AFRICANEWS

War and Peace

Meanwhile, reports from Ruziba zone, some 10 km south of Bujumbura, say rebels attempted to attack a military post, but no damage was reported, ABP said. Some of the rebels retreated towards the hills above the Imbo plain as others mingled with the local population. ABP reported on Tuesday that security forces and the local administration, assisted by residents, had regrouped in the surrounding hills to "protect the population against rebel atrocities".

Cote d'ivoire
A Franco-Ivoirian centre to train African peacekeepers was inaugurated on 7 June in Zambakro, some 220 km north of Abidjan, a senior Ivorian army officer told IRIN.

The official said on 8 June that the FF 16-million centre was paid for by France and consisted of command and communications centres, classrooms, and mess halls. The centre will initially accommodate 20 officers to be trained as peacekeeping observers. Others will later be trained as battalion and brigade headquarters chiefs of staff.

Although soldiers will first be invited from West Africa, the official said, personnel would later be accepted from any African country. The centre, the first of its kind in Africa, is part of France's programme to increase Africa's capacity at peacekeeping. (Source: IRIN)

DRCongo
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Susan Rice has said recent developments in the DRC crisis suggest a shift towards a negotiated, rather than a military, solution to the conflict. In a briefing to a Senate subcommittee on African affairs this week, she took note of the recent Sirte accord, the withdrawal of Chadian troops and a "general avoidance" of fighting by Uganda, along with Rwanda's unilateral ceasefire declaration. Speaking ahead of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Lusaka later this month, she said Zambian President Frederick Chiluba and the SADC initiative had become the "accepted vehicle" for ending the conflict. With regard to US interests however, she expressed concern over "growing Libyan involvement" in the DRC, as well as Sudan "using the cover of its support for the Congo to provide additional aid to insurgent groups in Uganda".

Reiterating support for SADC and OAU regional initiatives, she said the solution would ultimately have to be found by Africans themselves. All those involved in the DRC crisis were at a "perilous crossroads", and must decide "whether to continue on the present violent path...or work in concert to find a viable diplomatic solution". (Source: IRIN)

Guinea
Guinean soldiers killed up to 400 Sierra Leonean rebels in a recent cross-border raid, Guinean Defence Minister Dorank Diasseny said in an interview broadcast on 9 June by Radio France International.

Conakry took the action in retailiation for repeated Sierra Leonean rebel attacks, mostly on the Guinean border villages of Tassin and Mola. Diasseny said the assailants were an offshoot of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). However, RUF chief Foday Sankoh denied that there were any such splinter groups. (Source: IRIN)

Kenya
Police and demonstrators clashed at the pro-Constitution demonstration, leaving scores injured, including leading clergyman Rev Timothy Njoya. He was baton-charged by police and after being knocked to the ground was beaten by plainclothes policemen wielding clubs and axe handles. Police officers later said they had targeted the cleric, the Daily Nation reported. (Source: NBA)

Uganda
More than 30 people have been arrested in the last two months in connection with a series of bomb blasts, mostly in Kampala. Quoting State Minister for Security Muruli Mukasa, the semi-official New Vision newspaper said most of the detainees were believed to be rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). The independent Monitor newspaper further said most of those arrested were Muslims.

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