi's economy," he said. Mandela was speaking to journalists
after he had held talks with representatives of three Tutsi parties who
did not sign the Burundi peace accord on 28 August. They, however, agreed
on Wednesday to sign the accord on 20 September in Nairobi.=20

On Friday, a technical meeting of international donors to Burundi will be
held in Brussels. It will be jointly chaired by a senior European
Commission official, Francesca Mosca, and the Austrian Georg Lennkh, who
heads the Arusha committee on reconstruction and development. The meeting
will be attended by representatives from European Union member states, the
United Nations, the Organisation of African Unity, the United States,
Canada, Switzerland, Norway, Japan, and the Red Cross. Minister of Foreign
Affairs Severin Ntahomvukiye and President Pierre Buyoya's top adviser
Sebastien Ntahuga will represent Burundi.=20

BURUNDI: Forest fire rages

A bush fire which has raged in Burundi's Teza forest in Kibira National
Park, northwestern Burundi for three weeks, has "completely" destroyed
more than 125 hectares of the forest. Burundi radio said on Wednesday that
the destroyed area covered over five kilometres on the Bugarama-Bukeye
road. It said that some tea plantations had also been damaged. "It is
regrettable that no single action has yet been taken to contain the fire,"
it said.

Experts told IRIN the fires could have been "ignited" by the army, "in a
bid to flush out rebels who reportedly have made this forest their base".
One regional analyst told IRIN that on several occasions the rebels had
killed "quite a number of soldiers whenever they attempted to carry out a
swoop in the forest". He also said that the fire could be "connected to
the ongoing drought season". "Strangely enough, no assistance has been
sought," he noted.=20

BURUNDI: FAO emergency coordination unit launches campaign

FAO, through its emergency coordination unit, launched a six-week
countrywide "seeds and tools" distribution in Burundi for the season 2001
A on 11 September. Starting with the province of Bujumbura Rural, the US
$2 million campaign, in coordination with 11 NGOs and the Red Cross of
Burundi with support from the International Federation of the Red Cross
and Cresent (IFRC), targeted more than 300,000 vulnerable households
throughout the country with more than 3,000 mt bean seeds, 187,000 hoes
and one mt of vegetable seeds. The FAO announcement said target
beneficiaries were principally farmers badly affected by the latest
drought which struck the country and farmers suffering from insecurity in
their provinces as well as the displaced. It went on to add that the FAO
emergency coordination unit, assisted by its partners, carried out three
seed and tool distribution campaigns a year for each of the planting
seasons A, B, and C.  This project, in addition to the FAO emergency
coodination unit, was financed by the governments of Belgium, Netherlands,
USA and UK., the announcement said.=20

RWANDA: Former Justice minister returns from exile

Former Rwandan Justice Minister Faustin Nteziryayo has returned from
Canada where he has been in exile, a senior Rwandan government official
told IRIN.  "He has been here since Monday evening. There was no need for
him to go in the first place, the government's policy is that all Rwandese
are free to return home and participate in the re-building of their
country," the official said. Faustin Ntaziryayo, a Hutu, was justice
minister for a short time after the RPF took power. He then fled to the
United States.=20

POVERTY: World Bank report highlights plight of millions

At a time of unprecedented wealth for many countries, 2.8 billion people -
almost half of the world's population - live on less than US $2 a day,
according to a new report by the World Bank.=20

The World Development Report 2000/2001 - the World Bank's most
detailed-ever assessment of global poverty - said that 1.2 billion people
live on the margins of society, subsisting on less than $1 a day. In
high-income countries, fewer than one child in 100 dies before reaching
the age of five, while in the poorest countries, that number is five times
higher. In well-off countries, fewer than five per cent of children under
five are malnourished, while in poorer countries as many as half of all
children suffer from lack of food.=20

"This destitution persists even though human conditions have improved more
in the past century than in the rest of history," the report noted. The
distribution of wealth is "extraordinarily unequal" with the average
income in the richest 20 countries 37 times higher than the average in the
poorest 20 - a gap that has doubled in the past 40 years.=20

The report calls for international action to improve the prospects for
poor countries and their people. Initiatives such as debt relief,
expanding developing countries' access to markets and closing the digital
and knowledge divides are recommended. [For full report access:=20
http://www.worldbank.org/html/extpb/wdr2000_2001.htm]

Nairobi, 14 September 2000 15:00 gmt

[ENDS]

[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail:
irin-cea@ocha.unon.org ]


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