wfn.org | All Africa News Agency 25/03 June 30 2003 (a)

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

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AANA BULLETIN No. 25/03 June 30, 2003 (a)

NEWS  SECTION

Uganda Could Sever Ties With Khartoum Over Rebels

KAMPALA (AANA) June 30 - Uganda is set to send a technical team to Sudan to 
confront Khartoum authorities over continued rebel disturbances.

Amama Mbabazi, Uganda's Minister for Defence, says Uganda is to ask Sudan 
either to occupy the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) camps in southern Sudan 
or close them down as agreed upon in an earlier protocol.

Uganda also wants action against officers of units in southern Sudan that 
resumed supply of weapons to LRA, such as the Equatorial Defence Force, a 
pro-Sudan government auxiliary.

Mbabazi says the team's visit will mark a turning point in Uganda's 
relationship with Sudan, for "it may stop us from relying on that
government".

Uganda's President, Yoweri Museveni, recently hinted at breaking diplomatic 
ties with Khartoum.

Mbabazi's revelations come after a report released by religious leaders 
showed that contacts between LRA and Sudan military elements resumed 
October 2 last year, soon after Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) 
overran Torit, which prompted Khartoum authorities to suspect Uganda 
People's Defence Force (UPDF) of complicity.

Uganda's tough talking follows incursions by LRA in eastern Uganda with 
breathtaking ease in mid June, when they occupied several counties in 
Katakwi district.

LRA is now operating in the east, and has reached the fringes of Soroti 
town, which is one of the major centres in that area.

There are fears that the rebels are diversifying tactics to include 
bombarding installations like petrol stations and banks in the region.

Sudan diplomats in Kampala deny their government's co-operation with LRA. 
However, in their assessment, relations with Uganda are again deteriorating

The conflict is taking a religious dimension, with LRA reportedly 
threatening to kill Catholic priests and beat up Catholic nuns "black and 
blue".

The Catholic Church is dominant in the region, and has taken a pro-active 
role in attempting to negotiate an end to the war.

Reported by Crespo Sebunya

  Govt Censured For Attempting To Interrupt Abeyi Conference

ABEYI, Sudan (AANA) June 30 - A move by the Government of Sudan to bar some 
participants from attending a recent Abeyi peace conference in 
Bahr-el-Ghazal, has spurred reactions that question the commitment of the 
government to the Sudan peace process.

Just before the June 2-7 conference, organisers were stunned to learn that 
the Khartoum Government had without warning, revoked its prior consent to 
allow local, national and international participants from government 
administered areas to attend the conference.

Roger Winter of the United States Agency for International Development 
(USAID), together with Dr. Francis Mading Deng, Assistant to the United 
Nations (UN) Secretary General on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), 
Missiriya Arab delegates, and over 100 other invited participants, were 
prohibited from attending the peace-building conference.

The Abeyi People-to-People Peace Conference is a move to rally the Ngok 
Dinka of Abeyi county in Southern Kordofan region, and their neighbouring 
communities, especially the Missiriya Arabs, behind the efforts by Kenya 
and international partners to bring peace to the country.

Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) have condemned the action 
the government took to block some participants from attending the meeting, 
saying it contradicted the efforts being exerted by Inter-Governmental 
Authority and Development (IGAD) and Kenya, to realise peace in Sudan.

Some participants of the conference also maintained that the slaughtering 
of three people in cold blood by alleged government agents on May 31 in 
Abeyi was meant to deter people from attending the conference.

This act, according to SPLM/A "gravely hampers local and international 
efforts  to repatriate the displaced people of Ngok Dinka to their homeland".

The highlight of the conference was to deliberate on the emerging conflict 
in Abeyi county.   The area happens to fall under Khartoum administration 
by virtue of colonial demarcation. But the Ngok Dinka, the natives of the 
region, assert that they are part and parcel of Bahr-el-Ghazal in southern 
Sudan.

The conference, which brought about 700 participants, was organised at the 
request by the people of Abeyi, and sponsored by Peace Fund of the United 
States Government.

It mandated the SPLM/A to be the legitimate representative of the Ngok 
Dinka in all national, regional, and international matters, and to 
negotiate on their behalf with the Government of the day in Khartoum.

Participants  proposed two task forces, one locally-based, and another 
based in Nairobi, to oversee the way forward in the matter, with Abeyi 
Community Action for Development (ACAD), co-ordinating the two.

Reported by Makur Kot Dhuor

WFP Appeals For Aid To Reverse Crisis In DRC Region

NAIROBI (AANA) June 30 - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has 
launched an appeal for food worth US$ 38 million for nearly 500,000 
war-affected people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

WFP said in Nairobi on June 19 that it requires the money to buy 46,000 
tonnes of food that would last six-months for 483,000 people who have been 
uprooted from their homes by sporadic fighting between the Lendu and Hema 
militiamen for the control of the region's mineral wealth.

A statement released to the press by a WFP team upon return from the 
war-ravaged country said at least 64 percent of the population in eastern 
DRC suffers from food shortages.

The statement, quoting a recent survey by the United Nations Food and 
Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said that the plight of children in eastern 
DRC was worse than the levels of global malnutrition among children between 
five and 15 years old.

WFP country director in DRC, Felix Bamezon, said the relief requirement in 
the region had degenerated into a serious humanitarian crisis that verged 
on the catastrophe if intervention was not forthcoming.

"We saw wards filled with emaciated babies and young children with 
distended stomachs, stick-like limbs and whose hair had turned yellow," Mr 
Bamezon said after visiting hospitals in Walungu in South Kivu.

He added: "These children are slowly dying of starvation. We cannot simply 
stand by and let it happen."

The armed conflict of the past five years has had a catastrophic effect on 
the lives of civilian populations in DRC, with an estimated two million 
having been killed and four million others displaced from their homes.

People have been subjected to acts of extreme brutality and human rights 
violations at the hands of various militia groups, with torture, looting, 
rape and random killings, a feature of daily life.

Last Monday, a spokesman for an international peacekeeping force deployed 
in the region said that relative calm had returned and some people who had 
been displaced were considering returning to their abandoned homes.

Reported by Pedro Shipepechero

Somali Peace Delegates Condemn Sustained Violence

NAIROBI (AANA) June 30 - The Special Envoy for Somalia Peace Conference in 
Nairobi, Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat, has condemned the recent killing of 
three girls in Baidoa in central Somalia, and the hijacking of a busload of 
children in Mogadishu a few days earlier.

Ambassador Kiplagat said every leader involved in the peace talks should 
abide by the declaration of cessation of hostilities signed last year on 
October 27 in Eldoret, Kenya, approximately 300 kilometres to the 
North-east of Nairobi.

Kiplagat remarked: "It is sad that killings and kidnappings are still 
taking place when the people of Somalia, who have suffered a lot, have 
reached a critical stage [towards peace] and action of this kind does not 
create a conducive atmosphere for the conclusion of the process."

Head of the civil society representatives at the peace talks, Sharif Salah 
Mohammed, responded to the incidents by appealing to the international 
community to intervene in the general abuse of human rights in Somalia.

UNICEF Somalia representative, Jesper Morch, says the incidents 
"dramatically highlight the need for Somalis to halt the escalation of 
conflict in central and southern Somalia, which have seen growing levels of 
trauma and violence".

Accordingly, UNICEF has challenged Somalia leaders currently discussing 
peace in Nairobi to ensure that all children are protected against violence.

On June 18, three teenage girls were killed in a house in Baidoa, allegedly 
by members of a local militia group.

A week before that, a school bus carrying 37 children from Hamar 
Kindergarten in Mogadishu was hijacked by unknown gunmen.

Late last year several children were kidnapped in Mogadishu, and central 
and southern Somalia, resulting into the deaths of many.

Speaking to AANA, the chairman of Southern Somalia National Movement, Dr. 
Adiaziz Sheikh Yusuf, said that violence in parts of Somalia was being 
perpetrated by people inclined towards derailing the peace talks.

According to him, the peace conference has been experiencing deadlocks due 
to some delegates threatening to walk out of the talks.

He said it had taken the effort of Inter Government Authority Development 
(IGAD) to convince the warlords back to the negotiating table.

Reported By Herman Kasili

Burkina Faso Launches New Initiative For Girl Education

OUAGADOUGOU (AANA) June 30 - Burkina Faso's President, Blaise Compaore, has 
called for "a concrete mobilisation" of the international community and 
donors to back UNICEF's 25-2005 initiative  to accelerate girls' access to 
education.

"What is at stake is development and we are going to strive for a great 
mobilisation so that we can meet the Millennium Goals," Compaore said last 
Tuesday after launching the UNICEF initiative here, for eight African 
countries.

"We are aware that infrastructure and the funding of the initiative are 
issues ahead. We are waiting for a concrete mobilisation of the 
international community at this level," he stated.

Burkina Faso is one of the eight western and central Africa countries to 
benefit from the 25-2005 initiative, aimed at increasing girls' access to 
school in order to be at par with boys in both primary and secondary 
education by 2005.

A total of fifteen African countries are among 25 others world-wide that 
are expected to benefit from this initiative.

About 60 million girls are out of school in the west and central Africa 
sub-region, according to UNICEF.  "There is hard evidence that a girl who 
attends secondary school is less likely to be a victim of violence; that 
her child will not die before 5 (years) and that her family will benefit 
from her education in terms of health, education and wealth," UNICEF 
Executive Director Carol Bellamy said.

According to the UN agency, the initiative is a country-led programme and 
funds will partly come from the World Bank, the agency's main partner in 
the initiative.

Countries expected to benefit are those in which enrolment rate is 70 
percent and lower, and where the gender gap is 10 percent or more in 
primary schools.

Others countries to benefit include those where enrolment and gender parity 
are under threat by HIV/AIDS, conflicts, and those in emergency situations.

"There can be no significant or sustainable transformation in societies and 
no significant reduction in poverty until girls receive the quality basic 
education they need to take their rightful place as equal partners in 
development," charged Carol Bellamy in a press statement.

The eight countries in west and central Africa named as beneficiaries to 
the programme are Burkina Faso, Benin, Central Africa Republic, Chad, 
Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea Conakry, Mali and Nigeria.

Reported by Brahima Ouedraogo