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Sunday 25 December 2005 |
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IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 289 for 23-29 July 2005[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]CONTENTS: GREAT LAKES: Rwanda, Uganda refute report on arms to DRC Uganda and Rwanda denied statements contained in a report issued on Wednesday by the UN Security Council that the two countries had delayed to give information to officials monitoring arms sanctions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). "We have not delayed anything," Sam Kuteesa, Uganda€™s foreign minister, told IRIN on Thursday. "What we have done is to give them information whenever they ask for it." The main concern of the report by the UN€™s five-member group of experts on the DRC is that "weak border controls allow for lucrative alliances between leaders of armed groups and unscrupulous businessmen". Full report BURUNDI: Former rebel group wins Senate Burundi€™s recently-elected local councillors met on Friday in 17 provincial towns to elect members of the country€™s Senate. As the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD), a former rebel movement, won an overwhelming majority in communal elections held on 3 June, it is now expected to sweep the Senate. In preliminary results on Friday CNDD-FDD candidates won the seats in the provinces of Cibitoke, Cankuzo, Gitega, Mwaro, Muyinga, Bubanza, Karuzi, Kayanza, Ngozi, Ruyigi, and Kirundo. Each councillor gets to cast two ballots to choose two senators, one from the Hutu community and another from the Tutsi. Some 119 candidates are contesting the 34 senatorial seats. The elected senators, along with the recently elected assemblymen, are to elect the country€™s president on 19 August. However, last week, the electoral commission, known as the CENI, announced that the only presidential candidate was CNDD-FDD leader Pierre Nkurunziza. BURUNDI: Angry displaced families demand land Hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been camping out in front of a government building in Bujumbura since Monday to demand land they claim the government confiscated from them. "We won€™t leave unless our problem has been settled," a middle-aged man told IRIN on Wednesday. He, like the other IDPs in front of the government building, said they represented 609 families who had been displaced since the civil war started in 1993. They claim to have been given land in Bujumbura€™s Kinama neighbourhood by the former head of state, Pierre Buyoya. Full report DRC: Voter registration starts in provinces outside capital Registration of voters started on Monday in two provinces outside Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, as preparations continued for general elections scheduled for 2006, officials said. The two provinces are Oriental in the northeast and Bas Congo in the west. "So far 10 out of 21 registration centres [in Bunia] are operational, and we are planning to open more," Apollinaire Malu Malu, president of the Independent Electoral Commission, saidon Tuesday from Bunia. Full report DRC: Thousands flee latest attack in South Kivu Most of the people living in the village of Kigalama, in the DRC's South Kivu Province, have fled after Rwandan rebels launched an attack there last week, the provincial governor said on Monday. "Thirteen villagers and seven Rwandan rebels were killed," Didace Kaningini Kyoto, the governor, said. He said almost 5,000 people normally lived in Kigalama, about 130km southwest of the provincial capital, Bukavu. Most of them have now fled. Full report DRC-UGANDA: No sanctuary for new Congolese rebels, Uganda says Uganda said on Monday it would not allow the newly-created rebel Congolese Revolutionary Movement or any other armed group to launch attacks from its territory on the DRC. "Anybody who attacks Kinshasa, we will be with Kinshasa. They are the ones we share information with, along with MONUC," Lt Col Shaban Bantariza told IRIN in Kampala. He acknowledged that six leaders of armed groups from northeastern DRC that make up the new alliance were recently in Kampala. Uganda's government may be violating international law by allowing the rebels on its territory, according to statements made by the DRC government and the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC. Full report KENYA: Indicators in northeast "unacceptable", UNICEF's head says The executive director of the UN Children€™s Fund (UNICEF), Anne Veneman, has called for more effort to improve health and education in Kenya€™s remote northeastern region, where four out of five girls are never enrolled in school. Veneman, who visited the northeastern district of Wajir on Sunday, said indicators in the region were unacceptable, with poor access to health services contributing to low immunisation rates, high incidence of malaria and high maternal mortality. "If we work together to ensure children are properly fed and cared for, protected by immunisation, have access to clean water and sanitation, sleep under treated bednets, know how to avoid HIV/AIDS and have access to decent health services, we will go a long way to achieving [the UN Millennium Development] goals," she said. Full report RWANDA: Release of tens of thousands of prisoners begins Rwandan prison authorities began releasing on Ftriday what could amount to 36,000 detainees, many of whom have confessed to taking part in the country's 1994 genocide. "I am extremely delighted to be leaving this prison," said Jean Baptiste Hakizimana a newly-released detainee who had confessed to killing his neighbor in 1994. "I hope never to return," he added. Some of those released appeared to be sick, others elderly. Many were children when they were first imprisoned. Full report [ENDS]
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