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CLIPPINGS

Bugendana, BURUNDI July 23 - A crowd of angry Burundian Tutsis mourning the victims of a weekend massacre drove President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, a Hutu, out of this central town on July 23 under a hail of rocks. The mourners forced the president out of a camp for displaced persons where more than 300 people were slaughtered with machetes and axes on July 10. Ntibantunganya, who had arrived by helicopter, had barely spent a few minutes in the camp where a mass grave has been dug before the mood turned ugly. The crowd, made up of survivors from Saturday's massacre and local citizens, hurled insults at the president before grabbing pieces of earth and rocks and throwing them at him.

Harare, ZIMBABWE July 24 - The Zimbabwean government has banned a gays and lesbian organisation from taking part in a local international book fair despite an earlier grudging decision to let it participate. Government spokesman Bornwel I Chakaodza said the Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ) would be barred from any future international book fairs in the country to protect and guarantee "the cultural health of the country from...erosion". "The barring of GALZ from renting a stand at the fair is not a question of contravening the laws of Zimbabwe or the country's own Declaration of Rights.

Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA July 28 - South African President Nelson Mandela strongly endorsed today his government's tough strategy for economic growth, telling a critical communist audience it was an essential foundation for development. Coming down firmly against labour and communist calls for more government intervention in the economy, President Mandela said the market-oriented blueprint for growth and development released by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel in June would be implemented. "This strategy is government policy. It's fundamentals are not up for negotiation," he told a 75th anniversary rally of the South African! Communist Party (SACP) in Cape Town.

Ulundi, SOUTH AFRICA July 28 - The Zulu-nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party moved to seize control of the police force in its KwaZulu-Natal stronghold, saying this is a prerequisite for peace in the troubled province. The IFP, which governs KwaZulu-Natal on a ticket for greater provincial autonomy, said at its annual conference hare that President Mandela's national government is deliberately withholding control over the region's police. The party signalled the start of a fresh dispute with Mandela's African National congress (ANC), saying it would challenge a ruling by the ANC- controlled national security ministry that the KwaZulu-Natal police do not have to take orders from the IFP provincial government. IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi told the conference that the seven ANC- controlled provinces had also asked the central government for greater policing powers.

Abuja, NIGERIA August 1 - Rival Liberian leaders held out new hope for peace in their country by announcing they had agreed in the Nigerian capital Abuja to disarm their forces in August. The warlords, who have been threatened by regional leaders with sanctions including a Bosnian or Rwandan-style war crimes tribunal, said yesterday the disarmament should be completed by September to allow for elections to choose Liberia's rulers.

Kinshasa, ZAIRE August 1 - Zaire's deputy Foreign Minister said yesterday the US ambassador to Zaire had exceeded his authority by criticising the slow pace of progress towards promised multi-party elections in the central African country. President Mobutu Sese Seko, who seized power in a 1965 coup, introduced a multi-party system in 1990 but Zaire's transition has lagged well behind that of other states in the region. Mr Simpson criticised President Mobutu's supporters and opponents for not agreeing power sharing arrangements for the transitional period.

Mogadishu, SOMALIA August 2 - Mohamed Farah Aideed, the Somali warlord who humbled US forces in Mogadishu in 1993, lived by the sword and finally died by the sword. He was badly wounded in militia fighting in the south of the shattered capital the week before. For days Aideed's aides denied rumours sweeping through the city that he was critically injured and even broadcasted a tape-recorded message from "The General" saying he was fine. His death on Thursday afternoon, officially aged 59, was confirmed, apparently from a heart attack after complications. To his Somali followers he was a saviour and hero. To the United States and many in the United Nations, he was a criminal and a terrorist whose fighters murdered dozens of peacekeepers in 1993 who were only trying to restore law and order in his broken motherland.

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