AFRICANEWS
Views and news on peace, justice and reconciliation in Africa
April 2001
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War and Peace
BurundiInformed sources in Bujumbura have warned of preparations for a vast rebel offensive against the Burundian capital. They told IRIN on 5 April that following a congress by the rebel Forces de defense pour la democratie (FDD) in the DRC city of Lubumbashi recently, to which the other main rebel movement - Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) - had been invited, the two groups had decided to work together and launch a joint offensive. "The situation is very serious and very worrying," the sources said. They warned that rebel groups such as the FDD and the Rwandan Interahamwe militia were leaving their former bases in the DRC and regrouping in Tanzania. Others were trying to join rebel counterparts in the Kibira forest of northwest Burundi.According to the sources, the current fighting in the central province of Gitega was not aimed at taking Gitega itself, but at opening up a route to the west. "Kibira is becoming a huge powder-keg," the sources cautioned. The rebels now reportedly all have arms, compared to earlier times when there was one weapon per 100 people. "An estimated 10,000 rebels are poised to enter Burundi, in addition to some 8,000 already in the country," the sources said. They queried DRC President Joseph Kabila's intentions, claiming that while the international community was "courting him", he was "sending heavily-armed rebels into Burundi". The private Netpress news agency reported a "massive" FDD infiltration from Tanzania into Burundi's eastern Ruyigi province on 11 April. Meanwhile, the number of displaced from Gitega into Mwaro province in the course of the week has risen to 17,000 people, OCHA-Burundi told IRIN on 5 April. It described the situation of displacement as "very fluid", adding that no assessment missions to Gitega and Mwaro were possible at the moment, given the current security problems. EthiopiaFifty students were injured as riot police broke up a protest over academic and political rights at Addis Ababa University, news agencies reported on 4 April. Riot police reportedly forced their way into the university campus after two plain-clothes officers who had infiltrated the 4,000 striking students were discovered.Local sources said that the incident was an embarrassment to the government, and "no solid information" had been released about injuries or rumoured deaths. Students and eyewitnesses reported gunshots at the campus, but there has been no information about whether injuries included gunshot wounds. It was not known where the injured students were taken for treatment, local sources told IRIN. The students had refused to attend classes since 2 April, demanding the reinstatement of the student council. The council had not been able to operate since last December, or publish its newspaper since last September, students told Associated Press (AP). Local sources told IRIN that one of the issues taken up by the protesting students had been the presence of a police station on campus. Education Minister Genet Zewde - also president of the university senate - met student leaders later on 11 April and said their demands would be met. She also reportedly said there would be an investigation into the riot police's actions, AP said. (Source: IRIN) SenegalThe President of the Episcopal Conference of Senegal, Archbishop Theodore Adrien Sarr, said in Dakar Monday that the Church in Africa plans a meeting for April in Accra, Ghana to formulate a peace plan on the conflict along the Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone border. (AllAfrica.com)NigeriaEconomic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) leaders called on the United Nations on 11 April to help the deployment of regional troops along the borders between Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.The call came at a one-day extraordinary summit of the 13-member regional body in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. A communique issued at the end of the meeting expressed "great concern" over persisting tension along the common borders of the three countries and urged their governments "to take individual and collective measures to curb the activities of armed rebel groups operating on their respective territories". (Source: IRIN) RwandaRwanda's office of the prosecutor on 11 April issued a new list of "first category" suspects for genocide and crimes against humanity committed in the country between April and July 1994, Rwandan radio reported. The announcement was made during a joint press conference organised by the State Prosecutor, Gerald Gahima, and the Public Prosecutor department's general advocate, Emmanuel Rukangira. This list, which is the third that has been issued, carries the name of the former Rwandan prime minister Pierre-Celestin Rwigema and former Gikongoro bishop Augustin Misago. "We have just published the third list of people in the first category accused of genocide and crimes against humanity. The previous list had 2,133 people, Emmanuel Rukangira explained. "Today, that list has 2,898 names." (source: IRIN)
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