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Tuesday 21 February 2006


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IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 311 covering 31 December 2005 – 6 January 2006

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

CONTENTS:

CHAD: President Deby seeks regional support amid tensions with Sudan
COTE D IVOIRE: Annan wants more peacekeepers on ground
NIGERIA: Thousands of prisoners awaiting trial to be freed
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: Foreign Minister denies pocketing Moroccan aid money
LIBERIA: Soldiers refuse to quit camp needed for new army
GUINEA: Opposition party withdraws from parliament

CHAD: President Deby seeks regional support amid tensions with Sudan

Chadian President Idriss Deby has stepped up a diplomatic offensive, calling on fellow African leaders to support Chad against what he called the “subversive plots” of neighbouring Sudan.

The Chadian leader made the remarks at a special summit of the six-nation Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) in the capital, N’djamena this week, which he convened amid mounting tensions with Sudan, whom Deby accuses of deliberately trying to destabilise Chad.

“I hope that countries [in the region] will be on our side to fully inform the international community of the gravity of Sudan’s subversive plots against Chad,” Deby said at the opening of the summit.

The Chad government, reeling from a wave of army desertions since October, declared a “state of belligerence” with Sudan after a rebel attack on 18 December in the eastern border town of Adre. Chad blamed the attack on Sudan, saying it is financing, arming and equipping Chadian rebels.

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COTE D IVOIRE: Annan wants more peacekeepers on ground

The UN peacekeeping force in Cote d'Ivoire is overstretched and needs thousands of reinforcements as long-delayed elections near, and there remains "the possibility that another major violent crisis might occur", Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.

In his latest report on the divided West African nation, Annan recommended that an extra 3,400 soldiers and 475 policemen be sent in, boosting the peacekeeping force by some 50 percent.

Currently almost 6,900 blue-hats officers, alongside 4,000 peacekeepers from former colonial power France, patrol the buffer zone which cuts a swathe between the government-run south and the rebel-held north. And around 700 police officers help keep the peace in urban areas and train local officers.

But Annan says even more are needed, and hopes the UN Security Council will sign off on reinforcements when the current mission's mandate expires on 24 January.

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NIGERIA: Thousands of prisoners awaiting trial to be freed

Nigeria plans to free some 25,000 inmates, many of whom have been awaiting trial for years, in a bid to decongest overcrowded and unhygienic prisons and improve its human rights record.

"The issue of awaiting trial inmates has become an endemic problem in Nigeria," said Justice Minister Bayo Ojo after a cabinet meeting late Wednesday. "The conditions of the prisons are just too terrible. The conditions negate the essence of prison, which is to reform."

According to government figures, two thirds of Nigeria's 45,000 prisoners have not yet had a trial - in some cases because their files have gone missing, in others because witnesses were unavailable.

A government-commissioned survey published last year found that suspects were dumped in violent, overcrowded cells and left with no legal assistance, no trial date and no hope of getting out - a process which has long drawn the ire of human rights groups.

Under the new government scheme, inmates who have spent between three and ten years waiting for a trial will have their cases reviewed for immediate release. Prisoners who have already been in jail longer than they would have been if convicted are also eligible, as are the elderly, those infected with HIV/AIDS and other terminally ill prisoners.

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SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: Foreign Minister denies pocketing Moroccan aid money

The foreign minister of Sao Tome and Principe has denied allegations that he misappropriated nearly US $500,000 of Moroccan aid money, but he has raised a political storm by saying it was spent by the president bypassing government controls.

Returning from a visit to the United States, Foreign Minister Ovidio Pequeno told reporters on Thursday that Morocco gave the money directly to President Fradique de Meneses to spend at his discretion.

“It was a one-off direct aid payment to the Presidency of the Republic worth 4.5 million dirhams (US $497,000) for the purchase of goods, equipment and official vehicles, not an institutional aid payment to Sao Tome and Principe within the context of bilateral cooperation,” he said.

On 31 December, the news magazine Equador accused Pequeno, a close associate of the president, of misappropriating 450,000 euros of Moroccan aid money. Equador said he diverted the money into an account controlled by the Sao Tome embassy in Gabon without the knowledge of Prime Minister Maria do Carmo Silveira and then into a series of other bank accounts in Europe.

The prime minister ordered an immediate inquiry and dispatched a team of auditors to the embassy in Libreville to check its financial dealings.

Pequeno’s comments appear certain to embitter the already tense relations between the president and the government, which is dominated by the MLSTP-PSD, the largest party in parliament. Sao Tome faces parliamentary elections in March and presidential elections in September, in which Meneses is expected to seek a second five-year term.

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LIBERIA: Soldiers refuse to quit camp needed for new army

More than 2,000 former Liberian soldiers are defying a government order to vacate a military camp outside the capital, Monrovia - a barracks authorities say is needed for training a new army after 14 years of war.

In early December, the transitional government led by Charles Gyude Bryant ordered the soldiers to quit Camp Schiefflin by the end of the year, as part of a programme to revamp the country's armed forces. But the soldiers have refused.

"I am not leaving this barracks to go anywhere," 70-year-old
Master Sergeant Yapkawolo Gbellee said, explaining that he spent 44 years in the Liberian army and has lived at Camp Schiefflin for a decade.

Gbellee is insisting on 22 months' salary arrears, pension rights and official decoration for his military service before he will leave the camp.

The International Contact Group on Liberia (ICGL) - comprising western and African governments and organisations that helped broker the county's 2003 peace deal - has rejected the soldiers' stand and set a new evacuation deadline of 7 January.

Full report

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GUINEA: Opposition party withdraws from parliament

Guinea's parliamentary opposition has announced it will withdraw from the national assembly in protest at last month’s municipal elections, which it says were nothing short of “electoral robbery.”

The Union of Progress and Renewal (UPR) is the only opposition party represented in parliament, holding 20 of 114 seats. Remaining posts belong to politicians allied with or members of the ruling Party for Unity and Progress of president Lansana Conte, who has held power for 21 years.

"Without going back over how the polls were organised and held, I would like to say again that there were no elections in Guinea on 18 December, [but] rather an electoral robbery during the entire process," UPR executive secretary Yaya Keita said in a statement.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent WEST AFRICA reports:

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

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 316 covering 4-10 February 2006, 10/Feb/06

Africa’s poorest nations fight to ward off deadly bird flu, 9/Feb/06

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 315 covering 28 January – 3 February 2006, 3/Feb/06

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 314 covering 21-27 January 2006, 27/Jan/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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