IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 112 covering the period 23 February - 1 March 2002

CONTENTS: MANO RIVER UNION: Child refugees sexually exploited by aid workers MANO RIVER UNION: West African presidents vow to end tensions LIBERIA: The exodus continues SIERRA LEONE: Doctors join nurses' strike SIERRA LEONE: Up to one million may not vote, NGO says WESTERN SAHARA: Security Council extends UN mission's mandate CHAD: Parliament passes amnesty bill for rebels CHAD: Belgian judge investigates Hissene Habre case NIGERIA: US bomb disposal team arrives in Lagos BURKINA FASO-MALI-NIGER: Joint military brigade BENIN: UNICEF launches early-childhood development project SAHEL: Food prospects vary COTE D'IVOIRE: ADB funds for governance, potable water GHANA: Debt-reduction package MANO RIVER UNION: Child refugees sexually exploited by aid workers Refugee children in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have been subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation, reportedly by employees of national and international NGOs, UN agencies, fellow refugees, security forces of host countries and other persons, according to a joint assessment by UNHCR and Save the Children-UK. The report, titled, 'Sexual Violence & Exploitation: The Experience of Refugee Children in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone', said that the perpetrators "are often men in positions of relative power and influence who either control access to goods and services or who have wealth and/or income." The resources at their disposal are "considerably more than those of the refugees", and they exploit this extreme disparity. The initial findings of Tuesday's report, based on interviews and group sessions with 1,500 adults and children conducted between 22 October to 30 November 2001, reveal that the exchange of sex for money or gifts appeared widespread. The victims were mostly girls aged 13 to 18, while the most vulnerable group comprised orphans and children separated from one or both parents. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed shock at the reports of possible extensive abuse of children in refugee camps in West Africa. He has directed a thorough and immediate investigation into the allegations as well as "remedial action aimed at strengthening the protection of women and children," UN News quoted him as saying on Wednesday. The UN children's agency, UNICEF, expressed outrage that some humanitarian workers had betrayed the trust of children they were supposed to assist and protect, but welcomed the efforts of UNHCR and Save the Children "to throw light on the often unreported but widespread problem of child sexual abuse". [The report can be accessed at: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/UNID/6010F9ED3C651C93C1256B6D00560FCA?OpenDocument] MANO RIVER UNION: West African presidents vow to end tensions West African leaders agreed this week on measures to try to end insurgencies that have soured relations between Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone for a number of years. Presidents Lansana Conte of Guinea, Charles Taylor of Liberia, and Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone, made the announcement on Wednesday following a summit held in the Moroccan capital, Rabat. They agreed to enhance border security, repatriate refugees, provide aid to displaced persons and reactivate the administration of the Mano River Union, the Moroccan news agency, MAP, reported. The Mano River Union is an all-but-defunct economic integration movement that involves the three countries. A Joint Security Committee will meet in Freetown on 4 March to begin implementing the presidents' announcement. It is expected to submit a progress report to the three countries' foreign ministers by 28 March. The three Mano River countries have at one time or another accused each other of supporting anti-government dissidents operating from their territories. Liberia is currently facing a rebellion by a group known as Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) which, according to Monrovia, are backed by Guinea. Taylor says that his ability to fend off the LURD is severely hampered by a UN arms embargo. He wants the embargo lifted as well as other sanctions imposed in 2001 to force Monrovia to stop supporting Sierra Leonean Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels. These include an embargo on diamond sales from Liberia and a travel ban on senior government officials and their families. Meanwhile the UN Security Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to re-establish a panel to investigate whether or not Liberia is still giving financial and military support to the RUF, which, until recently, had been waging a 10-year war against the Sierra Leonean government. The five-member team, to be chosen by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, will also conduct missions to countries neighbouring Liberia "and compile a brief audit" of the Liberian government's compliance with the Council's demand that it end all support for the RUF. The war between the Sierra Leone government and the RUF was formally declared over in January 2002. LIBERIA: The exodus continues Liberians continued fleeing their troubled country this week, travelling to Sierra Leone, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, according to UNHCR and other sources. The flight followed shooting incidents just north of the capital Monrovia that broke out in early February. There was much confusion as to the origin of the shooting. Some sources invoked clashes between government soldiers and anti-government rebels. Others put it down to infighting within the ranks of pro-government forces. Sceptics saw it as part of a scenario mounted by the government to back its demands for a lifting of the UN arms embargo against Liberia. Whatever the reason for the insecurity, it was followed by the imposition - on 8 February - of a state of emergency, other bouts of fighting, and population movements in various directions. Since the state of emergency was declared, more than 10,000 Liberian refugees have arrived in Sierra Leone, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said on Friday. UNHCR, he said, has been relocating the new arrivals from the border town of Jendema to camps further inside Sierra Leone. So far, 2,029 refugees had been relocated, and convoys continued daily. On Tuesday Janowski had said some 300-500 people had been arriving daily in Sierra Leone from Liberia. He said most originated from Lofa County in northern Liberia, and that they had already been displaced several times before the latest clashes forced them across the border. The new insecurity also sent IDPs fleeing in the direction of Monrovia. This week, the government authorised the opening of camps near the capital. Liberians have also been leaving Monrovia and heading for the Ivorian border. Humanitarian sources said these were largely people worried that the fighting might reach the capital. According to figures from the Ivorian Red Cross, 1,895 Liberians entered Cote d'Ivoire from 19 to 24 February. The number registered by UNHCR was smaller: between 11 and 28 February, UNHCR registered 907 new Liberian arrivals in Cote d'Ivoire, according to figures provided to IRIN by the refugee agency. This brought the number of Liberian refugees registered in Cote d'Ivoire since April 2001 to 8,943. UNHCR reported the new Liberians as saying that young men were being press-ganged into the pro-government forces. They also told the UN agency that they had to barter with security forces in order to reach the border. Not all the newly arrived Liberians have been staying in Cote d'Ivoire. UNHCR's regional director for West Africa, Abou Moussa, told IRIN that "1,139 Liberians have been received in Ghana" since the beginning of the latest upheavals in Liberia. According to UNHCR-Ghana, the majority were people who had lived in Ghana before. SIERRA LEONE: Doctors join nurses' strike Government doctors in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown joined on Friday a three-week strike by nurses for more pay and better conditions of service, official sources in Freetown told IRIN. None of the state's three main medical facilities in Freetown - the Connaught Hospital, the Princess Christian Maternity, and the Princess Children's Hospital - were functioning normally, the official said. Many patients had either gone home, to private hospitals or military and police hospitals for attention. Military nurses and Red Cross volunteers were providing some care to the few remaining patients. Hospitals outside the capital were not affected by the strike, the source said. In a recent statement on the strike, the government reported that it remained committed to undertaking a comprehensive review of the salary and grade structure "for the entire service". The strike has continued despite the fact that the doctors and nurses have received an interim package, the official added. SIERRA LEONE: Up to one million may not vote, NGO says Hundreds of thousands of Sierra Leoneans may not be allowed to vote in forthcoming elections because of shortcomings within the recently ended registration process, the NGO Campaign for Good Governance (CGG) said on 22 February. However, the National Electoral Commission's (NEC) chairman, Walter Nicol, told IRIN on Monday that he doubted very much that up to one million people had failed to register, adding that an accurate figure would be available once all the registration forms had been retrieved. WESTERN SAHARA: Security Council extends UN mission's mandate The Security Council voted on Wednesday to extend the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) by two months until 30 April. It has been working for over a decade to organise a referendum to allow the territory's people to choose between independence or integration with Morocco. The council also decided to "consider actively" Secretary General Kofi Annan's latest report on Western Sahara which puts forward four options to try to solve the stalemate in the 27-year old conflict between the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario Front) and Morocco. Resuming the implementation of a settlement plan without the necessary consent of both parties, revising last year framework agreement drafted by Annan's personal envoy, James Baker, and discussing a possible division of the territory constitute Annan's first three options. The fourth and most drastic option entails the withdrawal of MINURSO. On Tuesday, the Council urged Polisario to release all its prisoners of war, and urged both sides to avoid acts that could aggravate the situation. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which earlier this week also called for the release of all remaining POWs, the Polisario Front holds some 1,362 Moroccan prisoners, some of whom have spent over 26 years in detention. Morocco claims that it has released all of its prisoners. Morocco annexed Western Sahara when Spain withdrew in 1975, prompting the Polisario Front to take up arms to fight for independence. The two sides signed a ceasefire in 1991, paving the way for the deployment of MINURSO. CHAD: Parliament passes amnesty bill for rebels Parliamentarians in the Chadian capital, N'djamena, passed a bill on Tuesday granting a general amnesty to rebels of the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT), Chad's national radio reported. There were 64 votes in favour, 21 abstentions and one against, Radiodiffusion Nationale Tchadienne reported. The amnesty formed part of a peace agreement signed between the rebels and the government in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on 7 January. The MDJT, headed by Youssouf Togoimi, launched a rebellion in the Tibesti region of northern Chad in 1998. Togoimi had been defence minister in the government of President Idriss Deby, who seized power from Hissene Habre in 1990 and was elected head of state in 1996. CHAD: Belgian judge investigates Hissene Habre case Belgian Judge Daniel Fransen arrived in Chad on Tuesday on a nine-day visit to pursue investigations into a case which a group of Chadians have filed in a Belgian court against former president Hissene Habre, whom they accuse of human rights abuses. Reed Brody, advocacy director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, told IRIN on Wednesday that Fransen would interview victims, witnesses, former members of Habre's special security force and other people to gather evidence. The accusers and international human rights watchdogs say Habre, who ruled Chad from 1982-1990, was responsible for 40,000 executions and the torture of some 200,000 people during his presidency. The law allows courts in Belgium to try cases involving serious rights abuses, no matter where and by whom they were committed. The plaintiffs filed their case in Brussels after they had failed to get Habre to stand trial in Senegal, where he has lived since fleeing Chad in 1990. NIGERIA: US bomb disposal team arrives in Lagos A US army bomb disposal team arrived in the Nigerian commercial capital, Lagos, on Wednesday on a two-month mission to help dispose of unexploded ordnance dispersed across the city after a fire at an armoury just over a month ago. The 60-member team will join other US and British bomb disposal experts who have been helping their Nigerian counterparts to identify and recover unexploded munitions since early February. Nigerian authorities said 1,350 unexploded bombs, mortars and artillery pieces had been recovered so far. At least 1,000 people died in the 27 January disaster. BURKINA FASO-MALI-NIGER: Joint military brigade Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have agreed to create a joint brigade to check the movement of light firearms in their countries, secure people and goods at border points and provide humanitarian aid, Mali's military press director, Abdoulaye Coulibaly, told IRIN on Tuesday. Military chiefs from the three countries met in the Malian capital, Bamako, this week to discuss the operations of the new 500-member brigade whose units will be based in Labbezanga, Mali; Maretei, Burkina Faso; and Yatakala, Niger, Coulibaly said. The unit will have a joint command staff with an overall commander rotated between the three countries. BENIN: UNICEF launches early-childhood development project The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), in partnership with Benin's Health Ministry, has launched a programme aimed at improving early childhood development by reducing the incidence of preventable diseases and ailments linked to poor nutrition. The programme targets infants up to five years old. It aims to protect them against tetanus, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases, reduce the incidence of malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea, and fight diseases linked to vitamin A deficiency. In the long term, the project aims to reduce the food deficiency/disease tandem by 25 percent in selected regions in Benin. SAHEL: Food prospects vary The overall food outlook for Niger looks good this year but in Mauritania a nationwide food deficit is likely, the Food Early Warning System (FEWS) reported this week. Niger produced a 297,500 mt grain surplus during the growing season, FEWS said, but some 16 percent of the population still face moderate levels of food insecurity. Mauritania is likely to experience a grain deficit of more than 160,000 mt this year, especially in the southwestern regions of Trarza, Brakna and Gorgol, which were hardest hit by winter rains in January, FEWS reported. FEWS, an initiative funded by the US Agency for International Development, is aimed at strengthening the ability of African countries and regional organisations to manage threats to food security by providing timely and analytical early warning and vulnerability information. The reports on Mauritania and Niger can be found at: http://www.fews.net COTE D'IVOIRE: ADB funds for governance, potable water The African Development Bank (ADB) and Cote d'Ivoire's government signed on Tuesday two agreements totalling FCFA 4.3 billion (US $5.8 million) to foster good governance and to improve the water system in two of the country's biggest cities. Some FCFA 3.5 billion (US $4.7 million) will aid the government's Good Governance and Capacity Building Programme, whose aims include decentralisation and improving the management of public resources. The remaining FCFA 785 million ($1.1 million) will finance a study on upgrading water supply systems catering for the three million people living in the economic capital, Abidjan, as well as the needs of some 500,000 people living in the central city of Bouake. The funds come from the African Development Fund, the small-loans branch of the ADB. GHANA: Debt-reduction package The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have agreed to support a US $3.7 billion debt reduction package for Ghana, under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, the World Bank announced on Tuesday. Both institutions, the bank said, agreed to begin providing debt relief immediately along with most official bilateral creditors. The bulk of additional assistance under the enhanced HIPC Initiative will be delivered when Ghana completes a number of agreed measures. In a separate announcement on 22 February the IMF said that it had approved a US $65 million disbursement for poverty reduction programmes in Ghana.