AFRICANEWS
WAR AND PEACE
ChadRebels of the Mouvement pour la democratie et la justice au Tchad (MDJT) said that they had attacked government soldiers who had been ordered to destroy crops and houses in the northern region of Tibesti, killing 25 of them in the Zoumri area on 5 December, news organisations reported. While the government in the capital, N'Djamena, confirmed that the rebels were on the offensive in the mountainous region, it denied that the army had sustained any casualties, AFP reported. BBC reported Communications Minister Moussa Dago as saying that the rebel offensive had failed and that a rebel base near Zoumri had been destroyed.The MJDT leader, Youssouf Togoimi, who had held the portfolios of justice, defence and interior in former president Idriss Deby's government, said in an interview in June with the weekly `Jeune Afrique' magazine that his forces would be in the capital by the end of the year.
EthiopiaPrime Minister Meles Zenawi has said the peace process aimed at resolving the border war with Eritrea is now "in danger". In a magazine interview, reported by Ethiopian radio on 8 December, he said the international community's failure to "condemn the aggression" showed it did not take African problems seriously. In another interview, broadcast by Ethiopian television on6 December, Meles said Addis Ababa "will not sign any document that fails to ensure its sovereignty". He was referring to a document on technical arrangements for implementing an OAU peace plan which he said contained "shortcomings".
Guinea-BissauGuinea-Bissau's assistant attorney-general, Mamadou Balde, said on 6 December that 59 of the 380 political detainees in the West African nation had been released, a humanitarian source told IRIN. The source said 48 of those released were freed conditionally, and the Justice Ministry is to decide within eight days whether or not they will have to stand trial. The detainees are mainly former supporters of deposed president Joao Bernardo Vieira. Balde denied that Attorney-General Amine Saad had deliberately dragged his feet on their release, as Prime Minister Francisco Fadul charged last week. Balde said the Justice Ministry had acted within the law, which allows pre-trial detentions of up to six months, the humanitarian source told IRIN.
Burkina FasoTens of thousands of people marched silently through the streets of Ouagadougou on 6 December in commemoration of the death of the journalist Norbert Zongo on 13 December 1998. AFP estimated the procession at 30,000 but the country's human rights body, the Mouvement Burkinabe des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples, told IRIN at least 50,000 participated. "There were lots of women, some thirty percent," Chrysogone Zougmore, the movement's secretary-general, said. They marched the six kilometres to the cemetery where Zongo was buried, carrying his photo and a black banner as a sign of mourning. "There were no slogans, no chanting," Zougmore said. Zongo and three other people were found burned to death in an abandoned car outside the capital on 13 December 1998. He had been investigating the murder of David Ouedraogo, driver of President Blaise Compaore's younger brother, Francois. An independent inquiry has identified six presidential guardsmen as being involved in the Ouedraogo's death but they have not been brought to trial.The march was organised by the Collectif des organisations democratiques de masse et de partis politiques, made up of political parties, trade unions and other civil society bodies who have been demanding political and legal changes in the country. Zougmore said the coalition wanted the guardsmen prosecuted, Francois Compaore arrested and guarantees from the state for the respect of human rights. Its many demands also include guarantees of the public's right to free speech and association, respect for the rules of democracy and an end to impunity.
West AfricaA Security and Mediation Council is to be set up in West Africa under a protocol on the prevention, management and settlement conflicts approved at the 22nd ECOWAS summit that ended on Friday in Lome. Ten countries have been designated to sit on the Council: Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo. A council of wise men is also to be set up to help preserve peace in the subregion. ECOWAS members were asked to submit nominees for this council to the executive secretariat by 31 December 2000. The summit also agreed to fight the proliferation of arms and speed up the establishment of national commissions to strengthen an existing moratorium on the import, export and manufacture of weapons. The heads agreed to the holding of a conference next year in Mali of governments and NGOs on the proliferation of illegal light weapons.
Uganda-SudanUgandan President Yoweri Museveni and his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir on 8 December signed an agreement aimed at re-establishing diplomatic relations and promoting peace in the region, a communique issued by the mediating body, the Carter Centre, said. "President al-Bashir and President Museveni have taken an important step to restoring diplomatic relations and encouraging peace in their countries and all of East Africa," former US president Jimmy Carter said after the signing ceremony in Nairobi. Among the pledges contained in the 11-point document are renouncing the use of force to resolve differences, disbanding and disarming terrorist groups, respecting each country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, ceasing support to any rebel groups. They also agreed to return all prisoners of war to their respective nations, locate and return abductees to their families and offer amnesty and reintegration assistance to all former combatants who renounce the use of force.
SomaliaSomalia is no longer a synonym for crisis and should be seen in a different light from the past five years, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Randolph Kent, said. He told a press briefing in New York there were now areas of stability, particularly in the northwest, northeast and central parts. A steady increase in stability did not however mean there were no longer humanitarian problems, although the UN's approach could now be seen as preventative. Kent stressed that if the international community responded now, the vulnerability of 600,000 needy people would be eased.
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