Weekly anb05071.txt #6



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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 08-05-2003      PART #1/6

* Afrique. Médias: rapport annuel de RSF - Dans son rapport annuel de 2002, présenté à l'occasion de la Journée mondiale de la liberté de la presse, le 3 mai, Reporters sans frontières dénonce les atteintes toujours plus nombreuses à la liberté de presse sur les cinq continents. En Afrique, quelque "180 professionnels de la presse ont été, à un moment ou un autre, privés de leur liberté", autant ont été menacés, tandis que plus de 80 médias ont subi la censure. Seuls pays à respecter, dans une certaine mesure, la liberté de la presse: l'Afrique du Sud, le Botswana, le Cap-Vert, le Mali et Maurice. A l'inverse, la Corne de l'Afrique est qualifiée de "pire région" du continent pour les journalistes. Longtemps citée comme modèle, l'Afrique australe accentue aussi la répression, Zimbabwe et Swaziland en tête. En revanche, en Angola, la fin de la guerre a eu des répercursions positives sur l'indépendance des médias. Outre les pressions des régimes en place, la presse est en butte à une violence privée en Afrique subsaharienne: mouvements rebelles, groupes armés ou organisations confessionnelles, en particulier au Congo-RDC et au Nigeria. (J.A.I., France, 4-10 mai 2003)

* Afrique. Coton: l'OMC saisie - Le 2 mai, quatre pays africains producteurs de coton, le Bénin, le Burkina Faso, le Mali et le Tchad, ont annoncé avoir saisi l'Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) pour protester contre les subventions allouées par les Etats-Unis et l'Union européenne à leurs producteurs, qu'ils jugent "anticoncurrentielles". Selon Oxfam, une ONG britannique, les subventions font perdre aux producteurs africains 300 millions de dollars chaque année. (Libération, France, 5 mai 2003)

* East Africa. Hit by flooding - 8 May: Floods are wreaking havoc in large areas of eastern Africa, ending a harsh drought. The floods have killed at least 40 people in southern Ethiopia, officials say. Tens of thousands of people across the region have fled their homes. Ethiopia's Mines Minister Mohamoud Dirir Gheddi says his government is unable to cope. "For the last two years people have been praying for rain...Very unfortunately according to what I have seen... villages have been virtually submerged," he says. "Houses have been destroyed...People have fled to the mountains...they have been left with virtually nothing." A United Nations report says at least 20,000 people in western Kenya and along the Tana River have been affected. Refugee camps in north-eastern Kenya have been particularly severely hit. In Somalia, the lower Jubba River and the middle Shebelle regions have been affected, but few details are yet available. In Ethiopia, about 96,000 were forced to flee their homes after the Shebelle river burst its banks, flooding lowland areas of the country's Somali region. Rescue workers are operating in the area, providing the people with medical supplies, plastic shelters and cooking equipment. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 8 May 2003)

* Algérie. Nouveau gouvernement - Le 5 mai, le président Bouteflika a limogé son Premier ministre, Ali Benflis. A plusieurs reprises, au cours des dernières semaines, les deux hommes s'étaient opposés sur des questions politiques majeures avec, en toile de fond, un conflit de pouvoir. Des rumeurs attribuent à M. Benflis l'intention de se présenter, lors de l'élection présidentielle de 2004, contre une nouvelle candidature de Bouteflika. Pour remplacer M. Benflis, le président a nommé Ahmed Ouyahia, qui avait déjà dirigé le gouvernement algérien de décembre 1995 à décembre 1998. Celui-ci "va entamer incessamment ses consultations pour la composition de son équipe gouvernementale, qu'il soumettra dès que possible". (Libération, France, 6 mai 2003)

* Algeria. Prime Minister sacked - 6 May: The President of Algeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has announced he is replacing his prime minister and will shortly name a new government. The move comes after several weeks of reported differences between the two men on political and economic issues. The president has named a former Prime Minister, Ahmed Ouyahia, as his favoured candidate to replace Ali Benflis. But this must be approved by parliament, where Mr Ouyahia has a reputation as a hardliner against Islamist militants. The Algerian press has been speculating for some days now about a growing split between the president and Prime Minister Ali Benflis -- his one-time close friend. Now their row has broken out into the open. Both men worked together to bolster civilian government against the impact of a decade of Islamist insurgency, and against the old guard in the military, much of which has sought to undermine them. But they became increasingly divided over issues of political and economic reform. Mr Benflis wanted a lot of it -- including dialogue with the Islamists and the Berbers -- Mr Bouteflika was much more cautious, fearing it would incite military rebellion. The last straw came in March, when the prime minister scuppered President Bouteflika's strategy to win an early endorsement from the main party, the FLN, ahead of presidential elections next year. Mr Benflis, who is the FLN's secretary general and is rumoured to be considering running for president himself, would have none of it, and said so publicly. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 6 May 2003)

* Algérie. Violences - Le 6 mai dans l'après-midi, six militaires algériens ont été tués dans une embuscade tendue par un groupe terroriste à une patrouille de l'armée près de la localité de Kaddara, dans la région de Boumerdès (50 km à l'est d'Alger), rapporte le quotidien Liberté. L'attentat a été perpétré avec une bombe artisanale de forte puissance dissimulée à proximité de la route qui a explosé au passage du véhicule des soldats. Les islamistes ont ensuite fait usage de leurs armes pour achever les blessés. Une opération de recherche a été déclenchée pour tenter de retrouver les auteurs du massacre. - D'autre part, les corps décomposés de 40 personnes, apparemment victimes de règlement de comptes au sein des maquis islamistes, ont été découverts par l'armée dans la région orientale de Tebessa, non loin de la frontière tunisienne, a annoncé la radio nationale, sans dire à quand remonte leur mort. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 7 mai 2003)

* Algeria. The missing tourists - 4 May: Talks are reported to be underway to secure the freedom of 31 European tourists who are being held in the Sahara desert, the Algerian Government is reported to have said. "Contacts are taking place at the moment on the liberation of the tourists," Tourism Minister Lakhdar Dorbani told the national parliament's tourism commission, Algerian state radio reports. His statement was the first confirmation by an Algerian official that talks to secure the release of the hostages were being held. The minister declined to specify with whom the talks were being held. Some of the 31 tourists -- 15 Germans, 10 Austrians, four Swiss nationals, a Dutchman and a Swede -- have been missing since February. El Watan newspaper quotes Algerian security officials as saying that a gang of bandits had kidnapped the tourists in return for a ransom, and that talks on securing their release had been under way for three weeks. The paper said the tourists had been located in the Tamelrik mountain range, about 1,500 kilometres south-east of Algiers. Earlier reports speculated that the tourists had been kidnapped by the militant Islamic Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), linked to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. 5 May: The Tourism Minister's statement is categorically denied by his ministry. 6 May: The fate of the tourists grows murkier after the Algerian government denies that talks are underway. The Interior Minister says: "I can tell you there are no negotiations, there is no contact with anyone". (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 6 May 2003)

* Algérie. Otages en vie? - 4 mai. Les 31 touristes européens, disparus depuis plusieurs semaines dans le Sahara, sont toujours en vie. Des négociations seraient en cours pour leur libération, a annoncé le ministre algérien du Tourisme, Lakdhar Dorbani, sans préciser l'identité des ravisseurs, ni la nature des tractations. Selon l'armée, les touristes sont entre les mains d'islamistes, plus précisément d'un émir local du Groupe salafiste pour la prédication et le combat. Des notables touaregs privilégient cependant l'hypothèse de voleurs ou de contrebandiers. -- 6 mai. Les autorités algériennes renforcent le doute sur le sort des touristes. "Nous n'avons pas de négociations, pas de contacts avec qui que ce soit. Nous n'excluons aucune éventualité", a affirmé le ministre de l'Intérieur, Nourédine Zerhouni. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 7 mai 2003)

* Angola. IMF probes Angola's oil sales - 30 April: International Monetary Fund (IMF) investigators are arriving in Angola today, on the trail of almost $1bn which the IMF believes vanished from state coffers in 2001 alone. The money, an internal report alleged late last year, came from oil sales, the cornerstone of Angola's foreign trade. But instead of going to fund the country's development, more than $900m disappeared. Angola has insisted accounting problems, not theft, is responsible for the mismatch. The IMF report -- leaked in October 2002 -- pointed to a total of $4bn which had gone missing over five years, and was scathing about what it saw as pervasive corruption and mismanagement at the top of Angolan society. Angola has been in the IMF's bad books for some years, but is keen to return to the fold to ease a reliance on expensive short term loans to fund a ballooning budget deficit of more than 8% of the country's gross domestic product. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 30 April 2003)

* Angola. USA lifts sanctions - On 7 May, President George W. Bush lifted all sanctions against the former rebel movement UNITA in Angola, one of the countries in Bush's so-called coalition of the willing supporting the war in Iraq. Angola was in the limelight as a UN Security Council member during the heated debate over Iraq. The country's support was courted by the United States, as well as by the leading opponent of the war, France. The White House lists Angola as one of 49 countries "publicly committed" to the coalition to disarm Iraq. Several have been rewarded by Washington for their support. In a message to the US Congress, Bush said continuing the sanctions would have a "prejudicial effect on the development of UNITA as an opposition political party, and therefore, on democratization in Angola." (CNN, USA, 7 May 2003)

* Benin. Concert stampede - 4 May: Police in Benin are investigating reports that a pop concert went ahead despite the deaths of at least 15 fans from crushing. The incident happened before the Congolese musician Kofi Olomide was due to appear at the Friendship Stadium in Benin's main city Cotonou. The crush was caused by the capacity crowd surging forward to be closer to the musician, said one source. Local police were not informed of the deaths -- possibly because organisers feared the highly publicised concert might be cancelled. After the 3 May event, Mr Olomide told a local radio station he was not made aware of the incident when he arrived at midnight for his performance. He said everything appeared normal and he had gone ahead with the concert. A source at Hubert Maga hospital in Cotonou told the French news agency AFP that "overexcited spectators were involved in jostling at the entrance -- several of them were trampled in the crush". (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 4 May 2003)

* Bénin. 16 morts dans un stade - Le 3 mai à Cotonou, seize personnes ont trouvé la mort lors d'une bousculade avant le concert du chanteur congolais Koffi Olomidé. Selon le témoignage d'un médecin, le drame aurait été provoqué par "des spectateurs surexcités qui se sont bousculés à l'entrée". Le gouvernement a décrété un deuil national de trois jours, et a promis de faire la lumière sur cette tragédie. D'après les premiers éléments de l'enquête, la Société de gestion du stade de l'Amitié aurait organisé le concert en dépit de l'interdiction décrétée, il y a plusieurs mois, d'ulitiser l'enceinte. Des travaux de réfection avaient été entamés. Les organisateurs auraient aussi tenté de cacher le drame aux autorités, de peur que le concert ne soit annulé. Olomidé, qui n'avait pas été mis au courant des incidents, a entamé son concert sur le coup de minuit. (D'après Libération, France, 6 mai 2003)

Weekly News - anb0507.txt - #1/6