AFRICANEWS
Views and news on peace, justice and reconciliation in Africa
May 2001
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War and Peace
DR CongoA contingent of some 100 UN peacekeepers from Morocco arrived in the eastern town of Goma on Thursday, the headquarters of the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma). RCD officials have stated they have no opposition to the deployment. Last month, the deployment of Moroccan peacekeepers to the RCD-controlled city of Kisangani ran into problems after the rebel authorities refused to allow them to enter, because they were unhappy over alleged ceasefire violations by government troops and the UN's method of investigating these violations. The issue was finally resolved after negotiations between the two sides. (Source:IRIN)
Ethiopia-EritreaReligious leaders from Ethiopia and Eritrea will be meeting community leaders and affected civilians in some of the towns near the disputed border from 19 to 21 May. The deputy spokeswoman for the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), Angela Walker, told IRIN that UNMEE would be assisting the meeting of church leaders by providing security and logistical support. She said about 50 people would be participating in the planned mission, which would start in Adigrat, Ethiopia, and move to Adi Keyih in Eritrea, Zela Ambesa (14.31N 39.23E) on the disputed border, and finish in Senafe, Eritrea. "We consider it a positive sign and a confidence building measure. It is a positive step in the peace-building process," she said.Religious leaders from both countries decided on the peace mission after meeting in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. "The healing process has to start now, the hostility and hatred that the war brought has to stop. We have to look into the future - a peaceful future," the Reverend Zerit Yohanes, the secretary of the Eritrean delegation, was quoted as saying. (Source:IRIN)
RwandaPresident Paul Kagame travelled to Harare for talks with his Zimbabwean counterpart. The purpose of the visit was to enlist President Robert Mugabe's support to "re-energise the Lusaka peaceprocess", a statement from Kagame's press office said on 8 May. "I feel that it is important to enlist the support and views of the Zimbabwean authorities, and have them urge others to move forward with the peace process, so that we can bring the conflict in the region to an end," Kagame said. He added that his discussions with President Mugabe "went well" and that there was "broad understanding and agreement on the issues surrounding the DRC". "It is in the interest of both Zimbabwe and Rwanda to speed up the process towards realising peace in the region," he stated. Rwandan radio also quoted Kagame as saying they discussed the inter-Congolese dialogue and how the concerns of different parties to the Lusaka agreement would be addressed. "That includes our main concern, how we will deal with the problem of the ex-FAR [Rwandan Armed Forces] and the Interahamwe which was the basis of our involvement in the Congo," Kagame said. (Source:IRIN)
SudanLibyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi visited the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on 10 May on the first stop of a mission to discuss Sudanese-Ugandan relations, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Al-Qadhafi and Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir were to discuss "the role that Libya can play in normalising relations between Sudan and Uganda", it said. The Libyan leader travelled on to Uganda on Friday for talks with President Yoweri Museveni, according to news reports. (Source:IRIN)Sudan and Uganda severed diplomatic relations in 1994 over accusations that each country was helping the other's rebel movements. Last year, they signed an agreement - not yet implemented - under which Khartoum agreed to disarm the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), based in southern Sudan, and both countries agreed to restore diplomatic relations, and deploy Libyan and Egyptian observers to monitor their common border. While in Sudan, Al-Qadhafi was scheduled to hold talks with Al-Bashir on a Libyan-Egyptian plan to end the 18-year civil war in Sudan. Also this week, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo sent special presidential envoy Ibrahim Babangida to Khartoum as part of his efforts to try to end the war. "Nigeria is now undertaking a peace initiative, and my visit is part of the consultations between the two countries," Babangida, a former Nigerian president, was quoted as saying. Obasanjo was last week reported to have met John Garang, leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi, leader of the opposition Ummah Party. (Source:IRIN)
UgandaPresident Yoweri Museveni has said he threatened to pull out of the Lusaka peace process because he was "angry" with various partners. However, he had modified his stance but if there was no consensus "we shall withdraw unilaterally and leave the Congolese to go on their own way"."We have agreed that government will continue the wisdom of maintaining a presence in two towns, Buta and Bunia," he said in an address to parliament on Wednesday. "We have got some reasons why we think we should keep these since we have decided not to withdraw completely from Lusaka." In his address, broadcast by Ugandan radio, he again slammed the UN Panel's report on the exploitation of illegal resources in the DRC, saying it "falsely claims that our gold exports have gone up because of the Congo gold". "Now I looked into books," he stated. "It is true that prior to 1995 Uganda's exports in gold were reported as below one tonne. Less than one tonne. Starting with 1995, our gold exports went to nearly four tonnes... The reason was because of liberalisation here." Museveni said the Ugandan government found three fundamental faults in the report. First, the scope of the investigations was too wide, he said. Secondly there was the "poor handling" of certain aspects such as investigation of the minerals, and thirdly the "telling of lies which the panel picked out from political enemies here in Kampala without bothering to gather evidence". (Source:IRIN)
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