Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 17:39:07 +0300 (BEAUT)
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Subject: GREAT LAKES: IRIN-CEA Update 1,073 [2001214]
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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 1,073 for the Great Lakes (Thursday 14 December) 

BURUNDI: Parties ask for time to solve leadership crisis
UGANDA: Analysis discounts suspected Ebola cases in Jinja 
RWANDA: ICTR investigating alleged RPF massacres 
TANZANIA: WFP renews food aid to over 1.3 million people
DRC: Rwanda reports capture of weapons in Pweto 
DRC: Rebel RCD seeks to address unpopularity
DRC: Journalist released after detention 


BURUNDI: Parties ask for time to solve leadership crisis

Burundi groups have asked the Burundi peace facilitator, Nelson Mandela,
to give them three to four days, "but not more than a week, to discuss the
question and find a solution" to the question of who should lead a
proposed three-year transitional period in the country. "We are still
studying ways to find a solution for the question," the BBC quoted FRODEBU
leader Jean Minani as saying on Wednesday. "Burundians, journalists and
the international community should remain patient. We are trying to find a
solution," he said. "Although some people seem to move unwillingly, the
majority of us and most Burundians want to find a solution," he added.
"What I can say is that we have not had a breakthrough," Minani said. The
Paris donor conference for Burundi ended on Tuesday with donors asking for
the setting up of a transitional institution and the appointment of its
leader before they could disburse US $440 million they promised Burundi,
the BBC stated. 

UGANDA: Analysis discounts suspected Ebola cases in Jinja

Three suspected cases of Ebola in Jinja District, southeastern Uganda,
have proved not be the viral haemorrhagic fever after laboratory analysis,
health ministry officials said on Thursday. One hundred and sixty-one
people have died of the Ebola virus since the outbreak began in October,
according to ministry officials. Of 413 cases, 382 were in the northern
district of Gulu, where the epidemic was first confirmed in mid-October.
Two new cases had recently been confirmed in Masindi District in the west,
while in Mbarara, southwestern Uganda, "the epidemic may have been
effectively contained", Dr Oladapo Walker, WHO representative for Uganda,
told IRIN. The Ugandan government has started paying risk money to medical
workers who attend to Ebola patients, the Assistant Commissioner of
National Disease Control, Dr Alex Opio, told Rwanda News Agency (RNA) on
Wednesday. IRIN reported on Tuesday that the fatality rate for the Ebola
outbreak in Uganda was around 30 percent, but can now clarify that, based
on the latest statistics available, it stands at 39 percent. 

RWANDA: ICTR investigating alleged RPF massacres

The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
(ICTR), Carla Del Ponte, said on Wednesday she had discussed with Rwandan
President Paul Kagame this week investigations the Tribunal is carrying
out into massacres alleged to have been committed by Rwandan Patriotic
Front (RPF) troops during the civil war in Rwanda. Del Ponte said she
opened her investigation into alleged war crimes committed by the RPF in
1999 and informed the Rwandan authorities at the same time. Del Ponte said
she needed the Rwandan authorities' cooperation to complete her
investigation, because they had their own dossiers on the massacres. Asked
whether it damaged the independence of her investigation to be discussing
these issues with Kagame, who was himself commander of the RPF during the
civil war, she told IRIN: "I need access to witnesses... Being realistic,
without their co-operation I can get nowhere."

The then rebels of the RPF took control of Rwanda from the interim
government formed after Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana was killed
on 7 April 1994 (and under which the genocide took place) between June and
August 1994, bringing an end to the genocide. In the course of seizing
power and pacifying the country, RPF soldiers are alleged to have killed
thousands of Hutus. In the past, the ICTR has been heavily criticised as
'a victor's tribunal' because only members of the predominantly Hutu
interim government have so far been indicted, despite reported evidence of
massacres and war crimes perpetrated by the mainly Tutsi RPF. [for further
details, see full report of 14 December headlined" RWANDA: Del Ponte
addresses alleged RPF massacres with Kagame"]

TANZANIA: WFP renews food aid to over 1.3 million people

The WFP on Wednesday launched a five-month emergency operation in Tanzania
following four years of continuous hardship due to drought. A press
release from the organisation said the initiative would reach 1.3 million
people across 11 regions in the country, at a cost of US $15 million.
After visiting drought-stricken regions, a team of experts had indicated
that Tanzania's most recent harvest had been seriously affected by
irregular and premature rainfall, exposing the rural poor to "extreme
levels of food insecurity", the press release stated. "Tanzania still
suffers from the effects of the last four years of chronic weather
patterns. It is vital we don't let people slide any further down the scale
of poverty and hunger," it quoted WFP Country Director in Tanzania Nicole
Menage as saying.

The shortfall of rain, particularly in Tanzania's central and northern
regions, had badly affected the livelihood of pastoralists, who rely on
livestock for survival, WFP noted. "Poor rainfall has reduced pasture and
water levels, damaging the health of animals," it said. "One of our fears
is that unless emergency rations arrive quickly, farmers will start
migrating to other areas or selling off their only assets, such as
livestock, tools, land and buildings," Menage said. "We hope our food aid
will stem this distress migration and give drought-hit farmers the chance
to reinvest in their farms." 

DRC: Rwanda reports capture of weapons in Pweto

Rwandan authorities said on Monday that they had captured more than 100
"enemies" and seized a large quantity of arms following the capture last
week of Pweto, in Katanga Province, southeastern DRC. The BBC quoted
Rwandan President Paul Kagame's military adviser, Lt-Col Charles Kayonga,
as saying that the Rwandans had seized anti-aircraft weapons and powerful
war vehicles. He said the captured troops included members of the
Burundian rebel Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD). He denied,
however, that Rwanda had confiscated or destroyed a Zimbabwean plane,
saying that they found it at the airport, "burned down by its owners while
they were fleeing".

Concerning a reported plan by Rwandan forces to attack Lubumbashi, Kayonga
said: "You should know that from the beginning we had no plan to attack
Pweto ... We were instead ready for talks. Kabila started the current
fighting by attacking our positions in Pepa. Therefore, he is the one who
pushed us to go to Pweto and he is responsible for our efforts to go to
other areas." Kayonga said that despite "what was happening" on the
ground, Rwanda still supported the Lusaka agreement. 

An estimated 50,000 refugees and several thousand troops loyal to the
Kinshasa government fled into northern Zambia in the last few weeks as a
result of the Rwandan-RCD capture of Pweto, and wider advance in Katanga
Province. The health NGO Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) has warned of its
extreme concern for the civilian population in and around Pweto, due to
the continuing conflict and a major cholera epidemic rampant in the
region. 

DRC: Rebel RCD seeks to address unpopularity

The Congolese rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) has
decided to counter widespread unpopularity by starting a push to win the
support of the population in areas it controls, according to humanitarian
sources in the country. The new Secretary-General of the RCD, Azeria
Ruberwa, appointed in late October after a leadership reshuffle following
the resignation of former leader Emile Ilunga, said the campaign would
include the payment of long overdue wages to civil service employees, they
said. The rebel movement had been alarmed by a series of general strikes,
which publicly demonstrated the public's antipathy to the RCD, it added.

The RCD has repeatedly complained about attacks and human rights abuses by
pro-government armed groups (Mayi-Mayi, Rwandan Interahamwe and ex-FAR
members, and Burundi Hutu militia) in eastern DRC, but "arbitrary arrests,
illegal detention, forced deportation and ill-treatment have been used to
harass and intimidate the population, human rights groups, church
associations and NGOs" in rebel-controlled areas, UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan reported to the UN Security Council in early December.
Leadership struggles in the rebel movements and rising inter-ethnic
rivalries "put the civilian population in greater danger than previously
reported", Annan said, noting also that there was increasing resentment on
the part of Congolese ethnic groups against Tutsis in general.

DRC: Journalist released after detention

A journalist, Bonsange Ifonge Feu d'Or, was released on Monday after being
held for a month, the media freedom watchdog Journalist en danger (JED)
reported on Wednesday. He was arrested on 12 November and was later
accused of "threatening the internal security of the state", it said. The
reporter had published, in mid-November in the newspaper 'L'Alerte Plus',
an article quoting opposition politician Etienne Tshisekedi as saying that
"Kabila will fall on 15 December 2000", it said. On 11 November, the same
journalist had published an article headlined "Mbandaka is burning" in the
newspaper 'L'Alarme', the report added. Mbandaka is the capital of
Equateur Province, northwestern DRC, and a strategic target for rebels of
the Mouvement de liberation du congo (MLC) fighting the government of
President Laurent-Desire Kabila.

Instead of being the "prime witness" in the Congolese war, the media were
almost entirely absent, JED stated in its year 2000 annual report. When
the press, or individual journalists, did dare to speak up, they were
charged with being treasonous by the authorities, it added. At least 42
journalists have been detained for both long and short periods this year,
of which at least 14 had alleged mistreatment or torture during their
incarceration, the NGO stated.

[ENDS]


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