Africanews

CLIPPINGS

Cape town, SOUTH Africa Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu on 10 October took to task South Africa newspapers that were too scared to challenge apartheid in the past, for continually criticising President Nelson Mandela's new democratic government. Addressing an "Editors Forum", Tutu said that Newspapers have been "very coy" towards the human rights abuses of the previous government and that now they are confronting the Mandela's administration with "new zeal." Archbishop Tutu himself was an ardent opponent of the apartheid regime but has also been critical of some of the policies of Mandela's government since it came to power in April 1994.

Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA Prosecution witnesses told a court 2nd october that Ethiopia's former military Junta jailed and killed their relatives without any trial. They testified as a trial resumed after a two months break. Meanwhile ,a retired teacher, Armasu Maru, showed the court pieces of skin torn from his body after he was flayed at torture sessions between 1976 and 1981 under the Ethiopia's Marxist regime. He was testifying at the trial of 71 members of the Dergue, the Marxist Military Junta which overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974 and ruled until 1991. A total of 120 people, all former soldiers, including Lieutenant-Col. Mengistu himself face charges of genocide and crimes against humanity before he was toppled by the current Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

Cairo, EGYPT On 7th October, an Egyptian Muslim Militant group that assassinated President Anwar Sadat during a military parade 15 years ago, urged the armed forces to overthrow the "apostate regime" of his successor President Hosni Mubarak. The group slammed the Cairo government for being "an agent that rules Egypt for the sake of the Americans and the Jews. Earlier on, Cairo had for the first time rebuffed criticism from Washington over Egyptian President , Hosni Mubarak's decision to boycott a week's long emergency Middle East Peace summit in Washington. Mubarak declined the invitation from US President Bill Clinton to attend the summit that had brought together Israel Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the wake of the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in 30 years.

Bukavu, ZAIRE Zaire is now claiming that ethnic Tutsi rebels baked by neighbouring Rwanda have gained territory in the eastern region of Zaire. It has given them a week to leave or face full-scale war. A military official from the capital Kinshasa, Kivu deputy governor Lwasi Ngabo "the rebels came from Rwanda and they have gained Zairean territory. We will not accept to have two armies on the Zairean territory," he said. The region had already been tense because of a growing conflict between the Zairean army and the Banyamulenge people, ethnic Tutsis who went there about 200 years ago from what are today Rwanda and Burundi.

Arusha, TANZANIA A meeting of the East and Central African heads of state held on 12th October agreed on maintaining their economic embargo against their strife-torn Burundi pending on a visit by a ministerial delegation to Bujumbura to assess the situation. This joint communiqui was issued at Arusha's International Conference after protracted talks. Among the Countries represented were Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Ethiopia Zaire and Cameroon. At the same time some states wanted the sanctions upheld while others felt that Burundi leader had made adequate peace moves to warrant an end to the embargo. They cited the objectives of the sanctions as serving as an effective means of securing a negotiated settlement between all the parties to the conflict in Burundi in an effort to avert human disasters in the country. On the previous day, the US Secretary of State, Warren Christopher had suggested to the East African leaders in Arusha to ease sanctions since there was evident progress towards national reconciliation.

Algiers, ALGERIA President Liamine Zereual on 24th September froze his plan to lure opposition parties into his government after the main party leaders rejected his proposals. Earlier the president had invited all legal parties to join in his government with the aim of associating all political partners in the country's management. The main secular opposition Socialist Forces Front (FFS) rejected the Presidents call immediately calling his approach to settling the five years conflict between the security forces and the Muslim fundamentalist guerrillas a total failure. The FFS had earlier demanded for a neutral government to be set up.

Abuja, Nigeria The Nigerian military regime on 27 September announced a new law banning university professors from striking and threatening violators with three year jail terms and hefty fines ($1,500). They had been on strike since April 1996.

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