Return-Path: Received: from kichungi.ocha.unon.org ([194.54.67.234]) by mailin06.sul.t-online.com with esmtp id 145tFR-0uBkbla; Tue, 12 Dec 2000 18:29:53 +0100 Received: from africa-english by kichungi.ocha.unon.org with local (Exim 3.14 #3) id 145svD-00067i-00 for zdwf-@t-online.de; Tue, 12 Dec 2000 20:08:59 +0300 Received: from umva.ocha.unon.org ([194.54.67.232]) by kichungi.ocha.unon.org with esmtp (Exim 3.14 #3) id 145r7J-0000mx-00 for africa-english@kichungi.ocha.unon.org; Tue, 12 Dec 2000 18:13:21 +0300 Received: from [157.150.112.7] (helo=unephq.unep.org) by umva.ocha.unon.org with esmtp (Exim 2.11 #3) id 145rFa-0008GW-00 for english@ocha.unon.org; Tue, 12 Dec 2000 18:21:54 +0300 Received: from mailsvr01.unep.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by unephq.unep.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id SAA11421 for ; Tue, 12 Dec 2000 18:24:29 +0300 (EAT) Received: from goli.irin.org.za ([196.23.147.201]) by mailsvr01.unep.org (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id SAA27170 for ; Tue, 12 Dec 2000 18:14:21 +0300 (EAT) Received: by mail.irin.org.za with Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) id ; Tue, 12 Dec 2000 17:24:21 +0200 Message-ID: From: IRIN To: Southern Africa Readers Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 17:24:15 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Subject: SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN News Briefs [2001212] Precedence: bulk X-Filter: mailagent [version 3.0 PL68] for africa-english@ocha.unon.org Sender: IRIN Africa English Service SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN News Briefs, 12 December CONTENTS: MOZAMBIQUE: Meetings with Chissano to begin next week - Dhlakama=20 MOZAMBIQUE: Prison deaths result of suffocation, says human rights = group=20 ANGOLA: Unions confirm public sector strike starts Tuesday ANGOLA: Up to 60,000 civil servants could lose jobs under IMF accord ANGOLA: Huambo water scheme re-launched=20 ZIMBABWE: Newspaper workers return to work=20 ZIMBABWE: Lawyers blast Mugabe over election decree ZIMBABWE: IMF says the country may soon win back aid=20 ZAMBIA-DRC: Zambia disarms 3,000 fugitive troops ZAMBIA: EU to provide election funds =20 SOUTH AFRICA: Migrants badly treated says human rights body Mozambique: Meetings with Chissano to begin next week - Dhlakama The leader of Mozambique's main opposition RENAMO party, Afonso = Dhlakama, announced on Monday that he would begin meetings next week with = President Joaquim Chissano in an effort to ease political tensions in the wake of recent violence, LUSA reported. Dhlakama said that FRELIMO, = Mozambique's ruling party since independence in 1975, was ready to "empower" RENAMO governors in the six (of 11) provinces won by RENAMO in general = elections a year ago. Speaking at a conference in the Brazilian city of S=E3o = Paulo, he said he believed in the "sincerity" of the Maputo government's = willingness to engage in dialogue.=20 "Pressure from the people and investors' flight from the country have = made the government want dialogue", he added. Dhlakama also repeated charges = that the December 1999 elections, which handed victory to Chissano and = FRELIMO, had been fraudulent and highlighted what he termed a lack of democracy = in Mozambique.=20 Recent tensions began on 9 November when more than 40 people died = during nationwide opposition demonstrations called to protest against the = election result. On 22 November, at least 83 prisoners, most of them RENAMO supporters, were found suffocated to death in a tiny prison cell in the northern town of Montepuez, where some of the worst protest violence = had taken place.=20 MOZAMBIQUE: Prison deaths result of suffocation, says human rights = group=20 A Mozambican human rights group said on Monday that suffocation, = starvation and thirst had caused the deaths of 83 inmates in a northern prison = last month, LUSA reported. A team of government doctors had already = concluded that the main cause of the deaths in the prison at Montepuez, 1,600 km = north of the capital Maputo, was suffocation. "Our team which investigated = the incident over the past week concluded that suffocation, hunger and = thirst were the main causes of these deaths," Artimisa Franco, chairwoman of = the Mozambican Association of Human Rights (DHD), said.=20 Franco said survivors had told her that the cell was so overcrowded = inmates were forced to stand and were not provided with either food or water. Survivors also told DHD investigators that the local police commander = once visited the cell and allegedly told prisoners, "You wanted to kill me = but instead it is you who are going to die." Most of the prisoners were supporters of the opposition RENAMO who had been arrested after taking = part in violent anti-government protests. Franco said police may have been = taking revenge for the deaths of six policemen during the demonstrations in Montepuez. Montepuez district commander Dahalili Latifo is among 12 = police officers arrested last week in connection with the prisoners' deaths.=20 =20 ANGOLA: Unions confirm public sector strike to begin Tuesday=20 The National Union of Angola Workers-Syndicate Federation (UNTA-CS) = said on Monday it would go ahead with a civil service strike starting on = Tuesday and ending on Thursday, LUSA reported. The decision was approved by = affiliate unions in the capital Luanda, in response to the government's failure = to raise the sector's minimum wage to the equivalent of US$ 300 per month, among other demands. Union negotiator Manuel Viaje told media after the announcement that the government had considered the wage demand to be "unthinkable and unworkable" due to the difficult domestic situation. = "The assembly considered that the vital questions of our demands have not = been satisfied and thus decided to go ahead with the strike," he added. The = work stoppage was set to begin on Tuesday morning.=20 ANGOLA: Up to 60,000 civil servants could lose their jobs under IMF = accord A compromise agreement signed by the Angolan government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) means 60,000 public servants could be = out of work by next year, LUSA reported on Tuesday. According to a reform programme document issued by the Angolan government, it needs to reduce = its workforce by 20 percent, a second programme will promote = self-employment and the third training. According to the accord signed with the IMF, the = 2000 financial programme should benefit from the increase in petroleum = revenues and declining military expenditure.=20 In the document sent to the IMF, the Angolan government announced an increase of US $450 million in petroleum revenues, besides US $27 = million dollars from the diamond sector. Luanda said in the same document that = it will be eventually privatising the management of Customs in order to = improve the revenue collection system.=20 ANGOLA: Huambo water scheme re-launched=20 The water supply system at the Culimahala River, in Angola's central = Huambo province, was re-opened on Sunday after technical failure nine-months = ago, PANA reported on Tuesday. Huambo's provincial governor, Paulo Cassoma, inaugurated the water pump's first phase under which 500 cubic metres = would be supplied to the township's 4,000 consumers every day.=20 When completed the system is expected to cater for a total of 17,000 consumers. However, water will not be supplied to the upper areas until 2001. Since March, the government has spent more than US $71,000 US = dollars on the rehabilitation of the Culimahala water system, in conjunction = with a Canadian NGO, Work and Development. ZIMBABWE: Newspaper workers return to work Workers from Zimpapers Harare Branch, on strike since last week for = bonuses, have returned to work after the intervention of the information and publicity department in the President's Office and the National = Employment Council (NEC) the 'Daily News' reported on Tuesday. The workers said = they would go back to work while their representatives continued = negotiations. On Monday, the workers gathered at Munhumutapa Building, while their representatives held discussions with George Charamba, secretary in the department.=20 The workers went on strike after their demand for a 100 percent bonus = was rejected by the company. The management had earlier offered a 40 = percent bonus. This was rejected by the workers.=20 After further negotiations, the management then offered a 90 percent = bonus to be awarded on a sliding scale. The workers rejected it, insisting = the 90 percent had to be paid to all workers.=20 "We are still negotiating while the workers are at work," said Leonard Mudare, acting chairman for the workers' committee. "The workers want = the 90 percent across the board and not on a sliding scale."=20 ZIMBABWE: Lawyers blast Mugabe over election decree The Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) on Monday described as = unconstitutional and highly irregular, President Robert Mugabe's weekend decree making = it illegal for anyone to contest the June parliamentary election results, = the 'Daily News' reported on Tuesday. LSZ president, Sternford Moyo, said = Mugabe and his Cabinet were interested parties in the challenges filed by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) against the June parliamentary poll results in 38 constituencies. The High Court had announced that the MDC applications would be heard in the first half of = next year.=20 Moyo said Mugabe's action showed "a surprising and blatant disdain for fundamental principles of natural justice". Moyo continued: "In terms = of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, judicial authority rests in the Judiciary. = The Executive exercises executive powers and not judicial authority," said = Moyo, whose society represents 800 lawyers in the country. The society was reacting to a government Statutory Instrument issued on Friday which declared invalid all pending litigation challenging the June election results, saying the cases were sponsored by unnamed external enemies of Zimbabwe keen to cause instability.=20 ZIMBABWE: The IMF says the country may soon win back aid=20 Zimbabwe has made progress in its bid to win back aid from the = International Monetary Fund (IMF), but many contentious issues still remain = unresolved, a Fund official said on Monday, Reuters reported. El Tigani Ibrahim, the = IMF's resident representative in South Africa, told reporters that a recent mission to Harare had made some headway "and the indications are that = we could be headed for an agreement," Ibrahim told a Reuters Foundation workshop for business journalists in South Africa.=20 Over the past year, Western donors led by the IMF have suspended = funding to Zimbabwe over policy differences with President Robert Mugabe, plunging = the country deeper into its worst economic crisis in decades. Donors have disagreed with Mugabe's deployment of a quarter of his army in a costly two-year-old war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Relations = deteriorated further this year over the illegal occupation of hundreds of = white-owned farms by self-styled liberation war veterans, and Mugabe's plan to = seize white-owned lands for black resettlement.=20 UNDP head Mark Malloch Brown told Mugabe earlier this month during a = meeting in Harare that the international donor community would not support land reforms unless Mugabe addressed law and order problems. Ibrahim said = the Zimbabwe crisis had affected the entire southern African region because = of a view by global investors that troubles in one African country on the continent inherently spilled over to the next. He added that fixing the troubled Zimbabwe economy and calming political tensions lay at the = heart of resolving the crisis and returning investor confidence.=20 ZAMBIA-DRC: Zambia disarms 3,000 fugitive troops =20 Zambian troops have disarmed more than 3,000 foreign soldiers who fled = into Zambian territory from fierce fighting in the Democratic Republic of = Congo (DRC) earlier this month, Zambian defence officials were quoted as = saying on Tuesday. "Our men are right at the border and as of now we have = disarmed more than 3,000 of these soldiers who fled into Zambia from Congo," = Defence Minister Chitalu Sampa said. "We are treating this matter very = seriously because armed soldiers also pose a security risk here in Zambia." Sampa said defeated soldiers who fled Congo would be disarmed in the presence of United Nations monitors. "We are disarming the soldiers all right but it is not easy to establish whether they are guilty of = genocide," he said. While most of the foreign troops who crossed into Zambia are Congolese government forces, an unknown number of Zimbabwean and = Rwandan Hutu militia also crossed. Zimbabwean troops had been defending the Congolese border town of Pweto that fell to Rwandan-backed RCD rebels. Kelvin Chiposwa, secretary general of the Zambian Red Cross, said on = Monday the fleeing troops had told aid workers that more fellow-combatants = were heading for Zambia. "The situation is likely to get worse. More = soldiers are expected to come. We are reliably informed that they are also heavily armed," Chiposwa said.=20 ZAMBIA: EU to provide election funds =20 The European Union (EU) is to provide US$ 5.26 million to assist Zambia during the national elections scheduled for the last quarter of 2001, = PANA reported on Tuesday. According to an agreement signed on Monday in the capital Lusaka, the assistance would go to the Electoral Commission of Zambia and into the production of national registration cards.=20 "The forthcoming elections are of special importance since the = president (Frederick Chiluba) is due to retire at the end of his constitutionally defined terms of office," the EU representative in Zambia, Jochem = Krebbs, said. "The assistance is intended to contribute to an environment which results in elections that reflect the political will of the people = through the increased involvement of voters, the promotion of confidence in the electoral process and more equitable participation," he added.=20 Meanwhile, Zambian vice-president Christon Tembo has suggested that = member countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) pool = their resources and harmonise the various electoral systems. Speaking at the opening of the SADC Electoral Commissions Forum, he called on electoral commissions within member states to deliberately encourage the = population to participate in their respective electoral process. He challenged the = forum to educate the people in the region on the need to exercise their constitutional right to register and vote.=20 SOUTH AFRICA: Migrants badly treated says human rights body Illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers in South Africa are often rounded = up and put in detention, the country's Human Rights Commission (HRC) said = in a special report on Tuesday. The HRC said its researchers had exposed a = list of abuses against migrants, including unlawfully long detentions, abuse = and corruption by those in charge of them and poor conditions at the = Lindela repatriation centre east of Johannesburg which hosts some 1,500 people. = "Violence towards detainees is frequently present at Lindela", despite = steps to improve conditions at the centre, the HRC stated. Commissioner Jody Kollapen said the HRC was disappointed by the "inertia of the = department of home affairs" to their recommendations. "The acid test (of our = democracy) is how we treat those most vulnerable and marginalised and in the South = African context refugees and migrants happen to fall into that category," he = said.=20 The report contains recommendations, including the establishment of an independent judicial inspectorate body with responsibility for Lindela. Asylum seekers held a sit-down protest in central Johannesburg in = November, they were unhappy about the slow processing of asylum applications that often leaves them with no papers and vulnerable to arrest and = deportation. [ENDS] IRIN-SA - Tel: +27-11 880 4633 Fax: +27-11 447 5472 Email: irin-sa@irin.org.za =20 [This item is delivered in the "africa-english" service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial sites requires written IRIN permission.] Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2000 Subscriber: zdwf-@t-online.de Keyword: ANGOLA