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From: [log in to unmask]
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 07:59:06 EST
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: AF Digest 2/11

Senegalese Herder's Plight Raises Concern

.c The Associated Press

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) - Anti-slavery activists in Mauritania are waging a rare
public campaign to rescue Matalla, a 20-year-old camel herder they say fled
into the protection of troops to escape a life of bondage.

His alleged owners have already tried to get him back from soldiers
patrolling Mauritania's northern desert, the activists allege. They quote
the troops as saying the frightened young man came to them on Jan. 12,
saying ``I'd rather you kill me, because at least you would bury me
properly.''

The story unfolding this week in the remote north is difficult to verify
firsthand - Mauritania is hard to get into and its officials are saying very
little.

But the United Nations, U.S. State Department and human rights groups say
slavery persists in Africa's north and west. The Boston-based American
Anti-Slavery Group says more than 200,000 people currently labor as chattel
slaves in Mauritania, Niger and Sudan, nations on centuries-old Arab-African
Saharan trade routes.

Chattel slaves are born into bondage and, like Matalla, have no family name.

Slavery was made a crime in Mauritania only in 1981, and in Niger in 2003.
Authorities there insist it no longer exists, and that those claiming to be
slaves are actually free. Ex-slaves, sympathizers and rights agencies say
otherwise.

``You have slavery here like you have sand - but the sand is visible.
Slavery isn't,'' said Boubacar Messaoud, an ex-slave who is now with
Mauritania's SOS Esclave anti-slavery movement.

``Certainly slavery exists in Mauritania, and is found in all ethnic
groups,'' Cheikh Saad Bouh Kamara, a U.N. consultant on slavery, said by
telephone from Paris.

``They are not chained, or sold, but the men and the women are considered as
the property of their masters,'' he said.

Kamara and Messaoud both were jailed by Mauritania's government in 1998 for
discussing slavery with foreign media. Their remarks, the government claimed
then, ``misrepresent the true social relations in Mauritania.''

The anti-slavery activists say they have blitzed government offices and
international press outlets with faxes, phone calls and personal visits
appealing for the protection of Matalla's newfound freedom.

``We do what we can, but we're not recognized by the government, so it's
dangerous,'' says Messaoud. ``The government denies that slavery exists; we
want to show it does. That's all we're interested in doing.''

But in repeated calls by The Associated Press to the prime minister's
office, Interior and Communications Ministries and security forces,
officials refused to speak on the record on Matalla's case.

``This is completely false. Slavery is not practiced in our nation,'' said a
spokesman for a top official, the only one to comment. ``This is
inconceivable.''

On rare occasions, senior Mauritanians concede slavery exists, but insist it
is dying out.

``What hasn't happened is a total eradication,'' of slavery, a top
opposition politician, Ahmed Ould Daddah, acknowledged in an interview ahead
of nationwide November elections.

``We've advanced a lot, things have changed very much here,'' Mohamed Ould
Bellal, a high-ranking official of Mauritania's long-ruling party, told the
AP last week. ``Slavery ... is outlawed by both Islamic and public law.
There's no slavery or trade in people.''

He denied any knowledge of Matalla's predicament, but said: ``We have a plan
to prevent any isolated cases of those who are still attached to the old
practices.''

According to Yacoub ould Saloum Val, a state mining engineer and an
anti-slavery activist, Matalla encountered a passing military patrol as he
followed his owners' camels in the Sahara near the Moroccan border.

Yacoub, contacted by phone from neighboring Senegal, said he was allowed to
briefly talk to the herdsman Jan. 18 in the northern city of Zouirat, where
military police were protecting him.

In the desert, Matalla had thrown himself on the mercy of the soldiers,
telling troops his owners had threatened to kill him after a brother ran
away, Yacoub said, quoting the security forces who worked with the young
man.

Matalla's mother, three sisters and seven brothers remain trapped in harsh
slavery, Yacoub said.

Soldiers initially told Matalla they could do nothing - but also rebuffed a
man who showed up identifying himself as Matalla's master and demanding him
back.

On Jan. 20, Matalla moved about 400 miles north with security forces into
the region of his birth village of Lemghaity, Yacoub and Messaoud said.

Anti-slavery activists said Matalla remained there with free relatives as
late as Sunday, but believe he is under police surveillance, and are
concerned that his alleged masters will yet reclaim him.

``We fear that since he's in that zone, his masters may find him,'' said
Messaoud on Monday. ``We don't know why the authorities sent him back
there.''

At the military police station in Zouerate where Matalla had stayed, an
official reached by phone earlier said ``I have no information on this'' and
hung up.

Mauritania is a nation of 3 million whose black Africans are dominated by
white Moorish inhabitants - Arab and Moroccan Berber conquerors dating back
to the 3rd century.

It officially abolished slavery in the 1960s and criminalized it in 1981
after being embarrassed by a wave of demonstrations over the public sale of
a woman in a market.

The government responsible for the ban was overthrown in 1984, and its
successor suppresses public debates on and investigations into slavery,
according to the Geneva-based U.N. working group on slavery.

Messaoud and other anti-slavery activists say both black and Arab Africans
keep slaves, justifying it by an incorrect reading of the Quran, the Muslim
holy book.

Compounding the tragedy, activists say, is Mauritania's poverty - so great
that even those who escape to freedom may not find food, shelter and jobs.



02/11/04 01:44 ES
-------------------------
Libyan drive to end isolation wins U.S. gesture

By Alistair Lyon

LONDON, Feb 10  (Reuters) - The United States, responding to Libya's change
of heart on banned weapons, has restored its diplomatic presence in Tripoli
after decades of hostility, Libyan and U.S. officials said on Tuesday.

"Yes, Americans came to Libya to work inside the Belgian Embassy in the U.S.
interests section in Libya and Libyans will go to America to work in the
Libyan interests section there," Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Abderrhmane
Chalgam told a news conference in London.

Libya's once-shunned leader, Muammar Gaddafi, edged further toward
international acceptance with a visit to his hometown by Italian Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi and a promise of a meeting with British Prime
Minister Tony Blair.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher confirmed a diplomat had
returned to the Libyan capital and said he also expected Libyan diplomats to
set up in Washington.

"For the first time now in a long time, we've got an American officer who's
been assigned to Tripoli," he told reporters.

Libya, whose quest for ties with the United States and its allies is driven
by economic necessity, pledged in December to scrap its weapons of mass
destruction programs in cooperation with foreign experts.

Boucher said the diplomat's main task in Libya was to help U.S. weapons
experts. "We do expect now to have U.S. diplomats in Tripoli on a regular
and ongoing basis as that work proceeds," he said. "I expect that sooner or
later, probably sooner, the Libyans will have diplomats in Washington."

Washington recalled its last ambassador more than two decades ago after a
mob sacked the embassy in Tripoli. Diplomatic relations were never formally
severed.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said at the news conference with
Chalgam that Blair planned talks with Gaddafi "as soon as convenient," but
no date had been set.

Blair earlier met Chalgam, making the first visit to Britain by a Libyan
foreign minister since Gaddafi seized power in 1969.

BERLUSCONI VISIT TO LIBYA

Talks between Blair and Gaddafi would set the seal on Libya's reintegration,
although Berlusconi's meeting with the colonel in his hometown of Sirte was
the first by a Western leader since Tripoli's Dec. 19 weapons pledge.

Berlusconi and Gaddafi were expected to discuss efforts to stem the flow of
illegal migrants from Libya across the Mediterranean, officials and
diplomats said.

Straw said "good progress" was being made on implementing Libya's promise to
abandon banned weapons and Chalgam said Tripoli was cooperating fully with
international experts.

"Regarding programs of weapons of mass destruction, we are the ones who took
the initiative in this matter," Chalgam said.

"To have flour, water and fire does not mean that you have bread," he said,
stressing that while Libya had acquired equipment, material and scientific
information, it had never decided to produce such weapons.

Chalgam also said he expected the United States to ease travel restrictions
on U.S. citizens visiting Libya, in a first step toward easing U.S.
sanctions.

The U.S. Embassy in London said on Friday that talks among U.S., British and
Libyan officials had covered the possible removal of travel curbs. Easing
the sanctions could allow U.S. oil companies to resume activities in Libya,
which they abandoned when expanded U.S. sanctions forced them to pull out in
1986.

OPEC member Libya produces about 1.4 million barrels daily.

U.S. measures against Libya include a ban on imports of Libyan crude oil and
a ban on direct trade, commercial contracts and travel-related activities.

Libya remains on the State Department's list of countries supporting
terrorism. In January, President George W. Bush renewed U.S. sanctions on
Libya for six more months.

(Additional reporting by Kate Baldwin, and by Saul Hudson in Washington and
Salah Serrar in Libya)



02/10/04 19:20 ET
---------------------
Ivory Coast rebel head says won't run in election


DAKAR (Reuters) - The political leader of Ivory Coast's rebel movement,
Guillaume Soro, said Tuesday he would not run in a presidential election due
next year seen as key to stabilizing a country divided by civil war.

Soro's announcement came as his leadership of the rebel New Forces appeared
increasingly challenged by a Paris-based military chief, Ibrahim Coulibaly.

"My objective is not to develop personal ambitions. ... I declare solemnly
that I will not be a candidate in the 2005 elections," Soro told reporters
in Senegal's capital, Dakar.

There have been growing signs of a split within rebel ranks since a group of
fighters proclaimed Coulibaly -- better known as "IB" -- as the movement's
leader.

It was not clear whether Coulibaly -- an army sergeant who took part in
Ivory Coast's first coup in 1999 -- planned to run. Tuesday, Ivorian daily
L'Inter quoted him as saying it was too early to talk about candidacies.

Coulibaly said Tuesday the New Forces were deeply divided. Soro, who was
speaking after meeting Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, acknowledged the
split but said he would work "towards the cohesion of the troops."

He called upon Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbabgo to uphold an accord
agreed in France last year to end the war -- sparked in 2002 by a failed
coup -- and hold free and transparent elections open to all candidates.

Gbagbo won the last election in 2000 in a disputed victory after his main
opponent, Alassane Ouattara, was barred from standing over doubts about his
nationality.

Gbagbo's supporters have accused Ouattara of backing the rebels, who hold
the northern half of the country despite a formal end to the war declared
last July.

02/10/04 17:31 ET
----------------------
Bush Assures Liberian Leader of Support

.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush offered Liberia's transitional leader
assurances of U.S. support Tuesday as the African country begins to rebuild
from 14 years of civil war.

Bush and Gyude Bryant had a low-key meeting in the Oval Office, after which
Bryant said he thanked Bush ``for helping us strengthen our fragile peace.''
He said he also pledged to make the most of $520 million in reconstruction
money promised last week during an international donor's conference at the
United Nations.

``We are very grateful, and we'll show you that we'll use your resources
very well in building a new Liberia and a peaceful Liberia, at peace with
itself and neighbors, and do all we can to help civilize that region in West
Africa,'' Bryant told reporters.

The United States pledged $200 million for Liberian reconstruction, a matter
Secretary of State Colin Powell said may give Liberians ``their last, best
chance for peace, prosperity and democracy'' after the civil war. The
fighting killed more than 150,000 people.

The World Bank and the United Nations estimated that Liberia will need
roughly $488 million over the next two years to meet its most pressing
reconstruction needs. Bryant said Monday his country is so devastated that
it essentially must start over.

Roads that farmers once used to take their crops to market must be rebuilt,
and the main hospital in Monrovia will need millions of dollars to recover
from being ``massively looted,'' Bryant said. The water supply system,
electricity grids, schools, public buildings, private homes and, in some
cases, entire villages, lie in ruin, he added.

``Most of these were either wantonly destroyed by fighters ... in search of
the spoils of war or left to deteriorate for lack of maintenance during the
long conflict years,'' Bryant said. ``Indeed, our civil war has subjected
(the) U.S.-Liberian relationship to a severe test. We are only now emerging
from the terrible state of shock.''

Liberia was established by freed American slaves before the United States'
own civil war. It began to rebuild after President Charles Taylor went into
exile in Nigeria last August. Taylor's departure cleared the way for a
power-sharing deal between his government and rebels.

Bryant's government is expected to arrange elections for late 2005 and cede
power to a representative government in early 2006.



02/10/04 15:47 EST
--------------------
Aid access to Sudan's war-torn west improves-U.N.


KHARTOUM (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Tuesday aid access had
improved to Sudan's western region, where it says fighting between
government forces and rebels has displaced a million people.

Khartoum said Monday its forces controlled Darfur on the border with Chad
and announced a one-month amnesty for rebels. But one Darfur rebel group,
which accuses Khartoum of sidelining the arid area, said it still controlled
large parts of the region.

U.N. spokesman for the humanitarian coordinator for Sudan Ben Parker said
aid access to Darfur was better than it had been two weeks ago. He said aid
had reached Kutum about 560 miles west of Khartoum and home to 60,000
displaced people.

"There are signs and indications that we will be able to reach more places
in the coming weeks and the government is assuring us that the access
situation will improve," he said.

The United Nations has previously said fighting and government unwillingness
to issue travel permits had hindered aid distribution.

The independent al-Rai al-Aam newspaper quoted Sudanese Foreign Minister
Mustafa Osman Ismail as saying the government had told aid agencies that it
had opened "10 new corridors in Darfur for relief convoys to move through."
But he did not give further details.

The daily also reported that a government delegation would leave for
neighboring Chad Tuesday "to acquaint itself with the situation of the
Sudanese refugees there and make arrangements for their return to their
areas in Darfur."

02/10/04 11:48 ET
-------------------
In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its
value is not in its taste, but in its effects. -J. William Fulbright, US
Senator (1905-1995)
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