CONTENTS
ANGOLA: Landmine crisis
ZIMBABWE: Fuel price hike sparks anger
ZAMBIA: Congolese rebels raid border town
SWAZILAND: Constitutional review starts
COMORO ISLANDS: OAU observers leave
LESOTHO: Arrest of soldiers sparks instability fears
MOZAMBIQUE: Donors respond to flood appeal
ANGOLA: Landmine crisis Both the Angolan armed forces (FAA) and the UNITA rebel movement have been laying new landmines in Angola since hostilities resumed late last year following the breakdown of the 1994 UN-brokered Lusaka Protocol peace accords. At the same time, IRIN was told this week, donor funding was diminishing thus threatening the demining programmes in Africa’s most heavily mined country. In an interview with IRIN this week, Guy Rhodes, the Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA) Mine Action programme manager, said the Norwegian NGO which now manages the country’s main landmine database, had received from the government, and logged, reports of new landmines it had planted. But the NGOs involved in demining were restricted mainly to government-controlled areas of the country, because UNITA had severed all links with them. New mine locations “Survey teams have identified locations in Luena (some 800 km southeast of Luanda), Malanje (350 km east of Luanda) and Huambo and Kuito in the Central Highlands where remining has been confirmed,” Rhodes told IRIN. “This apparent effort to some degree of transparency is almost certainly linked to Angola’s inability to ratify the Landmine Ban Treaty and the subsequent focus that this has given Angola.” Funding crisis The NPA said there had already been a significant funding shortfall for demining in Angola this year: Norway had reduced support by 15 percent, Denmark by 40 percent, The Netherlands by half, while Australia had stopped its support. Only support from Washington through USAID was unchanged and secured until the end of the year. NPA said the cuts had forced staff layoffs of “well trained” experts and it feared even more drastic cuts next month if further funding was not forthcoming. “The Mechanical Mine Clearance programme is in danger of closing at the end of 1999 unless the present donors continue funds or additional donor support is secured,” Rhodes said. “Further cuts from donors will cripple the NPA demining programme in Angola which exists as one of the most important humanitarian demining efforts in the world today.” Government warns media Angola’s communications minister, Hendrik Vaal Neto, warned newspapers and radio stations that they faced closure if they did not take a patriotic stance reporting the country’s civil war. In remarks carried on state radio this week, Neto said recent news reports had “insulted” the government and “discouraged” young men from heeding a military conscription campaign. Raashied Galant of the Namibia-based Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said it was “frightening to see the drastic increase in the level of open attacks on the media in Angola since late last year” after the resumption of the civil war. “But there is such a disturbing lack of accountability and the authorities act with such impunity that such threats from the government now are much more serious,” he said. ZIMBABWE: Fuel price hike sparks anger Zimbabwe’s announcement of a fuel price increase by up to 32 percent was been met with expressions of frustration and anger this week. Elizabeth Nerwande, the executive director of Zimbabwe’s Consumer Council, told IRIN that this latest hike would trigger further increases in the prices of basic commodities. “Transport costs are bound to increase, which will put more pressure on the already poor majority of the country,” Nerwande said. She added that since the beginning of this year, basic commodities had gone up by more than 300 percent. Inflation concerns According to economists, the latest fuel increase, the second since last November, would cause an immediate surge in inflation which currently stands at over 50 percent. The November petrol increase of 65 percent forced a doubling of urban transport fares. At the beginning of this year, the price of diesel went up by 24 percent while the price of oil increased by 30 percent. Business blow over mine closure Zimbabwean business confidence has taken a further blow with the announcement this week of the closure of the Hartley Platinum Mine, the country’s largest private sector investment project, financial analysts told IRIN. “It is another depressant for business confidence in a country where it is already at an all-time low,” economist Eric Bloch said. The Australian company Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP) said it lost US $545 million in the mine and was selling its majority stake to its partner, the Australian-owned Zimbabwe Platinum Mines (Zimplats), South Africa’s ‘Business Day’ reported on Friday. BHP added that it was discussing with the government the fate of more than 3,500 retrenched mine employees. “I don’t think the impact on the economy extends beyond the job losses as the mine has never operated properly,” Bloc told IRIN. He said the project had been “very ill-conceived from beginning to end” and blamed “corporate mismanagement.” ZAMBIA: Congolese rebels raid border town A group of rebels fighting the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) raided a village in Zambia’s northernmost Kaputa district this week, officials told IRIN. In the first such reported incursion of its kind in Zambia, two civilians and a Zambian soldier were shot and wounded by the rebels who burnt down four shops and four homes after a looting spree. A UNHCR spokesman said the incident had occurred in the Zambian border village of Lambwe Chomba on Tuesday night. He had no further details of the raid. Local media reports said the rebels were well armed and that they only returned across the border after a three-hour battle. But a government official, who declined to speculate on the motive for the raid, said a formal statement would be issued when the incident had been fully investigated. World Bank consultant killed in landmine blast A World Bank consultant was killed on Sunday when a car in which he and two others were travelling detonated a landmine in southern Zambia, anti-landmines activists told IRIN this week. Muleya Mwananyanda of the Zambian Campaign to Ban Landmines (ZCBL) said the consultant, Denis Berejena, was killed instantly when their jeep detonated a landmine. Mwananyanda said the Zambian areas bordering Mozambique, Angola and Zimbabwe “have thousands of landmines” that were planted in the 1970s during the liberation struggles in Southern Africa. “Although we don’t have exact numbers, villagers in and around these areas know where landmines have been planted and have deserted the areas, leaving them sparsely populated.” She added that there is no government-led initiative to de-mine these areas, as far as ZCBL was aware. “These areas are difficult to get to and therefore we never get to know if there are any recent victims of these landmines.” Business welcomes Paris Club pledges Zambian business leaders welcomed as “positive” donor pledges of US $530 million in support of the government’s economic reform programme made at last week’s Paris Club meeting. “We are very positive and optimistic,” Moses Banda, chairman of the Economic Association of Zambia told IRIN.”The only sticking point is that the pledges are linked to the sale of ZCCM [Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines],” the country’s largest employer. Aid disbursement was also linked to the government’s human rights record, in particular its treatment of the independent press. Peace summit for Lusaka A summit involving regional heads of government of all parties involved in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is to be held in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, on 26 June, a senior Zambian government official told IRIN this week. He said the summit, announced in Pretoria after a meeting between President Sam Nujoma of Namibia and President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, would seek to ratify a ceasefire document drafted by the UN and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) with the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) mediator, Zambian President Frederick Chiluba. Maize uncompetitive, despite favorable farming conditions Zambia has been unable to take advantage of favorable climate and soil conditions to compete with regional maize producers, according to a preliminary report by the Zambia National Farmers Union. “Zambia is a high cost area for maize production,” an agricultural expert told IRIN. “When comparing costs there is a wide difference which makes us uncompetitive in terms of exports, and sometimes even when we import maize.” According to the specialist, in terms of efficiency, Zambian farmers were equal to their neighbours. But fertilizer and transport costs, customs duties and bank interest rates had succeeded in driving up the production costs per tonne of Zambian maize to US $211 compared to US $81 for farmers in Zimbabwe. “When you compare with other countries you find that the Zambian farmer is disadvantaged,” he said. SWAZILAND: Constitutional review starts Swaziland’s Constitutional Review Commission CRC), appointed by King Mswati III, this week started six months of canvassing people’s views on constitutional issues, media reports said. The 25-member CRC will visit about 350 chiefdoms to receive submissions from individual citizens whether they want a multi-party system or whether they prefer traditional or conventional law. Swaziland presently does not have a written constitution. The kingdom is governed through a decree made and passed in 1973 by King Mswati III’s predecessor, King Sobhuza II. COMORO ISLANDS: OAU observers leave The Organisation for African Unity (OAU) last weekend withdrew its military observers from the Comoro Islands because it did not want to work with the military government. Diplomatic sources in the capital Moroni told IRIN that the withdrawal was part of the OAU’s condemnation of the military coup on 30 April, which brought Colonel Azali Assoumani to power. “The OAU has decided that it was not going to work with the military government,” the source said. But he added that the civilian component of the OAU mission had remained to observe developments and would attempt to continue dialogue with the military government. LESOTHO: Arrest of soldiers sparks instability fears Diplomatic sources told IRIN this week they were concerned that the arrest last week of soldiers accused of the assassination five-years-ago of Lesotho’s deputy prime minister could inflame political tensions. “It is of concern because whatever touches on security in Lesotho is unsettling and the military is already restive,” a diplomat in the capital Maseru said. “The government feels that [the arrests] is a matter of security and crime and don’t want to make it a political thing. The opposition have called for a general amnesty and anything touching the military they view with concern.” State radio reported that at least 14 soldiers were arrested over the 1994 murder of deputy prime minister Selometsi Baholo. MOZAMBIQUE: Donors respond to flood appeal The international donor community had responded favourably to a Mozambique government appeal for emergency assistance following heavy flooding earlier this year contributing more than US $4.3 million. According to a report this week by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), “this corresponds to about 35 percent of the needs specified in the appeal. Sectors such as food aid and related logistics received close to the total amount requested”. Earlier this year, Mozambique experienced its worst flooding in 40 years. The areas most affected by heavy rains floods included Gaza in the south, and central districts of Sofala and Zambezia. OCHA estimated at the time that some 70,000 people had been affected, with up to 6,000 people displaced. EU Aid for rural development Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) has offered Mozambique US $75 million for development projects in the central and northern parts of the country, media reports said this week. EU representative, Javier Puyol, said about US $30 million would be used for rural development projects in Zambezia, Cabo Delgado and Inhambane provinces. The remaining US $45 million would be used to help repair the Zambezia-Nampula road. Repairs on the road are expected to begin next year.
ANGOLA: Landmine crisis Both the Angolan armed forces (FAA) and the UNITA rebel movement have been laying new landmines in Angola since hostilities resumed late last year following the breakdown of the 1994 UN-brokered Lusaka Protocol peace accords. At the same time, IRIN was told this week, donor funding was diminishing thus threatening the demining programmes in Africa’s most heavily mined country. In an interview with IRIN this week, Guy Rhodes, the Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA) Mine Action programme manager, said the Norwegian NGO which now manages the country’s main landmine database, had received from the government, and logged, reports of new landmines it had planted. But the NGOs involved in demining were restricted mainly to government-controlled areas of the country, because UNITA had severed all links with them. New mine locations “Survey teams have identified locations in Luena (some 800 km southeast of Luanda), Malanje (350 km east of Luanda) and Huambo and Kuito in the Central Highlands where remining has been confirmed,” Rhodes told IRIN. “This apparent effort to some degree of transparency is almost certainly linked to Angola’s inability to ratify the Landmine Ban Treaty and the subsequent focus that this has given Angola.” Funding crisis The NPA said there had already been a significant funding shortfall for demining in Angola this year: Norway had reduced support by 15 percent, Denmark by 40 percent, The Netherlands by half, while Australia had stopped its support. Only support from Washington through USAID was unchanged and secured until the end of the year. NPA said the cuts had forced staff layoffs of “well trained” experts and it feared even more drastic cuts next month if further funding was not forthcoming. “The Mechanical Mine Clearance programme is in danger of closing at the end of 1999 unless the present donors continue funds or additional donor support is secured,” Rhodes said. “Further cuts from donors will cripple the NPA demining programme in Angola which exists as one of the most important humanitarian demining efforts in the world today.” Government warns media Angola’s communications minister, Hendrik Vaal Neto, warned newspapers and radio stations that they faced closure if they did not take a patriotic stance reporting the country’s civil war. In remarks carried on state radio this week, Neto said recent news reports had “insulted” the government and “discouraged” young men from heeding a military conscription campaign. Raashied Galant of the Namibia-based Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said it was “frightening to see the drastic increase in the level of open attacks on the media in Angola since late last year” after the resumption of the civil war. “But there is such a disturbing lack of accountability and the authorities act with such impunity that such threats from the government now are much more serious,” he said. ZIMBABWE: Fuel price hike sparks anger Zimbabwe’s announcement of a fuel price increase by up to 32 percent was been met with expressions of frustration and anger this week. Elizabeth Nerwande, the executive director of Zimbabwe’s Consumer Council, told IRIN that this latest hike would trigger further increases in the prices of basic commodities. “Transport costs are bound to increase, which will put more pressure on the already poor majority of the country,” Nerwande said. She added that since the beginning of this year, basic commodities had gone up by more than 300 percent. Inflation concerns According to economists, the latest fuel increase, the second since last November, would cause an immediate surge in inflation which currently stands at over 50 percent. The November petrol increase of 65 percent forced a doubling of urban transport fares. At the beginning of this year, the price of diesel went up by 24 percent while the price of oil increased by 30 percent. Business blow over mine closure Zimbabwean business confidence has taken a further blow with the announcement this week of the closure of the Hartley Platinum Mine, the country’s largest private sector investment project, financial analysts told IRIN. “It is another depressant for business confidence in a country where it is already at an all-time low,” economist Eric Bloch said. The Australian company Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP) said it lost US $545 million in the mine and was selling its majority stake to its partner, the Australian-owned Zimbabwe Platinum Mines (Zimplats), South Africa’s ‘Business Day’ reported on Friday. BHP added that it was discussing with the government the fate of more than 3,500 retrenched mine employees. “I don’t think the impact on the economy extends beyond the job losses as the mine has never operated properly,” Bloc told IRIN. He said the project had been “very ill-conceived from beginning to end” and blamed “corporate mismanagement.” ZAMBIA: Congolese rebels raid border town A group of rebels fighting the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) raided a village in Zambia’s northernmost Kaputa district this week, officials told IRIN. In the first such reported incursion of its kind in Zambia, two civilians and a Zambian soldier were shot and wounded by the rebels who burnt down four shops and four homes after a looting spree. A UNHCR spokesman said the incident had occurred in the Zambian border village of Lambwe Chomba on Tuesday night. He had no further details of the raid. Local media reports said the rebels were well armed and that they only returned across the border after a three-hour battle. But a government official, who declined to speculate on the motive for the raid, said a formal statement would be issued when the incident had been fully investigated. World Bank consultant killed in landmine blast A World Bank consultant was killed on Sunday when a car in which he and two others were travelling detonated a landmine in southern Zambia, anti-landmines activists told IRIN this week. Muleya Mwananyanda of the Zambian Campaign to Ban Landmines (ZCBL) said the consultant, Denis Berejena, was killed instantly when their jeep detonated a landmine. Mwananyanda said the Zambian areas bordering Mozambique, Angola and Zimbabwe “have thousands of landmines” that were planted in the 1970s during the liberation struggles in Southern Africa. “Although we don’t have exact numbers, villagers in and around these areas know where landmines have been planted and have deserted the areas, leaving them sparsely populated.” She added that there is no government-led initiative to de-mine these areas, as far as ZCBL was aware. “These areas are difficult to get to and therefore we never get to know if there are any recent victims of these landmines.” Business welcomes Paris Club pledges Zambian business leaders welcomed as “positive” donor pledges of US $530 million in support of the government’s economic reform programme made at last week’s Paris Club meeting. “We are very positive and optimistic,” Moses Banda, chairman of the Economic Association of Zambia told IRIN.”The only sticking point is that the pledges are linked to the sale of ZCCM [Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines],” the country’s largest employer. Aid disbursement was also linked to the government’s human rights record, in particular its treatment of the independent press. Peace summit for Lusaka A summit involving regional heads of government of all parties involved in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is to be held in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, on 26 June, a senior Zambian government official told IRIN this week. He said the summit, announced in Pretoria after a meeting between President Sam Nujoma of Namibia and President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, would seek to ratify a ceasefire document drafted by the UN and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) with the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) mediator, Zambian President Frederick Chiluba. Maize uncompetitive, despite favorable farming conditions Zambia has been unable to take advantage of favorable climate and soil conditions to compete with regional maize producers, according to a preliminary report by the Zambia National Farmers Union. “Zambia is a high cost area for maize production,” an agricultural expert told IRIN. “When comparing costs there is a wide difference which makes us uncompetitive in terms of exports, and sometimes even when we import maize.” According to the specialist, in terms of efficiency, Zambian farmers were equal to their neighbours. But fertilizer and transport costs, customs duties and bank interest rates had succeeded in driving up the production costs per tonne of Zambian maize to US $211 compared to US $81 for farmers in Zimbabwe. “When you compare with other countries you find that the Zambian farmer is disadvantaged,” he said. SWAZILAND: Constitutional review starts Swaziland’s Constitutional Review Commission CRC), appointed by King Mswati III, this week started six months of canvassing people’s views on constitutional issues, media reports said. The 25-member CRC will visit about 350 chiefdoms to receive submissions from individual citizens whether they want a multi-party system or whether they prefer traditional or conventional law. Swaziland presently does not have a written constitution. The kingdom is governed through a decree made and passed in 1973 by King Mswati III’s predecessor, King Sobhuza II. COMORO ISLANDS: OAU observers leave The Organisation for African Unity (OAU) last weekend withdrew its military observers from the Comoro Islands because it did not want to work with the military government. Diplomatic sources in the capital Moroni told IRIN that the withdrawal was part of the OAU’s condemnation of the military coup on 30 April, which brought Colonel Azali Assoumani to power. “The OAU has decided that it was not going to work with the military government,” the source said. But he added that the civilian component of the OAU mission had remained to observe developments and would attempt to continue dialogue with the military government. LESOTHO: Arrest of soldiers sparks instability fears Diplomatic sources told IRIN this week they were concerned that the arrest last week of soldiers accused of the assassination five-years-ago of Lesotho’s deputy prime minister could inflame political tensions. “It is of concern because whatever touches on security in Lesotho is unsettling and the military is already restive,” a diplomat in the capital Maseru said. “The government feels that [the arrests] is a matter of security and crime and don’t want to make it a political thing. The opposition have called for a general amnesty and anything touching the military they view with concern.” State radio reported that at least 14 soldiers were arrested over the 1994 murder of deputy prime minister Selometsi Baholo. MOZAMBIQUE: Donors respond to flood appeal The international donor community had responded favourably to a Mozambique government appeal for emergency assistance following heavy flooding earlier this year contributing more than US $4.3 million. According to a report this week by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), “this corresponds to about 35 percent of the needs specified in the appeal. Sectors such as food aid and related logistics received close to the total amount requested”. Earlier this year, Mozambique experienced its worst flooding in 40 years. The areas most affected by heavy rains floods included Gaza in the south, and central districts of Sofala and Zambezia. OCHA estimated at the time that some 70,000 people had been affected, with up to 6,000 people displaced. EU Aid for rural development Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) has offered Mozambique US $75 million for development projects in the central and northern parts of the country, media reports said this week. EU representative, Javier Puyol, said about US $30 million would be used for rural development projects in Zambezia, Cabo Delgado and Inhambane provinces. The remaining US $45 million would be used to help repair the Zambezia-Nampula road. Repairs on the road are expected to begin next year.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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