"); NewWindow.document.close(); return false; } // end hiding from old browsers -->

Sunday 25 December 2005


Search

Regions

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 285 for 25 June to 1 July 2005

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENTS:

DRC-RWANDA: AU may need 45,000 troops to disarm militias
DRC: Seven killed in demonstrations, hundreds arrested
RWANDA: Kigali welcomes court decision to deport genocide suspect
CAR: AU lifts coup sanctions
KENYA: WFP appeals for food aid for thousands of refugees
KENYA: Nearly 4,000 illicit small arms destroyed
UGANDA: Police disperse opposition demonstration
BURUNDI: Army arrests scores of child soldiers
CONGO: Lead NGO pulls out of the human rights commission

DRC-RWANDA: AU may need 45,000 troops to disarm militias

Up to 45,000 African Union (AU) peacekeepers could be needed to disarm an estimated 15,000 Rwandan Hutus in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a 19-page report issued on 25 June by the chairman of the continental body.

The AU force would expect "forcible disarmament" and "a degree of resistance", Alpha Oumar Konare, the chairman, said in the report.

Armed groups of Rwandan Hutus have had bases across the border from Rwanda in the DRC provinces of North and South Kivu since the Rwandan genocide occurred in 1994. Some members of the group are accused of having taken part in the genocide.
The groups are also accused of murdering, raping and kidnapping civilians.

In January, the AU pledged it would send 7,000 troops but AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit said on 25 June, after the meeting, that none of the 53 African country that make up the AU had so far committed troops.

In July, the AU will send an advanced team to fine tune estimates of the number of troops needed of the mission as well as to establish estimated costs. The Rwandan special envoy to the Great Lakes, Richard Sezibera, who was also at the meeting, later told reporters that the AU force was long overdue because people were dying every day.

"They needed to be there yesterday," he said.

Full report

[DRC-RWANDA: EU may support military action against Hutu rebels, Ajello says]
[International Crisis Group: The Congo: Solving the FDLR Problem Once and for All]

[Top of the Page]

DRC: Seven killed in demonstrations, hundreds arrested

At least seven protestors were killed and hundreds more arrested in demonstrations on Thursday in Kinshasa, capital of the DRC, and in other urban areas nationwide, witnesses said.

The protests are against a delay in national elections which were to have been held before Thursday. Last week the parliament of the transitional government extended the election timetable by at least six months.

In Kinshasa some policemen beat up demonstrators and robbed them of their possessions. At least one person was killed and several injured when police fired bullets and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. In Tshikapa, a town 700 km southeast of Kinshasa in the province of Kasai Occidental, six demonstrators were killed, a witness said.

The Union pour la democratie et le progres social (UDPS), headed by Etienne Tshikedi, called the demonstrations. The UDPS says the leaders of former armed groups who are now among President Joseph Kabila four vice-presidents have no interest in ending the transition process.

In a broadcast on state television on Wednesday, and in anticipation of the demonstrations, Kabila appealed to the nation for calm. He reiterated his determination to end the transitional process and let the population freely choose their leaders.

In Mbuji-Mayi, the capital of Kasai-Oriental, five people were killed in an exchange of gunfire between police and prisoners escaping from the local jail.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

RWANDA: Kigali welcomes court decision to deport genocide suspect

Rwanda's chief prosecutor, Jean de Dieu Mucyo, has said his country welcomes the deportation order the Canadian Supreme Court issued on genocide suspect Leon Mugesera, state-owned Radio Rwanda reported on Wednesday.

The court voted 8-to-0 to expel Mugesera, a resident of Quebec City since 1993, on the grounds that he promoted hatred, genocide and crimes against humanity, Canadian Press reported. The court said there was well-founded evidence that Mugesera helped to incite the 1994 genocide.

The case against Mugesera hinges upon a speech he gave in Rwanda in 1992 "in which he allegedly called on his Hutu followers to exterminate their Tutsi opponents ", Canadian Press said. In his defence, Mugesera said that his words were misinterpreted and that he was only exhorting Hutus to defend themselves against Tutsi aggression.

Full report

Meanwhile, also on Wednesday, a Belgian court sentenced Rwandan businessman Etienne Nzabonimana and his half-brother, Samuel Ndashyikirwa, to 12 and 10 years imprisonment respectively. They were convicted of directing Hutu militias in killing some 50,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in Rwanda’s southeastern province of Kibungo during the 1994 genocide.

A Brussels daily newspaper Le Soir reported on Thursday that they were found guilty of providing "weapons, vehicles and beer" to the militias as well as supervising killings in churches and markets.

[Top of the Page]

CAR: AU lifts coup sanctions

The AU Peace and Security Council has lifted the sanctions it imposed on the Central African Republic (CAR) two years ago, after the March 2003 coup in which Gen Francois Bozize seized power.

"In view of March 2005 elections which formalised the return of constitutional order, the suspension of the Central African Republic which followed the coup d'etat of 15 March [2003] should now be lifted," the council said.

The coup-plagued country was suspended from all AU activities in March 2003 when Bozize stormed to power after a six-month rebellion, ousting President Ange-Felix Patasse.

The council welcomed what it said was the positive evolution of the situation in the country and called all member states and the international community at large to provide the necessary support so that the root causes of the country's recurrent instability could be overcome.

"In addition, the African Union should support the efforts being deployed to mobilise the international community to provide to the Central African Republic much-needed assistance for its socioeconomic recovery," it said.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

KENYA: WFP appeals for food aid for thousands of refugees

An estimated 231,000 refugees living in camps in Kenya are in dire need of food, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday, when it appealed for US $6.7 million to feed them until the end of 2005.

The agency said maize, pulses, corn-soya blend and oil for rations would run out by October unless funding was received quickly.

Wheat and salt would also be exhausted by November, leaving the Kakuma Refugee Camp in the northwest and the Dadaab camps in the east with no food for distribution.

Some 11,720 tonnes of food were needed, WFP said in the appeal. It noted that despite an agreement in January to end a 21-year war in southern Sudan, the number of Sudanese refugees in Kakuma was still rising.

Nearly 5,000 additional refugees, who said they had fled inter-clan violence and limited resources such as food, shelter, schools, health facilities and employment opportunities, had arrived in Kakuma Camp since January, it added.

The newcomers brought the number of refugees in the camp to more than 91,000.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

KENYA: Nearly 4,000 illicit small arms destroyed

Kenyan authorities have set on fire nearly 4,000 illicit small arms recovered by police during the past two years, in an ongoing effort to curb the proliferation of illegal light weapons in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes regions.

"The proliferation and movement of these fire arms within and across the borders have left a trail of agony and destruction," said Kiraitu Murungi, the justice and constitutional affairs minister, who lit the fire to destroy the guns in Nairobi on Wednesday.

Kenya is a signatory to the Nairobi Declaration on the Problem of the Proliferation of Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa, which was signed in 2000. The destruction of the weapons was in line with the Nairobi Protocol for Prevention, Control and Reduction of Small Arms and Light Weapons signed by states in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa in 2004, among them Kenya.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

UGANDA: Police disperse opposition demonstration

Police fired tear gas and water cannons on Tuesday to disperse dozens of demonstrators in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, who had taken to the streets to protest against a plan to amend the constitution to remove presidential term limits.

The protestors claimed the plan was intended to allow President Yoweri Museveni to seek another five-year term in office.

Defying police orders to desist from staging the protest, the demonstrators carried placards and banners denouncing the proposal by some members of parliament to remove a clause in the constitution that limits the president's tenure to two five-year terms, ahead of elections in 2006.

Under the current constitution, Museveni, who seized power in 1986 after waging a five-year guerrilla war against previous regimes, cannot run again because he would have served two terms as an elected president.

Museveni has not openly declared his intention to run for a third term. However, several senior government officials - believed to be closely allied to him - are leading the controversial parliamentary campaign to lift the limit on presidential terms.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

BURUNDI: Army arrests scores of child soldiers

Burundi’s army said on Friday that some 100 child combatants had been arrested in the last two weeks at various locations around the country. They had been recruited by the only active rebel movement in the country, the Forces national de liberation.

Some were arrested as they crossed into Burundi from eastern DRC where they were undergoing military training, army spokesman Maj Adolphe Manirakiza said in Bujumbura, the nation's capital. Others were arrested in Bujumbura and the provinces of Bujumbura Rural, Bubanza, Kayanza, Muramvya and Muyinga. They were all preparing to disrupt the 4 July legislative elections, he said.

He said the majority of those arrested were between 10 and 15 years old, who the FNL had recruited since May after it signed of the cease-fire agreement with the government.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

CONGO: Lead NGO pulls out of the human rights commission

The main human rights NGO in the Republic of Congo, the Congolese Human Rights Observatory (OCDH), pulled out of the state-sponsored National Commission of Human Rights on Thursday to protest what it says is the commission’s inaction on known abuses and lack of government independence.

Announcing the NGO's decision at a news conference in Brazzaville, OCDH Executive Director Roger Bouka-Owoko said another reason OCDH had withdraw from the national commission was that the government had failed to provide the state's rights body with adequate funding.

He also urged the government to release 17 members of the state’s security forces who, he said, had been detained illegally since January. He said they were arrested following the disappearance of weapons and had been "secretly detained" in violation of their human rights.

The OCDH has been a member of the national commission since September 2003.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent CENTRAL & EASTERN AFRICA reports:

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 310 17-23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 309 10-16 December 2005, 16/Dec/05

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 308 3-9 December 2005, 9/Dec/05

UN appeal seeks $154.5 million for recovery efforts , 7/Dec/05

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 307 26 November to 2 December 2005, 2/Dec/05

Other recent reports:

RWANDA: Body found in Brussels canal confirmed that of ex-minister's, 23/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 23/Dec/05

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 309 covering 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 51 covering the period 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 262 for 17-23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

[Back] [Home Page]

Click here to send any feedback, comments or questions you have about IRIN's Website or if you prefer you can send an Email to Webmaster

Copyright © IRIN 2005
The material contained on www.IRINnews.org comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies.
All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.