Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 18:13:51 +0300 (BEAUT)
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Subject: GREAT LAKES: IRIN-CEA Update 1,139 [2010321]
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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 1,139 for the Great Lakes (Wednesday 21 March) 

CONTENTS:

BURUNDI: More fighting reported in Bujumbura
BURUNDI: Two more Tutsi parties back Buyoya's rival
BURUNDI: Malaria in Muramvya abating
RWANDA: Troops arrive back from DRC
RWANDA: Kagame visit to Eritrea aimed at boosting ties
RWANDA: Gacaca "trial run"
DRC: Top UN humanitarian official to visit Congo
DRC: Kabila still vague on key issues - EIU
DRC: Wamba meeting regional leaders
DRC: Garreton concerned by Ituri situation
UGANDA: Kampala contests DRC comments to Security Council
UGANDA: Museveni remark concerns AIDS activists 
GREAT LAKES: Ireland pledges humanitarian assistance


BURUNDI: More fighting reported in Bujumbura

As peace talks continued in the Tanzanian town of Arusha, renewed fighting
broke out in the Burundi capital Bujumbura, news organisations reported.
According to the BBC, residents said there was gunfire in the north of the
city as the army continued its mopping up operations against rebels of the
Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) who attacked the suburb of Kinama
two weeks ago. AFP quoted local officials as saying more than 160 bodies
were found in Kinama on Tuesday. "We found three communal graves which had
been hastily covered up," one official said.

BURUNDI: Two more Tutsi parties back Buyoya's rival

In Arusha on Tuesday, the 19 signatories to last year's peace accord
continued discussions on the transition period. According to the Internews
press service, two more Tutsi parties endorsed the candidature of Colonel
Epitace Bayaganakandi as their nominee for president. The ABASA and PSD
parties thus agreed on Bayaganakandi's nomination by the existing G-6
group of Tutsi parties opposed to President Pierre Buyoya. Internews said
the move dealt a "major blow" to Buyoya's bid to remain in power as it
brought about a consensus in the wider G-10 group of Tutsi parties. Six of
the Hutu parties in the G-7 group put forward their nominee Domitien
Ndayizeye. Internews said the way was now possible for implementing the
first 18-month phase of the three year transition with a Tutsi president
and Hutu vice-president. The government is insisting on a ceasefire with
the rebel groups before establishing the transitional institutions. 

BURUNDI: Malaria in Muramvya abating

The outbreak of malaria in the western province of Muramvya is abating,
according to local health officials. The Agence burundaise de presse
quoted the head of the provincial health department as saying the number
of cases had dropped from 25,000 in December 2000 to 9,000 this month
following "robust action" by the government and non-governmental
organisations working in the province. "With the joint objective of
eradicating the pandemic, they have been distributing free medicines and
mosquito nets," the report stated.

RWANDA: Troops arrive back from DRC

The first contingent of Rwandan troops withdrawn from the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) arrived back in Rwanda on Tuesday, news
organisations reported. Some 200 troops were transported back by plane
after pulling back from positions on the southeastern frontline of Pweto
to the town of Manono. Welcoming their return, President Paul Kagame said
the withdrawal process had been initiated "within the context of new
goodwill towards implementation of the Lusaka agreement". He was speaking
at Kanombe airport in Kigali upon his arrival from a two-day visit to
Eritrea. "The implication of our troop pull-back is that we are
implementing our obligations and we shall continue to do so," Kagame said,
according to a presidential office press release. "Our focus is on
implementing our side of the obligations insofar as the peace process is
concerned." He added that Rwanda had achieved its objectives in the DRC in
addressing its security concerns. "You do not hear about ex-FAR and
Interahamwe within Rwanda anymore because of our presence in the DRC," he
stated. "The presence of our troops there is the reason why we have no
problems from these forces within Rwanda." 

RWANDA: Kagame visit to Eritrea aimed at boosting ties

Before leaving the Eritrean capital Asmara on Tuesday, Kagame told a news
conference the aim of his visit had been to strengthen existing ties
between the two countries, Eritrean radio said. He also discussed latest
developments in the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa with his
Eritrean counterpart Isayas Afewerki. Eritrean sources told IRIN that the
previously good relations between the two countries had cooled down of
late as both nations became embroiled in their respective conflicts:
Eritrea in its war with Ethiopia and Rwanda's involvement in the DRC.
Furthermore, Eritrea was apparently unhappy about Rwanda's involvement in
the Congo, the sources said. "Now they are talking again, it may be a sign
they are putting their wars behind them," the sources added. 

RWANDA: Gacaca "trial run" 

Thirteen prisoners were freed in a local trial in the northwestern town of
Gisenyi on Friday in what is being seen as a trial run for the "gacaca" or
traditional court system, the Hirondelle news agency reported on Tuesday.
Thirty prisoners were brought before the inhabitants of various local
communes within Gisenyi prefecture and were presented one by one for their
fate to be decided. All the prisoners either had no files or their cases
were unclear. Gisenyi's prison population is estimated at 3,260 people -
well over capacity. The planned introduction of the gacaca system is aimed
at easing the congestion in Rwanda's prisons.

DRC: Top UN humanitarian official to visit Congo

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator, Kenzo Oshima, is due to arrive in the DRC on 5 April
for a seven-day visit to highlight the magnitude of the humanitarian
crisis in the country and to look for renewed commitments on humanitarian
access to affected populations. During his visit, Oshima intended to meet
senior officials from the government in Kinshasa, and from the rebel
Congolese Liberation Front (CLF) and Rassemblement congolais pour la
democratie (RCD) in the north and east of the country, according to UN
officials. "One of the main purposes of this trip will be to highlight to
the international community the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis
affecting some 16 million people, and to assess the scope for humanitarian
agencies in light of recent political developments on the ground," UN
spokesman Fred Eckhard stated on Tuesday. 

During the trip, from 5-11 April, Oshima will be looking for renewed
commitments from the government and rebel groups on the principles,
neutrality, impartiality and independence of humanitarian operations,
according to UN sources. He would also be seeking guarantees of access to
all affected populations, protection of civilians of relief personnel and
concessions from the government of its restrictive currency exchange rates
[which complicate and increase the cost of humanitarian operations no less
than ordinary economic activity], they said. 

DRC: Kabila still vague on key issues - EIU

President Joseph Kabila's message that he wants peace, withdrawal of
Ugandan and Rwandan forces, deployment of UN observers, a conference on
regional peace and talks with his opposition is music to the ears of
diplomats in western capitals "but when he speaks of the fundamental
issues of the war he is still vague," the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU)
reported in its latest country briefing on Tuesday. Though the Lusaka
peace agreement laid down that all "negative forces" [Interahamwe, ex-FAR,
Burundi Hutu militias and Congolese Mayi-Mayi fighters] should be
disarmed, Kabila this week in London cast doubt on the existence of the
Interahamwe or ex-Forces armees rwandaises in the Congo, the EIU stated.
Kabila had also expressed sympathy with the Hutu rebels from Burundi and
suggested that the Mayi-Mayi were not "negative forces" since the
Congolese had every right to arm themselves against Rwandan and Ugandan
invaders, it said. "It became clear that he [Kabila] had no interest in
seeing any of these groups disarmed," the report added. 

Kabila's accession to the DRC presidency appeared to offer renewed hope
for implementation of Lusaka but he still "lacks legitimacy and power",
and "nobody is sure who in the background might be pulling the strings,"
according to the EIU. Like the late DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila,
Joseph Kabila depended on the armies of Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia, it
said. However, the younger Kabila lacked the authority and political skill
of his father to keep this diversity together, and was "hostage to ethnic
groups and rival factions - fearful of alienating any of them," the EIU
stated. In a visit to the UK this week, Joseph Kabila appeared to reject
the call - made both in the Lusaka agreement and by the UN Security
Council - for the withdrawal of all foreign forces, including those from
Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia invited in by the DRC government. Kabila's
commitments to promote an internal political dialogue, to cooperate with
the UN and allow for human rights investigations had gained him credit
"but the issues at the heart of the war must still be tackled," the report
added. 

DRC: Wamba meeting regional leaders

Professor Ernest Wamba dia Wamba who leads the Rassemblement congolais
pour la democratie-Kisangani is meeting regional heads of state to discuss
preparations for the inter-Congolese dialogue, according to a statement
from his office, received by IRIN on Wednesday. He is also due to visit
the US to rally support for the "effective planning and carrying out" of
the dialogue, his spokeswoman Colette Ramm said. Wamba is currently in
Namibia for talks with President Sam Nujoma and has also met President
Thabo Mbeki of South Africa. 

DRC: Garreton concerned by Ituri situation

The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the DRC, Roberto Garreton,
has visited the conflict-wracked province of Ituri in the northeast where
violence between the Hema and Lendu communities has left thousands of
people dead. In comments broadcast by local Bunia radio, Garreton said he
had been given full cooperation by officials of the governing Congolese
Liberation Front (CLF). He said he been able to visit the prison and meet
the people he needed to see. "I am greatly concerned about the massacres
that were committed in this region of the country," he said. "What was
really upsetting, were the testimonies I received, the photographs I saw
on the cruelty that took place. And all of this will be in the report I
will present." 

UGANDA: Kampala contests DRC comments to Security Council

An asserton to the UN Security Council by the DRC that it was not
responsible for the security concerns and "internal arguments" of
neighbouring countries was a distortion of the situation in the Great
Lakes region, according the Ugandan representative to the UN, David M
Taliwaku. The DRC view gave the wrong impression because of what the DRC
"has done and is doing" with [supporting] the armed groups from
neighbouring countries who have gone into the DRC and used it as a base to
cause "insecurity" for the neighbouring countries [Uganda, Rwanda and
Burundi], the acting Ugandan Charge d'affaires to the UN said in a 14
March letter to the Security Council. Taliwaku also said the DRC was "not
being honest" in a 24 February letter to the Council which maintained that
the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the DRC [Roberto Garreton]
had exonerated the Kinshasa government of human rights violations in the
country. 

The Ugandan diplomat also said there was no evidence that the incidence of
HIV/AIDS "has only increased in occupied provinces" of the DRC as a direct
result of aggression against the country. Taliwaku also rejected that
Uganda's intervention in the Hema-Lendu inter-ethnic conflict in Ituri
District, eastern DRC, was to cause or continue the fighting. It was, he
said, an attempt "to stop inter-ethnic fighting, pacify the affected areas
and unite the various groups in the DRC, historical rivalry between the
Hema and Lendu notwithstanding." Taliwaku also contested that Uganda had
recruited and deported Congolese children from Bunia, eastern DRC, after
an outbreak of ethnic fighting there. He said some 600 people - including
163 children subsequently identified by UNICEF in Kyankwanzi political
education school in central Uganda, and handed over to the agency's care -
had been airlifted from Bunia following the outbreak of ethnic clashes "at
the request of parents and Congolese authorities".

UGANDA: Museveni remark concerns AIDS activists

Activists in the battle against HIV/AIDS have expressed concern and anger
at remarks made by President Yoweri Museveni in the recent presidential
election campaign that people should not vote for Kizza Besigye, his
leading opponent, because he carried the HIV virus. Museveni, who won the
election with almost 70 percent of the valid vote, made the comments
towards the end of a campaign in which Besigye appeared to be offering a
significant challenge. NGOs said the statement reinforced the stigma and
discrimination faced by Ugandans living with HIV and AIDS, and appeared to
contradict what Museveni had previously stood for in encouraging openness
and HIV/AIDS awareness in an effort to combat the disease, Inter Press
Service reported on Tuesday. "It may not have impacted on the vote because
Ugandans have lost the stigma but the comments were totally against the
anti-HIV spirit," it quoted Reverend Grace Kaiso, head of Uganda's Joint
Christian Council, as saying. Besigye, formerly personal physician to
President Museveni, has neither confirmed nor denied his alleged
HIV-positive status.

Meanwhile, the Uganda National Farmers' Association (UNFA) has called for
the government to establish a fund to make HIV/AIDS drugs more readily
available to farmers, the semi-official 'New Vision' newspaper reported on
Tuesday. "Some of our colleagues in the service sector are being helped to
meet the costs of the expensive drugs. We would also like the government
to establish a fund to subsidise the costs for farmers," the paper quoted
UNFA president Chebet Maikut as saying. The Ugandan authorities should
also strengthen measures to ban beef imports from the European Union (EU)
in light of the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease there, in order to
protect the livestock industry, Maikut added. 

GREAT LAKES: Ireland pledges humanitarian assistance

The Irish government has announced an increased humanitarian and
rehabilitation assistance package, including 5.4 million Irish pounds
(about US $6.3 million) to be spent in Africa in partnership with NGOs and
international agencies. The package includes half a million Irish pounds
(about $575,000) to Burundi in support of the ICRC and WFP, and the same
amount for the DRC through WFP and UNICEF, according to a press release
from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. Some 340,000 Irish pounds
(about $390,000) is to go to support the Irish NGO Concern and the
International Rescue Committee (IRC) with their work in Rwanda, while sums
of 250,000 Irish pounds (about $288,000) will go to WFP operations in
Kenya and Tanzania, it said. The humanitarian package was intended to
acknowledge Ireland's solidarity with "the poor and dispossessed of
today's world", target those most affected in the countries concerned and
complement Ireland's role on the UN Security Council in relation to
countries in crisis, said Liz O'Donnell, Irish Minister of State for
Foreign Affairs with Special Responsibility for Overseas Development
Assistance and Human Rights. 

[ENDS]

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


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