Burundi: En bref ce 30 JUILLET 2006 ...

Burundi’s President okays Abuja stadium
Sunday, Jul 30, 2006 http://www.thetidenews.com
President of Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza has praised the Nigerian government for providing grand facilities at the Abuja National Stadium, describing the edifice as “one of the best in the world.”

Nkurunziza, who was on tour of facilities at the stadium told Tidesports' source at the end of the inspection: “what I have seen here is great, it's monumental and it's something Nigeria and the whole of Africa should be proud of.

“It is something that goes beyond the pride of Nigeria as a nation, and should be an inspiration to the African continent,” he said.

The ex-footballer disclosed that his country, Burudin has just come out of crisis and he is presently pursuing national development.

He stated that sports development, which includes Stadium development was part of his porgramme for the people of Burundi.

Burundi pursing anti-corruption campaign

Bujumbura, Burundi, 07/30 - angop - Elys`e Ntiranyibagira, a former director general at the Burundi Tea office, has been arrested as part of ongoing government campaign against corruption, official sources said here.

He is the third former State agency official to be arrested for alleged economic and financial mismanagement involving millions of US dollars from the past regime.

Former Transport, Posts and Telecommunications Minister, S`verin Ndikumugongo, and the former director general of the National office of Telecommunications (ONATEL), Séverin Ntahomvukiye, have been detained under President Pierre Nkurunziza`s anti-corruption drive.

According to the anti-corruption and economic and financial mismanagement office, there are more than 1,500 pending cases of alleged frauds involving more than 100 billion Burundi francs (about US$100 million) in the country.

But L`onard Nyangoma, leader of the opposition National Council for the Defence of Democracy, said corruption and mismanagement had not disappeared under the new regime.

Speaking at a press conference here Friday, he cited the "fraudulent" sale of a presidential Falcon 50 plane, which he alleged caused the country a loss of more than two million US dollars.

UGANDA

Uganda rebel stays away, sends son to peace meeting
By Matthew Green Sun 30 Jul 2006

NABANGA, Sudan (Reuters) - The leader of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebels failed to appear at peace talks due to take place on the Sudan-Congo border on Sunday, instead sending his 14-year-old son as a gesture to placate mediators.

The rebels said Joseph Kony, who has lead the LRA uprising in northern Uganda for 19 years and is internationally wanted, would meet delegates from Uganda and southern Sudan at a remote clearing on the border on Monday.

They blamed rain for the delay.

Kony's LRA insurgency has displaced more than two million people in the region and killed tens of thousands.

An LRA spokesman, Obonyo Olweny, said by satellite telephone that Kony had been delayed by the bad weather.

Accompanied by about 20 rebels, Kony's sons Salim Saleh arrived at the clearing where the group was waiting before disappearing back to rebel camps in the dense eastern jungles Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The boy, who wore black gumboots and a red top, did not deliver any message to about 40 members of a delegation hoping to persuade the LRA commanders face-to-face to end their war.

South Sudan's Vice President Riek Machar said the talks had been postponed because the rebels needed more time to consult with an advance party of five cultural and religious leaders from northern Uganda who went to their camp on Saturday.

"They want to probably formulate a position, which is good for the peace talks," Machar, who is leading the mediation efforts, said at Nabanga, an outpost on the Sudan-Congo border.

Delegates waited for six hours at the clearing before they returned to their camp after Kony did not turn up.

The rebels also let an officer from the United Nations children's agency UNICEF visit them in the Congolese bush.

The officer said she met a group of 105 young women, children and babies from the LRA, who said they wanted to return home with the rest of the rebels when a peace pact is signed.

UNICEF has donated kitchen utensils to the young women to help them improve conditions for children in the rebel camp.

Another 50 delegates from northern Uganda were expected to arrive at the border late on Sunday or early on Monday to join the peace delegation, which is comprised of more than 100 representatives from northern Uganda and southern Sudan.

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This article: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1106142006

Tanzania ready for Comesa
July 30, 2006, The East African By ANDnetwork .com

Even though some industries in Tanzania are still clamouring for protection from imported goods, others say they are now capable of competing.

According to a study on the effects of Tanzania's withdrawal from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), the competitiveness of Tanzanian industries in the region is being hampered by the high cost of utilities; water, telecommunication and electricity tariffs, taxes and high interest rates.

The study recommends that Tanzania should not have withdrawn from Comesa, as its exports are losing competitiveness in the Comesa market.

The government should address the problems facing industry, such as taxes, electricity costs, transport and trade policies, says the "Study of the Post-Effects of Tanzania's Withdrawal from Comesa on Tanzania Business Developments with Comesa Member States."

The study, presented in Dar es Salaam last week, says that some Tanzanian industries are however competitive.

Companies engaged in agro-processing are more competitive because they source most of their raw materials locally or from the region, unlike the rubber and plastic industries, which source their raw materials from abroad and so are less competitive.

The study was commissioned by the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, the Confederation of Tanzania Industries and the East African Business Council.

"The tax structure of iron and steel and cement factories depended on the type of technology, electricity cost, size of output-productivity and transport cost, while textile factories had industrial oil and taxes as the worst factors," the study says.

An important finding in all previous studies, however, was that many Tanzania industries were nevertheless exporting to Comesa countries, taking advantage of its tariff reductions, which ranged from 70-90%.

For a long time now, Tanzanian industries have demanded protection from the government, claiming that they are still young.

One of the reasons for Tanzania's withdrawal from Comesa was that its industries were in their infancy and could not compete in the Comesa Free Trade Area.

Indeed, in the past four years, the government has taken a number of pro-active export promotion measures, including preparing and adopting in 2004 a comprehensive export-led economic growth policy; and the adjustment in electricity tariffs from 2000 to 2002.

Electricity tariffs for industrial consumers were reduced from Tsh97 per unit to Tsh54.5 per unit in 2002; tax on industrial oil was reduced in the 2003/04 budget and import duty on raw materials, machinery and intermediate goods has been zero-rated since 2002.

The study notes that the government has invested heavily in road and highway construction and rehabilitation over the past five years, especially the roads leading to Rwanda and Burundi, linking Dar es Salaam to the southern regions of Mtwara and Lindi and opening the way to Mozambique and Malawi through the Mtwara Corridor.

Tanzanian industries said to be competitive in the Comesa region are Aluminium Africa, Kioo Ltd, Kibo Match Corporation, Tanzania Distilleries Ltd, Tanzania China Friendship Textile Ltd and Jiemel Industries. Others are Allied Soap Company Ltd, Sumaria Group of Companies and Raffia Bags Ltd.

According to the study, many industries, that claim to be uncompetitive do not have expansion plans or plans to modernise technology and grow.

DRC: Vote starts with good turnout

KINSHASA, 30 July (IRIN) - In the first democratic elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in more than 40 years, people started lining up early in the morning in many voting stations in Kinshasa and the east.

"I voted for the first time in my life!" shouted one man with excitement as he left the voting station at the Roman Catholic school next to St Anne's Cathedral in the centre of Kinshasa. "Thanks be to God. Long live the Congo."

Voters stood in long queues in the hot sun in various Kinshasa suburbs, including Lemba, Matete and Ngaba. Many expressed joy and pride at being able to choose their country's leaders.

"After being colonised and oppressed we are finally the masters of our own destiny," Pierre Sungu, an elderly man waiting in the queue next to the cathedral, said.

Voting was so heavy at the school that by 11:00 (14:00 GMT) ballot papers could not fit into the ballot box. The proceedings continued once an official had taken a stick and squashed the ballots into the voting boxes to make room for more papers.

Voter turnout was also high 2,000 km east of Kinshasa. Long queues started forming in the early morning in and around Bukavu, the provincial capital of South Kivu. "I thought it was important to come early," Nanamie Bitendanwa, 30, said as she lined up at a voting station near the city centre. "We had been mistreated by yesterday's leaders. Now I hope we can choose more responsible people who will have to answer to us."

Lines were also long at voting stations in Bunia, capital of Congo's troubled northeastern Ituri District. Voting was interrupted at one station in the suburb of Nyakasanza by a drunken policeman but the situation was otherwise calm.

In rural areas around Bunia people faced more serious obstacles. A militia set up a roadblock at the village of Loribi, 20 km south of Bunia. IRIN talked to a group of 100 people who had walked 10 km to get to a voting station but the militia had forced them to turn back. "We are very disappointed," Joel Mandro, one of the would-be voters, said.

In the western port town of Matadi, Bas-Congo Province, many people could not vote because their names were not on the voter registration list. The Independent Electoral Commission had said that at least 1.2 million of the 25.7 million names on the voter list had gone missing but that the index numbers on their voter cards could still be used as identification. Even so, officials at the polling stations turned them away.

Similar problems were being reported in the towns of Tshikapa, in Kasia Occidental Province, and in Kinshasa.

The head of the electoral commission, Apollinaire Malumalu, said at a news conference in Kinshasa on Sunday that some people in the town of Gemena, Equateur Province, were trying to vote by force in stations where they were not registered. "They have to realise that they can only vote were they are registered," he said.

Malumalu also said he had heard that people in Kinshasa and Kalima, in Maniema Province, were paying people to vote for their party. Two people at the news conference said they had seen a representative from President Joseph Kabila's party paying voters. Afterwards a representative from the party denied the accusation.

There appeared to be low turn-out in the capital of Kasia Occidental, Mbuji Mayi, the stronghold of long-time opposition leader Étienne Tshisekedi, who, along with his party, the Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social (UDPS), did not participate in the elections.

"The only way we can have a voice is to stay away from the polls," a Tshisekedi supporter said.

Tshisekedi had called for a boycott, then decided to run, but by then the electoral commission had said it was too late.

On Saturday in Mbuji Mayi a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a truck full of electoral material. The truck caught fire and exploded. The vice-president of the electoral commission, Norbert Basengez, said on Saturday that the truck only contained voting booths and kits, not actual ballots.

"The incident will not disrupt the voting," he had said.

Three of the vice-presidents in the current transitional government, who were former rebel leaders, boycotted a meeting on Saturday with the head of the commission to protest at the shooting of bodyguards of one vice-president, Azarias Rubewa, by President Kabila's guards. However, in a joint news conference, the vice-presidents said people should still vote.

"We ask all citizens to vote even though there are security concerns and many technical problems with the elections," Arthur Z'ahidi Ngoma, one of the four vice-presidents in the outgoing transitional government, said.

With 25.7 million registered voters, UN officials say this is the largest election it has supported and logistically the most difficult. "There are almost no roads in this country," said Michel Bonardeux, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC, MONUC. "Hundreds of tonnes of election material had to be sent by air."

The logistical challenges mean results will take time. "We have promised the results for the presidential elections will take no longer than three weeks," Malumalu said on Saturday. "Partial results for the parliament could come in sooner. [On the Net: Countdown in Congo: http://www.irinnews.org/DRCelection.asp ]

Key events in DR Congo peace process
Source: Xinhua July 30, 2006

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) embraces a historic election on Sunday since its independence from colonial power of Belgium in 1960.

Here is a short chronology of key events in the DRC over the last four decades.

1960: Congo declares independence from Belgium on June 30 and Joseph Kasavubu becomes president.

1965: Mobutu Sese Seko seizes power in a coup and begins a 32-year-rule to the country.

1997: Rebel leader Laurent Kabila declares himself president after being propelled to power by Rwandan-backed forces that swept across Congo. Mobutu then flees into exile.

1998: Rebel forces backed by Rwanda and Uganda rise up in east against Kabila due to deepening conflicts. The war draws in six neighboring armies and divides the north and east into rebel-controlled fiefdoms. Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola send troops to help Kabila and halt rebels at the gates of Kinshasa.

1999: Six African governments involved in the war sign ceasefire deal in Zambian capital Lusaka. Rwanda and Uganda who join fighting between rebel factions agree to a truce. The two largest rebels also sign the ceasefire deal.

2000: United Nations Security Council authorizes 5,500-strong UN force to monitor 1999 cease-fire among five foreign armies and government, but Lusaka peace summit collapses and fighting continues. The UN force grows to 17,000 so far, becoming the largest in the world.

2001: Laurent Kabila is assassinated in Kinshasa by his bodyguard and succeeded by his son, Joseph Kabila, who promises to revive peace process and deploy the UN force. Rwanda, Uganda and rebel groups back UN-brokered disengagement plan.

2002: Peace deal is signed in South Africa's Pretoria by warring parties, though local militia groups continue sporadic conflicts in the east. Presidents of Rwanda and the DRC sign peace pact, providing for the withdrawal of Rwandan troops.

2003: Congo's warring factions sign a post-war deal setting up an interim constitution and Joseph Kabila names transitional government to lead Congo until elections. Leaders of main former rebel groups swear in as vice presidents. Interim parliament also inaugurates.

2004: Several abortive coups occur and military conflicts happen in Bukawu, capital city of Sud-kivu Province, which fortunately don't reverse the peaceful process.

2005: Referendum on constitution that limits president to two five-year terms passes.

2006: Congo scheduled to hold presidential elections, its first democratic vote for a new leader since 1960.

DRC makes a new beginning
Edward Harris | Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
30 July 2006 -- Sapa-AP

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) held its first multiparty election in more than four decades on Sunday, a colossal democratic exercise many hope will secure an end to years of fighting and corrupt rule that have devastated this gigantic, mineral-rich nation in the heart of Africa.

The DRC's young President, Joseph Kabila, is the front-runner in a field of 33 hopefuls that includes ex-rebel leaders he once fought against who carved the nation into rival fiefdoms. He became president -- and rebel leaders became vice-presidents -- three years ago in an appointed transitional government formed as part of a peace deal.

"Today is a chance to make a new beginning and to draw the line at all the war we have seen," 44-year-old engineer Jean-Pierre Shamba said after casting his ballot at a secondary school in the eastern town of Bunia guarded by a dozen blue-helmeted Moroccan peacekeepers.

Polling stations opened late in several cities, including Bunia, the central diamond city of Mbuji-Mayi, and the capital, Kinshasa, where voters wore sweaters and shawls against a damp, pre-dawn cool.

By midday, there were no reports of serious violence though United Nations spokesperson Jean-Tobias Okala said 11 voting stations were burned down by people opposed to the vote in the provinces of East and West Kasai, strongholds of veteran politician Etienne Tshisekedi, who is boycotting the poll.

"This is an historic day for us. We've only had coups d'état and dictators in this country: phantom governments," said Emmanuel Kiye, a 48-year-old mechanic voting for the first time in his life. "Now we'll have a government of the people. I thank God."

Kabila
Surrounded by a dozen bodyguards and wearing a blue, pin-striped suit, Kabila cast his ballot at a ramshackle colonial-era school with broken windows. "We're looking forward to a future of peace," Kabila told a mob of shouting reporters in Kinshasa. "We want to consolidate peace and stability in the country. I want victory for the Congolese people."

Jean-Pierre Bemba, one of Kabila's main challengers, said he was "very confident and satisfied" with the poll so far. "I'm waiting for the people of Congo to turn the page."

The presidential ballots are huge: six newspaper-broadsheet-sized pages filled with dozens of candidates' faces, names and party symbols, to help Congolese who can't read select their preferred candidate.

More than 9 000 candidates are also running for 500 legislative seats. About 25-million of Congo's 58-million people are registered to vote.

The $500-million UN-supported enterprise is the world body's biggest to date, safeguarded by 17 600 UN troops, the largest UN peacekeeping force in the world. The European Union sent a 1 000-strong contingent to the DRC to help secure the vote, and another 1 000 European troops are on standby in nearby Gabon.

On Sunday, police at polling stations checked voters for weapons.

Before the poll, dozens died in election-related violence. One parliamentary candidate fled the country because of shootings. A truck carrying voting materials was burned.

The DRC is recovering from back-to-back wars that lasted from 1996 to 2002. Sporadic fighting has continued between government forces and militias in the east, where aid groups say about 1 000 people are dying every day from hunger and disease.

Tshisekedi is boycotting the vote and urging his followers to do the same. His call appeared to be heard in his stronghold of Mbuji-Mayi, where there were more electoral officials and observers than voters at many polling stations. Crowds of youths hovered around some deserted polling booths as riot police patrolled the tense city.

Poll
A face-to-face poll of likely voters conducted in the capital on Friday and Saturday showed 20% were still undecided -- or were reluctant to name their candidate amid the tensions fanned by the campaign.

Of those who expressed a preference, 24% said they would vote for Dr Oscar Kashala, a Harvard-educated cancer researcher and political novice who left Cambridge, Massachusetts, to run for president in his homeland; 17% for Bemba; and 15% for Kabila. The rest were split among the other candidates.

Francesca Bomboko, whose Kinshasa-based agency conducted the poll, said Kashala may have picked up support from backers of Tshisekedi -- both men are from the central DRC. She said the margin of error was plus or minus two percentage points.

Kashala said in an interview on Sunday he was getting encouraging reports from Kinshasa and Mbuji-Mayi. While critics had said he was handicapped by long years outside the DRC, Kashala said Sunday it was an advantage not to have been linked to the wars of corruption of the past.

Despite mineral wealth, the DRC has remained poor, with whole villages in the country's remote interior virtually cut off from the outside world and lawless chunks of the east still prone to militia attacks.

Many believe it will be tough to do away with entrenched graft.

"I have little hope that anything will change," said 56-year-old teacher Emmanuel Mukadi, who said he was voting for a president for the first time in his life. "It doesn't matter who wins."

The DRC descended into conflict almost immediately after it shook off Belgian colonialism in 1960. Decades of civil wars and coups d'état followed, with the late United States-backed Mobutu Sese Seko at the helm for 32 years. One of Mobutu's sons, Nzanga, was among those running on Sunday.

A Rwandan-backed rebellion by Kabila's father, Laurent, forced Mobutu from power in 1997 but a fresh insurgency led by Rwanda the following year divided the country.

Joseph Kabila took power after his father was assassinated by a bodyguard in 2001 and negotiated an official end to the war a year later, establishing a transitional government.

If no presidential candidate gains a majority, a run-off between the top two will be held, probably in September.

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