Weekly anb10247.txt #7



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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 24-10-2002      PART #7/7

* Uganda. "The Monitor" issues apology - 18 October: In its first edition for a week, Uganda's leading independent newspaper, The Monitor, has apologised for running a story which angered the army but has refused to retract it. The government only agreed to lift the blockade on The Monitor's offices if it ran the apology. But the paper's managers argued that admitting the story was false would prejudice the case of three journalists, charged with publishing false news and publishing information prejudicial to national security and likely to assist the enemy in its operation. The paper was closed down on 11 October after publishing a story, claiming that an army helicopter had been shot down by rebels. In an editorial in its "Come-back issue", the Monitor said that police conduct had been "impeccable" throughout the six-day closure. Press freedom body Reporters without Borders and United States-based Human Rights Watch have condemned the Ugandan Government's closure of The Monitor, as a violation of press freedom. President Yoweri Museveni dismissed these accusations and said he had fought for press freedom. But he said that the freedom had been abused and "the police had gone to investigate the dangerous lies they were telling." (BBC News, UK, 18 October 2002)

* Ouganda. Deux martyrs béatifiés - Le 20 octobre, le pape Jean-Paul II a béatifié deux jeunes Ougandais, laïcs, catéchistes et martyrs: Daudi Okelo et Jilro Irwa. Ils ont été tués en 1918 au nord de l'Ouganda, où ils s'étaient rendus lorsque l'évangélisation y commençait à peine. Agés respectivement de 12 et 16 ans, ils ont préféré la mort plutôt que de quitter la région et de renier leur devoir de catéchiste. "Ces deux courageux témoins sont désormais des modèles et des intercesseurs pour les catéchistes du monde entier", a souligné le pape. "Puisse l'exemple de ceux qui ont été béatifiés aujourd'hui nous fortifier tous dans le service des autres". (D'après Zenith, Vatican, 20 octobre 2002)

* Uganda. Pope beatifies martyrs - 20 October: Pope John Paul II has beatified two young Ugandan catechists, among the six people added to the swelling ranks of those on the path to possible sainthood. The Pope praised the six as role models for Catholics, saying their faith, humbleness and willingness to die for their religion was a source of strength. The two were brutally killed for the Faith on 18 October 1918. The beatification coincided with the Roman Catholic Church's celebration of World Missionary Day. The ceremony in St. Peter's Square included traditional African and Indian dancing and music. Among the six elevated on Sunday were Ugandan teenagers Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa, who worked as missionaries in northern Uganda and were killed in 1918. The pope said: "They are given to the entire Christian community as examples of holiness and virtue, and as models and intercessors for catechists throughout the world, especially in those places where catechists still suffer for their faith, sometimes facing social marginalisation and even personal danger". (CNN, USA, 21 October 2002)

* Uganda. Rebels massacre civilians - 22 October: Details are emerging of the massacre of dozens of people in the north carried out by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). According to an Ugandan army spokesman, at least 34 people were killed when the rebels attacked the villages of Awolo and Latugitugi, in the Pader district. The Ugandan army says the villagers were either killed with machetes or clubs. MISNA sources have confirmed the massacre. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 22 October 2002)

* Ouganda. Massacres par la LRA - Le révérend Wilfred Kalama, 35 ans, pasteur de l'Eglise de l'Ouganda (de communion anglicane) a été tué dans la nuit du 16 au 17 octobre par des rebelles de l'Armée de résistance du Seigneur (LRA), dans la localité de Lalogi, à plus de 50 km à l'est de Gulu. Son frère et quatre autres personnes ont également été tués dans l'incursion. - Dans le district de Pader (nord), au moins 35 personnes ont été tuées avec des lances, matraques et machettes, lors de l'attaque de deux villages, Awalo et Latugitugi, par des présumés rebelles de la LRA , a déclaré un porte-parole de l'armée ougandaise. L'attaque a eu lieu mardi 22 octobre à quelque 380 kilomètres au nord-est de Kampala. La LRA se bat depuis 1988 pour renverser le président Yoweri Museveni et instaurer un régime basé sur les dix commandements de la Bible. Elle dispose de bases arrière au Soudan voisin. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 18-23 octobre 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Farmers cross race divide - In the midst of all the stories of violent confrontation associated with Zimbabwe's land reform, some farmers -- black and white -- are making it work in Zhombe, 220 km west of the capital, Harare. White farmer Neville Coetzee agreed to give up 6,000 ha of his 9,000 ha farm to new black settlers. Although he said it was hard to give up so much of the farm he had built, he is sure he did the right thing. "In this area, we're very fortunate. We've had dialogue which took place right at the beginning of the land issue," he said. "I can still be very viable with what I've got left. I'm very happy to stay in the country because I've still got a good life," he said. Mr Coetzee's new neighbour, Tichafa Chitate, is also pleased with the way things have gone. After a year on his new plot of land, his wheat crop is just as high as Mr Coetzee's. "There is a lot of money in farming... I'm expecting a profit of over a million Zimbabwe dollars. Somebody who says we cannot do as good as the white farmers does not know what he is talking about. Come on the ground and have a look. I worked as a customs officer for 21 years but I grew up farming," he said, adding that his father had always encouraged him to get some land and take up farming. Although Mr Chitate is luckier than most black farmers in that he had some money to invest in his new land, he still needs more equipment. He said banks had refused to give him a loan but at least the government had given them irrigation equipment. (BBC News, UK, 17 October 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Food aid halted in Insiza District - 18 October: The World Food Programme (WFP) has suspended food distribution in a district of Zimbabwe, alleging that supporters of President Robert Mugabe threatened their workers and seized donated grain. The United Nations agency say activists from Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party distributed the food from a centre in Insiza District in an unauthorised manner. The UN action came a day after a human rights research organisation, the International Crisis Group, warned that food supplies were being used as a political weapon against opposition supporters in Zimbabwe where half the population are facing starvation. The WFP said it would not tolerate the misuse of its resources for political ends and added that it was seeking urgent assurances from the Zimbabwean Government that such incidents would not happen again. It issued a statement saying: "Relief food distributions are not the place for any kind of political activity. WFP will only distribute its food on the basis of need without regard to partisan affiliation." Insiza -- about 560 kilometres south-west of Harare -- has been wracked by political violence ahead of an upcoming by-election which is being contested by Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The Zimbabwean Government has accused Britain's High Commissioner of trying to ensure that food aid only goes to opposition supporters. But the MDC said aid was being used against the opposition, with officials deliberately arranging distributions near MDC rallies to lure away starving voters who were then forced to chant ruling party slogans and surrender opposition party cards before being given food. (BBC News, UK, 18 October 2002)

* Zimbabwe. Violation des droits de l'homme - Dans une lettre adressée au président sud-africain Thabo Mbeki à l'occasion du 16ème anniversaire de la Charte africaine des droits de l'homme et des peuples (21 octobre 1986), Amnesty International (AI), a exprimé sa préoccupation pour "la détérioration de la situation des droits de l'homme au Zimbabwe". Après avoir relevé en particulier la participation de l'Afrique du Sud à la troïka du Commonwealth, et son rôle à la présidence actuelle de l'Union africaine, AI invite les dirigeants africains à intensifier leurs efforts pour condamner plus fermement la répression et la violence perpétrées par le gouvernement au Zimbabwe. Par ailleurs, le leader du MDC (Mouvement pour le changement démocratique), Morgan Tsvangirai, a accusé le gouvernement d'avoir assassiné le député, Learnmore Jongwe dans le cadre d'un présumé complot destiné à réduire la force de l'opposition au Parlement et à permettre au président Mugabe de modifier la Constitution. Jongwe a été retrouvé mort le 22 octobre dans la cellule de la police où il était en détention provisoire, accusé d'avoir tué sa femme en juillet après une dispute conjugale. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 18-23 octobre 2002)

Weekly anb1024.txt - #7/7 - THE END

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Un homme meurt chaque fois que l'un d'entre nous se tait devant la tyrannie (W. Soyinka, Prix Nobel litterature)
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Everytime somebody keep silent when faced with tyranny, someone else dies (Wole Syinka, Nobel Prize for Literature) *
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