Uganda Rural Community Support USA

UGANDA: Return of displaced “slow”

The permanent return of internally displaced people (IDPs) to their
homes of origin is going ahead “very slowly”, OCHA said. However, in
Nyahuka in Bundibugyo district, western Uganda, there appeared to be
an increase in the daily movement of IDPs to their fields. The report
said that planting was occurring and the rains had been good. It also
noted that food was scarce in the markets at this time, with some
significant price increases witnessed for beans, cassava and matoke
[plantain].

The report further noted that due to inflated population figures in
IDP camps, ICRC suspended distribution of non-food items to camps
until the IDP numbers were verified and reflected the “true picture”.
WFP also suspended food distributions for a month to all but the most
needy camps due to the sensitive issue of selling relief food.

DRC: UNHCR assessment mission for Central Africa

UNHCR announced on Tuesday that it was sending a mission to the two
Congos and Central African Republic (CAR) to assess the impact of a
fresh arrival of refugees from the DRC who are settled along the
Congo and Oubangui rivers, north of the neighbouring Republic of
Congo (ROC). The agency’s spokesman in Geneva, Kris Janowski, told
journalists that the team would visit several areas affected by the
influx and look at ways of helping refugees trapped in unreachable
parts of the river. It will also consider cross-border aid deliveries
from the Central African Republic (CAR) where about 98,000 refugees
have arrived recently after fleeing fighting between DRC’s government
forces and those of the MLC in Equateur province. Most of the
refugees, Janowski noted, are presently unreachable because of
tension along the river.

A recent UNHCR mission to Betou prefecture, in northern Republic of
Congo (ROC), confirmed the presence of some 20,000 refugees, most of
whom arrived in July. “They are putting a tremendous strain on the
local population, which stood at 7,000 before their arrival,” he
said. He noted that fish and cassava had become very scarce, adding
that the price of cassava had doubled since the refugees’ arrival.
“Although many of them have been accommodated with local families,
they sleep in the open and lack basic necessities,” Janowski said.
UNHCR, which is currently planning to provide medical, educational,
agricultural and food aid to the population, is negotiating with the
authorities to grant the refugees plots of arable land. It also plans
to provide plastic sheeting, wooden rafters, kitchen sets and
blankets. Vaccinations against measles have been administered to some
4,000 persons, including both refugees and the local population.

RWANDA: Lobby group rejects ‘gacaca’ courts in Rwanda

An exiled lobby group, the Rassemblement pour le Retour des Refugies
et la Democratie au Rwanda (RDR), on Wednesday appealed to all
“democratic governments”, human rights organisations and
freedom-loving peoples, to denounce, condemn and not fund the
traditional court system, known as ‘gacaca’, proposed by the Rwandan
government. It said gacaca was proposed as a solution to the
overcrowding of state prisons “created by massive arbitrary arrests
and prolonged illegal detentions”. Furthermore, gacaca “violates the
principle five of the basic principles on the independence of the
judiciary”, the RDR said. It added that gacaca jurisdictions also
“grossly violate” the right of the accused to have a fair trial
before a competent, independent and impartial tribunal as recognised
by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

SUDAN: Opposition delegate “disappears”

The London-based Sudanese human rights organisation, Sudan Victims
Torture Group, called on Tuesday for the immediate release of an
opposition delegate arrested at Khartoum airport on 20 September. A
press statement said that Adam Muhammad Ahmed, member of the
political bureau of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was arrested
at the airport on his return from a general opposition conference
held mid-September in the Eritrean port town of Masawa. The
conference was convened by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
which is an umbrella group for northern opposition groups and the
southern armed Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM).

Since being detained, the whereabouts of Ahmed was unknown and no
charges had been put, said SVTG. The organisation called for the
Sudanese authorities to ensure the “physical and psychological
integrity” of the delegate as “torture and mistreatment are well
known and well reported in secret detention centres in Sudan,” said
the statement. The Sudanese authorities have so far made no comment
about the issue.

SUDAN: President meets opposition

President Omar al-Beshir of Sudan met with leaders of the Sudanese
opposition coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), on
Tuesday in Eritrea. In a report by AFP on Tuesday, the meeting
between al-Beshir and opposition leader Mohamed Osmane al-Mirghani in
Asmara was the first time the two men had met since 1989 when
al-Beshir seized power in a military coup supported by Islamic
“fundamentalists”. It went on to say that the NDA, an umbrella
organisation of northern opposition groups and the armed Sudan
People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), views the talks as
“exploratory”.

Meanwhile, in a separate report on Tuesday by the Suna news agency in
Khartoum, Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma’il, expressed his hope
that Tuesday’s meeting in Asmara “would be a step towards unifying
ranks and boosting the efforts of peace and national accord”. He
added: “the government will spare no efforts to realize peace and
national accord,” in pursuing a solution to the 17 year-old civil
war, the report said.

SUDAN: Government imposes news blackout on assassination

Government officials have banned the Sudanese press from reporting on
the 21 September alleged assassination attempt on a pro-government
journalist there, AFP reported on Tuesday.

The National Press Council issued the memorandum to editors under
orders from the attorney general office, saying media coverage would
undermine the case and its investigation. According to the report,
‘Al-Wifaq’ editor Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed was recovering after
being hit by a small truck on Thursday night. Khartoum newspapers
reported that three unnamed people had been taken into custody over
the assassination attempt, widely believed to be the work of the
opposition People’s National Congress, party of former parliamentary
speaker Hassan al-Turabi. The opposition group is accused of
attempting an assassination in revenge for an article Ahmed had
written.

SOMALIA: Faction leader on Libyan agreement

Faction leader Husayn Haji Bod called a press conference in the
Somali capital Mogadishu on Monday to qualify reports that he had
signed an agreement with the new Somali interim president in Libya.
He said what had been agreed to “was not new”, the ‘Qaran’ newspaper
said. He told local journalists that the agreement that was signed in
the presence of the Libyan leader was “merely an affirmation of what
our delegation promised the Yemen president” which was to resolve
Somalia’s problems through talks. Husayn Bod was part of the
delegation of faction leaders led by Husayn Aydid who met interim
president Abdiqasim Salad Hasan in Libyan brokered talks. During the
press conference, Bod said he thought the new president would not set
up a government before holding talks with faction leaders. Mogadishu
faction leaders who oppose the new government nevertheless still see
senior government positions, like the prime ministership and cabinet
posts, as bargaining cards, diplomatic sources told IRIN.

SOMALIA: Demobilisation fails to hit target

The new Somali National Security Committee said demobilised
militiamen would officially begin working in various parts of Benadir
region, Mogadishu, early next month, local newspaper ‘Xog-Ogaal’ said
on Tuesday. The security committee told local journalists that 1,300
militiamen had been demobilised and 100 ‘technicals’ - jeeps mounted
with heavy machine guns - had been “recovered”. According to the
committee, this is less than half the number targeted, which is 4,000
militia and at least 150 ‘technicals’. Demobilisation would continue
until the required number was recruited, said the committee.

Meanwhile, fighting broke out between two militia groups around
Eel-Macaan port in north Mogadishu on Tuesday. The fighting
reportedly erupted after militia managing the port refused to pay
former militia guards their dues, ‘Xog-Ogaal’ said. According to
local newspapers, the fighting included many different types of
weapons and resulted in one person killed and another wounded before
it died down.

SOMALIA: New government wants Arab assistance

Speaker of the newly constituted Transitional National Assembly
Abdullahi Deerow Isaq has called on Arab states to provide urgent
assistance to the new government. In an interview for Shariqah radio,
United Arab Emerates, Deerow said that after years of suffering
“Somalis expect nothing short of a large amount of aid from Arab
states”, the Somali newspaper ‘Ayaamaha’ said on Wednesday. He said
Somalia was an “Arab and Islamic country” and that it was “incumbent”
on Arab states to help. During the ten years of civil war, Somalis
have expressed frustration that Arab states did not give more
support. In an interview with IRIN in August, chairman of the Islamic
courts Hassan Sheik Mohamed Abdi said Arab countries “never did
enough for Somalia” and that there was a “misunderstanding” among the
Arab countries about how to solve the Somali problem. New Interim
President Abdiqasim Salad Hasan visited Saudi Arabia and Libya after
his election, pointing to an eagerness to forge links with Arab
countries.

SOMALIA: Government reshuffle affected

Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, leader of the self-declared autonomous region
of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, has resuffled his cabinet and
reorganised some of his government posts. New appointments include a
minister of international relations and planning from Sanaag, as well
as the removal of a former cabinet minister from Sanaag. The
pro-Somaliland administration newspaper ‘Mandeeq’ reported earlier
this week that the reshuffle affected three ministers and was
designed to improve relations with neighbouring Somaliland, which
counts Sool and Sanaag within its borders of a self-declared
independent state. But political and humanitarian sources told IRIN
that the reorganisation by Abdullahi Yusuf only affected one minister
from Sanaag and had nothing to do with “appeasing the Somaliland
government on the Sool and Sanaag issue”.

SOMALIA: Asylum seekers denounce detention centres

Three Somali asylum seekers have asked Australian immigration
authorities to send them home in preference to staying in immigration
detention camps. The Somalis told the Department of Immigration and
Multicultural Affairs that they were afraid for their mental and
physical well-being to stay in the Australian camps, which they
described in a letter as a “terrifying, traumatising, prison-like
environment”, news agencies reported. Church and human rights
organisations have criticised Australia’s policy of detaining all
illegal asylum seekers while their cases are considered. The request
by the Somali refugees is the latest in a series of complaints about
the detention centres, which can house refugees and asylum seekers
for years at a time, often in remote locations, while their case are
slowly processed, reported Reuters. Immigration Minister Philip
Ruddock defended the camps and told Reuters that the conditions were
adequate. He said the government was prepared to take up the Somalis
on their request to go home, but questioned the motives of the
request: “There is some doubt whether their offer to return home has
been made in good faith… if they do wish to return home, that will
be facilitated”, Reuters reported.

ETHIOPIA: Army harassment in Ogaden

Government troops in the Ogaden, Somali Region, are harassing traders
and diverting food aid, Ethiopian opposition groups said on Tuesday.
In a Radio Freedom broadcast monitored by the BBC, opposition groups
said local traders had lost property, and some had gone into hiding,
because of harassment by government soldiers. It said all vehicles
carrying goods from Somalia owned by businessmen from Ogaden were
taken to military camps as soon as they arrived in Gode, the regional
capital, and “ransacked”.

SWAZILAND: Unions call two-day strike

Swaziland’s trade unions on Wednesday said they have called a two-day
strike in protest over the government’s refusal to amend an
Industrial Relations Act they argue is aimed at bashing labour.

A spokesman of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) told
IRIN on Wednesday that the strike - on Thursday and Friday - will
affect all sectors of Swaziland’s economy, following a decision by
teachers and public servants to join the action. “The strike will
maximise pressure on government to reverse the damage inflicted on
the Industrial Relations Act by advisors of the royal family,” Musa
Dlamini said.

The legislation has drawn fire from the United States which has given
King Mswati’s government until Friday to remove the amendments to the
Act that holds workers liable for damages suffered during strike
action. Washington has threatened to withdraw Swaziland’s benefits
under its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) that entitle the
country to export to US markets at reduced tariffs unless the
amendments are removed. “Swaziland’s economy cannot survive the loss
of trade privileges with the US,” Dlamini said.

ANGOLA: Journalists reject new media law

The Independent Union of Angolan Journalists (SJA), the Angolan
chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and the
Associated Journalists group of Angola have decided to reject
proposed new draft legislation on the media in Angola, MISA said in a
statement on Wednesday.

After a series of debates, it said they had resolved in a joint
statement to “refuse the new Media Law draft as a basis for
discussion or work, because it bears an unconstitutional logic,
therefore violating the guarantees of freedom of the press and the
prohibition of censorship as consecrated by the Angolan
Constitutional Law”. They said it also violated various international
charters on press freedom.

They also appealed to President Jose Eduardo dos Santos not to sign
any such proposals into law, saying any such legislation should be
debated in consultation with journalists themselves. They also
demanded that the authorities drop their actions in eight cases
against journalists in Angola.

NAMIBIA: Churches urge peace in Angola

Meanwhile, the Council of Churches of Namibia (CCN) urged both sides
in the Angolan conflict to negotiate an end to the war and said they
were “horrified” at the increase in cross-border raids and land mine
incidents in northern Namibia, the African Church Information Service
reported on Tuesday.

“It pains us to hear about land mines which are planted in our
communities and even in churches,” said Reverend Nangula Kathindi,
general secretary of the CCN. “We are deeply hurt by the abductions
of people, rape of women, including little girls”.

ANGOLA: Home affairs minister to discuss border crisis in Namibia

Angolan Home Affairs Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias Dos Santos
will hold talks in Windhoek, in neighbouring Namibia on Thursday to
discuss bilateral security and defence issues, news reports said.

In a statement before leaving Angola, he said the two countries had
put in place mechanisms for dealing with cross-border crimes. “The
Namibian and Angolan police are already working together. We gave
back some vehicles and we hope that the Namibian authorities will act
in the same way,” he added.

ZAMBIA: Lusaka seeks international help on land mines

Zambia has said it would seek international assistance to tackle the
problem of land mines and prevent further loss of lives within its
territory, Pana news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Valentine
Kayope as saying. In a statement on Tuesday he said the international
community had a responsibility to help address a problem which has
affected six of Zambia’s nine provinces.

He told a group of visiting American mine clearance experts that
Zambians required training to deal with the problem as well as
equipment. In one case, he said land mines had stalled a World Bank
development project for the rehabilitation of roads, construction of
storage dams, rural health centres and schools in Gwembe, in the
southern lower Zambezi valley. The minister said the development
programme was halted after a project consultant was killed by a
landmine in May 1999 during a survey. Land mines in the area were
suspected to be among the remnants of those used by nationalist
movements, which fought the then rebel Rhodesian regime of Ian Smith
in neighbouring Zimbabwe.

Robert Dolce, policy analyst for the Humanitarian Demining Programmes
from the US Department of State, who is leading the American
delegation, said the primary goal of the visit was to help Zambia
establish a sustainable demining programme which would also include
assistance in training and equipment. The UN Mine Action Services
(UNMAS) recently sent an inter-disciplinary assessment mission to
Zambia to determine the extent of the landmine problem in the
country. The mission had noted that land mines and unexploded
ordinance (UXOs) in Zambia was limited to the borders with Angola,
Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe, as well as around former bases of
national liberation movements.

MALAWI: Journalist claims harassment

A Malawian journalist and three other employees of a Catholic Church
publication released on bail in connection with the alleged theft of
laptop computers has claimed the government had taken the action
because it was upset with a story he published recently, the Media
Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said on Wednesday. It said the
journalist, Prince Jamali, works for the quarterly ‘Lamp’ and
‘Together’ magazines published by the Catholic Montfort Missionaries.

“He claims that he was implicated in the incident because of a story
about alleged police brutality he had written earlier. In the
article, Jamali had documented incidents of torture that had
allegedly been perpetrated by the Malawi Police Service since a
reform programme started two years ago,” MISA said. A police
spokesman told the Malawi News Agency, however, the authorities were
not aware that the reporter was being threatened or harassed.

SOUTH AFRICA: Foot-and-mouth outbreak prompts livestock cull

The authorities in South Africa’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal province said
on Wednesday they would cull more than 3,000 pigs, 400 head of cattle
as well as sheep and goats following an outbreak of foot-and-mouth
disease in the area. News reports said the livestock would be
slaughtered to create an isolated zone around two infected farms in
the Camperdown area.

“Such an approach is regarded as absolutely essential not only for
the local farming community, but for the entire agricultural industry
in South Africa,” a government statement said. It said this
“traumatic, but essential decision” would be implemented in a humane
manner under the direct supervision of senior officials and with the
logistical support of the security forces. A number of countries
including Botswana, Singapore, Mauritius and Namibia have already
banned imports of certain livestock and animal products from South
Africa since the outbreak was confirmed earlier this month.

SOUTH AFRICA: Lekota signs defence pact with India

The South African and Indian defence ministers on Wednesday signed a
cooperation agreement on defence, military research and procurement,
saying it could facilitate arms trade between the two countries.
Media reports quoted Mosiouoa Lekota, South Africa’s defence
minister, as saying: “If we identify equipment we require that was
available from India we would take advantage of that.” He added that
South Africa wanted to learn from India’s experience in peacekeeping
to better prepare itself for the planned UN peacekeeping force in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes said the two countries, with
their shared histories of British colonial rule and underdevelopment,
were interested in pooling their military research and developing
products together. “We are looking at pooling our resources,
technical and scientific, and going into joint ventures where
necessary and possible,” Fernandes reportedly said.

UNITA rebels are among the
thousands of Angolan refugees who have crossed into Zambia fleeing an
Angolan government offensive underway close to the border,
humanitarian sources told IRIN on Wednesday.

They said around 20 UNITA rebels arrived 10 days ago at a Roman
Catholic mission 7 km from the border in Zambia’s Northwest Province,
and were subsequently rounded up and disarmed by the police. The
arrival of the UNITA troops preceded a weekend influx of civilians
escaping the offensive by the Angolan government which last week
captured the rebel stronghold of Cazombo, in the eastern province of
Moxico.

The sudden inflow of Angolan refugees over the weekend reached 7,370
by Monday, and UNHCR warned that the figure could rise to 10,000 by
the end of this week. The vast majority are women and children. The
Angolan news agency Angop reported that military operations are
continuing in the Alto Zambeze region of Moxico to “restore peace”
and to allow civilians hiding in the area’s forests to return home.

The government’s offensive has succeeded in loosening UNITA’s grip on
the local population around Cazombo and has allowed them to escape
into Zambia and relative stability, one humanitarian source told
IRIN. “The local population is always the meat in the sandwich. Prior
to this they were prevented from leaving by UNITA and used as human
shields or an early warning mechanism,” the aid worker said. “They
also fear that the Angolan army is coming and are likely to take
revenge, not realising those people were there under duress.”

Meanwhile, preparations are underway to receive the new arrivals at
the Maheba refugee camp, with extra boreholes being sunk in an
expanded area of the settlement. MSF-France is also conducting health
screening at Maheba. “Of course more boreholes will be necessary, and
well equipment,” a humanitarian official working in the area told
IRIN. A total of 19,370 Angolan refugees have arrived in Zambia since
October 1999.

Scores of anti-riot policemen took over the old federal secretariat,
Abuja on Tuesday to quell a violent protest by owners and occupants of
buildings, particularly churches demolished over the weekend.

As a result of the protest, commercial activities in the popular Area 1
Labour Garage on the Moshood Abiola Way of the city were disrupted for hours
as the demonstrators, mainly members of the demolished churches, took on the
police. No lives were lost.

While the protest lasted, property including vehicles and furniture was
destroyed. THISDAY was not spared as one of its reporters who attempted to
speak with the police was manhandled while another lost his digital camera
to the fracas.

Eyewitness accounts said that trouble started last week as government
commenced the demolition of illegal structures in Dabei and Durumi villages,
a sprawling centre for a large number of churches. The action did not go
down well with members of the church as allegations became rife that the
demolition was carried out selectively. Some of them were said to have
argued that some worship centres, particularly a mosque, were spared while
other Christian worship centres were destroyed. Some of the churches
reportedly demolished in the exercise include the Church of God Mission and
Dunamis Church.

Yesterday morning when the government agents returned to continue with
the demolition, aggrieved shop owners and worshipers of some of the
demolished churches resisted the move. The resultant muscle flexing between
the government agents and the protesters subsequently took a violent
dimension as some of the protesters allegedly vandalised government vehicles
that came their way. It was at this point that the police were called to
arrest the situation, witnesses said.

At about 3pm on Tuesday, when THISDAY visited the scene of the incident,
truck-loads of battle-ready mobile and regular policemen were sighted
patrolling the Nnamdi Azikiwe and Moshood Abiola Ways. The obviously
frenzied policemen shot live bullets and canisters of tear gas sporadically
into the air. Panic-stricken pedestrians and other road users scampered for
safety. The road which also links the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport
and the Apo official quarters of the members of the National Assembly lost
patronage as vehicle owners detoured to alternative roads.

Nigerian parliamentarians attending the ongoing Commonwealth
Parliamentary Conference in Edinburgh on Tuesday openly disagreed on the
role of Britain during the June 12 struggle in Nigeria.

At a morning session of the African caucus to the 46th conference of the
Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, CPA, at the Edinburgh International
Conference Center, Nigerian delegates traded words in a way that underscore
how ethnicity colours perceptions in Africa’s most populous country.

The forum was meant to articulate Africa’s position on the post of the
Secretary-General of the CPA and the future of the Commonwealth of
Nations. But the affected Nigerians turned it into an opportunity to trade
views on the internal politics of Nigeria. The session was chaired by
Hon. Umar Ghali Na’Abba, speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives.

It all started when Barrister Oluwasesan Lawal, a member of the Ogun
State delegation raised serious objections about the future of the
Commonwealth, with the role of Britain in Nigerian crisis as a
backdrop.

He berated Britain’s role during the crisis, saying that as the mother
of the commonwealth it was expected to take a firm stand against the
dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. “Britain didn’t assist Nigeria during
the crisis,” he said. He however commended Canada for what he termed her
principled stand on Nigeria.

Some minutes after his tirades against Britain, another Nigerian,
Hon. Bulama Ibrahim, the speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly, was
given the floor. He contended that Britain didn’t interfere because it
understood the politics of Nigeria more than the other countries.

“Britain understood that the campaign for human rights was being made by
one of the 360 ethnic groups in Nigeria,” he said. “June 12 was sectional
that is why Britain didn’t interfere.”

Another Nigerian who was given the floor later, Hon. CR Ameachi, the
speaker of the Rivers House of Assmbly, raised objections to the claims of
his Borno counterpart. “Human rights abuse was not ethnic,” he said. “The
killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa and others was not ethnic, it was abuse.”

After the session, the Borno speaker confessed that his response was not
appropriate to the discussion but that it was necessary to correct
misinformation on the situation in Nigeria. “It was an inappriopriate
response to an inappropriate statement,” he said. “When Abacha killed the
Ogoni 9 it was human rights abuse. When Obasanjo massacred a whole village,
the human rights people, who are all Yorubas, didn’t say anything.”

Hon. Farouk Lawan, chairman of the House of Representatives
Inter-Parliamentary Relations Committee said that the fractious exchange among
the Nigerians means that his committee has more work to do.

“In case of future conferences, Nigerians need to present a common and
united position,” he said. “We should be able to address our local
differences at home. We need a common united front here rather than the
discordant voices we had today.”

However, Hon. Na’ Abba saw the different perceptions as vestiges of
colonialism and military rule. “This is one of the dangers of military rule
because it left a lot of gap in the relationship between different sections
of Nigeria,” he said. “Under a democracy the levels of interaction will be
more and things will change.”

The session decided that the next secretary-general of the CPA should
come from the African-Carribean bloc and that globalisation, poverty,
democracy and gender issue and military adventurism will affect the future
and relevance of the Commonwealth.

Africans need to form a united bloc and deepen her democratic
institution in the face of the new order, delegates agreed.

Former civilian president of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Shagari has shed more
light on the position of the North in relation to the administration of
President Olusegun Obasanjo, saying that the perception that Northerners are
against the president is untrue.

The former President, who spoke in the Hausa service of the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Tuesday on the alleged marginalisation of
the North and its people recalled that Obasanjo secured an impressive record
of votes in the North, during the last presidential election.

He said the belief that the North hated the President could not be
true.

Shagari who is leader of the Turaki committee, a Northern think tank
committed to the pursuit of Northern political hegemony, said the people of
the North are only exercising their constitutional rights by commenting on
the activities, policies and programmes of the Obasanjo administration. He
said there was nothing wrong with Northerners voicing their minds in any
area where the programmes of the federal government impact on them
negatively.

He said it was only fair that the North should be allowed the right to
protect their own interests more so as the West and East were already
protecting theirs.

“We are not against Obasanjo. But we cannot keep quiet if his government
is deviating from the overall interest of the North”, he stated.

Last week, Arewa Consultative Forum held an all-embracing summit during
which far-reaching resolutions critical of the Obasanjo Presidency were
adopted. Indeed, top politicians in the area have begun moves to thwart the
perceived second term bid of Obasanjo through a collective descision to
float an alternative poltical party to fight the Obasanjo Presidency and
displace the ruling People’s Democractic Party [PDP] from power.

Visiting Malian President Alpha Oumar Konare, bubbling with hope for a
stable Cote d’Ivoire, said Wednesday that the troubled West African country
would not become another “Sierra Leone.”

But he warned that democracy should not be trampled down in Cote
d’Ivoire despite the prevailing climate of political instability there.

Speaking at a conference organised at the French Institute of
International Relations, Konare said he regretted that the “winds of
xenophobia linked to personal interests” were blowing in Cote d’Ivoire but
such a trend should not lead to the derailment of democracy in that
country.

Hailed as a democrat internationally, Konare is part of the OAU group of
10 African leaders seeking a harmonious solution to the Ivorian crisis.

In keeping with African tradition, “when your neighbour’s house is on
fire, you do not wait for the house to burn down before intervening,” he
said, in apparent reference to the visit the OAU leaders made to Abidjan
Monday and Tuesday.

He denounced what he termed as “obscure international forces causing
instability” in the west African sub-region.

During the visit, Konare has held discussions with French President
Jacques Chirac focussed on regional tensions prevailing in parts of the
sub-region including Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Konare stated that Nigeria, the giant of the sub-region, should remain
at the heart of ECOWAS.

“If Nigeria turns its back on ECOWAS, the region will break into
Balkanisation,” he said.

On Wednesday Konare also held talks with the French National Assembly
President Raymond Forni.

He travels to Lille, northeastern France to attend a festival called
“Africa In Creation” on Thursday.

The United States
Wednesday pledged 26 million US dollars to Zimbabwe to
help Zimbabwe combat the spread of HIV/AIDS.

A US embassy spokesman said the money, to be
disbursed through the health ministry, would mainly
finance AIDS awareness programmes at national and
community levels.

“Under this programme, linkages to a new micro-
enterprise programme for groups involved in HIV/AIDS
prevention work will also be formed,” he said.

Zimbabwe is one of the countries worst affected by
AIDS in the world, with more than 3,000 people estimated
to be dying of the disease every week.

The US funds, to be disbursed in tranches, will also
finance the welfare of AIDS orphans and people living with
the incurable disease.

Epilepsy is on the rise in
Ethiopia due to what a medical expert attributes to “unattended
pregnancy and delivery,” state television has reported.

It quoted a physician working with Yekatit 12 Hospital in
Addis Ababa as saying that unattended pregnancy and delivery may
result in the newly born developing epilepsy.

In addition, he said, babies might be born epileptic due to
“minor pre-natal disorders that affect the foetus, brain, spine
and nerve,” Surgeon Zenebe Gedle stated.

He advised expectant mothers and potential parents to
consult doctors periodically during pregnancy, and to go to
hospital for delivery, if possible.

Zenebe warned that deliveries without the help and
attendance of health professionals exposed the newly born to the
risk of becoming epileptic.

He pointed out, however, the major cause of epilepsy in
Ethiopia to date has been identified to result from “injuries
caused to the skull.”

Epilepsy often arises from disorders in the nervous system
and typically manifests itself with convulsive attacks that
knock down the victim unconscious.