IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 44 covering the period 6-11 November 1999

SIERRA LEONE: Mission urges speedy implementation of peace pact Visiting UN and donor-country officials were encouraged by the commitment of the signatories of the Lome Accord to the peace process in Sierra Leone and, in particular, a disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme it includes, a UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (HACU) source said. However, they urged all parties to speed up its implementation. Speaking at a news conference in Freetown on Thursday, the mission’s leader, Deputy UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Carolyn McAskie, said peace could not be imposed from the outside. She said Sierra Leoneans had to take responsibility for their own destiny, the HACU source told IRIN. 268 abducted children released last month A total of 268 abducted children were released in Sierra Leone in October, the UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (HACU) said in a situation report for the period 24 October-6 November. Some 54 of these children have been reunited with their families and 24 remain in interim care in the Western Area of Freetown. UNICEF has registered 4,341 missing children in the Western Area since January while 2,661 remain unaccounted for, the report said. New human rights NGO launched “Manifesto ‘99,” a new local human rights NGO launched in Freetown on 26 October, aims to monitor the implementation of the Human Rights Manifesto for Sierra Leone which was signed in June, HACU reported. Human rights training for the police UNAMSIL human rights officers conducted human rights training for 120 officers of the Sierra Leonean Police Force during the month of October, HACU reported. The police authorities have asked UNAMSIL to continue providing the training each week at barracks in Freetown. Ex-SLA go on rampage at Lungi Former Sierra Leone Army/Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (ex-SLA/AFRC)combatants demanding improved living conditions and the payment of salary arrears, rioted on Monday at the Lungi demobilisation camp north of Freetown, media and other sources reported. The situation was brought under control later on Monday, Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukolade told IRIN. Reports said that the inmates looted a local market and businesses, demanded food, medicine and money and complained they had not received their entitlements. Sankoh asks RUF to disarm ECOMOG officials and RUF leader Foday Sankoh travelled to the RUF-held areas of Segbwema and Daru in eastern Sierra Leone on Tuesday to persuade combatants to disarm, ECOMOG spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukolade told IRIN on Wednesday. “Over 2,000 RUF combatants, women and children said they would comply with Sankoh’s call to his followers to disarm,” he said. A UNAMSIL report on Wednesday stated that since the start of the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme on 4 November, no RUF fighters had been registered at the Daru camp. Other operational demobilisation centres at Lungi, Port Loko South, Port Loko North and Kenema have registered a total of over 600 former combatants, including AFRC, RUF and Civil Defence Force (pro-government militias) fighters. Security Council worried over ceasefire violations The UN Security Council on Monday expressed concern over recent fighting in Sierra Leone and other violations of the peace accord signed in July in Lome, Togo. Fighting was reported in late October in the northern towns of Makeni and Lunsar between Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) rebels, as well as other violations including abductions, rape and looting. Dire humanitarian situation in the north Access to areas in the north has remained “difficult and sporadic” and assessments there have revealed “a dire humanitarian situation, particularly in the area of food and health care”, the Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (HACU) said in its report for 24 October – 6 November. The current situation, it said, highlights the need for “credible and sustainable action on the part of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the former Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) to facilitate humanitarian work”. The HACU report also provides information on initiatives by UN agencies and NGOs in various parts of the country. In the northwest, for example, Medecins Sans Frontieres is providing limited health and nutritional interventions in Kambia District through supplies brought in by boat. In Kailahun in the east, UNICEF has undertaken a comprehensive water and sanitation assessment. Obasanjo addresses parliament Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said there was a need for peace, security, reconciliation and disarmament in Sierra Leone when he addressed that country’s parliament on 5 November during a one-day official visit, news organisations reported. Obasanjo also had a meeting with President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. LIBERIA: Government announces plans for new tax system Liberia’s government will review its tax system jointly with an international accounting firm, Star Radio quoted President Taylor as announcing at a news conference on Tuesday. Taylor said that the review was necessary to ascertain reports of losses by several businesses operating in the country. He said the review would determine whether taxes should be reduced as it was difficult to believe that businesses sustaining losses would continue to operate in the country. Probe ordered into rights violations at military base President Charles Taylor has urged Justice Minister Eddington Varmah to investigate reports of human rights violations at a military training base in Bong County, north-eastern Liberia. Taylor said this at a news conference on Monday, a media source in Monrovia told IRIN. Human rights organisations say that many civilians arrested by the military in Bong County are taken to the base and tortured instead of being handed over to the police and the judiciary, according to the source. Conference recommends reorganising of security forces Liberia’s security forces need to be reorganised to ensure greater professionalism, and a comprehensive national policy on reconciliation should be drawn up, participants in a conference on the national economy, held in Monrovia, said in a statement released on Thursday. The statement summarised the findings of the 4-6 November conference in the areas of governance, economic and financial management and human resource development. Other recommendations relate to strengthening the independence and integrity of the judiciary, doing more to enhance transparency and accountability in all domains of governance, greater empowerment of women, and the formulation of a comprehensive policy on youth and children. The conference, funded by USAID, was organised by the Center for Democratic Empowerment (CEDE) with the support of the Carter Centre. It brought together representatives of the government, private sector, civil society and the international community. NIGERIA: Security heightened as police death toll rises to 12 The number of policemen murdered last week by armed youths in Odi, a town in the south-eastern state of Bayelsa, has risen to 12, ‘The Guardian’ newspaper in Lagos quotes Bayelsa Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha as saying on Thursday. There was a strong police presence on the road between the state capital, Yenagoa, and the main south-eastern town, Port Harcourt, as well as the main road approaching Odi, a media source in Lagos told IRIN on Friday. The source quoted newspaper reports as saying that the police had not yet entered Odi as they wanted to avoid direct confrontation with local people if possible. Alamieyeseigha said seven police officers who were on an oficial mission to Odi were killed by “criminals” who later murdered another five law enforcers. Security agents, he said, had been ordered to mount a 24-hour search for the criminals and to use “all means possible to track them down.” US to help recovery efforts Nigeria deserves US help in fighting crime, improving domestic socio-political and economic conditions as well as making democracy a hallmark of its body politic, a senior US official told senators on 4 November. “Nigeria needs and deserves our assistance as it undertakes these difficult tasks,” Thomas Pickering, undersecretary for political affairs and a former US ambassador to Nigeria, said. He said that over the next 18 months, US engagement with Nigeria would consist of consolidating civilian rule after years of military rule, helping it to reform the military and building partnerships in other areas of mutual concern, from the environment to transnational crime. WEST AFRICA: PRRO received some 36 percent of total requirement A Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO) mounted by the World Food Programme (WFP) has received some US $35 million, amounting to 36 percent of its total requirement of US $95 million, WFP reported. The one-year operation, which started in July, targets some 1.7 million refugees, IDPs and returnees in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, WFP said. GHANA: Food, drugs, shelter urgently needed for flood-hit areas Food, drugs and shelter are urgently needed for people affected by recent flooding in northern Ghana, according to a situation report issued on Wednesday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Tents, straw mats, blankets, mattresses, kitchen utensils and clothing are also needed. For classes to resume, displaced people will have to leave schools now serving as temporary accommodation and so provision of alternative shelter is critical, OCHA said. Many areas are still covered with water, dams and canals need to be rebuilt for the December-March farming season, while roads and bridges need to be repaired so that relief items can be transported, the report said. The report is based on preliminary findings of a joint assessment mission conducted from 3 to 5 November by the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Ministry of Health, Ghana Armed Forces, UN agencies, USAID, Ghana Red Cross and NGOs. SENEGAL: Government, rebels to meet in December Separatist rebels and the Senegalese government are due to hold talks in The Gambia early in December, a source in the Gambian Department of State for Foreign Affairs told IRIN on Tuesday. “These will be substantive negotiations on all the contentious issues,” the official said. The Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC), led by Abbe Augustin Diamacoune, have been fighting for 17 years for a separate state in the agriculturally rich Casamance. The MFDC claims that France forcibly united the area with the rest of Senegal at independence. First round of polio vaccination campaign completed A high average rate of coverage was achieved in Senegal during the first round of a national polio immunisation campaign on 5 and 6 November, according to the WHO. However, in Casamance, where the separatist MFDC is based, coverage was lower than the national average. The official daily, ‘Le Soleil’, attributed this to security constraints. The vaccination campaign was carried out by the Ministry of Health, with the assistance of WHO, UNICEF, USAID, CIDA, Rotary International and the Centre for Disease Control, a WHO official said. The second round is scheduled for 3-4 December. COTE D’IVOIRE: Opposition politicians jailed for two years Leading members of the opposition Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) received prison terms of up to two years on Friday after being convicted under a law that holds the organisers of demonstrations responsible for violence that accompanies them. An Abidjan court sentenced RDR Secretary-General Henriette Diabate and 10 other senior members of the party to two years in prison and a fine of 300,000 CFA francs (about US $500) each. Five others received one-year prison terms. Their lawyers said they would appeal against the convictions. Another four accused were released. The 20 (19 RDR politicians and a journalist from a newspaper close to the party) were arrested on 27 October following an RDR protest that was accompanied by the destruction of buses and damage to the premises of a pro-government daily. They were charged under a vandalism law that holds the organisers of a protest responsible if it turns violent.