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Tuesday 21 February 2006


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IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 306 19-25 November 2005

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

CONTENTS:

AFRICA: Belgian minister proposes joint EU-AU peacekeeping training centres
DRC: Fighting displaces 60,000 in Katanga Province, Bishop says
DRC: EU observers arrive ahead of constitutional referendum
KENYA: President sacks cabinet after gov't loses constitutional referendum
TANZANIA: Hope for patients as military doctors replace strikers
BURUNDI: UN mission says claims linking it to rebels "unfounded"
BURUNDI: Annan recommends downsizing UN mission
BURUNDI: Rwandans to be moved closer to own border
RWANDA: Demonstrators demand justice for Hutu victims of violence
CAR: Gov't fails to pay salaries; civil servants continue strike

AFRICA: Belgian minister proposes joint EU-AU peacekeeping training centres

Belgian Development Cooperation Minister Armand de Decker is seeking support from his counterparts in the European Union for his proposal to create peacekeeping training centres in Africa, in partnership with the African Union (AU), a senior official in the Belgian government has said.

"This would reinforce cohesion among African states, which would work together on sensitive security issues and would, at the same time, enable Europeans to work together in matters of security," Michel Lastchenko, Decker's deputy director, told IRIN on Wednesday.

He said the centres would be built in Africa and would provide quality peacekeeping training to both African and European armed forces. Decker made the proposal to the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council on Monday, one month ahead of an EU heads of state's summit due to adopt the 2005-2015 "European Strategy for Africa".

Full report

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DRC: Fighting displaces 60,000 in Katanga Province, Bishop says

Some 60,000 people fleeing fighting between the Congolese army and local Mayi-Mayi militiamen resisting demobilisation have now arrived in the village of Dubie in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Katanga Province, Roman Catholic Bishop Fulgence Muteba said on Tuesday.

"They started arriving a week ago when clashes broke out," he said from the southeastern city of Lubumbashi.

He said 2,000 of the displaced persons arrived Sunday and Tuesday. "Many other women and children are expected to come," he said.

the 60,000 displaced in Dubie, he added, were in addition to 16,000 who fled the fighting against a local Mayi-Mayi leader he identified as Gedeon. So far, no other humanitarian agency has corroborated the number of displaced in Dubie. Muteba said only Médecins Sans Frontière-Holland and the Church were providing care to the displaced.

Full report

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DRC: EU observers arrive ahead of constitutional referendum

The head of an advanced team of nine EU observers of a constitutional referendum set to take place on 18 December declared on Monday that he would make an exhaustive and unbiased assessment of preparations for the vote.

"The mission will identify potential improvements that need to be made and make recommendations to the Congolese authorities and to the international community," Philippe Morillon, a French general who heads the mission, said at a news conference in the capital, Kinshasa.

Morillon arrived in Kinshasa on 17 November along with electoral experts from France, Italy, Ireland, Poland and Spain.

Full report

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KENYA: President sacks cabinet after gov't loses constitutional referendum

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki sacked his entire cabinet on Wednesday; two days after 3.5 million voters rejected the draft constitution he strongly supported in a national referendum.

The debate over the new charter had split Kibaki's administration, with seven members of his cabinet spearheading a vociferous campaign against the draft.

"Following the results of the referendum, it has become necessary for me, as the President of the Republic, to reorganise my Government to make it more cohesive and better able to serve the people of Kenya," Kibaki said in a statement broadcast on radio and television.

"Accordingly, in accordance with the powers conferred upon me under the Constitution of Kenya, I have directed that the offices of all Ministers and all Assistant Ministers become vacant. Consequently, the occupants of the said offices cease to hold their respective offices with immediate effect," he said.

The president added that a reconstituted government would be announced within two weeks.

Full report

[KENYA: New constitution rejected in referendum]

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TANZANIA: Hope for patients as military doctors replace strikers

The plight of patients at Tanzania's main referral hospital seems set to ease somewhat following the arrival there of 75 doctors from military and research institutions to replace striking junior physicians demanding better pay.

"At least 16 military doctors are now in the wards on familiarisation, and some have already started attending to patients," Brig-Gen Yandon Kohi, a consultant neurosurgeon in charge of the military team at the troubled Muhimbili National Hospital, told reporters on Friday.

He said the military doctors had been sent to priority departments including maternity, surgery, medicine and ear, nose and throat.

The chairman of the hospital's governing board, Abdulrahman Kinana, said the situation was expected to ease by Monday, when a total of 40 army doctors and 35 more from the various departments and research institutions under the Ministry of Health report for work at the hospital.

Full report

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BURUNDI: UN mission says claims linking it to rebels "unfounded"

Allegations linking the UN Operation in Burundi, known as ONUB, to the remaining active rebel group in the country, the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL), are "serious and unfounded" and undermine the mission's mandate, ONUB said on Friday.

"ONUB learned through the media that FNL fighters were caught in uniforms ordinarily worn by soldiers of the South African and Nepalese contingents," ONUB said in a statement quoting the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Burundi, Carolyn McAskie.

It said McAskie, who is also the head of ONUB, was dismayed by the situation and strongly condemned the fact that a rebel movement should be in possession of uniforms belonging to contingents of the ONUB force.

Full report

[BURUNDI: Army probes source of "UN military uniforms" in rebel hands]

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BURUNDI: Annan recommends downsizing UN mission

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended to the UN Security Council the reduction, beginning with the military in December, of the size of the UN Operation in Burundi, known as ONUB.

"The phased withdrawal of two battalions, a level II hospital and an aviation unit from the provinces of Kirundo, Ngozi, Cankuzo, Ruyigi, Rutana, Makamba, Gitega, Karuzi and Muyinga could be completed from April to June 2006," he said. "Troops could also be withdrawn or redeployed from Mwaro, Muramvya and Bururi during the same period."

"This would result in a reduction of approximately 2,000 personnel, or 40 percent of the current authorised military strength of ONUB," he said.

He also proposed a reduction in military observers from 200 to 120 by the end of April 2006.

Earlier in November, the newly elected government asked a visiting Security Council mission that it place greater emphasis on reconstruction and development other than on peacekeeping in Burundi.

Full report

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BURUNDI: Rwandans to be moved closer to own border

Some 3,500 Rwandans in northern Burundi who the government has labelled "illegal immigrants" will soon be moved to a temporary camp 30 km from the Rwandan border, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Thursday.

"It's the only choice that the government offered us," Catherine-Lune Grayson, the UNHCR spokeswomen in Bujumbura, told IRIN.

She was referring to the planned transit site, which is to be located in Musasa Zone in the northern province of Ngozi and which UNHCR is set to begin erecting next week. She said part of the site was expected to be ready by December and another part by January.

Full report

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RWANDA: Demonstrators demand justice for Hutu victims of violence

Some 100 Rwandans living in Belgium and the Netherlands demonstrated on Wednesday in Brussels seeking the support of the UN, the EU and the Belgian government in ensuring that members of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front, whom they claim had been involved in mass killings of Hutus, are brought to book.

"We want to remind the EU, the UN and the Belgian government that they did nothing when the RPF attacked Rwanda in 1990, nothing before and during the 1994 genocide and tell them that they are once again folding their arms, pushing Rwandans to implement their own justice," Victoire Ingabire, the chairwoman of the Rassemblement pour la Democratie et le Retour au Rwanda, told IRIN on Wednesday.

Reacting to the demonstration, EU spokesman Amadeu Altafaj said the EU’s efforts were directed to the on-going improvement of Rwanda's judiciary which had made considerable and laudable progress.

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CAR: Gov't fails to pay salaries; civil servants continue strike

The main trade union for civil servants in the Central African Republic has said that many of its members would continue a strike that began in October as the government has not paid them two months salary arrears as agreed to on 12 November.

"The strike will not come to an end unless the government fulfils its promise," Noel Ramadan, a representative of the country's largest trade unions, the Union syndicale des travailleurs de Centrafrique, said on Friday.

Labour Minister Jacques Bothy told IRIN on Friday, "There are administrative problems that have made it impossible to withdraw the money from the bank."

He said workers should be paid by next week but added: "For technical reasons the government is only in a position to pay one month's [arrears]".

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent CENTRAL & EASTERN AFRICA reports:

Regional ministerial meeting opens, 20/Feb/06

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 318 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 317 4-10 February 2006, 10/Feb/06

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 316 28 January - 3 February 2006, 3/Feb/06

Regional summit to be held after DRC polls, UN envoy says, 1/Feb/06

Other recent reports:

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Donors pledge support for humanitarian crisis, 21/Feb/06

ANGOLA: Ready to play larger security role in Africa, 21/Feb/06

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 17/Feb/06

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 270 for 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 317 covering 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

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