IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 14 covering the period 3 - 9 April 1999

Niger: President assassinated Niger's President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara was assassinated on Friday, news organisations reported. The circumstances surrounding his death remained confused. The Prime Minister, Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, announced on state radio that Mainassara had died in an "unfortunate incident", while diplomats quoted by news organisations said he had been assassinated by members of his security guard. Heavily armed soldiers had taken over the capital, Niamey, soon after the assassination, AFP reported, but it is not clear whether the troops are loyal to the assassinated president. The unrest came one day after the opposition demanded Mainassara's resignation following a Supreme Court decision to order a re-run in most constituencies of local elections held in February. Reuters said vote counting had been disrupted by attacks on polling stations. Other reports had said ballot boxes had been stolen. Mainassara was a colonel in Niger's army when he seized power in a coup in 1996 overthrowing the country's first democratically elected government. He was elected president later that year but his government has enjoyed little stability. Meanwhile, a statement by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned "such terrorist acts and any attempt to change the government by force or by other unconstitutional means". CAMEROON: Lava keeps flowing on Mount Cameroon Cameroon's authorities have ordered the evacuation of villages located close to Mount Cameroon as lava from the volcano continued to flow at about 30 metres an hour down its slopes, AFP reported on Thursday. Lava from the volcano, which first erupted on 28 March, threatened not only the villages but also a major palm oil plantation, as well as the main road leading to neighbouring Nigeria. NIGERIA: Privatisation to go ahead, Abubakar says The Nigerian head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubukar, speaking in an interview on state television last Friday said his government expected some state enterprises to be privatised before it leaves office on 29 May. President-elect General Olusegun Obasanjo's supporters had called for a review of the military government's privatisation programme. Abubakar also confirmed that both he and his number two, the Chief of General Staff, would be retiring at the end of May. Falae's legal challenge fails Nigeria's Court of Appeal on Monday dismissed a legal challenge to Obasanjo's election victory, news organisations reported. The challenge was brought by Olu Falae, the losing candidate in the 27 February presidential poll. Falae had claimed that Obasanjo benefitted from electoral fraud and bribery and was ineligible to run for president because he had been convicted for treason and was a member of a secret society. Oil protestors claim to hold flow stations Activists are reported to have taken over several oil installations in the Niger Delta, demanding compensation from the US company Mobil for pollution caused by an oil spill last year, news organisations reported on Wednesday. The activists, who said they represented local communities affected by oil exploration, claimed they had occupied 13 flow stations operated by other multinationals, Reuters reported, adding that it was unable to confirm the claim. The multinationals, Royal Dutch Shell and Agip, both of which operate in the area, said they were not aware that any of their installations had been occupied by protestors, Reuters said. On Tuesday, Shell said it had shut down 21 flow stations in southern Nigeria with a combined crude oil production of more than 100,000 barrels following a pipeline fire on the previous Thursday, suspected of being the work of arsonists. Meanwhile, a senior government official said on the BBC that Nigeria's Provisional Ruling Council is considering setting up new local administrations with the aim of easing tension in troubled regions like the Niger Delta. Shi'ite Muslims protest detentions More than 1,000 Shi'ite Muslims, led by the preacher Ibrahim Zak-Zaky, marched through the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna on Wednesday to demand the release of dozens of detained Islamic activists, news organisations reported. A Shi'ite spokesman, Abdulkareem Ahmed, was quoted by news agencies as saying 40 Islamic activists were being held in prison unjustifiably. SIERRA LEONE: ECOMOG warns "warmonger presidents" ECOMOG's new force commander in Sierra Leone, Major General Felix Mujakperuo, has issued a strong warning to the presidents of Liberia and Burkina Faso, according to an ECOMOG press statement on Thursday. In the statement, "Warning to Warmonger Presidents", Mujakperuo described events leading up to an alleged delivery of arms to the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels fighting the Sierra Leonean government. He said ECOMOG "has now confirmed the activities of two countries (Burkina Faso and Liberia) and their leaders involved in the shipment and delivery of arms to the rebels through the government of a neighbouring country." He warned that ECOMOG would "strike at all the channels involved in this movement of heavy arms and ammunition to the rebels by land, sea and air." Fighting near Kambia reported News organisations on Thursday reported fighting between rebels and Guinean ECOMOG troops near Kambia, some 80 km north of Freetown. According to AFP, ECOMOG killed 17 rebels after a failed attempt to ambush the Guineans, while the rebels reportedly murdered 14 civilians after accusing them of giving away their position to the peacekeepers. The BBC also reported fighting in the area and said a mosque had been destroyed. ECOMOG spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukulade told IRIN on Thursday that he could not confirm the fighting. Rebels attack and plunder traders' boats Meanwhile, rebels killed more than 50 people when they attacked two traders' boats in southern Sierra Leone, according to AFP. An official of the Tissana Boatsmen Association said the attack took place on 3 April near Kigbla, some 70 km south of Freetown, AFP reported. The official said the rebels opened fire from the shore and then used canoes to loot the boats of kerosene and food supplies. Kabbah urges rebels to turn to dialogue President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah on Wednesday appealed to the RUF rebels to join talks on ending the conflict in Sierra Leone, news reports said. "We must let them know that it is about time they learned to wage peace," news reports quoted him as saying in Freetown at the opening of a three-day consultative peace conference staged by Sierra Leone's National Commission for Democracy and Human Rights, a civil organisation. He also told delegates they would have to consider whether "power-sharing with the RUF was in the national interest, or whether political power should be derived from the will of the majority." Sankoh talks with commanders Meanwhile, RUF leader Foday Sankoh talked by telephone this week with his military commanders and their spokesman, Reuters reported. Omrie Golley, spokesman and lawyer of Sankoh's RUF, said he had talked to Sankoh on Tuesday and said he was "looking forward to preliminary peace talks with his commanders in Togo on 18 April," according to Reuters. Sankoh was sentenced to death for treason last October. Kabbah has agreed to let him travel to Togo to meet his commanders prior to peace talks with the government. Cadets leave for training in Nigeria Some 81 military cadets have left for military training in Nigeria, according to the BBC. They were among some 500 candidates selected to undergo training in Nigeria. The rest of the new army, to number 5,000, will be trained in Sierra Leone by Nigerian and British military officials, according to the Sierra Leone news web site. Britain announced last week that it would spend some US $8 million on equipping and training the new army in Sierra Leone and a further US $8 million on equipment for ECOMOG. Meanwhile, in a resolution it passed on Tuesday in Geneva, the UN Commission on Human Rights has called on warring factions and forces in Sierra Leone to "respect human rights and abide by applicable international humanitarian law". LIBERIA: Thirteen sentenced to 10 years for treason Liberia's criminal court on Thursday sentenced 13 persons convicted last week of plotting to overthrow President Charles Taylor to 10 years in prison, PANA reported. The 13 had been charged in connection with fighting in Monrovia on 18 and 19 September between government forces and supporters of former faction leader Roosevelt Johnson. The government claimed the fighting broke out during an attempt to oust Taylor. According to PANA, the convicted persons belong to Johnson's Krahn ethnic group. They include a former political adviser to Taylor, Bai Gbala, ex-senator James Chelly and a former minister in the previous transitional government, Charles Breeze, PANA said. GUINEA BISSAU: Security Council calls for commitment to peace pact The UN Security Council on Tuesday called on the former warring parties in Guinea Bissau to fully implement a peace agreement they signed in Abuja, Nigeria, on 1 November 1998, and whose provisions include the holding of national elections, according to a UN press release. In a resolution, the Security Council called on the two sides to adopt and implement all measures needed to ensure the smooth functioning of the country's national unity government, including confidence-building measures and steps to encourage the early return of refugees and internally displaced persons. The Security Council called on the parties to agree promptly on an election date and to hold polls that are all-inclusive, free and fair. It invited the United Nations and others to consider providing any needed electoral assistance. It also welcomed a planned roundtable of donors on Guinea Bissau, sponsored by the UNDP to be held in Geneva on 4-5 May. GUINEA: African socialists call for opposition leader's release African socialists have called on Guinea's authorities to release opposition leader Alpha Conde, detained since presidential polls in mid-December, AFP reported. The Africa Committee of Socialist International made the call in a statement issued on 2 April at the end of a meeting in Bamako, Mali. It also hailed the release of four other members of Conde's Rassemblement du peuple de Guinee(RPG). Conde has been accused of offences against state security, including the alleged recruiting of mercenaries to overthrow the government. BENIN: Opposition wins one-seat majority in new parliament Opposition parties have won a one-seat majority in Benin's parliament following legislative elections held on Tuesday 30 March. According to the CENA, the country's electoral commission, 42 of the 83 seats went to the opposition, while the Mouvance presidentielle - the group of parties backing President Matthieu Kerekou - obtained 41. BURKINA FASO: Government vs Inter-African Human Rights Union Burkina Faso's government says it has revoked a 1995 agreement granting diplomatic privileges to the Inter-African Human Rights Union (UIDH) because the UIDH's president engaged in political activities incompatible with its status, a charge he has rejected. The UIDH, formed in 1992, links 41 human rights organisations in 39 African nations. Its president, Halidou Ouedraogo, heads the Movement burkinabe des droits de l'Homme et du peuple (MBDHP), Burkina Faso's main rights watchdog. Ouedraogo also chairs a 'collectif' (group) of lawyers, journalists, civil society organisations and opposition parties that has been pressing for the death of independent journalist Norbert Zongo to be clarified and his killers brought to justice. At the time of his death, Zongo had been investigating the killing of the chauffeur of President Blaise Compaore's brother, blamed on presidential guardsmen. Ouedraogo told IRIN from Ouagadougou that the measure "will not prevent the UIDH from continuing its work. However, we realise that in Africa, how democracy and human rights function is not always understood." He also said the government had given the UIDH 60 days to appeal against the measure. He added that if the government stuck to its decision, the UIDH would appeal to the Organisation of African Unity's court of arbitration. EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Rights situation has worsened, Rapporteur says The process of democratisation in Equatorial Guinea has stagnated and the state of human rights there has worsened, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Equatorial Guinea. Special Rapporteur Alejandro Artucio on Tuesday told the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva that Equatorial Guinea continued to ban opposition newspapers and judicial irregularities still occurred. People are still being arrested for their political beliefs and ethnic minorities had been harassed, he said. A representative of Equatorial Guinea, Maye Nsue Mangue, told the Commission the country's democracy was not perfect, but any excessive, abrupt changes in society could provoke a chaotic and disastrous situation much more serious than the present one. Abidjan, 10 April 1999, 10:00 GMT