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Sunday 25 December 2005


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IRIN-WA Weekly 285 covering 9 July - 15 July 2005

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

CONTENTS:

TOGO: People still fleeing in fear of persecution, says human rights league
COTE D IVOIRE-GUINEA: Guinean forces kill Ivorian rebel in border clash
SIERRA LEONE: Civil society criticises "vague" government plan for post-war reform
NIGER: WFP triples the number of people receiving free food as famine bites
BENIN: Kerekou says will retire next year, will not change constitution to stay in power

TOGO: People still fleeing in fear of persecution, says human rights league

Frightened citizens are continuing to stream into the offices of the Togo Human Rights League (LTDH) to complain of political persecution, despite government assurances that it is now safe for people who fled the country in recent weeks to return home, a leader of the rights group said.

“The human rights situation today in Togo is catastrophic,” Togoata Apedo-Amah, LTDH secretary-general, said in an interview on Thursday. “Togo has descended into barbarity.”

Almost three months after a disputed presidential election degenerated into violence, sending 38,000 refugees fleeing into Benin and Ghana, government opponents still live in fear of arrest and persecution, Apedo-Amah said.

Sitting at a desk piled high with complaints of rights abuse filed in June and July, Apedo-Amah said “only this week a young man from Kpalime said his father had been abducted at 11 p.m. by non-identified individuals.”

Other complaints include rape, notably against a 92-year-old woman whose oldest child is 71.

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COTE D IVOIRE-GUINEA: Guinean forces kill Ivorian rebel in border clash

Guinean troops have shot dead at least one rebel fighter from Cote d'Ivoire in a border clash, the second such inicident to be reported this year, a military source said on Thursday.

The latest incident took place on Tuesday in the Guinean border village of Noumoundjila, which is connected by road to the town of Odienne in the rebel-controlled northwest of Cote d'Ivoire, the source said.

The Ivorian rebel was shot after he strayed over the border into Guinean territory, he added.

According to one report of the incident circulating in the Guinean capital Conakry, Guinean soldiers fired several warning shots before the man was killed and his body lay in the open for 24 hours before the Guinean authorities allowed village elders from the Ivorian side of the border to retrieve it.

This was the second border clash between Guinean forces and rebels occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire to be reported this year.

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SIERRA LEONE: Civil society criticises "vague" government plan for post-war reform

The government of Sierra Leone has published proposals for implementing the recommendations of the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), but human rights and other civil society groups have criticised them in a joint statement as "vague and noncommittal".

Paul James-Allen, a Freetown-based human rights advocate, said the government white paper, published quietly in late June, fell short of expectations that the authorities would adopt far-reaching reforms to prevent a repetition of Sierra Leone's brutal 1991-2001 civil war.

“The paper hand-picks just some recommendations, and even those it treats very briefly,” he told IRIN. “This represents non-commitment to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process.”

James-Allen accused the government of taking the TRC's recommendations, delivered to the government in October 2004, too lightly.

“We still believe we can bring institutional reform to Sierra Leone, but if it’s the wish of the government just to keep things the way they are, that’s unfortunate for us as citizens,” he said, speaking by telephone from the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

The TRC investigated atrocities committed during Sierra Leone’s civil war, which became notorious for the rebels’ trademark practice of hacking off the limbs of captured civilians.

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NIGER: WFP triples the number of people receiving free food as famine bites

As famine tightens its grip on impoverished Niger, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday it planned to triple the number of hungry people receiving free food and appealed urgently for US $12 million.

WFP said its initial response to the food crisis engulfing the world's second poorest country had been hampered by a slow response from donors. Most of the $4.2 million requested in May to feed 465,000 people had only arrived in the last six weeks, it said.

Now WFP is appealing for a further $12 million to distribute free food to 1.2 million people at risk of starvation in the landlocked country.

"We have said this before and we are saying it again - Niger needs help today, not tomorrow," said Gian Carlo Cirri, WFP's director in Niger.

“Children are dying and adults are going hungry," he added. "The international community cannot allow Niger to live as if cursed by poverty -- we have the means to make a change and we need to mobilise them urgently."

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BENIN: Kerekou says will retire next year, will not change constitution to stay in power

President Mathieu Kerekou of Benin who has dominated the politics of this small West African country for over 30 years, has pledged to step down next year at the end of his current five-year term.

Speaking to a group of 200 primary and secondary school teachers at the presidential palace on Monday, the 72-year-old head of state said he would not be a candidate in presidential elections due in March 2006.

"If you don't leave power, power will leave you," he said.

Kerekou ruled out changing the constitution so that he could stay in power for longer. He recalled that public pressure had forced him to step down in 1990 after he had ruled Benin for 18 years as a military head of state.

"If you show your wish to remain in power or try to insist on staying there and the people don't want you, you are heading for the sort of trouble which Benin managed to avoid in 1990," Kerekou said.

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Democracy

Other recent WEST AFRICA reports:

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

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 308 covering 10-16 December 2005, 16/Dec/05

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 307 covering 3-9 December 2005, 9/Dec/05

Rejecting FGM not an affront to tradition, 7/Dec/05

Youth unemployment threatens regional stability, 2/Dec/05

Other recent Democracy & Governance reports:

AFGHANISTAN: ADB approves US $55 million for post-conflict country, 23/Dec/05

NEPAL: UN welcomes Maoist statement on aid and development, 23/Dec/05

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

ZAMBIA: Govt extends maize importation, 22/Dec/05

BENIN: Pressure mounting but elections still in doubt, 22/Dec/05

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