Burundi: En bref ce 27 AVRIL 2006 ...

Court for Burundi rape accused after kids die

April 27 2006 - Sapa

A South African National Defence Force sergeant who allegedly shot and killed his two children at a Hoedspruit military base will appear in court on Friday, Limpopo police said.

He would face two charges of murder, one of attempted murder and one for illegally possessing a rifle and ammunition, Superintendent Moatshe Ngoepe said on Thursday.

The sergeant was about to go on trial for rape and murder during peacekeeping duties in Burundi.

"He killed his daughter, aged four, and son, aged two, by shooting them in the head with an R4 rifle, He then shot his wife in the stomach," he said.

The man's 38-year-old wife was airlifted to a Pretoria Hospital.

The incident happened at the Drakensig military base on Wednesday evening between 6.30pm and 7pm.

Police arrested the sergeant while he was allegedly attempting to cut himself with a sharp instrument after he ran out of ammunition.

He also stands accused of raping and murdering a 14-year-old Burundian prostitute.

Closing arguments in this case were due to be heard in Pretoria next week, Beeld newspaper reported on Thursday. He denies the charges.

The legal teams would then leave for Burundi for judgment and sentencing.

Rwandan Refugees Says Burundi Rejects 95 Percent of Asylum Applications
By Cathy Majtenyi / Musasa Transit Center, Burundi 26 April 2006

About 18,000 Rwandans in northern Burundi are applying to stay in Burundi as refugees, claiming that their lives are in danger. But about 95 percent of the applications have so far been rejected and the Rwandans are to be sent home. Human rights groups accuse Rwanda of pressuring Burundi to return the asylum seekers, a charge both governments deny.

Rwandan asylum seekers gather in front of the shelter at Musasa transit center in Burundi
It is raining heavily at the Musasa transit center in northern Burundi's Ngozi province.

People scramble into rows and rows of long, narrow, warehouse-type structures made of tin roofs and walls of plastic sheets displaying the U.N. refugee agency's logo.

Inside, Juma Ndahiroho wraps himself up with a jacket to ward of the cold dampness. He is sitting in a partitioned-off cubicle that he shares with his wife and two children.

Ndahiroho, not his real name, came to Musasa camp last March after fleeing neighboring Rwanda. He say he was a campaigner for Rwandan opposition politician Faustin Twagiramungu during Rwanda's 2003 elections and was, as a result, harassed by members of the ruling Rwandese Patriotic Front, or RPF.

He says he and his family were followed by cars with tinted windows that he suspects were police. He claims that the Rwandan government does not tolerate different opinions, and is afraid that he and his family will be killed if they have to return to Rwanda.

Ndahiroho is one of about 18,000 Rwandan asylum seekers who live in dismal conditions at Musasa and nearby Songore center, waiting for their cases to be heard.

Children pose for a picture at Musasa transit center in northern Burundi's Ngozi province
Rwandan asylum seekers began trickling into Burundi last March shortly after the start in Rwanda of traditional trials known as "gacaca." These trials deal at the grassroots level with perpetrators of Rwanda's 1994 genocide in which Hutu extremists killed up to 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Many asylum seekers claim that the gacaca trials were unfair, they were being persecuted by the system, and they heard rumors of possible upcoming genocide revenge attacks. Others, such as Ndahiroho, said they fled because they were afraid of reprisals for opposing the government.

Last December, a commission of representatives from the U.N. refugee agency and the governments of Rwanda and Burundi began hearing the asylum seekers' cases.

Of the 1,249 applications examined, the commission accepted only 52 people, or a little less than five percent, as refugees. Earlier this month, Burundi's interior minister said his government would expel all Rwandans rejected by the commission.

Tony Garcia, a senior protection officer with the U.N. refugee agency in northern Burundi, explains why the commission turned down most of the applications.

"The stories were confusing, contradictory, when you ask the head of the family and then you ask the wife the same questions, they will tell you something else," he said. "So it was just bad credibility or poor stories; probably inventions. People knew if they are refugees they will get assistance, so they were perhaps forcing themselves to say something because otherwise they would be sent back and maybe they left because they needed food. Who knows?"

A section of the Musasa transit center, where some 18,000 Rwandans are applying for refugee status in Burundi
But there have been international concerns about how Rwanda's 2003 elections were conducted, the fall-out from those elections, and the way the gacaca trials are being conducted.

The London-based human rights group Amnesty International says in the run-up to the elections, the ruling party RPF detained opposition supporters, forced people to join the RPF, and issued death threats to those supporting the opposition. The group also says Rwandan authorities stifle criticisms of the Rwandan government, especially concerning the gacaca trials.

In a statement released last year, the American group Refugees International accused Rwanda of pressuring Burundi to send back the asylum seekers, primarily as a way of showing that the gacaca system is fair and just.

Retired Colonel Didace Nzikoruriho, a refugee advisor for the Ministry of Home Affairs in Burundi, says the Rwandan government is justified in taking measures that may seem repressive but are necessary to get the country back on its feet after the horrific genocide.

He denies that the Rwandan government is putting pressure on Burundi to expel the asylum seekers, saying that both governments are following U.N. procedures.

Rwandan presidential advisor Richard Sezibera tells VOA people are free to support any one of Rwanda's nine political parties without being persecuted, and that those claiming to flee the gacaca system are doing so because they want to avoid justice, not because they are being persecuted by the system.

Sezibera says it is a Rwandan government policy to encourage all Rwandans to return to their country.

"The Rwandan government has no apologies to make for wanting her citizens back. In fact, if all governments acted like Rwanda does, than maybe the refugee problem would be solved. That we vigorously invite all refugees to return is a policy of government," he said.

He also denies that the Rwandan government is pressuring Burundi to expel the Rwandan asylum seekers, but said the two governments are working closely together to make sure that these asylum seekers can return to Rwanda.

Rwanda gets US$15m WB grant

April 27, 2006 By Andnetwork .com Source: Newtimes

The World Bank has granted Rwanda US$15 million to boost its trade and transport services in the region.

The grant, an International Development Association (IDA) grant, was approved by the World Bank Board of Directors on January 24, as part of a list of three IDA credits and a grant of a combined total of $199.02 million.
The grant had a partial risk guarantee for up to $60 million to improve trade and transport services in the East African Community, in which Rwanda is expected to become a member in November this year.
“This project is very important because it will improve the efficiency of trade supply chains and main trade routes, from Uganda’s main gateway routes in Mombassa and Dares-salaam to Rwanda and Burundi to the main business centers. This will in turn reduce clearance time at the ports and border posts, which has been a major hindrance for traders,” Grace Yabrudy, the World Bank Country Manager in Uganda, said at a recent signing ceremony for the funds to be disbursed to the EAC bloc countries.
This is the first time the IDA is providing partial risk guarantees for a transport project in the EAC region.
Rwanda and Burundi are expected to join their counterparts of the East African Community to participate in the planned referendum to enable people decide whether the East African political federation should be formed or not.
The gesture has come at a time when member states of the East African Community are gearing towards unity in order to solve problems affecting them.
The credits are provided on standard International Development Association procedure with commitment fees of up to 0.35 percent, a service charge of 0.75% over a 40-year period of maturity which includes a 10-year grace period.
In the grant Kenya received $120.62 million, Tanzania received $37 million and Uganda received $26.4 million.
The East African trade and transport facilitation project has got three objectives:
To improve trade environment through the effective implementation of the East African community Customs Union protocol adopted in 2004.To enhance efficiency of transport and logistics services along key transport corridors by reducing non-traffic barriers and uncertainty of transit time.

Rwanda: Germany Releases Murwanashyaka
The New Times (Kigali) April 26, 2006
James Munyaneza
Kigali

The government of the Federal Republic of Germany has released Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) militia leader Ignace Murwanashyaka, who was arrested two weeks ago for violating UN travel sanctions. Murwanashyaka, who was blacklisted by the UN for leading one of the rebellions responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of people in the region, was arrested upon arrival in Germany enroute from Belgium after boarding an SN Brussels flight from Entebbe in Uganda. However, the Germany government had earlier asserted that it would not allow the militia leader re-enter its territory, in contravention of the UN sanctions. In a March, 3 correspondence No.156/2006 to United Nations Observer Mission to Congo (MONUC), a copy of which was seen by The New Times, the German Permanent Mission to the UN had indicated that competent authorities would deny Murwanashyaka entry into the European country.

Sources say Murwanashyaka arrived in Uganda by road on April 4, through the DRC border post of Buramba.

On arrest German officials said they had arrested Murwanashyaka for violating a travel ban imposed on him and other 15 militia leaders in the lawless eastern DRC in November by the UN Security Council.

The news of Murwanashyaka's release comes at a time when the Prosecution in Rwanda says it has finalized particulars of a lawsuit against the militia leader.

Deputy Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga told The New Times on Wednesday, April 26, that the dossier had been completed, awaiting procedures to bring the fugitive dissident to justice.

"We have a case against him and I must say that his dossier is now ready," Ngoga said as reports emerged that the rebel leader, who had been detained in Germany for two weeks, had been released.

Ngoga was, however, non-committal on how difficult it will be to have Murwanashyaka prosecuted after release.

"We have been dealing with such dossiers of fugitives who are not in Germany. After all, the German government did not arrest him because of the crimes we accuse him of; we will pursue his case in the same way we handle others," Ngoga said.

He did not mention the number of counts against Murwanashyaka but said the case is related to atrocities the FDLR has perpetrated in Rwanda during numerous raids from their bases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The Deputy Prosecutor General further said that unlike most FDLR members, Murwanashyaka faces no case in connection to the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Murwanashyaka has stayed in Germany for 15 years, and his arrest came upon return from FDLR military bases in DRC.

Contacted on phone, the Prosecutor General Jean de Dieu Mucyo, who is currently preoccupied with the task of investigating the alleged French role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide described the news of Murwanashyaka's release as shocking and unfortunate.

"I have heard about his release but we are yet to know the reasons. However, whatever reasons they may be, setting him free without even deporting him for trial is an unfortunate happening," Mucyo said on Wednesday, adding that the development undermines regional efforts to rid the region of militia groups.

It was not possible to reach German Ambassador to Rwanda Hubert Zigler for comment by press time.

Following his arrest, Kigali asked the German government to deport Murwanashyaka for trial, but offered alternatives that he could as well be prosecuted in Germany, DRC or at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for international crimes.

The reports of Murwanashyaka's release come as Foreign Minister Dr. Charles Murigande is on a four-day visit to The Hague in the Netherlands, the headquarters of the ICC. Sources had said that the visit was partially related to the move of having ICC take on the case.

Rwanda: IBUKA Wants Genocide Commission Speeded Up

The New Times (Kigali) April 26, 2006 Nasra Bishumba Kigali

One year since the Cabinet passed a decision for the enactment of a law establishing a commission charged with fighting against genocide, the association for genocide survivors now wants that the work to be expedited.

IBUKA's Executive Secretary Benoit Kaboyi told The New Times Tuesday that the Association hopes that the government speeds up the process because of its importance to Rwandans.

"The establishment of the genocide commission does not only benefit survivors but also all Rwandans who believe in fighting the genocide ideology," Kaboyi said on being asked if the IBUKA was concerned about the delay in setting up the Commission.

He added: "Let us just hope that it doesn't take longer. Our job at IBUKA is advocacy. We have been carrying out follow-ups, telling these people that they have to expedite this commission." The development comes at a time when IBUKA commemorating the genocide period, which ends in June.

Francois Xavier Ngarambe, the President of IBUKA recently said that the commission would help in making follow ups on events after the genocide.

"There is also need to make a serious follow up on the many genocide fugitives still at large, send those who have deceived and decided to continue threatening survivors back to prison. We at IBUKA believe that a Genocide Commission would be in position to follow up such issues," Ngarambe said.

His remarks follow revelations by the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Joseph Habineza, that plans to set up the Commission were underway.

"There is a commission in parliament which is in charge of that. They are doing a lot of work about it and I am sure we will have the commission ready to take off early next year," Habineza told The New Times on phone recently.

Oklahoma applauds Rwanda president

The Norman Transcript - By James S. Tyree - CNHI News Service

OKLAHOMA CITY — Amid debate and disagreement over bills in the Oklahoma Legislature, representatives and senators took a break Wednesday afternoon to hear an African president speak of cooperation and overcoming tragedy.

Paul Kagame, president of the Republic of Rwanda, became the first African head of state to speak on the House floor when he addressed a joint legislative session. He was in Oklahoma City Wednesday as a guest of Oklahoma Christian University to deliver the Kilpatrick National Lecture that evening.

“We are separated by a sea, but we have so much in common,” Kagame said on the House floor.

Prior to his election as president in 2000, Kagame commanded the military overthrow of a regime considered responsible for tribal-based genocide in Rwanda in the mid-1990s. The war was dramatized in the movie “Hotel Rwanda.”

Kagame, whose youthful face contradicts his 48 years of age and 27 years of military and political experience, drew many comparisons between his native land and Oklahoma.

He said Rwanda and Oklahoma share Christian values, social and financial reliance on agriculture, and the ability to overcome extended periods of economic hardship. Both also had to rise from violent acts in the mid-1990s that shocked the world.

“In the senseless bombing of 1995, Oklahoma displayed the resilience and determination to rebuild,” he said. “Oklahoma is famous for that can-do attitude.”

Violence in Rwanda was far more widespread, as an estimated 500,000 people were slaughtered — some officials say the toll exceeds 800,000 — within a few months in 1994. Tutsis and moderate Hutus accounted for most of the victims.

Rwanda is still struggling to recover from the war’s lingering effects.

“We visit you today as friends,” Kagame said. “… We come to learn how you overcome shortages in the recent past. We come to gain insight in how you created vital tourism and how you turned outflow into an inflow of people.

“I believe we have found true friendship in Oklahoma,” he added, saying he hopes “our exchange of ideas become a permanent feature.”

Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin called Kagame an “eloquent spokesperson of freedom and human dignity” prior to his speech of about 20 minutes, and the floor and filled gallery gave the president a one-minute standing ovation.

Brenda Collins, an Oklahoma City retired school nurse who sat and listened from the gallery, came away mesmerized.

“I received an invitation at the last minute, and when I got here, my heart was just pounding,” Collins said afterward. “This is a historic moment, and after hearing his speech, I am not going to remain quiet about evil that’s going on. I will not; I will speak out and I will work.”

James S. Tyree is CNHI News Service Oklahoma reporter.

UGANDA

Uganda: 30 presidents expected at Museveni swearing-in

April 27, 2006 By Gerald Businge AND - Uganda

At least 30 Presidents from within and outside Africa have been invited to attend the President Yoweri Museveni’s swearing in ceremony on 12th may 2006 at Kololo Air strip in Kampala.

President Museveni was re-elected the president of Uganda on February 23 in Uganda’s first multiparty elections after over two decades. 27 Presidents are expected to come from African and three from Europe. The State Minister for Information, Dr James Nsaba Buturo said on Thursday that the swearing in ceremony is going to be marked under the theme “patriotism, a key for a better Uganda.” The Minister said that lack of patriotism is a big threat to Uganda and that may cause instabilities in the country. Buturo said that some Ugandans have decided to turn against their own country through opposing developments that benefit Ugandans. He singled out the opposition Forum for Democratic Change as one the groups that are against development programs like Uganda’s hosting of the Common Wealth summit due next year. “The spirit of tolerance, reconciliation and accommodation is essential as a facilitator for patriotism to define our people’s national out look” he said Buturo said that the problems like wars that the country is facing today could be averted if all Ugandans showed love for their country. He said that as a sign of unity the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) has extended invitation to leaders of all registered political parties, local leaders, among other categories. The Minister said that in a week before the swearing in day, prayers will be held in various venues of worship for thanks giving. “This will be a way to express our gratitude to the creator for taking us through the transition period and to ask him to bless the country”.

Sudanese refugees in Uganda prepare to go home

www.chinaview.cn

NAIROBI, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday that a group of 13 Sudanese refugees from Uganda, including women, elders and young people, left this week for a "Goand See" visit to their home villages in Kajo Keji county, 30 km from the Uganda-Sudan border.

In a press release, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said the trip, which began on Tuesday, follows a visit to Uganda last week by a Sudanese delegation from Kajo Keji county to encourage Sudanese refugees to return home due to the end of the 21-year conflict in southern Sudan.

"We are ready to receive all our brothers and sisters who have found refuge in Uganda for so many years," Mula Oliva, the newly appointed commissioner of Kajo Keji county told more than 400 refugees who gathered in Uganda's Kali refugee village last week to meet the delegation from southern Sudan.

"There is now peace in south Sudan and we need support of refugees to rebuild our country," Oliva was quoted as saying.

"The conditions are far from ideal but if there are no people in the villages, we cannot drill new boreholes, construct new schools and health centers and improve roads. Everybody is needed and everybody is welcomed home," said Oliva.

One refugee in the crowd responded: "This is the first time in 20 years that anyone from Sudan has come to welcome us home."

The Sudanese "Come and Inform" delegation also included other south Sudan officials, tribal chiefs, elders and students.

The visit was organized as part of UNHCR's preparations for the upcoming first repatriation of Sudanese refugees in Uganda to southern Sudan.

The visit enabled the refugees to ask questions and raise their concerns about what to expect in their homeland so they can make a voluntary and informed choice about returning.

"So far, we have more than 12,000 persons registered for return home," said Tarik Mufic, head of UNHCR's Moyo office.

"Refugees seem ready to replace their settlement in Uganda with their home area, notwithstanding the limited level of services there. We plan to start the first repatriation movement to south Sudan on May 2 following the current go-and-see visit."

A large-scale return became possible earlier this month when UNHCR finalized a tripartite agreement with Sudan and Uganda on repatriation.

There are some 36,000 refugees in northern Uganda's Moyo district, among a total of over 170,000 in Uganda.

Uganda: UPDF calls on ADF rebels to surrender

April 27, 2006 By Gerald Businge

Kampala (AND) The Uganda army-the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces has warned the Allied Democratic Front (ADF) rebels operating in Western Uganda, saying they will face the full wrath of the national army.

The Army Spokesman, Major Felix Kulayigye asked the ADF to surrender before the army finishes them. Kulayigye who was speaking in Kampala urged the people in Hoima district to keep on the look out for the rebels who are running away from Congo to destabilize Uganda.

The ADF are reported to have camps in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The return of the ADF after their defeat by the army about ten years ago is a surprise to some Ugandans who hoped that the defeat of the Lords Resistance Army would be the beginning of peace in Uganda.

Kulayigye said that the ADF rebels who were fighting along side the Congolese Revolutionary Movement rebels are fleeing from an offensive of the Congolese army and United Nations Mission in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Only recently, the minister of defense, Amama Mbabazi appealed to the United Nations to allow the UPDF to enter the DRC in pursuit of the Lords Resistance Army.

However, the opposition Uganda Peoples Congress says government should engage in the peaceful means of ending the wars instead of using the military option.

AND - Uganda

Tanzania commends Uganda for adopting Kiswahili

2006-04-27 SOURCE: Guardian By Emmanuel Kihaule, Kampala, Uganda

Tanzania has commended Uganda for making Kiswahili a national language, saying the move would help to fasten the process of integration in the region.

The Tanzania High Commissioner to Uganda, Rajabu Gamaha, has said the step is good news to the East African region and neighbouring countries of central and southern Africa where the language has been used as lingua franca for many years now.

’Tanzania commends Uganda for the decision which clears the way for its use as a working language and means to unite people as well as facilitating businesses in and beyond the East African Community,’ he said.

In his statement yesterday to mark the 42nd Anniversary of the Union between Tanzania Mainland (Tanganyika) and Zanzibar, Gamaha said Tanzania was willing to co-operate with Uganda and other countries in the region in the teaching and development of the language.

Last year, Uganda’s 7th Parliament declared Kiswahili the country’s second national language after English joining Tanzania and Kenya where both Kiswahili and English were official national languages.

Besides, the High Commissioner on behalf of people and the Government of Tanzania took the opportunity to congratulate Uganda for a successful transition to multipartism.

’Tanzania pays tribute to Uganda for making a very successful transition to a multiparty democracy as well as for conducting presidential, parliamentary and local government elections in a peaceful atmosphere,’ he said.

He thus congratulated the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement and its presidential candidate, President Yoweri Museveni for winning the elections.

The diplomat, also said Tanzania appreciates the efforts by the government of Uganda in resolving the conflict in Northern Uganda and resettling internally displaced people in their original home areas; extending further peace and security in Uganda and the region.

In addition, Gamaha said the bilateral relations between Tanzania and Uganda were expanding for mutual benefit to the people of the two countries.

He said the excellent bilateral relations between the two countries could be substantiated by regular exchange of visits at all levels of government officials and people from both countries.

The High Commissioner gave as an example, the recent first foreign visit to Uganda by the President of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete after winning the 2005 general election, as a further evidence of such close relations between the two countries.

Despite U.N. Force, Child Soldiers Multiply in Congo
By Thalif Deen - Inter Press Service

United Nations 27 April (IPS):The United Nations, which is fielding over 19,800 peacekeeping troops in war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is virtually fighting a losing battle to contain the ongoing recruitment of child soldiers in a country the size of Western Europe.

Asked why child soldiers continue to be a recurring problem in the DRC despite the presence of the largest single U.N. peacekeeping force in the sprawling African nation, Julia Freedson, director of Watchlist of Children and Armed Conflict, told IPS: "The size and broken-down infrastructure of DRC prevents U.N. personnel from reaching many corners of the country."

And egregious abuses against children and other civilians, she pointed out, take place daily in areas that are far from international reach. "In addition, armed conflict, political disorder and poverty have led to a weak or non-existent judicial system in most areas," she added.

As a result, the majority of crimes committed in DRC, including the ongoing use and recruitment of children by military forces and armed rebel groups, are perpetrated in an environment of near complete impunity.

In a new 63-page report released Wednesday, Watchlist said children in DRC continue to endure some of the most inhumane treatment found anywhere in the world, despite outward signs of progress.

The study, titled "Struggling to Survive: Children in Armed Conflict in the DRC", said at least 30,000 boys and girls are currently taking an active part in combat, or are attached to military forces or armed groups and used for sexual or other services.

An estimated 10,000 children fought with the Congolese government forces under the leadership of Laurent Kabila during the war against President Mobutu in 1996-1997. The current president, Joseph Kabila, took power when his father Laurent Kabila was assassinated in 2001.

"Children often fight on the front lines and witness or are forced to participate in serious human rights abuses against civilians," the study noted.

The United Nations has identified at least 10 armed groups in DRC, including the Mai Mai, the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement, the Democratic Forces for Liberation of Rwanda and its new splinter group, known as the "Rastas", as well as the forces of General Laurent Nkunda and several others.

DRC continues to endure the world's deadliest humanitarian crisis, with more than 38,000 people dying every month as a direct or indirect consequence of the armed conflict, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC). And approximately 45 percent of these deaths occur among children under 18.

"Despite the presence of the United Nations' largest peacekeeping operation, the promise of upcoming elections and billions of dollars granted by donors for post-conflict reconstruction in DRC, most Congolese children are not faring any better than they were three years ago -- and for some children, health, safety and well-being have drastically deteriorated," said Freedson of Watchlist, a global network of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) based in New York.

Kathleen Hunt, CARE International's U.N. Representative and chairperson of the Watchlist, said there was stark evidence of the ongoing rape and mutilation of girls, recruitment and use of children by armed groups and other despicable abuses against children.

"In addition, it's widely known that thousands of Congolese children are dying of preventable diseases every day and others are missing out on educational opportunities and other possibilities for advancing their lives," she said in a statement released Wednesday.

The U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), in cooperation with the U.N. Mission in DRC (MONUC), is undertaking "the largest and most complex U.N. electoral assistance mission". The upcoming elections, scheduled to take place mid-June, are described as the first in DRC's 46-year history as an independent nation.

The elections, both for a new president and a new parliament, are expected to cost over 422 million dollars, with 25.7 million Congolese registered to vote.

"There are about 1,200 Congolese who die every single day from the effects of the conflict," says Ross Mountain, UNDP resident representative in DRC and deputy special representative of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "That's a tsunami every six months.."

According to UNDP, the elections are an important first step in a peace process aimed at ending a five-year civil war that has affected six neighbouring countries and killed four million people. But the fighting still continues in some of the country's 11 provinces.

On Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution authorizing the deployment of a European Union reserve force of about 1,450 troops -- specifically to provide security at the upcoming elections.

Freedson told IPS that despite the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars by donors into the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme for ex-combatant children and adults in DRC, the overall DDR process for children has been extremely protracted and plagued by re-recruitment, disorder and other significant challenges.

"We share widespread concerns over the lack of capacity and technical expertise of the Congolese national body charged with managing the overall DDR process, the National Commission for Demobilisation and Reintegration (known by its French acronym CONADER). We urgently call on the governing authorities of DRC and relevant donors to ensure that the CONADER structure is immediately adjusted to address these problems," Freedson said.

Since most of the current conflicts, including the one in DRC, are being fought primarily with small arms, there is a proposal for an international treaty against the proliferation of small arms.

Freedson said she "strongly endorses" the proposed treaty, which is expected to be discussed at the upcoming review conference on small arms, scheduled to take place in New York in June-July.

"The proliferation and misuse of small arms harms children caught in armed conflicts in myriad ways. Children and women are the majority of victims of small arms violence worldwide," she said.

In DRC, the widespread availability of small arms and light weapons continues to generate insecurity and violence, wreaking havoc on children and their communities.

And the easy availability of small arms in eastern DRC, she pointed out, enables soldiers, militias, bandits and others to commit heinous crimes against children, as well as other human rights violations.

Small arms are often lightweight and simple to operate, making it easy for young children to maneuver and repair them without difficulty, clearly contributing to the widespread use and abuse of child soldiers in DRC and other hotspots around the world, Freedson added.

- Inter Press Service (IPS) News Agency -

Social Unrest in Kolwezi, DRC

PERTH, April 25 /CNW/ - Anvil Mining Limited (TSX, ASX: AVM), ("Company")
advises that on April 24, 2006 (yesterday), a group of illegal artisanal
miners engaged in unlawful activity in the town of Kolwezi located
approximately 6 kilometres to the west of the Company's Kulu Mine, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As a result, one of the Anvil guesthouses was burned with the tragic loss of one Anvil staff member and one of its external contractor's security guards. The Company is extremely upset that these deaths have occurred and is making every effort to assist the affected families and to protect its staff and facilities in the DRC.
Anvil has notified the UN (MONUC) and the DRC government of this incident and is waiting for the outcome of their investigation on why the incident occurred. Staff members of the Governor of Kantaga's Office have flown to Kolwezi today to address the situation, which is now calm. As a precautionary measure, the Kulu operation has been temporarily shut down and some non- essential people will be moved to the Provincial Capital, Lubumbashi, located 250 km to the east.
The Company will provide further information as it becomes available.

Congo polls must be held by mid-August-think tank

By Barry Moody

NAIROBI, April 27 (Reuters) - Coming elections in Congo are provoking more bloodshed in a vast country crippled by war, but the polls must be held by mid-August to prevent worse instability, an international think tank said on Thursday. The first multi-party elections for four decades in the mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were officially scheduled for June 18 after being postponed from 2005.

Another postponement of the parliamentary and presidential vote is now considered inevitable because of logistical delays. The polls are intended to draw a line under a five-year war and ensuing humanitarian crisis that drew in six neighbouring countries and has killed at least 4 million people. But the delays benefit the members of a power-sharing transitional government set up under a 2002 peace deal -- a coalition of former belligerents and politicians headed by President Joseph Kabila -- by leaving them in control.

The respected International Crisis Group (ICG) called on the government and the international community to ensure that free and fair elections are held by August 12-13 at the latest.

"Elections are a step in the right direction, but if not carried out properly they could trigger further unrest.

"If the population and leaders conclude change cannot come peacefully through the ballot box, they may well resort to violence to contest the results," an ICG report said.

Despite painting a gloomy picture of the obstacles to a fair vote, the report's author, Jason Stearns, told Reuters: "The least worst of all solutions are elections at the moment...the situation in Kinshasa is unsustainable."

MORE VIOLENCE IN THE EAST

The report said the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), a former Rwandan-backed rebel group and government member, was deeply unpopular and likely to lose most of its power in a vote.

For this reason, there had been a recent resurgence of violence in the east of the country, which was likely to get worse as dissident former rebels attacked Congo's newly integrated army.

In addition, the vote had been inadequately prepared and there were insufficient safeguards against fraud.

The main political opposition, led by Etienne Tshisekedi, is expected to boycott the vote because it says the election will not be fair. This was likely to cause unrest in Kinshasa and the Kasai provinces, where Tshisekedi has his main support.

The ICG said most Congolese "are tired of a transitional government that shows little interest in lifting the population out of misery and has used power for personal enrichment. The ballot box is a way out of this situation."

It called on the government and the international community to take a series of actions to ensure the ballot was as free and fair as possible and prevent fraud or intimidation of the population by military forces, including those loyal to Kabila. The ICG asked the United Nations to work with the transitional government to deal with the militias in eastern Congo by addressing local grievances, especially over land, and to arrest Laurent Nkunda, a formerly Rwandan-backed general charged with war crimes. The U.N. has nearly 17,000 soldiers in the former Belgian colony, the world's largest peacekeeping operation. But the ICG said this force was too thinly stretched across a country the size of Western Europe to deter fighting in the east or urban rioting if the election was not seen as free and fair.

DRC, World Bank are corrupt - NGO

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 - Sapa
Corrupt leaders in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), abetted by the World Bank and other aid donors, have plundered the country's rich natural resources for personal gain while leaving their people mired in extreme poverty, according to a recent report.

Published by an Amsterdam-based non-governmental organization, the damning 80-page report is an expose of systematic mismanagement of mineral resources, especially copper, in southern Katanga province.

But the study by Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa (NIZA), entitled 'The State vs. the People: Governance, Mining and the Transitional Regime in the DRC,' also represents a broader indictment of the DRC's leaders.

The report says "poor policy, political incompetence and corruption" has led to a wholesale failure of the transitional government that has ruled the country since the end of a brutal seven-year civil war in July 2003.

The investigation traces the recent activities of the parastatal, or state-run, copper and cobalt mining company Gecamines (Generale des Carrieres et des Mines), formerly one of the world's largest producers of cobalt.

Citing internal documents, industry experts and public records, the study details how the nominally state-owned concern has been effectively sold off piecemeal to a shadowy network of foreign companies in return for campaign financing or outright bribes.

"The terms of these contracts, deemed by experts to be in most cases stupendously unfavourable for Gecamines, give serious reason to believe that the officials involved in the negotiations have received kickbacks," it asserts, citing international legal advisors who helped put together the deals.

While acknowledging that they have turned up few "smoking guns," the authors append a letter showing that the political party of President Joseph Kabila, the Reconstruction and Redevelopment Party, has used Gecamines as a vehicle of for lavish party financing.

The study is also scathing in its criticism of the World Bank, which has supervised and funded the restructuring of Gecamines for nearly five years.

"The interaction between the Congolese government and the World Bank has resulted in an anarchic and opaque privatisation process that has stripped Gecamines of all its assets" and resulted in the virtual collapse of the company, the study concludes.

"The Bank cannot be unaware of how the mining reforms that it outlines are implemented in practice."

Le Potentiel (Kinshasa) 26 Avril 2006 Pierre Emangongo Kinshasa
Plus de 100 rebelles ougandais de l'Armée de résistance du seigneur (Lra) ont été tués depuis avril dernier par les troupes gouvernementales, a déclaré lundi un haut responsable.
Le porte-parole de l'armée du nord d'Ouganda, Chris Magezi, a déclaré par téléphone à Chine nouvelle que la Force de défense populaire d'Ouganda (Updf) avait abattu 105 rebelles de la Lra, et en avait capturé 50, tandis que deux autres s'étaient rendus, dans des opérations dans le sud du Soudan depuis avril dernier.
Lors de ces opérations, l'armée a saisi 79 armes semi-automatiques avec 208 magasins de munitions et 1 031 balles, ainsi que deux armes automatiques G2 et 82 692 munitions, ainsi que de nombreuses autres armes, dont des mortiers, des grenades, et une arme anti-aérienne. L'Updf a enregistré trois morts, a rapporté M. Magezi. Le succès majeur de l'Updf contre la Lra dans le sud du Soudan explique pourquoi le chef du mouvement rebelle, Joseph Kony, a fui le sud du Soudan vers la Républiqu e démocratique du Congo, a indiqué M. Magezi.

Kabila-Belges francophones: ils filent le parfait amour

MISE EN LIGNE LE 27 AVRIL 2006 | ÉDITION «LE SOFT INTERNATIONAL2» N°857 DATÉ 27 AVRIL N°856.

ALUNGA MBUWA lesoftonline.net 27/04/2006

Déjà des affrontements - des échauffements, des échauffourées, des escarmouches - entre deux armées - des deux ex-chefs militaires, l’ancien chef rebelle JPBG et l’ancien chef des armées de la R-dC JKK. Et ça se passe dans la banlieue de la Capitale! S’il s’agit d’un incident «isolé», cela indique un état d’esprit, la nervosité qui gagne du terrain.

La campagne s’annonce rude, éprouvante, nerfs à vif. Il reste que dans l’ancienne Métropole, sauf production d’un événement imprévisible à ne pas exclure, les Belges francophones paraissaient avoir effectué le choix: ils élisent massivement le fils Kabila.

Depuis Bruxelles, le correspondant du «Soft international» rend compte des derniers faits.

BRUXELLES.
par Alunga Mbuwa.
«La victoire éventuelle de Joseph Kabila à la prochaine élection présidentielle ne nous dérange pas. Kabila, c’est un peu le diable qu’on connaît. Nous savons jusqu’où il peut aller trop loin».

L’homme qui parle ainsi est un homme d’affaires belge ayant requis l’anonymat. Un Francophone. Cet état d’esprit n’est plus singulier en Wallonie-Bruxelles, le pays francophone du Royaume de Belgique. Certains médias d’ici semblent d’ailleurs relayer cette thèse.

À titre d’exemple, les informations «dérangeantes» sur le n°1 r-dCongolais sont éludées ou reléguées dans les pages intérieures de la presse du Sud (francophone). C’est le cas notamment de la dernière manifestation des militants de l’UDPS réprimée par la police à Kinshasa.

On avait beau chercher dans les journaux francophones, l’information faisant état de la bastonnade publique des partisans d’Étienne Tshisekedi dans la Capitale n’a pas eu l’honneur de faire les «unes» des médias belges. «Les menaces du parti d’Étienne Tshisekedi n’impressionnent plus grand monde ici», commentait tout récemment Bernard Leplat, journaliste spécialiste Congo à la RTBF.

LIGNE DE FRACTURE.
Allusion aux militants de l’UDPS qui menaçaient «de transformer le Congo en Irak et en Afghanistan» au cas où le président national de leur parti Étienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba n’était pas admis à participer à l’élection présidentielle.

En Flandre (nord de la Belgique), les télévisions publiques et privées s’étaient en revanche longuement attardées sur les images de la manifestation d’opposants montrant cette répression policière.

La réaction des médias belges suite à la non-participation de l’UDPS d’Étienne Tshisekedi aux prochaines élections présidentielles et législatives révèle la ligne de fracture qui sépare la Wallonie-Bruxelles et la Flandre sur l’attitude à adopter vis-à-vis de la R-dCongo.

«Tshisekedi fuit l’épreuve des urnes», titrait le plus grand quotidien francophone belge «Le Soir» daté 4 avril - sans blague! Qui l’aurait lu à la une d’un journal belge et, encore moins, du «Soir» de Bruxelles, il y a encore quelques années? «Tshisekedi laisse la présidence de la République à Joseph Kabila», annonçait pour sa part la presse flamande, se bornant au constat.

Adulé par les Francophones, JKK est plutôt mal aimé chez les Flamands.

La presse d’ici ne rate pas l’occasion de dénoncer la mauvaise gouvernance, la corruption et le grand train de vie des dirigeants face à la «grande misère» de la population.

Bien que puissante dans le royaume et influente, cette presse n’a que peu d’ascendance sur l’opinion r-dcongolaise qui ne la lit pas, ne lisant pas le Flamand. Si bien qu’elle exerce peu d’effets sur ce public de plus en plus courtisé par la classe politique belge depuis qu’il prend part aux confrontations électorales.

La question francophone et flamande est une longue histoire. Il semble que ce sont les prêtres flamands, atteints par le virus nationaliste, qui rechignèrent à imposer aux peuples colonisés une langue qui n’est pas la leur.

«Un peuple, c’est d’abord une langue», disaient-ils. À raison...

Ce qui explique que les Congolais apprirent les rudiments de la grammaire d’abord en langues locales. La vulgarisation de la langue française n’est intervenue qu’après la IIème guerre mondiale et, surtout, lors de la «guerre scolaire», intervenue au début des années 50, qui mit fin au monopole de l’Église catholique sur l’enseignement.

Les R-dCongolais ne semblent guère appréhender les subtilités institutionnelles du système politique belge. À Kinshasa, la Belgique est toujours considérée dans sa globalité. Comme si l’ex-Métropole était encore un État doté d’un unique centre de décision politique. Grosse erreur!

ERREURS À KINSHASA.
Lors de leurs visites en Belgique, les dirigeants de Kinshasa se limitent à ne visiter que Bruxelles. Les contacts ont lieu uniquement avec des interlocuteurs francophones.

«La Belgique est un État fédéral qui se compose des communautés et des régions», stipule l’article 1er de la Constitution telle que révisée en 1993. La Belgique d’aujourd’hui est constituée de deux entités politiques distinctes.

L’électorat du Flamand Guy Verhofstadt, le Premier ministre libéral actuel, se trouve en Flandre, au Nord. L’ancien ministre des Affaires étrangères, chef de file francophone, Louis Michel aujourd’hui commissaire européen au Développement international, dispose du sien - en Wallonie, au Sud.

Les partis politiques sont régionaux - les Libéraux flamands recrutent au Nord, tandis que les Libéraux francophones au Sud. Il en est de même de tous les autres partis, socialistes, sociaux-Chrétiens, etc.

Il s’agit de deux mondes politiques et socio-économiques dont les intérêts sont loin d’être convergents. Il s’agit également de deux visions différentes de la politique africaine de la Belgique.

«Je n’ai pas rencontré un homme d’État lors de ma visite à Kinshasa », déclarait, mi-octobre 2004, le très cartésien Karel De Gucht, alors tout nouveau ministre belge (libéral) des Affaires étrangères du royaume mais flamand.

«Ce genre de déclaration est de nature à affaiblir la position du président Joseph Kabila et risque de renforcer les Mobutistes qui risquent de revenir au pouvoir», rétorquait aussitôt au titre de parade le ministre de la Coopération au Développement, le libéral (mais francophone) Armand De Decker. Apréciez: tous deux membres d’un même Gouvernement fédéral belge!

En prononçant ces dernières paroles, De Decker, un homme politique très proche du commissaire européen Louis Michel, a sans doute dit tout haut ce que la Belgique francophone, dans sa globalité, pense tout bas.

Sous le régime colonial, le Congo Belge a été administré par la bourgeoisie francophone incarnée par la Société générale de Belgique, SGB détentrice alors des plus emblématiques titres au Congo et dans l’ex-Zaïre dont l’ex-BCZ, Safricas, Gap, Busira-Lomami, Celza, etc., et toute une multitude d’entreprises vendues pour une bouchée de pains au Juif américain Joseph Blattner.

Les Flamands, des prêtres essentiellement, avaient pour mission l’éducation et l’évangélisation des peuples «indigènes».

Selon des historiens, la colonisation du Congo aurait été le dernier projet que les deux communautés flamande et francophone avaient en commun.

AFFAIRE FRANCOPHONE.
L’accession du Congo à l’indépendance, le 30 juin 1960, a coïncidé avec le «boom économique» de la Flandre. La Wallonie commençait en revanche son déclin qui persiste encore à ce jour.

Chacun pour soi, Dieu pour tous. Il y a deux ans, la région wallonne lançait, à l’initiative de son Ministre-président, le socialiste (francophone) Elio di Rupo, un «Plan Marshall» pour relancer l’économie wallonne et en faire une sorte de Hong Kong.

À ce jour, la caisse n’aurait réuni qu’un milliard d’euros. Trop peu pour transformer cette région appauvrie de la Belgique.

Aujourd’hui, près de 80% de produits portant le label «Made in Belgium» sont fabriqués par des industries flamandes.

Les vingt-cinq États membres de l’Union européenne constituent le premier marché du commerce extérieur belge. Les États-Unis d’Amérique viennent en seconde position. L’Afrique sub-saharienne n’occupe que la quatrième position avec moins de 1%, derrière le reste du monde.

À tort ou à raison, la Flandre considère les relations belgo-congolaises comme une «affaire des Francophones».

Une attitude pour le moins compréhensible. D’une part, parce que la Flandre - le pays qui pèse au Royaume - n’a pas d’intérêts vitaux à promouvoir en R-dCongo. Son attachement relatif à ce pays procède de la présence de quelques religieux qui y vivent encore. Lorsque De Gucht rend visite en R-dCongo, c’est pour aller voir dans l’arrière-pays (à Kikwit) un ami prêtre belge… flamand. De l’autre, la R-dCongo est en passe de devenir la chasse-gardée des hommes politiques belges francophones.

Certains observateurs flamands ne cachent pas leur irritation, en privé, face aux critiques que des R-dCongolais articulent à l’encontre de l’activisme de certaines personnalités politiques belges au Congo.

«Les Congolais ignorent-ils que la Belgique de Louis Michel et de Armand De Decker n’est pas celle des Flamands?» C’est ce qu’on entend dire de plus en plus à Bruxelles.

Après une politique africaine attentiste (1990-1999), à l’instigation des ministres des Affaires étrangères de souche flamande (Mark Eyskens, Willy Claes, Franck Van Den Broecke et Erik Derycke), le gouvernement belge a repris pied à Kinshasa au lendemain de l’accession de Louis Michel à la tête de la diplomatie du royaume. C’était en juillet 1999.

Les milieux flamands reprochent aux Francophones de faire preuve d’une sorte de «connivence » en fermant les yeux face aux abus du régime. Successeur de Michel, De Gucht a été à l’origine de plusieurs incidents diplomatiques mémorables entre les deux Capitales. L’homme aime à appeler un chat un chat.

À cause de son franc-parler, De Gucht semble désormais avoir été mis hors jeu au profit de De Decker qui préfère hurler avec les loups r-dcongolais.

Grâce au budget du ministère de la Coopération au développement, la Belgique reste le premier pays pourvoyeur d’aide bilatérale à Kinshasa.

Pourquoi donc la Belgique paraît si attachée au Président Candidat Joseph Kabila Kabange?

Deux raisons. D’abord, des liens affectifs qui se seraient tissés entre Louis Michel et le Président. Depuis l’accession de JKK à la magistrature suprême, l’ancien ministre Michel s’est comporté, au propre comme au figuré, comme le «parrain diplomatique» du jeune Président. L’homme a utilisé son carnet d’adresses pour ouvrir des portes au successeur du «Mzee».

Il semble que JKK n’a pas oublié cette sollicitude paternelle... paternaliste? Ensuite, Michel, alors patron de la diplomatie belge, a joué un rôle majeur dans l’inscription du dossier Congo à l’ordre du jour de l’«agenda de la communauté internationale».

VERS UNE OPA INAMICALE.
Il importe de souligner qu’au nom du principe non écrit de division du travail, la Belgique est toujours - et encore - très écoutée, tant au niveau européen que dans le reste du monde occidental, en matière r-dcongolaise. Et globalement dans les questions touchant aux anciens protectorats belges que sont le Burundi et le Rwanda.

À tort ou à raison, certains milieux suspectent la Belgique francophone de chercher à faire une «OPA inamicale» sur la R-dCongo en positionnant ses hommes d’affaires en perspective du vaste chantier de reconstruction qui doit intervenir après les élections.

Ces mêmes milieux suspectent les Francophones belges de préférer Kabila à tout autre candidat pour des raisons prosaïques. On cite notamment l’implication directe ou indirecte de certains hommes d’affaires ou entreprises belges dans le pillage des ressources de la R-dCongo. Pillage révélé non seulement dans le rapport du Panel des experts des Nations Unies mais aussi lors des travaux de la Commission «Grands Lacs» du Sénat belge ainsi que dans les conclusions du rapport rédigé par la Commission d’enquête Lutundula de l’Assemblée nationale congolaise.

Pour certains observateurs, ce n’est pas la première fois qu’une certaine Belgique jette son dévolu sur un candidat à la magistrature suprême dans ses ex-colonies. En 1993, le major Tutsi Pierre Buyoya était le «candidat» de la Belgique aux Présidentielles.

Certains politologues croyaient dur comme fer que les Hutus majoritaires n’allaient remporter que les Législatives et les scrutins locaux. Surprise: Buyoya fut terrassé par un illustre inconnu du nom de Melchior Ndadaye.

Autrement dit, le dernier mot revient au corps électoral. Dans le secret des urnes.

Chinese president starts state visit to Kenya

www.chinaview.cn

NAIROBI, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived here Thursday on a three-day state visit to Kenya at the invitation of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki.

In a written statement delivered upon arrival at the airport, Hu said Kenya is an important African country and Sino-Kenyan relations have progressed smoothly in the long past.

He said the two countries have continuously enhanced their friendship and cooperation in various fields and strengthened consultations and cooperation in international affairs that helped safeguard the common interests of the two countries and the vast majority of developing countries.

He said he is expecting to exchange opinions with Kibaki on bilateral relations and international and regional issues of common concern.

He said he is convinced that this visit will help strengthen bilateral friendship and cooperation.

China and Kenya set up diplomatic relations in 1963 and bilateral trade volume last year amounted to 475 million U.S. dollars, up 29.7 percent year on year.

Kenya is the last leg of Hu's five-nation tour, which has taken him to the United States, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Nigeria.

Chinese car lust fuels battery trade in Kenya

April 27 2006 By Beatrice Debut

Athi River, Kenya - China's rapid expansion into Africa in search of fuel to feed its booming development needs is leaving a profound mark on the continent's economies, often in little noticed sectors.

And as Kenya hosts Chinese President Hu Jintao on his last stop in a three-nation African tour, the reverberations from Beijing's skyrocketing wealth and clout are being felt throughout society.

Along with a readily apparent insatiable appetite for oil, surging demand from China's growing middle class for cars is driving another, less visible, but perhaps equally important, craving: lead for automobile batteries.

'We've never met the guys, we talk through email'
Once content to sell their stocks of used batteries to local auto parts shops for recycling, in recent months Kenyan junk merchants have entered the international marketplace lured by the high prices offered by Chinese dealers.

As a result, the East African nation's informal scrap dealers are flush with newfound cash from the Orient while its automotive supply industry faces potential ruin.

"They buy the batteries at 15 to 18 shillings per kilo and the local guys only 11,5 shillings," says Steven Maina, a scrap dealer in Kibera, Nairobi's largest slum, and one of the beneficiaries of China's demand.

While the income boost may seem small, the equivalent of about nine US cents per kilogramme, Maina is taking in at least $40 (about R244) per week more than usual, a sharp boost in a country where 60 percent of the 33 million people live on less than a dollar a day.

"Business is doing well," he says with a smile in front of his small shop beside an open sewer as scrawny chickens flit about.

'We may have to close down in a year's time'
Maina, who has now forsaken the Kenyan market for his wares, employs about six young men to troll Kibera's muddy alleys on bikes for old car batteries, often used by slum dwellers to power radios and televisions.

The fruits of their labour and that of many other similar entrepreneurs, flow to Robert Mwangi, a leading Kenyan used battery broker, and others like him who deal with faceless Chinese merchants half a world away.

"We've never met the guys, we talk through email and they pay through bank transfers," he says, noting with approval the explosion in Chinese demand.

"Batteries have become like hot cakes," Mwangi says, estimating that he alone exports about 100 tons a month to China. "Prices have hit the roof."

But while Maina and Mwangi revel in Chinese cash, the more conventional and established in Kenya's auto parts sector languish.

"We used to get old batteries from the local scrap dealers, like Steven and the others," says Michael Wanjala, recycling co-ordinator at Associated Battery Manufacturers (ABM), the leading car battery producer in east Africa.

"Today, there is a shortage," he says. "The lead is going to China."

Less than a year ago, ABM was recycling about 200 tons of used Kenyan car batteries a month at its foundry here in Athi River, about 30km south-east of Nairobi.

By March, that figure had plummeted to just 20 tons, according to ABM managing director John Kinyanjui, who fears that raising the price he offers scrap dealers for batteries will be met by higher Chinese bids.

"If it goes on, we may have to close down in a year's time," he said, lamenting the possible loss of jobs for the company's some 200 full-time employees.

ABM's foundry workers have already been hit by redundancies.

"We have 45 casual workers per month, instead of 60," said smelter manager David Watoro. "They are the first affected."

In Kenya, Kinyanjui estimates that 400 to 450 jobs are directly at stake due to China's invasion of the battery business, with about 700 workers threatened in the East African Community (EAC) that comprises Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Another 3 000 jobs in EAC auto-related companies are also at risk, he says, maintaining that east Africa is just the latest untapped target of ruthless Chinese battery merchants.

"They killed the industry in Nigeria and Zambia, they want to do the same in Kenya," Kinyanjui warns.

To combat the threat, ABM and other Kenyan companies are seeking urgent EAC action to bar the export of used car batteries, arguing that their industry needs protection from outside forces.

Even as the Hu visit promises lucrative new trade and investment deals, the Kenyan government says it will respond to the concerns by raising the matter at a meeting of EAC trade experts next month in Tanzania.

It brushes off suggestions such a ban would violate World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.

"If somebody says it is against WTO regulations, we will respond that we consider this key for our industrialisation," said Samuel Karanja, an economist and trade negotiator at Kenya's ministry of regional co-operation.

Kenya: DFID Anti-Aids Boost Announced

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
April 26, 2006
Johannesburg

Some 60,000 HIV-positive Kenyans are to benefit from a new treatment initiative by Britain's Department for International Development (DFID).
DFID chairman Simon Bland on Wednesday pledged more than US $9 million towards the procurement of additional antiretrovirals (ARVs) and HIV diagnostic equipment.
"This emergency procurement is important to ensure continued treatment of those already on ARVs and ensure new patients also have access to treatment," Kenyan newspaper, The Nation, quoted Bland as saying.

Kenya: Parliament Hears That Women Who Say 'No' Often Mean "Yes"

Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)
April 27, 2006
Joyce Mulama
Nairobi

Although hopes were high that debate on a bill seeking harsher penalties for perpetrators of sexual violence in Kenya would be smooth sailing, discussions have already been marked by controversy.

The bill, now in its second reading, was opened for debate Wednesday -- when legislator Paddy Ahenda raised temperatures in parliament by calling for the law to be amended. He alleged that a section of the bill would criminalise advances towards women by men. Amid outrage by female members of parliament (MPs), Ahenda also observed that when women said "no" to such advances, they often meant "yes".

These remarks prompted women parliamentarians to walk out in protest.

After the second reading, the bill will proceed to a committee where MPs will scrutinise each clause of the law, and make amendments if necessary. Completion of this stage clears the bill for a third reading; once over this hurdle, the bill goes to the president for assent, and to be signed into law.

To date, many male MPs have not declared their positions on the bill, and there are fears that -- like Ahenda -- they may oppose it. Of the 222 legislators, 204 are men.

Civil society groups now want voting on the bill be made public so that they can know the decision of each MP.

This demand came after certain non-governmental organisations (NGOs) threatened to lobby against the re-election of legislators who reject the bill, during the campaign for next year's general elections.

Civil society groups held a demonstration Wednesday to coincide with the opening of debate on the Sexual Offences Bill; protesters were barred by police from getting to parliament, where they had intended to petition the house to support the law.

The gun- toting policemen were in full anti-riot gear. Others waited in a convoy of trucks that served as a barricade against the protestors -- who were undaunted.

Clad in red T-shirts, they continued chanting anti-rape songs as they dared the police: "Kill us today so that we do not get raped tomorrow."

Current legislation stipulates maximum sentencing for sexual offences -- but minimum sentencing is left at the discretion of the magistrate, who may decide to give the offender just a day in jail -- or even community service. This is something that human rights activists have taken issue with.

"In the current law, sentences are pretty lenient and people may even walk out scot free after committing a very serious offence. This has contributed to the high (number of) rape cases," says Millie Odhiambo, executive director of the Child Rights Advisory Documentation and Legal Centre -- a NGO based in the capital, Nairobi.

The Sexual Offences Bill, however, spells out stiff minimum and maximum sentences for rape and defilement. Rape would carry a minimum sentence of 10 years imprisonment, and a maximum sentence of a life term.

Debate on the Sexual Offences Bill follows the release this week of chilling rape statistics.

Conducted by Steadman Research Services, a private company headquartered in the capital, the poll indicates that 1,240 girls and women are sexually assaulted each day. Rape has affected girls as young as five months, and women as old as 86 years.

Joyce Musyoka, nursing director at the Nairobi Women's Hospital, told IPS that of the 1,856 clients with rape-related complications that the facility had dealt with in the last three months, most were children. The hospital receives between eight and ten rape cases each day.

With such worrying statistics, women's organisations are trying to see how best they can lobby MPs to get the Sexual Offences Bill passed.

"We are following the debate and we are in total shock (about) the arguments being brought forth by our male MPs," Faith Kasiva, executive director of the Coalition on Violence Against Women -- another Nairobi-based NGO -- said in an interview with IPS.

"We are not retreating with our campaign to have parliament support the bill."

Kenya: What Next, President Mwai Kibaki?
Financial Gazette (Harare)
April 27, 2006
Mavis Makuni
THE question to ask after the embattled government of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki finally bowed to pressure and released the details of the Anglo Leasing scandal is: what next?

The press has reported over the past week that Kenya's Finance Minister, Amos Kimunya, tabled a report in parliament containing details of the 18 projects through which billions of Kenyan shillings found their way into the pockets and bank accounts of high-ranking government officials.

All together, the fraudulent activities of ministers through the awarding of contracts to a phantom company have so far cost taxpayers a staggering 58.8 billion shillings.

Embarrassingly for Kibaki, his deputy, Moody Awori, is one of the high-ranking government officials implicated in the embezzlement scandal.

Other top officials have also been named. These include Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi, former finance minister David Mwiraria and Transport Minister Chris Murungi.

Moody has vigorously denied involvement in the scam, telling parliament that his office was misled into signing a contract with the non-existent Anglo Leasing Company.

However, despite Awori's protestations of innocence, the Kenyan parliament has recently adopted a report indicting him, other top officials and former ministers for their alleged roles in the various schemes through which state funds were looted.

Since his election in 2000, Kibaki has been under intense pressure to tackle corruption, which plagued Kenya throughout the 24-year rule of his predecessor, Daniel arap Moi.

Initially, Kibaki, who ran for president on an anti-corruption platform, was supposed to deal with the Goldenberg scam which his coalition government inherited from the Moi era.

This was a racket in which top government officials stole a total of US$573.6 million by manipulating a credit scheme for phantom exports of diamonds and gold.

A report released by a team of investigators in February this year called for the prosecution of all implicated former officials.

The inquiry panel also suggested that Moi's role in the fraudulent dealings should be investigated further.

The Kenyan leader was obliged to sack his minister of education, Professor George Saitoti, for his role in the Goldenberg scam.

At the beginning of this month, the Kenyan parliament's public accounts committee tabled 16 recommendations on the way forward, including a call for the prosecution of all the culprits in the Anglo Leasing scandal.

Kibaki has been under pressure from civil rights groups, church leaders, lawyers, the media and ordinary Kenyans to act decisively to ensure that perpetrators of unethical and corrupt activities were brought to book.

Will the Kenyan leader rise to the challenge or will he succumb to the inertia epidemic that has paralysed most of his continental peers so as to save their own or their cronies' skins?

Despite his vehement declarations prior to becoming president and the expenditure by his government of millions of tax dollars on anti-corruption investigations, Kibaki has sometimes appeared to drag his feet when it came to dealing with those of his colleagues caught in the anti-graft dragnet.

John Githongo, Kenya's former anti-corruption boss, has complained about presidential inertia after he had presented damning evidence against some government ministers.

In 2005, Githongo was in fact forced to resign from his post as permanent secretary for government ethics after receiving death threats. He sought refuge in Britain and was only invited to return to Kenya to testify before parliament in January this year.

His report showed that four high-ranking members of the Kibaki government -- Awori, Kiraitu Murungi, Mwiraria and Chris Murungi -- had blocked his attempts to probe the Anglo Leasing scam.

As it turned out, all four have been implicated in the racket, but Kibaki did nothing to protect Githongo at the time the quartet were terrorising him.

Corruption has dominated the headlines in Kenya since Kibaki came into power and at one time the issue threatened to bring the post-Moi government down.

Apart from the Anglo Leasing and Goldenberg scams, revelations about the corrupt activities of officials in others spheres of Kenyan life have caused great embarrassment for Kibaki.

These have included the governor of the country's central bank, Andrew Mullei, who was accused of abusing his office by improperly awarding consultancies to cronies, including his son.

Kenya's economy grew by five percent last year, up from an average annual growth of two percent under Moi's autocratic governance.

Critics, however, say the economy would perform even more impressively if the government delivered on promises to root out graft and crime.

There is no doubt that Kibaki's credibility, which suffered serious knocks following the referendum debacle in November last year and the media crackdown last month, would be restored if he acted decisively to ensure that those implicated in corrupt activities are brought to book.

Kenya seals off border with Ethiopia

By Evelyne Ogutu / Friday April 28, 2006 www.eastandard.net

Security officers have sealed off the Kenya-Ethiopia border at Moyale and Marsabit districts.

The move follows an incident on Wednesday afternoon, where Ethiopian militiamen crossed into the country. Kenyan soldiers intercepted the group at Samore area in Moyale as they were planning to attack a home in Atesa area of the district. A soldier was injured in the ensuing exchange of fire.

Moyale police boss, Hesbon Kadenge, said five herdsmen, who were kidnapped on Monday, had been released. The men were rescued by security officers manning the border. The team, comprising military and General Service Unit officers, has been guarding the border since Wednesday.

Eastern Deputy Provincial Police Officer, Gerald Oluoch, said the team would remain there until calm returned to the region.

Moyale district residents who live close to the border

scampered for safety on Wednesday as the Kenyan security officers engaged the Ethiopian militia in a gunfight. Oluoch, who is heading the operation at the border tension was still high in the area.

Police spokesman Gideon Kibunja said the militia — who had crossed the border to evade being captured by Ethiopian security forces — retreated to their territory.

Armed men dressed in Ethiopian military uniform crossed over to Kenya two weeks ago and terrorised villagers, before taking away 2,947 animals. The Government, through the Marsabit District Security Committee, sent a protest note to the Ethiopian government. The attack was, however, blamed on Oromo Liberation Front rebels.

Kenya: Leaders Want Oil Plan Put On Hold

The East African Standard (Nairobi) April 27, 2006
Caroline Mango
Nairobi

Lamu leaders have urged the Government to suspend the multi-billion shilling oil exploration in the area, claiming the local community has been short-changed.

The leaders on Wednesday demanded that the community be fully sensitised first on the impact of the project and be involved in it through community committees and leaders' representatives. This follows the visit to Lamu last weekend by Energy minister, Henry Obwocha, to sensitise local people on the exploration that is going on offshore in Lamu district.

Lamu East MP Abu Chiaba, who supports the project, however, insisted that the project was yet to take off and that the impending November drilling was supposed to establish whether the oil was economically viable for investment.

But Lamu East LDP chairperson, Shakilla Abdallah, claimed that three companies have already been contracted for the November drilling and wondered why the residents were being kept in the dark. But Chiaba insisted that the drill would be just a primary exercise to confirm the viability of the project. He said that whereas it was true that the community had not been involved yet, the project was still in its early phases and would incorporate the public at the right time.

Chiaba said the drilling, which would take place in the deep sea, would confirm whether the project was viable or not, before wananchi could be fully involved through community committees.

Abdallah said Lamu residents depended on the sea for their economic livelihood through fishing and that any project to be undertaken in or around the sea must first involve the community.

"The government must not take Lamu residents for granted. As much as we welcome and support such a project, we must be part and parcel of it," said Abdallah.

Abdallah said that residents did not want to be compensated and instead wanted to participate in the project. But Chiaba told Lamu residents to be patient and wait for the results of the November drilling.

"Let us not create controversy at this stage. Let us remain calm until after the drilling. The project will be for the people and the community will be fully involved at the right time," said Chiaba.

Angola begins Paris debt talks - Fin Min spokesman
Thu Apr 27, 2006 By Christopher Thompson
LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola has formally started negotiations to reschedule its foreign debt, a move analysts say may push the oil-rich country back into the arms of the International Monetary Fund which it has spurned in the past.

Finance Ministry spokesman Bastos de Almeida said on Thursday that Finance Minister Jose Pedro de Morais was talking to the Paris Club of international lenders, which hold a chunk of Angola's estimated $9.5 billion in external debt, much of which is in arrears.

"De Morais is in Paris and discussing with the Paris Club to try reschedule our debt," de Almeida told Reuters in a phone interview.

Debt rescheduling would allow Angola access to cheaper bilateral credit than the oil-backed loans it has relied on in the past.

But the Paris Club has first demanded that Luanda put an IMF lending programme in place -- a condition which Angola has previously rejected due to the fund's requirements on financial transparency.

Angola is sub-Saharan Africa's second largest oil exporter after Nigeria, with state media saying this week that it was now pumping 1.4 million barrels per day, a figure the government says will rise to 2 million bpd by the end of 2007.

The country is currently amidst an oil-funded reconstruction boom after the end of a devastating 27 year civil war in 2002. The Finance Ministry said this month Angola had received $5.5 billion in new foreign loans since 2002, and that more was expected primarily from Spain, Germany and Japan.

BACK TO THE FUND?

Jon Shields, who led a recent IMF inspection trip to Angola, said Luanda's approach to the Paris Club could reopen the door to the IMF, which has had strained relations with the government since independence from Portugal in 1975.

"Rescheduling (Angola's debt) will take quite a while because it needs a full Fund programme - that's a provision of resources - lending money by the Fund," Shields told Reuters on a trip to Angola last month, adding that Luanda owes the Paris Club "around $2 billion".

But the Finance Ministry said this was not necessarily the case, with some Paris Club members apparently now ready to deal directly with the government without IMF involvement.

"It's a unique situation," said de Almeida. "Spain wants to deal directly but France and Italy no - only with the IMF. Some have confidence and others don't believe in the policies of the Angolan government."

High oil prices coupled with foreign credit such as a $3 billion oil-backed loan from China's state-run Eximbank have boosted Angolan government coffers and lessened the need for good relations with the Washington-based IMF.

In the past the IMF has demanded "further improvements in oil revenue transparency" before lending, according to Ghita Bhatt, spokeswoman for the Fund's Africa operations -- a condition which Luanda proved unready to accept.

Economic analysts said Angola's wariness of the IMF is rooted in its recent history.

"Many of Angola's leadership today have been in power since the days of Marxism-Leninism before 1990, when they were steeped in suspicion of the West," said Angola specialist Nicholas Shaxson, a fellow of the UK-based Royal Institute for International Affairs.

"This suspicion still lingers. Earlier IMF staff-monitored programmes, which went off-track, also caused significant irritation in Angola's leadership."

A report by Human Rights Watch in January 2004 said $4-billion in oil revenues were unaccounted for in government finances between 1997 and 2002 - a staggering sum in a country where most people live on less than US$2 a day according to United Nations Development Programme.

De Almeida said Angola would not release more details of the talks prior to de Morais' return home at the end of the week, but hinted that a recent IMF audit of Angola's economy may have allayed some of the Fund's concerns.

"The IMF gives a certain impression ... that transparency is getting better," he said.

Angola: Government discusses restructuring f debt with Paris Club

April 26, 2006 By ANDnetwork .com Source : Angola Press

The Angolan Government is since Tuesday in Paris, France, discussing the restructuring of Angola debt to the countries that integrate the Paris club (CP).

\In representation of the Angolan Government is in Paris the Finance minister, Jos` Pedro de Morais, and the National Reserve Bank (BNA) governor, Amadeu Maur¡cio, to debate with the members of Paris Club the reorganisation of Angolan debt.

The restructuring of the debt with CP will enable the reopening of the credit lines of member countries of the club, that assume particular importance in this phase of national reconstruction.

Angola: Japan Ambassador hands over equipments to fight malaria

April 27, 2006 By ANDnetwork .com Source : Angola Press

The ambassador of Japan to Angola on Wednesday handed over equipment, estimated at US $2 million, to the authorities of Benguela Province to help fight malaria, in the framework of celebrations of Africa Malaria Day, April 25.

The Japanese official is since this morning in Benguela with a team headed by the Minister of Health, Sebastiao Veloso.

The project of Japanese Co-operation of fight against Malaria will be developed in Benguela in 2006/2007 period.

Angola: International Minerals fair begins today

April 27, 2006 By ANDnetwork .com Source : Angola Press

The first edition of the International Mines Fair begins today, in Luanda, Angola with the participation of 115 exhibitors from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America.

The event is a joint collaboration of the Angolan Diamond Company (ENDIAMA E.P) and Expo-Angola, and will be held in the 1st and 2nd pavilions of the FILDA complex, where the exhibitors will be distributed into 40 stands.

Besides the diamonds sub-sector, the area that will be mostly represented, the Fair will also include companies that explore iron, gold, copper, magnesium, ornamental stones, lime stones and sand.

The exhibition will be attended by representatives of companies of Asia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Namibia, India, Canada, Portugal, Argentina, Zambia, Israel, Italy and Brazil.

The International Mines Fair that will be held annually aims at showing Angola`s mineral potential to the whole world.

Just one third of Angola’s oil production remains in the country

Luanda, Angola, 27 April –(macauhub) The Angolan state receives just one third of total oil production in the country, which is currently estimated at 1.4 million barrels per day, with the remainder going to the companies operating in Angola, as a way of recovering their large investment in the industry.

The figures were published in Luanda by Amadeu Azevedo, national director of Petroleum, speaking on the sidelines of the preparatory work carried out for the meeting of Ministerial Council of African Petroleum Producers Association (APPA), which is due to be held Friday in the Angolan capital.

According to Azevedo, not including tax revenues, the Angolan state pockets just 32 percent of the country’s total oil production.

Oil companies operating in Angola keep half of the production as a way of recovering the investments made for oil exploration, while the other half is split between those companies and the State, represented by oil company Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola (SONANGOL).

In order to try and change this situation, Azevedo said that the country was focused on training Angolan staff and increased participation of Angolan companies in the oil business, a sector which the State hopes will be dominated by national companies, in order to increase internal revenues.

Azevedo said however that Angola’s oil production could increase more quickly that had been forecast, saying that it could reach 2 million barrels per day by the end of 2007.

Estimates from Sonangol pointed to this level of production being reached in 2008.

Angola is the second-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, after Nigeria, and currently produces 1.4 million barrels of oil per day.

The country’s oil reserves are estimated to be around 12 billion barrels, and the Angolan offshore area is divided into 74 blocs, of which only 30 are currently under operation.

BPI View Hinges On Angola Unit - KBW

Thursday, April 27, 2006 Dow Jones Newswires

0549 GMT [Dow Jones] Keefe, Bruyette & Woods keeps Banco BPI (BPI.LB) at market perform after 1Q earnings, which it says were in line with expectations. Says the key uncertainty is the bank's Angola operations, which contribute 19% of net interest income and which rely on short-term corporate and government bonds that are dependent on market conditions. Says the standalone value of BPI, based on management targets and giving full value to the Angola unit, should be closer to 11x 2007 earnings, or EUR4.9 a share. Based on its projections, stock should be at EUR4.6, well below the EUR5.7/share on offer from Banco Comercial Portugues (BCP.LB) in its takeover bid. "Hence, we believe investors' choice lies between the mid/long-term potential of Angola versus the execution of a large in-market merger and with the new projections of BPI management, the overall outcome is uncertain." BPI closed at EUR5.87. (ETB)

MAPESS Holds Debate On Employment In Angola

Luanda, 04/27 - ANGOP - The Ministry of Public Administration, Employment and Social Security holds this Thursday, at the Palace of Congress, here, a debate on "Employment in Angola", which will only focus on the business sector, such as Agriculture, Geology and Mines, Fisheries and Industry.

The meeting that aims at contributing for a better knowledge and application of public policies that generates jobs in the country will pay attention to those areas due to them being the ones that will have more man power in future.

Knowing the procedures for the materialisation of regulations of the government`s general plan in the field of employment is the main objective of the forum, which will join experts of the International Labour Organization (ILO), of the United Nations Development Programme and representatives of Provincial Governments.

Happening until next Friday, the debate will unite over 300 participants of the public and private sectors.

MSF: 20,000 infected in Angola cholera epidemic, response inadequate
27 Apr 2006 Source: Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) - International - MSF International - Website: http://www.msf.org

"Many factors have conspired to make this cholera outbreak one of the worst ever seen in Angola. But with what we know today there can be no excuse for not doing everything humanly possible to prevent the death toll from climbing much higher," says Richard Veerman, MSF Head of Mission in Angola.

MSF: Luanda - Ten weeks after the first case of cholera was confirmed in Luanda, some 20,000 people have been infected, around 900 people have died, and the disease has spread throughout most of the country.

Tuesday (25 April), saw the highest daily toll to date, with 929 new cases and 25 deaths. Yet measures put in place for halting the outbreak remain grossly insufficient. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) urges the Angolan governmen